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Church planting effectiveness

2007-08-07T00:43:44Z

Patrick has been serving in Asia among Muslims for more than twenty years, first as a missionary and later as a tentmaker. He has established two churches and several profitable businesses and currently oversees teams in nine countries.

Patrick spent six years surveying, interviewing and compiling data from 450 workers from many organizations and denominations serving throughout the 10/40 Window.

His focus was the effectiveness of tentmakers as missionaries. Effectiveness is defined in terms of evangelism, discipleship and church planting.

You can read his article in the EMQ: Tentmaking Unveiled (subscription required) or a longer version here.

Here are a few insights and surprises for missionaries and church planters wherever you are.

On preparing to go. . .

The most effective way workers can prepare to serve overseas is to invest one or more years ministering with international students.

Before moving abroad, effective workers regularly did personal outreach, campus evangelism, house-to-house visitation, led one or more evangelistic Bible studies with non-Christians and described their involvement with the majority of new believers they helped to bring to Christ as a “close friendship.”

Workers who attended Bible college or seminary are no more effective than those who did not.

On devotional life. . .

Workers who have a daily devotional life and workers who are personally discipled by someone more mature in the Lord are also more effective.

The strongest spiritual factor is that those who practice fasting as an important spiritual discipline scored high in effectiveness.

On tentmaking. . .

Workers/tentmakers whose primary focus is their work (their entry strategy job) are less effective. Such workers are so committed to their jobs that they are all work and no ministry.

Workers who say that most of their co-workers are from the people group they are reaching are highly effective.

Having a real job in a real workplace that allows flexible working hours seems to be the ideal tentmaking entry strategy.

On building relationships. . .

Workers who said that most of their closest friends are nationals, have nationals in their home (not counting house-help) three times a week or more and have taken a vacation with national friends are more effective. Laborers who spend their free time with their family or alone are less effective.

On contextualization. . .

A large number of workers (sixty-five percent) eat local food the way the locals do, abstain from foods locals abstain from and dress the way locals dress. However, these factors did not make a difference in their success in winning people to Jesus.

Whether the worker’s home is contextualized like a local’s home, styled after their home culture or a mixture of both has no effect on effectiveness.

Workers who are fluent in the local language consistently scored among the highest in the research.

On going to church. . .

On the highest level of effectiveness are workers who are regularly involved with a national congregation or house church that uses the local language. Being in active fellowship with other tentmakers or missionaries in the area has no bearing on effectiveness.

On evangelism. . .

Workers are not effective who find it hard to initiate conversations about their faith and who share their faith only when obvious situations arise. Also, laborers who prefer not to verbally share their faith (rather, they let their lives be witnesses) and workers who try to build relationships with people before sharing their faith are unfruitful.

On accountability. . .

Workers who have a clear strategy for planting a church are very effective, while workers who do not have a clear church-planting strategy are normally ineffective. Laborers who have someone holding them accountable in ministry at least once a month have a better probability of being effective

On marriage and family. . .

Workers whose marriages are not good (spiritually, emotionally and sexually) before moving overseas are likely to be ineffective. Workers who have emotionally-needy families are also likely to be less effective.

On team size. . .

The data indicates the ideal team size is eleven or twelve members. A team becomes more effective as its size increases from three to twelve members; it then plateaus until fifteen members, after which the effectiveness of the team decreases. Workers whose team meets weekly or bi-weekly score better than teams which meet less frequently.

Finally. . .

Men and women are equally effective. Age is not an issue either. The organization the missionary/tentmaker is associated with has no impact on effectiveness.

Church Planting Missions

A history lesson

2007-08-13T00:23:37Z

Here’s a lesson in US church history from Tim Keller from his article on Why Plant Churches?

In 1820, there was one Christian church for every 875 US residents. But from 1860-1906, Protestant churches planted one new church for increase of 350 in the population, bringing the ratio by the start of WWI to just 1 church for every 430 persons.

In 1906 over a third of all the congregations in the country were less than 25 years old. As a result, the percentage of the population involved in the life of the church rose steadily. For example, in 1776, 17% of the US population was ‘religious adherents’, but that rose to 53% by 1916.

After WWI, church planting plummeted. One of the main reasons was the issue of ‘turf’. Once the US was covered by towns and settlements and churches and church buildings in each one, there was strong resistance from older churches to any new churches being planted in ‘our neighborhood’.

New churches are commonly very effective at reaching new people and growing for its first couple of decades. But the vast majority of congregations reach their peak in size during the first two or three decades of their existence and then remain on a plateau or slowly shrink.

