Mentoring is a two-way relationship in which both participants learn and grow.  Great mentors are learners, and there is no greater learning opportunity than to guide others in their discoveries, and discover afresh what we have known and forgotten, and to have the delight of finding out new things through and with our mentorees.

Change characterizes the mentoring relationship.  The goal of mentoring is the development of the mentoree into a leader-maker.  To achieve our goal there must be continuous learning, growth and change.  The very act of mentoring changes and matures the mentor as well as the mentoree.  This is the reason it’s so very important to encourage our mentorees to be engaged in mentoring others.  Unless and until they are mentoring others the mentoring process is of limited value.

I have a very firm rule for those I mentor – you must be engaged in mentoring others or I will not be able to spend time mentoring you.  I think one of Satan’s primary attacks on Christianity is to get leaders engaged in mentoring others who will simply absorb our time and efforts and give little return on the investment because they do not pass on to others what they are learning, and thus fail to grow themselves.  Part of our job is to be wise as serpents – in other words, see where Satan is going to attack and avoid those situations.  Getting Christian leaders to use up all their time in non-reproducing relationships is a tremendous loss for Kingdom work.

Mentoring is a relationship that matures over time.  When we first start the mentoring process there is a lot of education and training going on.  As the mentoree learns lessons and practices skills, he or she will engage in teaching and training others.  (Knowledge and skill sets cannot be learned until one is teaching and training others.)  The process of guiding others increases capacity for leadership.  Leadership cannot mature without the making of new leaders.  It is through the making of new leaders that we learn more about ourselves, and more about leading as we observe and assist our mentorees in their leadership development.

If the mentoring relationship is working, in a relatively short time the relationship moves from one of mentor/mentoree to coworkers/peers.  I have had this happen in as little as one year, but more often, it takes three to five years.  If you find yourself stuck in a mentor/mentoree relationship for more than five years, there is a serious problem.  Most often, this problem is a matter of the mentoree not reproducing.  And this happens because you have made a student instead of a leader.

The nature of leaders is to make more leaders.  As a leader makes more leaders he or she matures quickly.  There is no better way to grow than in the development of people who can do what you do along with what they already can do.  The more people we mentor, the more we are exposed to new ideas, new problems to solve, new opportunities to learn, new relationships, and new successes and failures from which to learn. 

When the mentoring process is right, we move from mentor to peer very quickly.  If this isn’t happening regularly then we need to evaluate our mentoring relationships.  I ask myself the following questions when evaluating my mentoring relationships.

• Is there an agreement in place that outlines the mentoring relationship?  (This doesn’t have to be a formal written document, but should be mutually understood.)
• Are my mentorees and I covering all the areas of life that make great leaders?
  • Relationship to God
  • Relationship to family
  • Relationships with community and church (this includes peers and others)
  • Relationships related to our call from God
  • Relationships related to our job (how we financially support our families)
  • Relationship to self (are we developing personally in mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical health)
• Is my mentoree mentoring others? (Are you meeting the mentorees of your mentoree?)
• What am I learning from my mentoree, including successes and failures?  (If we are not learning from our mentorees, something is wrong.)
• Is there success in both of our lives as a result of the mentoring relationship?  (Are we better people because of the relationship?)
• Is the relationship growing and changing?
• What could/should we be doing better to improve the relationship and the outcomes of the mentoring relationship?
• Have I made students or leaders?  (Teaching and coaching is so much more easy than mentoring.  I can focus on the material or skill sets without concern for now this is being used in leadership development.  In true mentoring I have no choice but to know how the information or skill sets being learned are put to use in making more leaders.  There is accountability.)

There is nothing more rewarding than seeing mentorees mature to peers.  This does not happen by accident.  We must be intentional in the relationship, and brutal in evaluating our performance as mentors.

Blessings!

Seventy percent of all communication happens at the non-verbal cultural level.  This means that the moment we are involved in mentoring people cross-culturally we have dramatically increased our chances for misunderstanding, failure, loss of relationship, and poor results from the mentoring relationship.

Some of you are thinking that you don’t mentor cross-culturally.  But, in fact, you do!  Every family has a culture.  Every generation has a culture, thus the generation gap.  Every organization has a culture.  There are even cultural differences between genders.  Words, phrases, and gestures in one group may have no meaning, a different meaning, or even the opposite meaning intended when used with other groups.   Language learners don’t understand the cultural nuances of their new language, so words or phrases that may have multiple and diverse meanings in various situations may only have one simple meaning that is not intended or understood at the moment.

We all learn to communicate in multiple and various cultures.  Most of these cultures are closely related to us, or we have been in them so long we know the nuances of the communication systems.  But this is not the case when there is a significant language or dialectic change.  Me have to learn everything, and this opens us up for mistakes.

Mentoring is impossible without communication.  We may be skilled in multiple cultures, but each cultural distinctive distorts communication.  Mentors recognize this, and make sure to use communication techniques that minimize the use of non-verbal and/or cultural level communication.  They also make sure that language learners understand what is being said.  It is the communicator’s responsibility to make sure the receiver of the communication received the information accurately and completely, including emotional content.

