All Posts

2024

07 Jan 2024	All times are now
08 Jan 2024	My email solution
09 Jan 2024	Numerators and Denominators
10 Jan 2024	Cities over 10 million
11 Jan 2024	Covid, again
12 Jan 2024	Women as Global Leaders
16 Jan 2024	Drought and Climate
17 Jan 2024	Power Encounters
18 Jan 2024	Metrics
19 Jan 2024	Crossing the chasm
21 Jan 2024	Identity Battles
01 Feb 2024	Languages
02 Feb 2024	Africa bandwidth
09 Feb 2024	Quantifying Confidence: a method for critiquing my thinking
17 Feb 2024	Shifting Center
18 Feb 2024	Fruitful Farms
05 Mar 2024	Protection is not necessarily a sign of the hand of God
06 Mar 2024	Digital Users 2024
07 Mar 2024	AI Generation Scenarios
11 Mar 2024	Changes come in three wavelengths
12 Mar 2024	Insensible
13 Mar 2024	Cities over 10 million
14 Mar 2024	iPhones, hanging out less, rising Nones, few/no movements
15 Mar 2024	The complex Body of Christ cannot be measured in real-time
16 Mar 2024	Open-air prisons
19 Mar 2024	What happens when the unevangelized die
25 Mar 2024	Torches and Legacy
26 Mar 2024	Why the unreached are unreached: not just because people don't care
29 Mar 2024	Death of the Dream
30 Mar 2024	One Way Door Decisions
09 Apr 2024	Money Transfers
16 Apr 2024	Language Loss
26 Apr 2024	Unreached vs. Nominal
01 May 2024	A masterclass in ice-breaking
07 May 2024	From
22 Jul 2024	Bangladesh student protests
22 Jul 2024	Free will: means vs ends
23 Jul 2024	Declining church membership in the USA
24 Jul 2024	Church
09 Aug 2024	Simplified Mapping
12 Aug 2024	Nature, Awe, Scale
15 Aug 2024	TIL Do No Business With
17 Aug 2024	Closure Missiology
28 Aug 2024	Unreached: we haven't finished, and mostly haven't gotten started
29 Aug 2024	All souls equally valuable
30 Aug 2024	Not everyone should prioritize the unreached
10 Sep 2024	House churches vs. Buildings: when a loss is counted as a loss
15 Sep 2024	Dangers of list-making
23 Sep 2024	Potatoes changing history
24 Oct 2024	I can do all things