Older churches feared the competition from new churches. Mainline congregations, with their centralized government, were the most effective in blocking new church development in their towns. As a result, mainline churches have shrunk remarkably in the last 20-30 years.

What are the historical lessons?

Church attendance and adherence overall in the United States is in decline and decreasing. This cannot be reversed in any other way than in the way it originally had been so remarkably increasing. We must plant churches at such a rate that the number of churches per 1,000 population begins to grow again, rather than decline, as it has since WWI.

Church Planting Tim Keller

Emerging Church Posters: A Gracious Response

2007-08-16T10:07:13Z

I told you about the Pyromaniac Posters taking a shot at the emerging church. And the response from people like Nick and Josh. But since then, and while i have been on the road, there has been a lot of talk about it, even at Christianity Today, and some emerging church people have responded in kind with their own posters - taking the same title but giving a different angle on the subject. I LIKE THEM A WHOLE LOT! They are not nasty or defensive but simply a gentle, gracious and reasonable answer for some of the things we hold dear.

See these and more from Grace at Emerging Grace

Technorati Tags: emergent, emerging church

The Gospel According to Czechs

2007-08-17T10:25:53Z

More emerging church people in the newspapers. This time a Bible translator and church planter. Listen to how this newspaper describes the birth of their first community . . .

"Soon enough, a group of bohemians and artists was meeting at Katka’s studio, rapidly converting to a Christianity that lacked denomination or doctrine — an ecumenical hodgepodge flecked with subversiveness in the waning days of communism . . .This impromptu collection grew into a congregation, though not without interference."
PP newspaper, last week

That could be a description of emerging church people anywhere in the world. But it happens to be a group in Prague, Czech Republic. Sasa Flek, the subject of this newspaper articl is a dear friend and we have just spent time with his family in the south of France. He used to translate the Scriptures out of the basement in our house in Prague. Now we are gone but the translation - both Old and New Testaments - are almost completed. Sasa just let me know that the last paragraph of that article was actually the opposite of what he was trying to say - it just came out wrong. So please don't jump on him.

Sasa uses artwork in the individual printing of Bible books. His translation of Song of Songs uses Chagall's paintings. I wish there was similar creativity in the English language. Also, in 2002, Sasa began sending out sms devotionals from the Bible to people's phones. It quickly became a list of over 300 people and perhaps one of the first sms communities.

Sasa . .. you rock and its great to see you acknowledged in your home country.

Technorati Tags: bible, czech

devangelism or e-grangelism?

2007-07-27T12:02:07Z

devangelism or e-grangelism?, originally uploaded by jonnybaker.

spotted this old lady preaching in the rain in eastbourne! it looked quirky/funny but also is depressing that people actually think that getting out on the streets with a banner saying the blood of jesus, talking through a speaker and handing out tracts is good news! i usually call this devangelism as it serves to confirm peoples suspicions that christianity is irrelevant, stuck in another era, and full of nutters. but in this case perhaps it should be called e-grangelism?!

Exploring Missional - An Idea

2007-07-11T22:37:00Z

Previous Post - Missional Living In Rural Communities

As you have likely noticed, the topic of missional, its nature and practice. As passionately as I love the topic and as convinced I am that it is one of the more crucial areas that the Church needs to explore, I often find myself confounded by the twists and turns that its leads me through. this is especially true as we explore the topic together in conversation. It is at the same time thrillingly collaborative and frustratingly muddled.

Recently I have begun to feel the edges of a distinction that, for me at least, is helpful in understand the engagement of missionality both in concept and as practice. Be clear that I am not intending to coin new terms, but rather want to introduce two terms that help me navigate some of the trickier places of understanding the topic: micro-missional and macro-missional.

As we discuss missionality, I often find people talk from two ends of the spectrum. Micro-missional is what I would characterize largely as places where we explore missionality as individuals, small groups and perhaps even communities. It finds expression in questions like "What does it mean for me to missional?" and "How can our congregation be missional?". The diversity of what this will look like is virtually endless, though still shaped by the underlying DNA of missionality (essentially, the Missio Dei). This perspective is obviously very pragmatic and absolutely essential.

Macro-missional, on the other hand, looks at it from a wider lense, specifically where we explore missionality in respect to the Church as a whole, the Body of Christ. While we will obviously look at it through the lens of our current place in history, it is essentially (if not intentionally) informed by both the past and the future. It finds expression in questions like "What role does the Church play in the Missio Dei?" and "Where has God brought us from and where is He leading us to? What part do we, the Church, play in that grand narrative?".