The greatest cultural barrier is when the mentor and mentoree have different heart languages and cultures.  Either one, or both, may be learning the other’s language and culture.  Cultural level communication just does not work in these situations, yet all of us keep sending the cultural signals intentionally or unintentionally.  What may send a signal of misunderstanding or anger in one culture may have no meaning to another culture.  This cripples our communication.  It can cause misunderstanding, conflict, and even broken relationships.  Hints, innuendos, sarcasm, and common cultural facial expressions or gestures can all go unnoticed or misinterpreted.  In cross-cultural settings we need to consciously minimize the use of jargon, gestures, and facial expressions that may blur what we want to communicate.  Use your words, and check that they were understood before moving on in the conversation.  Keep the language simple, even when trying to explain complex ideas.

In cross-cultural mentoring situations it is extremely important to teach, train, and equip by example and by the use of questions instead of statements.  When statements are made, clarifying questions are asked to check if the person understood what was said.  Mentoring cross-culturally is a dance in which each partner exchanges the lead role many times each minute.  The moment we ask a question we transfer lead to the other person to make a statement or ask more questions.  This process of statement-questions-statement-questions allows us to make sure that concepts and principles are transmitted and received as error free as possible.

To assume that the person you are mentoring understands what you are saying because he or she is nodded their head or even repeated the sentence back to you does not guarantee that they understand.  Over the years I have agreed with statements I thought I was understanding only to find out I bought the Golden Gate Bridge.  There is a high price to be paid in these situations.  And you may laugh about it later, but in the moment it’s not fun.

A good way to check understanding is to ask people to give an example of what they understand us to be saying.  They may have repeated our sentences accurately in their own words, but when we ask them to give an example of the concept from their experience, or to make up an example to demonstrate the principle, you will quickly learn if you were understood or not.

It is always better to clarify before action rather than adjust or correct after an action.  People always appreciate clarification.  I don’t know anyone who enjoys correction.  And since mentoring is about relationships, the more clarification and the less correcting we do will result in deeper and more meaningful relationships that will bear fruit.

Blessings!

I hope you enjoy this second installment from David Broodryk, who leads a CPM team in South Africa.   David is breaking new ground with multi-cultural societies.  We have a lot to learn from him.

Blessings!

The Hunter and the Herder (PART 2)

 Hunters were made to hunt.  They love hunting.  Herders were made to herd.  They love herding.  Simple?  Not quite . . .

 In reality the differences may not be as stark or clear as this. 

 We function best when we stay within our strengths.  But many of us do not know what those strengths are.  For various reasons, we struggle to discover who we are and what we were meant to do.  Allow me to discuss some thoughts on why this is so.

 1) The historical congregational church model has tended to focus exclusively on the herder pastor/teacher.  When they began to recognize other giftings in the church, they molded them into variations of the pastoral role.  The apostle, for example, is often seen as some kind of “super-pastor”.  The evangelist was often made the “outreach pastor.”  Otherwise he was rejected and had to form his own independent ministry to survive.  The prophet sometimes became the “preaching pastor” or in some circles the one that gave “pastoral prophecies” that made people feel good but never really challenged them.  Of course, throughout church history, the prophet has never really been too welcomed in the church.

 So we see that every gift in the church was molded into the image of the pastor.  This has created confusion.  Many hunter personalities have been forced to develop herder instincts in order to survive in church leadership.  They became “pastoral hunters.”  These learned skills confuse hunter personalities because they now struggle to see themselves as focused hunters.

 2) Not all personalities or spiritual gifts fit into either a hunter or herder role.  Ephesians 4:11 mentions four or five different gifts given to the church.  Other lists provide a much wider spectrum of giftings.  For purposes of brevity, allow me to only comment on the Ephesians passage.

 Herders easily function in the pastor/teacher role.  Hunters tend to fit well into the role of the evangelistic, prophetic and the apostolic roles.  This is not an absolute statement, simply an observation of where the most natural fit often seems to occur.  The most obvious hunter role is that of the evangelist.  When focused into appropriate evangelism, they make great church planters.  Apostolic and prophetic giftings will often struggle to see themselves exclusively in either the hunter or herder role.  Prophetic people are honed to hunt for problems.  They are very discerning and when they see something wrong they cannot keep quiet.  If their gifting is not mature, then they become problematic – hunting down and criticizing every sin and problem in the Body of Christ.  Apostolic people often see themselves as both hunter and herder.  Paul and Barnabus were sent out by the church in Antioch on a hunting (apostolic) trip.  The work that God had called them to did not involve staying at home.  I know some wonderful fatherly apostolic people, but the nature of their calling does not allow them to form too many attachments.  They lean towards hunter personalities.  But they also do some herding.

 Our different spiritual gifts find their best release inside a balanced team.  In CPM language, the strategy co-coordinator could be any gift-mix inside a healthy team.  However, on his own he functions best as a hunter.  The CPM catalyst will find it difficult to herd.  His role is to start movements and move on.  He is a hunter of note!

 3) The hunter/herder distinction is made to help us clarify focus.  It is seldom that a person is one type to the total exclusion of the other.  Hunters also have families that they care for.  They can be more or less pastoral depending on the person.  And herders occasionally love the thrill of the hunt!

  Again, all these gifts find their best expression inside a team.  Healthy teams recognize the various strengths and will help people function inside their strengths, whilst covering their weaknesses.

So how does all this affect or help us?  It is helpful for us to self-identify our primary passion and calling.  In a church planting movement, hunters should be released from local responsibilities and maintenance burdens.  When hunters are made to stay at home and keep existing things running, they burn out quickly.  Rather, they should be placed with older and more experienced hunters.  They should be paired inside hunting teams.  We will see incredible CPM growth if we release hunters to be all that God made them to be.

