An update on the rebuild of the blog and podcast. It’s been a long journey and we’re still working on it.
We’re going to need another couple of weeks to get things right.
I’m storing up plenty of good material to release once we’re ready.
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An update on the rebuild of the blog and podcast. It’s been a long journey and we’re still working on it.
We’re going to need another couple of weeks to get things right.
I’m storing up plenty of good material to release once we’re ready.
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UK Training Dates 2017:
I’m about to go off air for a while.
Two reasons:
Hope to have the new site up and running before the start of 2017.
Have a blessed Christmas!
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Church Planter Magazine is running a competition and the prize is a library of 12 book on Church Planting.
My Pioneering Movements is among them.
Here’s a list of the 12 books that Pete Mitchell and Peyton Jones over at Church Planter Magazine are giving away:
I talk to Troy Cooper about local churches adopting a NoPlaceLeft strategy for their community, and mobilising workers to make disciples and multiply churches nationally and overseas.
Prefer the audio version?
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Tim Keller’s message on the Temptation of Ministry shook me to core. He’s speaking to seminary students destined for pastoral ministry. The message applies just as much to movement pioneers.
Few leaders finish well. Tim Keller explains why, and helps us understand God’s solution.
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Why do progressive/liberal/mainline churches decline?
For years academics and church officials have denied that decline has anything to do with beliefs. Decline resulted from external factors, not internal factors.
Former Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal church, Katharine Jefferts Schori, claimed that since Episcopalians were better-educated and cared for the earth, they had lower birth rates than other Christians.
Recently a Canadian study has concluded that theology does matter.
The authors of Theology Matters: Comparing the Traits of Growing and Declining Mainline Protestant Church Attendees and Clergy surveyed 2,225 churchgoers in Ontario, Canada, and conducted interviews with 29 clergy and 195 congregants.
About two-thirds of congregations at growing churches were under the age of 60, whereas two-thirds of congregations at declining churches were over 60.
Why study the decline of the Protestant mainline? We watch and learn, or their future will become ours.
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Michelle and I will be running our training in multiplying disciples in Melbourne at Crossway, January 28, 2017.
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Apologies for the dearth of updates for the blog. My mind has been elsewhere since arriving back in Australia.
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Steve Addison talks to Troy Cooper about local churches adopting a NoPlaceLeft strategy for their community, and mobilising workers to make disciples and multiply churches nationally and overseas.
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A report on the World’s Most Vibrant Christward Movement:
]]>Christianity Today circled India from north to south and back again for two weeks in order to witness the innovative and successful mission efforts of Indian evangelicals—this, despite rising persecution from Hindu nationalists. In fact, evangelical leaders across India agree that their biggest challenge is not restrictions on religious freedom, but training enough pastors to disciple the surge of new believers from non-Christian backgrounds.
While Christianity previously flourished primarily in South India, today the clear trend is robust growth in the North. For example, in the 1980s, Delhi Bible Institute discipled and sent out 100 students per year to pastor in the North. By the turn of the century, it was sending 1,000. Last year it sent out 7,600 students. Its goal for 2016 is 10,000 . . .
The video version of my interview with Daniel Reece.
I’m experimenting with video versions of the Movements podcast. The video versions are especially helpful if you want to watch them in team training.
Here’s a link to my Vimeo channel where you can subscribe and view past videos.
]]>NoPlaceLeft has a documentary courtesy of the amazing Don Waybright and Sugar Creek Baptist Church.
The story of a mega church igniting multiplication movements locally, nationally and globally.
If you follow this blog, a few familiar faces appear.
Here’s my interview with Don Waybright: From mini-mega church to movement.
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My book, Pioneering Movements is a finalist in the IVPress Readers’ Choice Awards.
Thanks for your support.
We now need to get out the vote for the shortlist.
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I talk to Daniel Reece about NoPlaceLeft in Asheville NC.
During the interview Daniel mentions Mike Shipman’s book, Any 3.
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A great deal on a great resource for research on the Biblical basis for movements.
But be warned, it is a dictionary.
]]>I talk to Colin Baron of the Broadcast Network about Multiplying Disciples and Churches in Britain.
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If you enjoyed reading Pioneering Movements: Leaders who multiply disciples and churches, you can recommend it for this year’s IVP Readers’ Choice Awards.
]]>Earlier this year at Exponential I recorded this interview with Troy Cooper. The topic was how do we get started multiplying disciples and churches.
Some great insights on how to be involved as a family.
If you like what to hear, you need to get some training.
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This book changed my life.
It’s on Kindle and on sale for $2.99.
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The NIV Application Commentaries are heavily discounted on Kindle for the next few days.
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Dave Ferguson talks to Daniel Norburg (EFK Sweden) about leading a denomination towards multiplying disciples and churches.
Thanks to Exponential Europe for making the interview available.
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I never get tired of hearing stories like this. From a friend’s newsletter:
About six weeks ago I decided to go to a city across the border for the day to see who I could find to share the gospel with. During the morning I walked around an area not far from the train station and had a couple of conversations with people but no one seemed to be interested to talk much about Jesus. Praying I said to God, “there must be someone here who wants to know you!” Very quickly after this I had a thought that I needed to go to the university district. So I caught a taxi to the university.
About two mins went by and a lady approached me and asked if I was looking for someone or somewhere in particular? I said to her that I was looking for a KFC or McD’s to meet people as I was looking for anyone who was interested to talk about God and the Bible. Then I asked her if this was something she was interested in? She stood there looking at me for a moment then began telling me that herself, her husband and their two children had just been living in America where they used to take their daughter to Awana Club at a Baptist church every Friday evening. She told me they loved the atmosphere and the people but didn’t really know a lot about Jesus. She then said something quite astounding.
She said, “We want to know Jesus but we don’t know what to do!”
To cut a long story short I arranged a time to return to the university two weeks later where the lady and her husband listened to the gospel message and then gladly received Christ into their lives as Lord and Savior.
Please pray for the family as they begin following Jesus. I have been back three times now to go through some discipleship lessons with them.
He knows how to find a God-prepared person, he knows how to share the gospel, he knows how to disciple new believers and help them form church. He’s doing his job.
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Need an excuse to visit Florida in the winter? I can’t think of a better one.
For lead pastors and church staff wanting to multiply disciples and churches.
Listen in to our Exponential workshop for more on how Family Church multiplies disciples and churches.
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I’ve just come from a workshop on Firing Your MetaMissional™ Imagination with Dr S Crewtape. He’s a Meta-Missional™ thought leader.
His message to a room full of cutting-edge, world-focused, MetaMissional™ followers went something like this:
MetaMissional™ is a game-changer but we’re losing the game.
Today’s faith consumer has a problem with the Cross. Our focus groups reveal that it’s an embarrassment. Christ dying in our place for our sins? It just doesn’t fly in a MetaMissional™ context. We don’t do the wrath of God anymore. We don’t do sin and death.
You can still believe all that stuff. Just don’t mention it to anyone. (I still believe and tremble).
What we have to do is reimagine what it means to be who we are and who we are becoming and what this sentence means. You heard me.
What we need is a MetaMissional™ response to a MetaMissional™ world.
What is MetaMissional™? It’s the people of God in the MetaMissional™ mode of engagement. MetaMissional™ IS MetaMissional™ You got it.
It’s the GoodNews. God is nice. He lets bygones be bygones. Love reigns! High five! Everyone wins.
God doesn’t need the Cross to save us. Love means never having to say sorry. We’re all forgiven, even before we ask. Even if we never bother to ask. WOW.
Doesn’t that make you feel better? Our research shows this generation will buy the Meta-Missional™ message. It’s going to be HUUGE.
So let’s get on with the MetaMissional™ mission and make this world a happier place for everyone.
Visit www.metamissional.com/rucrazy for the full transcript.
[ed. Could this be the next big thing?]
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Every generation has to rediscover the power of the gospel. Movements that become fuzzy about the gospel deny their reason for existence. Their decline is followed by decay.
That’s why you should read Simon Gathercole’s excellent article on The Gospel of Paul and the Gospel of the Kingdom.
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I’ve put off releasing this. It wasn’t quite right. Then I realised, it never will be right until people start using it and we get feedback.
So here’s Following and Fishing v3.1 (beta).
As always, there is no copyright on this material. Freely we have received, freely we give.
Use what’s helpful. Send in your suggestions, questions, corrections.
We don’t use these notes for training or discipleship. We use them for reference and preparation. We’ll often hand them out, or send around the pdf, after we’ve trained. When we meet with a new group of disciples we just use blank paper.
If you’re responsible for one of the many translations (Russian, Spanish, Mancunian, German, Farsi, Chinese and Swedish) there is no need to make any changes unless you would value them.
If you prefer Version 2, keep using it.
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I’ll be hanging out with Colin Baron and the Broadcast Church Planting Network Thursday 27th October at 7:30pm (GMT).
You are warmly welcome.
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The governing body of the Church in Wales (Anglican) has met recently. They heard a report that average Sunday attendance has fallen below 1%.
The Revd Richard Wood described it as devastating, appalling, an embarrassment, and deeply depressing.
He recognised that the Church in Wales was attempting new things, such as pioneer ministry and licensed evangelists, and said that these would take time to produce fruit. But he was concerned about the “huge amount of time, effort, energy, and money [spent] on propping up stuff which has failed”.
He moved an amendment to the motion, to say that the Governing Body received the report “with a heavy heart”, and added a new clause calling for more research into what made a growing Church.
Good to hear they’ll be some research going on.
The Church in Wales ticks all the right boxes — economic justice, climate justice, same sex marriage and the inclusion of LGBT people. They drink Fair Trade coffee. They’re just a bit fuzzy on the gospel.
]]>For all you visual learners out there — the video version of my podcast interview with Garret Lawrence and his bodyguards.
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Garret Lawrence tells the story of NoPlaceLeft Austin TX with a little help from Pete and Colin.
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I’ll be one of the speakers at the European Forum for Church Multiplication: 8-10 February, 2017.
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Nick Duffy and Russell Godward are training in Manchester, Nov 25-26. It’s the equivalent of our Following and Fishing training.
More details to follow.
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Ray Vaughn, Troy Cooper, Ron Surgeon, and Steve Wright share what they are learning about the transiton from church to movement.
Photo: The five of us at Exponential 2016. Steve Wright wasn’t there for the photo so I popped his head on the body of Alan Hirsch.
Subscribe to the Exponential podcast for more great content.
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Scott Atran understands movements.
In a penetrating essay Atran argues that,
[we have not grasped the] revolutionary character of radical Arab Sunni revivalism. Its revival is a dynamic, countercultural movement of world-historic proportions spearheaded by ISIS.… In less than two years, it has created a dominion over hundreds of thousands of square kilometres and millions of people. And it possesses the largest and most diverse volunteer fighting force since the Second World War.
ISIS has a plan.
[It is] a purposeful plan of violence that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the Islamic State’s self-anointed Caliph, outlined in his call for ‘volcanoes of jihad’: to create a globe-spanning jihadi archipelago that will eventually unite to destroy the present world and create a new-old world of universal justice and peace under the Prophet’s banner. A key tactic in this strategy is to inspire sympathisers abroad to violence: do what you can, with whatever you have, wherever you are, whenever possible.
Atran and his team conducted dozens of interviews and behavioural experiments with youth in Paris, London and Barcelona, as well as with captured ISIS fighters in Iraq and members of Jabhat al-Nusra (Al-Qaeda’s affliate in Syria).
His conclusion? ISIS has “a profoundly alluring mission to change and save the world.”
Atran understands ISIS as a movement.
Ultimately the West’s greatest challenge in facing the threat of ISIS is not military hardware but a lack of meaning and purpose.
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Great news Nathan Shank is writing! Here’s his Biblical foundation for a No Place Left strategy.
No Place Left is the focus of the October 2016 edition of Global Missiology.
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The new laws will put the state firmly in charge, giving the Communist Party the ability to hire and fire church leaders and change religious doctrine to make it more Chinese.
That means churchgoers will have to pledge loyalty to the Communist Party first.
China is set to launch a nationwide crackdown on the Christian churches.
The Communist Party has just enacted much tougher laws that criminalise Christians if they don’t pledge loyalty to the state.
The Chinese President Xi Jinping has warned that all religions now have to become ‘Chinese’ and the new laws will attempt to bring churchgoers and their leaders under party control.
Christianity Today sums up what the new regulations are likely to include:
Across Beijing, church leaders are waiting for the first round of arrests and detentions. It seems the harassment has already begun.
Matthew Carney’s report from the (Australian) ABC is worth listening to. You get the feel of what it is like for the ordinary Chinese believer.
There are 25 million believers registered with the official church and around 75 million believers in unregistered churches. By 2030 China may have the largest Christian population in the world.
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Scripture is very clear that God’s intention for sexual expression is to be between a husband and wife in marriage. Every other sexual practice is outside of God’s plan and therefore is a distortion of God’s loving design for humanity.
InterVarsity has made clear its position on marriage and sexuality. This is a rare thing, many Christian organisations, leaders and churches would rather duck the issue.
We live in strange times when it’s news that a Christian organisation believes what Christians have universally taught on sexuality for 2,000 years.
Organizations like InterVarsity are not infrequently torn between older, conservative donors and powerbrokers, and the younger donors and activists who hold the key to their future.
If public-opinion polls are any indication, a polarizing position like this may sharply limit the field of future supporters.
If that’s the case the mainline churches must be bulging with a surplus of young activists and donors. Instead they’re in an unending spiral of decline and decay.
This is the lesson of history — move away from Biblical orthodoxy and you’re finished as a movement. There is no other pattern.
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I’ll be doing a session at Exponential Europe this week, Oct 12-13.
Look forward to meeting up if you’ll be there.
If you can’t be there, it will be streamed live for free.
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The only way Christianity can become salvageable is by admitting that it is unsalvageable in its present form. The only way it can be saved is to admit that it is lost. The only way it can be healed is to admit that it is sick.
Brian McLaren
Brian McLaren is on a mission to save Christianity — from itself.
The movement Jesus started has lost its way and must be reborn. No longer defined by a set of unchanging beliefs, but by a way of life centered in love, embodied by Jesus.
Belief is the problem. Love is the answer. All you need is love.
So Brian has written another book.
There’s nothing new in his message. We’ve heard it before. Another attempt to reinvent the Christian faith and make it more acceptable to our culture. It’s a faith the world can embrace. But it won’t.
Gone is the one true God revealed in Scripture, and supremely revealed through Jesus Christ. Gone are notions of sin and salvation. Instead we have the god of love as “the Spirit at work in our world for the common good.”
It’s not up to Brian McLaren or anyone else to redefine the Christian faith. God has made himself known in his Word — Old and New Testaments. God has come to us in the person of Jesus Christ. Sorry but that’s a belief and it’s true. Only by understanding who God is and what he has done through Jesus can we fully know what love is. And yes, if our response is to not love God with all our heart, mind and strength and love our neighbour as ourselves — then we have not understood who God is, and what he has done for us.
True belief inspires us to love. True love is defined by the very nature of God revealed in Scripture. Love and belief are not opposites, they are the two sides of one coin.
If you truly believe you will truly love. Love, obedience to Christ and faith are different ways of understanding the same reality of discipleship.
Jesus taught us that God is love, but love is not god. Who God is and what he does in history reveals the true nature of his holy love. Yes doctrines can be used as weapons. Just as the word “love” can be used to undermine the truth of the gospel.
The same Jesus who said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you,” said, “I am the way the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father except by me.”
Related: The future of American Christianity? Or the last hurrah of a bankrupt faith?
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Following and Fishing has been translated into Swedish.
Thanks to Magnus Alphonce and Richard Hultmar.
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For over a century Westerners have been reinventing the gospel and mission with disastrous results.
Jim Hamilton helps blow away the confusion with a careful study of the central theme of the book of Acts. This is what he concludes on the gospel in Acts:
God’s justice is seen in his righteous reversal of the unjust condemnation of Jesus, in his just calling to account of those who perpetrated that crime, and in the proclamation that forgiveness of sins is available through Jesus.
Forgiveness is available through Jesus because Jesus has satisfied God’s justice in his death on the cross. Thus, the justice of God is of a piece with the salvation of God. God demonstrates his mercy by making a way for sins to be forgiven through the death of Jesus. Upholding his justice through the death of Jesus, God can extend mercy to guilty people who deserve only justice.
This mercy is offered to those who crucified the Messiah, and the redemptive mercy of God is put on display through the healings and teachings that the witnesses to the resurrection do in Acts.
God’s justice and his mercy balance one another. The justice keeps the mercy from becoming insipid sentimentality, while the mercy keeps the justice from crushing all with just punishment. Justice and mercy serve a higher aim … for both display God and evoke the glory that God rightly deserves.
Luke wrote his Gospel and Acts as one story told in two halves.
Acts shows that at the heart of mission is the spread of the gospel resulting in disciples and churches to the glory of God.
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Phil Alessi (the dangerous guy on the left) tells the story of disciple making movements in the prison system.
Links to Phil’s resources:
Watch Released From Darkness: Making Disciples in the Indiana State Prison System
UPDATE: Do you know anyone with a heart for prisoners and their families? Can you spread the word on social media and by email?
Here’s the short link: http://wp.me/p1q8Rw-2LE
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According to the latest LifeWay research Americans love God and believe the Bible (sort of) but are confused about the details.
]]>Six in 10 say everyone eventually goes to heaven, but half say only those who believe in Jesus will be saved. And while 7 in 10 say there’s only one true God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—two-thirds say God accepts worship of all faiths.
Most Americans still identify as Christians. But they seem to be confused about some of the details of their faith.
For example about two-thirds of Americans believe Jesus is God while half say Jesus is a being created by God.
Evangelical believers say hell is for real. Other Americans aren’t so sure.
Many evangelical believers say everybody goes to heaven. They also believe that only those who trust Jesus as their Savior are saved.
Everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature
The resurrection really happened. But not everything else in the Bible did
Americans believe in the Trinity. But are fuzzy on the details.
Americans disagree about sex, abortion, homosexuality and gender.
Three-quarters of Americans say people must contribute their own effort for personal salvation.
At the time of the Islamic revolution in 1979, there were around 500 Christians from a Muslim background in Iran. Today, there are hundreds of thousands – some say more than one million.
Carey Lodge reports:
]]>Christians in Iran face relentless persecution. Ranked ninth on Open Doors’ list of countries where it’s most dangerous to be a Christian, open churches are forbidden and converting from Islam – the state religion – is punishable by death for men, and life imprisonment for women. Last year more than 100 Christians were arrested or imprisoned and allegations of torture have emerged.
And yet, the church in Iran is thriving.
In 2015, Operation World named Iran as having the fastest growing evangelical population in the world, with an estimated annual growth of 19.6 per cent. According to Mark Howard of Elam Ministries, an organisation founded by Iranian church leaders with the purpose of expanding the church in Iran, more Iranians have become Christians in the last two decades than in the previous 13 centuries combined.
I recently stumbled upon an article provocatively entitled, “Stop Sending Missionaries.” The author argues that in our haste to fulfil the Great Commission we’re sending too many unqualified people who are doing more harm than good. In the words of Jesus’ parable, they are producing weeds, not wheat.
By unqualified he means without formal theological education and ordination.
We’ve already looked at the mistaken belief that the apostle Paul spent 3-10 years in theological reflection and preparation before setting out on his first missionary journey. Let’s take a look at this statement:
If you speak to an older generation of missionaries, you’ll find that in by-gone days Bible college was a requirement. If you read the biographies of guys like Adoniram Judson, you’ll find that ordination was required.
In Movements that Change the World I take a look at the formation of the evangelical missionary movement. 150 years after the Protestant Reformation there was still no concerted effort to take the gospel to the nations. So two young men decided to act. One was a potter and the other a carpenter.
When Leonard Dober and David Nitschmann set out to take the gospel to the West Indies in 1732, William Carey, the “father of Protestant missions,” had not yet been born. Hudson Taylor, missionary pioneer, would not arrive in China for another 150 years. Dober and Nitschmann were the first missionaries sent out by the Moravian Brethren; within twenty years Moravian missionaries were in the Arctic among the Eskimos, in southern Africa, among the Indians of North America, and in Suriname, Ceylon, China, India and Persia.
Dober and Nitschmann had little understanding of what life would be like in the West Indies. They had no mission agency to support them. They had no example to follow. As they walked toward the port, they had no idea that they were clearing the way for the birth of the Protestant missionary movement.
These two young men became the founders of the Christian movement among the slaves of the West Indies. By the time other Christian missionaries arrived, fifty years later, the Moravians had baptized 13,000 converts and planted churches on the islands of St. Thomas, St. Croix, Jamaica, Antigua, Barbados and St. Kitts. The Moravians were the first Protestants to treat world missions as the responsibility of the whole church. Under Zinzendorf, the Moravians became an intense and highly mobile missionary movement. Within two decades the Moravians sent out more missionaries than all Protestants had sent out in the previous two hundred years. The rapid deployment of so many young missionaries around the world was remarkable.
The outreach was made possible by a relative lack of concern with training, finances or structure. All of these missionaries were laypeople, mostly peasant farmers and tradesmen. They were trained as evangelists, not academic theologians. They received enough money to get to the port. The missionaries then worked for their passage across the ocean. On the mission field, they took up whatever work would provide enough food and clothing. They had no formal theological education, and they received scant training in language acquisition and crosscultural ministry.
Once they set sail, they had no financial support and no organization to look after them; there was no guarantee of health care, only the likelihood that they would never see their homeland again.
Over the next 150 years, 2,158 Moravians volunteered to serve overseas in the most remote, unfavorable and neglected areas. This was something new in the expansion of Christianity: an entire Christian community—families as well as singles—devoted to world missions.
The impact of the Moravians did not end with their own achievements. They profoundly influenced both William Carey, known as the “father of Protestant missions,” and John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement. The Moravians prepared the way for the great Protestant missionary expansion of the nineteenth century in which Adoniram Judson made an important contribution.
It seems in bygone days the Moravians knew their Bible too well to be fooled into requiring formal theological education and ordination for their missionaries.
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I recently stumbled upon an article provocatively entitled, “Stop Sending Missionaries.” The author argues that in our haste to fulfil the Great Commission we’re sending too many unqualified people who are doing more harm than good. In the words of Jesus’ parable, they are producing weeds, not wheat.
By unqualified he means without formal theological education and ordination.
Here’s the recommendation,
We should look to Paul as an example of zealous patience. From the moment of his conversion, he was told his purpose. But you’ll see in Acts that it was more than ten years before his first missionary journey. In the interim, he spent three formative years in Arabia, time in his home city of Tarsus, and finally a season at the church in Antioch until he was sent out with Barnabas. This is Paul, mind you, who at conversion already had an immense knowledge of the Scriptures. It appears Paul did not begin his mission in earnest until he was sent by his “home” church of Antioch at the Holy Spirit’s leading through the elders and congregation.
It seems the apostle Paul sat around for a decade before obeying Christ’s missionary calling. Or did he?
Think about what you know of Paul. He’s just encountered the Risen Christ on the Damascus Road who commissions him to take the gospel to the Jews and the Gentiles. This is a man of action. He waits 10 years before obeying Christ’s call!
Paul tells us that he began preaching the gospel immediately in the synagogues of Damascus. Opposition grew, and Paul grew increasingly powerful. Paul traveled to nearby Arabia to continue his missionary work (Gal 1:15-17).
There is no evidence for the popular belief that Paul spent three years in quiet contemplation in the Arabian desert; Arabia was not all sand. It included the area of the modern country of Jordan and was home to the Nabatean kingdom, a flourishing civilization with cities, seaports and farming land. In cities such as Petra there were synagogues where Paul could meet fellow Jews and local Gentiles who were attracted to the God of Israel. Through these Gentiles the gospel could have spread to the surrounding community.
When he had completed his mission in Arabia, Paul returned to Damascus where the representative of King Aretas of the Nabateans tried to have Paul arrested (2 Cor 11:32-33). Paul’s mission in the cities of Arabia had stirred up trouble.
Paul related his Arabian mission closely with his call to preach Christ among the Gentiles. He told the Galatians he began to discharge this call before he went up to Jerusalem to see the apostles. Therefore no one could say that any human authority, including the Twelve, commissioned him as an apostle to the Gentiles.
I covered this in my book What Jesus Started. In doing so I relied on some outstanding historians of New Testament mission:
So next time someone says you’re unqualified to be a missionary, remember the example of Paul. He was obedient to Christ’s call.
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Contagious Disciple Making by David Watson is on sale in the Kindle store: $1.99 (US) £1.99 (UK).
It’s a must read.
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Gabriel Reynolds, professor of Islamic studies and theology at the University of Notre Dame explains the difference between Jesus, the Jesus of the Qur’an and the Jesus of Islam.
]]>Many Christians and other non-Muslims who want to understand the Christ of Islam turn to the Qur’an, yet the Qur’an won’t tell them much about Jesus. It mentions his miraculous birth. It refers to miracles such as raising the dead and bringing a clay bird to life. It speaks of his disciples, although it does not give them names.
Otherwise the Qur’an has precious little to say about Jesus’ life. There is nothing in the Qur’an, for example, of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee, his confrontations with the scribes and Pharisees, his entry into Jerusalem, or the Last Supper.
As for his death, the Qur’an relates laconically that the Jews “did not crucify or kill Jesus” and in a following verse that “God raised him up to Himself.” Whether Jesus was killed by someone else and then rose again, or whether he escaped death entirely, is left for the reader to ponder. The Jesus of the Qur’an, in other words, is a figure shrouded in mystery.
Muslim scholars, however, have not left him that way. Instead they record a great variety of stories about Jesus, some of which describe episodes the Qur’an never mentions and others of which offer definitive explanations for things the Qur’an leaves ambiguous.
