Latest / Eurasia Region Podcast / S1-E51 | Everyday Eurasia | Joshua Haun

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S1-E51 | Everyday Eurasia | Joshua Haun · Eurasia Region Podcast

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  Hello and welcome to the Everyday Eurasia podcast,
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  Inspiring Faith for Every Day. Each day we are on a journey
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  with Jesus in our churches, our homes, our workplaces, and in so
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  many different places around the world.
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  Is it beautiful that no matter where we are, we can walk with
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  him every single day? Jesus is the one who connects us
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  all and stands at the very center of our lives day after
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  day. Through this podcast, you'll
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  hear voices from across the region sharing devotionals that
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  reminds us of God's presence in our everyday moments.
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  This week on the Everyday Eurasia podcast, we are grateful
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  to be joined by Tester Joshua Hum.
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  Joshua and his wife Katie have been serving for the past four
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  years as pastors and church planters with the Church of the
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  Nazarene in Sofia, Bulgaria. Throughout this week, Joshua
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  will be reflecting with us on the topic of church planting.
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  Why does church planting still matter?
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  With so many churches already around the world?
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  What makes this work so important today?
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  If we listen together this week, Joshua will help us explore
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  these questions and discover God's heart behind planting new
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  churches. Hello again, my name is Joshua
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  Hahn and I'm a church planter and pastor serving in Sofia,
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  Bulgaria, and we're on a journey together in church planting.
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  And today we're going to talk a bit about planting missional
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  churches. I think we all know that being a
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  holy people and a missional people go together because holy
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  love is defined by Christ's endeavor to give himself away on
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  our behalf. And if we're not a missional
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  people, a people giving ourselves away, well then how
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  can we say we are like Christ, a holiness people?
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  I love the Church of the Nazarene for our great missional
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  heritage, and I think it's always an important question
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  whether we are planting churches that are passionately missional
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  in keeping with our missional Nazarene tradition.
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  Something that I think is powerfully unique and holy about
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  our missional identity is our belief in the importance of
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  being obedient to the entire command of Jesus to be witnesses
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  in Jerusalem, which is our local mission field, that place we
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  call home and to the ends of the earth.
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  But this emphasis on the and of the Great Commission is so
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  important because it means that if we want to plant faithful
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  Nazarene churches, we must make sure that we are planting
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  locally and globally mission minded churches.
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  And this requires that we ask some really exciting and
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  challenging questions. How is our church and how will
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  prospective church plants make Christ like disciples in the
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  nations? What is our vision and our
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  strategy for this? I believe that we will never
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  experience a church planting movement unless we are able to
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  mobilize every single person in our churches to consider
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  themselves to be missionaries who bless their local community,
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  their friends, family and neighbors.
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  And I believe this really is the heart of God.
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  And I also think this is where we often struggle in the church.
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  A church will never thrive and reach the maturity level of
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  reproduction as long as only a single pastoral figure or even
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  an elite handful of leaders within the church are boldly
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  sharing their faith and discipling others.
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  We must plant churches in which we are intentional about
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  mobilizing every member of the church to reach pre believers.
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  That includes you. Today we have to talk about
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  reaching the broken. We must pray every time we
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  gather for the lost in our world and in our communities.
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  We need to train in strategies to evangelize the lost and show
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  the love of Christ to those around us.
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  But it's easy to get distracted or stuck in the rut of simply
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  ministering to the existing Saints and making sure we have
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  high quality experiences, a beautiful facility, or other
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  resources for the existing church.
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  Now these are not bad things. They're good.
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  But just remember that Scripture tells us about the the very
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  heart of God in passages like Luke 15 where we are told the
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  parable of the lost sheep and discover that quote, there will
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  be more rejoicing in heaven over one single Sinner who repents
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  than over 99 righteous persons who do not need to repent.
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  End Quote. The minute we cease to emphasize
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  blessing, evangelism, witness, the sharing of our faith with
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  others in everything we do, then the church will cease to mature
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  towards reproduction and more importantly, we'll cease to be
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  able to say we share the heart of God.
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  As I spoke about in our first episode, I believe that the best
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  way for the world to discover the love of Jesus is through the
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  love of the body of Jesus, the church.
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  So how are we reaching the lost? Well, there are so many
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  strategies and plans for sharing Christ with others.
