Day Of Prayer/Fasting

During the day I was impressed with this thought - 

What would an expression of the gospel look like among what all statistics tell us are the happiest, wealthiest, best educated and most content people in the world? 

I don’t know, but I’d love to be a part of bringing it to pass…that the Scandinavians would fall in love with Jesus, and display that love and His worth to the world, even when they have all the other stuff that the world has to offer. I pray that they would see how He is so much better, deeper and richer than the best the world has to offer. Maybe that will be their contribution to the Kingdom…and maybe God will let Jeff and I walk with the people of Norway toward this day. 

Deanna Davis

re: calypsocafe

The CalypsoCafe is a page for feedback/suggestions on how to make our communication strategies, external and internal sites better.  I don’t have all the ideas or all of the answers, so all suggestions are welcome.  BTW, you can challenge/discuss ideas in the CalypsoCafe so that the best ones come out in the “press”.  Sorry, that pun was “grounds” for groaning.  :)

- Derek

Andy and Kaye Martin

 

Hey all!  If you haven’t yet heard my interview with Kaye, check it out on our internal podcasting page.  BTW, the username and password for that podcast are the same as the ones you used to get into the teamonly pages.

Welcome, Kaye!  Kaye will be posting regularly on her page (Sage Advice) on this wordpress blog.  You can ask her any questions and/or read her posts and/or comment.  You’ll have opportunity to see her and Andy in person in Athens, Greece.

A helpful peace of info regarding baptist history in Finland

I was in the baptist workers’ day last week here in Finland. I learned that 120 years there was a convictional Christian group in Finland to preach the Gospel and start NT model churches: Baptist churches. They were the first non-Lutheran Christians in Finland. I learned that their identity was built on the doctrine of a local church. That is still their main identity. 120 years later, there are 11 official baptist churches. Yet, if by the identity they mean baptist church structure, there are more than 300 baptistic churches in Finland.

It was very helpful for me to realize how different is the context of the baptist (or any other historical church) from a country to country. The question I raised to myself was: what is the identity that I am ready to die for? (the identity of the doctrine of ecclesiology or something else, namely, the glory of God in Christ). A touch question to struggle with.
Grace, Mikko

The Sweet Spot

The Starfish and the Spider… new words for old concepts, but very important in the pursuit of that balance between centralized and decentralized organizational structure. That sweet spot, which by the way will never be a static point, is where the perfect hybrid of decentralized (starfish) and centralized (spider) structure exist within an organization at a point in time. It provides the necessary vertical accountability with the drive of each person to continually make this organization better and better by promoting the sense of personal accountability towards one another to do so. If this does not make sense, read the book, or get the audio version. Foreign is too narrow of a term to describe how I perceived these ideas initially, but now I feel deeply nestled within them. It’s all about sustainability, regenerate like starfish or die like a decapitated spider.

-db

pray for the Garmins in Iceland

Hey all -

Colby, Annie and kids could really use your prayers.  In particular, they are waiting word on their Visas…which are taking FOREVER.  They’re already into the second of the two 90-day tourist visa blocks.  Please, please pray for GOOD NEWS.  They are in Iceland.

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