This history of storytelling, more than the Qur’an itself, shapes the common Islamic understanding of Jesus today, by which Jesus is a prophet who emphasized the spiritual life above all, who valued austerity, and who taught his disciples always to think about the fate of their souls on the Day of Judgment. Any serious appreciation of the Christ of Islam—and in particular of how Muslims think about Jesus today—must involve this history of storytelling. The Christ of Islam, in other words, is not simply the Christ of the Qur’an.
Jacob and Keesha Via serving in Haiti provide an update of what God is doing.
Notice how clear they are about the end vision and what they need to do on Monday morning. Even the kids get it!
They’ve left the missional fog behind.
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In some bibles the actual words of Jesus are printed in red. Red Letter Christians regard Jesus’ actual words in the Gospels as more authoritative than the rest of Scripture.
They want to take Jesus’ words seriously and live them out, especially the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount. I can understand why someone might be drawn to Red Letter Christianity. I also think they might have an agenda.
Apparently Red Letter Jesus is a warrior for LGBT rights, he’s for action on climate change, he leans left politically and he doesn’t believe in hell.
Unfortunately the real Jesus said some things that might upset Red Letter Christians.
He regarded the whole of Scripture as given by God. He didn’t come to overturn the teaching of the Old Testament but to fulfil it. He regarded the God revealed in the Old Testament as his Father.
He affirmed the teaching of Genesis that marriage is a union between a man and a woman (Matthew 19:4-6). He taught that sexual immorality characterises those who will not enter the kingdom of heaven (Mark 7:21-22).
He sent his disciples to the nations to tell them of the message of his death and resurrection and call them to repentance for the forgiveness of sins (Luke 24:46-47).
As the risen Lord he continued to shape the life, message and mission of the early church resulting in the writing of not only the Gospels but the Acts and the Epistles.
The Jesus of history and the risen Lord Jesus are one. How do we know that? By reading the red letters of the Gospels, in their entirety, and taking them seriously.
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]]>The 4Fields Training for Church Planters and Catalysts will equip participants with the Biblical principles and best practice (North American) methodologies to multiply healthy disciples and churches.
Troy Cooper talks to Steve about growing leaders and building teams for movements.
This is the second half of a two part interview.
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Michelle and I are heading out this week to train in Sweden — Stockholm (23-24 Sept), and Linköping (29-30 Sept).
Our hosts are the Evangeliska Frikyrkan.
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A voice from the past to help us navigate our way through the missional fog.
Donald McGavran, the great pioneer of a movements approach, describes the goal of Christian mission:
The goal of Christian mission should be to preach the gospel and, by God’s grace, to plant in every unchurched segment of mankind a cluster of growing churches.
By the phrase “segment of mankind” I mean an urbanization, development, caste, tribe, valley, plain or minority population.
The goal is not one small sealed-off conglomerate congregation in every people. Rather, the goal should be, a cluster of growing congregations in every segment.
How can this be achieved? Not by a one-by-one approach but through people movements.
To find out how you’ll need to read the whole article.
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Troy Cooper has released training opportunities around the US and beyond over the next few months.
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I did my first short-term mission trip when I was eighteen and just out of high school. We helped build an air-strip at Tifalmin in the remote Western Highlands of Papua New Guinea. It’s nice to know that after 40 years it’s still serving the community.
Imagine if on your next short-term mission you could help build a multiplying movement of disciples and churches that continue for generations.
I’ve been thinking about Troy and Oggie’s Mexican adventure and what they can teach us about leaving a lasting legacy through short-term missions. Here’s a list of my take-aways:
Last year I got a glimpse of what this could look like when Russell Godward and I went to Kenya to train.
How could your next short-term mission leave a legacy of reproducing disciples and churches?
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FOR the past couple of years, China’s tens of millions of Christians, most of whom are Protestants, have been watching events in the coastal province of Zhejiang with anxiety. The authorities there have been waging a relentless campaign to remove the large crosses that adorn the roofs of many churches; hundreds have been taken down, to the horror of their congregations. In January this took a turn for the worse with the arrest of Gu Yuese, the outspoken pastor of the country’s largest church, a colossal edifice in the provincial capital, Hangzhou, that seats 5,000 people…
But it’s not all bad news,
Police in some areas continue to harass and detain members of house churches. But in many places, house churches are flourishing, and often make little if any effort to hide their activities from the government. Officials appear to turn a blind eye. President Xi Jinping is waging a fierce campaign against dissent, rounding up hundreds of civil-rights activists and tightening controls on the media. He appears less keen, however, to take on the country’s fast-growing Christian community, as long as its members do not openly defy the Communist Party.
Some Chinese house churches are becoming mega-churches,
In the meantime, house churches continue to grow. In Beijing, one of the most prominent of them, called Zion Church (pictured), is so big that the house-church label seems wildly inappropriate. When it was founded in 2007 the congregation met in a small office in a commercial building. Since 2013 it has been using an entire floor of it. Some 1,500 people attend services each weekend.
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A classic on making disciples through the local church has just gone on sale for 99c.
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Troy Cooper talks to Steve Addison about his recent mission trip to Mexico. Listen in and it just might revolutionize how you do short term missions.
In the interview Troy mentions his 411Training.
He also refers to the 3Touches.
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When asked by pollsters if the world is becoming a better place, only a small minority of us will say yes. But what does the evidence show?
According to Swedish author Johan Norberg, in almost every way human beings today lead more prosperous, safer and longer lives — and we have all the data we need to prove it.
Poverty, malnutrition, illiteracy, child labour and infant mortality are falling faster than at any other time in human history. The risk of being caught up in a war, subjected to a dictatorship or of dying in a natural disaster is smaller than ever.
Some examples of the evidence:
Karl Marx thought that capitalism inevitably made the rich richer and the poor poorer. By the time Marx died, however, the average Englishman was three times richer than at the time of his birth 65 years earlier — never before had the population experienced anything like it.
Fast forward to 1981. Then, almost nine in ten Chinese lived in extreme poverty; now just one in ten do. Then, just half of the world’s population had access to safe water. Now, 91 per cent do. On average, that means that 285,000 more people have gained access to safe water every day for the past 25 years.
Global trade has led to an expansion of wealth on a magnitude which is hard to comprehend. During the 25 years since the end of the Cold War, global economic wealth — or GDP per capita — has increased almost as much as it did during the preceding 25,000 years. It’s no coincidence that such growth has occurred alongside a massive expansion of rule by the people for the people. A quarter of a century ago, barely half the world’s countries were democracies. Now, almost two thirds are.
So why don’t we notice the improvement?
Part of our problem is one of success. As we get richer, our tolerance for global poverty diminishes. So we get angrier about injustices. Charities quite rightly wish to raise funds, so they draw our attention to the plight of the world’s poorest. But since the Cold War ended, extreme poverty has decreased from 37 per cent to 9.6 per cent — in single digits for the first time in history.
How many people born in Bangladesh live in the US or in the UK or Australia? Where you can find North Koreans living overseas? To which countries do Afghanis migrate, and in what numbers?
Pew Research has created a simple tool to that shows the origins and destinations of the worlds migrants over the past 25 years.
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The Lion and the Lamb is a NT survey by Kostenberger & Vellum is on sale on Kindle for just 99c/99p.
From the Amazon review:
]]>Engaging and accessible, “The Lion and the Lamb” is an ideal resource for college students and others interested in knowing the essentials of each New Testament book.
Everywhere I go I hear the soil is hard here. This is the toughest place in which to share the gospel.
Earlier this year I was in Germany. Making disciples is hard in Germany — especially in the former East Germany (GDR). In the East people are five times more likely to be an atheist (52%) than in the West (10%), earning East Germany the title of “the most godless place on earth.”
You might not be in East Germany, but you may be in one of the most godless cities in the US, or in the Czech Republic, Thailand, Japan or Saudi Arabia. What do we do when the soil is hard?
A young Chinese professional we led to Christ in Melbourne was deeply discouraged. She’d been sharing her faith at work with her Australian and European colleagues. No one was interested. I had her read Jesus’ parable of the four soils (Mark 4).
Half way through she exclaimed, “It’s not my fault!”
Jesus told this parable our of his own experience. Some people are hard soil. Some people will fall away. Keep looking for fertile soil.
Do we really think Jesus had it easier than we do? Remember what happened when he went to his home town? They tried to kill him.
We think, “If only we were more like Jesus, people would believe.” Maybe if we were more like Jesus people would throw us over a cliff.
Is it a communication problem? Maybe if we communicate better things will get worse. Paul tells us that the message of the Cross is offensive to both strict religious people (Jews) and pagans (Gentiles). It’s a miracle when anyone believes.
When the soil is hard ask yourself if you’re doing the right things? Do you know what to do on Monday morning?
Read of Paul’s account of his mission in Ephesus (Acts 20:17-28). Notice how real it is. You can see him fulfilling his mission. He connects, proclaims the gospel, he forms new disciples into churches. He knows what to do.
The main actor is not Paul, it is God. The story of Acts is the story of the spread of the dynamic Word of God resulting in new disciples and churches. This is the fulfilment of Jesus’ mission in the Gospels.
If you don’t know what your mission is, and what to do on Monday morning, what hope you do you have of succeeding? If that describes you, get some training. If you’ve done some training, get connected with other practitioners for accountability and support.
It’s not our job to change people. It’s our job to find God-prepared people (Luke 10). If you’re in a resistant field, where are the exceptions? In some fields it might be one in ten people are ready to respond to Christ, in other fields it might be one in a thousand. Find that person and help them reach the people in their world.
If there’s only one person in your city/region/nation/people group who is seeing fruit — learn from that person. If there’s no one — learn from breakthroughs in similar fields. Don’t attempt this alone.
I have a friend in Germany who is focused on reaching Germans. Recently a million Arabs and Persians suddenly arrived in his country. A door has opened and now he is discipling and planting churches among Afghans and Iranians. He goes where the fish are biting.
When this happens people say but they’re not British or German or Australian so it doesn’t really count. We want to reach our countrymen not immigrants. The apostle Peter had the same problem in Acts 10. Cornelius didn’t count until God got Peter’s attention.
I like what Steve Smith says,
There was a time when there were no CPMs in China: someone had to be ?rst.
There was a time when there were no CPMs in India: someone had to be ?rst.
There was a time when there were no CPMs in Southeast Asia: someone had to be ?rst.
One hundred years ago Christianity was a white man’s religion. That changed because people who did not know any better laid down their lives for the gospel. History is made by unreasonable people who take God at his Word and turn faith into obedience.
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The Sundells were in Washington DC recently training church planters to reach immigrant groups. They went out into the harvest looking for people of peace. Jeff reports:
My wife Angie and our daughter Miriam approached a lady in South Asian dress playing with a child in the playground, and they shared creation to Christ with her and had an hour-long conversation with her. She was from Bangladesh. She shared that her husband was a nominal Muslim but she was very interested in meeting weekly to learn more about Jesus.
You can go wandering around Washington DC and find Bangladeshi Muslims who want learn more about Jesus. There are Bangladeshis in major cities all over the world. There are 450,000 Bangladeshis living in Britain, concentrated in East London. There are 100,000 in Italy. One million Bangladeshis live in the USA. They all maintain close ties to home. If they hear the gospel they are just a Skype call or a visit away from their friends and family back home.
Bangladesh has a population of 170 million. The vast majority are Muslim. To reach them you could learn the language and move to Bangladesh. Or you could start by introducing yourself to the family in the park . . . .
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Looking for an effective way to render the church in Europe impotent? No need for fierce persecution. Here’s the plan — give the church social recognition; turn the clergy into government employees; shower the church with money.
In 2013 the Catholic Church in Germany received almost €5.5 billion ($6.2 billion USD) via taxes levied by the government on the church’s behalf. (The Lutheran and some other Protestant churches benefit from the same arrangement.)
Here’s the result:
An unprecedentedly low number of Catholic priests in Germany are being ordained, new figures show, as a crisis appears to be engulfing the Church in that country.
Only 58 men joined the clergy in 2015….
The number of ordinations has dropped by half in the past decade: In 2005, a total of 122 diocesan priests were ordained, and five decades ago, in 1965, the number was 500. Today, there are 14,000 Catholic priests active in Germany, down from almost 20,000 in 1990.
Meanwhile, only 96 new seminarians – trainee priests – were registered in 2015, the lowest number ever. At the same time, 309 priests died, and 19 left the priesthood.
The new figures for priests being ordained are the latest element of what appears to be a crisis in the German Catholic Church. In July, it emerged that almost 200,000 Catholics left the Church in Germany last year…
The movement principle — don’t feed the ducks!
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This week we’re at the House of Bread in the Cotswolds for a Community of Practice. Practitioners reporting in, identifying where they are stuck, planning what’s next.
Everyone comes prepared to share their map of generations of disciples and churches. Here’s the process, it’s called an Iron on Iron (Prov 27:17).
1. Prayer
- Open in prayer for your time
2. Review action items from the last Iron on Iron
- Did you do what you said you would, how did it go?
3. How are you abiding in Christ?
- Time in the Word, Prayer & Memory [quantity & quality]
- Listening & Obedience
- Sin to Confess & Surrender [individual or pattern]
- How are your Key Relationships Is there anywhere where the enemy might be bringing division?
4. What is Jesus doing in your ministry?
- Draw out your key generations
5. Where are you stuck?
- What areas are you not sure what to do in right now, or having difficulties moving forward? Your disciples?
6. Questions, Feedback & Encouragement
- Others turn to ask questions for clarification on anything, give thoughts, advice, encouragement
7. Action items
- Make two action items that you will accomplish this week based on your iron on iron time [personal & next step for each disciple/church]
8. Prayer
- Pray over what the person shared and action items
We take an hour per person (or team).
There are tears and laughter. Obstacles are identified. Insight comes. Pioneers discover they are not alone. Everyone walks out the door with an action plan.
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James Kushiner and Patrick Reardon reflection on whether Christians and Muslims worship the same God.
]]>A Matter of Identity
… for modern students of religion—generally speaking—monotheism involves a fundamentally mathematical thesis, “There is one God,” as distinct from “more or fewer” than one God; start counting gods, and when you get to one, stop counting. Consequently, all those who believe in one God must logically believe in the same God.
This approach to monotheism is what allows our contemporaries to speak of “the monotheistic religions.” Their thesis is simple: “Since there is only one God, all those who believe in one God believe in the same God. Their differences are those of development and/or expression.”
This thesis is not only simple; it is simply absurd. Biblical monotheism is not about mathematics; it is about God’s identity: Who is this one God? Who he is, is the essential question. We may cite a noted authority on the point, “If the Lord is God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him” (1 Kings 18:21).
Elijah knew, of course, that Baal belonged to a pantheon, but this consideration was not to the point. Baal was not a false god because he had relatives; he was a false god because he was not “the Lord, our God—Adonai Eloheinu.” Elijah’s monotheism was not a matter of counting but of identifying. The question was not, How many gods? but Who is God?
And this is the reason the confession of Jesus never became, in the eyes of the Church, a challenge to biblical monotheism. In the Christian faith, Jesus is divine because he pertains to—is included in—the identity of God. Gradually this truth became perfectly clear to certain fishermen, an improbable tax collector, and some women of their company. Their conviction on the point was a big and difficult step, but it wasn’t complicated.
Impossible Identification
What does seem complicated to many today, even to some Christians, is the question of whether Muslims and Christians adhere to the same God. Quite a number of our contemporaries simply assume that the God of “the Abrahamic faiths” must be somehow “shared” by all. This identification is far from obvious.
First and foremost, if we have in mind what Islam and Christianity formally hold as articles of faith, then this identification is difficult to sustain. Islam explicitly teaches—as a fundamental thesis—that Allah has no son. The Christian faith explicitly teaches that we only know the One True God through “the Only Begotten, himself being God (Theos ho on) in the bosom of the Father” (John 1:18). When a Muslim looks at Jesus Christ, he is supposed to see a prophet, second only to Mohammed.
And the Jesus of the Koran was not crucified. When a Christian looks upon Jesus Christ, he sees the revelation of the glory of the only true God in the Crucified Christ. We worship Jesus Christ as God. Islam does not. We assert that there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved, than that of Jesus Christ. There is no other salvation except through his Cross; there is no mediator between God and man other than Jesus Christ.
Individual Intimations
It seems important to recognize, however, that the incompatibility of the Islamic doctrine of God with the Christian revelation of God in Christ does not imply that a specific individual Muslim can never be on the path to the same God as confessed by the Christian. Paul preached to the Athenians that God had determined that all men “should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after him and find him” (Acts 17:27). This implies that there is some possibility of men experiencing intimations—personal revelations of the one true God. Scripture records the experiences of gentiles receiving revelations from God—see the gentile centurion Cornelius in Acts 10. The mysterious figure of Melchizedek, priest of “God Most High” without benefit of the revelation to Abraham, is cited as a foreshadowing of Christ the High Priest.
In modern times, there are numerous reliable reports and testimonies of Muslims converting to faith in Christ because of dreams, visions, and revelations of Christ. What can we say of their experience of God and relationship to Christ beforehand? Not much, surely; whatever light from God they experienced and were faithful to, at some point it blazed forth and revealed the full identity of Christ to them. It may even come to them as a revealing of what they have already begun to know in some measure.
While we rightly judge between Islam and the Christian faith, we are less equipped or licensed to judge individuals. Many consciences, we suspect, may be honestly desiring or seeking something that only Christ can give. But one thing would seem reasonable to hold: any Muslim who believes that Christians must be subjugated and convert to Islam cannot be worshiping the same God as the Christians. Such a god demands that Christians contradict the confession of the Apostle Thomas, and deny that Jesus is Lord and God.
Further, our God does not coerce, and Jesus, the Son of God, did not coerce his own followers, but allowed them to see with their own eyes, touch with their own hands, and experience in their own burning hearts that he has the words and power of eternal life. The doubt of Thomas was not erased by logic, but by a personal invitation to place his hands in the marks of the nails. For in the end, there is no true worship of God without “Christ and him crucified.” •
Michelle and I are heading out for a UK Community of Practice led by Ray Vaughn and Erik Fish. Looking forward to meeting Erik for the first time.
Then it’s a weekend off wandering around Snowdonia with Ray and Sara Vaughn.
An update on the appeal for redesigning and rebuilding the blog and podcast — we’re at $5,600 and creeping up.
More about that when I’m back next week. . .
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David Watson tells the story of his journey with disciple making movements.
Some background on David:
David has been instrumental in catalysing 64 church planting movements in the hardest-to-reach nations of the world. He has trained the leaders that have seen over 100,000 churches planted resulting in over 4 million new, baptised believers.
Thanks to Praxeis for making David’s message available.
Harriet Sherwood wrote an informed article on the future of the Church of England.
The Anglicans are spending some serious money on leadership development and church planting. No surprises, it’s the Evangelicals who are planting churches and producing future leaders.
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We’re training again in the wonderful city of Leicester.
The best way to learn and implement this training is to do it multiple times and bring a partner or a team with you.
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Acts is a book about Jesus’ gospel going through barrier after barrier as it breaks out into the world and into the hearts of men and women. It’s about the church overcoming roadblocks and impediments, persecutions and trials as it grows and boldly proclaims Christ.
James Emery White
If like me you’re feeling discouraged today, take a few minutes to read this piece by James Emery White on the word “unhindered” in the book of Acts. Let it remind you that despite your limitations God’s Word continues to spread, grow and multiply. And wherever the Word goes new disciples and new churches are the fruit.
]]>A word has captivated me for over thirty years, ever since I first stumbled upon its significance while studying Greek in seminary. It’s unhindered.
If something is “hindered,” it’s held back, kept back, restrained. Something has gotten in the way, prevented it, stopped it. If something is unhindered, it is set free. It advances. It goes forward.
Unhindered has loomed large in my thinking for so long because of its unique place in the New Testament, and particularly in the book of Acts. The word is used twenty-five times in the New Testament, seven times in the book of Acts alone. Acts is a book about Jesus’ gospel going through barrier after barrier as it breaks out into the world and into the hearts of men and women. It’s about the church overcoming roadblocks and impediments, persecutions and trials as it grows and boldly proclaims Christ.
And it’s about individuals who will not allow anything to stop them from being used by God to take Christ to the world. Let’s take a quick tour.
Acts 8
In the eighth chapter of Acts we find a young man who was head of the Queen of Ethiopia’s treasury. He has been to Jerusalem and was reading a portion of the book of Isaiah in his chariot. We don’t know anything of his background, only that something had urged him to explore the Old Testament and the faith of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The Holy Spirit urged Philip, one of the apostles, to approach the eunuch and ask if he understood what he was reading. The eunuch said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” So Philip explained how the prophecies of the Old Testament told of a coming Messiah, and that Jesus was that Messiah. But that wasn’t all:
And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. (Acts 8:31, 36-38 ESV)
In the Greek, “What prevents me from being baptized” literally reads “What hinders me?” And the answer is nothing. This was a Jew witnessing to an Ethiopian. Crossing racial, ethnic, political boundaries.
The gospel was going out to the world. Then comes Acts 10.
Acts 10
Peter was given a vision that he should no longer be bound by Jewish dietary rules, that under Christ, the law had been fulfilled, symbolic of the gospel going not only to the Jews but also the Gentiles. Just after that dream, the Holy Spirit prompted Peter to visit a man named Cornelius who had asked for some time with him. Cornelius was not a Jew. He was a Roman centurion. At that time, it was against Jewish law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or even to visit one. But the urging of the Spirit was clear. Do not show favoritism. All are to be accepted. All are to be reached.
So Peter went.
The centurion asked about Jesus. Peter told him, and Cornelius and his household gave their lives to Christ. But that’s not all:
Then Peter said, “Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.” So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. (Acts 10:47-48)
The sentence “Can anyone keep these people from being baptized” literally reads “Can anyone hinder” or “Can anyone forbid” or “Can anyone stop” this from happening? And the answer was no.
Acts 11
Now, we turn to Acts 11. Some people didn’t like what happened between Peter and Cornelius. Apparently they hadn’t got word yet about Philip and the Ethiopian, but this news had reached them quickly. In a hastily called meeting the church leaders asked Peter, “Is it true? You went to the house of a Gentile? You ate with him? And you baptized him?” The idea of the gospel of Jesus exploding outside of Judaism into the Gentile world was mind-boggling.
As disciples they knew that Jesus was God in human form come to earth to show the way, but they didn’t quite get the scope of His mission. For them, He was the Messiah for the Jews. But that the Messiah was for the world was beyond their comprehension. Yes, Jesus crossed some pretty radical boundaries – there was, after all, that scene with the Samaritan woman at the well, and Zacchaeus was a bit sketchy – but did Jesus mean to unleash all this? Did He really come for everyone? Everywhere? So they took Peter to task, and Peter replied:
“As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. Then I remembered what the Lord had said: ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?” When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life.” (Acts 11:15-18)
There is our theme: unhindered.
Acts 20
But there is one passage that captures this dynamic, at least for me, more than any other. It brought unhindered to my attention so many years ago. In Acts 20 we pick up the end of Paul’s life. He had become a controversial figure on a number of fronts, but the bottom line is that where Paul went, Christianity went, and where Christianity went, the world was being turned upside down. Religiously, culturally, economically. Quite literally, riots broke out.
Paul had been beaten with rods, stoned, robbed, imprisoned, flogged and lashed. Now the Holy Spirit strongly urged him to go to Jerusalem, which was not a place Paul should go. It was the hotbed of opposition to everything he was about, which is why he had avoided it for years. And he knew what awaited him there. He was under no illusions about what was ahead:
“And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me – the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.” (Acts 20:22-24)
We know that Paul went to Jerusalem, was arrested by the Jewish leaders under false pretenses, and during that arrest they tried to kill him. Some Roman officers broke it up and then bound Paul in chains and arrested him for inciting a riot. As they began to flog him for good measure, Paul told them that he was a Roman citizen, which was true. That meant he had to be released and stand trial. But the city was so embroiled that they had to put him in protective custody. There the Holy Spirit urged him to take his case all the way to Rome so he could proclaim Christ there too.
Through his obedience he not only brought the message of Christ to Rome, but while in Rome he wrote some of the most pivotal portions of the New Testament, including Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon and, later, 2 Timothy.
Acts 28
But the book of Acts ends with Paul in Rome. However, that’s not the final word. And I mean that literally. The final verses of Acts say:
For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him. Boldly and without hindrance he preached the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ. (Acts 28:30-31)
In Greek, the adverb is placed at the very end. Though it’s a bit awkward when put directly into English, it reads that Paul was “proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness unhinderedly.” And that’s the last word of the last chapter in the book of Acts.
Unhindered.
From the Jews to the Gentiles; from Jerusalem to Rome.
And from Rome to today.
James Emery White
Merely praying the sinner’s prayer does not make a disciple.
In this video Chuck Wood models how he uses the Great Commission to help someone understand what it means to repent and believe.
Resource: Chuck’s notes.
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You can give through MOVE by following this link. Write “Addison” for the worker/project name.
If you’re in the UK you give here and we’ll claim any gift aid.
Let me know if you’re having trouble with either option.
A few years ago I led a young man to Christ. At least I thought I did.
We met up again to work through basic discipleship. Lesson 2 was Jesus’ command to Be Baptised. We did a discovery bible study on Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch. Then came the surprise.
I asked Gary how he would obey what he’d learnt in the story. Here’s how the conversation went:
Steve there’s no way I can get baptised.
Why?
If I got baptised I’d have to be a real Christian.
What does that mean?
I’d have to stop sleeping around. I’m not willing to do that.
I assured Gary we could work on this together. That God would give him the strength to do what was right. Even when he stumbled, God would forgive and restore him. But he had to be willing to let Jesus rule in every area of his life.
Gary said no.
Gary had prayed the sinner’s prayer, but he wasn’t willing to let Jesus rule in his life. That’s not saving faith.
