The Coworkers Podcast

Lori is the Director of Sending at Summit Church RDU, overseeing local and international missions, and is a gifted leader and passionate about reaching the lost. She has 14 years of corporate world business experience, and 4 years of missions experience in North Africa. Listen in as we discuss how the church and mission teams need to do a better job of developing female leaders and caring for single women on our teams.

Listen in as Lori shares:

-Examples of how the church is overlooking women in leadership development, often simply due to tradition.
-Biblical truths relevant to developing women
-Practical tips for giving women a seat at the table
-What we miss out on by not including women
-How to care for and empower single women

To hear Lori share more on singleness, listen to Pastor JD interview her:

https://summitchurch.com/message/gods-plan-in-singleness
 

Connect with us! Email feedback to us! Send us some topics you would like to hear us talk about. 

The Coworkers Podcast website

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Email: [email protected]-

We are so excited to share this fun, insightful, and challenging interview with you! 

Listen in as Pastor Vance shares on:

-What excites Vance about gospel work in the world today
-Straightforward advice for missionaries in partnering well with U.S. churches
-Why church-planters should intentionalize sending and global missions even from the very beginning
-How church-planters and pastors can become too focused on their own churches instead of the Kingdom
-How to encourage "every member ministry" as a pastor, author, leader, husband, and dad
-Three lessons Vance wishes he would have known when he first started in ministry

Check out Vance's book, Unburdened.

Check out The Vance Pitman Leadership Podcast on your favorite podcast app. 

Listen to Hope Church's John 15 series on abiding in Christ, Lessons from the Vineyard. This series was so powerful for us that we have listened through it two or three times!

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The Coworkers Podcast website

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Email: [email protected]

In this episode, we interview JD Greear, president of the SBC (Southern Baptist Convention) and head pastor of The Summit Church in Raleigh, NC. Pastor JD shares about several things, such as-

-The legacy of Summit Church as a sending church
-JD's thoughts on breadth v. depth in ministry
-The role JD's personal evangelism plays in their church's culture
-How JD remains lighthearted and hopeful in the midst of challenges and criticism
-The importance of empowering women for ministry and leadership in the church

In this episode, we referred to a sermon JD preached on Deborah.

We also mentioned a few of JD's books. Two of our favorites are Jesus' Continued... and Gospel. 

JD is one of our go-to preachers. You can find most of JD's sermons on summitchurch.com.

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The Coworkers Podcast website

Instagram: thecoworkerspodcast

Email: [email protected]

In this episode, Jesse gives a biblical case for movements and discusses some of the other big topics in movements, such as:
Controllables vs. uncontrollables
The pace of ministry and multiplication
How normal, faithful laborers should feel when they hear about movements Faithfulness vs. fruitfulness
Where we should go from here. 

Books quoted:
 Tim Keller's book, Center Church
Iain Murray's book, Revival and Revivalism

Connect with us:

The Coworkers Podcast website

Instagram: thecoworkerspodcast

Email: [email protected]

Movements are surprising activities of God where great numbers of people come to Christ, and new churches are started, in a relatively short period of time. Should we intentionally pursue rapid multiplication of disciples and churches? Are movements methods biblical? In this episode, Jesse responds to some recent, common critiques of movements methods. 

Resources mentioned in the episode: 

“What Could Be Wrong With Church Planting?” by Mack Stiles: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/what-could-be-wrong-with-church-planting

Mark Dever on CPMs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi9Xp8D7_Oc

No Place Left Website: https://noplaceleft.net

Church Planting Movements by David Garrison: https://www.amazon.com/Church-Planting-Movements-Redeeming-World/dp/0974756202

Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or Ours? By Roland Allen

The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church by Roland Allen

Connect with us:

The Coworkers Podcast website

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Email: [email protected]

From a blogpot that Shanee wrote in 2008 after the loss of their first daughter:

5 Tips on What to Say to Those in Grief:

Tip #1: Never minimize the person's pain.