For example, when I recently said that I believe that relocation is an essential aspect of missionality, I was referring to macro-missionality. In the big picture, if relocation does not happen within the Church somewhere, someone is failing to be missional. So, looking at being missional within the Body of Christ, it then is clearly one essential aspect that must be practice in order for the Missio Dei to be fulfilled. However, by my failure to clarify this, it was read by some that I was saying it was essential to micro-missionality. Clearly this would be wrong, as not everyone must relocate to be missional.

In addition to being helpful for differentiating the concept of missional in our dialogues, I also think it is an essential safeguard against losing sight of the bigger picture. One challenging aspect of postmodern thought is that it can undermine the importance of history and our place in it. So many Christians live their faith so deeply in the now, our missionality can become merely universal principles of living (albeit, excellent ones). If we can maintain the historicity and directionality of the Mission Dei, we will then be able to respond more responsibly in our pursuit of building the Kingdom together.

It is, perhaps, idiosyncratic of me to focus on macro-missionality when I am primarily a practioner (or a practical theologian, as a friend recently refered to me). If you are familiar with MBTI or KTS, I am an INTJ and therefore love intuitively exploring systems, with a fascination for the "meta-system" of things, if you will. However, I hope that this distinction will help bring clarity to some in the discussion, as it has certainly helped me. It is by no means a completed thesis, so you are likely to find flaws here and there, but I think the heart of it stands up.

What do you? Does this help or hinder understanding of missionality for you?

Emerging Church, Missional

The Unchurched - They don't all Look Alike

2007-07-30T13:56:00Z

I read a great post this morning from Ben Arment entitled Deep Sea Fishers of Men. We usually talk about 2 different groups of people who don't attend church: the un-churched and the de-churched. But, as Ben points out, not all unchurhced people look alike:

There are differences between the unchurched. Some of them haven't attended anywhere, but had praying grandmothers or grew up in places where Christianity was part of the fabric of the community, so they at least took their hat off during prayer before high school football games. But then there are unchurched folks who have had no connection with anything Christian, let alone evangelical. They hang crystals and spirit catchers in their front windows, drive cars with "coexist" written on their bumper stickers, and think church-goers are like militia members. "The Unchurched" cannot possibly be a universal term.

Great distinction!

Global Christian Internet Alliance: Day One

2007-07-23T07:42:53Z

I just arrived at the Global Christian Internet Alliance meeting in Berlin. About 50-60 people here and we are listening to Dr Wolfgang Stock talking about the possibilities of the internet and the limitations of written text. Christians are well positioned in this new era, he is arguing. Good number of countries represented here - quite a few Asians. I see Lee Behar from Maclellan. I dont recognize any faces but some of the names on the list I know from emails and blogs.
Related: Casting a Global Net by Dave Hackett

Technorati Tags: gcia, global christian internet alliance

UPDATE: After lunch
Interesting presentations from
- Stephen Jeffs of ACCTV, an Aussie TV station
- John LaRue of Christianity Today showed the huge extent of CT's reach. Keith Stonehocker and Harold Smith are also here (and their wives). I had lunch with Harold who is the new CEO and editor in chief.

Sorry . . . did I just NAME_DROP????
I hate it when bloggers do that.

Also enjoyed hearing about TopChretien.com in France from Eric who i have heard about but never met. They have a good stategy for both impacting lives AND making some money to help it along.
Also heard from CINA in Germany, Jesus.de, CBS.co.kr in Korea, Arturo from DesarrolloCristiano in Costa Rica, and Weston Lemos gave a cool visual presentation about Lideranca.org in Brazil. Hearing now from Anders from Kommunion.no in Norway and then its Per-Mattais of Dagen.se and then, Dmitry will talk about JesusChrist.ru and Interbible in Russia .
Then its coffee!

Did I already tell you that I had LUNCH with Christianity Today's CEO HAROLD SMITH?????

Follow me at the conference:

Blogging From the GCIA: Day One, Day Two, Day Three, Day Four

2006 Australian Census

2007-07-02T00:55:39Z

The latest figures for the 2006 Australian census are out. Here’s some highlights on religious identification:

Christianity remained the dominant religion in Australia, although non-Christian religions continued to grow at a much faster rate. Since 1996, the number of people reporting that they are Christian grew from around 12.6 million to 12.7 million, but as a proportion of the total population this number fell (from 71% to 64%).

Over the same period, those affiliated with non-Christian faiths increased from around 0.6 million to 1.1 million people, and collectively accounted for 5.6% of the total population in 2006 (up from 3.5% in 1996).

