Changing World
The world in which we live is changing rapidly. The demographics are undeniable…please watch.
Archive > July 2009
New Missional Links
I want you to check out the new links on the sidebar of the blog. There are some really good people who are living, thinking and doing missional life in the world today. Go and check out what they are writing. You may not agree with all that you read. Comment on what is being written and get involved in the dialogue.
What’s Going on in Belgium
Belgium is a country of influence, being the capital of both the European Union and NATO. Yet less than .5 percent of the nation’s 10 million people follow Christ.
© Greater Europe Mission 2009
Links O’Belgium
Here are a few links to help you know a little more about Belgium to help you know a little more about where God has called LifePoint.
Have fun reading!
The Beginning
What do chocolate, lace, diamonds, micro-brews, and the European Union have in common? All of these are found in Belgium.
The Goen family has been on an incredible journey here in Tennessee over the last several months and we love every moment. Amy is in her fifth year teaching fourth grade at Providence Christian Academy. Jordan is fourteen years old and a freshman at PCA. Peyton is twelve years old and entering the seventh grade and his younger brother Evan is ten years old and heading toward the fifth grade. We have all begun learning French recently in anticipation for our next step with God.
God has called our family to move to Belgium to help plant a reproducing sending church that will reach Western Europe for the glory of God. Our church is sending us to the land of chocolate, lace, diamonds, and beer to live and teach what a growing and reproducing relationship with Christ looks like in a Western European culture. Our family is excited about what God has done in our own lives and in our church. There are four other families who are following God’s call to plant their families in Belgium as part of our team.
Belgium is considered a Catholic country. Over 90% of the people consider themselves non-practicing Catholics and rarely attend any religious services of any kind. Evangelical Christianity is virtually non-existent in the southern region of Belgium. In the city of Namur, which will be a target city in south Belgium, there is one evangelical church. The church consists of 25 Congolese refugees in a city with over 100,000 people. Our entry point into Belgium will be the city of Brussels where we will begin to minister.
LifePoint Church, where I serve, is our sending church. We are being sent as church planters to represent Christ, our church, and you, our family and friends. Please pray with us as we seek to obediently follow the call of God for our lives.
Slacker
The past few months I have really let up on my goal of reading 50 books this year. Life took over and the pace of reading slowed to a crawl during our summer break from school. I was able to complete a couple of books that are of interest to me in light of the coming changes to our family in the next year with Belgium on the horizon.
First…
A Theology as Big as the City by Ray Bakke.
I have had this book in my library from one of my doctoral seminars a few years back. I read through it for a class and enjoyed it then but it is really applicable today. Needless to say, I read with new eyes and an open mind.
Second…
Planting and Growing Urban Churches, edited by Harvie Conn.
This book was also on my shelf from a previous doctoral seminar. It is a good book but more research oriented for the practitioner than for the average reader to enjoy. I would recommend it though as an easy read.
The kids began school today so I am hopeful that I can return to my normal reading routines. Summer schedules bring a great amount of variety to our days and lives as a family. That variety is needed and appreciated, but I am looking forward to the consistency of scheduling for our family.
DLP
Discover LifePoint (DLP) is the class people must take to become a member of LifePoint Church or to find out more about the church. During Discover LifePoint those who attend learn about the vision of the church, the values of the church and the expectations of the church. At the end of each session those who are attending are given the opportunity to begin the membership process for LifePoint Church.
The requirements for membership at LifePoint Church are; each person must have submitted their life to Jesus as Savior, followed Him in believer’s baptism and completed Discover LifePoint. Everyone who attends Discover LifePoint do not join the church, but everyone who desires join LifePoint must attend the class. DLP is a great place to start learning about who we are as a church and why we practice the things do here at LifePoint.
Since July 1 we have had 94 people complete the Discover LifePoint class and 78 people have begun the process for completing membership. This is incredible, 83% of the people who attend DLP began the process.
The class is offered on the First and Second Sundays of each month. You can choose one of the sessions to attend and register online. I hope to see you in a few weeks in the next DLP.
Memphis and Mission
On July 1o Pat, Tim and I went to Memphis to meet with four other churches and the leadership of the International Mission Board (IMB) to discuss the process of sending missionaries from the local church. The other churches involved with LifePoint in the process are Cornerstone, Pinelake, The Church at BrookHills and Summit Church. The gathering was very informative and historic I believe for the way mission is implemented and carried out in our denomination.
The main focus of the meeting centered around how the local church can lead out in being the mission sending organization and the IMB return to being a facilitating organization for the local church. Because of the local church’s abdication of it’s responsibility the IMB has had to pick up the task of being the sending organization. God has ordained the local church not para-church organizations. Somewhere along the time line of history the local church got involved in looking inward for too long of a period of time and the mission stopped being the “main thing”. Let me be clear, we do not want to stop being cooperative with others or change any offerings. The local church must get back to sending, strategizing, and caring for the missionaries that come from their church. It will take all of us to accomplish the task, but we must take responsibility for those we send and how they are sent.
Sometime in the next month each of the churches that were represented will have their Mission pastor travel to Richmond to hammer out more specific details of what the partnership could look like for churches that are ready to take the task of sending missionaries from the local church. Please pray for the leadership of the IMB as they seek to help the church mobilize it’s members to spread the fame of God around the world to each nation and people group. Pray also for the local leadership of the church to be bold and responsible for the sending of the church into the world to Spread His Fame among the Nations.
July 10th. Huge Day
Friday July 10 will be a huge day for LifePoint Church.
Over the past several years God has re-arranged everything at LifePoint to focus on sending leaders out to reach the nations for His glory. In the last four or five years we have mobilized around 500 people on short-term mission opportunities around the world. We have watched God call a families to South Asia, South America and West Africa. Today, LifePoint is in the process of sending two church planting teams to live long-term in other parts of the world. One of those teams will plant in Thailand and the other will plant in Belgium.
Well, this brings us to Friday July 10th. On this particular day our church will have the privilege of sending a short term team to Brazil, we are sending our Thailand team on a discovery trip, we are sending the Schroder’s to West Africa and some of our staff team will be in Memphis meeting with the senior leadership of the International Mission Board about new methods for partnership. No one can say LifePoint isn’t committed to seeing God’s glory spread throughout the nations.
Please pray for our church specifically on July 10th. Pray for God’s will to be done in each of these endeavors as we mobilize for the sake of God’s kingdom.