When I’m training people to do Discovery Bible Study, I often tell the story of the woman who wept at Jesus’ feet (Luke 7:36-50). What amazes me is that nobody notices that Jesus announced to a room of Pharisees that this woman’s sins were “many”.
Most people think the woman was rescued from religious bigotry by Jesus’ unconditional acceptance. Yet Jesus says her faith in him brought forgiveness and freedom from sin.
Throughout the New Testament we don’t find any examples of someone being asked to pray the sinners prayer. In the NT conversion is one experience with five key elements: repentance, faith, forgiveness, baptism and the gift of the Holy Spirit. These are five ways of looking at the one conversion experience. You can’t separate them. (Robert Stein has done the homework on this.)
At Pentecost Peter challenged the crowd to:
Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 2:38
Peter doesn’t mention faith, but it’s assumed. Sometimes other elements aren’t mentioned, but they’re assumed.
Back to my friend Gary. What could I have done differently?
I like Chuck Wood’s approach. When someone says they what to turn and put their faith Christ, he takes them Matthew 28:18-20.
He has them read it out loud. Then he explains:
Then he asks, Are you ready to turn and believe?
If the answer is Yes, you lead them to Christ, baptise them, and begin meeting for discipleship (7Commands).
If the answer is No. Offer to keep meeting for Discover Bible Study (7Stories of Hope).
The Great Commission has nothing to say about praying a prayer, it’s all about making disciples of the nations by going, baptising, and teaching them to obey everything that Jesus has commanded.
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I’m waiting for official confirmation from the office, but it looks like we’re getting near to $4,000 Aussie for the website and podcast appeal.
Thanks to all of you who have given, or would like to but can’t!
We’ll keep it open until Friday 25, August.
You can give through MOVE by following this link. Write “Addison” for the worker/project name.
If you’re in the UK you give here and we’ll claim any gift aid.
Let me know if you’re having trouble with either option.
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There’s a shift underway:
The polls are in and the news is bad for the Church in America. Christianity is on the decline, Americans have given up on God, and the “Nones”—those who have no religious ties—are on the rise. It is indeed true that parts of the Christian Church in America are struggling, while a growing number of Americans are far from God.
Some of the detail:
Regardless of the figures, keep in mind that if you wander out for an hour with a friend, praying for needs and sharing the gospel, you just might find a God-prepared person.
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Communion Sanctorum is my favourite podcast on the history of the Christian movement.
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The Africans are coming. No they’re already here.
There are six African church plants in our home city of Leicester, England from just one movement of Nigerians. A few weeks ago we began training them in how to reach the city. They want us back again next week.
Philip Jenkins is writing a new book on demographic trends and religious faith. Here are some highlights of he’s written so far on the impact of fertility and faith in Africa:
By 2100 Africans will make up 40% of the world’s population.
In 1900, there were three Europeans for every African. By 2050, there should be three Africans for every European. That figure, incidentally, is misleading in one way, as many of the “Europeans” in 2050 will in fact be of African descent. By some projections, the African share of global population by 2100 could be 40 percent.
By 2050, six of the world’s 20 most populous nations will be on the African continent — Ethiopia, Nigeria, Congo, Uganda, Sudan, Tanzania, Kenya, Madagascar, and Niger.
In 1950, the combined population of these nine nations was around 100 million, rising to almost 400 million by 2000. By 2050, they will have a combined population of 1.2 billion. That would represent a twelvefold increase in raw numbers in just a century.
Africa is now home to some of the world’s largest Christian and Muslim communities.
In 1900, Africa had substantial Muslim and Christian populations, with Muslims strongly in the majority. During the 20th century, both groups grew substantially, partly by demographic expansion, but also through evangelism and conversion. About half of black Africans joined one of the great monotheistic faiths, and they favored Christianity over Islam by a rate of 4-to-1.
According to Jenkins, what happens in Africa is very unlikely to stay in Africa.
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We just made is past $2,000 for the website and podcast appeal. Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far.
Some people has asked why it costs so much to rebuild the site and podcast.The reason is the complexity and volume of traffic. It will be a complete redesign as after ten years we need a fresh look.
There will be improved integration between the blog, the podcast, social media, RSS and mail chimp for newsletters. As well as security and backup system. All this will be done professionally. The current set up has lasted 10 years with improvements along the way. But now it’s time for a complete redesign and overhaul.
You can give through MOVE by following this link. Write “Addison” for the worker/project name.
If you’re in the UK you give here and we’ll claim any gift aid.
Let me know if you’re having trouble with either option.
]]>
In this episode Steve Addison gets up close and personal in an interview with managing editor Richard Clark of Christianity Today.
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An important thing I do is spread the stories and the lessons of Movements that multiply disciples and churches around the world.
Ten years ago when no-one would publish my first book on Movements I set up this blog and began to get the ideas out any way I could.
Today this blog attracts 10,000 visits each month from 100 different countries. The Movements podcast has just published its 120th episode and reached 100,000 downloads.
We never dreamt of such a global impact. Here’s part of an email I received from Cameron,
I live in a closed country in Asia. I’ve been learning the language for nine months and I’ve started doing the things you talk about.
What your work does for us in the field is unique. It’s new, fresh and comes from practitioners. It keeps me thinking, helps me stay sharp as I work things out here. I always look forward to reading the next blog and listening to the next podcast. I even look forward to long bike-ride commutes so I can re-listen to them!
To continue to serve pioneers like Cameron we need your help.
After ten years the blog and podcast need a major overhaul and rebuild. It will cost $10,000 Aussie dollars.
You can give through MOVE by following this link. If you’re in the UK you give here and we’ll claim any gift aid.
UPDATE: On the MOVE site you can write “Addison” as the worker or project name.
]]>Tomorrow I’m launching a campaign for a much needed overhaul of the Movements blog and podcast.
To help promote the appeal I’m after stories of the impact the blog and podcast for people in the field.
This one came in from Rodger. Rodger and his wife Megan (above) are missionaries to Houston:
About two years ago in the Summer before my senior year of college, I wasn’t being trained in person regularly on 4 Fields principles and tools. All I had learned in person was one event training and I had been taught to prayer walk in college after coming to Christ. But I listened to every one of your podcasts.
When I listened to one of the first Fred and Melissa Campbell I figured I could use that “burrito strategy” to reach my apartment complex. It went okay, but God really started to show up while using the next year.
I started a training group with some friends to teach them the same entry strategy. Two of them formed another group to train their friends and then they went to reach their middle-class neighborhood. Using the burrito strategy (though with cookies instead of burritos) they started a discovery Bible study with a couple in their neighborhood and eventually was able to baptize them and they are still meeting today a year later for discipleship!
So I guess you could say that was a 3rd gen group started using things learned almost exclusively from your podcast!
PS: This all took place in Raleigh, NC, USA. I also would strongly advocate that people get trained in person on 4 Fields stuff instead of doing what I did, but the podcast definitely taught me and encouraged me to know that there was a greater No Place Left Coalition that I joined as a full-time missionary in Houston, TX upon graduating college.
If you’ve got a story of the impact of the blog and/or podcast send it in via the Comments section below or send me an email: my first name @movements.net
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Training Dates around the UK
23-24 September 2016
Norfolk
Diss Christian Community Church
7-8 October 2016
Basildon, Essex
Christian Growth Centre
21-22 October 2016
Essex
Community Church Chafford Hundred
27-28 January 2017
Norwich
Oak Grove Community Church
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I never thought I’d see the day when Michelle would be training in Wellingtons (gum boots in Aussie English). Here she is at our stream for NewWine 2016.
Around 200 people attended each day. We covered most of the material in Following and Fishing. There was a lot of energy in the room. The lights were going on for people.
Here’s what characterises the people who sustain the enthusiasm and see lasting fruit.
When people do the training and put it into practice, God is faithful. You’ll be amazed at what he does.
]]>Also some excellent commentaries are heavily discounted.
Strauss on Mark.
Osbourne on Matthew,
Garland on Luke,
Wilkins on Matthew,
Burge on John,
Bock on Luke,
]]>Hi everyone
Last year we celebrated the 10th Anniversary of the Movements blog. Each month we have around 10,000 visits from over 100 different nations. Last month the Movements podcast passed 100,000 downloads.
Thanks for your support!
Now after 10 years the movements blog and podcast are in urgent need of a redesign and rebuild.
I need to raise some money to make that happen.
For that purpose it would be great to have examples of the impact of the blog and podcast around the world.
You can share any encouragements or a stories in the Comments section below.
Thanks.
Steve
When God removes his restraining hand from a society anything is possible. According to the BBC the future of love is polyamory—group marriage.
Read the article. It makes so much sense and the extensive research backs it up.
Meanwhile if your authority is Scripture rather than the BBC, you may like to read Kevin DeYong’s What Does the Bible Really Teach about Homosexuality?
As Kevin makes clear, this is serious. It’s one thing for the culture to go this way, it’s another for God’s people to follow rather than lead.
Dynamic movements do not compromise core beliefs on the altar of social acceptance.
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I’ve just stumbled across the recordings of the English actor David Suchet reading the Bible.
It’s the best audio Bible I’ve heard.
Some background,
David Suchet has spent the past 25 years playing Hercule Poirot in ITV’s adaptations of Agatha Christie’s Belgian detective stories, breaking off only to star in carefully-chosen dramas, tours and theatre productions to keep him challenged. But in the past year, as he has recorded the final episodes of the 70-part Poirot series while also starring in Eugene O’Neill’s A Long Day’s Journey Into Night, the 67-year-old actor has pursued a passion project. He has spent 200 hours recording the entire Bible from Genesis to the Book of Revelation – 752,702 words, in his deep, melodic, unrushed voice. Publisher Hodder Stoughton says it is the first time a single British actor of stature has tackled it.
Suchet was converted to Christianity when reading a Bible in a hotel room in 1986.
Free with the YouVersion Bible App. Install the free App and then load the NIV Anglicised – UK version.
Or you can buy the mp3s on a CD.
This week we’re camping with 13,000 people at the NewWine National Gathering.
We’re running workshops on multiplying disciples and churches.
Here are the resource links for the participants and anyone else who’s interested.
This text just came in from a guy called Troy somewhere in Mexico.
PRAAAISE!! Jesus is moving in Monterrey, Mexico & mightily using our South FL bro Agustin “Oggie” Martin who led the entire 2-day training in Spanish last weekend.
This city/area ravaged by drug cartel since 2009 w unspeakable violence–super broken place!! We arrived late Thurs & early Fri modeled in harvest w 2 pastors & saw 4 households come to faith. 134 trained Fri night & had 60+ all day Saturday including 6 pastors & lead apostle. Said they’ve praying/fasting for a simple, effective training to apply & share w others.
During 1hr HoP search, 30 homes engaged & 24 households came to faith!!!!! The harvest is PLENTIFUL!!!!! Oggie is there this week to MAWL leaders w training, harvest, follow-up, the commands & church starts. The pastors have released baptism & want to start churches (baptism already multiplying in the harvest).
They have vision for their city, Mexico & the nations. They’re so so excited a team came to build the Kingdom & show them how to do it themselves!!! Oggie is leading 2nd 2-day training at different Monterrey location this weekend & swarming w fruitful folks from last weekend. He’s also bringing some of these new trainers w him to swarm Costa Rica next month for 1st Christian Surfer touch. He’s a BEAST!!!!
Been praying/fasting for this Spanish-speaking leader in South FL! Praise Jesus! He provided!! I’m amazed by what God is doing there. This place is RIPE–both harvest & local church! I’m overwhelmed, praising Jesus & learning!! Pls continue to pray!
How viral is your method of multiplying disciples and churches? Can it jump borders and cultures?
]]>Troy Cooper trains Josh and Puck in 411.
411 answers 4 questions in 1 hour on 1 piece of paper:
[ed. Should that be “WHO to share with” or “with WHOM to share”? I know Troy is a stickler for grammar.]
Follow along with Troy’s 411 presentation slides.
Download the 411 Training App by Greg Rohler: Android or Apple
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My interview with Christianity Today managing editor Richard Clark.
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There are more than 400 million Spanish speakers around the world. Thanks to Vanessa they now have access to the Following and Fishing notes.
Download the 7mandatos.
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Thanks to every listener, especially those who have helped spread the word.
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Nathan Shank assesses the state of NoPlaceLeft USA and identifies next steps.
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Christianity Today reports that,
]]>This week, Russian president Vladimir Putin approved a package of anti-terrorism laws that usher in tighter restrictions on missionary activity and evangelism.
Despite prayers and protests from religious leaders and human rights advocates, the Kremlin announced Putin’s approval yesterday.The amendments, including laws against sharing faith in homes, online, or anywhere but recognized church buildings, go into effect July 20.
The Atlantic examines the assumptions that underpin both sides of the debate.
]]>In his Atlantic article on “What ISIS Really Wants” last March, Graeme Wood insisted that “the Islamic state is Islamic. Very Islamic.”
Wood’s detractors have been similarly emphatic, arguing that ISIS is a perversion of the Islamic faith. For Wood’s critics, secular politics, far more than religion or religious ideology, is the key to understanding the existence and appeal of jihadist violence.
In the immediate aftermath of the Orlando massacre in June, the same arguments resurfaced.
Nathan Shank talks about how to maintain depth and breadth in a multiplying movement.
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I was struck recently by the experience of one of our teams on outreach in Manchester (above) They were out offering prayer and sharing the 3Circles gospel outline.
A young man turned and believed on the street and prayed to receive Christ. When he was asked, “when can we catch up again?”, he made it clear he wanted no more contact.
Do we count that as a “conversion”?
Recently I’ve heard reports 1,200 people praying to receive Christ on the streets of Reading, UK. Christians are heading out to pray for people and read out a gospel presentation.
Even if some have fallen away, there must be hundreds who we can identify as new disciples. How many have moved from conversion into baptism and discipleship?
Over the last two years around 4,500 people have come to faith through Healing on the Streets in Northern Ireland. Causeway Vineyard estimates less than one in seven are now in a local church. Good on them for keeping track!
The great thing about the folks in Manchester, Reading and Northern Ireland is they are out there connecting, praying, sharing. As DL Moody said, I prefer my imperfect method of sharing the gospel to your method of not sharing the gospel.
But what can we do to bridge the conversion-discipleship gap?
I think we’ve been measuring the wrong things. Praying a prayer to receive Christ is only one element of conversion. NT conversion is one experience that has five elements: repentance, faith, confession, the gift of the Holy Spirit and immersion.
That’s why I’m beginning to think that instead of counting prayers of commitment we should be counting baptised disciples meeting in groups.
Meanwhile in Manchester the follow-up of contacts continues. It’s hard work. Some have fallen away. Others have stuck and are learning to follow Jesus and take the gospel into their world.
Isn’t that what Jesus trained his disciples to do?
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Steve talks to Ron Surgeon of Memphis about reaching every segment of society in a NoPlaceLeft strategy.
]]>Eckhardt Schnabel explains why practitioners should study the book of Acts.
]]>
A scholarly investigation and article that estimates the number of Muslim background believers who are followers of Jesus.
According to the abstract:
]]>Since the 1960s, there has been a substantial increase in the number of known conversions from Islam to Christianity. Most of these conversions have been to forms of evangelical or Pentecostal Christianity, but there have also been conversions to Catholic and Orthodox Christianity, and still other converts claim to remain in some way both Muslims and followers of Jesus. This article explains how we obtained estimates of the number of converts, the complexities involved in this task, and an annotated list of countries by continent with the estimated number of believers in Christ from a Muslim background. The article includes charts with maximal, minimal, and medium estimates of this population from 1960 to the present.
Steve talks to Jeff Sundell (right) on what it takes to get to NoPlaceLeft.
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“What Every Christian Needs to Know About the Qur’an” (James R. White)
]]>Launching A Missionary Training School | Pastor John Lo from CoopersOnAMission
John Lo talks to Troy Cooper about how Epicentre Church launched their missionary training school for movement pioneers.
The vision is to mobilise one in ten of their congregation to the nations. Great insights on forming character in leaders.
Joining the call are pastors and catalytic leaders from across North America.
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Greg Sheridan, Foreign editor of the Australian newspaper, and a Catholic, has some advice for Christian churches.
Face reality — you are now in the minority.
In Western Europe, on the east and west coasts of the US, and in Australia, the new religion of aggressive secularism is on the rise, more self-confident and fundamentalist than ever.
Widespread, prolonged affluence has been more effective than oppression ever was in killing religious belief and practice.
You’ve been fighting a losing battle for 120 years.
Across the past 120 years, the Christian churches in Europe and Australia have lost every significant, long-term battle about social norms and legal measures to underpin them.
In these 120 years no victory was ever more than a temporary slowdown in secularism. While there seemed to be many tactical wins, the war was lost. In each case, the church misunderstood the extent and nature of its support and the long-term threat it faced.
The battles were lost because of a losing strategy.
They remind me of South Vietnam’s government in 1974. It over-estimated its strength and tried to hang on to all of its territory, including the long narrow neck of its north. It did not retreat to its formidable heartland in the south, which would have been vastly more defensible. Had it done so, it might have survived. Instead, the next year, the armoured divisions of North Vietnam invaded and Saigon lost everything.
Historic churches are most in danger.
The established churches are gentle institutions in a long, gentle decline. The Anglican Church in England shows the way. It has hung on to its status as the established church. Its bishops still sit in the House of Lords. It owns some of the most splendid buildings in Europe and is associated with the most prestigious institutions of its nation. It would say that it is involved in a respectful dialogue with contemporary society. Yet barely 700,000 English Anglicans, a trace over 1 per cent of the population, go to church on Sundays. It is dying
Christian churches must become a self-confident committed minorities.
The Christian churches now need to reconceive of themselves as representing a distinct and not all that big minority (of practising Christians). They should conduct themselves as a self-confident minority, seeking to win conversion through example and persuasion and not to defend endlessly legal protections and enforcements that are increasingly untenable or meaningless.
Here’s an example. . .
Recently Tasmania’s Anti-Discrimination Commissioner was willing to hear a complaint against the Catholic Archbishop of Hobart for circulating a pamphlet which upheld the view that marriage is between a man and a woman. The complaint was eventually dropped. But what should the Catholic church do if the complaint had gone ahead?
If the churches saw themselves as a strong minority with clear values under attack they might respond differently.
A robust archbishop leading a self-confident community that believed in its future might respond to the attack on Don’t Mess with Marriage by finding the most public square available in Hobart and reading the document out in full, then instructing all the priests in his diocese to read it from the pulpit on Sunday.
Would the commission prosecute them all?
We can no longer regard ourselves as a powerful institution of society. We must rediscover who we are as a confident, committed minority. That’s what movements do.
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I believe Jesus would [approve gay marriage]. I don’t have any verse in Scripture. . . . I believe Jesus would approve gay marriage, but that’s just my own personal belief. I think Jesus would encourage any love affair if it was honest and sincere and was not damaging to anyone else, and I don’t see that gay marriage damages anyone else.
Former President Jimmy Carter
Our modern-postmodern generation prefers WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) to WDJD (What Did Jesus Do), every time.
With WWJD,
What purports to be moral guidance might be nothing more than subjective thought, opinion, or sheer imagination, taken as divine wisdom.
There’s a difference. With WDJD, Jesus revealed in Scripture is our guide rather than the Jesus of our imagination.
Here’s an example, when we train how to do Discovery Bible Study we often use the story of the woman who wept at Jesus feet (Luke 7:36-50). One of the discovery questions is, “What do we learn about Jesus in the story?”
Most people respond, he unconditionally accepts the sinful woman. That’s all.
But that’s not the whole story. Jesus announces to a room of Pharisees, who are sitting in judgment on her, “Her sins, which are many, are forgiven.” No one ever points out that Jesus saw this woman as a sinner in need of salvation.
We’re uncomfortable with the reality of human sinfulness and the holy love of God which must judge and punish sin. Even in the life of this poor woman. Here’s the point, we have no right to sit in judgment of who God is. We have no right to shrink Jesus down to fit our preferences. He is Lord.
Once we’ve removed the holiness of God from the picture, the next thing we can do is remove the necessity of the Cross for our salvation.
To quote Robert Hart again,
]]>…. the love of God is associated most closely with the cross of Christ (Rom. 5:8). The sight of Christ crucified was very terrible—indeed, it was so ugly that, in the words of the prophet, “We hid as it were our faces from him” (Is. 53:3). It was a violent, bloody sight, where the Man of sorrows was poured out like water, and all his bones were out of joint (Ps. 22:14). At once it was God’s judgment on sin and the manifestation of his love, where he paid our debt in full (“Teleo,” John 19:30).
Jesus came to save the world, to seek and to save the lost, to pour out his soul unto death as the “propitiation for our sins” (1 John 2:2). He came for that, not to usher in an era in which lust and carnality, and “the releasing of our desires,” take the place of repentance and of taking up one’s cross to follow the Son of Man. Give me the real Lord Jesus, who paid my debt, who commanded me to repent, and who forgave my sin.
Give me the Jesus who did and who said, not the other Jesus, the one who would.
Right now, if you’re someone who is faithful to the teaching of Scripture, and you’re living in the enlightened West (UK, US, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada), I hope you feel like you’re standing on the wrong side of history.
The illusion is over, you can’t be faithful to the historic Christian faith and your culture any more.
But why are we surprised? This is what Jesus promised would happen. When it comes to the world expect trouble rather than transformation.
Here’s some wisdom from a Catholic Cardinal:
I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square. His successor will pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization, as the church has done so often in human history . . . .
God sustains the world, in good times and in bad. [We] believe that only one person has overcome and rescued history: Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of the Virgin Mary, saviour of the world and head of his body, the church.
Those who gather at his cross and by his empty tomb, no matter their nationality, are on the right side of history. Those who lie about him and persecute or harass his followers in any age might imagine they are bringing something new to history, but they inevitably end up ringing the changes on the old human story of sin and oppression. There is nothing “progressive” about sin, even when it is promoted as “enlightened.”
The world divorced from the God who created and redeemed it inevitably comes to a bad end. It’s on the wrong side of the only history that finally matters.
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The controversial founder of one of Europe’s largest Protestant churches is battling some in his church leadership over his reaction to multiple affairs.
Why do so many high profile leaders fall. Perhaps they are no more vulnerable than your average church leader, we’re just more likely to hear about their failures. No stream of the Christian movement is immune. I’m old enough and well enough connected to know of a host of tragic examples.
Leadership failure is a major threat to every multiplying movement of disciples and churches.
Money, sex and power are crouching at your door; they desire to have you, but you must rule over them (adapted from Gen 4:7).
Here’s DA Carson’s take on why the “Young Restless and Reformed” movement sailed into rough waters a few years ago. The lessons are transferable.
Who knows your struggles? Who holds you accountable? Who are you watching out for?
Download: The underbelly of revival – DA Carson
]]>He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
Luke 24:25-27
Before the risen Lord Jesus sent his disciples to the ends of the earth, he sat them down for an overview of God’s purposes in Scripture.
To cut through the missional fog that afflicts us, we need to know the flow and significance of Biblical history from Genesis to Revelation. DA Caron’s The God Who is There is a great place to start, and for Kindle readers it’s on special at $2.99.
“The God Who Is There: Finding Your Place in God’s Story” (D. A. Carson)
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James Nyman talks to Steve Addison about pioneering movements among Muslims in SE Asia. James is the author of Stubborn Perseverance: How to Launch Cascading Movements to Christ Among Muslims (and others).
To find out more visit Beyond.
Christianity reached India almost two thousand years ago, hundreds of years before parts of Europe
Yet Hindu nationalists haven’t to terms with that reality.
]]>Police in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh have arrested three evangelical Christians, accusing them of forced conversion and insulting Hindu religious sentiment.
Rev V A Anthony, of the Brethren Assembly Church in Satna, his wife Prabha and another woman were arrested after leading prayers in the nearby town of Aber.
No-one is making any inroads at all into the non-religious population or non-Christian religions. The vast majority of all ‘conversion’ is inter-denominational musical chairs.
For the first time on record people of no religion outnumber Christians in England and Wales.
The proportion of people who identify as having no religion has risen from 25% in 2011 to 48.5% in 2014.(It’s important to note that saying you have “no religion” does not equate to saying you are an atheist.)
The Church of England expects attendance to continue to fall for another 30 years as its congregations age and the millennial generation spurns the institutions of faith.
Meanwhile the Archbishop of Canterbury (above) has urged Christians not talk to people about their faith unless they are actively invited to do so.
Download the report.
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Michelle and I are off to Thailand to meet up with our MOVE workers who are serving in India, Thailand, the South Pacific, Australia and Britain. Special guests the Parlatos and Phil and Monika Clark.
Then I get to visit the Land Downunder and meet my grandson Jackson for the first time, see our four children and watch Collingwood play Melbourne at the MCG.
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I’m one of those many people who don’t bound out of bed eager to share their faith. So I went to Manchester in faith that God was already at work and I would encounter him in the harvest. I was not disappointed. Having a team, and heading out each day with a partner made all the difference. Everyone came back with stories of what God was doing.
The plan was simple, meet people in the community on the streets or in homes and offer to pray for them. Some people aren’t interested. Many are. We pray for a need and then ask, “Right now, do you feel near or far from God?” Then we listen. Then we ask, “Would you like to be near/nearer to God?” We listen. Then we ask, “Could I show you how you can be near to God?” We share the 3Circles and ask, “Where are you?” “Where would you like to be?”
There are three responses:
After five days in Moss Side, Manchester we know on any day there are people waiting to learn more and waiting to turn and believe. They are out there.
Yes, people don’t always turn up to meet again. Jesus had the same problem. Not everyone is fertile soil. But some are.
I enjoyed the time before and after Friday prayers talking to Muslims. Many appreciated the offer of prayer. Some wanted to talk more about Isa (Jesus). One guy wasn’t impressed but it’s hard to get mad at someone who wants to pray for you. We smiled and moved on. I did discover a few gaps in my understanding of Islam. But we weren’t trying to win arguments. We were looking for people in whom God was working. Some of our team members found Muslims who fitted that description.