Herders, on the other hand, should be encouraged to go on the occasional hunt.  But herders must also be encouraged to use their herding instincts to the fullest potential.  Herders can and should plant churches.  But they are not focused church planters.  Focused hunters do almost nothing else – they plant churches rapidly.  They do one thing and they do it well.  Herders are needed to bring stability, balance and health to the body.  Without the herder, every church plant would blow up instead of growing up!  Both the hunter and the herder can pioneer a new church plant.  If they work together in team to start the new church, they will be most successful.  The hunter will be able to establish the DNA, hand over leadership to the insider (often a herder) and move on to the next church plant.  The herder (as an outside leader) will be good at bringing stability to the church, helping it to mature and networking the church with others in the region.

In all this, we should take care to make sure hunters and herders work together.  In our movement, we are beginning to place them together in teams.  We do not label people or box them into a specific role.  We simply help them to find their primary gifting and passion.  If they do not understand their different giftings, then placing them in the same team could cause them to neutralize one another.  We all have a tendency to try make people into our own image.  Lack of understanding will cause us to become critical of one another.  But when a team understands their different strengths, they become a powerful synergistic church planting team.

By understanding and teaming hunters and herders, we build sustainable Church Planting Movements.

One of the most common problems I find when people tell me that Gospel Planting Movements don’t work, and they let me analyze what they are doing, is a failure to establish the DNA of a church early in the Gospel Planting process.  Paul Watson has captured my training in this area with his new blog post Small Groups that have the DNA of a Gospel Planting Movement.  You will want to subscribe to Paul’s blog to get the full benefit of his experience and thinking.

Blessings!

David Watson

The Hunter and the Herder

 Hunting and herding require vastly different skill sets.  Both have specific, crucial roles to play in a Church Planting Movement.  Neither role can fulfil its full potential without the other.

 The greatest single crisis in the church is that we have hired hunters to be herders.  That’s a bit like asking a cat to bark or a cow to bleat.  When we try to serve God in mismatched roles, we end up hurt and confused.  We also hurt others.

 A hunter who spends all his time with herders, will become restless and frustrated.  Eventually he will leave the group, but not without considerable conflict.  Hunters were not designed to herd.  Hunters are meant to hunt.  Much of what is considered Christian leadership has been moulded by the church into the image of a herder.  When you become a Christian leader, you are expected to herd.  This does not work for the hunter.  When you try to make a hunter function as a herder, he ends up hunting the sheep.  Or he exhausts the sheep with an endless array of new ideas and programs that he hunted and brought home.  Hunters are invaluable to the mission of the church.  But they need to be hunting, not herding.

 The greatest single crisis in missions is that we have sent out herders and not hunters.  We need to re-think our recruiting strategies for missions.  For some reason, our call to missions attracts herders.  We don’t need more herders on the mission field, we need more hunters.  Hunters will get the job done at any cost.  They have a remarkable ability to make things happen.

 A herder who spends all his time with hunters will feel threatened.  Feelings of worthlessness and inadequacy can overwhelm him.  Hunters can be intimidating.  They have incredible focus and energy.  They tend to overshadow everyone around them.  They have many markers of “success.”  But look closely.  Hunters can be very good at a few things, but they often have huge inadequacies.  They sometimes have big character flaws.  Hunters leave many things undone.  And they tend to make everyone believe that the undone things are unimportant.  Or less important.  Don’t believe them.

 Herders are very important – probably the most important people in the church.  That may be why God made so many to be herders.  Herders provide stability.  Herders provide strength.  Herders give guidance.  Herders are fathers.  Herders are mothers.  Herders keep the church healthy and together.  They are the glue in the church.  Without herders, the church would disintegrate.  We desperately need the herders to come forward.  The church worldwide is in a moral crisis because herders have not stepped into their God-given calling.  They busied themselves with something else.  Or they abdicated the role of herder to the pastor or church leader.

Herders cannot catalyse church planting movements.  Hunters cannot sustain church planting movements.  Both are critical to seeing movements of churches planting churches.  Each must understand their role in the process.

Are you a hunter?  Please step forward.  We need you.

Are you a herder?  Please step forward.  We need you.

Are you a herder trying to be a hunter?  Stop.  I beg you to stop.  The Body of Christ needs your gift.  Be who you are, not what you think others want you to be.

 Are you a hunter trying to he a herder?  Please, please stop.  The church cannot be hunted.  Sheep need a shepherd, not a hunter.  Go find something to hunt.  We need you on mission. 

When I was a kindergarten-aged Sunday school student, I can remember my teacher handing me a piece of paper and some crayons and asking me to draw a picture of Jesus. My church was not one to have images of Jesus hanging or standing around, though I am sure I must have seen some renditions of images of Jesus in books, Bibles or hanging on the walls around my community. When I finished my assignment to the best of my young and untrained abilities, my Jesus looked exactly like me in the ways that count. He had white skin, blond hair, and blue eyes. I loved Jesus, and was proud of how I had drawn him.

As a college student I was involved in the missions program of my student union. I was assigned to work among a group of African Americans in my community. It was my first cross-cultural experience. At one point in the ministry I had a group of young students.

One day I exhausted all my materials before the time was up. I grabbed some paper, color pencils, and crayons and passed them out. I instructed the children to draw a picture of Jesus. I was surprised when the pictures depicted a Jesus with dark skin and African features.

