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)

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)

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]


​
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.