At a Glance
Good ideas have good consequences. God’s ideas that He’s generously revealed to us through His word, when implemented, bring about healing, growth, and flourishing. Randall Hoag, president of Vision of Community Fellowship and president of Food for the Hungry International Federation, shares with us about his years of experience watching the transformative power of biblical worldview ideas being applied around the world. We’ve talked a lot about the power of good ideas on a theoretical level, but today we hear about how they actually work and will change lives and communities. Listen now and hear about how God used an impoverished farm that faithfully applied a biblical worldview to eventually transform an entire country.
What You'll Hear
- Introduction (1:02)
- Do some development projects cause more harm than good? (15:30)
- Why are most Christian relief organizations ineffective in their responses to the poverty crisis? (24:22)
- A biblical mindset changes people’s lives and communities globally. (41:13)
- Should Christians be concerned about transformation here on earth? (1:01:51)
- Can we apply these relief and development principles from South Korea here in the US with our homelessness issue? (1:19:02)
Randall Hoag is the president of Vision of Community Fellowship and the president of Food for the Hungry International Federation. Before that, he served as the president of Food for Hungry International. Randy has a lifetime of experience in Christian community development. He worked for many years, not just leading organizations, but also at the grassroots level, leading work in Bolivia and launching Vision of Community Fellowship.
Using the link above, you can read the transcript, listen along, and adjust the speed of the podcast while you listen.
"I believe that if you're honest in trial and error, it eventually leads you to the kingdom of God and the biblical worldview."
Randall Hoag (15:09)
Go Deeper
- Disciple a NATION? The Story of the Canaan Farm School a blog post from darrowmillerandfriends.com
- Reach out to Randall at randy.hoag@gmail.com
The Kingdomizer Training Program
More than a million people have now been trained in 115 countries.
Our Kingdomizer Training Program was first designed for missionaries, indigenous pastors, and workers in relief and development. As these individuals explored our basic biblical worldview teaching, they began to experience personal transformation that would ripple into their families, churches, communities, and even nations.
If you have a heart for the poor and a love for the Bible, we invite you to explore how you can be part of God’s transforming work in the world, and learn why thinking about a biblical worldview can make all the difference in people flourishing. Get started with our completely free Kingdomizer Training Program today!
The Development Ethic: Hope for a Culture of Poverty
As the creator of the universe and mankind, God established natural law, moral law and a framework in his word to guide us in fulfilling the creation mandate to fill and rule the earth. As image-bearers of God, we must discover and apply these laws. This is the focus of this Bible study.
These truths provided the outline for Darrow’s book Discipling Nations which, in turn, provided the content for the Kingdomizer Training Program.
This Bible study gives you the opportunity to look at the foundation of these life-changing truths and personalize them for your own life.
Discipling Nations: The Power of Truth to Transform Cultures
Have Christians underestimated the power of God’s truth to transform entire societies? In Discipling Nations, Darrow Miller builds a powerful and convincing thesis that God’s truth not only breaks the spiritual bonds of sin and death but can free whole societies from deception and poverty. Completely revised and updated for the third edition, Discipling Nations will challenge, reenergize, and equip Christians everywhere who labor to see His kingdom come, His will be done.
Quotes
- 15:09 “I believe that if you’re honest in trial and error, it eventually leads you to the kingdom of God and the biblical worldview.” Randall
- 31:35 “In some ways, we all have to have our mindsets renewed. Right? The Bible talks about this. We have fallen worldly mindsets, and ways of thinking that have to be changed and renewed and it’s part of discipleship. But in my experience, discipleship is viewed as something that we do over here in this corner. And relief and development is something wholly different that you do over here in this corner; they don’t connect. But what I hear you saying is no, they have to, they have to connect.” Scott
- 32:49 “How do you cultivate in an inquisitiveness, so that people who are in poverty can begin to dream dreams, and figure out how to use the resources in their own community, to create technology, to improve their crops, they have the ability to do that, because they’re made in the image of God. That’s the message that we have to get to.” Darrow
- 34:22 “Not all worldviews foster this kind of spirit of innovation. And I think that many people don’t understand that we kind of think, oh, everyone’s the same as I am. Especially in the West, because we’ve been deeply shaped over centuries by the Bible. It’s shaped the way we think about ourselves and things like innovation, creativity, the formation of technologies. A lot of that is fruit of biblical thinking, and we tend to think, oh, everyone else thinks like me, but it’s not the case. Not all worldviews lead to that kind of spirit of innovation.” Scott
- 35:25 “You get this idea of creativity and innovation uniquely from biblical truth.” Scott
- 39:40 “The Bible teaches us not only about messages or truth, it also teaches us about methodology.” Randall
- 1:04:04 “Jesus is the King of everything. Yes, he’s the king of the spiritual realm, but he’s also the king of government, the schools, the military, health, education, and so on.” Randall
- 1:07:29 “When you’re natural salt and light, you don’t have to force them. You just have to be models. You have to pray like Kim Yong-ki, you have to ask questions like Jesus, and the fruit comes.” Randall