Since those early days in my ministry I have been fascinated with how various cultures depict Jesus. I have worked with Hispanics, American Indians, East Asians, South Asians, Southeast Asians, and Africans. Children from each culture will render Jesus as looking like themselves unless taught to do differently. This is natural, and I think it is a part of God’s plan for reaching the nations. Jesus is no longer flesh and blood, as we know it. He is different from us. At this point in time we meet him as the Holy Spirit represents him to us. He has no color, no ethnic heritage, and no cultural distinctions except the holiness and righteousness of God.

One of the challenges of being a cross-cultural witness is presented Jesus in the same way the Holy Spirit would. Jesus’ cultural heritage is the family of God. As the Creator, He made all of us, regardless of our cultural identity, in His own image. As His adopted children we have a responsibility to become like Him.  We should not introduce Jesus as looking or being like ourselves. He is not. And to represent him as something He is not is a lie, first to ourselves, and then to those to whom we wish to introduce Him.

Since 1977 I have given my life to the ministry of cross-cultural witness on the behalf of Jesus. In the early days I was trained to contextualize my witness to my host culture. As I understood contextualization, this was basically to make Jesus acceptable to them by dressing him up to look like them. Add a little makeup, change the clothes, use a different language, and voilá, a Jesus they certainly couldn’t refuse.

But with time, the makeup I applied began to run. The clothes wore out. And the language was always something short of perfect. Jesus, as I understood Him, would ultimately show up, confusing and sometimes offending my hosts.

Regardless of how hard I tried, I could never make Jesus look just right to another culture. Even though I had had some success in presenting my made-up Jesus to my hosts, it was extremely difficult and tiring to keep the make-up fresh, the clothes new, and the language just right. No matter how diligently I studied and researched culture, and built relationships, I could not know my host culture well enough to present Jesus in a perfectly contextualized manner.  My clothes, food choices, language; or adopted cultural forms of family relations, community involvement, or worship were always slightly off at best, disastrous at worst.

I began to question contextualization. Perhaps I just wasn’t cut out to be a cross-cultural witness for Jesus. I began to pray that God would show me how to represent Him to others. And slowly, as all good teachers do, God began to teach me through the experiences of others, my own experiences, and object lessons that will never be forgotten.

Since 1985 I have been working in World A. I have had to work in secret, and I have had to keep my identity well hidden. Anything less could have resulted in the loss of access to the peoples to whom God sent me, and/or the death of those who accepted Christ as a result of my witness. A dressed-up Jesus was not an option. I was non-residential much of the time, and didn’t have the time, or the inclination to keep the makeup straight, the clothes new, and the language perfect. I had to learn another way.

My first learning experience came when I had the unique opportunity to witness to member of my host community. He was an old shopkeeper who was well liked and had no problems with me as a foreigner. We conversed almost daily. I liked him, and I think he liked me. I did not hide the fact that I was a Christian. Everyone assumed I was anyway, since I had white skin. He did not hide the fact that he was a Hindu. One day our conversation strayed to religion. As a trained witness I was thrilled with the opportunity. But, as it turned out, the opportunity was one for me to learn, not to lead another person into the Kingdom of God.

The old man told me that he just did not understand Christianity. There was no way he could give up his religion, which was so much a part of his daily life, to accept a new religion which from his perspective was so much NOT a part of the daily lives of the Christians he knew. He began every day with meditations, offerings and prayers to his god. As the day went on he would stop for more prayer and meditation. Each business transaction was blessed in prayer, and each dollar made thankfully offered to his god.

Everyone knew his devotion, and that devotion was as obvious at home and in private as it was in public. The questions he presented to me shoved me into some long and deep thought and prayer.

• “Why would I want to give up the god I can see for one that I cannot see?”
• “Why would I want to worship only one day a week when now I worship several times every day?”
• “Why would I want to do business without the presence of my god to oversee it and bless it?”
• “Why would I want to try to convince others of my holiness with words, when they can see my devotion to my god?”
• “Why would I want to let only words teach my children, rather than my life?”

This old man had a limited and distorted view of a committed Christian’s life, but the form of secret or private worship that was the norm for most Christians he knew or observed was certainly contributing to his misunderstanding. I realized this had to change. I asked God to give me a local cultural informant who could take Jesus as I know him and present the essence of who Jesus is in a meaningful way to his culture.

As I prayed for this person I realized that I had to find a way to minimize my cultural representation of Jesus. This is quite different from dressing Jesus up in a way that would be acceptable to another culture. How can I ever know another culture well enough to dress Jesus up to meet their expectations, wants, or needs? I cannot. But I do know my own culture, and if I am honest with Scripture, and critical in my thinking and planning, I can present Jesus in a near a-cultural way that can be assimilated and transformed into a cultural model by the ones God has chosen and prepared to do so. I have learned that God has prepared men and women in every culture who can meet those who love Jesus from another culture, learn to love Jesus from them, strip away the cultural baggage attached (which we can minimize), and present Jesus to their own culture in a loving and caring way which results in lives changed and the Kingdom enlarged.

The most obvious areas where I needed to strip away my own culture and cultural expectations were in my styles of worship, both private and public. As I taught my new friends worship, I taught the elements of worship, not style or form. This was not easy.  What was natural for me was foreign for them. I learned to ask questions as I taught.

