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Nik Ripkin has a way of speaking with prophetic power to the North American church. If you have not heard his Liberty University talk, I'd encourage you to do so [watch here].
Nik was the featured speaker at this weekends Heart For Muslims conference in New York City and he once again delivered two great talks that were powerful, challenging and full of faith. There is much that he shared that I'd like to write about and will probably revisit with coming articles but with this article I wanted to share Nik Ripkin's three simple steps to helping your church develop a great commission, sending culture that is focused on reaching the nations.
STEP ONE
At every child dedication in the church pray a prayer of dedication that includes a dedication to raise the child up to serve the Lord among the lost with all of their hearts no matter where it takes them. Pray for parents to have hearts bent toward sending their children into the harvest among the world's 2.1 billion unreached. And then give every child a Bible and commit to teach them to read and obey the word of God.
STEP TWO
At that child dedication, give every child a passport application and have parents commit to keeping their passport renewed and ready to use.
STEP THREE
At that child dedication, give every child a savings account with $200 in it as a beginning fund for their first missions trip to be taken as a teen. Have the family and church commit to adding to that account at birthdays, Christmas and other special occasions.
That ought to about do it.
I want to encourage you to consider reading Nik Ripkin's books, The Insanity of God and The Insanity of Obedience.
(check out the movie too)
Nik was the featured speaker at this weekends Heart For Muslims conference in New York City and he once again delivered two great talks that were powerful, challenging and full of faith. There is much that he shared that I'd like to write about and will probably revisit with coming articles but with this article I wanted to share Nik Ripkin's three simple steps to helping your church develop a great commission, sending culture that is focused on reaching the nations.
STEP ONE
At every child dedication in the church pray a prayer of dedication that includes a dedication to raise the child up to serve the Lord among the lost with all of their hearts no matter where it takes them. Pray for parents to have hearts bent toward sending their children into the harvest among the world's 2.1 billion unreached. And then give every child a Bible and commit to teach them to read and obey the word of God.
STEP TWO
At that child dedication, give every child a passport application and have parents commit to keeping their passport renewed and ready to use.
STEP THREE
At that child dedication, give every child a savings account with $200 in it as a beginning fund for their first missions trip to be taken as a teen. Have the family and church commit to adding to that account at birthdays, Christmas and other special occasions.
That ought to about do it.
I want to encourage you to consider reading Nik Ripkin's books, The Insanity of God and The Insanity of Obedience.
(check out the movie too)
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When I first received training and began working to apply the principles and strategies that would lead to multiplying movements of disciples-making-disciples and churches-planting-churches, I thought I had it figured out.
After all, I'd sat through a few hours of training and read the book, T4T: A Discipleship Re-Revolution.
I quickly realized that the way I'd always done things and learned to do things - my old paradigms of ministry - were well worn into my life. Like a deep rut in a country road, these paradigms kept sucking me back in. I'd think I was applying the principles of multiplication only to find out I'd slipped back into old habits.
What I needed was a way to continually refresh and re-form and recast vision. If vision leaks, I needed a way to constantly be refilling the vision.
24:14 - A Testimony To All Peoples is just that sort of resource. A collection of articles and testimonies from movement practitioners around the world, it provides a great source of inspiration, testimonies, new ideas and a clear vision for finishing the task.
The book is built around Jesus' words in Matthew 24:14, "And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." It has forty three chapters, all easily readable in five to ten minutes.
The old saying goes, "An apple a day keeps the doctor away." With this book I'd reframe that old proverb and rather say, "A chapter a week keeps the vision refreshed."
>>> Find 24:14 Here (FREE)
After all, I'd sat through a few hours of training and read the book, T4T: A Discipleship Re-Revolution.
I quickly realized that the way I'd always done things and learned to do things - my old paradigms of ministry - were well worn into my life. Like a deep rut in a country road, these paradigms kept sucking me back in. I'd think I was applying the principles of multiplication only to find out I'd slipped back into old habits.
What I needed was a way to continually refresh and re-form and recast vision. If vision leaks, I needed a way to constantly be refilling the vision.
24:14 - A Testimony To All Peoples is just that sort of resource. A collection of articles and testimonies from movement practitioners around the world, it provides a great source of inspiration, testimonies, new ideas and a clear vision for finishing the task.
The book is built around Jesus' words in Matthew 24:14, "And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." It has forty three chapters, all easily readable in five to ten minutes.
The old saying goes, "An apple a day keeps the doctor away." With this book I'd reframe that old proverb and rather say, "A chapter a week keeps the vision refreshed."
>>> Find 24:14 Here (FREE)
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“In no other way can the believer become as fully involved with God’s work, especially the work of world evangelism, as in intercessory prayer.”
— Dick Eastman, president of America’s National Prayer Committee
Prayer
Prayer is the one resource we have as followers of Christ committed to the completion of the great commission that is truly without borders. It is the work that travels from everywhere to everywhere. It is not bound by time or location and as Samuel Zwemer so aptly pointed out, "the history of missions is the history of answered prayer."
Mobilizing prayer is then an important work with eternal significance. With today's article we want to share a few resources to help your church pray more for the nations so that you can better partner with our missionary God through prayer.
Prayer is the one resource we have as followers of Christ committed to the completion of the great commission that is truly without borders. It is the work that travels from everywhere to everywhere. It is not bound by time or location and as Samuel Zwemer so aptly pointed out, "the history of missions is the history of answered prayer."
Mobilizing prayer is then an important work with eternal significance. With today's article we want to share a few resources to help your church pray more for the nations so that you can better partner with our missionary God through prayer.
“We can reach our world, if we will. The greatest lack today is not people or funds. The greatest need is prayer.”