2023

07 Jan 2023	The definition of closure determines the task
08 Jan 2023	Don't rush closure
09 Jan 2023	On measuring the evangelized
10 Jan 2023	Affiliation: measuring those who become members
11 Jan 2023	Measuring nominal believers
14 Jan 2023	The problem of closure
21 Jan 2023	A task is a tax
24 Jan 2023	Identity battles
04 Feb 2023	If the effort won’t scale, the task can’t be finished
12 Feb 2023	Missionary dollars tend to go where the church is
19 Feb 2023	Finishing the Task means everyone will be able to hear
23 Feb 2023	The ‘heresy’ or ‘wrong knowledge’ objection to movements
15 Mar 2023	World population throughout time
16 Mar 2023	Your list of 10 people
18 Mar 2023	Closure is not a biblical term
25 Mar 2023	Sustainable closure
29 Mar 2023	Fishers, fishing, and analogies
30 Mar 2023	Doubling
01 Apr 2023	Population size affects difficulty of entry
04 Apr 2023	Jesus Commissions Doubters
16 Apr 2023	Filtering vs Sharing in cultural conflict
18 Apr 2023	Decentralized church
24 Apr 2023	From everywhere, to everywhere
01 May 2023	Can I be a missionary?
14 May 2023	Measuring
24 Jun 2023	In the long run
09 Jul 2023	Doubling Times
14 Jul 2023	4,141 provinces
22 Jul 2023	Three kinds of givers
02 Aug 2023	A balance of processes
03 Aug 2023	Rapid expansion doesn't mean shallow expansion
04 Aug 2023	Serving movements
06 Aug 2023	Failing forward
07 Aug 2023	Center of Christianity
08 Aug 2023	It's not always insane: more is different
09 Aug 2023	Is praying Maranatha against His will?
10 Aug 2023	Less Visible Movement Martyrs
11 Aug 2023	The fruit of the cost
12 Aug 2023	More
15 Aug 2023	Seeds
16 Aug 2023	We don't know why
17 Aug 2023	More than fruit
19 Aug 2023	Global Population growth is slow and steady
01 Sep 2023	The OODA loop plus 1 decision
01 Sep 2023	Sudan
04 Sep 2023	Eschatology on Mission
21 Sep 2023	Megaparishes
22 Sep 2023	Promises and Perils
23 Sep 2023	South Korea's Subway Riders
24 Sep 2023	Nones and Dones
25 Sep 2023	Different Roads
26 Sep 2023	Leaving the Great for the Good
26 Sep 2023	Leaving the Great for the Good
27 Sep 2023	Disconnecting from Global Access
28 Sep 2023	Taking the Time
29 Sep 2023	Drugs
30 Sep 2023	Population Forecast, 95% confidence
02 Oct 2023	Africa vs. India and China
03 Oct 2023	Focus on the Few to Scale to the Many
04 Oct 2023	Long Run
08 Oct 2023	Winter
09 Oct 2023	Random is
10 Oct 2023	People Group Lists as a prophetic challenge, rather than a directive checklist
11 Oct 2023	Taking Sides
12 Oct 2023	an increasingly religious world
13 Oct 2023	Defining, measuring urbanization
15 Oct 2023	Is God using us as an example to demons?
16 Oct 2023	Visualizing Gaza
17 Oct 2023	What is the role of Westerners
18 Oct 2023	Africa Food Insecurity in Africa, Mapped
19 Oct 2023	Spiritual warfare
20 Oct 2023	Doc or XLS
21 Oct 2023	The courage to move on
24 Oct 2023	Mistakes
25 Oct 2023	Goals, Paces, Years
26 Oct 2023	In 10 years
27 Oct 2023	Wars and Rumors of Wars by 2050
29 Oct 2023	Halloween Pet Costumes
31 Oct 2023	Chance and Luck
03 Nov 2023	Where to send people
06 Nov 2023	Mainliners
06 Nov 2023	Few vs. mostly Christian countries
13 Nov 2023	Simple or Simplistic
08 Dec 2023	Money for Missions to the Unreached
09 Dec 2023	Islam is growing faster than Christianity, but...

2022

01 Sep 2022	Ooda
09 Sep 2022	Doing Things Differently
10 Sep 2022	Eastern Africa
10 Sep 2022	Eastern Africa
30 Sep 2022	A danger in a strategy to "reach the nations coming here"

2020

03 Jun 2020

Counting Missionaries

2019

17 Sep 2019	The largest least Christian peoples
26 Sep 2019	There is a solution
27 Sep 2019	Long term conversations: one plants, one waters
28 Sep 2019	Don't wait for total knowledge
29 Sep 2019	Cuts In Refugee Policy
30 Sep 2019	Enemies

2018

20 Apr 2018	Urbanization probably higher than 55%
04 Sep 2018	Categories of progress

2016

04 Jan 2016	How likely is a disastrous earthquake in 2016?
06 Jan 2016	Minimum Viable Product
11 Jan 2016	We need more workers
12 Jan 2016	Don't rush closure
13 Jan 2016	Can I be a missionary?
18 Jan 2016	How likely is the North Korean government to fall?
19 Jan 2016	Few are interested
20 Jan 2016	Seep
21 Jan 2016	Don't put missionaries on pedestals
25 Jan 2016	Preparing for Black Swans
26 Jan 2016	The marks of a good candidate
27 Jan 2016	The "democratization" and "amateurization" of mission
28 Jan 2016	How do I know I'm called
04 Feb 2016	The cost of the difference
11 Feb 2016	Calling vs Surrender should I just tell an agency to send me wherever?
15 Feb 2016	To plant or not to plant
15 Feb 2016	To plant or not to plant
16 Feb 2016	Not born missionaries
27 Feb 2016	Unpopular Things
02 Apr 2016	Annual growth rates
11 Apr 2016	Regression To The Mean
08 May 2016	The Future Of Urbanization
01 Sep 2016	Mission disruption, 3
02 Sep 2016	When to struggle on, and when to iterate or quit
03 Sep 2016	We can't keep Jesus from coming back
08 Sep 2016	Is Islam being hollowed out by falling birth rates?
09 Sep 2016	People more than peoples
10 Sep 2016	Liberation
10 Sep 2016	LIberation