Do not try to minimize or reason away the person's pain. This is never helpful. After experiencing significant loss, the healthy and normal thing for someone to do is to cry and be incredibly upset. Give people the freedom to do that! Comments like, "Oh, you'll have another baby," or "Lots of people have miscarriages," don't really help. Instead, say something like, "That is just awful. I am so sorry for you. That must be really difficult. I can't imagine losing a child." Grieving people want to be affirmed that what they have experienced is difficult. If people make little of it, then the grieving person does not feel freedom to grieve around others.

Tip #2: Acknowledge the loss.

Do not think, "I don't want to bring it up and make her cry." A grieving person is thinking about his loss on and off throughout his day (even if he appears to be fine). It's not like when someone mentions Priya to me I think, "Oh, I had forgotten all about the fact that my daughter died. I wish they wouldn't have brought that up." And if you mentioning Priya to me makes me cry, that's OK; just be OK with me crying in front of you. When you see someone that has recently experienced a tragedy, especially the first time you see that person, I think it's usually good and safe to say, "I'm so sorry. I have been praying for you. Do you want to talk about it?" That let's the person know you care, and gives him the freedom to talk about it.

Tip #3: Don't try to fix it.

There is no "quick fix" to the loss of life. It is not your responsibility to make a grieving person happy; you can't. Just accept that and be willing to grieve with him. You don't have to find solutions; you don't have to always remind him of all that he has to be thankful for. Again, just sit with him and grieve with him.

Tip #4: Comfort with the Truth, not fluff.

The Truth is the only real source of comfort for a hurting person, especially a follower of Jesus. And the Truth comes only from God's Word. Many people have said things like, "God just needed another angel," or "Priya is up there flying around." I know these are meant to be sweet, comforting comments, and I accept them with thankfulness (again, intent not content). But in reality, Priya is not an angel; she is a baby, a person. If we want to comfort someone, we should say truthful statements that are sure and not just speculation. These are the things that are an anchor for the grieving person, especially a follower of Jesus. Remind me that Priya is in heaven. Remind me that God is in control. Remind me that somehow this fits into God's plan. Remind me that God loves me and will bind up my wounds. Remind me that I will see Priya again someday. These are the things I must cling to every day. We must trust that God's Word is real and active, and that if we speak His Word to others, God will use it to comfort them.

Tip #5: Do not judge the grieving person.

In the first few months after a major loss, grieving people are extra-sensitive and vulnerable. After we lost Priya, I was overwhelmed with shock and sadness, and I just wanted the freedom to cry when I felt like crying and not cry when I didn't feel like it. But I was concerned with what people thought of how I was handling it (I shouldn't have been concerned with this, but I was). I felt like people were often evaluating how I was "doing". If I cried too much, someone would say, "Oh, she's really taking it hard." If I didn't cry (at least in front of them), then they would say, "I don't think she's really letting herself grieve.....it's really going to hit her one day." This is mainly my problem, the grieving person's problem, but as I said, during grief, one tends to be extra-sensitive. When we're trying to comfort those in grief, we should remember this and hold off on judging how they're "doing." Everyone grieves differently. A grieving person does not want to prove to others that he is "grieving well." Whatever we have gone through, we cannot fully understand someone else's pain, and we normally only see a small portion of their grief. So we should hold back judgment and give grace.

I have not researched this fully, but from what I have found lately, I think the Bible supports at least some of these thoughts. The Bible is clear that pain is real. Many of David's Psalms refer to his pain, for example:

"Every night I flood my bed with tears...the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping..." (Psalm 6).

"You have kept count of my tossings, put my tears in your bottle. Are they not written in your book?" (Psalm 56).

"All my longing is before you; my sighing is not hidden from you" (Psalm 38).

"This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life" (Psalm 119:50).

"In the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by" (Psalm 57).

Losing our daughter has given us a desire to respond to the hurting with compassion, to be willing to truly "mourn with the mourning." We pray that God will use these lessons that He has been teaching us to help the church comfort the hurting. 

Jesse preached on God's vision of the future from Rev. 7:9-10 recently, and this sermon gets to the heart of our podcast: God WILL ransom people from every tribe, people, nation, and language. This is the sure future! I hope this sermon spurs you on to be a part of seeing this vision come to fruition. 