— Wesley Duewel, head of OMS International
PRAYERCAST: Prayercast creates fantastic 3-4 minute videos that could be used on a Sunday morning, in small group settings or sent out to individuals in your church. They are powerful videos that feature a video montage of the country or topic and then a believer from that nation praying - often in their language with translation. Each video ends with 3-4 specific prayer points. >>> LEARN MORE
30 DAYS OF PRAYER: The 30 days of prayer for the Muslim world started back in 1993. Since then hundreds of thousands of Christians have spent the month of Ramadan praying through the 30 days guides. Order enough to give to everyone in your church or small group. Or order 10 and give them to 10 praying friends.
>>> LEARN MORE
>>> LEARN MORE
Prayer needs no passport, visa or work permit. There is no such thing as a ‘closed country’ as far as prayer is concerned … much of the history of mission could be written in terms of God moving in response to persistent prayer.”
— Stephan Gaukroger, British philosopher and historian
15 DAYS OF PRAYER: Following the lead of the 30 day guides for the Muslim world, 15 day prayer guides for both the Hindu and Buddhist worlds were recently created and released. These all are put out at different times on the calendar year and so a church could easily pray through all three.
>>> LEARN MORE
>>> LEARN MORE
UNREACHED OF THE DAY: Joshua Project has created a number of resources to keep you praying daily for unreached people groups. Whether its an app for your phone, a widget for your website, a printable monthly prayer calendar or a daily email, let Joshua Project help you engage in praying for the nations.
>>> LEARN MORE
>>> LEARN MORE
We must be global Christians with a global vision because our God is a global God.
--John Stott
These are but four simple resources to mobilize more prayer from your congregation. But they will mobilize nothing if you don't take them and share them with others and invite others to join you in using them to pray for the nations.
Will you join the Everywhere to Everywhere community in mobilizing more prayer?
Will you join the Everywhere to Everywhere community in mobilizing more prayer?
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Before moving to Central Asia in 2008 I was fortunate to spend time at Mission Training International (MTI) in Colorado doing some pre-field training. This included two weeks of language training with Dwight and Barbara Gradin. We were not learning our target language but rather receiving training to be more effective and efficient language learners.
That training set the stage for becoming a language coach and the writer behind The Everyday Language Learner. The goal was to help as many people as possible be successful language learners and in the process create a location independent business which would allow continued work throughout the Muslim world regardless of whether we lived there or not.
When we returned to the states in 2012, my goal was to continue to grow this online business model. Traffic grew. Influence grew. But I lacked the business acumen to really make a go of things. And so in 2014, The Everyday Language Learner went away. I moved on and see now all that God was doing to prepare me through those years for the work I'm doing now to mobilize and train the church into the harvest.
I want to share with you a few resources that were created during that season. The three resources below are ebooks that you can downloard for free. I hope that they will help you learn another language so that you can more effectively share the gospel.
Enjoy and share them with others.
Before You Move Overseas: This workbook is a blueprint for the weeks and months BEFORE you board the plane. In it you will find actions that, when implemented, will help you prepare for the language learning journey. This workbook is filled with the actions I wish someone had encouraged me to take in that year before moving. The bulk of this guide then is made up of ten actions you can take over the coming months before you move. [Read it Here]
Activities and Strategies for Everyday Language Learners: This ebook is a collection of 56 articles from the Everyday Language Learner blog focusing primarily on practical, hands-on activities you can do in your personal study time, with a language helper or out in the community. This is a 243 page ebook! [Read it Here]
NOTE: I am currently working on updating Activities and Strategies and the second edition should be released in the summer of 2026. Subscribe to the blog to receive updates and be the first to know.
The Everyday Language Learner's Guide to Getting Started: This is the most robust guide I wrote and in it I give all the information needed to be a self-directed, independent language learner. [You can download a zip file from the bottom right of the Resource Page]
Most cross cultural work will require the learning of another language. It is essential to be able to effectively communicate the gospel. I hope that these resources will help you on the language learning journey.
That training set the stage for becoming a language coach and the writer behind The Everyday Language Learner. The goal was to help as many people as possible be successful language learners and in the process create a location independent business which would allow continued work throughout the Muslim world regardless of whether we lived there or not.
When we returned to the states in 2012, my goal was to continue to grow this online business model. Traffic grew. Influence grew. But I lacked the business acumen to really make a go of things. And so in 2014, The Everyday Language Learner went away. I moved on and see now all that God was doing to prepare me through those years for the work I'm doing now to mobilize and train the church into the harvest.
I want to share with you a few resources that were created during that season. The three resources below are ebooks that you can downloard for free. I hope that they will help you learn another language so that you can more effectively share the gospel.
Enjoy and share them with others.
Before You Move Overseas: This workbook is a blueprint for the weeks and months BEFORE you board the plane. In it you will find actions that, when implemented, will help you prepare for the language learning journey. This workbook is filled with the actions I wish someone had encouraged me to take in that year before moving. The bulk of this guide then is made up of ten actions you can take over the coming months before you move. [Read it Here]
Activities and Strategies for Everyday Language Learners: This ebook is a collection of 56 articles from the Everyday Language Learner blog focusing primarily on practical, hands-on activities you can do in your personal study time, with a language helper or out in the community. This is a 243 page ebook! [Read it Here]
NOTE: I am currently working on updating Activities and Strategies and the second edition should be released in the summer of 2026. Subscribe to the blog to receive updates and be the first to know.
The Everyday Language Learner's Guide to Getting Started: This is the most robust guide I wrote and in it I give all the information needed to be a self-directed, independent language learner. [You can download a zip file from the bottom right of the Resource Page]
Most cross cultural work will require the learning of another language. It is essential to be able to effectively communicate the gospel. I hope that these resources will help you on the language learning journey.
