Dr. Blue on Pioneer Church Planting

We had a FANTASTIC speaker last night at Perspectives class. What a blessing to hear him share. DR. RON BLUE is president of CENTRAL AMERICA MISSION (CAM) INTERNATIONAL. He has traveled to 50!!! different countries during his work with international missions and is a fireball of enthusiasm. His passion for evangelism and discipleship is effervescent and contagious. It flows from an obvious close relationship with His Heavenly Father.

Last night the topic was Pioneer Church Planting, but Dr. Blue added insights on many different areas of missions as well. He spoke on C1-6 strategies of evangelization among Muslims and shared a list on how to avoid syncretism. Addressing contextualization, he looked at the Apostle Paul’s effective strategies for reaching the Gentiles. We looked at obstacles to church planting, evangelism guidelines from Acts 17, and a few case studies of pioneer church planting movements.

Here are a few random notes and well-put thoughts from his lecture.

On the privilege of missions, he said-God could evangelize the world so well without us. He could send angelic messengers. Her could line up glittering stars in the heavens with a clear message, like “Jesus Saves”. He could shout it with His own trumpet voice from heaven. But he chooses to primarily use us, people made in His likeness, to bear His salvation to the ends of the earth. What a privilege!

On fear of evangelism-“There are no strangers, only friends I haven’t met yet.”

“Don’t measure evangelism by converts, but by faithfulness of proclamation.”

In intercultural communication, we can adapt how we communicate the TRUTH, to be understood in that culture, but we should never adapt THE TRUTH itself.

Christian unity must no restrict Christian liberty, Consider an orchestra, there is unity and harmony in following the same director, but there is liberty of different instruments.

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So many good thoughts. The only possible way to apply them is in the power of the Holy Spirit!

Global Christians

"We must be global Christians with a global vision
because our God is a global God." -- John Stott

Major Global Prayer Requests This Week:

Political Turmoil in Ukraine
Tsunami Hits the Solomon Islands


"The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." Let's pray that God work in these events for the exaltation of His name, the provision of His people, and the overthrow of darkness.

Class Notes from Perspectives

Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." Gen 12:1-3

How does God's promise to Abraham in Gen 12:1-3 reveal that God is a missionary God?

God’s purpose (to redeem a people from every people, and to rule a kingdom over all kingdoms) is embedded into the promise given Abraham. Abram was blessed exceedingly and called apart for the purpose of blessing all the nations of the world, bringing them into a saving relationship with the Almighty. God had a passionate message for the world and he needed a messenger--Abraham became that missionary patriarch. I am so blessed to see God's missionary heart revealed from the beginning.

It's also fascinating to see that this missionary mandate came in the form of a promise, which emphasizes what God would do through Abraham, not what Abraham could accomplish on his own. It is a promise of being co-laborers in a vital relationship with God, not slaves with a missionary “to do” list. What a promise to hold on to; man will fumble in his attempts to follow God, but God’s mandate (because it is also a promise) will never fail.