Transition

You may remember that on September 18 I sent in my letter of resignation to MTW, not knowing where we would land–where my next job/ministry might be. Five days later I received a call from Richard Pratt, president of Third Millennium Ministries ( http://thirdmill.org ), asking if I could help them with some of my areas of expertise. He had heard from a friend of mine that I had decided to leave MTW.

While I have always appreciated what Third Mill is doing (creating high quality seminary education for free worldwide), I never would have seen myself being interested in working with them because I’ve always thought they were overly focused on the mere transmission of information. I am much more interested in promoting the integration of knowing, doing and being around Christ. Richard had seen some of my writings on this subject and said this integration is what they want to focus on in their “third phase.”

I had suggested to MTW that they train all new missionaries using a more biblical approach to training, but while they said they thought it was a good model, they basically said no. I think they are already too invested economically in the transmission-of-information model. (There is a whole department in Atlanta dedicated to it.) On the other hand, Third Mill wants me to help them in this very area.

Last Thursday Phyllis and I visited Third Millennium Ministries located in Orlando. (We are visiting our supporters in Florida.) We visited all the different departments and were impressed with their operation. We also talked with Richard Pratt and our feelings of “fit” were confirmed. So we decided to transition to Third Mill on February 1 (we will continue with MTW through January 31).

All this depends on the willingness of our supporters to keep supporting us. In any case, Phyllis is planning to look for a nursing job. So if she gets a good job, we could probably survive even if only a portion of our supporters follow us in this ministry. I would probably work for Third Mill part time and look for another opportunity. Or maybe write a book.

We will live in our house, and I will travel as well as keep in touch by Skype with users of the material–maybe especially in Latin America. I will also write some workbooks to help people think about how to make use of the doctrine in their context. It’s not all completely clear to me, so it’s an unfolding plan.

So far our supporters have been positive. More than once they have brought up “Third Mill” in the conversation before we even told them of our plans to transition.

After 34 years in MTW it seems somewhat strange to be leaving. But it seems like the right thing to do.