As missionaries, Dargan and I rely on the support of people to continue to minister to the MK of AGWM. We went to Belgium as missionaries in 1999, with a fully raised budget. When we returned from our first full term, we were asked to move back to the States and take over the MK program. With the schedule of AGWM, we were unable to complete an itineration prior to taking over ISMK. Currently, we only have about 60% of our budget raised. Over the course of 14 years (since our last itineration), we have lost some support, and gained some other supporters. The net result is a zero loss, and zero gain. However, budgets have changed quite a bit since our first term. As the MK Ministry Director, I am already on the road about half the year. It is very challenging to try and raise a budget in the midst of running the MK program and spending any time with my family. We need to raise $2,000 in monthly support. EVERY missionary family benefits from the MK program. Your support will impact every family, no matter where they serve.

This summer we also had a full month of training new MKs and helping veteran MKs with their transition back to the USA. Approximately 100 new MKs were trained and prepared to transition with their parents to a new country and life. One of the greatest joys is seeing young American kids catch their parents vision for missions, and be able to declare “God has not only called mom and dad, but God called our entire family to be missionaries!” This training process for MKs is critical to the overall effectiveness of a missionary transitioning to a foreign country. If the kids understand the call of God, and are able to personalize it, the parents are able to focus more on the areas to which God has called them.

This summer, ISMK did something unique during the annual Missionary Renewal. About 130 MKs left the CBC campus for a week-long “MK Camp” held at the Royal Rangers campground in southwest Missouri, Eagle Rock. Jr high and Sr. high MKs left mom and dad for a week of their own camp. Specifically focused on them.

This summer we made two major changes to the youth program during Missionary Renewal: first we combined the junior high with the senior high, then we sent them to Camp Eagle Rock for the entire time. Camp Eagle Rock is owned by the GCAG, managed by the Royal Ranger department. It is located approximately 2 hours Southwest of Springfield, or about an hour west of Branson. From an administrative standpoint, taking the MKs to Eagle Rock was quite a bit more logistics. There was a lot more work in arranging that entire program. However, as this camp-style event is repeated, the logistics will become easier.

Since the major overhaul to the schedule of MR, the youth program has struggled the most. One of the greatest things about MR has traditionally been the relationships that the MKs form with each other. With the changes to the schedule, the MKs were really struggling making the same depth of connection that they had in the past. Many of the staff lamented that specific challenge. The other main challenge with the schedule change was the effect it had on our evening services. We were losing the overall spiritual depth that MR has known in the past. The changes that we made to the program this year were an effort to change those specific challenges: time with God, and time with one another.

Overall, the camp was highly successful. Our two main objectives were definitely accomplished, as demonstrated in the response we received from parents and MKs following the camp. I was able to attend a couple of the services, and I was overwhelmed with joy as I saw these things taking place. Things that we, in the MK office, had dreamed about and had planned and hoped would happen! The MKs were definitely connecting with one another and with the staff at a much deeper level. The MKs had more time to build life-long relationships. They also had plenty of free time.

The greatest benefit to the retreat style youth program was the service/meeting times. Every MK was present for every session. MKs were not reliant on parents to drop them off and pick them up. The prayer times were meaningful, not rushed, and exactly what our MKs need more of.

iDiscipleship Update

iDiscipleship Update, September 2013

We have gone into a new development stage of iDiscipleship. We are working with a company to create a totally new platform. The previous platform was good for a small group, and worked okay for ISMK, but it was definitely not going to be a long-term solution. It required a lot of individual maintenance, and there were not enough social features to keep the users involved regularly. The growth and maintenance was too much to try and do it in-house. 

Discipleship is the primary goal. The foundation is built on doing discipleship together, not just an individual reading plan, or random discussions. iDiscipleship helps leaders create Bible reading plans that are centered around group discussions, with accountability, and leadership are at the core of iDiscipleship. Extra Biblical reading is also being built into the structure, so groups can go through those books as well. A secondary goal is to get people doing discipleship with others, on a global scale.

The new site is currently being developed. It will be launched officially on October 11^th. The company developing the site has a conference call with me every other Thursday afternoon. Every Friday, they have a staff meeting to determine the deliverables for the following week, and to review their accomplished goals of that week. Each Friday afternoon, I track the progress of the developers for that week. I have access to all their notes, updates and accomplishments. I am also able to update anything on their tracking site, and post issues or changes necessary. See Appendix A and B for screen shots of the tracking site.

It is being built with the ability, right at the beginning, to handle 10,000 users. Each group that signs up is able to create its’ own discipleship direction, including reading plans, small groups, videos and pdf’s. Our goal is to give ministry directors the ability to totally control the direction of their users discipleship. Here are some of the features (but not all) of iDiscipleship:

11.    Easy navigation

22.    Small Group “real-time” chat functions (see appendix C)

33.    Choice of small groups for every user (see appendix D)

44.    Customizable small groups

55.    Customizable reading plans, any dates, any amounts, created by any leader. Join with people anywhere in the world, studying any specific topic/discussion.

66.    Study extra-biblical books, with live chat and discussions

77.    Accountaibility. Track your Bible reading, and have your small groups keep one another accountable to stay on track.

