The Seabourns

Ministry

mLearning Pilot Project has launched

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We are launched. The mLearning pilot project launched in Kenya with 33
students. Over the next 12 weeks, pastors and Campus Crusade staff will
learn more about following Christ as his disciples.

Our team’s goal is to learn about delivering discipleship training in a
mobile phone. After just 2 weeks, we’ve learned a lot! We’re hoping the
students learn too! Like most pilot projects, we had to make many
adjustments just to get started.

There were technical challenges to overcome, administrative matters to break
through, financial opportunities to trust God. Like NASA’s Space Shuttle, it
takes a huge amount of energy to get liftoff. The shuttle consumes 1.5
million pounds of fuel in it’s first 1 minute of flight. I don’t know how
much energy our team in Kenya expended, but we do have liftoff!

This project is a partnership between our Global Technology Office (GTO),
the Nairobi International School of Theology (NIST, International Leadership
University-Nairobi), an Orlando mega-church, and an unnamed
corporate/academic partner. We are using technology developed by a research
university for government and commercial purposes.

We thank so many of you who have prayed these past few weeks. So many
difficulties have been worked through or worked around.

Kay and I leave for Thailand this week. We’re helping lead the Operations
Leadership Connection, 80 global leaders coming together for training, vision
and fellowship. More about that project soon…

Please pray with us:

  • Visit our OLC prayer site. We will be posting prayer requests daily over the next 2 weeks.
  • Join Kay and I in praying that we will be “the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing”. [2 Corinthians 2:15]
Co-workers David Ngaruiya of NIST (left) and Jerry Hertzler of GTO (right)
meetin with Pastor Robert of Rongai, Kenya (center).
NIST staff learning to use the mobile phones.
50 mobile phones being prepared to carry the basics of the Christian life to students.

MPD as Leadership Development

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I recently shared these thoughts with someone on my team who is entering a season of focused MPD.

MPD :: Ministry Partner Development. It’s the process God has used for 34 years to provide salary and cover ministry expenses for Kay and me. It has provided for 3 children. Helped provide college education. Helped with two weddings and four grandchildren. It has shaped my soul. It has empowered my ministry.

MPD is the process of God leading us to partners who engage in ministry through helping with funding and covering us with prayer.

We cannot do it without God but he has decided to not do it without us. [From an article by Rick Warren that covers a similar thought in the area of church growth.]

MPD is deep leadership development. It is a process that works deeply to grow faith, develop soul skills, develop interpersonal skills, develop spiritual skills.

I don’t know of any action in the Christian life that more exemplifies the God/human divine plan for engaging in changing the world than MPD. I have to work like it all depends on me (calls, letters, emails, appointments, using every “marketing” and “psychology” strategy that has biblical integrity) but I also know that unless God moves peoples’ hearts, my work will have very limited results. I think that a major part of CCCI’s continued service in God’s plan is that the MPD process forces us to regularly remember how God accomplishes his plan on earth.

These are thoughts I review regularly as I work on MPD.

Philippians 2:12, 13. … work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Galatians 2:20. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Colossians 1:29. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

  • I toil
  • in His energy

1 Corinthians 15:10. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

  • I worked hard
  • Though it was God, not me

Ephesians 2:9-10. … not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

  • We are his workmanship
  • Created for good works
  • God prepared them beforehand
  • We should walk in them

Proverbs 16:9. In his heart a man plans his course,but the LORD determines his steps

What about you? How has MPD shaped who you are?

Online meetings not a church

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I read an interesting blog post today over at ChurchCrunch. Based on a federal court ruling, online worship is not a church.

Very interesting. I wonder if candidate websites are not politics, hence do not qualify for use of campaign funds to operate? If Amazon.com is not business, hence the discussion about collecting sales tax should cease to be an issue?

If activities are defined by traditional trappings, then where do we draw the line?

Update: Reading the full journal article here, which is written in a very readable style, is helpful and enlightening. A critical issue in the court’s opinion is that the worshipers were not associating together in some form. So if worshipers are interacting through messages, tweets, etc., then perhaps the legal definition is different. The article makes a very good note that legally-required board meetings of for-profits and non-profits are often conducted by virtual technologies.

Could Twitter measure spiritual climate?

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This article has me thinking: Is Twitter a national mood ring?

So, I’m intrigued: Could Twitter be used to monitor the spiritual climate of a target area over time?

I know someone who uses Twitter to identify hurting people who might be more open to spiritual conversations. He uses Twitter’s geographic search to look for people in his zipcode area and nearby areas. He searches for words like “suicide” or “depressed” or “divorce”. He then direct messages them a short encouragement. If they respond, he engages in direct message ministry. Because they are nearby, he can invite them to his church, or to an event, or something more geographic.

This paragraph intrigues me:

In fact, other research groups have also begun to examine Twitter data and have demonstrated that it can be used to predict the box-office success of an upcoming movie. And Twitter data yields much more detailed polling when compared to traditional methods, enabling real-time feedback for issues that are of local, national or international interest.

This person first did this as a job for a local politician, finding prospective supporters and donors based on issues, filtered by the geographic area of the politician.

So, I wonder about spiritual issues. I wonder if it is a way to “measure” the impact of a billboard campaign or a Jesus Video distribution or other ministry strategies.

What do you think?