Missionaries and churches – they should strengthen and sharpen each other. It should be win-win. In our calling to train pastors in developing countries, the Lord made two things clear to me. First, He called me to give priority to the poor. I realized I couldn’t be a full-time pastor here and an effective Kingdom worker there. I’ve pastored long enough to know what it takes to shepherd and equip believers well – though I’ve realized time and again how much I still have to learn about doing that effectively. And I have spent enough time with pastors in developing countries to know what it would require to take a big swing at encouraging, training and resourcing international church leaders. I couldn’t do both effectively. As Howard Hendricks said, “The secret of concentration is elimination.” God made it clear to us that He wanted us to give priority to the poor.

Second, He called us to encourage and strengthen the American church. Early on in this journey, I told a missions friend and mentor: “I’m not a career missionary. I came to this by a different road – through 24 years of pastoral ministry in American churches. And I believe part of God’s call to us in developing PPI is to encourage and strengthen American churches.” Wow, has that proven true!

Over the last nine months, we’ve had the privilege of spending time with a number of pastors and churches in Michigan, Tennessee, Kentucky and New Jersey. Our first prayer has been to encourage and build up brothers and sisters in Christ, to be a listening ear to church leaders and, as appropriate, advise in a Kingdom direction. Then, of course, we have asked the Lord to help us present PPI well and guide the church in whether or not He wants them to partner with us in training church leaders in poor nations.

We’ve met gifted, faithful pastors and leaders. We’ve talked with many committed followers of Christ. God has His people in every community! Our appreciation and love for Jesus’ church has grown. Our passion for churches to sharpen their focus on making disciples of all nations has been fueled. I’m convinced that our greatest need in the United States – as in Haiti and elsewhere – is for every believer in Christ (well-equipped by church leaders) to clearly, compassionately share gospel truth and to live out that truth every day in our families, neighborhoods and workplaces. This is Job One for Jesus’ church. Everything else is background noise.

That’s our heart. That’s our desire as we continue to develop Partnership of Pastors International. Learn more about joining our support team HERE.

So what a joy to spend the last two Sundays with New Life Christian Fellowship in Saginaw (see pics below)! We loved partnering with Pastor Ken Cline, Brooke, Tom and Ashlee on the Hub for Haiti. The Lord strengthened us in Him through worshipping the Lord with this family of believers. We were fed by Pastor Ken’s practical and passionate biblical teaching. We were encouraged in our conversations with many brothers and sisters. Our prayer has been to encourage and strengthen these friends in Christ, and it gives us great joy to think that God has used us in some way to do that. As the Apostle Paul said, we should be mutually encouraged by one another’s faith (Romans 1:11-12). That’s the win-win of God’s Kingdom!

New Life Christian Fellowship (NLCF) in Saginaw is renewing their commitment to Jesus’ global mission this month. They invited Partnership of Pastors International (PPI) to take part. So PPI is at NLCF for two Sundays – Jan 23 and 30. I’ve known NCLF’s lead pastor, Ken Cline, for a number of years. He is a passionate follower of Jesus and a gifted church leader. Over coffee in October, Ken proposed the idea of NCLF hosting a “Hub for Haiti” in January 2022 as part of the church’s emphasis on missions. Ken introduced me to Brooke Wildey and Tom Taugher, both members of New Life and both deeply involved in two other ministries to Haiti based in our area – Brooke in Haiti Foundation Against Poverty (haitipoverty.org) and Tom in Project Piti Pami (3phaiti.org). Check out the websites of these wonderful organizations.

Like many churches, NLCF practices “faith promise” giving for local and global missions. That means that each year members of the church pledge to give an amount over and above their regular giving to the church. Last year NLCF’s congregation invested just under $79,000 in local and global missions. Praise God!

NLCF members have the opportunity to pledge their giving for missions throughout the month of January. As part of their Great Commission emphasis, Pastor Ken is leading a message series called Renew throughout the month. Each Sunday, he challenged believers to renew our commitment to the gospel, to our own walks with God, and to the Great Commission. “Making disciples,” Ken said on Sunday, “is the DNA of God’s family. ” And “There are no spectators or fans in God’s church. We’re all in the game!” Amen and amen! Watch Pastor Ken Cline’s Renew series messages HERE.

We’ll be at New Life again this Sunday (Jan 30) for the final Sunday of their renewed commitment to Jesus’ mission. What a joy! We’ll enjoy Haitian coffee and cookies shaped like Haiti (made by Rena) with the congregation.

Check out the video we put together on PPI for NLCF’s mission emphasis – 

The Lord continues to open doors for us to train church leaders in Haiti. If I said that in a home group meeting, odds are good that my sweet wife, Rena, would point out that “The Lord opening and closing doors” is close to “Christian-ese” (nonspecific things we Christians say that really don’t mean much). She would ask: What does that really mean? Fair question.

It means that, as we do our best to follow the Lord in keeping with His Word, God leads us specifically through circumstances.  He brings opportunities to us (=He opens doors), or He removes opportunities from us (=He closes doors). Figuring out whether God is opening or closing doors in our life begins with doing our best to follow the Lord in keeping with His Word. Step 1 for us is always asking, “What has God said about this in the Bible,” and then finding out through personal study and godly counsel.

