6,000 Words

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.

Last week, when I shared at the Mission Mobilization Summit meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, I was asked to offer advice on how Nigerian missionaries could be most effective in future ministry settings. I decided to highlight my three main points each with a pair of pictures they would be easy to remember. Here they are:

Point #1 – Don’t just look for ministry that will have fast results. Recognize that much of the remaining mission task will be among unreached people groups that will take a long time and lots of patience, endurance and stamina to fully reach.

Point #2 – Don’t just pursue ministry that is done all alone or even in a paternalistic partnerships (like the Lone Ranger and Tonto.) Instead, intentionally seek out opportunities for collaborative partnership with like-minded churches and organizations equally passionate about ministering in that same part of the world.

Point #3 – Don’t just look for easy ministry that involve people just like yourself (i.e. planting churches among Nigerians in Poland.) Be willing to reach out to those with a very different background and learn to minister effectively cross-culturally.

It will be interesting to see if these key points—and their pictures—have any impact on the next generation of Nigerian mission workers! 

Crossing the "Red Line"

I never thought that Obama’s “red line” in the current Syria crisis would be a dramatic object lesson for a board governance seminar!

I was wrapping up a day-long workshop with the Board of Directors of the Nigeria Bible Translation Trust and trying to impress upon them the difference between what a board is supposed to deal with and what management should be handling. As with so many African boards (and US ones, too, for that matter) it is easy for boards to step across into management details start micro-managing operational issues ultimately reducing the effectiveness of the organization. When I explained this in a graphic PowerPoint slide, the lights came on for the board chairman when he said, “So this is like the Obama ‘red line.’ If we cross it, we can get in trouble!”

It was even more rewarding two days later, to hear another board member tell the manager of public relations that the board was no longer going to be involved in choosing new logo colors. “Now we understand that sort of decision would be crossing the line and taking on something your department is supposed to do."

It may seem like a little thing, but it’s just one example of how the subject matter of these workshops I’ve been offering have had practical application for day-to-day operations of these national ministries. Every little bit of increased efficiency is hopefully leading to greater effectiveness for the ministry  result of  these organizations.

Another good example of this was during a workshop I led a few days ago for managers and their secretaries on how to improve office work-flow. “We have so many interruptions,” one manager said. “People simply knock on our office door and then come right in regardless of what we’re doing. It’s the African way.” After discussing this a bit, we concluded that one solution was to re-position the secretaries’ desks so that they blocked easy access to the manager’s office and allowed for more chance of scheduling up future appointments for office visits.

Whether from greater efficiency or greater leadership vision, it’s exciting to hear that NBTT has started 22 new translation projects just since the beginning of the year. Considering there are over 350 languages in Nigeria with no Bible (100 of them being a priority) this signifies a significant step forward. It has been very fulfilling this past week playing a small part in these ministry results by 

leading four different management development workshops.

The Nigerians Are Coming!

Have any idea what the fifth largest missionary-sending country of the world might be?

Nigeria.

There are now more than 6,600 Nigerians serving as expat mission workers somewhere in the world. And if what I heard the past few days here in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city, is going to be true, that number will explode several times over in the next few years.

I’ve been attending and participating in a conference called “Blow The Trumpet--The World Mission Mobilization Leadership Summit.” Invited to be one of the ten speakers at the event, I’ve enjoyed getting a brand new feel for the passion and potential of Nigerians as a force in global missions. You can hardly help it when some three hundred and fifty brothers and sisters all around you surge with palpable emotion every time there is a challenge from the platform for recommitment in reaching the remaining unreached of the world.

About half the attendees are pastors of churches. The other half are mission agency leaders. Interestingly, there has been a growing gap between these two groups in recent years as mission endeavor becomes more fragmented and compartmentalized. One of the important objectives of this conference has been to bring the two back together. From the way the concluding sessions have played out with groups of leaders down on their knees at the altar in visible repentance surrounded by others laying hands on them, I believe this objective was definitely achieved.

These are the two talks I was asked to give:

The New Game-Changers in World Mission--Understanding the new dynamics changing the face of world missions and what challenges Global South leaders from Africa must face in order to engage successfully in global ministry.    

Mobilizing African Churches for Global Mission Relevance—Understanding what leads to greatest relevance in today’s global mission outreach and how African churches can effectively mobilize their members to achieve powerful mission impact.

Using my best PowerPoint skills, I tried to lay out just what it will take for the next generation of African mission workers to successfully build God’s Kingdom around the world. From the number of folks lining up afterwards for copies of my presentations, I must have been fairly successful.

Young Nigerians committing themselves to become mission
mobilizers

I also got to lead two break-out sessions on resource development for missions. These were particularly meaningful to me as I offered ideas for practical solutions on raising local support for their ministry endeavors. It even appears that several significant missions may be inviting me back again to run a two day seminar for them just on this topic.

During the three days of this “Blow the Trumpet” conference, I actually did not hear a single trumpet blown. But I’ve certainly sensed the equivalent results of people stirred to a new level of readiness for action and engagement in global missions.

So, better watch out… because the Nigerians are coming!