The most common Christian denominations continued to be Catholic (26%) and Anglican (19%). Since 1996, the number of Australians affiliated with the Catholic church grew by 7% to 5.1 million, while those affiliated with the Anglican faith decreased by 5% to 3.7 million. Other groups to decline were the Uniting Church (by 15% to 1.1 million) and the Presbyterian and Reformed churches (by 12% to 0.6 million). The fastest-growing Christian denomination was Pentecostal, increasing by 26% (to around 220,000).

Australia’s three most common non-Christian religious affiliations were Buddhism (2.1% of the population), Islam (1.7%) and Hinduism (0.7%). Of these groups, Hinduism experienced the fastest proportional growth since 1996, more than doubling to 150,000, followed by Buddhism which doubled to 420,000.

Since 1996, the number of Australian residents who stated no religion increased from 2.9 million to 3.7 million (17% of all residents in 1996 and 19% in 2006). New South Wales had the smallest proportion of its population not affiliated with any religion (14%), and South Australia had the largest proportion (24%).

ABS Media Fact Sheet
It’s always interesting to see how the Press reports on these issues:

The Australian: Religion struggles in city of churches and Pentecostals are the big winners in a world that’s hungry for hope.

Sydney Morning Herald: Most Australians are Christian: census and Pentecostal revolution in the suburbs

The Age: Drop in youth religion a matter of interpretation

Australian Christianity

Partying For Jesus

2007-07-09T13:46:09Z

This is from The Resurgence

"I've been wondering why many Christians are such boring people to be around if redemption is true. If Christ's mission was truly accomplished and if the Kingdom of God is alive then Christians ought to be the most celebrative people on the planet throwing the best parties and social events. If the Gospel is true one would think that Christians would be the best at "getting their party on."

. . . So if the kingdom is real, if creation is all good, if life is not suppose to suck, if God is renewing all things to himself through Christ, if you are united to Jesus and standing before God forgiven, then why is your social life so boring? Why are you not either at a party or throwing a party every weekend? Why are you not inviting people into your community of celebration?

Wouldn't it be awesome if Christians were such a celebrative group of people that our non-Christians friends and neighbors would get introduced to Christianity by wanting to come to our parties? Here's a great question for someone to ask you: "why are you Christians always partying so much? Missional living pursues not only shalom but celebration. Jesus followers should party now like they will in heaven."

Missional Living In Rural Communities

2007-07-09T23:51:00Z

Previous Post - On A Lighter Note

After the great discussion that we've been having over at my post on missionality & location, someone asked a great question. Having explored ideas about missionality in suburban and urban contexts, what about being missional in rural contexts? Having grown up in a small town, this is something I have given a great deal of thought to. In fact, if it were not for my clear calling to the urban context, I would live in a rural setting in a heart beat (oh yeah, that and my wife would die of boredom).

Many people ask us how we live in an inner city context with all the problems and challenges. While there are serious issues and many sacrafices, it isn't actually that difficult to be missional there. Of course it is demanding, but because the church has largely abandon these communities, you can pretty much do whatever you want, daring to explore the missional possibilities with a freedom otherwise unknown. Small towns are, in many ways, far more difficult to be missional in.

Whenever I visit my folks in my old home town of Rainy River, ON, we get to talking about what it means to truly engage the community as a congregation. It doesn't take long to find how deeply rooted traditions and models are, making the idea of change and innovation very difficult. Of course, these problems occur in every context, but rural contexts are generally more parochial both in the church culture and the wider community itself. Further, as failures become fairly widely known in a very short time, it can be a very unforgiving context to experiment.

At the same time, rural contexts offer wonderful advantages. The very thing that often makes these communities overly insular also contributes to genuine community. Further, the spheres of influence in the community (i.e. education, commerce, politics, etc.) are so closely connected, that there is amazing potential for a faith community to have a significant impact on the very fabric of the area. While not driven by size or "success", a small community can present some achievable goals that can be hard to see in large, urban and suburban contexts.

What do you think? What does it mean to be missional in a rural context? What doesn't work? Have you seen models of missional community in rural areas?

P.S. I have always had a dream of working with a group of people who are passionate about missionality to partner with a church in a small town on experimenting with missionality. I know I am biased, but I think Rainy River would be an ideal location. Dare to dream, eh?

Emerging Church, Missional

Coffee Houses and Wells

2007-07-10T12:48:00Z

I have heard Mark Batterson talk often about how coffee houses are our modern day wells. In Old and New Testament times, wells were a place where people could meet others and talk. It was a place where people went to get refreshed with water for themselves and their animals. While their animals were drinking or they just got off of their feet for a few minutes they would talk with others doing the same. This is how Abraham's servant found a wife for Isaac and how Jacob met his wife.