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  There's no one right answer. But when we're passionate, we'll
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  find a way. So what if we begin to imagine
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  and envision, plan and strategize about how to share
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  Christ with the broken beloved around us?
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  What if this was our top priority, that we mobilize each
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  and every person in our churches to take ownership of the mission
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  of God? Are we, are we urging all our
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  people to accept the call on their life, whatever it is, to
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  participate in the mission of God?
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  I believe this will never just happen organically.
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  We need a missional culture in our churches in which people are
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  encouraged and even urged to accept the call to give
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  themselves away. But we also must remember that
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  the invitation to the mission of God is never an invitation to
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  participate in the work of Christ.
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  Only locally or only globally. We don't have to choose between
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  those two. In fact, in my experience as a
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  church planter, being passionate about local missions makes us
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  more passionate about global, and being more passionate about
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  global makes us more inspired about local missions.
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  And we're blessed with so many ways in which our church offers
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  us opportunities to be a part of the global mission of Christ
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  through the people of Christ in the Church of the Nazarene.
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  And one of the most obvious ways is through the World Evangelism
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  Fund, giving and and being educated and praying.
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  I've heard people talk about paying the World Evangelism Fund
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  as obligations or expectations. And this always makes me feel a
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  bit uncomfortable because I've never considered WEF as an
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  obligation. An obligation for us.
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  It's an incredible opportunity for formation and inspiration,
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  for a passionate and joyful response to the invitation of
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  Christ to be a witness to the ends of the earth.
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  We get to be a part of making a difference for Jesus in the
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  nations and in Sofia, in the Demash, the the Sarpa
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  Nazarianina. We have paid our WEFT budget
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  since the first offering. Not to mention participating in
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  Alabaster and Nazarin compassionate ministries and
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  other global mission opportunities through prayer,
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  giving and education because this is a means of missional
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  formation and inspiration for us.
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  And so I've just got to share one quick story about this once
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  1/4 in our church here in Sofia, we celebrate our missions giving
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  in the Sunday morning service by highlighting the things that
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  have been accomplished by the global Church of which we have
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  been a part. And we always report the amount
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  that our local church has contributed.
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  And I must admit that often it doesn't seem like that much.
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  But then we multiply it by all the Nazarene churches in the
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  world asking what if every Nazarene church did what we can
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  do? And we're always encouraged and
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  inspired as we multiply our given by 30,000 churches and we
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  see hundreds become millions. We can do so much more together.
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  Well, earlier this year, we reported on the opening of a new
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  district in Cuba. And this was really exciting
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  because one of the newer families in our church is from
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  Cuba. And after the service, the
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  mother of that family came up to me in tears and she said,
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  Joshua, nobody goes to these places in Cuba.
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  I cannot believe the Church of the Nazarene is there.
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  I had no idea that we are a part of something so wonderful.
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  And then she did something incredibly missional and holy.
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  Her husband, you see, had just lost his job a few weeks earlier
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  and was still searching for a new work.
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  So you can imagine my surprise when she extended to me a 100
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  leva bill, which represented an additional 10% of their income
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  formerly. And she said we want this for
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  the World Evangelism Fund. And when I asked if she was
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  certain, she replied, we will just trust God because what's
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  more important than this? You see, we must birth churches
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  that have a passion for both local and global missions as a
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  part of our DNA from conception. When we do this, we are inspired
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  and we are mobilized together as we participate in the mission of
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  God. We're a Christian in holiness
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  church when we are a missional church, when we give ourselves
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  away for the sake of Christ in our local community and to the
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  ends of the earth. And it's only when we are
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  missional in this way that we can truly say we share the heart
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  of God. Let's pray together.
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  Dear Lord, please be gracious to us and bless us, and make your
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  face to shine upon us so that through US you might make your
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  salvation known among our neighbors and to the ends of the
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  earth. Dear the Lord, may you bless us
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  and mobilize us in order that we might be a blessing to the
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  nations. In the name of Jesus Christ we
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  pray. Amen.
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  Thank you for listening to the Everyday Eurasia podcast
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  Inspiring Faith for Everyday. For more Everyday stories,
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  subscribe on this podcast channel, follow our socials,
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  region, visit our website, eurasiaregion.org.