Tag: tom julien

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Sugar Cubes and the Château

Chateau-Apr2014As a 5th grade boy, I remember working on a project with hundreds of sugar cubes. (Some of those got popped into my mouth…I was a boy!) This Sunday School project was to build a replica of the Château that our French missionaries were using to share the Gospel. In my minds eye it was quite a masterpiece as we glued together dozens of sugar cubes to formed this castle.

Now years later, this same Château has caught my fancy. (Although I’m not popping as much sugar these days.) One of my heroes, Tom Julien was the entrepreneur of the acquisition and use of the Château de Saint Albain for building relational bridges with the French to sow the Good News. That ministry began 50 years ago this year! Amazing!

So in the celebration of their 50th anniversary of ministry (of course the building is much older!), there are a variety of ways to be apart. Our Encompass World Partners board of directors are actually meeting on-site for annual meetings this week. This weekend is the first celebration of many for this year.

There are at least 5 ways you can get involved:

Facebook Page for the Chateau1) The easiest way to support the Château and get info about the ministry is on their Facebook page.  Like it RIGHT NOW!

 

2) Another ways you can be apart is helping “kickstart” the printing of a commemorative coffee table book. Much of the design work on the book is already done, but we need funding to actually print the project with our French publishing house Éditions Clé. Your donation will actually be “doubled” bless the work of the Château—so your donation of $100 dollars actually gets the book published and can generate up to $200 toward the ministry! Donate now and help us get this project rolling!

 

chateau100club

3) Soon there will be the restarting of the Château 100 Club where people can become members of the Château ministry with a $100 donation to support the work! You can start right now (on the Project list select FRANCE- $100 Club)!

 

4) You can always go on a Short-Term Trip! At least 4 teams going from the USA this year. Talk to our Mobilizers in the Encompass office to find out how and when you can go. Contact a mobilizer

 

Chateau_banner5) Is the Château calling you?!?!  One of the evolutions in the Château’s ministry over the last 10 years has been to put the leadership firmly into the hands of the European leaders. Today, our North American workers mainly contribute through an on-site support couple.  The current couple, Bob & Lisa Keiffer fulfill their commitment at the end of this year.  We are in need of a new support couple to live in at the Château and serve the nations! Would you be praying for this important role to be filled? Maybe you are interested in serving in this role…  Want to find out more>>

 

Maybe the Château has caught your fancy?!?!….I hope so!  Get involved!

 

Learn more about Encompass World Partner’s work in France and at the Château in the following video:

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Burk, Brasil and the Breaking Future

So this morning as I was praying, the Lord brought to mind the nation of Brasil. A large and important country in our world. I’ve been praying regularly for the church in Brasil to rise up and seize the opportunity afforded it by the World Cup being on their soil next summer.WorldCup-2014-Brasil

I quickly shot off an email to my colleagues, Steve Bailey and Bruce Triplehorn who serve @EncompassWorld for that nation. I found out earlier this week that Steve was on the ground there, and I wanted them to both be sowing seeds and listening to what the Holy Spirit might be stirring up. We are praying for a coalition of leaders, churches and ministries who would be mobilized to the ministry opportunities of relational evangelism, discipleship and church planting afforded by the World Cup in Brasil.

As that email left my computer, another came in from Tom Julien (who I always listen to):

A faithful warrior has entered heaven with his eternal “weight of glory”  (2 Corinthians 4:17).  What an example he was.

I quickly scrolled down in the email to find out who, and it was Bill Burk. “Amazon Bill” as he was affectionately known who served as a missionary taking the Gospel to the unreached along the Amazon river for 6 decades!  I remember as a child hearing the stories of the Amazon Rain Forest and the Good News going to people who had never heard about Jesus! I prayed for Bill and Imogene as a youngster.

In these moments, I’m reflecting on how the future of missions is breaking open in these two happenings around Brasil. A few musings:

  • Like Amazon Bill, we still need people who are crazy enough for Jesus that they’ll take the Gospel to the hardest places on our planet!
  • I’ve been challenged by the hundreds of “Unengaged, Unreached People Groups” in our world, and Bill Burk was going to those people groups decades before that “title” was dubbed in missions circles.
  • Our heritage @EncompassWorld and “our present” both are strong in taking the Good News to the unreached of our world!
  • The unreached are not just in the jungle anymore, they are in our cities…in the Urban Jungle.
  • The breaking future of reaching these unreached peoples in not just in solo, pioneer missionaries, but in coalitions of leaders, churches and ministries who will covenant together for the Great Commission.

burksMy deepest sympathies and prayers go out to Imogene and the whole Burk family.  They will miss their beloved here, and we all know that another “saint in glory stands.”