After five days in Manchester I’m a different person. More relaxed meeting people I don’t know and looking for that person of peace. More confident that it’s the gospel, not me, that does the work. More aware of the enormity of the task as Britain fragments into a range of different faiths or no faiths. Convinced that when Jesus said, “Follow me and I’ll teach you how to fish for people” he really meant it.
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Michelle and I will in London for the next Following and Fishing Training, June 17-18, 2016.
The training gets you started connecting with people, sharing the gospel and making disciples.
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For Aussie readers, What Jesus Started and Pioneering Movements are on sale at Koorong Books—20% off.
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The May/June 2016 edition of Mission Frontiers.
]]>
We crowded into the hotel conference room for our final session at the end of a long week searching for people and houses of peace.
The stories from the day came in. Nick Duffy added up the totals.
Over five days:
All of this happened in Moss Side, notorious for its high rate of drug and gang related murders.
Thanks to our hosts, Anthony Delaney and Ivy Church, and to Don Waybright and the team from Sugar Creek which included their lead pastor Mark Hartman.
UPDATE I’ve just read Don’s report. I like his better than mine. It captures the incredible diversity of people we encountered.
]]>The notorious Moss Side neighborhood of Manchester UK is recognized as the most diverse neighborhood in the world. We encountered Muslims from around the world, Rastafarians, Gnostics, drug dealers, prostitutes, pimps, gang bangers and more.
Look what God did in five days with less than 20 people surrendered in the Spirit and abiding in Christ…prayed for 423; shared the gospel with 241; 18 salvations with beginning discipleship; 62 desire to continue the discovery of life in Jesus with follow up appointments, one church started. Jesus is filled with Joy! #noplaceleft #noplaceleftmanchester
Don (& Theresa) Waybright
Another day and night out on the streets and in the neighbourhoods of Manchester UK.
I’ve shared with Somalis, Saudis, an El Salvadorian, Sudanese and the odd Englishman. Two days ago a Romanian family of ten turned and believed. The dad knelt down and prayed.
Their teenage daughter translated. The team have been back to begin the first discipleship lesson.
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Cassius:
“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.”Julius Caesar (I, ii, 140-141)
Out on mission this week in Manchester UK. Seven teams of two — British, Americans and Australians in partnership with Ivy Church.
Day One: 56 people received prayer, 48 people heard the gospel (3Circles), 11 yellow lights (I want to learn more), 4 green lights (turned and believed).
Which brings me to the Shakespeare quote—why do we blame the stars? Wherever I go in England people tell me it’s hard here. The British don’t want to hear the gospel. They aren’t interested in faith. Sharing the gospel won’t work. Let’s go softly softly and slow.
Yet everywhere we go we find people whom God has prepared.
It’s hard work, but they are out there. The problem is not in our stars but in ourselves. We’re not convinced that God himself is at work whenever we step out and share the gospel.
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Steve Wright talks about how a multi-site mega church can reach it’s community through multiplying disciples and churches.
Steve is Pastor of Discipleship and Church Planting at Family Church West Palm Beach.
Links:
UPDATE: Link to podcast fixed.
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Troy Cooper unpacks what happened when he took the 3Touches of training to Tulsa:
]]>Each touch of training has two components: one is the event and the second is the weekly rollout. We really believe it’s the week-to-week rollout of the training that really gets to movement, but the event training becomes an on-ramp for people and an opportunity to help raise up trainers.
We went in to Tulsa in September-October, and it was just a soft touch of training with the pastors and elders and a few key people in the church. I did just a basic, Level 1: how to share the gospel, and we took them out in the harvest. Then came back and debriefed. It was actually just supposed to be a vision meeting; it wasn’t supposed to be a training, but they took what I gave them and they began to roll it out.
They started going through the Commands of Christ on Wednesday nights, they started taking a training team out in the harvest on Thursday nights, and next thing you know you’re seeing out of this church led by pastors and elders, people come to Christ and stories start bubbling out within the community. So we were scheduled for January, April and July—three touches—but the January training was now a second touch because we’ve already got people on the ground that can train.
So we show up in January and I meet with their fruitful trainers on the ground the night before, and we run through the training and practice and we get up there and their people did 80% of the training. On the Assist part, they got it! The challenge was that because this was coming from pastors and elders in the community, we had seven churches there, with seven lead pastors! We had over 250 people at this massive training, getting trained, going out in the harvest…this is awesome, but the challenge is, if this thing continues to blow up, how many people are comfortable training in front of 250 people? It can seem like it’s just one church that’s doing this, so that’s why I just dropped the idea hey what if we rolled this out at multiple campuses next time? That’s where you’ve gotta bring other catalysts from the outside to help out.
So second touch of training, we did the event and then they did the 4-6 week rollout of the Commands of Christ afterwards. We just went back for the third touch and just watched them at two campuses, and now they’ve got a solid training team on several campuses, and now those teams are helping train other churches in the city.
At Cedar Ridge Church in Sapulpua it was their third touch of training. They had six trainers and 100% of the trainers had come to faith within the last year. They were the ones leading the training, 100%. Daniel Reese was just there to watch them and give them feedback. So these newer believers are training other believers how to make disciples, and what gave them such credibility to do it is, for the last 4-6 months they’ve been out in the harvest every week, engaging lostness, sharing the gospel, discipling the fruit and starting groups in homes, and they’re already seeing third generation disciples.
At this training one of the trainer’s second-generation disciple was there and that person baptized a third-generation disciple at the training.
Our whole goal is to come in to help get it started, then we remove ourselves and just continue on in a coaching and mentoring relationship, so that it’s the local leaders and teams that are the ones rolling this out. So most people in that city don’t even know who we are. They know NoPlaceLeft—that’s the banner they’re flying under—and they know there’s a number of pastors and churches in the area that are doing this.
A church that becomes a mobilisation centre commits to:
To find out more listen in to my interview with Troy Cooper.
Recently I spoke to Troy Cooper about how he finds churches that are ready to become mobilisation centres for multiplying disciples and churches.
Troy: We’re looking for three things:
- They are broken for lostness.
- Do they have any kind of God-sized vision that’s beyond themselves? At West Palm Beach it was 100 new churches. At Cedar Ridge Tulsa it was 1,000 new disciples.
- Humility—they are actually wanting to learn.
We’re not trying to sell what we’re doing or convince people you should be doing this. We’re looking for where God is working. When we find a pastor that’s broken for lostness, hungry to learn, then we can come in as catalysts, serve them like crazy through training and coaching, and praying for them like crazy.
We spend time making sure the leadership understands what our 30,000 foot view is. The lead pastor has to sign off on this. Or at least be aware of what’s going on and back it. We need to communicate to them what our strategy is—the Four Fields—so they can see where this is going.
I’ve found that there’s usually three entry points in a church, where they’re itching for training:
- One is disciple-making—they’re usually exploring different evangelism and discipleship tools that are totally unrelated to one another.
- The second is church planting—hey we’re interested in planting churches—and they’ll typically outsource this to somebody.
- The third one is missions mobilization; they’ve got a heart to mobilize people to the nations and they’re usually looking to outsource that too.
When I look at the Bible and see what happened in the book of Acts, if you start with disciple-making, it leads to church planting, which leads to missions mobilisation. That’s what I love about the Four Fields process: we equip people to make disciples, who gather to form healthy churches to mobilise disciple-making church planting missionaries.
West Palm Beach wanted to plant 100 churches. So we went in to talk about church planting but we immediately went back to let’s talk about how to make disciples. Because how you make disciples impacts how you plant churches. They are making disciples and they starting new churches. Their vision is to start 16 churches from their existing churches. They’ve got third and fourth generation churches being started this year. A year and a half ago they didn’t have a missions department. Now they’ve got a full-time staff guy and a missions team and they’re pursuing unreached, unengaged people groups in Central and South America.
We had one church that said we want to mobilize missionaries to the nations. OK, so we’ll come in and talk to you about how to mobilize the right kind of missionary. So we go bring them back to disciple-making and church planting so we can send catalysts.
We figure out where they are and what their need is for training. We’ve learned to be patient with the process. Letting the lead pastor and elders see that we come to serve and that we’re willing to go at the pace of the Holy Spirit through their leadership.
Thanks to Janet for the transcript. There’s more to come…
Meanwhile visit Troy’s blog, he’s putting out some good stuff.
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But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.
Paul
I listened again to Phil and Monika Clark’s story of pioneering movements in New Zealand. It’s a story I never tire of hearing. Wherever we train ordinary people with simple, but powerful methods of connecting, sharing, training new disciples and forming new churches—we see God at work.
In New Zealand, as in Australia, Britain and Europe, we’re still a long way from multiplying movements of disciples and churches. But we are seeing fruit, where previously there was none.
The biggest barrier to the spread of the gospel, resulting in new disciples and multiplying streams of churches, is our unwillingness to share the gospel up front and early and teach new disciples how to obey Christ.
We have this treasure in jars of clay (2 Cor 4:7).
Theirs is the story of gospel advance as Phil is facing a life and death struggle with cancer. God is glorified that despite the predictions of imminent death, Phil lives. Even more, God is glorified that whether Phil lives or dies, Phil and Monika live in Christ. Listen to their story. One day, if not already, we will face the ultimate test of our faith. Listen to a couple who have looked death in the face and are no longer afraid. They have fought and won. Their faithfulness has prepared the way for movements of disciples and churches across New Zealand.
Multiplying movements are not the result of crunching numbers, of strategy and tools. They require flesh and blood. Brokenness and faithfulness. Power in weakness. Treasure in clay pots. We cannot go further or higher than our Saviour, he leads the way. He suffered, so will we. He triumphed and in him, so do we.
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Phil and Monika Clark talk with Steve Addison about their story of pioneering movements in New Zealand.
Phil and Monika serve with Church Army New Zealand.
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Last time we checked in Russell Godward was out searching for houses of peace in Gisambi, Kenya. Now he’s out in Essex looking for people of peace with Dapo.
Here’s the latest from his newsletter:
I’m discipling a young friend, Dapo, in the photo above. Each week we head out into the same part of town to connect with people. We headed down to the Barber’s shop to meet a young guy we had been discipling. We meet him on his break each week and share with him at the cafe. We’ve done this every week now for a couple of months, but today he doesn’t show and we can’t get hold of him on his mobile. We’re disappointed and a little concerned. It’s getting dark and cold, so we head around the area to prayer walk before heading home.
As we head back to the car a guy calls across to us. A young friend of Dapo’s. Like many 19 year old lads with some street cred, he’s full of chat and bravado. We greet and talk a little and then it’s time to leave. Before we leave Dapo turns to the guy and does what we’ve trained him to do – he asks if we can pray for him. At that moment the guy changes, the bravado falls away and he visibly warms to the idea of prayer. I ask him if we can pray for anything specific? He looks me in the eye and says “Yes, 2 years ago this week my older brother at age 21 committed suicide in prison. I miss him and just want to know he’s okay”. So there on the High Street, as the cold and dark press in on us, we pray for him and his family in Jesus’ name.
He looks up and there are tears rolling down his face. We share some comforting words with him and ask after his mum and the family. He needs to leave, but before he does Dapo asks him if we can meet again to share some more? He says yes and we plan a time to meet in the next couple of days. Then he gives us the biggest ‘man hug’ ever and we head home, encouraged.
Two days later we are waiting in the cafe. He arrives on time, we greet and catch up briefly over a mug of tea. We begin to share more with him; we ask if he feels near or far from God and he talks a little about this. Dapo shares his story, how he came near to God. I share the 3 Circles on a notepad, a simple ‘gospel’ conversation we use regularly.
I then ask him 3 questions;
- Where are you? He describes his life as being ‘broken’.
- Where would you like to be? He’d like to live in God’s plan for his life.
- Is there anything stopping you turning and believing today? He says ‘no’.
So there in that cafe an amazing miracle happens. We pray together as a young 19 year old guy turns his life over to following Jesus, and we make plans to start meeting to disciple him!
Discipling people like this will be hard work, fraught with difficulty and challenges. Broken people are not put back together overnight, but why would you want to do anything else?
This is what we do on Monday’s now!
We are seeking and learning to live like this every day, sent to connect and share with the ‘unreached’ people of our town and area.
We are offering to serve the church of Thurrock in order to equip and train local believers and churches to share in this way.
We are travelling and training churches and groups across the UK with the MOVE team.We now exist to multiply new disciples & churches – everywhere!
If you want your Mondays to be different maybe we could come and train with you, your church or a group of churches in your town?
Russell has become our first British born MOVE UK team member. Send me an email if you’d like connect with him and find out more.
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Heading out for Orlando and Exponential 2016. Troy Cooper and I are running workshops with Ron Surgeon, Steve Wright and Ray Vaughn.
If you’re going drop by and say hi. Look for me at the IVP stand where my books will be at 40% discount.
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I always look forward to an update from Grant McAllister. Here’s his latest…
I got comfortable and settled in to switch off and watch a movie before the busy two weeks ahead and noticed an older Asian man sitting next to me.
Part way though the flight (at and my movie!) the gentleman next to me tapped me on the shoulder. I took the headphones off, said hello and settled in for a chat with my plane buddy. He asked me where I was from and what kind of work I did. I told him I lived in Hong Kong as was involved in church work.
“So you are a Christian then?” Salim asked.
“Yes,” I replied. He then told me he is Muslim and from Sri Lanka.
“Do you know what the Koran says about Jesus?” I asked.
“I know Jesus did many miracles and healed many people,” Salim answered. “Muhammad did a lot of teaching but he didn’t do any miracles like Jesus did.”
I talked about how in the Koran it says Jesus was sinless, born of a virgin and did miracles. I went on and asked, “If, in the Koran, it says Jesus was sinless, born of a virgin and did miracles and if Muhammad only offered teaching, who do you think is the best person to follow?”
He paused and reflected. The Spirit stirred him, then a slow realisation showed on his face and he acknowledged that Jesus must be greater. “Indeed Jesus is greater than Muhammad,” I explained. “Jesus can forgive our sins because he is alive! And we can know Him personally.”
“Salim,” I asked, “would you like to know Jesus and ask Him to forgive your sins?”
“Yes!” he replied with great enthusiasm.
So, there, at 30,000 feet we prayed and Salim from Sri Lanka asked Jesus to forgive his sins and said he wanted to follow Him. Salim’s son-in-law in Sri Lanka is a Christian and when he returns to Sri Lanka he is looking forward to talking with him.
Please pray that the seed that has been planted in Salim’s heart will grow and that he will become a strong follower of Christ.
I can now reveal that Grant McAllister is “Barney”. Now that he’s in a more secure location you can even subscribe to his updates.
Yes, I chose the image of an Air New Zealand plane because “Barney” is a Kiwi.
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David Broodryk talks to Steve Addison about the place of groups, gatherings and teams in pioneering movements in urban environments.
Visit Accelerate to learn more and connect with David.
UPDATE: Changed the episode to 113.
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I’m doing some writing this week, so the blog may get neglected.
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]]>God assumed from the beginning that the wise of the world would view Christians as fools…and He has not been disappointed. Devout Christians are destined to be regarded as fools in modern society. We are fools for Christ’s sake. We must pray for courage to endure the scorn of the sophisticated world. If I have brought any message today, it is this: Have the courage to have your wisdom regarded as stupidity. Be fools for Christ. And have the courage to suffer the contempt of the sophisticated world.
I want Christianity to influence culture as much as anyone. I want families intact. I love that the explosion of Christianity led to a revolution in human dignity; in hospitals and university. I want a renaissance of high culture that produces aesthetic wonders emanating from Christianity.
But if influence reduces merely to terms of human flourishing and the Common Good, we are not preaching the gospel. A flourishing culture that likes the trappings and benefits of Christianity, but not its kernel, isn’t biblical Christianity. A true gospel will be met with resistance because it overturns the accepted patterns of the world. New Testament Christianity assumes that a follower of Christ is well acquainted with scorn (2 Tim. 3:12).
Troy Cooper reports in on churches multiplying disciples and churches in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Want to learn more?
UPDATE
You may have already forgotten about the 70 dead in Lahore, Pakistan last week. The press has moved on. The story never got the same coverage as Paris or Brussels.
Christianity Today reports on the background in Pakistan.
UPDATE: The Spectator: The Lahore attacks are just the latest atrocity in a war on Christians
]]>I’ve known Phil Alessi for many years. Here’s the inspiring story of how disciple making movements are spreading in the prison system.
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Italy may be the spiritual home of 1.2 billion Catholics around the world, but a new poll shows only 50 percent of Italians consider themselves Catholic
]]>The poll, published in the liberal daily L’Unita, challenges long-held perceptions that Italy is a ”Catholic” country, despite the popularity of Pope Francis and the historic role of the Vatican City State in the heart of Rome.
In addition to the 50 percent who consider themselves Catholic, the poll found 13 percent defined themselves as “Christian.”
Of the 1,500 respondents, 4 percent said they were Orthodox or Protestant, 2 percent were Buddhist, 1 percent were Jewish and 1 percent were Muslim.
A surprising 20 percent said they were atheist, while 8 percent said they were religiously unaffiliated.
Italy has witnessed a weakening of religious faith over the past 20 years and a growing trend toward personal spiritual inquiry.
Sixty-four percent of those surveyed said they did not feel part of a religious community. Of those, some said they believed in destiny, horoscopes, reincarnation, Tarot readings and miracle cures.
My latest interview on Pioneering Movements was with Marv Newell of MissioNexus.
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According to Pew Research:
Over the next four decades, Christians will remain the largest religious group, but Islam will grow faster than any other major religion, mostly because Muslims are younger and have more children than any other religious group globally. By 2050, the number of Muslims will nearly equal the number of Christians.
The growth of Christianity is keeping pace with world population growth. All other faiths, except Islam, have plateaued or are declining in their percentage share of the world’s growing population. Even the percentage of religiously unaffiliated is declining.
The world is becoming more religious due mainly to the growth in Islam and Christianity. I don’t think anyone predicted this trend.
A generation ago the assumption was the ultimate triumph of secularism.
]]>What will it take to see multiplication in with the West? Steve Parlato says consider an apple tree….
While you’re there check out Chuck Wood’s youtube channel.
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Some background on Belgium from the Economist
Its ancient cities are cradles of Christian art and learning, and Catholicism is in many ways the country’s raison d’etre. When it was created in 1830, the kingdom offered a political home to Catholic Dutch-speakers who preferred to unite with French-speaking co-religionists than with Protestants with whom they had a common tongue. Faith had trumped language.
But Belgium’s devout heritage has been traded for secularism and Islam has stepped into the void.
… as Christianity’s role has waned, so too has Belgium’s ability to hold together the two linguistic camps. And a new creed, Islam, is gaining importance all the while.
This is especially true in the capital Brussels
… some parts of which host large communities of Moroccan and Turkish immigrants, mostly from religiously conservative regions of those countries. Among respondents in the city, practising Catholics amounted to 12% and non-practising ones to 28%. Some 19% were active Muslims and another 4% were of Muslim identity without practising the faith. The atheist/agnostic camp came to 30%.
Demographics is destiny:
Among all respondents, levels of active adherence to Catholicism seemed to diminish dramatically with age, while the practice of Islam increased correspondingly. Thus among respondents aged 55 and over, practising Catholics amounted to 30% and practising Muslims to less than 1%; but among those aged between 18 and 34, active adherence to Islam (14%) exceeded the practice of Catholicism (12%). Admittedly the sample (600 people in all) is small. But if this trend continues, practitioners of Islam may soon comfortably exceed devout Catholics not just in cosmopolitan Brussels, as is the case already, but across the whole of Belgium’s southern half.
Belgians may be cultural Catholics, but the evidence is they are not practicing Catholics.
]]>The percentage of avowedly “practising Catholics” far exceeds the numbers who actually turn up at mass, as any cleric will confirm. But one thing is pretty clear. If anything holds Belgium together through its third century of existence, Catholicism will not be the glue.
Steve and Amie Parlato talk about pioneering movements in the Buddhist world.
UPDATE: Want to know more about reaching the Buddhist world? Email Steve and Amie through the blog or visit ActBeyond.
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Chuck Wood discusses what it takes to move beyond making disciples to multiplying churches. Be prepared for some surprises.
A previous episode with Chuck.
Chuck’s website and resources.
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I recently finished reading Anthony Beevor’s account of the WWII battle for Stalingrad. An excellent account of the horrifying destruction of a city and its people.
The siege of Stalingrad was one of the many tragedies of the 20th Century. Thankfully, both Fascism and Communism lay in ruins by the end of that century. Meanwhile others have taken their place. The same story continues with different actors playing their part.
What if this is as good as it gets?
What if wars, famine and natural disasters are the norm of human history?
Jesus thought so. That’s what he taught his disciples to expect. Right up until the end of the age, expect trouble.
When Jesus announced the arrival of the kingdom of God, he was announcing the beginning of the end times. One day he will return in glory. Until then, expect trouble. Read Mark 13 —wars, famines, natural disasters and deceptive religious movements. Expect them.
Somehow people think that because the kingdom has arrived in the person of Jesus, his death and resurrection, the world will be transformed in this age.
Instead Jesus taught his disciples to expect a battle right up until the end. He promised us hardship and persecution, not “human flourishing.”
The one thing he did promise was that repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem (Luke 24:47).
In the end, God wins, but not without a costly fight.
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This month Mission Frontiers magazine published an extract from book on Pioneering Movements. Some case studies of churches that are multiplying.
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The Jim Muir’s extensive report on the rise of ISIS and why it’s not going away anytime soon.
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The March/April edition of Mission Frontiers is out.
Articles by Jeff Sundell, Nathan Shank, Troy Cooper, Stan Parks, David Watson, Fred Campbell and some bloke called Steve Addison.
A great resource for team learning. Do everyone a favour and spread the word….
UPDATE: you can download the whole edition free, but some of the articles online are web only.
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This weekend we’ll be training in London.
April 8-9, 2016 we’re training in lovely Leicester.
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We train a lot of people to get them started in connecting, sharing, making disciples. Then we look for those who persist in the basics. David Milne (above) has done the research on the factors that influence whether a person follows through.
Here are the five keys:
So it’s not enough to run a good training event. You’ve got to help people build in support structures and patterns that sustain obedience to the Great Commission.
UPDATE: Research Summary
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Troy Cooper has been blogging about movements. He’s not bad…
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David Broodryk talks about the importance of teams in multiplying movements.
A previous interview with David Broodryk.
Visit AccelerateTraining to discover more.
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My last question to Ray Vaughn was on how God prepared him for the challenge of reaching a city of 6.5 million.
I can feel rather overwhelmed with a city that’s a large as Houston but I think what’s prepared me is being in Columbia being in a smaller realm and in all honesty the thing that’s prepared me the most is failing. To know I’ve failed enough shows me that I have perseverance at least and can maintain it. Paul commends or validates his work as an apostle, more than any other way, through perseverance. Constantly he is reminding us look I’m not a false apostle because I’ve suffered through hardship, beating, shipwreck, trial, constantly I have the burden of the church. Any false apostle or somebody who’s not really called to this type of work is not going to persevere through those type of things.
The reality of learning to persevere through churches that get started and then flop, learning to persevere through teams that feel like are forming and then they don’t, learning to persevere through being in a city and feeling like you’re the only person who really wants this (even though you’re not but you just haven’t met those people yet) learning to persevere through loneliness, through I have no idea what to do next or through getting to 2nd generation church and then it all flops, or to 3rd generation and wondering how do we get to 4th or 5th generation church? Learning to persevere through hardships with pastors that don’t share your view on church or leadership or baptism.
Learning to persevere has helped me to realize it comes with the territory of trying to get to movement and no place left. By embracing that role and vision and call I need to expect and say yes all these other hardships.
Podcast interviews with Ray Vaughn:
A final thanks to Janet for typing up the transcript of Ray’s interview.
PHOTO: Ray and Sara Vaughn. Not sure who that is on the left. I’m sure he’s not dangerous.
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Ray Vaughn shares what it looks like to turn local churches into centers for training and mobilizing ordinary believers:
So we start training at Sugar Creek, we meet this guy named Otis, he’s maybe in his 50s, really sweet African-American guy with a real good heart for the Lord but has been in the church for about thirty years. We trained about who to share with and what to say, with lots of repetitions and practicing the 3Circles gospel presentation. After this he’s just in tears and says, “I’ve been in the church thirty years and nobody’s ever actually showed me how to share the gospel.”
So we set a small goal: go share the gospel with five people this week. He calls us three days later and says he’s already done that, what else should he do? So we say share with more people, so he shares. He ends up leading ten of his family members to the Lord, baptizes four out of the ten, trains them and now some of them have actually led two others to the Lord and possibly getting baptized in the next month. They meet now in a church in their home; Otis is leading a church with that family and some of his friends every other week, and they’re committed to planting more churches. As a result of this training we’re finding guys like this Otis and just want to release and equip them.
Ray’s always looking for “Generals” who can build teams.
I’m training at Woods’ Edge and all of a sudden this young guy comes out of the training, Angelo and his wife Brianna. They come to me and say hey, we already have a group in our home, in fact when we moved into this complex we knocked on every door. He’s got every hour of his week mapped out, he knows exactly what he’s doing but he has no idea what process to go by, how to multiply.
So you get this general type, the ones God’s already got…now we’re giving Angelo lots of time, even outside of training, because it’s not classroom, it’s relationship. We want to make sure Angelo really gets it, and he’s got it so we’re giving him and his wife a lot more time. Now he’s identifying that group in his home as church and putting 3Thirds into that and now they’re going out sharing every week and getting now an idea of how to multiply.
Listen to the whole interview…
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The Economist reports there are over 100,000 British converts to Islam in the UK. Every year thousands more join them.
