The Seabourns

Ministry

Seafood in Singapore at the harbor

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Jumbo Seafood Restaurant

Jumbo Seafood RestaurantOur training continues in Singapore. Last night, we went out for seafood. Where else would you go but Jumbo, the big name in seafood? Sitting in the harbor, right on the beach. It was beautiful. The fellowship with people from Eastern Europe, India, the big country, Singapore, all of whom are committed to seeing the glory of God expand around the world as people’s hearts are made new, as people respond to the pardon of God, attracted by the promises of Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit (to borrow a little John Piper).

East Asia Office, building on top of a buildingBack to Singapore. It’s amazing to think of a city as an entire country. It’s really crowded here. The city is crowded. The East Asia Office is in an amazing building. Land is at a premium. So the owners of the building decided to build another building — on top of the existing 18 stories. There are huge piers that completely support the 9 stories of the new building. The original building has floors 1-18. The new building has floors 19-27.

But the new building does not touch the old building. It’s built above the old building! Amazing! They each have their own elevator shafts. We get into our elevator each morning and select from floors 19-27. (Actually, for safety’s sake, there is a staircase/fire-escape that connects the two buildings, but no structural support.)

Singapore harbor is crowded also. I haven’t even tried to count the ships. It’s amazing.

Even the geography is crowded. While sitting at dinner last night, I could look across the South China sea channel and see Indonesia across the way.

We are spending our mornings being trained in how to use the measurement tools. We’ve learned how to configure the tool to duplicate the organizational structure of a country or region. We’ve learned how to enter statistics into the tool as end users. We’ve learned how to generate reports that help leaders identify effective strategies, areas of unusual responsiveness to the gospel, and staff teams who have found unusually effective ways to build spiritual movements.

The afternoons are spent with each initial rollout team configuring the tool for their region, and the countries in their region. Each team will return to their home areas and train others to use the tools.

We expect a tremendous documentation of what God is accomplishing around the world, for His glory. We expect a tremendous outpouring of the Holy Spirit as we build an infrastructure that allows Him to bless us even more with more fruit, more movements, and more glory for Himself.

I’ve added more photos. Click here to see the new photos.

Or click here to see all Singapore trip photos.

Measurements for the glory of God

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One of the interesting things about being in Singapore is that I live my day and prepare for bed about the time most of you are waking up to start yours. Singapore is 12 hours ahead of Orlando time, 13 hours ahead of Dallas time.

I’ve place some photos online. To have a look, click here.

We’ve just completed day 2 of the Global Measurements project beta launch meeting. This project is to replace our current measurements tool with a much more robust and flexible system that better reflects the continued growth of our organizational structure.

Why do we measure ministry activity? Why do we document results? I can think of several reasons.

  1. Psalm 105:1 says: O give thanks unto the Lord; call upon his name: make known his deeds among the people. We cannot make known what we do not know.
  2. John 15:8 says: This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. We bring glory to God by bearing much fruit.

Today, a friend shared a devotional message that really excited me. Speaking from Exodus 35:30-36:1, he called this the first operational team. That is, this is the first team called together to build something that supported the activities of the entire community.

Remember that Israel was probably more than 1 million people at this time. God called just a few to do this work as a blessing to the rest of the community. Their job was to build a tabernacle.

God called Bezalel and Oholiab and a few others to be the skilled professionals to design and build his tabernacle. It only takes a few who are

  • gifted by God
  • filled with the Holy Spirit
  • motivated by God’s call

These professionals were also required to equip (teach) others. This would release the gifting of others to participate in blessing the community.

That’s what we’ve worked on. We’re a bunch of professionals, using our gifting, skills, and calling in the power of the Holy Spirit to capture the breadth of what God is doing through only one movement, Campus Crusade for Christ. To him be the glory.

The DaVinci Code: Capturing an amazing opportunity

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Last week, you prayed for my presentation to Campus Crusade for Christ’s board of directors. Here is a part of that presentation, where I explained how we are using technology to increase our fruitfulness and to capture an amazing opportunity that God is giving us.

This is a longer email than I usually write, but I wanted to open the door for you to see the amazing fruitfulness God is bringing through the DaVinci Code movie opportunity.

Every 3 seconds someone sees the gospel on a Campus Crusade for Christ website. Every 1 minute, someone indicates a decision for Christ. Every 3 minutes, an email conversation begins with a trained counselor.

On May 19th, the movie The DaVinci Code is being released globally, in 67 countries. The Christian community is embracing this tremendous opportunity to engage people in spiritual conversations. Campus Crusade for Christ is at the very forefront of capturing this opportunity. We’ve developed a powerful and popular Companion Guide. Josh McDowell has written a book, The DaVinci Code: A Quest for Answers.

The Companion Guide is available in 14 languages that we know of: English, French, Latvian, Portuguese,Korean, Japanese, Spanish, Hungarian, Russian, Croatian, Turkish, Bulgarian, Egyptian Arabic, and Finnish.

It’s being printed in about 20 locations around the globe. This global collaboration around a global event was not possible just a few years ago. We are now in a place of increasing fruitfulness through empowering technologies that allow our decentralized movement to work together in a powerful way.

Josh McDowell’s The DaVinci Code: A Quest for Answers podcast has become the #2 podcast on the Apple iTunes site. You may not be familiar with podcasts, but they are an increasingly popular version of an audio book or broadcast. Over 100,000 people have subscribed to the podcast.