Coffee houses are very similar to these old wells. They are places where sales reps work, students study, employers have interviews, church planters study and people just go to take a break. I always meet folks in these places. I sometimes avoid the local Starbucks when I have a lot of work to get done because I know I will end up in conversations with people.

In France, the same is very true. In a culture where people don't talk much to strangers, the coffee house creates a common experience where defenses are down just a bit. We don't plan on going to France and just putting up a sign or sending out an Easter mailer about our cool new church. We know that relationships are key. We know that most people will attend church for the first time because of a relationship. So we will be intentional about developing relationships (I may talk more about that later). Going to coffee shops will not just be a way to to take a break, for our team they will be part of a job description. Want an application?

If you love Starbucks, notice the stores in Paris in the picture. But you may quickly forget the mermaid when you sample the local espresso.

Check out Catalyst France.

Sarah, Cambodia and Change

2007-07-11T01:07:23Z

This is my friend Sarah who is a part of our church community. You’ll remember her if you’ve followed this blog at all. You can read about her here, here, here, here, and here. She lost her boyfriend, soon to be fiance, Nato, to suicide in January. Our community went through a very dark valley with her. There was lots of darkness, anger, pain, rage, swearing, drinking, smoking, arguing, crying, some laughing, but over all fierce emotions. It wasn’t pretty. All the while I had this deep conviction that we all needed to trust Sarah on her own path with God. I trusted, somehow, for her life.

A couple of months ago, she felt God’s encouragement to accept an invitation to work in an orphanage in Cambodia. She accepted. This is a picture she sent of herself there, working with her specialty: children. She’s a pediatric nurse that’s worked in our hospital’s pediatric intensive care. The doctor in Cambodia put her right to work in the midst of terrible conditions. She felt herself come alive again. She actually felt true joy returning. Here’s a short note she wrote to me:

This is me in Cambodia holding a baby I found in an orphanage - much too small and scrawny for his actual age due to illness and malnutrition. I loved him, and I bought him medicine for his infections. There were many such encounters as this through my three weeks there: working in the slums providing medical care to the poor - assessing babies with swollen bellies and high fevers, children with tuberculosis, giving them what I could. This has birthed a new joy in me, a new purpose. There are many who suffer in the world. I have been one of them, and I want to serve others.

This is why I don’t demand change. I trust that people, exposed to truth and love, will experience transformation if they are open and willing. No pressure. No coercion. No expectations. No plan. Just truth and love in community… a powerful recipe for change. Truth be told, we all have changed, thanks to Sarah and her tenacious willingness to be authentic, honest and raw. We watched God transform her and transform us together in the furnace of pain and the fellowship of suffering.

cambodia, change, ministry, naked, orphanage, pastor

if you liked this post, buy me a beer!

More on the Australian census figures

2007-07-04T01:11:03Z

Peter Jensen

The latest figures for the 2006 Australian census are out. Here’s some highlights on religious identification: 2006 Australian Census.

To be expected: the continuing decline of the mainline Protestant denominations and the growth of Pentecostalism. In NSW alone, Pentecostal churches grew 48 per cent.

The big surprise? The decline in the number of people in Sydney identifying as Anglican—down 61,185 in five years. From a movements perspective I would expect the evangelical Sydney Anglicans to be swimming against the tide of overall Anglican decline.

But wait there’s more.

A report in The Australian quoting Archbishop Peter Jensen stating actual attendance in his diocese is growing annually at 1 to 2 per cent. If that’s true, there is a decreasing number of nominal Anglicans in Sydney but a growing number of active Anglicans. Remember, the census only tracks religious self identification not active involvement.

Maybe I got it right after all.

Australian Christianity Trends

Independence Day Reflections

2007-07-04T18:48:00Z

I was going to try and think of something thoughtful to say today. I then realized that what I said last year couldn't be improved on by me, except that it already had, the year before. So here are the last two years of Independence Day blogging from me.

Incidentally, it is interesting to see that several of the topics I said I wanted to get back to blogging about, I still haven't! Having said that, there has been progress on a few of them this last year! So here's what I had to say on the last two Independence Days:

2006
Blogging can, because of this power for influence, be a powerful force for good and potentially a means of challenging those with established "off-blog" authority. Where that authority is being misused, or needs to be corrected, then I guess blogging can usefully be a tool - a bit like in the Reformation where pamphlets and the printing press led to a single obscure monk's weird ideas being spread throughout the known world. We should welcome this opportunity to be always reforming and holding those with influential voices to account.