2015

06 Jan 2015	Margin
07 Jan 2015	70% solutions
08 Jan 2015	Disengagement
13 Jan 2015	All
21 Jan 2015	Defining movements
10 Feb 2015	Q. how many missionaries from Latin America are currently serving as missionaries in other countries? (esp. in the Muslim world)
11 Feb 2015	What is the best place to source data on nominal Christianity?
12 Feb 2015	How many short-term missionaries are sent from the USA?
13 Feb 2015	Three key ideas for churches to achieve closure
07 Mar 2015	More time
09 Mar 2015	You don't need the little blue dot
11 Mar 2015	Why hugely successful annual events can be very, very bad for the long-term goal
16 Mar 2015	Are diaspora in (whatever place) reached or unreached?
23 Mar 2015	The world as percentages
24 Mar 2015	Why the differences in unevangelized and unreached population numbers
26 Mar 2015	Single males in mission
27 Mar 2015	Why discipleship without reproduction is not Biblical discipleship
28 Mar 2015	If at any given time in our life we are not making disciples, are we disobeying?
29 Mar 2015	Households of faith
31 Mar 2015	Defectors
02 Apr 2015	Jesus wants the whole pie
06 Apr 2015	What I think we must do to count the task finished
08 Apr 2015	Are Muslims the fastest growing religion, and why?
09 Apr 2015	17 doubles
16 Apr 2015	Rule of 72
21 Apr 2015	When we have to tear apart the boxes we are standing on
22 Apr 2015	An ekklesia for every person
23 Apr 2015	The importance of a vision and mission
24 Apr 2015	The biggest problem with our failures
25 Apr 2015	Success
26 Apr 2015	What do you mean by “plant churches”?
28 Apr 2015	Counts of missionaries by city or country
29 Apr 2015	Picking a church by where you can best serve
30 Apr 2015	Christianity is not declining
03 May 2015	Evangelists, Developers, Entrepreneurs, Leaders–business terms, or church terms?
04 May 2015	The fine print on Pew Research numbers–no converts projected in China, India
05 May 2015	How should Christians interact with Muslims?
06 May 2015	Pride goeth before a fall
07 May 2015	Why knowing too much can cost those who know nothing at all everything
08 May 2015	What kind of person are you recruiting?
09 May 2015	Is the very best missionary not a missionary at all?
10 May 2015	Acting like a missionary does not make you one, but not all missionaries are good ones.
11 May 2015	Are there enough workers in the harvest?
12 May 2015	those pesky Pew Research numbers on declining Christianity in America
13 May 2015	27 Doubles
14 May 2015	Had it not been for
15 May 2015	Limitless can be limiting
16 May 2015	Simple vs. Complex Culture Crossing; or, we are not all missionaries
17 May 2015	Graduations
18 May 2015	Exit ramps and extinction events
19 May 2015	Green grass and tornado chasers
22 May 2015	Misunderstood, unappreciated
23 May 2015	When we disagree about church (or anything)
24 May 2015	Not every disciple will make disciples
25 May 2015	Max Group Size, Max Movement Size, Leaving Soon
26 May 2015	People of Peace are not just the spiritually open
27 May 2015	Focusing in on a specific problem
28 May 2015	Of emergent systems and transformation
29 May 2015	If I tweet with the tongues of men or of angels
30 May 2015	Philippians 4:13 doesn’t mean I can do anything I want
31 May 2015	Believers, non-believers, sex, marriage, cohabiting, and how we engage with the world
01 Jun 2015	Moving out, or moving in? The price to be paid to be a blessing
02 Jun 2015	Antifragile
03 Jun 2015	Four stories the world tells about death, and one hellishly simple rationalization
04 Jun 2015	Reach the first place to reach all the places
