Kyle Goen and I first met on.... the Internet. We connected right before I spent a few days in Brussels and unfortunately we missed each other there. Earlier this year, we had collaborated a little bit on a potential project but that kind of fell through too. But I was ecstatic to meet him for a quick coffee chat last weekend in Nashville. He and his family just moved back there after living in Brussels for 3 years. Kyle is currently in charge of sending initiatives for LifePoint Church just south of Nashville as well as working this concept out with The Upstream Collective. Obviously, I'm a big fan of meeting Internet friends in cities you visit.Here's some great wisdom from our short time together.
+ You can leverage your American-ness when you move overseas but only for a limited time. Get Jesus in there fast.
+ Sending is a mindset.
Sending also doesn't always look like you sending someone out. The paradigm of sending and support is changing fast because the landscape of missions is changing fast. [Obviously, Kyle has a ton of experience on this. See this for more.]
+ Everything is an experiment. The Gospel is worth the risk.
This is one of LifePoint's favorite mantras - this is a church of 3000 people with a lead pastor who has been there 20 years. They have two sending hubs - Brussels and Bangkok - that look like international sites but are in actuality hubs for reproduction, training and mobilization. Both of them were started as experiments and now are flourishing.
Great to meet Kyle face to face, although our conversation was too short.
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