Press Release from Encompass World Partners 

2007 Interview about Amazon Bill’s Legacy and his “Plumb Line”  by GraceConnect

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The Essence of the Church by Tom Julien cited by @JD_Payne

This post is a connection of 3 influential missiological thinkers in my life:

1) I saw this post on Kurt Miller’s blog (thechurchplanter) – @KurtMiller01 is my father-in-law and one of the sharpest thinkers about church planting in the USA.
2) Tom Julien wrote most of the content, and he is the Director Emeritus of my current agency Encompass World Partners. From the time we shared a meal at my parents home when I was a little boy, I’ve hung onto the wisdom he has spoken.

DiscoveringChurchPlanting-JDPayneThose first two were plenty of reason to repost, but then as I did some more research, I realized that
3) missiologist J.D. Payne included this in his 2012 book Discovering Church Planting. I’ve learned from Payne in his merging of global mission & church planting over several years of collaborating with @CMAResources.

Sorry for the long intro, now to the content of “The Essence of the Church”:

 

“In his article, “The Essence of the Church,*” Tom Julien discussed the fact that many church planters often define the local church in terms of their cultural preference, which can lead to problems on the field.  Julien admonished church-planting teams first to come to an agreement on what the local church is so they will know what they are planting.

“Our problem is that we identify the local church by her cultural and historic expression, more than by her biblical essence. To arrive at a clear definition of the local church we must make a distinction between the two. Sluggish thinking here will lead to differing assumptions in the church-planting team that will affect the basic principles of any church-planting ministry. The more focused we are on essence, the less attachment we will have to any particular cultural expression of the church. On the other hand, if the form or cultural expression of the church becomes our reference point, adapting to different cultural situations will create tension.

The New Testament reveals the church both in her essence and expression. With regard to the essence of the church, this revelation is given in images and presented as fact; with respect to the cultural expression of the church, this revelation is given as example and is descriptive rather than prescriptive…

Let us come back to our original question: “What is a local church?” We have said that a local church is a visible manifestation of the biblical essence. Most of us, however, need something more concrete to work with. It is crucial that every church-planting team agree on a working definition, in concrete terms, that grows out of essence, and not expression. This definition must include those elements that are indispensable to the identity of a church, and omit those that are not. This definition identifies the seed for church planting.

Here is an attempt at such a definition. Members of every church-planting team need to be unified with respect to what they are planting, even if it takes months of struggle to agree.

A local church is an organized body of baptized believers, led by a spiritually qualified shepherd, affirming their relationship to the Lord and to each other by regular observance of the Lord’s Supper, committed to the authority of the Word of God, gathering regularly for worship and the study of the Word, and turned outward to the world in witness.”

Questions to Consider:

  1. What do you think Julien meant by “If the form or cultural expression of the church becomes our reference point, adapting to different cultural situations will create tension”? Can you give an example of such tension?
  2. Do you agree or disagree with Julien’s definition of the local church?
  3. Have you and your church-planting team taken the time to agree on a biblical definition of the local church? f not, why not? How do you know you are all on the same page when you talk about church planting?

*Taken from Tom Julien, “The Essence of the Church,” Evangelical Missions Quarterly (April 1998): 148-149, 152.”

Photocopy original citation in Discovering Church Planting page 44
Photocopy original citation in Discovering Church Planting page 45

Kindle Version:

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A New Year’s Prayer from Tom Julien

TomJulien-smile“I enjoyed a delightful New Year’s eve with two of my very favorite people, my grandchildren! Between a delicious cheese raclette dinner, a quick game of Monopoly, and watching the ball drop, we had some interesting conversations.

One thing we talked about was beginning each day of the New Year with the prayer of Psalm 143:8-10:

“Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul. Rescue me from my enemies, O Lord, for I hide myself in you. Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.”

– Tom Julien  (Posted on his Facebook page on 1/1/2013)

 

What a great idea! Thanks Tom for always exhorting us to pray!