88.    iaskjoey section – video theologian, answering questions

99.    Virtual youth pastor – for friends without a youth ministry (or joining alone)

110. Missionaries can lead small groups in studies of missions and ministry

111. Uploadable video function

112. Uploadable pdf function

113. Leaders can create small groups (See appendix E)

114. Can create short-term discussion groups around topics, events, locations, and passions.

115. Can have a totally independent group. Just want to have your own groups, without anyone else? No problem. Create your own reading plans, small groups, with any criteria you would like.

116. Create a FAMILY-SAFE tool for families to share discipleship tools for children. Have in-home Sunday School tools for missionary kids.

We have not had much promotion, yet, but already have quite a bit of interest. Last season, before the new site, we had 400 teenagers registered. 

iDiscipleship is currently going through a total overhaul. We now have a business that is partnering with us to create the platform needed. The new platform will be up and running, according to the web development company, on October 11^th. That is my target date to move everyone over to the new site.

 If you would like to join iDiscipleship, I will be sending out messages for when the registration is live. I will continue adding names and email addresses to the list. If you know of anyone that would like to join us, be sure to have them send me their email address. We do not add anyone automatically.

For those that are still on iD from last season, we are reading through the book of Acts. We are trying to keep everyone’s statistics from previous years of iD. The new iD will have some new features, and will not have some old features. Some features will continue to be added in the future.

Some of the changes from the old site, new to iDiscipleship 2013:

To the user:

1.      Easier navigation

2.      Small Group “real-time” chat functions

3.      Can choose small groups to join (up to 10)

a.      Consisting of teenagers within same ministry or with everyone on iD.

b.      Some groups will just be social (school groups, or country groups…)

c.       Join groups with reading plans, if you want to be challenged to grow more.

4.      Brand new iaskjoey section

5.      Virtual youth pastor – for friends without a youth ministry (or joining alone)

6.      Cross-ministry small groups. No longer will you just be in one small group with people within your ministry. You can now join people around the world studying specific topics/books together.

7.      Open to others – not just MKs! We will still have small groups for MKs, but we are creating a platform that will handle any size ministry, anywhere in the world. Every small group will be customizable (we can create any kind of small group we would like). I would love to see youth groups joining us from all over the States. They would be a part of discipleship with teenagers all over the world, breaking down some global barriers between missions and discipleship.

 To the Ministry Directors, pastors, Royal Ranger leaders, missionaries:

The new iDiscipleship will work for almost any kind of discipleship groups. As a leader, here are some of the new functions that would work for your ministry:

 

1.      Customizable small groups (want to create a group to read the bible through in a year? You can. Want to create a group of mothers of preschoolers? You can. Want to create multiple groups of men going through devotionals? You can.) It is fully customizable to suit your ministry. The cool thing is, when you create a small group, it can be open to anyone in the world meeting the criteria you set, or it can just be for the specific people that you want. You can literally do discipleship with hundreds of people anywhere in the world, or just with your little group. Whatever you want.

2.      Customizable reading plans, any length, any amounts. Various discipleship courses will be offered throughout, studying a variety of things, from specific books of the Bible, to extra-Biblical books. As a leader you can create your own discipleship plan, or you can join others that have created plans.

3.      Uploadable video function

4.      Uploadable pdf function

5.      Leaders can create small groups

6.      Can create short-term discussion groups around topics, events, locations, and passions.

7.      Can have a totally independent group

For the past three years we have been on a discipleship journey, through iDiscipleship. We have approximately 400 students that are actively participating in the discipleship platform. It has been an amazing journey.

Sometimes the books we read can be difficult to get through (hello, Ezekiel)! Recently we read through the books of I & II Kings. Those are two books that I really enjoyed reading, because of all the stories. Kings has great examples of people who served God, and examples of those who did not.  In I Kings 5 &6, we read through the story of Solomon building the temple of God. I am always amazed when I read that story. If you are able to, I would love for you to put this newsletter down, and go read those two chapters.

Solomon spent seven years building the temple. He worked on getting the best laborers, with the finest materials. Nothing was to be spared for God’s temple! He made agreements with neighboring kingdoms, contracts with skilled laborers, and trained those that needed training. This temple had his highest priority. What struck me was the intricate detail that he put into the design of the “inner sanctuary” (6:19). He used fine woods and craftsmen to build the outside of the temple, but once he started on the inside of the temple, the word “gold” became standard! Everything was forged in gold, gold overlaid, or beaten gold. It was also very precise with the size and spacing of everything in that inner sanctuary. He held nothing back!  While the entire temple was a creation of art, and was built with great care, the inner sanctuary was crafted with great precision.

While I was reading this passage, I was drawn to the fact that we are all the “temple” of God. God has created us in His image, and the N.T. tells us that we are the temples of the Holy Spirit. Solomon gives a great picture of how we are to develop our inner sanctuary! See, he spent a great amount of time in the detail of the inner sanctuary, which was a place that would only be seen by the select few – the high priests and God!

See, too often in our world, people focus on the exterior. We want to make sure that we look like we are close to God on the outside. We want others to think that we are really spiritual, and that we have our act together. We spend so much time on the exterior and we totally ignore the interior. Whereas, the interior is our holy place! It is the place in our lives where God dwells. My question for all of us is simple: Are was as concerned with making our inner sanctuary a place where God would want to dwell as we are in making the exterior something pleasing to look at? Do you spend time preparing your inner sanctuary to be a temple of the Lord?