The PsALMist - Thought For The Day!

TRUST YOU ARE ALL WELL! Reading from the Chapter 93 of the PERSPECTIVES on the WORLD CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT (The Reader - 4th Edition) on "State of World Need" - a report by World Relief, I read: ************ "I was hungry and you gave me something to eat." For nearly two out of three people today, hunger is not merely an occasional pang felt before lunchtime. It's a lifestyle. 1. Three-quarters of a billion people are chronically under-nourished. 2. Malnutrition is the underlying cause of more than half of the deaths of children under five. Of these deaths, 10% are directly caused by severe malnutrition. 3. Over 30,000 children die every day of hunger and preventable diseases. That's 24 a minute. Real children with names and siblings and dreams - kids who will never see adulthood because they lose their fight with hunger. *************** Then I read about the gold-dust, gems and angels appearing in churches and the scrambling of well-fed Christians after all these miraculous happenings, flocking to one man of God after another and I WONDER . . What on Earth Is God Doing? Someone tell me! I am waiting for an answer . . .

--

For His Glory,

Pastor Albert Tan
Founder/President
The PsALM
"Doing Business Till He Comes!"

The Global Network of World Centers of Mission

A brief report on the GNWCM meeting in Singapore that Meng Eng and I attended as representatives of the MCGM in April 09.

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The GNWCM was held from 20th to 23rd April @ St Andrew's Cathedral, Singapore, a beautiful site that is a mix of both the old and the new, the traditional and the contemporary. The old Cathedral stands out amongst the modern buildings that surround it in the busy streets of central Singapore, as an icon from the old world, dignified, showing its age yet still well kept, like everything else in Singapore. It is also a recognised heritage site drawing visitors from the world over who are free to walk into the august sanctuary and view the beautiful interior of the stained-glass building. The doors are opened every day for the faithful to come and pray (and we saw a few) amidst the curious gaze of the casual tourists.

Ah, the new! Just beside the old cathedral, a modern, contemporary sanctuary built underground from funds provided by the Singapore Government (unasked for, we were told!) that had a clear glass window on the roof, opening up to the sky where at one end, if you stand in the middle, you may gaze at the cross at the top of the old cathedral and at the other end, you behold the glistening dome of the mosque across the street! The Dean (or pastor) of the Cathedral tells us that he stands and prays in this new sanctuary for the faithful in the mosque for the grace of God to be shown to them in the person of Jesus Christ!

And in this significant place, leaders from 11 Centers of World Mission together with the US Center of World Mission met, after a lapse of many years, to renew their commitment to the vision of a global network of world centers of mission and to chart its future path.

The meetings in the day were mostly devoted to updates by the different world centers of mission on their present ministries and directions, the casting (or re-casting) of vision and the shaping of common values for the global network that will guide the world centers of mission in the their future operations and will mark them out as belonging to the same family.

The outstanding benefits of the meeting for Meng Eng and I were the new friends we made from the other centers of mission, a clearer vision for the role of MCGM and the discovery of the fact that we all spoke the same language of love for the Lord, love for the unreached people groups and love for food!

We also discovered that there are two global level partnerships. There is:

1. The Global Network of Mission of Mission Structures (GNMS) - which is a global network of mission sending structures that are actually deploying workers to the field formed in 2004.

Then there is:

2. The Global Network of World Center of Mission (GNWCM) - which is a network of Center of Mission organizations around the globe which focuses on getting the whole Church involved in frontier mission work through mobilization, training, strategy and research.

The GNWCM reaches back to the Church for strategic involvement, while the GNMS's concerns are for the unreached people groups.

The PsALMist - Thought for the Day!

TRUST YOU ARE ALL WELL!

Since receiving a copy of the latest edition of the PERSPECTIVES at the Global Network of World Centers of Missions Consultation in Singapore in April 09, I have embarked on this massive reading project . . . to finish the entire reader, doing it a chapter from each section a day, whenever possible i.e. 4 chapters in a sitting.

This morning, whilst I was waiting @ the Perodua Service Center for the car to be ready, I took the opportunity to continue reading PERSPECTIVES ON THE WORLD CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT.

What a fantastic book this is . . . a collection of the finest articles on missions, arranged in four sections that took a lot at missions from the Biblical Perspective, the Historical Perspective, the Cultural Perspective and the Strategic Perspective.

Allow me to challenge you with some thoughts from one chapter within the Strategic Perspective . . . “The Challenge of the Cities” by Roger S. Greenway. Let me quote sections from his writing:

“Traditionally, most mission work was done in rural areas. In the past that made sense because most people lived in rural communities. But the greatest challenge is now in cities, and there we find a shortage of worker . . . Unreached villages certainly need to hear the gospel. But in the view of the masses of unsaved and unchurched people in cities, more attention must be given to urban centers.”

Just a thought-provoking idea.

What if the Christians in Penang were see beyond their noses, lift up their eyes and behold the masses of immigrant workers in our city here to work and to send money home to their families often residing in closed-access nations? This could lead to a church planting movement in that nation! From the city back to the village!

UPG Short Notes 2

Stages in Reaching an Unreached People Group

Terms and definitions used based on the above definitions

Stage 1-"Reported" The people group is brought to the attention of a Christian research group which strives to verify them as unreached and lists them as such.