05 Jun 2015	Your part
07 Jun 2015	Preparing for non-Christian religions is more critical than preparing for agnostics/atheists
08 Jun 2015	Quantity of workers is a vanity metric
09 Jun 2015	In 4 years
10 Jun 2015	The final 2,000 people groups?
11 Jun 2015	Why God gives us money
12 Jun 2015	Kinds of futures–should vs will
13 Jun 2015	Converts vs Disciples
14 Jun 2015	A church is not a random sampling of the place it is in
15 Jun 2015	What others mean by closure
16 Jun 2015	Closure, 2
17 Jun 2015	The bigger they are
19 Jun 2015	Avoiding the twin idols of long-term presence, short-term engagement
20 Jun 2015	The temptation to too easy closure
21 Jun 2015	Purity and holiness maintained vs Gospel messiness
22 Jun 2015	Seasons of Transition
23 Jun 2015	What gets measured
24 Jun 2015	To reach all, find one person
26 Jun 2015	Current trends don’t have to continue.
27 Jun 2015	Platform, Proclamation, Planting are not the same thing
28 Jun 2015	How fast are Iranians worldwide coming to Christ?
29 Jun 2015	Fluid dynamics; or, water as a symbol of the spirit and the church
30 Jun 2015	Stop trying to persuade everyone to be a missionary
01 Jul 2015	Understanding someone requires conversation, not polls
02 Jul 2015	The Time Sink of Social Media
03 Jul 2015	Practically and technically getting stories from the field
04 Jul 2015	America
05 Jul 2015	We don’t need better people group lists
06 Jul 2015	Marriage and divorce in the USA, graphed, over 144 years
07 Jul 2015	Foreign vs Indigenous Missions
08 Jul 2015	Knoxian Champions
09 Jul 2015	A team of 1
10 Jul 2015	Why should missionaries be sent to Europe?
12 Jul 2015	How 10% can shape a broader community
13 Jul 2015	Islam has the largest number of under-30 believers in China?
14 Jul 2015	Church, defined
15 Jul 2015	Frequently posed complaints over people group theory
16 Jul 2015	Worldview differences between generations of immigrants
17 Jul 2015	All of the people
18 Jul 2015	Should we stop all immigration of Muslims to the United States?
19 Jul 2015	What doesn’t make you stronger might just kill you
20 Jul 2015	Movements = Growth
21 Jul 2015	Three Challenges for Finances and Fundraising
22 Jul 2015	The average attention span of a human?
23 Jul 2015	What is the population of unreached people and the number of people groups in India?
24 Jul 2015	Dunbar’s Number and networks, movements, mobilization
25 Jul 2015	Making a difference through social media
26 Jul 2015	Good, Bad, Non, Anti Christians and missions
27 Jul 2015	Closure is not a Biblical term
28 Jul 2015	Closure Conundrums
29 Jul 2015	Why are missionary numbers going down?
30 Jul 2015	Respect the calling
01 Aug 2015	The question we don’t ask about discipleship
02 Aug 2015	How to change paradigms of church and discipleship
03 Aug 2015	Finishing the Task does not mean everyone will believe
04 Aug 2015	How do you get current information on progress in a particular UPG?
06 Aug 2015	How do you count the number of UPGs?
07 Aug 2015	Accuracy of unreached peoples numbers
10 Aug 2015	We will NOT have reached closure when everyone has heard the Gospel message.
11 Aug 2015	How to choose a place and people to engage
12 Aug 2015	Why we should reduce qualification requirements to build a quality movement
13 Aug 2015	How does climate (weather) and placement of a cross-cultural worker relate?
14 Aug 2015	Answering 5 questions we’d rather not answer
15 Aug 2015	More about agencies, churches, and when a church is a church
15 Aug 2015	Church as
16 Aug 2015	Does discipling the nations mean each individual nation or all the nations, generally?