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How do you reach a city? Turn local churches into training and centres that mobilise ordinary believers to do extraordinary things.
From my interview with Ray Vaughn in Houston,
We have three maybe five ongoing training centers. One is with Sugar Creek Baptist Church where we got started, and now there’s a team that got raised up there in Sugar Creek that’s doing all the training every month. So we don’t have to be there but when we do go we’re just looking to coach and to help. Now we’re guiding them more in the areas of Fields 3 and 4 (making disciples, forming churches). But Fields 1 and 2 (connecting and sharing) they’re sharing like crazy. They have teams that go out every week, sharing the gospel is starting to become part of their DNA as a church and they have members that are already training folks downstream.
Woods Edge Community Church recently is getting on board where they’ve already learned a lot of these tools, with multiple trainings at their church, but now since we’ve come alongside them we’ve been able to capture more progress and help them go through more consistency of training. Now the first Saturday of every month they’re training folks, taking them out. We’re looking for who’s obeying so we can help them start churches and groups that are multiplying.
Sagemont Church is another church in Pearland, south Houston. They’ve committed to the third Saturday of every month and are also giving us some short term missions into Houston that are tied to the training. The first one is in March, they’ll be taking them out among internationals, with lots of repetitions in the harvest, and then they’re coming back to their Saturday training. Then they’re the ones that are going to train the church there. We’re just coaching them.
Then we have some through this ministry called Hip Hop Hope through Guy Caskey and his network, it’s been a great connection working with Guy and pre-existing leaders in other networks. They’ve tightened up some of their Lesson 1 and they’ve seen lots of generations and some fruit. From that they’ve taken inner city urban poor, folks coming out of prisons, and are plugging them a network of folks really going after church-planting and making disciples to 4th, 5th, 6th generation. They have a training center maybe two times a month where they have new folks from different churches that are being trained.
Ray has set a goal of training 5,000 people in Houston in 2016. To achieve that goal, Ray and his team are training trainers.
Most weeks in Houston there’s a church somewhere training their people and going out into the harvest. Ray and the team help set them up, then hand the training over.
They circle back looking to develop emerging Pauls and Timothys.
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Thanks to Anne and Tobias we have a new version of Following and Fishing in German.
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Between 2012 and 2014, the proportion of Britons identifying themselves as Anglican dropped from 21% to 17%–a fall of about 1.7 million people.
Over the same period, the number of Muslims in Britain grew by nearly one million.
Previously the church hoped to turn the decline around within five years. Now it’s 30 years — at least.
The Church of England is facing at least another 30 years of decline according to internal projections revealed for the first time.
Even if it sees an influx of young people to services, the sheer numbers of older worshippers dying in the next few decades mean it is unlikely to see any overall growth in attendances until the middle of this century, officials now believe.
The stark calculations were revealed during discussions at the Church’s decision-making General Synod, which has been meeting in London, about ambitious plans to tackle declining numbers.
It is preparing to pump £72 million into a “reform and renewal” drive which includes plans to ordain 6,000 more clergy in the 2020s to build a younger priesthood which is less male dominated and less white.
So approaching the year 2050, after generations of decline, the Anglican church will somehow spring back to life.
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Jeff Sundell, Troy Cooper and Ray Vaughn will be training in Houston April 21-23, 2016 at Woodsedge Community Church.
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How do you reach a city like Houston of 6.5 million people?
That was my first question to Ray Vaughn, a movement pioneer just after congratulating him on marrying Sara (photo).
The headings are mine, the quotes are taken from his interview for the Movements podcast.
1. Begin with the end in mind—reaching the whole city. If you act like a team leader you’ll only see what you and your team can do.
We’re starting out with a macro strategy and then moving to a micro strategy. What that means is I could take my team of full-timers and just plug into an apartment complex and say, “OK, let’s go sharing, let’s try and start groups and churches and see how we can get those to multiply and increase,” but then that just makes me a team leader. As a team leader into one area that’ll be a good start but that’s not going to reach the city or see movement.
2. Train and mobilise existing believers, existing churches and form them into teams.
Instead, what does it look like, on a macro level, to start training as many people as we can on every spectrum that we can, whether it’s African Americans, Spanish-speakers or Arabic-speaking churches or people or groups, just any possible person, we’d like to train them and start mobilizing multiple teams into the harvest—that is our macro strategy
So for these next one and a half years, we’re really going to be just training, training, training any person that we can, just to get them into the harvest in a particular area, sharing the gospel, to where that becomes the norm for the culture here, as well as not just sharing the gospel and getting them to Fields 1 and 2 (connecting and sharing the gospel), but then Field 3—discipling them in their homes, in their workplaces or coffee shops or wherever it is and then, of course, forming churches around those people.
3. Keep leading by example
So that’s the clarity that’s in my head as far as how we’re attacking the city of Houston right now. We’re training existing networks, existing churches, pre-existing believers and of course we’re also simultaneously in the harvest every day, sharing, looking for people of peace that are brand new.
There’ll be more to come from my interview with Ray. Thanks to Janet for transcribing the podcast!
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More than 304,000 Chinese studied in American colleges and universities in 2015 alone. Foreign Policy magazine reports, many are coming to faith in Christ.
Ariane Brotto, a Brazilian doctoral student at Columbia University, preaches to Chinese students despite not speaking a word of Mandarin. It started in 2012, when a young Chinese man in her laboratory kept asking her why she seemed happier than her stressed-out peers. One afternoon, Brotto stopped him in the hallway of her laboratory building and handed him a Chinese-language Bible. After an hour, she asked the man what he thought. He responded, “I want to start a relationship with God.” Brotto thought he hadn’t understood her English correctly. But he insisted that he wanted to start praying.
We’ve seen the same thing happen in Australia and here in the UK. The great news is that ministries are engaging Chinese students. What’s missing is a strategy to send the new believers back to China as disciple makers and church planters.
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Ray Vaughn (right) on what it takes to be a movement pioneer across a city. Want to get started? Want to take the next step. Ray recommends you get some training. My last interview with Ray. Connect with Ray Vaughn and support his ministry.
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NPR is trying to work out, Why Nepal Has One Of The World’s Fastest-Growing Christian Populations
Bishwa Mani Pokharel, news chief at Nepal’s Nagarik newspaper, pulls out copies of the census to show the statistical gallop of Christianity across Nepal. It listed no Christians in 1951 and just 458 in 1961. By 2001, there were nearly 102,000. A decade later that number had more than tripled to more than 375,000. Pokharel and others think the increase is really much higher but inaccurately reported.
“Before, when the Christians had a party, they slaughtered a chicken. Now, they slaughter a goat,” says Pokharel, who has been reporting on the conversions. That extra meat, he explains, is necessary to feed all of the new people who’ve joined the guest list.
Churches now mushroom throughout the Kathmandu Valley and across the terraced hills. Proselytizing remains illegal, but with political instability and weak law enforcement, that doesn’t stop it from happening.
The article focuses on what you can see above the surface. What they don’t see is that this is a grass root movement of multiplying disciples and churches.
UPDATE: If you want to know what’s happening under the surface in Nepal, have a listen to any of the podcasts by Nathan Shank.
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Jeff Sundell is hitting the road in 2016.
If you want to learn how multiply disciples and churches get to one of these in 2016.
UPDATE: More options for mostly US based training do whatever you can to get to one this year.
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David Watson, movement catalyst and author of Contagious Disciple Making will be training in Melbourne: April 4-8, 2016.
My interview with David on Contagious Disciple Making.
Praxeis is hosting and taking registrations. (I like their new look website!).
UPDATE
Dave Lawton, seen here conducting the Praxeis Choir in the Hallelujah Chorus, has a blog.
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I’m always on the look out for case studies of dynamic movements.
In this episode, I talk to Dave Price’s blog, researcher and author of Turning the World Upside Down: Learning from The Primitive Methodist Movement.
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Temptations of course cannot be avoided, but because we cannot prevent the birds from flying over our heads, there is no need that we should let them nest in our hair.
I received news this week of another Christian leader stood down for sexual sin. You don’t need the details.
If I was running a seminary I’d mandate one year Bible and theology, one year ministry training and one year on how not to commit adultery.
I’m now a grandfather approaching sixty. Here’s what I’ve learned along the way about faithfulness to the woman I love and the Lord I serve.
1. Nobody is safe
Seminary professors, denominational leaders, pastors of megachurches, missionaries and pastors, New Testament scholars, youth leaders, worship leaders, church planters, evangelists and counsellors, evangelicals, progressives, Spirit-filled Pentecostals, incarnated missional, organic house church leaders — I’ve known leaders of every variety to fall into sexual sin.
Last November I became a grandfather. This year I turn sixty. I’ve seen it all. Here’s what I’ve learned about staying out of trouble. Fear God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. I take Jesus seriously when he says it’s better to enter heaven missing an eye or a hand than give into temptation. I pray for the fear of God every time I’m tempted.
God is gracious and forgiving, but there is a high price to pay for infidelity.
2. Forget morals, focus on ethics
It was late in the afternoon and everyone had left the office. Pastor “Harry” was in his office trying to stay awake while counselling a lady from his congregation. When it was time to finish they stood and she hugged him. It wasn’t one of those side-on hugs, it was an embrace. The moral question is what should Harry do next?
Harry would not be facing that question if he had dealt with the ethical question which was, Should Harry be counselling a woman alone in his office after everyone else had gone home?
Ethics are the safety fence at the top of the cliff. Protect yourself.
3. See them as family
Paul told Timothy to treat older women as mothers and younger women as sisters with absolute purity (1 Tim 5:2). Next time you feel attracted to someone you’re not married to, think of them as family — mothers, sisters, daughters or fathers, brothers and sons. Reframe the relationship around family, not sex.
4. Open your heart to the right people
If you’re a young man I can’t see you beating sexual temptation without an accountability group with some brothers. In that group you share your needs, your temptations and you confess you sins to one another. Weekly is best, but don’t go more than a month without examining your heart in the presence of the right people. Don’t fight this alone.
5. Suffer gladly
Count the cost of following Jesus. There’s no promise that you will be sexually fulfilled. Deep needs may go unmet. You may experience loss and disappointment. Temptation feels irresistible.
What does Christ offer in exchange? Himself — now and forever. He’s worth it.
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For all my Persian brothers and sisters, a Farsi version of the Following and Fishing notes.
This is a revised edition.
The English version.
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What will it take to master the challenge of multiplying disciples and churches?
Nathan Shank keeps reminding me, to keep doing the right things day after day. That’s more important than looking at the scoreboard.
Or as Troy Cooper would say, “You’ve gotta do the reps.” Keep looking for people of peace, keep praying, keep sharing the gospel.
Do the right things every day.
Some wisdom from Anthony F Smith, a business writer:
People have paid me a lot of money over the years to answer the following question for them: How do I become a great Leader? I will often answer them with the following questions:
Q: How do you become a great parent?
A: Do great parenting, day in, day out, over a sustained period of time.Q: How do you become a great consultant?
A: Do great consulting, day in, day out, etc.So, how do you become a great Leader? You guessed it, do great Leadership, day in, day out, over a sustained period of time!
Malcolm Gladwell called it the 10,000 hour rule. To master any field of human endeavour, you need to get 10,000 hours of practice.
The best time to get that experience was ten years ago.The second best time is today.
Do something today. Pray for a need. Share your story. Help a new disciple identify the people they need to share with. Gather five people and start training them. Find a friend and go out and look for a person of peace.
Add your obedience to God’s promises.
]]>I sent the link to this presentation to one of my Yodas. It’s on Radical Candor.
My Yoda taught me that it’s a characteristic of teams that breakthrough in multiplying disciples and churches.
The team learns as members engage in the harvest and mobilise others. Then they get in the room and share what God is doing, and where they are stuck. They care enough about the outcome to be honest and open with each other.
Then they set new goals and back into the field. The team becomes a learning community.
Yoda told me,
I learned that style from military leadership no BS allowed and truth goes both up and down.
Almost no religious organisations practice this which is why almost all implementers come from a secular background where they learned truth telling.
This is a business world presentation, so expect some colourful language.
Next dive into the Gospels with your team and ask, How did Jesus practice Radical Candor with the workers he trained?
UPDATE
A great comment from Yoda David in South Africa…
Steve
Basically, ‘speaking the truth in love.’ It’s a core value for us. Today we had an open and frank discussion about racism and how we offend one another across cultures. It was raw, real and constructive. It takes time for a team to become a ‘safe space’ where this kind of conversation can take place.
David
Basically, ‘speaking the truth in love.’ It’s a core value for us. Today we had an open and frank discussion about racism and how we offend one another across cultures. It was raw, real and constructive. It takes time for a team to become a ‘safe space’ where this kind of conversation can take place.
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This just came in after yesterday’s post on who is qualified for ministry:
]]>Steve
Yesterday I called the man who brought my wife and I to Jesus. I do this every year on our spiritual anniversary. He was a boat builder with a 10th grade education, but kept looking for people outside the church. . .and found us.
This week I met with Scotty who came to faith while in jail and eventually prison. Fifteen months ago he and his wife minister twice a week at the same dorm where he was incarcerated. Over 500 inmates have come to faith in the last 12 months. His resume is 27 pages long aka his rap sheet.
When it comes to movement, I’ll take a Scotty over a scholar any day. I am writing as one who taught church planting on a seminary level for five years, planted multiple churches, and provided leadership for church planting on a denominational level.
Not everyone is a fan of multiplication movements. According to some church leaders and theological educators, movements lack depth.
By depth, they mean spiritual and theological maturity.
One critic claims (without evidence) that the vast majority of churches in multiplication movements are biblically illiterate and have abandoned the faith. The cause? Moving too fast. Appointing unqualified people to lead new churches.
If you’re committed to movements expect criticism.
One of the earliest attacks on the Christian movement came from Celsus, a second-century Greek philosopher, who alleged that Christianity was the faith of uneducated slaves, women and children. He complained it was spread from house to house “by wool workers, cobblers, laundry workers, and the most illiterate and bucolic yokels” who claimed that they alone knew the right way to live.
Augustus Toplady, author of “Rock of Ages,” accused John Wesley of
prostituting the ministerial function to the lowest and most il literate mechanics, persons of almost any class, but especially common soldiers, who pretended to be pregnant with a message from the Lord.
His advice for Wesley,
Let his cobblers keep to their stalls. Let his tinkers mend their vessels. Let his barbers con?ne themselves to their blocks and basons. Let his bakers stand to their kneading-troughs. Let his blacksmiths blow more suitable coals than those of controversy.
The backbone of the Baptist and Methodist expansion on the US Frontier were not salaried, educated men from the East. They came predominately from among ordinary folk. Their frontier preachers had little education, were poorly paid, spoke the language of the people and preached from the heart. The local preacher was likely to be a neighbor, friend, or relative of many of the people he served.
Meanwhile, nothing could convince the well-paid and well-educated mainline clergy to leave their comfortable parishes on the east coast for the challenge of reaching the wild west.
The decline of the Methodist movement began when their mobile circuit riders got down off their horses to become theologically educated parish clergy. The Baptist continued to expand led by unqualified men.
The religious experts of Jesus’ day despised the leaders of the Jesus movement as unqualified amateurs (Acts 4).
What did Jesus do? He stepped into the arena.
We know Jesus invested in the development of leaders. When he called his first disciples he gave them a command and a promise.
Come follow me and I will teach you to fish for people (Mark 1:17).
A disciple is a follower of Jesus. To follow is to recognize him as Lord through faith that is expressed in obedience. Jesus makes a promise to that person, he will teach them how to fish for people — how to make disciples who also follow Jesus and learn to fish.
The Jesus invested in people who responded to his call to follow him and learn to make disciples. The leaders he chose were not graduates from a theological institution, they were ordinary people who were willing to follow and learn.
He chose twelve apostles who he called to be with him. They became the foundation for a missionary movement.
How did he train them? He took them on the road. There were around 175 towns and villages in Galilee, Matthew tells us that Jesus visited all of them. That doesn’t include Jesus’ campaigns into Judea and Jerusalem and the occasional foray into Samaria.
Jesus was always on the move. As he went he trained. He taught them how to enter an unreached community and find a house of peace. He taught them how to pray for the sick. How to cast out demons. How to proclaim the gospel and call people to faith and repentance. He taught them how to teach using stories and memorable sayings. He taught them how to contend with opponents. He taught them how to communicate with both crowds and individuals.
This is what Jesus did. It’s how he grew leaders for a multiplying movement. This is how he built both depth and breadth while maintaining forward momentum.
The Twelve got a lot of Jesus’ time. But there were others. He sent out a wider group of 70 on mission. Luke tells us of a group of women who joined his mobile band on occasions. A much wider group of hundreds or thousands followed him but remained in their normal life setting.
Mary, Martha and Lazarus at Bethany are examples of that wider group. They were not called to follow him on the road. They had limited time with Jesus. What did he expect of them?
We know he rejected the Gerasean demoniac’s request to join Jesus’ missionary band. Instead, Jesus sent him home to the region of the Decapolis, ten pagan cities to the east of the Jordan river. His assignment was to proclaim what God had done for him throughout the ten cities.
What were his qualifications as a messenger? He had met Jesus, and he had a story to tell.
On another occasion, Jesus sent a Samaritan woman with a reputation for immorality as the first missionary into her town. The result? The whole town came out to meet Jesus and put their trust in him as the Savior of the World. How qualified was she? What did she know? She had a story to tell and a question to ask. Could this man who knows all about my past, yet offers me eternal life be the Messiah?
How long did Jesus stay at that village discipling these new believers? Just two days. Did he expect them to keep silent about their newfound faith or follow the example of the woman at the well?
After Pentecost Jesus’ followers circled back and planted churches in the same regions in which Jesus had ministered. What evidence we do have reveals that those missionaries did not settle down to pastor the new believers, but gathered the believers into churches, identified local leaders, moved on and circled back.
Jesus’ school of leadership took place in the context of real life, real ministry, really tough assignments. What he didn’t do was extract promising leaders and place them in a classroom. He took them on the road and trained head, hands and heart. He taught them to live as he lived, to pray as he prayed, to preach as he preached, to heal as he healed.
Peter and John were rejected by the religious experts of the day as “unqualified,” untrained amateurs whose distinguishing features were their boldness and that they had been with Jesus (Acts 4:13).
Jesus still calls unqualified people to follow him and learn to fish for people. He trains head, heart and hands just as he did with his early disciples. So when criticism comes, let it drive you back to the Scriptures and to the example of Jesus.
When criticism comes expect it. Ask what did Jesus do? What does that look like today? Then step back into the arena.
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Join Troy Cooper and I at Exponential 2016 (Orlando), April 25-28.
We’ll be running three workshops and hanging out.
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Pew Research reports:
]]>There were about 3.3 million Muslims of all ages living in the United States in 2015. This means that Muslims made up about 1% of the total US population (about 322 million people in 2015), and we estimate that that share will double by 2050.
Certain states, such as New Jersey, have two or three times as many Muslim adults per capita as the national average.
Our projections suggest the US Muslim population will grow faster than the Hindu population and much faster than the Jewish population in the coming decades. Indeed, even before 2040, Muslims are projected to become the second-largest religious group in the U.S., after Christians. By 2050, the American Muslim population is projected to reach 8.1 million people, or 2.1% of the total population.
Just over half of the projected growth of the American Muslim population from 2010 to 2015 is due to immigration. Over the last 20 years, there has been an increase in the number of Muslim immigrants coming to the US The number of Muslim immigrants currently represents about 10% of all legal immigrants arriving in the US, and a significantly smaller percentage of unauthorized immigrants.
The other main cause of Islam’s recent growth is natural increase. American Muslims tend to have more children than Americans of other religious faiths. Muslims also tend to be younger than the general public, so a larger share of Muslims will soon be at the point in their lives when people begin having children.
There has been little net change in the size of the American Muslim population in recent years due to conversion. About one-in-five American Muslim adults were raised in a different faith or none at all. At the same time, a similar number of people who were raised Muslim no longer identify with the faith. About as many Americans become Muslim as leave Islam.
Steve talks to Brad Wall about Pioneering Movements in global cities.
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“The Apostle: A Life of Paul” (John Pollock)
It’s always good to hear from Grant Morrison. He’s now based in Vanuatu and flying all over the South Pacific multiplying disciples and churches.
These are two of his guys in the Solomon Islands.
Alpheus (on the right) used to be a chaplain at the prison. Now he follows up the released prisoners who accepted Christ during their time in gaol. He trains these men to begin groups and plant churches all over the Solomon Islands. One of these men is a former Prime Minister who now leads a group of new believers, another is a Taiwanese businessman who owned a casino and on his release turned the business into a hardware store and he now seeks to tell his friends and colleagues about Jesus.
This is where you go to hear the latest, send an encouraging note, give towards the ministry. Travel between Pacific Island nations is expensive.
]]>Francis Chan on the lighter side of an unnecessary debate.
You cannot not drive a wedge between repentance and faith, obedience and love.
Paul taught new disciples to follow and obey the Lord Jesus. This is what it looked like:
In Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, written soon after the church was started, Paul reminded them of the truth of the gospel and urged them to respond to God’s grace with obedience. Paul likened his ministry among the Thessalonians to that of both a father and a nursing mother. Paul and his companions lived blamelessly among these new believers and challenged them to follow their example. After Paul was “torn away” from them, he sent Timothy back from Athens to strengthen and encourage them as they faced persecution.
Paul could challenged the Thessalonians to imitate Christ because they were learning and passing on the stories of Jesus’ life and the content of his teaching. Paul also reminded them that the God who called them to imitate Christ had also given them the Holy Spirit (1 Thess 4:8). He commended their progress and challenged them to live holy lives by avoiding the sexual immorality typical of pagan society. Paul encouraged them to grow in love for one another, work hard with their hands so that they would not be dependent on anyone, and live a life that would win the respect of unbelievers.
For Paul, discipleship was about grasping the full implications of what God has done in Christ and then living them out in every aspect of life. It was the obedience that springs from faith in Christ and is made possible by the Holy Spirit. Paul was confident that even though he had left these new disciples prematurely, the Holy Spirit was present and would enable them to come through their suffering with joy.
This is why movements teach new disciples how to obey everything Jesus commanded (Matt 28).
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In the Old Testament, as well as in the writings of Paul, knowledge is not a fixed quantum but rather something that develops in the life of people as they are obedient.
PT O’Brien
Commentary on Ephesians
Disciple making movements teach disciples to obey everything Jesus has commanded (Matt 28: 16-20). That includes some basics of discipleship like: repent and believe, be baptized, pray, make disciples, give generously, love one another and celebrate the Lord’s Supper.
Sadly not everyone in the world of missiology is happy with this approach. Obedience-oriented discipleship has drawn fire. Accusations have been thrown around. Is this a form of Christian Sharia law? Is it man-centred rather than God-centred?
I’m not going to spend too much time on this because the Scriptures are clear and life is short.
Here’s what I wrote about the obedience of faith in, What Jesus Started.
For Paul, the “obedience of faith” is the obedience that flowed from faith in Christ (Rom 1:5; 15:18). It was the disciples’ total response to the gospel in every area of life, not just their initial conversion. The Christian life is both created and lived through the gospel.”
Paul wrote to the Galatians, “You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth?” (Gal 5:7). The gospel is not just something we believe; it’s something we obey. The obedience of faith begins with conversion but must go on to include an ongoing change of life. Paul told the Galatians that he continued to suffer like a woman in labor “until Christ is formed in you” (Gal 4:19). Bringing them to the obedience of faith was an important part of Paul’s mission.
Paul’s letters typically focused on two themes: (1) the truth of the gospel and (2) how believers should live in response to that truth. His priority was to establish believers in the obedience of faith—a way of life that was consistent with the character of God as revealed in Jesus Christ. Paul’s letters followed a similar pattern: starting with the grace of God in Jesus Christ, he would remind believers of who they were in Christ and what God had done for them. This focus on the reality of their salvation and all its benefits dominated Paul’s letters. Once he had laid this foundation, he moved on to show how these truths must transform the lives of God’s people.
Gentile conversion to faith in Christ involved a radical break with their culture. Gentiles had to abandon their belief in the gods and turn to the one true and living God of the Jewish Scriptures. They had to put their faith in a Savior who had been executed as a criminal on a Roman cross and raised physically from the dead.
Imagine the changes in the life of a new believer who lived in Ephesus, for example. He would no longer visit the temple of Artemis or participate in the rituals and festivals in her honor. He would not bow before the statue of the goddess when he visited the public baths, and he would remove the idols from his home. He would no longer worship the Roman emperor as a god. His break with paganism could not have been more obvious to his community.
In addition, this new believer would leave behind all kinds of sexual immorality—adultery, visiting prostitutes and homosexual behavior—as well as forsaking greed and drunkenness. All of these were acceptable in Ephesian society, as long as they were carried out discreetly and within limits.
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Our next training is in London. The participant notes….
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Follow the links to interviews on Pioneering Movements:
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According to Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra the next mass missionary movement will be made in China.
]]>This fall, about 850 Chinese leaders gathered for their own missions conference even closer to home. They announced from Hong Kong a long-discussed goal: to send 20,000 missionaries from China by the year 2030.
The number is enormous, especially for a country that has sent only a few hundred foreign missionaries so far. Of the world’s top six sending countries, four hover around the 20,000 mark, according to the Center for the Study of Global Christianity (CSGC): France, Spain, Italy, and South Korea. Only the United States (127,000) and Brazil (34,000) send more.
By those numbers, reaching 20,000 shouldn’t be hard. The global average for Christians sending foreign missionaries is 175 per million, said CSGC’s Todd Johnson. If China has 100 million Christians, sending 17,500 would meet the average.
However, the Chinese church isn’t aiming for averages but repayment: Chinese leaders estimate about 20,000 missionaries have served in China since the days of Robert Morrison and Hudson Taylor.