But, for many bloggers - even sadly some Christian ones - the very concept of authority seems to have gone missing. Blogging can give people delusions about their own importance. It concerns me that in our drive to make a mark and stand for our own opinions, it is possible for us to denigrate those with whom we disagree, forgetting in some cases their positions of authority within the church. This wouldn't be so bad if some of the most vociferous critics of Christian leaders online were not themselves so unaccountable. The harshest voices are invariably the ones who do not tell us who they are, nor what church they go to, nor whose authority they are under. For many, of course, they do not feel the NEED to be under anybody's authority - let's be free, let's be "independent" they cry!

Of course, American Independence Day speaks to this. Few, even on this side of the Atlantic, would today doubt that throwing off the tyranny of the British king was the best thing the US could have done, both for itself and for the mother country. But imagine, if instead of a domineering and oppressive regime, there had been a king who put their interests first and exported not just "civilisation," but also the democracy we had begun to experience in England. Who knows? Perhaps we would now be living in some kind of mega-state - the United States of America and Britain or the British and American Federation or perhaps even the Anglosphere of which some people speak (see also the Wikipaedia entry on the Anglosphere).

Such thoughts are, of course, a bit fanciful, but what is perhaps less fanciful is to imagine the anarchy that would have ensued (and indeed nearly did!) if, in the history of the liberated America, the founding fathers had not learnt to balance the needs for freedom and for collective responsibility. For a country, like a church and like a family, needs to have some form of leadership and accountability. The truth is, we are not all "independent," and both in the modern family of nations and also in their constitutions (both written and in our case virtual!) this is recognised.

The pressure to be independent and stand alone is, we all often feel, never more powerfully felt than in the blogosphere. This blog has always stood for an aim to help us bloggers who follow the cause of Christ to try to stand together, even if only online! For, if we cannot learn from one another, disagree with each other honourably, and glorify Christ throughout all these interactions, there is something seriously wrong.

I have written in the past about principles for Christian blogging - we must remember that one of our characteristics as Christians is community. Let's blog to build one another up and support the leaders of the Christian movement out there in the "real world."

2005
It may surprise my American readers to know that until today I had never even read a copy of your Declaration of Independence, not a single line of it! So it really was about time I remedied that.

I hope you will forgive me a somewhat rambling post which just reflects my personal feelings whilst reading it. It felt kind of like reading a set of divorce papers which paved the way for the "special relationship" that we now share. It is of course not entirely unlike the relationship some divorced couples manage to attain- especially for the sake of the children. In a funny sort of way, at least on this side of the Atlantic it sometimes feels as if we still see many of the nations of the world as being dependent on us. The current state of interest around the G8 summitt certainly doesnt minimise that feeling. One Yank (Bill Gates!) who I watched briefly on the Televised Live8 concert seemed anxious to praise Tony Blair and Gordon Brown for their leadership on the issue of world poverty.

Of course we Brits have the dubious priviledge of having educated the world about "liberty" and "freedom" whilst at the same time oppressing them to such an extent that we spawned nation state after nation state when the population wanted their independence.

It would seem that we Brits were busy trying to rule the entire world whilst all the time believing we were spreading democracy around. Bizzarely even in Hong Kong we never actually implemented democracy before leaving, but expect the Chinese from whom we rented the territory to do so after we left without even for a moment considering that hippocritical! When asked about why he stays in Africa, the character of Gefferey in the film Six Degrees of Separation gives the somewhat trite reply that has at least to one interpretation of history a certain ring of truth to it- "One has to stay there. To educate the black workers. And we'll know we've been successful when they kill us."

There is a large portion of our history that the English are far from proud of. I remember well that as a child the whole period of the history of our empire was somewhat brushed over in our history lessons. We skipped from Oliver Cromwell to 1914. Somehow, and not at all surprisingly we seemed more confident with our roll as the champion of freedom in the 20th Century's wars than our previous one in building the largest empire the world has ever known.

Arguably the ideals of the document I will quote from below are not of course fully realised even today. But the ideas expressed in this document have power, and whilst we still have a monarch in the UK the fact that it would simply not be possible for that monarch to act in such a tyranical manner may in no small sense be partly thanks to the actions of our American cousins as we now like to call them.

New Rights for Women in West Africa

2007-07-04T23:57:00Z

SIERRA LEONE: New laws give women unprecedented rights, protections

DAKAR, 4 July 2007 (IRIN) - Women in Sierra Leone stand to enjoy unprecedented rights under new laws making wife-beating a criminal offence, allowing women to inherit property, and protecting young women against forced marriage.