17 Aug 2015	Don’t fling seed without a thought for harvesting
18 Aug 2015	Too many mission agencies?
19 Aug 2015	Mobilizing is getting into someone’s head
20 Aug 2015	Should Beyond exist?
24 Aug 2015	Finishing the task will not bring Jesus back
25 Aug 2015	More about agencies, churches, and when a church is a church
26 Aug 2015	The task requires discipleship, which requires time
29 Aug 2015	Without mobilization, we fail
30 Aug 2015	After the task is finished, Jesus will return
01 Sep 2015	Christianity is
01 Sep 2015	Christianity is
04 Sep 2015	Time to double leads to long times to reach
04 Sep 2015	Time to double leads to long times to reach
08 Sep 2015	It's not that we have failed to finish the task
08 Sep 2015	It's not that we have failed to finish the task
09 Sep 2015	Now and not yet
09 Sep 2015	Now and not yet
10 Sep 2015	When the church is a building
10 Sep 2015	When the church is a building
14 Sep 2015	Limiters on the spread of the Gospel
14 Sep 2015	Limiters on the spread of the Gospel
17 Sep 2015	Just because the end is coming
17 Sep 2015	Just because the end is coming
18 Sep 2015	Relationships and blessings
18 Sep 2015	Relationships and blessings
20 Sep 2015	Matchmakers and church growth
20 Sep 2015	Matchmakers and church growth
21 Sep 2015	Mapping the City
21 Sep 2015	Mapping the City
22 Sep 2015	Do you have to reach them all?
22 Sep 2015	Do you have to reach them all?
24 Sep 2015	Money and people
24 Sep 2015	Money and people
25 Sep 2015	If the world will not end this year, then
25 Sep 2015	If the world will not end this year, then
26 Sep 2015	Two lists of Five types of people necessary for movements
26 Sep 2015	Two lists of Five types of people necessary for movements
28 Sep 2015	Estimating movement size
28 Sep 2015	Estimating movement size
29 Sep 2015	Teaching everything commanded vs teaching to obey
29 Sep 2015	Teaching everything commanded vs teaching to obey
30 Sep 2015	Urbanization and the least-reached
30 Sep 2015	Urbanization and the least-reached
01 Oct 2015	The hardest parts about beginning
02 Oct 2015	That will never happen
03 Oct 2015	Love vs in love
05 Oct 2015	Funding missions
06 Oct 2015	Churn vs Disbursement
07 Oct 2015	Decrease
08 Oct 2015	Sometimes it doesn’t pay to share
09 Oct 2015	Festivals
10 Oct 2015	God, glory, fame
11 Oct 2015	Freedom
12 Oct 2015	It is too small a thing
13 Oct 2015	Coffins vs Exit Strategies
14 Oct 2015	Short term trips and the nations in our backyard
15 Oct 2015	Jetlag; or, the prices we pay
16 Oct 2015	Not wanting the end.
18 Oct 2015	Is the USA in a better position to finance missionaries than ever before?
21 Oct 2015	What is 'more open'?
23 Oct 2015	Predicting the (religious) future
27 Oct 2015	To change the world
28 Oct 2015	Fundraising
29 Oct 2015	You go to Italy.
02 Nov 2015	Should churches send only to the unreached?
09 Nov 2015	Clusters vs Peoples
11 Nov 2015	Boldness vs Danger–when risk is a bad thing
12 Nov 2015	Belief is not Knowledge is not Obedience
16 Nov 2015	You can’t plant churches any more.
17 Nov 2015	No Syrian refugees allowed in.
18 Nov 2015	Where persecution is worst
23 Nov 2015	How do I find People of Peace?
24 Nov 2015	Missional accounting
30 Nov 2015	How do I create lean experiments?
01 Dec 2015	What speed of growth for a movement is too slow?
02 Dec 2015	Worshipping as though we were in jail
03 Dec 2015	Lean experiments leave prayer out of the equation?
08 Dec 2015	More simple tactics for mapping cities
10 Dec 2015	Why the unreached are unreached: access is a challenge
11 Dec 2015	I agree with Eddie on who can be a missionary