“The idea of the 20,000 was based on a gospel debt or missional debt,” said 10/40 Window speaker and author Luis Bush, who addressed the Hong Kong conference. “They see themselves as an extremity of Acts 1:8.”
China’s big goal is reminiscent of South Korea’s pledge in the 1990s to raise 10,000 missionaries in 10 years. South Korean Christians met their goal in 2000 and raised it: they’re now aiming for 100,000 missionaries by 2030.
Adding 20,000 Chinese missionaries “will definitely be a shift in the gravity of Christianity and its impact for the world from the West to the East,” said David Ro, Lausanne’s international deputy director for East Asia.
An amazing presentation and great news if it’s accurate.
According to the Spectator:
The World Health Organisation, the United Nations, the OECD, the World Bank – all of them now keep annually updated records of human progress, and the story told by these metrics is the greatest story of our age.
So why don’t we hear more about it?
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“MissionShift: Global Mission Issues in the Third Millennium”
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New disciples, new churches, new workers in training. Ray is amazing.
Follow the link and subscribe to his newsletter, support this great work or get some training Ray is based in Houston.
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andy: Do you mean I would have to be a real Christian?steve: Andy what do you mean?andy: If I got baptized, I’d have to be a real Christian and stop sleeping around.
The obedience of faith is at the heart of movements that multiply disciples and churches. Some people have confused the obedience of faith with a Christian version of sharia (Islamic law). Identity in Christ is the only true foundation for following Jesus in loving obedience. The question of baptism helped Andy discover that he hadn’t yet truly repented and believed. What’s more, he didn’t want to. He was happy to pray a prayer but not forsake the ladies. I’ve spent the last few months in Ephesians with the help of Clinton Arnold’s commentary. Here’s his take on what Ephesians says about our identity in Christ.
If this is true about who we are, nothing is too good to be true. No sacrifice is too great in response to God’s grace in Christ. That’s why nobody is asked to just “pray a prayer” in the New Testament. We make disciples of all nations by going, by baptizing and by teaching them to obey everything Jesus has commanded.
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From his latest newsletter:
The team and I began prayer walking the local area and got into a small apartment and an old run down trailer park.
We have seen two churches start, one at the apartment and one at the trailer park. Seven people have come to Christ and three baptized. We’ll baptize two more tonight.
We visit multiple times every week. Every visit we meet new people with a hunger for Jesus. Many are on the verge of coming to Christ and the ones who have given their lives to Christ are experiencing life changes.
We’re learning that the key is following up and intentionally living life with these people. Their lives are chaos and we have to take Jesus into this chaos.
Read those last two sentences again. Clint’s not a hit and run evangelist. He’s making disciples and planting churches.
Here’s where you can go and support him financially.
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In this podcast Dave Ferguson and I discuss Pioneering Movements at the NewThing Leadership Gathering 2015.
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The Economist:
The proportion of Middle Easterners who are Christian has dropped from 14% in 1910 to 4% today. Church leaders and pundits have begun to ask whether Christianity will vanish from the Middle East, its cradle, after 2,000 years.
The increase of Christians (Saudi Arabia and UAE) is due to guest workers, many from the Philippines, who do not have permanent residency.
Related: BBC Report: Could Christianity be driven from Middle East?
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The last chapter of Pioneering Movements is all about the people God uses. A major source was a guy we’ll call “Bill Smith”. I keep thinking about this quote.
The people God uses to get to movement are all broken people.
Back one hundred years ago people in the Keswick Movement and others talked about brokenness; it was common. I never hear Christians talking about it now.
I read old missionary biographies and they talked about brokenness. Then God broke me.
Bill Smith
Brokenness is a work of God. You can’t bring it upon yourself. You can only respond when it happens. But why not get ready by reading some old missionary biographies?
]]>I caught up with Dave Ferguson in December at the NewThing Leadership Gathering.
We talked about Pioneering Movements.
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The noplaceleft guys in the US have put everything you need to know on a card.
Every tool and concept is yielding the fruit of new disciples and reproducing churches in fields around the world.
Fill in some of the missing details by attending the Following and Fishing training or equivalent.
UPDATE: Carter walks us through basic training in making disciples and planting churches.
]]>The hub—or the center—of the church’s mission is verbal proclamation of Christ’s saving work and his offer of salvation to those who believe in him. If Christ and his atonement are removed from the center, the wheel collapses.
Bruce Ashford
Some food for thought on what the bible says about the church.
A bargain on Kindle at 99c or 99p.
Now for the time to read it….
Chuck Wood explains the difference between a group and a healthy church.
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According Andrew Clements the 3Circles gospel presentation is pre-dated by St Patrick’s shamrock presentation.
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When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realised that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.
Acts 4:13
Recently I read an academic paper criticising the use of “unqualified” ordinary people as leaders in disciple making movements. I got mad and wrote a response, but wiser heads prevailed and I didn’t send it.
Around the same time a friend reported in from somewhere in Asia. He’s training unqualified people to multiply disciples and churches. He doesn’t like his same splashed around so we’ll just call him “Mr Smith”.
Hi Steve
Today in XXXX, three more days with this group.
Today a class for some former Muslims some former Buddhists, two still Buddhist, two totally illiterate but good evangelists, one foot amputee from a land mine. One handicapped both feet and one hand, he has one usable hand and arm.
About half and half women and men. Many good testimonies of miracles. Some have been run out of their village about five active army personnel, two former Buddhist priests and one former lay director of a Buddhist temple.
Five languages and many ethnic groups. Two languages have no written scripture yet.
The food is good, and it’s not too hot which is blessing. I have a good translator.
Final day will be Christian wedding opportunity to set precedents.
Mr Smith
Now when I think of that article I bring these folk to mind. They are the future. They have the qualification of having been with Jesus.
My friend is in his seventies and he’s going on strong. He has spent his life training ordinary people to multiply disciples and churches. He could spend all his days on the golf course, or on a beach somewhere. He’s earned the right.
What are you going to do with the rest of your life? Why not waste it on ordinary people.
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Check out Carter Cox’s first-rate resources for multiplying disciples and churches.
Look for his training videos and resources to download.
]]>You get his wisdom on coaching for just 99c or 99p on Kindle.
“Coaching In Ministry: How Busy Church Leaders Can Multiply Their Ministry Impact” (Keith E. Webb)
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Until today I had never heard of Niamey, the capital of Niger. According to the Economist it is the demographic centre of world Christianity:
Just 70m of Western Europe’s 375m adults attend church at least once a month. Meanwhile, in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, the church appears as strong as ever. There are 277m adherent Christians in sub-Saharan Africa and 250m in Latin America. As Christianity has shifted southwards, that has moved the centre of Christianity to Niamey, the capital of Niger (calculated by taking the Christian-adherence weighted-average latitude and longitude of countries’ capital cities). As the crow flies that is 2,433 miles from Bethlehem.
Q. If someone from Nigeria is a Nigerian. What do you call someone from Niger?
A. A “Nigerien” (nee-ZHER-yen).
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Why would a Christian academic at an evangelical college equate the God revealed in the Qur’an and the God revealed through Jesus Christ? Why shouldn’t we be surprised when it happens?
In the lead up to Christmas, Larycia Hawkins, a Wheaton professor donned a purple headscarf in solidarity with Muslims and declared that Christians and Muslims worship the same God.
Wheaton stood her down, not for wearing the hijab, but “to explore theological implications of her recent public statements.”
Wheaton, an evangelical college, does not teach that the God of Islam is the same God of the Christian faith.
Hawkins has stood her ground. Wheaton College students have staged a sit-in at president Philip Ryken’s office.
Do Christians and Muslims worship the same God? It can be arranged.
Remove God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, deny the Incarnation, the Cross and the Resurrection, affirm salvation through your own efforts and you could possibly equate the God of Islam and the God revealed by Jesus Christ. Alternatively, you could take both Islam and Christianity seriously. You will soon find that they are different faiths with very different concepts of God.
Movements are born and maintained through commitment to a cause. When people stop caring, a movement begins to fade away. Our modern-postmodern society does not share our commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord. We can make peace and be accepted if we’ll just stop insisting on his uniqueness.
We face that pressure every day. It’s nothing new.
Jesus laid down his life for claiming he was more than just another religious teacher. Paul found that the message of the Cross was unacceptable to both religious fundamentalists and immoral pagans. So he proclaimed a foolish message in weakness and God did the rest.
Jesus Christ alone is Lord and Saviour of the world. Stake your life on it, expect trouble and you will see God’s glory revealed.
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“Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity” (Nabeel Qureshi) (US: $2.99, UK: £2.99)
]]>Matty Hawthorne from Ivy Church in Manchester UK shares How to do a Christmas House of Peace Search.
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A report on the State of Church Planting in the US offered by NewChurches.
You can download the report once you’ve signed up for a free membership.
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We’re off to train in Nottingham in January 15-16 next year. Yes, the location really is “Maid Marion Way, Nottingham.” I wonder if Friar Tuck will turn up?
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There’s a view out there that we don’t need to make a special effort to find people far from God. You don’t need to add something to your already busy life. Just do what you normally do. Hang out with the people you know and the opportunities will come to you — or not.
Then there’s the view that Jesus was always on the move from place to place, like a shepherd looking for lost sheep. My friend Grant takes the second view. Here’s a story from his latest newsletter:
]]>A friend and I were preparing to go out to parks, believing God will lead us to people whom He has prepared to hear the gospel.
As we were praying and asking God to lead us, I remembered an Iranian couple we had met two weeks prior. I believed God wanted us to again go to that same park to meet the couple and share Jesus with them.
As we arrived we looked around but could not see anyone, then over under a tree I saw an older couple whom I recognised; it was the elderly Iranian couple. We walked over and reconnected with them. As we shared more about Jesus, Muhammad said, “I have read many stories of Jesus in Iran and I love Jesus but I cannot follow him because I am Muslim”.
He went on to say, “In Iran if you follow Jesus and the government find out they will put you in prison or even kill you. This is what happens to people there”.
My friend and I began sharing how he didn’t need to give up his culture to follow Jesus and then shared a simple message through drawing a picture that illustrated who Jesus is and how we can be made right with God by going through Jesus. I then shared how Jesus had lead us to the park that day as He had wanted us to share this message with Muhammad and his wife.
When I said this Muhammad said, “Really! Really? Jesus sent you here today?” I said yes and told him that Jesus wants Muhammad to know him. At the point Muhammad had tears rolling down his cheeks and a great joy came across his face.
We ended our time by praying with Muhammad and his wife, giving Muhammad a big hug and arranged to meet him again and share more Jesus stories with him and his wife.
I love this series. I read it about every 3-4 years.
Amazon Kindle (US) has them on sale as one volume for $3.99.
UPDATE
The Magician’s Nephew for $1.99.
The first story in the Chronicles of Narnia.
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Pew Research reports on the state of Islam in the US and around the world.
]]>There’s a lot of shallow thinking out there in the media and in Christian circles about the true nature of Islam. Some of it is wishful thinking without any basis in fact.
Adam Francisco has a PhD in Islamic-Christian relations from Oxford University and is professor of history at Concordia University.
Courtesy of the Gospel Coalition you can view two introductory interviews with Adam Francisco followed by four lectures on The Muslim Worldview, Islamic Theology and Islam in America.
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Finally, Pioneering Movements: Leadership That Multiplies Disciples and Churches, out now on Kindle
UPDATE: If you prefer epub, mobi and PDF, you can pick up a copy from IVP.
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What does your Monday morning mission look like?
This just came in from Ray Vaughn,
Dear friends and family
Yesterday we prayed for a young guy that was far from God.
He asked us to pray for a girl he had beat up on a weak ago.
He gave us the apartment number and we made our way over there. They came to their door the same time we did. We asked to pray for them and they invited us in.
We shared the 3 circles Gospel presentation with them and they all three received the Lord. They received their identity in Christ, and taught who to share with and what to say. They decided to meet together as church!!
Many times when the Gospel is shared with folks there is a positive reception but then the enemy comes in and steals away the seed.
Please pray for this fragile church start.
Ray
Discipling this group will be messy. Broken people are not put back together overnight. But why would you want to do anything else?
So is your Monday morning missional engagement as clear and real as this?
If it’s not, don’t keep trying harder. Something needs to be different. Get some basic training from someone who knows what to do on Monday morning. Find someone who has fresh stories of people far from God who are now learning to follow and obey Jesus.
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Some more wisdom from someone who has been training, coaching and mentoring movement pioneers for a long, long, time.
]]>Guys
It’s getting close to the end of the calendar year. It’s time for reflection.
So of all the guys you have stood in front of this year who is seriously getting on towards a movement?
List names. What do you and I need to do to facilitate them?
I say this because my initial training only takes some one so far, And by far the majority of guys we train never get to movement.
There are continuing new challenges that constantly pop up as obstacles to practitioners.
Another way to look at this is how many movements: incipient, potential, or actual are underway from my training efforts this past year.
I recognized that God and many other persons have had a hand in these, but realistically where have I made a difference and what do I need to do sustain one or more of these.
In hind sight would it be belter to drop everything and pour massive energy into two or three guys who might become Ying Kais or at least person God uses to reach a million.
At every stage of a movement they will face challenges they’ve never faced before:
- First handfull of believers
- First hundred
- First martyrdom
- First scandal
- First thousand
- First wide distance geographical expansion
- First ten thousand .
- First need for mature mid-level leaders
- First encounter with traditional nay saying Christianity
There are unique challenges that each practitioner may not have faced before. They’ll need a coach.
Bill
The vision of our team is primarily to raise up godly leaders, church leaders to see a multiplication of disciple making churches throughout southern Africa into the world.
Karl Teichert
OC International
Karl Teichert tells the story of how OC International is training church planters in Madagascar.
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Francis Chan at his humorous best.
How can this guy be so funny and so serious at the same time?
]]>Steve
I practice and train in the insights I’ve gained from this book. Leaders who see movements create great systems and teams.
Here’s a summary, but the whole book is worth reading.
Bill
“Organizing Genius: The Secrets of Creative Collaboration” (Warren Bennis, Patricia Ward Biederman)
Related: Movement Pioneers are Aggressive
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Michelle and I are back together after a month in different parts of the world. I did miss her.
Off to Manchester this weekend (Dec 4-5) to run the last Following and Fishing training for the year. The host is Ivy Church.
On Sunday I fly out of Manchester for Chicago and the NewThing Leaders gathering with Dave Ferguson and Oscar Muriu. I’ll also be running a workshop with Troy Cooper on Getting from Church to Movement.
We begin next year with Following and Fishing in Nottingham (Jan 15-16) and London (March 4-5).
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Many as low as $2.99 (US Kindle) and £1.90 (UK Kindle).
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I’ve just heard from IVP that the pre-release discount of 50% is still available until Dec 6.
(Dec 6 was the official launch date, but the book was released early.)
So if you are intending to purchase in bulk, now is the time to act.
I’m assuming the discounts on What Jesus Started and Movements that Change the World also remain until Dec 6.
For all those waiting for the electronic version (Kindle & IVP pdf), it is coming soon, but I don’t know the exact date.
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An enjoyable discussion with Bryan Entzminger for the Engaging Missions radio show.
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A story from our latest newsletter
I was in Kenya to train fifty young Africans how to spark movements that multiply disciples and churches. Russell Godward, a church leader from England came with me.
On the first day, Russell grabbed two Kenyans, Louis and Ken and took the gravel road into the town of Gisambai looking for “a house of peace” (Luke 10:1-11).
They struck up a conversation with two young men outside the “boda-boda” (motor-cycle) station where you can pick up a motorbike taxi.
The two men thought it was a great joke that a white Englishmen and two Kenyans wanted to pray for them. Soon they settled down.
Both hadn’t worked in a long time. They were drinking and using drugs. One was going to court to face a serious charge. He told them he was innocent.
If you’d like to receive our newsletter each month you can subscribe or unsubscribe at anytime.
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The 3 Circles in Spanish. Of course, as I don’t speak Spanish he could be saying anything!
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I dedicated Pioneering Movements to a man we’ll call “Mr Smith”. He prefers to fly under the radar.
He has done more than most people I know to train, inspire, and mentor the people who multiply disciples and churches around the world.
I can feel him cringe as I say that!
Anyway Mr Smith has just sent through this email:
Hi Steve
One of the continuing conversations I am part of is, What kind of person gets to movements?
The article below goes into that file … The people who get to movements are aggressive.
Bill
Here’s the article he attached. It’s by James Emery White.
There are a lot of traits one might wish upon pastors and church leaders. Holiness, selflessness, humility… but I find that most of them embody such traits. They are good and Godly people.
So if there is one trait that I would wish upon pastors and church leaders around the world, it would be a trait that many do not already have or aspire to; a trait that I find strikingly absent.
I would wish them to become more aggressive.
If your mind instantly leaps to someone who starts fights or quarrels, that’s not where I’m going.
I mean aggressive in the best sense of the word. As Webster’s definition puts it, aggressive as in “ready or willing to take issue and engage in direct action; full of enterprise and initiative; bold and active; pushing.”
When I think of aggressive leaders, I think of,
…“make it happen” leaders,
…people who don’t immediately take “no” for “no,”
…catalysts for change,
…those who take charge in the heat of battle,
…upsetters of the status quo,
…backbone,
…rabid animals for growth,
…righteous anger,
…creators of action,
…courage,
…someone who is “hungry,”
…top-of-the-line, competitive athletes for the Kingdom of God.
Speaking of athletes, it was said of Michael Jordan – arguably the greatest basketball player ever – that whenever he walked on the court, he was dangerous. There was an aggressive intensity to his game that was threatening to any opponent.
I have a framed, limited edition, signed print of Michael Jordan in my office. The picture of MJ is epic, and the signature is nice, but it has always been the words that have captured my attention:
“It is a rare person who comes along and raises the standards of excellence, who captures the hearts of many, and who inspires a group of individuals on to achieve the impossible.”
May that kind of aggression mark us all.
And yes, real men do play football without helmets and padding. It’s called Rugby and congratulations to the All Blacks, 2015 World Champions over Australia.
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I love talking to these guys — Peyton Jones and Pete Mitchell from HardCore Church Planting. I think they’re crazy, which is why I like talking to them.
Subscribe to their podcast, they have some great interviews and it’s free. If you don’t like the interviews they promise to give you your money back!
UPDATE: here’s the interview I did with them on Pioneering Movements.
]]>~Alan Hirsch author of The Permanent Revolution
Addison seamlessly intertwines the biblical narrative with examples of how today’s disciples of Christ are seeing the same miraculous activity of God. If you want to be a part of that movement that Jesus launched, you’ll want to draw deeply from What Jesus Started.
~David Garrison author of A Wind in the House of Islam
Steve Addison’s third book on movements builds on his previous writings by inviting Christ Followers to become “movement pioneers” wherever they live. Pioneering Movements is filled with examples of such people from the early church, Christian history, and modern day movements. Steve makes a compelling case that God can use any Christ Followers to replicate disciple making, while also providing simple, practical steps to get started.
~ Jerry Trousdale author of Miraculous Movements: How Hundreds of Thousands of Muslims Are Falling in Love With Jesus.
The history of global missions is rich and encouraging, even in this complex age we can learn a great deal from those who have gone before. In Pioneering Movements, Steve Addison provides us with a compelling reminder of the importance godly leaders play in the proliferation of the gospel for God’s Glory. His book is both instructive and inspirational.
~Ed Stetzer LifeWay Research www.edstetzer.com
Pioneering Movements paints a picture of the difference between spiritual leaders who start churches and those who launch movements. Addison provides a delicious cross-section of the traits, efforts and focus of men and women, expatriates and nationals, that cross that line to spark movements that change their worlds.
~Steve Smith author of T4T: A Discipleship Re-Revolution
The best thing about this book is the stories and the people …it’s all real! This isn’t wishful idealism or bland theology. With the type of leadership Steve describes and the powerful presence of the Spirit of God, movements are possible, and God expects and even longs for our participation. As a practitioner, Steve gives us plenty of “how-tos.” The choice to engage is ours.
~Sam Metcalf author of Beyond the Local Church: How Apostolic Movements Can Change the World
Hundreds of thousands of books will be published this year. Only a few have the potential to change the world. This latest book by Steve Addison is one of those few books. Movements of all kinds change our world on a daily basis. Pioneering movements of discipleship are the most powerful movements of all because they change communities of people at the heart level. What Steve has created is a manual to help all of us become the pioneers of these world changing movements. This book is an essential resource for the missions community.
~Rick Wood Missions Frontiers Magazine
What do you get when you combine theory with practice? The Apostle Paul. Steve Addison delivers the same One-two punch in his latest book Pioneering Movements. This tactician/practitioner combo is what we’ve come to expect from his work, and this latest volume does not disappoint.
~Peyton Jones author of Church Zero, host of The Church Planter Podcast and founder of the New Breed Church Planting Network
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I just shake my head and I say, How many wars you got left in you, boy?
Dr Paige Patterson
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
Earlier this year Dr Paige Patterson declared war on Southern Baptist missionaries who were committed to multiplying disciples and churches. He called for the sacking of David Garrison, a leading proponent of church planting movements.
Dr Patterson is the President of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is no stranger to denominational battles. He was a prominent figure in the Southern Baptist Convention conservative resurgence.
Four months before the IMB (International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention) announced plans to eliminate 600-800 jobs due to financial constraints, Dr Patterson called for the removal of Garrison and 750 other missionaries due to incompetence or theological error. Patterson rejects Garrison’s concept of the “wrinkling of time.”
What he means by this is it’s taking too long to evangelise the world, so we need to get out there and we need to do church planting by the thousands and thousands and thousands of house churches. It doesn’t matter who’s pastor of it. As soon as you get there, identify the man or the woman who is the most natural leader and tell them they’re the pastor, and you’re ready to go. We have tried a number of these in Bangladesh and in China, particularly, where the results have been disastrous. Predictably because a small house church with no biblical understanding and are hard put to find the Gospel of John in a Bible drill; they’re not going to lead to biblically based congregations. What they’re going to do is to watch Benny Hinn on television and follow him, and that is exactly what is happening. The vast majority of our house church plants that we have done are now off in the name-it-and-claim-it gospel and have abandoned New Testament faith entirely and completely.
These are serious charges — if they are true. And at least one charge is true. David Garrison wants to plant thousands of churches. He is eager to win a lost world for Christ. He’s guilty on that one.
Here are the other allegations, as yet unproven:
Now we’re getting somewhere. These are allegations that can easily be proven if someone has done their homework before making them public.
Dr Patterson is the President of a theological seminary. He is an academic, a PhD graduate and a published author of numerous books and articles. He would never make allegations like these public without careful research and evidence. That’s what he would expect of his students at South Western. He’d expect them to do their research, gather the evidence and present their case.
So I asked Dr Patterson to provide the evidence to back up his charges. So far he has been unable to do so.
Meanwhile, Paige Patterson has won this latest battle. After 30 years of distinguished service with the IMB, David Garrison has resigned to become the new Executive Director of Global Gates. The mission of Global Gates is to reach the ends of the earth through global gateway cities. They began in New York and are now in six North American cities with plans to reach more gateway cities around the world.
Seems like David “Wrinkling of Time” Garrison is still impatient to reach a lost world. He’s still devoting his life to fulfilling the Great Commission. Someone had better warn Global Gates to watch out for this dangerous man.
Related
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The consensus of the Western media, religious and political leaders is that the Islamic State is not “Islamic.”
Graeme Wood disagrees. He’s the author of, What ISIS Really Wants.
According to Wood, the Islamic State and it’s supporters are not cynically distorting Islam for political purposes. They take the Qur’an and the example of Muhammad very seriously indeed.
Watch the video and make up your own mind.
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The 3 Circles has (or is it “have”) made it to Japan.
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Steve Addison, the author of Pioneering Movements, talks to Troy Cooper about his new book.
Steve is the good looking one.
“Pioneering Movements: Leadership That Multiplies Disciples and Churches” (Steve Addison)
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We are all rightly concerned for France following the Paris attacks this week. But spare a thought and a prayer for Nigeria.
The grisly attacks in France and Lebanon last week have fixed attention on the violence perpetrated by ISIS. But a study published this week indicates that the world’s deadliest terrorist organization actually operates thousands of miles south of Paris and Beirut, in Nigeria.
Related
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The Islamic State is no mere collection of psychopaths. It is a religious group with carefully considered beliefs, among them that it is a key agent of the coming apocalypse.
Graeme Wood has written a lengthy and penetrating article from the Atlantic on the rise of Islamic State, its mission and beliefs. Why is the media so bereft of such analysis? Why are our church leaders and politicians so naïve regarding the correlation between the actions of ISIS and the teachings of the Qur’an and the example of Muhammad? The article tackles this evasion head-on.
There is a temptation to rehearse this observation—that jihadists are modern secular people, with modern political concerns, wearing medieval religious disguise—and make it fit the Islamic State. In fact, much of what the group does looks nonsensical except in light of a sincere, carefully considered commitment to returning civilization to a seventh-century legal environment, and ultimately to bringing about the apocalypse.
Islamic State may not be the only legitimate interpretation of Islam, but it is a legitimate interpretation of Islam.
The reality is that the Islamic State is Islamic. Very Islamic. Yes, it has attracted psychopaths and adventure seekers, drawn largely from the disaffected populations of the Middle East and Europe. But the religion preached by its most ardent followers derives from coherent and even learned interpretations of Islam. Virtually every major decision and law promulgated by the Islamic State adheres to what it calls, in its press and pronouncements, and on its billboards, license plates, stationery, and coins, “the Prophetic methodology,” which means following the prophecy and example of Muhammad, in punctilious detail.
Islamic State justifies the targeting of other Muslims, especially Shia Muslims, by delegitimising them as Muslims.