When I introduce prayer, I asked them how they would pray. The Bible teaches we are to pray. They began to pray in a way that was familiar to them and directed toward the God we all knew and loved. When I introduced singing, I asked them what songs they would sing. They had none. I gave them none. They were inspired by the Holy Spirit to write their own. It sounded like their music, and it gave glory and honor to God.

When I introduced teaching, I asked them how they would teach God’s word. The style was different from mine, but normal for their culture. When I introduced preaching, I asked them how they would exhort others to follow the teachings of Christ. The resulting form of preaching was different from what I was used to, but it met their needs and was acceptable to their culture. When I introduce church leadership, I asked them how they would lead a group in their community. The results were different from the congregational approach I would have taken, but it fit them and their way of doing things.

For my new friends, worship and church were a daily and daylong life style that was apparent and obvious to their community. It was despised by some and spoken against by others, but was much more acceptable to the community than anything I could have presented to them or lived out before them. It had impact.

Regardless of how careful one is to deculturalize one’s message, there are teachings in the Bible that are simply against cultural norms. For instance, in a culture where the norm is multiple wives, the teaching of one wife for life is difficult to accept. In these situations one must teach God’s word, but more importantly teach that all of us are to obey God’s word. The Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) includes the admonition that we are to teach others to obey everything Christ has commanded. I have learned that teaching doctrine and teaching obedience are two very different things.

I went overseas with all kinds of doctrinal material to present to the new believers. I discovered that doctrine was another area where cultural baggage can be found. Doctrine is basically my church or denomination’s teachings on what they believe the Bible says and how it is to be lived out (in my own culture). Doctrine often includes forms and traditions that are outside the biblical context, though acceptable within the biblical and cultural context under which the doctrine was developed. Church polity, church staff, ordinations, the practices of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, the teachings regarding clergy and laity, and more can carry significant cultural baggage that may be extra-biblical without being disobedient to the Scripture in a given culture. The cross-cultural witness must be able to identify the cultural areas and eliminate them from his or her teachings.  The best way to do this is to use only Scripture for curricula, and allow local people to answer questions about Scripture, not listen to our answers.  We have to learn to teach by asking a minimal number of questions, not by giving the answers to every question or have an expressed opinion about everything.

The focus in discipleship has become obedience to the Gospel, not adherence to a doctrine. With a doctrine-centered discipleship program one must teach everything to assure a person has the knowledge to be obedient. With an obedience-centered discipleship program the emphasis is how we can be obedient to Christ in every area of our lives and in every circumstance. When a new disciple asks a question, my answer is always the same – what must you do to be obedient to Christ? I may have to help them to find the appropriate passages in the Bible to answer the question, but the question always remains the same.  In this form of teaching, faith is defined as being obedient to the commands of Christ in every situation or circumstance, regardless of the consequences.

During one baptism it was observed that the village leader was agitated. He and his family were to be baptized, but as the time approached, he became more agitated and angry. He was overheard mumbling that “this is wrong” and “this is evil.” He was referring to the baptism. A wise worker allowed him to voice his feelings and then asked him to explain what it was about the baptism that was wrong or evil. The village leader explained that it was wrong for a man from outside the family to touch the women in his family. The doctrinal teaching was that an ordained minister should administer baptism. The worker was quick to ask himself the question, “in this how can I be obedient to the teaching of Christ.” He quickly asked the leader if would be appropriate for him to baptize the leader, and then the leader could baptize the rest of the new converts. A change was made, and the baptism continued.

We learned that the form of baptism we had been practicing was a hindrance to the spread of the Gospel. Many women were refusing to be baptized because a man other than a family member would be touching them. Baptism by ordained ministers was not a requirement of the Bible, but was simply a tradition of the church. With a simple change in form, baptisms increased from a few each month to tens if not hundreds each week. What’s more, the leadership transferred to the village was significant. Many who may have stayed on the fringe of the work became key leaders as they accepted the spiritual responsibility of baptizing their families, and went on to become the true spiritual leaders in their homes and villages.

As you may have discerned, baptism is primarily of family groups. The Gospel is presented to families, much the same as the pattern found in Acts. This avoids extraction evangelism, and conversions usually result in a church being established. A child or a woman may be the door into the family, but the head of the household usually leads the whole family into the decision to follow Christ. This is different than found in some cultures, but if the traditional, individual conversion approach had been maintained, then the growth of the church would have been hampered.

There are more examples of how form and practice from one culture may have a negative or neutral impact on another culture. You probably have many examples from your own ministry. Part of the job of the cross-cultural witness is to eliminate the cultural aspects of his or her own understanding of doctrine and practice, and to help those in the host culture discover Biblically acceptable ways of expressing their own love, devotion, and worship of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So the question remains. What color is Jesus? For the cross-cultural witness the color is always neutral. When Christ is in the culture He will look just like the members of that culture. He will represent God and His righteousness to the culture. He will become the measuring stick by which everyone in the culture is measured.  His Word will be obeyed and their love will be made complete.

The role of the cross-cultural worker is to deculturalize the Gospel – presenting the Gospel without commentary, but with the question, “How will we obey what God has said?”  If it’s not in the Bible, we don’t introduce it to the culture.

The role of the cultural worker is to contextualize the Gospel – presenting the Gospel and asking, “What must we change in our lives and culture in order to be obedient to all the commands of Christ?”

