Monday, September 28, 2015

Frogs On A Log

Austen Ukachi was a university student when God first touched him with a passion for prayer. Soon after he graduated, he found himself at the head of a national prayer movement that really took off across Nigeria. Looking back, it’s possible to trace the spontaneous outbreak of spiritual revivals linked to students committing themselves to prayer.

Austen found many of the students he mentored joining him for weekly worship and fellowship that eventually grew into a full-fledged church. Today, that church is an active denomination called He’s Alive Chapel that involves some 60 pastors all across Nigeria and spilling over into neighboring francaphone countries.


With Pastor Austen and He's Alive Chapel pastors
It’s with these pastors that Austen invited me to come and spend three days of strategic planning. “We want to sharpen our vision and mission and help inspire our people toward greater outreach in missions,” he told me. I was looking forward to it, since it’s the first time an African-birthed

church had asked for my help in this way.

My first challenge was to convince folks  that a new vision and mission statement would really help propel them toward greater outreach action. They read:

Vision: Building a barn for the Lord for the end time harvest reflecting the fullness of his glory.

Mission: He’s Alive Chapel is committed to evangelism, church planting, discipleship, mission, and spiritual warfare.

I was delighted to see the interest by all the participants during our sessions. Between planning orientations that I provided and group breakout sessions, everyone was fully engaged. But the high point for me was seeing the impact of how the “frogs on a log” riddle, which I had learned from Jon Hirst, CEO of Global Mapping International, convinced them them their mission needed to be about something more than just commitment. It goes like this:

Seven frogs were sitting on a log. Six decided to jump into the pond. How many were left?

The answers from the group were many: “One. Six. Seven.” So I tried it another way:

Seven frogs were sitting on a log. Six were committed to jump into the pond. How many were left?

Needless to say – they got the point immediately! Here’s now how their new strategic plan statements read.

Our Vision: God's people prepared, equipped and bringing in a global harvest of souls for His Kingdom and Glory.

 Our Mission: To spread the Gospel everywhere by means of evangelism, discipleship, church planting, missions, prayer and building strong families.

My prayer is that He's Alive Chapel will truly become even more alive in it's dedication to take God's Good News to those who desperately need to hear it.

Sunday, September 27, 2015

Supreme Delight

With Justice Clara and Victor Tukura
It’s not every day that you are invited to dinner at the home of a Supreme Court Justice. And perhaps it is even more unusual that she be a woman and committed Christian on top of that. That is just what happened to me a few days ago while on this ministry trip here in Nigeria.
Justice Clara Ogunbiyi is one of fifteen who sit on Nigeria’s Supreme Court. She came up through the ranks of this country’s judicial system and now has a couple years left before her required retirement at the age of seventy. But during that time she has also contributed her leadership gifts by serving on the boards of several Christian ministries. One of those is the Missions Supporters League (MSL), a group for which I’ve been offering some consulting help. So it was through Victor Tukura, MSL’s General Director, that this evening with Justice Clara was arranged.

Not knowing exactly what to expect, I was very pleasantly surprised to find this woman to be an extremely humble and approachable civil servant, as was her husband, Dr. B.E. Ogunbiyi, a practicing OBGYN here in Abuja, the Nigerian capital. Our table conversation ranged from discussing the current state of the “culture wars” in the United States to the challenges of Boko Haram for the current Nigerian government. It was on this later topic that Justice Clara really opened up. Due to the fact that her home was in Borno State, the very region Boko Haram has targeted, she gave many dramatic examples of how this terrorist group has impacted her people.

One story she told me, however, was unexpected. “As a result of the bold testimony of Christians in the face of these atrocities,” she said, “hundreds of local Muslims there are giving their heart to Christ.” She went on to tell of two young Christian brothers who, in front of a huge crowd, were told to recant their faith and embrace Islam “or else.” When the first young man refused, he was slaughtered immediately. Then they approached his brother with the same demand, thinking that witnessing his brother’s death would change his mind. He also refused and was also the immediate victim of Boko Haram’s savage cruelty. “It is exactly this kind of incredible dedication,” Justice Clara explained, “that has turned the hearts of so many Muslims in that region to Christ.


Leaving her home that evening made me more committed than ever to pray for our Nigerian brothers and sisters – whether facing a terrorist threat like Boko Haram or facing the challenges of nation-shaping decisions at the level of the Supreme Court.

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

The Whole World in His Hands

He might be approaching the age of eighty, but George Verwer is no less capable of shouldering the challenge of the whole world has he was sixty years ago!

You might not think about coming to Nigeria and participating in a mission mobilization conference a likely place to run into a missionary legend, but that is just what happened me these past few days here in Abuja, Nigeria. “Selected or Solution” was the theme of this third annual Leadership Summit organized by my friend, Timothy Olonade, who invited a list of inspirational international speakers including George Verwer. Fueling the growing passion for cross-cultural missions in this country, this event is becoming a significant opportunity to learn about the latest resources and methods available to African churches and mission organizations. Along with my friends Jon Hirst, from Global Mapping, and Al Hawthorne, from Wycliffe Associates, I was one of eleven presenters offering elective workshops about everything from how to raise funds to how to translate the Bible.

Nigerian mission leaders recommitting to engage in
world outreach
But without question, the highlight of each day was the evening session presented by George Verwer. As founder of Operation Mobilization, George’s passion for sharing God’s Good News has spread across the world by means of the Logos and Doulos ships as well as through thousands of young people who serve in just about every country on earth. Having experienced before George’s unique presentation style complete with world map jacket and giant beach ball globe in a South Korea football stadium during GCOWE 1995, I was happy to see that he was still as compelling a speaker as ever. What has changed for George, by his own admission, is much more concern for a wholistic view of the Gospel that includes care for such things as human trafficking, HIV-AIDS, rights of the unborn, and clean water.

With George Verwer after fifty-two years
It was fun to reminisce with George about a time in 1963 when we first encountered each other. I was twelve years old on a family camping vacation in Europe and George was launching the first summer youth rally of OM. My dad got permission to pitch our tent on the grounds of a Paris chateau used by the European Bible Institute. So did George. Except our tent slept five and his was huge military style affair that accommodated several hundred young people for his evening rallies! Never would I have imaged back then that our paths would cross again fifty-two years later in a place like Abuja, Nigeria.


I praise God for the faithfulness of people like George Verwer that has resulted in millions learning about the love of Jesus and hope of peace with God.