Your question determines the answers

This section appeared in the Manifesto v0.8 as part of the Introduction and Vision with the following other sections:


 * Foreword by the author (Wolfgang Simson)
 * Your question determines the answers


 * Why this book?
 * The Tale of the Mosquito Net

In an age abundant with answers that are shouted from the rooftops, we may first have to return to face our deepest questions. Without good questions, even the best answers could confuse or even disturb or annoy us. God himself is a master interviewer of man; he expertly knows how to ask questions. In fact, God’s main way of dealing with mankind is to ask penetrating questions, from “Adam where are you?” to the final questioning before the Great White Throne, that probably begins with “where have you been?” And so, asking comes before answers, searching before finding. Can I therefore petition you to seriously pause for a minute and ask yourself three key questions as you begin reading a book like this:


 * 1) What are my biggest questions?
 * 2) What are my true motives? and
 * 3) How much, really, am I prepared to act upon any new understanding that comes my way?”

Most of us have been educated far beyond our obedience. What has been extremely important for many was simply a possession of the ultimate truth; or, a much more passive and religious attitude, to make sure that we are “in the right church.” And I am the first one to admit my guilt in this regard. There was a time when I felt very strongly convinced about things, about concepts, about truth. Now, as I am getting older, I am not so sure anymore. I have come to the realization that it is not we who possess truth, truth wants to own us. Truth is a person – Jesus himself. This makes us an appendix to him, not him an appendix of us. And in exactly this human weakness, I found profound liberation and freedom. As we give up trying to understand and figure it out, we learn something much more valuable: to trust and walk by faith, not by calculation. Rather than walking on the seemingly safe but extremely thin ice of frozen understanding (tradition), frozen faith (legalism) and frozen relationships (organizations), it again feels like walking on water, because Jesus is calling us out of our safe little boats.

Let me tell you some of my biggest and global questions. Where is God today? What is he up to? What are his ways? How can we fit into what he is doing? How can we do what he is blessing? I call this the “He-questions” as opposed to the “Me-questions,” as he and not me is at the center of things. I as a person, we as a family, need those answers more desperately than the answers of a lesser and much more individual nature: our personal search for reality, and all those me-questions (what’s my mission, role, place, job, partner, etc.). After centuries of individualism, where specifically in the West the individual has been placed far above the community, many are starting not with the He-questions, but the Mequestions, and often will only find a way out of their own personal circus as they stop starting with themselves.

I have been desperately asking many of these questions. And as much as I have wanted to find answers, to my surprise, many of the answers actually found me. So I can and will not really take any credit for them. I did not just stumble upon them: many came literally in the form of an inspiration, a revelation, not by means of information. By this I mean that, at crucial points in my life, I had a dream, or my wife Mercy had a dream or vision; I found myself suddenly inside a prophetic story, or a prophetic person would speak to me. Most often, however, it was in those times alone with God, reading my Bible, that he so chose to open up a subject to me. And then I could not wait to write it down, thinking: “My goodness, I never saw this!”

And so, yes, there has been a time where I would say: I have a vision. But after all that has happened in a little over two decades that I tried following Jesus Christ – some of it I have penned down in a sort of biographical section in this book - I can not say any more than that. It would put much too much emphasis on me. The reality now is, that it is the other way around. A vision has me. I have seen, read, heard and experienced things that have simply consumed me. And this is also my wish and prayer for you. You may already have a “vision,” a plan, a concept, follow a method, run a church or organization, or are run by it, or plan on doing so. You or others around you may look at you as a visionary, someone with grand ideas. But let me tell you: God has probably much larger and far-reaching plans for you than you have for yourself. I have reasons to believe that I can safely say: you, yourself, are currently being actively pursued by Jesus, that great lover and master builder who has vital information, relationships, and work for you. A special mission and place in his kingdom plans that carries your name. You may already be right on it, so as you read this book, I hope you are encouraged and stretched, and will reach the finishing line well. Or you may run in an entirely different direction now, and God may suddenly block your way like that of Moses on his way to freeing Israel from the Egyptian bondage, because he had not read and obeyed the fine print that dealt with circumcision. Then, you may want to give up, surrender, and return. Or you are waiting in the desert, alone, desperate, sitting in the shadow of a cactus, waiting to be picked up by somebody, finally.

I have decided not to write another highly systematic and theologically articulate book,but one that is highly personal, focusing on mission concepts and principles of apostolic architecture interwoven with tangible experiences, where I believe our story fits into his story. This will make it probably easier for some of the more structured, linear-logical types to dismiss this. But I believe for many it will make what I will say here much more accessible and digestible. We should not try to explain God logically; he lovingly explains us. We don’t correctly predict him; he compassionately predicts us. I have found this not to be a problem, but a solution. God speaks prophetically and builds apostolically. And so, let us engage; let us listen prophetically, and build apostolically. Or, more simply put: let us hear God’s voice, and do what he says. And do so in ways that bring not so much glory to us, but to him.

This is also why I have decided not to publish this book the conventional way – buy it, read it, shelf it - but use it as an invitation to join an apostolic-prophetic “open source project.” In closed source projects, individuals hold their cards close to their chests, and personally speak a final and seminal word on an issue. What you get is a snapshot out of a film, a limited book, a personal opinion. You take it, you leave it. In the software world, we speak of open source projects if a core of software developers give deliberate access to the programming code (which would be a holy cow for closed source projects because it would mean to lay the cards open on the table) and ask gifted individuals to participate in a constant upgrading of the program. Linux, Thunderbird, Firefox and others are some expressions of this. What you get is a network node, an entry point to join the definitely most exciting adventure this planet has for us humans: participating in how the Great Commission comes to its final conclusion. My goal is to develop a constantly evolving apostolic and prophetic knowledge base, where not only I, but many can participate, and, by their own contribution, can help evolve and fine-tune systems and patterns for the current apostolic advances on the planet. This is the engine, the operating system of “The Starfish Partnership.” Working with the analogy of the stunning multiplication ability of the starfish, one of God’s most amazing creatures, the internet-based hub for this is www.thestarfishprojet.net, the idea being a nexus, supporting and connecting a global shared value process, where people from all over the world can engage in missions based on vision, values, and friendship. There you will find an expanded and constantly updated version of the material of this book, other books, harvest-related tools, developed concepts of apostolic architecture, prophetic briefs, ideas, research, stories, links, and new resources that relate to the apostolic quest of today.
 * Open source