Mentoring is about adjusting Core Values.  Core Values are basically our default position for everything we think and do.  The best place to examine one’s Core Values is discovered in those situations in which we find ourselves under extreme stress.  We all want to be cut some slack when we are under stress, and we need to cut each other slack at these times.  None of us is usually at our best when under extreme stress.  But the fact is that when we are under extreme stress we think and respond at our Core Value levels.  You see, Core Values are not a list of nice thoughts and desired behaviors we have put on paper.  Core Values are the default position from which we make decisions and take actions without the need for excessive thought.  Therefore, when we are under stress and have minimal time or energy to give to thought, our Core Values are revealed in what we think, say, or do; as well as what we choose not to think, say, or do.

I can remember in my early days as a Christian being mentored by a youth director – he was working with me on my language (cursing).  I felt the victory when I stopped using curse words, but my mentor asked me about what I thought, not just what I said.  More work.  I still remember the day when an event that would have usually resulted in a long litany of cursing actually ended without even a thought of a curse.  Wow!  I knew then that a change had occurred.  My Core Values had been adjusted.  More work.  Then I remember the day when a very stressful event occurred and my thoughts were of what was best for the other person, not about me.  And I felt I had taken a step into a place that was more like Christ.

Please understand me.  I’m not saying I’m perfect.  I still slip and slide at times (sin).  But I struggle to be more like Christ every day in what I think, say and do.  These are the Core Values of a Christian.  Paul put it this way:

^{Phil 3:7} But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.  ⁸ What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ  ⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.  ¹⁰ I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. 

^{Phil 3:12} Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.  ¹³ Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.                    

^{Phil 3:15} All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.  ¹⁶ Only let us live up to what we have already attained. (NIV)

As a mentor, my job is to help mentorees to adjust their Core Values to be more like Christ in every area of their lives.  My focus is not on the job, it’s on the person. 

If you focus on the job, you are a coach, not a mentor.  Now, there are times when mentors have to coach, but our focus is not the job, it’s the person.

If you focus on knowledge, you are a teacher, not a mentor.  There are times when mentors have to teach, but our focus is not gaining or giving knowledge, it’s the person.

When I say our focus is on the person, I mean every aspect of a person’s life.  In order to impact everything in a person’s life, we must help them adjust their Core Values to a Biblical perspective.

Look at what Paul said to the Ephesians.

 ^{Eph 4:17} So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.  ¹⁸ They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.  ¹⁹ Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more. 

^{Eph 4:20} You, however, did not come to know Christ that way.  ²¹ Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.  ²² You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;  ²³ to be made new in the attitude of your minds;  ²⁴ and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

 ^{Eph 4:25} Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body.  ²⁶ “In your anger do not sin” : Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry,  ²⁷ and do not give the devil a foothold.  ²⁸ He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need.

 ^{Eph 4:29} Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.  ³⁰ And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.  ³¹ Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.  ³² Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

 ^{Eph 5:1} Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children  ² and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

 ^{Eph 5:3} But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.  ⁴ Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.  ⁵ For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a man is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.  ⁶ Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient.  ⁷ Therefore do not be partners with them.

 ^{Eph 5:8} For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light ⁹ (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) ¹⁰ and find out what pleases the Lord.  ¹¹ Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.  ¹² For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret.  ¹³ But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, ¹⁴ for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: “Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

 ^{Eph 5:15} Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise,  ¹⁶ making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.  ¹⁷ Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.  ¹⁸ Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.  ¹⁹ Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, ²⁰ always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. (NIV)

 So, as a mentor, it’s my job to help my mentorees become more like Christ in all they do.  This includes:

• Their relationship to God
• Their relationship to family and friends
• Their relationship to the community at large and the church
• Their fulfillment of God’s call in their lives
• Their vocations (how they put food on the table)
• Their relationship to themselves (including general knowledge, work skills, mental health, emotional health, spiritual health, and physical health)

We cannot achieve this level of mentorship with meetings or seminars.  It requires investing in each other’s lives in such a way that we are pressed by the Holy Spirit from all directions to become more like Christ – Adjusting our Core Values to those revealed in the Word of God.

 Blessings!

Last week I had the honor of attending and addressing the Verge 2010 Conference (#Verge10) in Austin, TX.  Much thanks to Austin Stone Community Church for making this event happen.  There were 2000+ participants who came together to learn about and think through Missional Church and the DNA of Gospel Movements.

I was privileged to address the whole conference on the topics of the Counter Intuitives of Gospel Movements (see http://www.cpmtr.org/cpm-awareness-videos/ CPM Awareness Video #1.  Counter Intuitives begin at about the 30 minute mark in the video.) and the Gospel Planting Strategy Requirements to Reach the Complex Structures of Society.  In addition to these I led three breakout sessions on on Gospel Planting and the Critical Elements of Gospel Planting (See http://www.cpmtr.org/cpm-awareness-videos/ CPM Awareness Video #3).

Following are my Take-Aways from the Verge 2010 Conference:

• God is working in every denomination and independent church movement to bring about obedience to His Gospel in such a way that individuals, families, and communities are obedient to His Word, and  involved in missional ministries to reach our nation and world for Christ and bring transformation to individuals, families, and communities.
• There are significant leaders who are willing to risk being obedient to the Word of God so that the Gospel penetrates every segment of every town, city, and nation.  This risk has cost them friends, leadership positions, status, church members, and more.
• Being missional and deeply involved in Gospel Planting is not optional, but central to what it means to be the Church of Jesus Christ.
• As we are wounded by family, friends, and our churches during our efforts to lead them to engage obedient missional living, we need to forgive those who hurt us, betray us, and turn their backs on the demands of the Gospel.  We cannot expect to be treated well by the world or accepted by the status quo in our churches.
• There are some great young leaders emerging.
• Find the count-down clock before you start speaking.