One human rights coalition said the three laws, enacted by Sierra Leone’s parliament 14 June, will “help to radically improve the legal position of women in Sierra Leone.” In a communique the Taskforce on Gender Bills said, “Until now the issue of redress for injustices committed against women especially in the domestic realm has been an uphill task because of the inadequacies of the law.”

In the past women had no chance of justice if their husbands abused them, experts said. Generally, such matters have been kept in the family or at most presented to a local traditional leader.

“The new law gives tools to police and family support units to take the necessary steps [to go after offenders],” said Tania Bernath, a researcher with Amnesty International. “If women know they have these tools they are more likely to bring domestic violence cases.”

A women’s rights expert in Sierra Leone said given the stigma attached to bringing attention to domestic violence, grassroots organisations are prepared to support women in seeking protection under the law.

Defining Abuse

“People have this idea that domestic violence is a private, family matter that should not be taken into the public domain,” said Jebbeh Forster of the UN development fund for women, UNIFEM. Local women’s groups can provide the backing women need as these laws are implemented, she said.

The definition of domestic violence in the new law is broad. It includes “physical or sexual abuse, economic abuse, emotional, verbal or psychological abuse, harassment, conduct that harms, endangers the safety, health or well-being of another person or undermines the privacy and dignity of another person.”

A member of the Sierra Leonean group ‘50/50,’ which works to increase women’s influence in public policy, said the laws are likely to encourage women to be active in the political domain.

Confidence Building

“These laws will give women confidence,” 50/50 programme coordinator Christiana Wilson told IRIN. “If women are not confident enough, they will not come out for political positions. Women can now say, ‘I’m somebody. My husband cannot just beat me up. I am somebody - and why don’t I go for even more?’”

Wilson said the act giving women inheritance rights in marriage are crucial to women’s empowerment. “Women here are generally poor,” she said. The law “will bring women access to wealth which is a very important factor in getting political positions.”

Amnesty International said in a statement, “The inheritance law ensures that throughout Sierra Leone women have access to the property they are rightfully entitled to when their husband dies, without interference from extended family members.”

The third act, calling for the registration of customary marriages, introduces a minimum age of 18 years for such marriages and calls for the consent of both parties.

(C) IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis:
http://www.irinnews.org

Eight African Countries Top the Failed States Index

2007-07-05T03:21:00Z

Foreign Policy magazine and the Fund for Peace have compiled their list of failed states for 2006. The study examines 12 economic, social, and military factors that contribute to poor living conditions and resultant instability in 177 countries.

Eight of the top ten worst states, according to the study, are in Africa. Sudan topped the list as the most instable country in the world, and Somalia came in third. Because the research is so diverse, one of its strengths is that it can not point to a single factor that makes nations instable, nor does it suggest a single solution.

The study, and the accompanying article in Foreign Policy, point to the fact that our efforts to help these "failed states" will take creativity, vast knowledge, and an understanding of what is happening on the ground. For this very reason, the Amahoro Africa conversation exists. If we truly care about growth and stability in Africa, we must seek to gain intimate knowledge from the innovative leaders working on the ground there. We must learn to abandon our arrogant "big ideas" and develop friendships with those better equipped to change their neighborhood.

The African nations that make the top 10, in order from most instable to least instable, are Sudan, Somalia, Zimbabwe, Chad, Ivory Coast, DR Congo, Guinea, and Central African Republic.

Right now, the articles are available for free on Foreign Policy's website. They're well worth a read.

moscow again

2007-06-30T15:17:07Z

photoset here

the sunshine, the greenery and the long hours of daylight make moscow a much nicer place in summer. moscow has a severe hotel shortage, the prices are exorbitant whenever something is happening in town [and there is always something happening], so we rented an apartment just south of the centre, overlooking ploshchad gagarini and about fifteen minutes drive from federation tower. it worked out very well, there was nothing you wouldn't have in a hotel apart from the absence of towels. the apartment was very hot, but the traffic noise was so great that you couldn't sleep with the windows open. great view though.

the problem of these trips is always the lack of sleep. we arrived mid-evening [having left london at lunchtime, due to the time difference]. by the time we had settled into the apartment and waited for our moscow business partner to show up it was past midnight. by the time we had eaten it was 1.30am and our partner was trying to persuade us to meet up with other business contacts. we dissuaded him with considerable difficulty, but for some reason he then wanted to walk back to the apartment, which took until 2.30am. and we had to be up at 7.30am for meetings starting at 9am! the problem is, we do two types of business when we're in russia - the kind that happens in meetings in offices at 9am, and the kind that happens in restaurants at 1am. they have incompatible timescales.