2014

23 Jan 2014	Westerners have many expectations mostly culture about a new church
24 Jan 2014	The small islands
30 Jan 2014	Statistics and soulmates
12 Feb 2014	On setting objectives and key results
13 Feb 2014	Competing traditions
14 Feb 2014	Is a generational sea change in India possible
15 Feb 2014	People with difficult questions
23 Feb 2014	Leadership defined
09 Mar 2014	Ratios show us the task is doable but can tempt us to oversimplify
10 Mar 2014	The blessing of a Christian family
12 Mar 2014	If you are paying someone to plant churches
14 Mar 2014	The problem
27 Mar 2014	If you claim the title of missionary, then
28 Mar 2014	Why swarms and structures are important
02 Apr 2014	Plausible Promise, defined
24 Apr 2014	Global Diagram 1: The impact of Christianity on corruption
29 Apr 2014	The role of information and information-seeking in mobilization
30 Apr 2014	Global Diagram 3: Growth in population and Christianity, AD 1910-2010
11 May 2014	The demonic vs the resurrected
26 Jun 2014	Measuring levels of persecution, 2
27 Jun 2014	Faith, fellowship, and Dunbar’s law
07 Jul 2014	Measuring success: quantity vs quality
10 Jul 2014	Recognizing who to watch and learn from
21 Jul 2014	The nations are coming to us
21 Oct 2014	Adopters
01 Nov 2014	Vanity Metrics
03 Nov 2014	Relationships are more difficult than presentations
05 Nov 2014	Growth
07 Nov 2014	Powers, wrestled with
08 Nov 2014	Shifts
10 Nov 2014	Disconnects
11 Nov 2014	Should
12 Nov 2014	Passing over
17 Nov 2014	Can we use Allah?
26 Nov 2014	Be an exponent
27 Nov 2014	Thankful
29 Nov 2014	Questions to ask about your area

2013

06 Mar 2013	Different kinds of mission structures
09 Mar 2013	Are hearts quickly knit, or are some just better at honoring guests?
15 Mar 2013	Those outlier conversion stories
16 Mar 2013	Significance precedes momentum
08 Apr 2013	Qualification
09 Apr 2013	The blessing and curse of Internet evangelism mixed with social media
10 Apr 2013	Culture shock in the Bible
22 Apr 2013	Computing the odds of finding a Person of Peace in the United States
16 Jun 2013	Single Men in Missions, 1
17 Jun 2013	Single Men in Missions, 2: big orgs do better?
18 Jun 2013	Single Men in Missions, 3
19 Jun 2013	Single Men in Missions, 4: Will short term have a higher % male?
20 Jun 2013	How big is a square kilometer?
21 Jun 2013	Urbanization index
22 Jun 2013	Transportation hubs key to the flow of the Gospel
23 Jun 2013	Transportation hubs, 2
24 Jun 2013	Single men in missions, 5
12 Jul 2013	Urbanization index, updated
15 Jul 2013	8 Miles
16 Jul 2013	Ministry vs Work: hours for money given vs hours for money earned
17 Jul 2013	The Wall, The Dungeon, The Dragon
18 Jul 2013	Strategic considerations: factors in planning
25 Aug 2013	Movements needed to go places missionaries can't
06 Sep 2013	A simple safety index based on the idea of par
07 Oct 2013	Not everyone is a missionary: what we look for
10 Oct 2013	Does persecution make me more Christian?
12 Oct 2013	I'm preferring the term disciple making movement
13 Oct 2013	The danger in thinking only a few are missionaries is
14 Oct 2013	I can be
15 Oct 2013	Disengagement: the fly in the wine of the UUPG list
17 Oct 2013	Pioneers and pastoralists: both are needed to finish the task
21 Oct 2013	The worst thing about CPMs and DMMs
23 Oct 2013	Does the spectacular growth of Christianity in Africa and Asia mean the Western world has a lot to learn from them?
25 Oct 2013	The mobilizing power of food
31 Oct 2013	The 4/14 Window: are adults more resistant, or just have less opportunities
05 Nov 2013	A "personal relationship with Jesus" may be a poor choice of words
06 Nov 2013	Measuring levels of persecution
15 Nov 2013	What if we didn't take candidate applications at all?
27 Nov 2013	The important questions for mobilizers to pose
11 Dec 2013	The challenge of building new mission structures
12 Dec 2013	Let's think about clusters, not peoples
17 Dec 2013	Believability
18 Dec 2013	Single men in missions, 6
21 Dec 2013	The long-term prospects of the nonreligious

2010

13 Jun 2010

Persecution in the USA

2005

07 Jan 2005	Phases of time after a major event
17 Jan 2005	Aceh

2004

21 Jun 2004

China as a missionary sender

2003

13 Oct 2003

Church growth in the Muslim world

2001

03 Sep 2001	Destruction
17 Sep 2001	On measuring secret believers
24 Sep 2001	Counting the evangelized
24 Sep 2001	Counting the evangelized
26 Sep 2001	Mission in an era of security
27 Sep 2001	Security
27 Sep 2001	911
01 Oct 2001	The Enemy wants the young

2000

20 Aug 2000