You can check the Verge 2010 website for video downloads of the main conference.  I believe there are also some audio and video downloads of some of the breakout sessions.  My breakout sessions were not recorded.

Thanks to all the people behind the scenes who make Verge 2010 a great conference.  And a personal thanks to Clay, my personal shadow, who got me everywhere on time, found food and cokes when I needed (wanted?) them, and was a joy to get to know.

Blessings!

This blogsite is about mentoring Church Planters.  The desired outcome is well-rounded men and women of God who can make disciples and coach others to make disciples, start churches and coach others to start churches, and lead Church Planting Movements and coach others to lead Church Planting Movements.  But, as I have said before, church planting is more than a job, it’s a lifestyle.  One doesn’t do church planting; one lives the life of a church planter.  Or, more accurately, one lives the life of a Disciple Maker, which requires us to be mentors.

I have addressed the mentoring role specifically in a couple of previous posts – Being a Mentor and Leadership Essentials – Mentors, Coaches & Trainers, and Teachers.  In the next few posts I want to dig more deeply into the role and lifestyle of a mentor.

First of all, mentoring begins with one’s self.  The single greatest indictment of religious leaders is found in Matthew 23.

^{Mt 23:1} Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples:  ² “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat.  ³ So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.  ⁴ They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.

^{Mt 23:5} “Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long;  ⁶ they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues;  ⁷ they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them ‘Rabbi.’

^{Mt 23:8} “But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have only one Master and you are all brothers.  ⁹ And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven.  ¹⁰ Nor are you to be called ‘teacher,’ for you have one Teacher, the Christ.  ¹¹ The greatest among you will be your servant.  ¹² For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

^{Mt 23:13} “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.

^{Mt 23:15} “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.

^{Mt 23:16} “Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’  ¹⁷ You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred?  ¹⁸ You also say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath.’  ¹⁹ You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred?  ²⁰ Therefore, he who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it.  ²¹ And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it.  ²² And he who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the one who sits on it.

^{Mt 23:23} “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.  ²⁴ You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

^{Mt 23:25} “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.  ²⁶ Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

^{Mt 23:27} “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean.  ²⁸ In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

^{Mt 23:29} “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous.  ³⁰ And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’  ³¹ So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets.  ³² Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers!

^{Mt 23:33} “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?  ³⁴ Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town.  ³⁵ And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.  ³⁶ I tell you the truth, all this will come upon this generation.

^{Mt 23:37} “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.  ³⁸ Look, your house is left to you desolate.  ³⁹ For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’’” (The Holy Bible, New International Version. Pradis CD-ROM)

There is a lot to exegete here, but the main point is that the religious leaders did not live out what they taught.  Their public and private lives were not consistent with the demands of Scripture.

• They did not practice what they preached.
• They put burdens on people instead of helping them with their burdens.
• They did what they did for themselves instead of for God.
• They shut the Kingdom of God instead of opening it.
• They made converts who were worse than they were.
• They forgot the source of their oaths.
• They were rule makers and rule police, but forgot the teachings of The Law regarding justice, mercy and righteousness.
• They looked good on the outside, but inside they were dirty and corrupt.  (The whitewashed graves were to look nice, but also to warn pilgrims not to inadvertently touch them and be disqualified by the law from entering the temple at Passover.  If you touch a Pharisee you disqualify yourself from worship.)
• They were so dangerous to the people around them they were like a brood of vipers.  Certain death if touched.

These warnings were given to those of us who are leaders.  It is so easy for us to fall into the sin of the Pharisees.  Our positions, our leadership, our rules, our representing God to the lost and leading the saved can cause us to lose sight of what it means to be a servant of God, one who humbles himself or herself and is then exalted by God as we serve His creation.

True mentoring begins in the heart of the mentor.  It is not only what we know, our experiences and what we have learned that makes us a mentor.  It is also what we avoid, what we choose not to do, as well as how we choose to relate to God and man in public and in private.

Mentors strive for consistency in their lives.  Their deepest desire is to Know God and serve man.  They are even-keeled.  What you see in public is what you get in private.  And the life of a “sinner who has been redeemed by the Blood of Christ and raised up to walk a new life” is not a slogan, but a revealed lived-in and lived-out reality that permeates all we think, do and say.

Mentors are redeemed sinners who know it every day, and live out the sainthood that has been bestowed on them by Christ for the benefit of the Kingdom of God and the people they serve.  If God is not working on those of us who call ourselves mentors, then we have no bases on which to be a mentor.  Mentoring is not about being perfect; it’s about striving for perfection through the mercy and grace of God.  Mentoring is not about knowing everything; it’s about being a learner who shares hard-earned lessons with others in hopes the lessons can be a little less hard.  Mentoring is not about being long-term (old) in a field of endeavor; it’s about being wise and able to apply the lessons learned to everyday life for the benefit of others more than self.

If you want to be a mentor, you have start with self, and then as you learn, fail, repent and repeat; you bring others along with you.  Your life is intertwined with the lives of others – from family to old friends to new friends, and even to enemies.  Each relationship has a potential for happiness or bitterness.  Each moment is a choice to do right, do wrong, or to do nothing (which may be the best or worse decision of all).  Each task can succeed or fail, sometimes regardless of what we are doing.