In Islam, the practice of takfir, or excommunication, is theologically perilous. “If a man says to his brother, ‘You are an infidel,’?” the Prophet said, “then one of them is right.” If the accuser is wrong, he himself has committed apostasy by making a false accusation. The punishment for apostasy is death.
Denying the holiness of the Koran or the prophecies of Muhammad is straightforward apostasy. But Zarqawi and the state he spawned take the position that many other acts can remove a Muslim from Islam. These include, in certain cases, selling alcohol or drugs, wearing Western clothes or shaving one’s beard, voting in an election—even for a Muslim candidate—and being lax about calling other people apostates. Being a Shiite, as most Iraqi Arabs are, meets the standard as well, because the Islamic State regards Shiism as innovation, and to innovate on the Koran is to deny its initial perfection. (The Islamic State claims that common Shiite practices, such as worship at the graves of imams and public self-flagellation, have no basis in the Koran or in the example of the Prophet.) That means roughly 200 million Shia are marked for death. So too are the heads of state of every Muslim country, who have elevated man-made law above Sharia by running for office or enforcing laws not made by God.
A consequence of the takfiri doctrine is that the Islamic State is committed to purifying the world by killing vast numbers of people. The leading expert on the belief systems of the Islamic State is Bernard Haykel of Princeton University. He contends that Muslims who call Islamic State “un-Muslim” are,
“embarrassed and politically correct, with a cotton-candy view of their own religion” that neglects “what their religion has historically and legally required.” Many denials of the Islamic State’s religious nature, he said, are rooted in an “interfaith-Christian-nonsense tradition.”
In Haykel’s estimation, the fighters of the Islamic State are authentic throwbacks to early Islam and are faithfully reproducing its norms of war. This behavior includes a number of practices that modern Muslims tend to prefer not to acknowledge as integral to their sacred texts. “Slavery, crucifixion, and beheadings are not something that freakish [jihadists] are cherry-picking from the medieval tradition,” Haykel said.
The Islamic State takes emulation of Muhammad as a strict duty and has revived traditions that have been dormant for hundreds of years. Islamic State has continued to embrace slavery and crucifixion without apology.
“We will conquer your Rome, break your crosses, and enslave your women,” Yazidi women and children [are to be] divided according to the Shariah [Islamic law] amongst the fighters of the Islamic State who participated in the Sinjar operations [in northern Iraq] … Enslaving the families of the kuffar [infidels] and taking their women as concubines is a firmly established aspect of the Shariah that if one were to deny or mock, he would be denying or mocking the verses of the Koran and the narrations of the Prophet … and thereby apostatising from Islam.
The Islamic State is driven by its belief that it is a key player in the end times.
During the last years of the U.S. occupation of Iraq, the Islamic State’s immediate founding fathers … saw signs of the end times everywhere. They were anticipating, within a year, the arrival of the Mahdi—a messianic figure destined to lead the Muslims to victory before the end of the world.
What is to be done? Military intervention is thwart with danger. Wood suggests that containment is the best of a bad range of options.
Properly contained, the Islamic State is likely to be its own undoing. No country is its ally, and its ideology ensures that this will remain the case. The land it controls, while expansive, is mostly uninhabited and poor. As it stagnates or slowly shrinks, its claim that it is the engine of God’s will and the agent of apocalypse will weaken, and fewer believers will arrive. And as more reports of misery within it leak out, radical Islamist movements elsewhere will be discredited: No one has tried harder to implement strict Sharia by violence. This is what it looks like.
Denouncing the Islamic State as un-Muslim is dishonest and counterproductive,
especially if those who hear the message have read the holy texts and seen the endorsement of many of the caliphate’s practices written plainly within them. Muslims can say that slavery is not legitimate now, and that crucifixion is wrong at this historical juncture. Many say precisely this. But they cannot condemn slavery or crucifixion outright without contradicting the Koran and the example of the Prophet. “The only principled ground that the Islamic State’s opponents could take is to say that certain core texts and traditional teachings of Islam are no longer valid,” Bernard Haykel says. That really would be an act of apostasy.
That the Islamic State holds the imminent fulfillment of prophecy as a matter of dogma at least tells us the mettle of our opponent. It is ready to cheer its own near-obliteration, and to remain confident, even when surrounded, that it will receive divine succor if it stays true to the Prophetic model. Ideological tools may convince some potential converts that the group’s message is false, and military tools can limit its horrors. But for an organization as impervious to persuasion as the Islamic State, few measures short of these will matter, and the war may be a long one, even if it doesn’t last until the end of time.
Related: The World’s Deadliest Terrorist Organization
UPDATE: Mark Durie: Paris attacks were not ‘nihilism’ but sacred strategy
UPDATE: According to Newsweek a 2014 poll found that one in six French citizens sympathised with the Islamist militant group ISIS, also known as Islamic State.
The poll of European attitudes towards the group, carried out by ICM for Russian news agency Rossiya Segodnya, revealed that 16% of French citizens (both Muslims and non-Muslims) have a positive opinion of ISIS. This percentage increases among younger respondents, spiking at 27% for those aged 18-24.
A recent poll placed French president Francois Hollande’s approval rating at just 18%.
UPDATE: Interview with Graeme Wood.
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There are two types of people in the world — those who know Jesus, and those who don’t.
Share the good news with the latter, and train the former.
Ying Kai
I met Hank somewhere in the Middle East recently. I assumed he was an Arab with good English. I discovered he was Dutch with good English and Arabic.
Hank is a student of Middle Eastern studies working has way around the region, learning Arabic and learning culture.
In exchange for a bed and meals he was serving as a waiter in a hotel. I was impressed.
I soon found out he has a Catholic faith.
He had to keep working and I was checking out, so I had just a few minutes to explain how he could start reading the (Injil) Gospels with Muslims who wanted to know more about Isa (Jesus).
The Quran commands Muslims to do just that.
So I explained the Discovery approach, outlined the passages to read and discuss, and emailed the questions.
I prayed for Hank and told him, if he gets started to send me an email and we can talk more.
]]>If you have a version of the 3 Circles in another language on video, send in the link and I may publish it.
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Steve Wright has been training Mandarin, English and Spanish speakers in the 3 Circles.
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This is an interview I did with David Garrison on my latest book: Pioneering Movements: Leadership that Multiplies Disciples and Churches.
DAVID: Why did you write Pioneering Movements?
STEVE: Ten years ago I had just come out of China and was passing through Singapore. There I met with two men, both named Smith. They trained and coached leaders across Asia who were multiplying disciples and churches. I was a student of movements; they knew movements from the inside. I shared with them what I had learned about the ve characteristics of dynamic movements—white-hot faith, commitment to a cause, contagious relationships, rapid mobilization and adaptive methods. Bill Smith and Steve Smith said I had done a good job. Their experience validated my research. My trip to China had left me wondering whether my five characteristics should really be six. I felt I should add a crucial sixth characteristic—pioneering or apostolic leadership. When I asked for their opinion, they said, “We have never seen a church planting movement without apostolic leadership.” That’s why I wrote Pioneering Movements.
DAVID: What’s the book about?
STEVE: Pioneering Movements is a book about leadership, specifically movement leadership. Not movements in a general sense, but movements that make disciples and multiply churches. Everywhere. That’s what Jesus did. It’s what he trained his disciples to do. It’s what he is doing today.
DAVID: Describe the main themes.
STEVE: In What Jesus Started I examined Jesus as the founder of a missionary movement who equipped the Twelve, the early church and Paul as movement pioneers. This book will build on that foundation. I begin by sharing some of my journey. Before Jesus was a movement leader he was an obedient Son. We all have to learn that mission is not just an academic pursuit or a theoretical discussion of ministry models, it’s about who we are and what we do. We’ll never understand pioneering movements unless God shapes us from the inside out. I explore the example of Simon Peter, a neglected gure in Protestantism due to the prominence of Paul. Peter was a natural leader among Jesus’ disciples and the founding leader of the Christian movement following Pentecost. He was chosen by God as the bridge between the Jewish and Gentile missions of the early church. I examine a few of the many case studies of movement pioneers in history and around the world today. In two extended case studies (South Asia and the United States) I show what it takes for a movement to get to multiple generations of disciples and churches. I’ve intentionally chosen one case study from the developing world and one from the Western world. Both movements have broken through to multiple generations of new disciples and new churches. For security reasons there is not a lot of detailed information available on pioneering movements among Muslims. So I’ve spoken privately with those who have rsthand experience and discovered that there is an unprecedented number of disciple-making movements among Muslims around the world. I look at the relationship between movement pioneers, their teams and the local churches. I ask, How can we align our current church and mission structures to take advantage of this important leadership gift?
Pioneering Movements looks at the five levels of pioneering leadership in a multiplying movement and shows how we can grow leaders at every level. I review cases studies of churches who are catalysts for disciple-making movements. I explore the authority of apostolic ministry in weakness and in power.
DAVID: What do Movement Pioneers do?
STEVE: Following the example of Jesus and the rest apostles, movement pioneers communicate the truth about the nature of God and salvation through Christ. They teach followers a new way of life in obedience to Christ’s commands. Their purpose is to lead people to accept the message, begin to follow Jesus, share him with others and form new churches that become partners in spreading the gospel.
DAVID: What do you hope the book will achieve?
STEVE: Jesus founded a missionary movement that has spread throughout the world. It is God’s mission; it will not cease until that day when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. The living Lord calls us to partner with him in redeeming a lost world. To do that we need to recapture a vision of the church as a missionary movement and learn to work with the movement pioneers God raises up in every generation.
Pioneering Movements: Leadership That Multiplies Disciples and Churches
A strategic mission to Islam or meeting Muslims to convert them threatens social peace and contradicts the spirit and mandate of Jesus Christ and is therefore to be firmly rejected
Up to one million refugees are expected to arrive in Germany by end of this year, hoping to gain asylum in the European Union’s largest country.
Morgan Lee reports that some European Christians disagree on whether this is an opportunity to share the gospel.
Many are arriving from Muslim-majority countries, including Syria, Afghanistan, and Iran. But while German churches have been eager to materially support the refugees, Christians aren’t on the same page about sharing the gospel with newcomers.
One prominent denomination has claimed in a position paper that trying to evangelize refugees is unchristian,
Movements begin decaying when no one believes in the cause any more.
(via reader Brian)
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Steve Addison talks to David Watson, a movement pioneer and a catalyst for disciple making movements around the world. David and his son Paul have turned a lifetime of experience into a must-read book.
“Contagious Disciple Making: Leading Others on a Journey of Discovery” (David Watson, Paul Watson)
“Pioneering Movements: Leadership That Multiplies Disciples and Churches” (Steve Addison)
IVP is still offering a 50% discount when you purchase direct. The offer extends to my Movements that Change the World and What Jesus started. That may not last long now Amazon has copies (coupon code 506-491).
]]>Ray Vaughn shares the 3 Circles.
I love this guy!
Hope to interview him again early next year fro the podcast. Here’s the last time we talked.
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The Southern Baptists have been in the wars lately. For the first time in their history, church membership is falling. Now the denomination’s mission arm, the International Mission Board (IMB) has announced 15% cuts to its overseas missions force due to a $21 million annual shortfall.
But let’s not be too harsh, the SBC is still planting more churches than it’s closing, and for decades the IMB has led the world in fueling movements that multiply disciples and churches.
Here’s a list of some of the leading practitioners, trainers, and authors in the field of multiplying movements — David Watson, Steve Smith, Bill Smith, Kevin Greeson, David Garrison, Bruce Carlton, Ying Kai, Curtis Sergeant, Neil Mims, Nathan Shank and Jeff Sundell.
They are all either current or former IMB staff.
Unfortunately for the IMB too many of these men are now former IMB staff. They now serve with other agencies. Perhaps even more will be caught up in the current attempt to reduce the number of IMB staff. If that happens the IMB is in real trouble.
Financial crunches will come and go. But any denomination that makes life hard for its best people is already in decline.
UPDATE: Steve Smith, David Garrison, Neil Mims, and Kevin Greeson have just announced their resignations. Of this list of outstanding pioneers of movements that multiply disciples and churches, only Nathan Shank remains as a serving IMB missionary. Other leading practitioners like Mike Shipman and Jared Houk remain, (along with others I’ve not met personally).
The kingdom will not suffer. The ministries of those who have left the IMB will continue under different arrangements. But the IMB must face the root causes of their departures. This is a trend over a number of years, and it should worry any mission agency committed to movements that multiply disciples and churches.
CORRECTION: Jay Pratt has already left the IMB.
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Pioneering Movements has just become the #1 new release on Amazon in the category of Evangelism and #3 in Missions. Thanks to everyone who has pre-ordered. The current date for release is December 6.
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Seven years ago I was done for. I’d lost a long battle with depression. I had nothing left.
I also had an around the world ticket and commitments.
Surprisingly my psychiatrist challenged me to go. It was three months since the big crash, this may be an opportunity to take a tentative step back into life.
So I took a risk, faced my fears, and flew out of Melbourne.
One of the commitments was to meet with CoNext, a partnership of mission leaders from around the world, led by Sam Metcalf.
I told them the truth. I told them I wasn’t sure I’d be back in twelve month’s time. Those guys were an amazing support.
My psychiatrist was right. That trip was the last paragraph of a dark chapter, for which I will always be grateful.
I’m in the Middle East this week for another CoNext gathering. CoNext is my annual reminder of God’s faithfulness when I was at my worst. Stone by stone he rebuilt my life, and he gave me back everything I thought I had lost — and more. Much much more.
My greatest defeat has become my greatest victory. That’s why every year at CoNext, I give thanks.
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Printed copies of Pioneering Movements have arrived at the IVP warehouse. No news yet on when it will be available at good bookstores including Amazon.
Until then, IVP is still offering a 50% discount on pre-release orders of Pioneering Movements. The coupon code is 506-491.
Get the discount while it lasts!
UPDATE: Unfortunately this discount is not available outside the US.
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When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. Acts 4:13
I assumed that all I needed to understand the Great Commission where some good commentaries. I was wrong. This story came in from a man we’ll call Mr Smith.
I was with a group of Chinese church leaders many years ago. They were studying the Great Commission together. They concluded that “I am with you always” was by far the most important part of the Commission. One by one these leaders stood and testified what that promise meant to them. Here’s what they said,
- When I am away from my spouse and tempted to sin Jesus is always with me
- When I am being beaten by police, I am never alone Jesus is always with me.
- When I do not know what to say when I am accused, I do not have to worry Jesus is always with me
- When I go to a new town or village where I have never been I am never alone Jesus is always with me
- When I am in prison even if I am the only believer I am never alone Jesus is always with me
- If I am tempted not to obey the Great Commission I cannot because Jesus is always with me
- Nothing I ever do or say will ever cause Jesus not to be with me.
There’s knowing that comes from reading the Great Commission and studying the best exegetes. Then there’s knowing that comes from obedience at a cost.
UPDATE: Next time someone tells you these multiplying movements are “half a mile wide and half an inch deep” remind him of the outstanding exegetical skills of these Chinese believers.” They may not be theologically trained. They may be “uneducated ordinary men and women.” But they have been with Jesus and they are learning to obey everything he has commanded.
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This is our last training for the year on December 4-5.
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I’m in Kisumu, Kenya this week training 50 young Africans to multiply disciples and churches.
We took a long lunch and went out looking for people and houses of peace. Some of the brothers were invited back to visit the two young men and meet their families.
The wives were believers, but the husbands were far from God. Our trainees led the men to Christ using the 3Circles gospel presentation.
Tomorrow they will return to the home to begin the first lesson in discipleship — Repent and Believe: the Story of Zacchaeus.
UPDATE: The trainees are out again this lunchtime looking for houses of peace. Four houses have already opened up for a return visit — either to share the gospel or begin discipleship lessons. Tomorrow is our last day of training, but local workers will continue the discipleship.
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The composition of US immigration is also changing. While Hispanics will continue to make up a significant portion, Asians will become the single largest source by 2055.
Now how many new churches do you need to reach 78 million immigrants? If you’re happy with just one church per 500 people, that’s 156,000 new churches just to keep up.
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Movements that Change the World and What Jesus Started (Amazon Kindle) are just $2.99 (US) and £1.94 (UK) each.
The sale ends Nov 9.
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The latest version of the Following and Fishing participant notes. What’s different?
In the each of the 7 Commands I’ve added a question that draws attention to the specific command.
For instance, in Command 1: Repent and believe I’ve added “What does this story teach us about obeying Jesus’ command to repent and believe.”
I’ve also added a date to distinguish each version.
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Troy and Rachel Cooper’s team have been praying and dreaming for South Florida.
Note how real this vision statement is. You can almost touch it. They know the big picture, they know what movement pioneers do. They know what to do on Monday morning.
Thank you for prayers for our South Florida Team’s 2016 vision/planning day today. Here were the outcomes:
Clarified Mission (what we do): “We make disciples who start churches that make disciples who start churches to the 4th generation and beyond”
(NOTE: some churches prefer to start groups, missional communities, etc so when working w outside organizations we’ll defer to vision of their leadership)Clarified Vision: “See God establish a 4G church in every ZIP Code by 2020”
Committed Strategy: 5 Parts of Jesus’ strategy from Gospels + Acts illustrated by the 4 Fields. Committed to using reproducing tools for each part.
Based on where we are at right now in the CPM Continuum, these are the high-value activities (HVAs) we are committed to:
-Prayer & fasting for the harvest
-Gospel: abundant seed sowing
-Homes: engage every zip code via prayer walking & HoP search
-Train believers to mobilize abundant seed sowing and filter for leaders via swarm training & weekly rollouts
-Training in the harvest
-Team church & strategy gatherings using 3/3sWe’re praying for a month and gathering on December 10 to set individual + team goals & will calendar 2016 together. In the meantime Carter Cox challenged us to set personal goals over the next month & the following minimum was agreed upon:
-prayer for harvest: 60 min/ day
-gospel: 1+/day
-1+ HoP search/ wk
-2 swarm trainingsAdditionally, we’re considering example of the Houston team led by Ray Vaughn to seek out local churches who will commit to being “training centers” [host monthly “Gospel Conversations” (L1) Training + HoP Search] with goal of raising up training teams, mobilizing abundant seed sowing, filtering for leaders and establishing fruitful communities of practice. This is in addition to our own catalytic work in the harvest.
We’re praying for God to raise up or send us more evangelists on our team. We’re also focusing prayer on raising up leaders who reflect our community including Spanish-speaking (various countries represented), African-American, Haitian, Jamaican, etc.
Lastly, we will pray through our Acts 1:8 focus to determine which cities/ people groups we’ll focus on (outside South Florida) in North America and among the nations.
Most vision statements aren’t worth the paper they are written on.
What’s your vision? Is it grounded in the Word? Can you touch it? Taste it? Smell it? Do you know what to do on Monday morning?
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Next time they tell you it’s never been done before, remember someone has to go first. And that someone is not alone.
]]>Centuries ago an unrecorded step was taken by some unknown “Follower of the Way” across the national boundaries of Israel into the vast Gentile world. No one recorded the step. No one knows what border was crossed. But there came a moment, a place in redemptive history in which God’s universal covenant with mankind started its immeasurable march through the nations of the world.
An unknown disciple on a distant and remote frontier made a beginning by challenging a fellow man to join him as a member of the disciple fellowship of Christ.
Only God knows where this happened, by whom that step was taken, with what fruit the witness was crowned. Its full consequence will not be measured until the sovereignty of the world has passed to our Lord and his Christ, when men purchased for God of every tribe and language, people and nation are made a royal house, to serve our God as, priests and shall reign upon the earth, when the vast strong, which no one could count, from every nation, of all tribes, peoples, and languages will shout together, Victory to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb! … Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and honor, power and might, be to our God for ever and ever! Amen! (Rev. 11:15; 5:10; 7:9-12).
That day will live in eternity as a day among countless others in which through the power of the blood of Christ a man was set free from his bondage to death and made a new creature in Christ. Who brought the message of liberation? Who was liberated? We do not know. We know only the Liberator.
The campaign for world-wide proclamation of liberation was commanded by the Liberator, who himself is and remains the great missionary.
Richard De Ridder
Discipling the Nations
Rodney Stark is Professor of the Social Sciences at Baylor University. I read just about everything he writes.
His latest is entitled The Triumph of Faith: Why the World is More Religious Than Ever. (Due out today)
Here’s a summary of what Stark has to say about the world in which we live.
It is a very religious world, far more religious than it was 50 years ago. Gallup World Poll Surveys of more than a million people living in 163 nations show that:
- 81 percent claim to belong to an organized religious faith, and most of the rest report engaging in religious activities such as prayer or making offerings to the gods in various “folk religion” temples.
- 74 percent say religion is an important part of their daily lives.
- 50 percent report they have attended a place of worship or religious service in the past seven days.
In very few nations do as many as five percent claim to be atheists, and only in China, Vietnam, and South Korea do they exceed 20 percent.
Furthermore, in every nook and cranny left by organized faiths, all manner of unconventional spiritual and mystical practices are booming. There are more occult healers than medical doctors in Russia, 38 percent of the French believe in astrology, 35 percent of the Swiss agree that “some fortune tellers really can foresee the future,” and nearly everyone in Japan is careful to have their new car blessed by a Shinto priest.
I will document all of this in detail in my next book.
Here, I offer a brief summary.
Latin America For centuries, Latin America was alleged to be a Roman Catholic continent. For instance, the Catholic Almanac (1949) reported that Catholics constituted 99.2 percent in Argentina, 98.0 percent in Bolivia, and 99.8 percent in Chile. In truth, only about 10 to 20 percent of Latin Americans were active Catholics in those days; so few men entered the seminaries that most of the priests in South America were imported from abroad. Then came the conversion of tens of millions to Protestant groups, most of them of the Pentecostal variety. Faced with competition, the Catholic church responded so energetically that today Latin American Catholics flock to church in amazing numbers—well over 50 percent attend weekly Mass in most nations and over 60 percent in eight of them. What once was a fictitious Catholic continent is now actually a very Christian continent.
The Great Muslim Revival As recently as the 1960s, Western experts—including those employed by the CIA—assumed Muslims were rapidly becoming secularized, thereby failing to notice the great Muslim religious revival that had begun. During the 1950s, about 100,000 pilgrims made the trip to Mecca annually. By the mid-1970s, that number had risen to more than one million per year; by 2012, it topped three million. Many more pilgrims would come to Mecca, but the Saudis limit visas because of the great difficulty in providing food, water, and shelter in the midst of the desert. Other long-term statistics on the Muslim revival are scarce, but even those covering only quite recent times are remarkable. In Turkey, long considered the most secularized Muslim nation, the percent who say religion is important in their lives rose from 83 percent in 1990 to 93 percent in 2011, and the percent who believe in Hell rose from 84 percent to 97 percent during that same period. Nor is the revival limited to the masses of poor, uneducated Muslims; weekly mosque attendance is highest among the most educated.
Sub-Saharan Africa There are more Christians in Sub-Saharan Africa than anywhere else on Earth; a third of the world’s more than two billion Christians live there. And they are the world’s most active Christians: weekly church attendance averages 71 percent, ranging from 90 percent in Nigeria to 61 percent in Zimbabwe. While many Sub-Saharan Africans are Roman Catholics, the majority belongs to one of the more than 11,000 Protestant denominations founded by Africans.
China Not so long ago, it was chic to dismiss the several million Chinese converts claimed by the missionaries as “rice Christians,” cynical souls who frequented the missions for the benefits they provided. Then came the Cultural Revolution. Mao criminalized religion, and huge numbers of Chinese Christians suffered for their faith. Nonetheless, by 1980, when one could again dare to be openly religious, the “rice Christians” not only had endured in their faith, but had converted millions more. By 2007, there were about 60 million Christians in China. If the current rate of growth were to hold until 2030, there would be more Christians in China (about 295 million) than in any other nation on Earth. Meanwhile, most non-Christian Chinese are not irreligious. Tens of thousands of traditional temples that were torn down by the Red Guards have been rebuilt and are full of worshippers. Most Chinese also take part in ancestor worship, and Buddhism is booming.
India When India became an independent nation in 1947, its political leaders, all of them educated in British universities, assumed that Hinduism was in its last days. They believed that as the nation became modern, it would become secularized. But nothing of the sort happened. Instead, India has undergone a massive Hindu revival. Today, 67 percent of Indians say they have attended a religious service in the past week, 85 percent acknowledge religion as important in their daily lives, and atheists are scarce. Moreover, it is the most educated and affluent who are the most religious!
Europe Attendance at Europe’s very limited variety of Christian churches is very low. Even so, most Europeans still hold religious beliefs and atheists are few—an average of 6.6 percent in Western Europe and 4.6 percent in the East. And, as is typical where conventional religion is weak, unconventional and unorganized “faiths” abound in the vacuum. Occult movements are rife. So is belief in fortune-tellers, astrology, lucky charms, and psychic healers. Spiritualism is popular, especially in the Nordic nations, and many dabble in all manner of New Age activities. So much for claims that Europeans have “outgrown” belief in the supernatural.
United StatesAlmost weekly, the media seems to celebrate new evidence that America is no longer the religious nation it has always been, that secularization has finally arrived. But these are always false alarms. Consider just two of the more recent sensational claims.
- First, it is claimed that young people are leaving the churches in droves. Indeed, the latest polls show that people under 30 have far lower church attendance rates than do the older generations. But that has been true as far back as polling goes. The young and single sleep in on Sunday. Then they get married, have kids, and go to church.
- Second, it is argued that the percentage of Americans who say they have no religion is skyrocketing. But, all that reflects is an increase in the percentage who have no denominational preference. They are not irreligious. Most of them pray and say they believe in God. In 1944, the Gallup Poll was the first to ask about belief in God, and four percent of Americans said, “No.” When asked that question today, four percent say, “No.” In fact, actual church membership is at an all-time high, and 66 percent now tell Gallup that “religion is important in my daily life.”
