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Oikos, Komopolis and Ethnae January 28, 2008

Posted by Gilbert Kingsley in Launching.
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I am not sure when it was or where, but I remember Sam Osterloh, National Director, Ethnic Student Ministries, was speaking. He listed three Greek words used in the New Testament.

  1. Oikos: House, family, circle of friends. Used, for example, with Cornelius’ household.
  2. Komopolis: Village, community, town. Used with the Samaritan village in John 4 and when Jesus sent out the 70, 2 by 2, to the villages.
  3. Ethnea/ethnos: Ethnic, cultural group. The Samaritans and the Philistines are examples.

I am sure that when Sam was sharing, he talked about launching new ministries and what it means to go to others that are beyond our normal reach. Sadly, I don’t recall. But as I have thought about the ever-widening circle implied in those three words, a number of thoughts come to mind as we seek to launch ministries.

  • The relational networks, oikos, that all of us are part of can be carriers of the gospel.
  • Each of us are involved in a number of oikos, like our family and where we live and work. As such we touch lives in many different circles. They, in turn, touch lives. Could we be catalysts to see ministries launched in these circles?
  • Within the borders of Isreal and Judah, there were many villages, komopolis. Jesus says to his disciples, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” Mark 1:38. There is an emphasis on going and taking the Good News to others.
  • Similarly, within any of our campuses, I think you could say there are villages. Certainly the Greeks houses, maybe the athletic teams and different dorms where we have not been before beckon us to come. There may also be other “villages” like a high school in town, a community college nearby or, maybe even for some of us, the homeless or a pregnant teen.
  • As in the New Testament, there are various ethnic communities within our midst. Everyone needs the Lord. The onus lies with us. We will have to step out of our comfort zones and cross cultural bridges in order to launch ministries within those communities.

There is a wealth of understanding about what it will take to launch a ministry in other contexts at MovementLaunching.com. There are some great articles under the “Ethnic Issues” tab that help us understand that we are all part of a cultural grid, such as “Cultural Self-Awareness” and “What is White Privilege?”. But we also find help in what it means to go to others, everyone from Native Americans, to ROTC cadets, to high school students.

If you have not visited MovementLaunching.com in a while, why not poke around. And then let’s ask ourselves, “Who else has God given us a burden to go to with the Good News of Jesus Christ?” and “What are my first steps?”.

Real and Experienced Hope January 21, 2008

Posted by Gilbert Kingsley in Evangelism.
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I recently sat in a meeting where Keith Davy, R&D, gave a devotion. He spoke from 1 Peter 1 about what our lives are based upon. But before he got into it, he drew out a grid talking about hope. I thought it was great and asked if I could pass it on to you.

Hope may or may not be based upon reality. Or we may or may not have a sense of hope. It looks like this. hope-grid.pdf

I might illustrate it this way. There is only a 1/4” layer of ice on a lake. The reality is that little ice would not hold a you up. You may experience a sense of no hope, hopelessness, about it keeping you from falling through the ice. Or you may have hope that it would hold you even though it cannot. That would be false hope. But suppose the ice were really three feet think. You may not believe that it would hold you up. Keith called that forgotten hope. But if you step onto ice that thick, you have a living hope because it really will hold you.

What I liked about this is the way it illustrates the various ways people view hope in heaven. Most non-believers have a false hope, based upon their good works or religious affiliation or even that there is no life after this. That is not based in reality. Our objective is to remove their false hope and create a sense of hopelessness before we can give them the living hope found in Christ. If they are a believer, but are discouraged in their faith, they have a forgotten hope and we get to restore a living hope to them.

The truth of God’s word informs our experience of hope. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” 1 Peter 1:3 NASB. Italics mine. We bring that hope to the lost.

Spring week by week coaching plan January 14, 2008

Posted by Gilbert Kingsley in Coaching.
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When I do trainings on movement launching and coaching, I often hear staff who are excellent coaches tell me that they like the semester coaching plans. It has been a while since I sent out one. But I thought I would re-send this tip from two years ago introducing a Spring Week by Week Coaching Plan.

Some time ago, our pastor told a story of a boy born without his left arm. His parents enrolled him in a Judo class. But his coach only taught his pupil one move and he made him master that move. At a tournament, the one armed boy surprised himself and everyone else by winning every match. Afterward, the boy asked his coach why it he only taught him that one move. The coach said that the only defense against it was to grab his left arm!

The point: A coach is required to develop a plan with the abilities of those being coached in mind in order to ensure success.

As coaches, we need to know the strengths and liabilities of the ministries that we are coaching. We need to know how to grow our ministries from where they are to the next appropriate stage. And we need to do that with the development of our leaders and their growing sense of ownership in mind. Otherwise, we settle into simply maintaining existing ministries and losing sight of the scope.

Here is our Spring 2008 Coaching Plan. I changed the dates for 2008, but did not change any of the content.

Having a plan will help us achieve success. If this one helps you, great. But maybe this will spur your thinking to develop your own coaching plan. If you open this on-line, you can link directly to many of the tools on GodSquad and other sites. The topics in bold face type are the key emphases for the week if time is short.

GLC and God Dreams January 7, 2008

Posted by Gilbert Kingsley in Trusting God.
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As we begin a new year and a second semester for most of our ministries, I always think it’s good to start by dreaming what God might do. With that in mind, I took a look at the on-line Global Learning Center.

The very first lesson had some great thoughts on vision and what we could trust God for on our campuses. Anyone can go through these lessons. But you must sign up if you haven’t already.

Each lesson starts with “Vision” and is followed by a “Learn” section. Then you will work through the “Experience” piece. The questions help take this from our “mind to our muscle.” For example, this one asks you to list a problem that needs to be solved. Often the solution field is very short in order to make you crystallize your answers and solutions. You won’t remember something that is rambling and imprecise.

As you work through the questions, you will notice there are lots of action steps:

  • In order to achieve the outcome I am going to…
  • In order to do this I need…
  • I want to do this because…
  • This challenge matches me well because I am…

I like how this is so specific and tangible.

In “Action” you are encouraged to print out the worksheet you have just been through, complete a vision statement and then explore the resources. You will noticed that many of the Resources they provide, are probably familiar to you.

Go ahead and give it a try. Then ask your student leaders to work through this module. Maybe you can have them work through the series. They will benefit from going through every lesson. The training is excellent.

Together, let us set ourselves up, along with our student leaders, so that we may believe God to use everyone of us in a powerful way to reach more students for Christ.