David and Ashlee are dear friends and coworkers with over a decade of missions experience reaching Muslims. They are a wealth of knowledge, but even better than that, their passion for the work is contagious. In this episode we cover:
-Why you shouldn't be intimidated to talk with Muslims!
-How to bring up gospel conversations "as you go"
-What to do after sharing the gospel and they are interested in learning more (yellow light strategy)
-Reasons we (Westerners) can be resistant to sharing with Muslims (fear, anger, hopelessness)
-Brutal facts on the lostness of Muslims, and how reaching Muslims is an essential priority for accomplishing the Rom. 15 vision of "no place left."
-Why you may have high cholesterol if you target Muslims (because their food is SO good and fattening haha!)

David and Ashlee have a website with proven tools and even an e-course to learn more about Muslim ministry: www.nocousinsleft.com.

In our previous episode, we explained good reasons to believe that the book of Acts was meant to be an instructive guide for mission work. In this episode, we walk through the gospel going out from Jerusalem through ordinary believers and through Paul on his three missionary journeys. A pattern for missions emerges: entry into unreached places, bold gospel proclamation, discipleship of new believers, church formation, development and appointment of elders, and exit into partnership.

Scriptures Discussed:
Spread of Gospel from Jerusalem through Scattered Believers: Acts 8:1-4; 11:19-26
Paul's First Missionary Journey: Acts 13-14
Paul's Second Missionary Journey: Acts 15:36-18:22
Paul's Third Missionary Journey: Acts 18:23-21:20
Romans 15:17-19

We pray that this episode is an encouragement and challenge for all listeners as we look at Paul's lifestyle of full commitment to Christ and getting the gospel to people with  no access. 

In this episode, we discuss how to interpret the book of Acts. Did Luke intend for Acts to be mainly "descriptive" (a description of historical events) or "prescriptive" (a practical model to be followed)? 

Jesse shares good reasons to believe Luke intended for Acts to be more than descriptive, but to be an instructive guide for missions. He also shares three interpretive principles to help us know how to apply Acts.

3 principles to apply:
1. Recurrence: 
The Spirit of God in Paul and his coworkers produced a pattern of work they followed across the different contexts in which they ministered. There is a regularity to their way working that transcends the particularities of a given locality or people. This regularity points to the interpretive principle of recurrence, and it will be guiding light for us as we look for the missionary pattern in Scripture. Basically, the idea of recurrence is that when we see the first missionaries consistently repeating a practice across different contexts, we are seeing evidence of the Spirit-led pattern of missionary “work.” Those repeatable patterns are what we are looking for in determining the “work.” 

2. Coherence:
Beyond the pattern we find in Acts, we also see Paul write about “the work” in different parts of his epistles. Paul’s statements and elaborations on his work highlight the other interpretive principle we’ll use—coherence. The idea here is that certain missionary practices from Acts take on more weight—more potentiality as a part of the missionary pattern—when they cohere with what Paul wrote elsewhere about his work. In several places throughout his writings Paul gives a defense of his missionary work or a summary account of what he had done up to that point (e.g. 1 Corinthians 3, 4, 9; Romans 15). These passages are significant because they reveal the rationale behind Paul’s way of working. When a practice we see in Acts coheres with Paul’s statements elsewhere, then we can be reasonably sure that the practice in question forms a part of the missionary pattern of work. 

3. Transference: 
The final principle is the principle of transference. This is where we look for ways of working that others besides just Paul took part in. A common response when we talk of a missionary “pattern” is for people to say, “Well that was for Paul, and he was an apostle, so it’s not necessarily applicable to us.” With the principle of transference we’re looking for the work that others besides just Paul were involved in. 

These three interpretive principles—recurrence, coherence, and transference—will serve as our guides in revealing the “work” in the Scriptures. They will help us guard against reckless or unwise application of the narratives by steering us back toward the intent of the Biblical author. As we’ll see, they’ll help us navigate through the myriad events in the book of Acts to get to the core of what types of things are applicable to us today.  

In our next episode, we will walk through a Bible study of Paul's missionary journeys.

Books Mentioned:
Missionary Methods: St. Paul's Or Ours?- Roland Allen
The Masterplan of Evangelism- Robert Coleman
Spontaneous Expansion of the Church- Roland Allen
Masterlife- Avery Willis