The Pneuma Review » planting https://pneumareview.com Journal of Ministry Resources and Theology for Pentecostal and Charismatic Ministries & Leaders Fri, 10 Apr 2026 14:44:30 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.0.38 Planting Seeds https://pneumareview.com/planting-seeds/ https://pneumareview.com/planting-seeds/#comments Tue, 22 Aug 2023 22:00:48 +0000 http://pneumareview.com/?p=17553 When I was a child in Adams County in central Pennsylvania, our family planted large gardens with corn, beans, watermelons, potatoes, and all sorts of plants. I would walk outside each morning to see how much the seeds had grown. This memory reminded me of Jesus’ parable of the mustard seed in which He says of the Kingdom of God: 

“It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade” (Mark 4:30-32).

Life is about where you’re going, not only where you’ve been.

Those tiny seeds maturated, and we were able to enjoy the vegetables for meals. We had to battle hot, rainy, and cools days to assist the growth of the vegetables. Rabbits would come and eat the plants. We created fences to keep the critters from the garden. Sometimes it was discouraging after all the work. But we kept at the garden.

I thought about that idea with our Christian lives. No matter how hard our past has been, no matter who has betrayed you, gossiped about you, lied or stolen from you, the seeds of God’s word you plant will bear fruit. We cannot allow the past to haunt or shape our future. Yes, our ultimate destination is Heaven, but we have a life to live today and enjoy with people and the Lord.

Image: Francesco Gallarotti

Friends, when you continue to sow the seed of God’s word, your spiritual growth is unlimited! Life is about where you’re going, not only where you’ve been. Are you planting God’s seed in the fertile ground of your life? You have the privilege to commit yourself to the Lord’s word, devote yourself, water, and care for it. God’s guarantees His seeds will produce God’s kingdom. I want to encourage you now to plant the seeds of God in the lives of the people you meet every day. God promises to grow the seed. Our part is to participate and plant the seed. We have the easy part; God does the miraculous part!

In this summer of the Holy Spirit, may God awaken your heart as you read this message. Believe and trust in His growth for your life!

]]> https://pneumareview.com/planting-seeds/feed/ 0 Planting Churches in the Most Difficult Places: An interview with Dick Brogden https://pneumareview.com/planting-churches-in-the-most-difficult-places-an-interview-with-dick-brogden/ https://pneumareview.com/planting-churches-in-the-most-difficult-places-an-interview-with-dick-brogden/#comments Fri, 25 Jan 2019 22:54:34 +0000 http://pneumareview.com/?p=15049
PneumaReview.com: LIVE|DEAD is an interesting name for a ministry, please explain the meaning of the name.

Dick Brogden: Live Dead was birthed out of a desire to see teams planting churches among every unreached people group (UPG) in East Africa. At the time, my wife and I were leading a multi-cultural church planting team in Northern Sudan and our Area Leader (Greg Beggs) asked that we develop that model so that we could reach all UPGs in East Africa.

As we looked across the area, we realized that the unreached were located in places like Somalia, Djibouti, Northern Sudan, the Comoros Islands, and Eritrea – in other words, places that were difficult to access, difficult to evangelize, and difficult to plant churches. The UPG contexts of East Africa were hostile in climate – both physically and spiritually. We further realized that we needed many missionaries for many peoples.

How do you mobilize missionaries to go to the hardest places? The truth and the power of the Spirit.

I happened to be in the United States and was being interviewed by a woman named Charity Reeb, for part of her master’s research. I found out she was gifted in marketing and I shared these twin challenges. How do we mobilize many missionaries to difficult places and peoples? They would be going to places where they would struggle to enter and struggle to stay, and where their disciples would certainly suffer. I asked Charity to help us present this idea for mobilization purposes.

And in the night, the Lord woke Charity up with that expression: Live Dead

To Live Dead is nothing new. Galatians 2:20 talks about being crucified with Christ. This idea is in John 12:24, being the seed that dies to bear much grain. Paul speaks of dying daily. Every Christian everywhere is meant to take up their cross and follow Jesus. If the crucified life is expected of every Christian, then the missionary called to take the gospel to unreached peoples is not exempt. We felt that by challenging God’s people to live dead we could be honest about the challenge and the difficulty of reaching the unreached, while at the same time be unapologetically Biblical.

 

PneumaReview.com: What is the primary mission of Live Dead?

Dick Brogden: We have one single-eyed focus: Planting Churches among Unreached Peoples through Teams. We call these our non negotiable aspects (CP – UPG – Team). They are undergirded by 12 values that we collect in three core values: ABIDE (intimacy with Jesus), APOSTLE (take the Gospel where it has not gone), ABANDON (pay whatever price is necessary).

 

PneumaReview.com: You started in East Africa, where in the world are you operating today?

Dick Brogden: Live Dead has eight areas we are currently active in: Sub-Saharan Africa, The Arab World, Israel and Palestine, Central Eurasia, Russia, Iran, India, and China.

 

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