We have to be careful not to skip this step. God always guides us through the Scriptures. His Word is His will. In my years as a pastor, I’ve seen too many believers make decisions more in line with the world than God’s Kingdom by making two serious mistakes: 1) They interpret circumstances alone as God’s direction, or 2) they equate their feelings with the leading of the Holy Spirit. Both errors leave out Scripture, and both distract us from seeking first His kingdom and righteousness in making decisions (Matthew 6:33).

But it’s still true that, as we do our best to follow the Lord in keeping with His Word, God can lead us through opening or closing doors of opportunity. The Lord continues to open many doors for Partnership of Pastors in Haiti! 

Pastor Brave Laverdure will travel with me to Haiti in February. Brave is a Haitian-American brother, who leads Haitian Alliance Church in Atlanta, Georgia. He was born in Gonaives, taught in Evangelical Bible College in Cap Haitien for a number of years before moving to the United States.

Some 12 years ago, Brave led his church to establish a “daughter church” in Port au Prince. The Lord has given Pastor Brave passion to strengthen and encourage pastors in Haiti through his half-day challenge, Sowing for a Great Awakening (SAGA). In February/March, I and our Haitian team will lead Course 1 of our PPI training and Brave will lead his SAGA challenge. This will provide four days of training and challenge for 220-plus church leaders in both Cap Haitien and Gonaives! Church leaders who complete the three days of PPI training will be awarded a Thompson Bible, Creole Bibles, the book God Pleasing Worship (in Creole) as well as other ministry resources. We’re excited and we’re working hard on preparations.

PLEASE PRAY for these preparations – for the Lord to open doors for us to encourage, train and resource church leaders effectively.

Esau, Jasmin and Michel – our key Haitian partner pastors – travel to Gonaives tomorrow (Friday) to distribute our conference info/registration forms and make final arrangements for our team to come. Pray for their safe travels – they’re literally traveling across the country by taxi – and success in their preparations. 

You may remember that we had planned to offer PPI training in Gonaives last February,  but had to cancel our trip because of the new CDC international travel restrictions. We promised them that, Lord willing, we would come to Gonaives in 2022 to offer PPI training. Esau told me that pastors there “are making me crazy.” Many have called him to make sure they can register for this conference. They know we limit our training to 110 pastors, and they want to make sure they can secure there place. They will be very happy to see Esau, Jasmin and Michel on Friday!

We will finalize preparations for our Cap Haitien conferences in early January. Please pray for these details as well.

Our new Course 1 workbooks are printed and stored at Missionary Flights International (MFI) ready to be shipped to Haiti in February. We worked through a revision of the Creole translation of this workbook to make it more effective in training pastors. As a result, we set up a Haitian “translation team” to revise the translations of Course 2 and our resource, God-Pleasing Worship. (The team completed these two revisions a couple weeks ago. Now it’s on me to make the revisions to the file and reprint the resources. Pray for me on that!) This team will also work with me on the translation of our next course workbooks and pastors’ resources. I’m so thankful for Esau humbly recognizing his limitations and working with me to put together an excellent Haitian translation team.

I could go on and on. The Lord continues to open doors for us to train church leaders in Haiti! 

Isn’t that the lesson of Christmas? The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world – good news that He wants the world to hear and believe. So He sends “a multitude of heavenly hosts” to announce it. He commissions shepherds to share it. He directs wise men to support it. And He sends us to every nation to announce it: “Jesus Christ was born to be the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. He can change your eternity and your life here and now. Repent and believe the good news!” That’s the powerful gospel that will change Haiti and our country, too, and it begins with godly, well trained church leaders. That’s why we do what we do.

Merry Christmas, friends! May you have sweet times with your Savior and your family and friends. Thank you for your part in helping us walk through open doors!

I was in Dallas/Fort Worth last week and ran into a long-time friend and missions colleague. What a joy! Andrew Spurgeon and I found each other at the Evangelical Theological Society conference in Fort Worth. I’ve been a member of ETS since my student days at Dallas Seminary and have been fed and challenged through the years by the Society’s commitment to Scripture and serious biblical/theological study. This year’s theme “Wealth and Poverty” particularly got my attention in light of our work in Haiti. 

Andrew and Lori and Rena and I met at seminary many moons ago (we looked a little different then!) and quickly realized we were part of the same church in Mesquite. Not long after, we started a home group together and grew together in the Lord as good friends in Christ.

Andrew and Lori are special servants of God. After graduating from DTS, they taught for many years at a Bible college in India and now serve in Singapore. Andrew has written and edited a number of books and commentaries from an Asian Christian perspective. He also serves as an adjunct professor at Dallas Theological Seminary. 

I also spent time with our daughter Katie, another special friend in Christ! Many of you know that Katie is in her second year of study at Dallas Theological Seminary, pursuing a master’s degree in evangelism and apologetics. She worked out a part-time remote position with her company in Ann Arbor. The Lord is providing for her and leading her in her next steps in Jesus’ mission. Katie loves God with all her heart, mind and strength and desires to be used by Him. We are so proud of her! 

I’ll always be “Dad” to Katie and our boys, but as they grow as young adults, we also have become friends, peers and increasingly colleagues in Christ. Katie and I had a lot of conversation about Scripture, theology, life and church as we enjoyed a day in Fort Worth. She’s a BFF and definitely my favorite daughter (you’ll get that later).  Rena and I have no greater joy than to see our children – and now our two grandchildren – walk in Truth (3 John 1:4).

I’m so thankful for good friends in Christ, including all of you! What are you especially thankful for this Thanksgiving season?