Summer 2007 - Setting goals together

If I were to prioritize my goals and challenges for the next six months, I would list them in the following order:

1. Meeting JEMS goals for financial support.
I am not able to begin my ministry until 80% of my monthly support is raised. JEMS has set the bar at $2500-3000/month. As of this writing, my pledged support is at 46%.

Additional one-time gifts have also been received and are included in the above percentage. In the future, these gifts may be applied toward projected travel and field ministry expenses.

2. Re-establishing contact with JEMS-affiliated churches in South America.
The baton has been passed. As the years have gone by, leadership transitions have occurred. Some within local church and denominational leadership have retired. Others have shifted responsibilities to the younger pastors and laypeople. There are new names and new faces with which bridges of collaboration must be developed.

I am in conversation with Rev. Sam Tonomura about the possibilities of a Brazil visit which will serve to reintroduce JEMS and myself to the principals there. Pray that support and schedule permitting, that I might be able to travel in September 2007.

3. What’s the plan?
Just as every coach needs a playbook to win the game, so JEMS needs a vision and plan to work together with the churches and ministries in the US, South America and Japan. Pastors and other leaders have already been in contact with me to ask the question: What are my plans?

That question can only be answered after extensive conversations are held with national churches and leaders.

JEMS will not presume to know what is best for overseas ministries. We will need patience to listen and to craft strategies together with our local and other national leadership.

We will work jointly to see what works best to meet the needs and requirements of local churches. The days in which US churches acted like the benevolent big brother are long past. We understand that our role is one of support and service to our brothers and sisters in Christ in South America and Japan.

4. Who will go?
Perhaps the biggest challenge is the same one that existed in Jesus’ day. He wrote in the book of Matthew 9:37-38 – “Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."

The harvest is still plentiful today and the workers are still few. A part of my role at JEMS will be to encourage men and women to hear and respond to the invitation of Jesus to seize unique opportunities to serve him.

I hope that there will be those who recognize that our intersection with ministry comes when we take a risk to step beyond what we might consider safe and secure.

5. And along with the invitation, the need for training
Culture and ministry are always in flux. For that reason, we need to re-examine our approach to ministry. Much of my time in the next few months (while waiting for support to come in) will be to update our training program for missions ministry.

I’m hoping to seek out other leaders in the area of missions development. Pray for those contacts and conversations to be both beneficial and productive.