The Holy Spirit is not waiting until the May 19th release to begin using these websites. We are already seeing results. Email counselors are already discipling new believers. As of last Sunday on the website DaVinciandJesus.com, we have seen:
• 86,508 visitors
• 8,139 indicated decisions
• 1,623 e-mail conversations
• 986 initiated follow-up

Do you want to be better prepared for The DaVinci Code opening? All signs indicate it will be a blockbuster, both in the movie theaters and in spiritual ministry opportunities. A friend wrote yesterday, ” We are in Kansas City this week and I’ve seen several people reading the book on the airplane, in the airports, and around the hotel. It is ‘hot’ now, isn’t it?”

Visit Get Ready to Answer Tough Questions Raised by “The Da Vinci Code”: Tools from the Campus Crusade for Christ family of ministries.

Other sites that I like:
The battle of The Da Vinci Code, a balanced article on CNN site
The Truth about DaVinci Code, a very good resource in Q&A format

I’m sure there are other good sites. What are your favorites? How are you preparing for the “water cooler” and “soccer sidelines” discussions that The DaVinci Code movie will likely trigger?

I’ve been counseling seekers for several weeks via email from our Campus Crusade sites. Many seekers are writing strongly worded emails. George Barna recently observed, “A survey we completed this week shows that among the tens of millions of people who have read the bestseller, The Da Vinci Code, from cover to cover, the book has influenced their thinking – but it has not necessarily changed their religious views so much as it has confirmed what they already believed prior to reading the book.” Many seekers who are disbelieving of Christianity’s claims find the book gives them additional ammunition. And some are “weapons free” and firing away.

I have found that it is better to not engage directly in an argumentative or correcting manner. I avoid making the argument between “me and him” and help the seeker understand the fight is in his own heart between him and God. Answering directly can keep them engaged in verbal combat. I ask them to read the CNN article (because it is from a non-Christian source) and then write me back with issues it raises in their minds. Then I remain more of a neutral entity versus a target and we can focus the discussion on his or her response to what they are reading.

This is a tremendous opportunity to capture significant spiritual discussions with people. God is giving us an opportunity for tremendous fruitfulness.

We are living out missions in the 21st century, taking advantage of the revolutionary advances in communication to reach out to people seeking peace and meaning that comes through Christ.

Are you ready? You can be!

An evening of eternal significance

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Tonight, I spoke with Surjith in India, James in Australia, and Joshua in Illinois.

Surjith is a new Christian. This was our second conversation through exchanging email messages. We’ve been talking about how to grow, the importance of attending a local church, and having a personal time of Bible study and prayer each day.

James wrote, “I really want to receive Christ into my life, but I don’t know how to go about it.” I shared some basics of opening the door and inviting Jesus into his life. I hope James contacts me again to share that he has asked Christ in.

Joshua wrote, “I have fallen from grace. I believe it was because I was not real close to God. I need prayer for strength that I will not fall again.” I’m helping Joshua understand the promise Jesus makes in Revelation 3:20. I wrote, “Please read Revelation 3:20. Joshua, he says that if you will open the door, he WILL come in. He does not say he MIGHT come in, or if you are good enough, he’ll come in. No, he PROMISES to come in.”

Sitting in my house in my shorts and t-shirt, I’ve journeyed from India to Australia to Illinois as an email mentor. I love being Christ’s ambassador, helping people in spiritual need. This has been an evening with eternal significance, from my home in Orlando.

While in Texas, we shared with some how you, too, can have an online ministry. Today, my colleague Rob wrote a short article about two Campus Crusade locations where you can volunteer to become an email mentor. If you would like to explore how to have spiritual conversations with hurting people, read Rob’s article, and follow one of the links to sign up as a volunteer.

Learning to use the “long tail of the internet”

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I found an interesting article on U.S. News. Publish or Panic: The credibility of books is in a million little pieces.

It is especially interesting to read of print publishers who are finding the internet continues to bite into their sales, but are finding new approaches that leverage the uniquenesses of the internet to actually enhance sales. I think there is important perspectives in here about how publishers are using complex, multi-level approaches to modern publishing. They talk about the “long tail of the internet”.

Some quotes:

Their goal is to wag “the long tail”–a concept popularized in a widely read article by Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired.

When publishing executives invoke the long tail–and almost everyone interviewed for this article did–what they mean is that if you tote up enough small sales (especially via a low-cost, direct-to-consumer sales tool like the Internet), you can add up a big profit over time.

Oprah isn’t the only way to get readers; he relies on word of mouth (in person or online), pinning hopes on the long tail of the Internet, with interlinked blogs, online literary magazines, and reader- and writer-friendly chat rooms and E-communities. And the chief person he relies on to start the chain reaction is the author.

It’s interesting to see for-profit big-name publishers learning to use the various publishing media that we call the internet. Blogs, websites, online magazines, chat rooms, and e-communities, all working together to generate transactions, called sales.

We’re thinking of trying a similar “long tail of the internet” for outreach surrounding The DaVinci Code movie. We’re thinking of a combination of different media, all part of the “long tail of the internet”, to reach different people. Blogs, websites, evangelistic presentations, apologetics articles, podcasts, discussion, comments, PDF files. The goal is “transactions”, but in this case, it’s the transaction of the exchanged life.