being professionals, we made it to the 9am start - and found that our items had been removed from the agenda for the day. it seems that the basebuild people running these meetings had failed to communicate with our people that the agenda had changed last week. so my trip was largely in vain since my colleagues could handle the rest of our business. we observed the meeting for as long as seemed courteous, until it became clear that we were wasting our time and left to pursue other matters.

but the evening was pleasant. we visited our partner's new offices at the back of the TASS building, went to a little soviet-era bar for a drink, then wandered through the nicer parts of town looking for somewhere to eat. somehow this took longer than it should and again we were eating at 1am in a swanky italian restaurant, waiting for a real estate contact to turn up. so four hours sleep again.

by contrast the next day we went for lunch at the soviet-style canteen next to the moscow city site. the photos don't capture the dingyness, the synthetic-ness, the unappetising smells, the glutinous stew. it was hilarious. 1960s school dinners. the drink looked like it had something decomposing in it, but it turned out to be dried fruit. the flypaper over the servery would get the place closed down anywhere else. it was cheap - about £2.50 for the meal. the turquoise trays destroy the appearance of any food - wonder where we can get them for the new building? ;) more seriously, this is the russian lunch culture - all sit down together for a cooked meal on a tray - which causes us problems in federation tower as there isn't the room to seat everyone at once. they don't go out for sandwiches or eat at their desks. this will be difficult to solve.

and then we went up to levels 57 and 58 - notionally to see the VTB signs, but we were mostly interested in the views. the contractor's lift that crawls up a track hanging off the face of the building is a little scary - ten floors is fine, when you're 50 floors up with nothing around you and 10 to go you are trying not to think about what happens if those little motors and cogs fail.

and then i headed for the airport to get the 9pm flight. all went well until heathrow. a gas leak had closed a runway earlier, and now a lot of flights were coming down at once. we were 20 minutes late landing. then we had to wait on the plane half an hour because there weren't enough staff to connect a gangway to the plane! then we had to wait three hours for our baggage - 1am in the baggage hall at terminal 1, stifling heat, crowds of angry people, three staff and no announcements - seemed like a complete failure of management. i had been up since 7.30am moscow time, so it was 4am by my body clock [after two nights of four hours sleep]. my luggage arrived just as i was thinking about going home without it and coming back the next day. i got home at 2.30am. i emailed the office to say i was sleeping in.

the global house church movement

2007-06-29T16:41:11Z

House church, simple church, Organic Church, Organic Community, CMA, Wolfgang Simson and more… and now a book by a Canadian author. It’s interesting to see this work come out of Canada. Here in BC the simple church movement has gained some momentum over the past few years, but it still seems to be strongest in central Canada. The new book is published by William Carey Library. Here is their description:

“Today, there is a major church shift happening all around the world. God is once again bringing back the power and simplicity of New Testament-style Christianity. The Lord is raising up the global house church movement. Do you want to reach your friends and your nation with an approach to church life and church planting that is biblical and effective? If so, you need to read this book. It is the first published house church book by a Canadian author. He includes chapters on biblical principles, historical insights, practical tips, and strategic directions.”

More…

Church Planter vs Missionary

2007-06-25T18:48:00Z

At the Exponential Conference in Orlando in April, I heard something repeated several times by different conference speakers. They said to the American church planters in the audience, "we need to think more like missionaries." I remember thinking "why, missionaries are facing the same problems as the American church planters."

With both American church planters and missionaries, my observation has been that anything done out of tradition is not likely to reach the unchurched. Tradition is something established so that people can continue a meaningful experience. That's not necessarily a bad thing. But we have to remember that the unchurched don't attach value to things that they didn't actually experience themselves. One of the problems in the missions world has been repeating the host country's ineffective church traditions or worse starting a new churches that look more like the church or group that was so meaningful in our own spiritual lives.

When they say that church planters should think like missionaries, I think that they want us to be missional, in our approach here at home. Unfortunately, many missionaries are no more missional than their American church planter counterparts. I believe when it comes to church planting that 'it' (being missional) is not taught, it is caught. That's why so many of the most effective churches hire from within rather than from the seminary placement office.

At Catalyst France part of our vision is to create a network of churches to train young French believers to plant churches all over the country. Get the most effective churches together to find people who already get it, give them on the job training, support them, send them out. Then these new churches repeat the process.

Would you join us in this process?