Mentoring is sharing your life with others so that you and they will be better people in service to the Kingdom of God.  If you are called to mentor, then you are indeed called to a high calling that demands your best in all situations and relationships for the good of others involved in Kingdom work.

Blessings!

CPM (Church Planting Movements) has become a popular phrase in the Christian missions and church planting world.  But what I am finding as I travel the globe and exchange ideas with many different leaders is a watering down of the meaning of CPM.  I had one leader declare, “I have been doing CPM for more than 25 years!”  Yet, when I began to ask questions about his ministry, he was redefining his very traditional ministry as CPM.

By traditional ministry I mean:

• A focus on starting churches which adhere to and look like a particular church, denominational or doctrinal position.
• A requirement that leadership go through a formalized and institutionalized educational process in order to be qualified to lead.
• Formal ordination of leadership.
• High to strict control of the teaching/preaching ministries of the church and the ordinances of Baptism and Lord’s Supper by ordained leaders.
• In some cases a high focus on having a building that is called “church”.
• Usually, a high control of all aspects of church.

Please understand that I don’t consider any of the above wrong.  Any organization or church has the right to determine how they will do church and what qualifies individuals and groups to be considered a part of the denomination, organization, or church.  But, many of these requirements are extra-Biblical and slow church planting in such a way that natural replication cannot happen.  And simply renaming what one has been doing for years as a CPM does not make it CPM.

A Church Planting Movement (CPM) is an indigenously led Gospel Planting and obedience-based discipleship process that has resulted in a minimum of 100 new locally initiated and led churches, three generations deep, within the last two years for ministries in new areas.  There is trained local leadership in each church, and each leader relates to a mentor. Every-Member obedience-based discipleship that leads to ministry in the community is the norm for all new Believers and leaders.  The outsider who may have initiated/catalyzed the process is not considered the first generation.  The outside leader may maintain a mentoring relationship with the growing leadership of the movement.  See Church Planting Movement (CPM) – Our Definition.

CPM is local churches (within a people group, nation, megacity, or population segment) rapidly and regularly planting multiple new churches within the same people group as a normal part of being and doing church.  CPMs may be outsider initiated, but are insider reproduced, controlled and sustained.  Making disciple-makers is the focus, Scripture is the source of all teaching, and obedience to Scripture, not any particular doctrinal stance, is the starting place for all teaching.

By “outsider” I mean the person or group who initiated the first new churches.  Being from the same culture or language group does not make one an insider.  Even in CPMs, as churches spread from one community to another, the outsider who may be a very new Christian does not stay and lead the newly initiated church.  All church planting starts in and stays in the hands of local people.  Outsiders coach the process rather than perform the process.

So, following are the questions I ask to determine if there is potentially a CPM in progress:

• How many churches have you seen started in the past two years?  I’m looking for a number close to 100.    If the process is less than two years old, then I look for a proportional number.  The older a ministry, the higher the number I am looking for.  A thousand paid workers starting a few hundred churches every year is not a CPM!  No paid workers and 15 local churches starting 30 new churches in the past two years may be the beginning of a CPM, and if there are three generations, the likelihood of a CPM is greater.
• How many generations of churches starting new churches without outside support have you seen in the past two years?  I’m looking for a minimum of 3 generations in multiple lines, not counting the outside organization or church that may have initiated the process.  If there are not significant generational patterns, then there is not a CPM, regardless of how many churches have been started.
• Who started these churches?  Was it paid outsider church workers or non-paid local Believers?  By “started” I am referring to the on-the-ground worker leading the Bible Studies or leading people to Christ.  Outsiders may be coaching, but the work is done by an insider.  I’m looking for young believers/leaders starting new churches and young churches starting new churches, not paid or volunteer outsiders starting churches.
• How were these workers trained?  I’m looking for spontaneous church planting by young churches as well as non-institutional rapid training systems that give quick and minimal Biblical training to local leaders.  I am also looking for mentoring systems, formal and informal, that address just-in-time learning systems that present Biblical material and personal coaching when needed to meet a current situation or problem.  (Remember, I am looking at how it’s starting, not the longterm system.  Formal training systems will be required as the system matures.)
• What curricula do you use to equip your leaders?  Every curriculum begins with a philosophy.  This philosophy is passed on, intentionally or unintentionally, to every learner.  I’m looking for Scripture-only, obedience-based curricula that do not beat a denominational or doctrinal drum.  (What distinguishes a denomination or denomination-like church is the insistence that all related churches and any churches they start adhere to a particular and peculiar perspective and associated practices related to the Bible, as well as their particular church history and the way they do church.  All denominational and denominational-like churches are Bible-based and history-based.  They may require a strict or loose adherence to their doctrine and/or practices.  Their doctrine, however, is at best a subset of what Scripture has to say, and at worst contain extra-Biblical teachings and practices based on their church history.  All worship styles, leadership styles, and governance styles are mostly extra-Biblical, even though all denominations will claim a Biblical background for their practices.)  See Why Denominations Cannot Complete the Great Commission.

There are many other factors that indicate a CPM.  All of these are discussed and/or presented at www.cpmtr.org, www.reachingtheonlinegeneration.com, and www.davidlwatson.org (this blog).

 This article is about rapid recognition of a potential CPM, not how to do CPM or how to fully evaluate CPM.

Blessings!