Stage 2-"Selected" A denomination or mission agency, capable of reaching the group, accepts responsibility to reach them and mobilize churches and Christians to adopt this people group so that a church may be started in their midst. They are actively recruiting churches and fellowship groups to adopt this group and partner together to reach them.

Stage 3-"Adopted" One, or several, churches or fellowship groups (could be a mission fellowship, student group, Sunday School class, etc.) has made the establishment of a strong church among the unreached people group their personal goal. They agree to support the work with prayers and finances. This is done with their denomination or in partnership with one or more mission agencies.

Stage 4"Engaged" The work has begun and cross-cultural workers are "on site" with the goal of establishing a "viable, indigenous church-planting movement."
A people group may already have been engaged when a church or fellowship group chooses to adopt. The church then commits itself to partner with the "on site" workers.

Stage 5-"Reached" A strong, indigenous church-planting movement has been established that is of sufficient size and strength to evangelize the rest of the group with no (or very little) outside help.
"Reached" does not mean the work is done, but the missionary thrust is closing and the evangelistic phase has begun which is now the responsibility of the indigenous church. They have moved from unreached to unevangelized. Quoted from US Center of World Mission

UPG Short Notes 1

Adopt-A-People Campaign

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO

It means that a church congregation or fellowship group makes a serious commitment to do all they can to reach their adopted people group by working in partnership with the mission agency of their choice. All adopting churches agree to provide informed, concerted prayer for their people. Depending on the mission agency chosen, a church may also be asked to help fund the effort to reach their people or supply personnel to help reach them. Quoted from "Adopt-A-People" Campaign Website

Gleanings From A UPG Consultation

A. On CPM . . .

Essentially it is all about having grand-children. Planting churches that will plant churches that will plant churches.

Based on LUKE 10 . . . sending out teams 2x2 to towns that "Jesus planned to go" i.e. where the Holy Spirit is at work. Outsiders are to be the spark but insiders (people within the people group) are to be the flames that spread outward. Therefore, pray for more workers from the people group you are working with who may not necessarily Christian yet but are the lost people who would join you. Don't take all your resources with you when crossing culturally. Look for resources within the people group. Look for the household of peace that will receive God's peace and stay with them. Fit into their culture. Go live with them, spend time in the field with them and be part of the community. AND MEET THEIR NEEDS! Build the DNA of reproduction right from the beginning.

The discipling process starts even before they become a believer. Start bible story telling chronologically from creation. Use questions to begin discipleship like: Did anything good happen to you this week? Did you have any need, any problem or does any member of your family or neighbours have any need etc? Is there anything that we can do to help with those needs or problems? What stories did we learn last week? Ask them to retell the stories. Then start with the next story. Focus on what did the bible tell us about God? What did the bible teach us about human beings? and If this story is true, what would you do. Ask them, Who would you tell this story to this week?

The idea is to lead the lost people to discover God's truth themselves through the bible. Not that we teach but we facilitate and guide.

B. On Partnership Development for Missions . . .

No partnerships are alike. Every partnership has unique features. Not person focused, nor organisation focused but vision focused. It is based on trust.

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Start with building relationship one on one. Ask about their heart, experience etc. Develop a close relationship with each leader. This will take at least 2 years!

C. On Community-based Holistic Mission Endeavour . . .

1. Reaching out strategically to communities in restricted areas, regions or countries.

2. Focusing on unreached and least reached people groups.

3. Utilizing community development/livelihood approach, method and tools.

4. Mobilizing and investing the expertise, resources and endeavours of Kingdom professional and cross-cultural workers.

5. Resulting in holistic community development at economic, socio-cultural adn spiritual levels.

6. Demonstrating the transforming power of the glorious Gospel of Christ.

That's all, folks.

I will be attending the Facilitators Training Course for Partnership Development conducted by Inter-Dev in Bali from June 15 to 19, 2009. This will be strategic for my involvement in the LPN partnership development and etc.

Reaching the Unreached!

This blog will contain my occasional writings on the subject of completing the Great Commission. As with all my writings, it will be infrequent and dependant on the prevailing mood! :) However, it should serve well as a record of my thinking on this issue. It should also chart the growth of my understanding on this matter as the Great Commission has not been on the radar screen of my ministry for the first three quarters of my full time ministry life which was mostly spent in a pastoral role.

As of 1 Jan 2008, I resigned from being Senior Pastor for FGA Centre, Penang and launched a new ministry vehicle called the PsALM to focus on local church consultancy work and leadership training with the intent of preparing local churches to adopt unreached people groups in partnership with missions agencies. The PsALM is an acronym for Ps AL (that's me!) and Meng (that is my wife, Meng Eng)! 

In the missions networking role, I am presently the Executive Officer for the Malaysian Center for Global Missions (www.mcgm.net.my) with specific responsibility for its Missions Mobilizing Track and the Malaysian Tent-Making Track. A full plate indeed alongside with the many Train the Trainers courses conducted as Associate Trainer for the John Maxwell's Million Leaders Mandate, a three year leadership curriculum for raising leaders for church planting. In that capacity, I am the Patron for Penang MLM and East Malaysia MLM.

After introducing myself in the various roles I play today, let me end by saying that it has been a steep learning curve but, boy, am I enjoying myself today! Life has been hectic no doubt with frequent traveling but God has been good. My wife, Meng Eng, and I have never felt more alive today than ever before. We feel that we have finally found a life purpose that we can give our lives totally to.

Blessings,

Ps AL