Despite the wishful thinking of most secular academics, Stark shows that the world remains very religious.
The Triumph of Faith: Why the World is More Religious Than Ever
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In the lead up to the release of my next book, Pioneering Movements, IVP has reduced the Amazon Kindle price for my first two books on movements — $2.99 and £1.94 each.
The sale will last until Nov 9.
Hard copies of all three books are available for US customers at 50% off via the IVP website.
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Finally some evidence to back up our silence,
The Church of England is set to signal to members that speaking openly about their faith could do more harm than good when it comes to spreading Christianity.
Stark new research findings being presented to members of the Church’s ruling General Synod suggest that practising Christians who talk to friends and colleagues about their beliefs are three times as likely to put them off God as to attract them.
The numbers confirm it,
Non-believers were asked if a practising Christian had ever spoken to them about their faith. Of those who said yes, only 19 per cent said it made them want to know more compared with 59 per cent who said the opposite. While 23 per cent said it made them feel “more positive towards Jesus Christ”, 30 per cent said it left them feeling more negative.
If only Jesus had known these facts, he would never have spoken to the rich young ruler, or preached in the synagogue at Nazareth. Think of all the Pharisees he upset! Peter and John would have saved themselves imprisonment and a beating. Paul would have avoided all the damage he did in Arabia, and on Mars Hill, and the riot he caused in Jerusalem which led to his arrest and ultimate execution.
If only Jesus, Peter, Paul had had the advantage of opinion polls to guide their mission. Instead they went looking for the 19% who wanted to know more.
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Nathan Shank discusses the Five Levels of Movement Leadership. The second part of a two-part series.
You can read more on Nathan’s Five Levels of Leadership in Pioneering Movements: Leadership that Multiplies Disciples and Churches.
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From the Guardian:
The number of people living in Britain is projected to rise from 64.6 million in mid-2014 to 74.3 million in 2039.
According to the Office for National Statistics:
More than two-thirds of the increase will be the result of assumed net migration and the indirect impact of people arriving on the birth rate.
The estimated growth outstrips the rest of Europe, with the UK’s population estimated to increase by 15% in the next 25 years compared with 3% across the EU as a whole.
The report shows that most of the growth is in England (as opposed to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland).
On current trends the UK will overtake France by 2030 and Germany by 2047, becoming Europe’s most populous country.
Let’s say we aimed at just one new church for every 500 new people, that’s 20,000 new churches in 25 years, just to keep up.
Link: Download the report
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I regularly get emails like these soon after our initial Following and Fishing training.
This one from a youth leader:
Unbelievable news, you challenged us to give it a go, and so on the car ride back from football, God gave me the chance to share the gospel with my best friend. So I gave the 3 Circle thing a bash and it really really helped me speak with clarity, and guess what after years of praying and chatting he was a green light and so driving along on the way back from Football he surrendered his life to Jesus ….. Unbelievable!!!! So delighted and amazed to see God working so powerfully, and awesome to be a part of it!!!
This one from a pastor:
Thank you so much for your equipping and encouragement last week. I met with four Muslim friends yesterday afternoon. After listening to an audio track of the creation story and having a Discovery Bible type discussion, we then explained the 3 Circles. When we asked them which circle described them best, three said they were with Jesus, pursuing God’s Plan. The fourth said he was in Brokenness but wanted to move to the Jesus circle.
We all stood as he prayed and gave his life to the Lord!
We asked one of the guys to re-teach the 3 Circles in their language. We encouraged them all to share the 3 Circles with a friend before we meet again.
They understand that our aim is for them to lead the gatherings in their own language within a few weeks. I’m hopeful that another two or three guys will join the group next time! It feels like quite a breakthrough, and the diagram was so helpful in bringing clarity to everyone’s place on the journey.
It’s just a beginning, but it is a beginning.
I remind people that the 3 Circles doesn’t “work”. The gospel “works.” The 3 Circles is a great way to present the gospel. God does the work through the Word and the Spirit. We partner.
The reason people aren’t coming to faith in Britain is that we aren’t sharing the gospel, and making disciples who learn to obey everything that Jesus commanded.
So, if you live in the UK, why not attend our last Following and Fishing training for 2015 in Manchester?
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Ying and Grace Kai are returning to Sydney for two days training in multiplying movements — Dec 2-3, 2015.
God worked through them to launch a movement of multiplying churches in Asia.
King is the co-author of T4T: A Discipleship Re-Revolution. His T4T approach (Training for Trainers) has been adopted all over the world and is bearing fruit.
Register at the NoPlaceLeft Aussie website before Nov 24.
UPDATE: Thanks to my spell checker Ying Kai became King Kai. Thanks to Toy Copper for the correction.
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From the Wall Street Journal—Cash-Strapped Missionaries Get a New Calling: Home.
]]>Peter and Jennie Stillman felt a divine calling to preach the gospel abroad. So the Southern Baptist couple left Texas with their three young daughters 25 years ago and became missionaries in Southeast Asia.
Now, the Stillmans are responding to a new call: early retirement. They are among hundreds of Southern Baptist missionaries working abroad who are being summoned home in a move to slash costs, after years of spending to support missionary work around the world led to budget problems.
The International Mission Board, an entity of the Southern Baptist Convention with 4,800 missionaries and 450 support staff, plans to cut 600 to 800 people from its workforce, a 15% reduction. It is starting by offering voluntary early retirement to veteran missionaries.
Since 2010, the organization has spent $210 million more than it has taken in, officials said. Last year, it had a $21 million shortfall.
Here’s why we should be talking to people about Jesus in Britain.
The findings support our own experience. A significant number of people in Britain are ready for the conversation.
Why don’t you pray for a need and ask someone, Right now are you near or far from God?
Then ask: Would you like to be near?
Follow up with: I’d like to share how I was far and came near.
You’ll never know if you don’t ask.
Our next Following and Fishing training is in Manchester, 4-5 December 2015. If you want to make disciples, it’s worth the drive and the time.
We’ll get you started and train you to train others.
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This just came in from Grant Morrison, our man in the South Pacific:
I will begin training in a few weeks. The chief of the village, who is Annie’s brother, has given permission for me to begin discipling people. We will meet together and the group will become a church. Jerry and Annie have prepared the way and I will share the training with both of them. Out of this village and the training I will be looking for a leader or leaders to train others. My plan is to work in this one village and for this village to take the training to other villages. Jerry’s vision is for the holistic transformation of villages across Vanuatu and beyond and for the training in ‘following Jesus and fishing for people’ to be the means of spiritual transformation.
Grant’s methods are so simple, yet powerful, they can spread across the 20-30,000 thousand islands in the region.
For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat,
I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink,
I was a stranger and you invited me in,
I needed clothes and you clothed me,
I was sick and you looked after me,
I was in prison and you came to visit me.Jesus
Our series on the Great Commission is concluded. Before we leave Matthew I’d like to take a look at Jesus’ teaching on the sheep and the goats (Matt 25:31-46).
When the Son of Man comes in his glory he will judge the nations. Eternal life and eternal punishment will depend on how the nations care for the least of his brothers.
Most scholars understand “the least of these brothers of mine” to refer to all who are hungry, distressed, needy. The basis of acceptance into the kingdom is by deeds of mercy and compassion.
They identify the least of Jesus’ brothers with anyone who is poor and needy. Yet elsewhere in Matthew Jesus’ brothers are his disciples (Matt 12:48-50; 28:10).
In Matthew 24 Jesus told his disciples that before the end of the age comes, the gospel of kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations/peoples (Matt 24:14). They will be persecuted and put to death. They will be hated by all nations because of him. There will be wars, famines and earthquakes. In the face of persecution many will fall away from the faith and even betray other believers. They will be deceived by false prophets.
In this setting Matt 25:31-46 is a reassurance to Jesus’ true disciples, his brothers, that God’s enemies will not triumph. The nations will be judged on the basis of how they treat the messengers whom Jesus sends to proclaim the gospel.
Jesus’ “least brothers” are his disciples who are to proclaim the gospel to all nations, despite persecution (Matt 10:32-33; 24:9-14; 28:18-20). Their treatment determines the fate of all men. Those who receive them receive Christ; those who reject them reject Christ (Matt 10:40-42; cf Acts 9:5).
Jesus’ brothers are his disciples. The fate of the nations will be determined by how they respond to Jesus’ followers, who are charged with spreading the gospel and do so in the face of hunger, thirst, illness, and imprisonment. Good deeds done to Jesus’ followers, even the least of them, are not only works of compassion and morality but reflect where people stand in relation to the kingdom and to Jesus himself. Jesus identifies himself with the fate of his followers and makes compassion for them equivalent to compassion for himself.
DA Carson concludes, We must not think that the Bible is unconcerned for the poor and the oppressed (Deut 15:11; Matt 22:37-40; 26:11; Gal 2:10). But that is not the center of interest here.
Sources:
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Sam Metcalf’s book, Beyond the Local Church is out. Here’s my endorsement:
Sam Metcalf makes a compelling case for the Biblical pattern of local churches and apostolic bands in dynamic partnership. The fulfilment of the Great Commission demands it. Along the way Sam illustrates the principles with stories and case studies gleaned from a lifetime of experience in world mission. His chapter on how to engage and release apostolic leaders is worth the price of admission!
“Beyond the Local Church: How Apostolic Movements Can Change the World” (Sam Metcalf)
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The Great Commission ends, not with a command, but with a promise. Jesus says “I (emphatic) will be with you”. His name is Immanuel (Matt 1:3) — God with us. In the Old Testament when God called people to a task, he promised to go with them (Ex 3:12; Jos 1:5), The risen Lord now makes the same promise.
This is a promise, not just to be present, but to be active on their behalf as they obey his Commission. He is not working with them, they are working with him. Jesus still leads the way.
He will be with them always, literally “the whole of every day.” He will be with them always, and to the end of the age. This Commission is not just for the original disciples, but for all those who will follow, until the end of history.
The kingdom has come, but the present evil age continues until the mission is complete — making disciples of every people group, baptizing and teaching them to obey everything Jesus has commanded. Do this and the risen Lord promises you will never be alone.
The series so far:
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From Troy Cooper
Oikos (relationship) lists of elementary kids from the children’s ministry at one of the Family Church campuses in Palm Beach County. They’re also doing this for adults and tracking gospel shares, but I was blown away they’re doing this with elementary students!! One of the most powerful things I’ve seen.
Too many leaders are trying to guilt their people into sharing the gospel. Here’s a much better strategy. Teach everyone, including the kids, Why, Who and How and get them praying for people far from God. As God works, celebrate. That’s much more fun than laying a burden on people.
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“All power . . . everywhere . . . all nations . . . all that I have commanded.” — it is impossible to conceive of anything more inclusive than this.
Making disciples is a global challenge which cannot be fulfilled without going. The Gentiles are to be gathered in. The church has become a holy nation (ethos) God’s own people (2 Pe 2:9).
“All the nations” (panta ta ethne) is used four times in Matthew (24:9, 14; 25:32; 28:19). When we hear “nation” we think of nation-states which may be comprised of many ethnicities. But ethne also includes “tribes,” or “peoples.”
The aim of Jesus’ disciples, therefore, is to make disciples of all people everywhere, without distinction (Carson)
[ed. I wish I could make it more complicated than this! Anybody can understand it unless they are lost in the missional fog.]
Great Commission series so far:
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All of Jesus’ disciples are to make others what they themselves are—disciples of Jesus Christ.
Jesus’ universal authority is central to the foundation to his Commission to make disciples.
Disciples accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. Inwardly they believe in him and are united with God. Outwardly they learn to obey him. Their first act of obedience is to be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There can be no discipleship without calling people to a living relationship with Christ.
Mission does not end with conversions. Repentance and faith must always lead on to teaching new disciples to obey what Jesus commanded, including the command to make disciples. This Commission was not just for the first apostles. Discipleship fuels multiplication.
New disciples are to learn how to follow and obey Jesus as their Teacher and Master. No Christian teacher can usurp his position (Matt 23:8-10).
Jesus is concerned with a way of life. Disciples learn by hearing and obeying Jesus’ example and his commands.
To say that there is a conflict between the Great Commission (make disciples teaching them to obey everything I have commanded) and the Great Commandment (love your neighbor as yourself) is an absurdity. You cannot fulfill one without the other.
Jesus’ commands have universal and enduring authority. Heaven and earth will pass away, but his words will never pass away (Matt 24:35). They are always true.
Failure to disciple, baptize, and teach the peoples of the world to obey Jesus’ commands is a failure of discipleship. You can’t be a disciple, and not make disciples, who are themselves obeying Christ’s command to make disciples.
It’s not easy, but it is clear.
Great Commission series so far:
]]>On Saturday, I trained some church leaders in the 3Circles gospel presentation. The next day one of them shared with a Muslim friend who gave his life to Christ.
Kyle Pierson demonstrates how he’s adapted the 3Circles for sharing with Muslims.
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Nathan Shank explains the levels of leadership in a multiplying movement. You’ll find it easier to follow if you’ve already listened to Episode 086-Nathan Shank on The Four Fields. This podcast is also available as a video.
In our next episode Nathan will continue to discuss the Five Levels of Movement Leadership.
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There’s a new version of the Following and Fishing: Getting Started. It incorporates the 3 Circles tool for sharing the gospel and the Oikos or People Mapping exercise.
I’ve made some changes to the list of stories in the Seven Stories of Hope. No update yet to the trainers’ outline. You’ll have to wing it.
Let me know if you find any errors or typos.
Email me if you have translated the Following and Fishing and want access to the originals.
UPDATE: A few more tweaks.
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During his ministry, Jesus trained his disciples to baptize those who repented and believed. (John 3:22; 4:1-3). Therefore, it is certain that Jesus would have ensured that his first disciples were baptized at the beginning of his ministry in Galilee.
Jesus commands his disciples to continue the practice of baptizing new disciples.
Baptism—literally “immersion”—is in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The new disciple has come to know God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The authority to baptize is given to every disciple, not just to a select few. Jesus didn’t baptize, he trained his disciples to baptize (John 4:2). Paul was baptized by Ananias, an ordinary disciple (Acts 9:10). At Cornelius’ house Peter didn’t baptize, he instructed the believers who came with him to baptize Cornelius and those who believed (Acts 10:48). Paul didn’t baptize many of the Corinthians because he trained others to baptize (1 Corinthians 1:14).
The New Testament can hardly conceive of a disciple who is not baptized. Baptism occurs when someone repents, is forgiven and receives the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38).
Great Commission series so far:
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We’ve already seen that at the heart of the Great Comission is the command to make disciples of all nations. That is achieved by going, baptizing and teaching them to obey everything Jesus has commanded.
Go means go, not “as you happen to go about your normal life”. Go means crossing geographic, cultural and linguistic barriers. How else are the nations to be discipled?
We may argue that not everyone is called to make disciples cross-culturally. We may say that making disciples begins in Jerusalem and then spreads out to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). But however uncomfortable it makes us feel, in this passage, Jesus means what he says — go make disciples of all nations. Don’t stop with your own back yard.
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to the risen Lord. The mandate is universal.
It may not be easy, but it is clear.
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Ask eighteen missional experts what they think mission is and only half of them will identify the making of disciples as the essence or heart of the mission of Jesus.
Ask Jesus what it means to be missional and he’ll point you to his example and his teaching.
In the Great Commission (Matt 28:18-20) all mission activity is directed towards the main verb — make disciples. Making disciples is characterized by going, baptising and teaching them to obey everything Jesus has commanded.
To be a disciple is to be called to make new disciples. Multiplication is built into this Commission.
We are called not to get decisions but to make disciples in the same manner in which Jesus made disciples.
What is a disciple?
The whole of Matthew’s Gospel is a commentary on what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. Disciples are those who hear, understand, and obey Jesus’ teaching and follow his example.
It couldn’t be clearer …. unless you listen to a missional expert.
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I was compelled to ask myself whether it is really true that the Church’s obedience to the Great Commission is intended to be contingent upon the accident of a budgetary surplus.
Lesslie Newbigin
Lesslie Newbigin was one of the great missionary statesmen of the 20th Century. He spent much of his life in India. He began with a tradition paradigm of ministry that relied on foreign workers, funding and supervision. He soon discovered its limitations.
I have lived and worked as a missionary within the structure typical of modern missions, responsible for the conduct of institutions, for the supervision of Indian workers, for the employment and control of teachers and others in charge of congregations. I have seen this system come to a practical standstill: funds were not available to increase the number of salaried workers. … Only if some fresh resources came from ‘home’ could the mission become a mission again. As it was, it was plain that any talk of ‘winning India for Christ’ was not serious. I was compelled to ask myself whether it is really true that the Church’s obedience to the Great Commission is intended to be contingent upon the accident of a budgetary surplus.
Rather than fix what was broken, Newbigin became a careful observer of what God was doing on the fringes.
The answer came through various experiences. Firstly, through seeing how ordinary lads from village congregations … could themselves become active witnesses and evangelists among their comrades. Secondly, through learning to call on the services of all kinds of lay men and women as volunteer pastors and evangelists for the village congregations left without the guidance of a full-time worker. And thirdly, most decisively, through the experience of a small group-movement in a very backward area where the Gospel had only recently been preached for the first time. …
Here’s what happened next…
the churches began to multiply themselves by a kind of spontaneous growth which was not dependent upon increasing outside resources. In an area almost entirely pagan, the number of Christian congregations rose from thirteen to fifty-five in twelve years. … In the midst of a movement of this kind, one could speak seriously about winning India for Christ.
Lesslie Newbigin
Trinitarian Doctrine for Today’s Mission (London: Paternoster Press, 1998), 74-77.
Pew Research reports on the migration crisis in Europe and the implications for future population trends.
The ongoing surge of refugees into Europe from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and other war-ravaged countries presents a striking demographic contrast: hundreds of thousands of predominantly young people trying to get into a region where the population is older than in almost any other place on earth.
Europe is a dying culture. It has lost its faith and the will to reproduce the next generation. The population is ageing and dying.
Those seeking asylum are most likely to be young adult males with a Muslim faith.
Whether all this is a threat, or an opportunity, or both, depends on what we do.
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An interview I recorded with JD Payne on Pioneering Movements: Leadership that multiplies disciples and churches.
The book will be out in December 2015.
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Recently we looked at the great job Healing on the Streets is doing of connecting with people and sharing the gospel. Thousands have come to faith in Coleraine, Northern Ireland.
Yet there’s a gap between conversions and people who are continuing as disciples. Once we start sharing the gospel, it’s a problem we face. A few thoughts about what to do. . .
1. Expect people to fall away
Jesus told the parable of the soils (Mark 4) because he knew through his own experience that many people encounter him, begin the journey and then turn back.
A dramatic healing will not guarantee that people will follow Jesus as disciples. Start reading one of the Gospels, you won’t be reading long before you find an example of a miracle followed by unbelief. Ten lepers healed on the street, only one returned to thank Jesus.
It’s not your fault.
2. Healing is not the endgame
Jesus healed because he had compassion on people. But healing doesn’t make a disciple. Only the gospel does that. The goal is disciples, not just healings.
3. Count baptisms not “conversions”
According to Jesus, you make disciples by baptising them and teaching them to obey everything he has commanded.
Today we’re not convinced that someone is a true follower of Jesus unless they have put their hand up or prayed a prayer. In the New Testament, they weren’t convinced until someone was baptised. Baptism always followed the decision to repent and believe.
4. Teach them to obey what Jesus has commanded
Stop trying to get someone to attend your church. Start teaching them to follow and obey what Jesus has commanded. Begin with a simple tool like the 7 Commands of Christ. Meet with them, preferably in their home with any friends and family they can muster.
Discipleship always leads to church. Attending church doesn’t always lead to discipleship.
5. Try healing in the home
Jesus always went looking for people of peace (Luke 10, 19) who welcomed he messenger and the message and linked them both to a relational community. Healing on the streets is a great way to get started. But if you’re not finding houses of peace, you may want to try offering to pray for people in their homes.
6. Tackle the problem with movement principles
We don’t start training by teaching principles. We start by teaching obedience to Christ’s command to make disciples. But once you’re out there doing just that, you will encounter obstacles. Sometimes more of the same won’t change things. You need to see the obstacle through movement eyes and apply principles under the leading of the Holy Spirit.
To deal with the obstacles in the context of the big picture learn from these two movement pioneers. I can also recommend What Jesus Started: Joining the Movement, Changing the World.
7. Get back to basics
When all else fails, why not read through the gospels and Acts multiple times as a team, while you’re praying and fasting for a breakthrough. Meet and share what you are learning from what Jesus did and what the risen Lord continued to do in Acts.
Related
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Healing on the Streets was birthed and pioneered by the Causeway Coast Vineyard on the streets of Coleraine in Northern Ireland in Easter of 2005. Adopted by many churches the Healing on the Streets model has spread around the world. It’s a gentle, non-confrontational way of connecting with people on the streets of our cities and introducing them to Jesus.
Alan Scott reports that over the last 20 months almost 4,500 people have come to faith in their Northern Ireland community. That’s an average of around seven people a day.
Alan has some reflections on what is happening:
Our greatest impact is among those people – and in those areas – that historically have been difficult for churches to reach: the urban poor are most responsive. There seems to be particular favour among those who have never encountered faith, those struggling with addiction, single mothers, long term unemployed, those living on council estates and those wrestling with systems of poverty.
Unfortunately conversions on street don’t necessarily result in discipleship.
Disappointing levels of church connection: the miracle question has not led to massive connection. Whilst almost 4500 people have come to faith, we estimate that just under one seventh of those have connected in local churches.
Read the full report.
Let’s celebrate what God is doing through Healing on the Streets, not just in Coleraine, but in all the other churches they have inspired and trained.
I’m impressed that Alan is tracking the impact of the ministry in conversions and disciples. He’s also reporting the drop-off between the two and wondering how the gap can be closed.
Let’s just soak this in for a minute, a local church goes out into its community and offers to pray for people and share Jesus. Consistently, every week for 20 months people are coming to Christ.
Now here’s what we all need to do, before you start theorising about the gap between conversions and disciples, go and do likewise. Follow their example, follow Jesus’ example, and find people far from God. Offer to pray for them. Ask them if they would like to know more about Jesus.
Then we’ll talk about narrowing the gap between professions of faith and discipleship.
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This is the 100th episode of the Movements Podcast. To mark this milestone we listen in as Jeff Sundell casts vision to a group of city leaders for NoPlaceLeft.
If you’re enjoying the Movements Podcast why not tell a friend in person, via email or Facebook and Twitter. You can even leave a review.
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John Pollock (above) is my favourite Christian biographer.
You can pick up his biography of the Apostle Paul for free (US/UK Amazon Kindle). Wilberforce is just $1.99 or £0.99.
“The Apostle: A Life of Paul” (John Pollock)
UPDATE: While you’re there the New American Commentaries are still 90% off. For those who don’t own a Kindle device, you can still load the Kindle app onto your Mac/PC/iPad/device.
Never buy a book at full price (unless it’s mine).
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I often get asked, “How many church plants survive?”
It’s the wrong question.
I remember being a first-time church planter. I understand the angst. You hope for more, but you fear failure. It’s only natural. So sooner or later God has to go to work on our mixed motivations. Painful, but better than living with a desperate need to succeed.
In our second church plant, I learned that God has other agendas than just the survival of one church plant. After two years, we closed it down to the glory of God.
Later I became a coach of church planters. I soon learned that when it comes to success or failure in planting congregational churches, selecting the right planters was everything. Get the selection right and the rate of survival improves dramatically.
Still the wrong question.
Here are the questions you could be asking:
Answer these questions correctly and you can stop worrying about the survival of one church plant, and focus on the growth of a movement.
Related
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Yes, a little bit of Greek is a dangerous thing. But here’s a lesson in the meaning of the Great Commission from someone who has a lot of Greek.
Daniel Wallace (above) makes it clear that the Great Commission is not, “as you are going,” but “Go!”
Here are some other examples in Matthew that parallel the grammar in Matt 28:19:
Wallace points out that,
Peter could not throw a hook in the lake until he went to the lake (Matt 17.27); the women could not tell Jesus’ disciples that he had been raised from the dead until they went (Matt 28.7).
We can’t make disciples without going.
via reader Brian
]]>Unfortunately the UK discounts are not as good as in the US store.
UPDATE: A few examples…. There are many more
“The New American Commentary: Genesis 1- 11:26 (New American Commentary)” (Kenneth Mathews)
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When it comes to the Great Commission I often hear people say that only “make disciples” is commanded, that Jesus’ commission is simply to make disciples “as we go,” wherever we happen to be. They say there is no special command to “go,” the disciples are to make disciples of people they happen to encounter along the way.
A little bit of Greek is a dangerous thing.
Some context … “All” dominates and ties these verses together — all authority, all nations, all things, always. The humiliated and suffering Son of Man (Daniel 7:13-14) now exercises absolute authority over the whole universe.
Jesus now has universal authority, therefore his disciples have a universal mission to go and make disciples of all nations [we’ll look at what “nations” means in a future post]. Because of Jesus’ universal authority they go in confidence. He is in control.
Now for a little bit of Greek. In the Greek “go”—like baptizing and teaching—is a participle which depends on the imperative “make disciples”.
It is true that the main emphasis of the Great Commission falls on “making disciples.” But grammatically, the participles—“going,” baptizing, teaching—all pick up the imperatival force of “make disciples”.
How are the disciples to make disciples of “all nations” without going to them?
The one command to make disciples of all nations is carried out by going, baptizing, and teaching to obey.
So we are to make disciples of all nations by going to them, baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything Jesus has commanded.
Sources
Related
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Here’s a story to warm your heart. It comes from one of the fastest growing churches in America.
From a movements perspective, being in the top 100 fastest growing churches is not the point.
The church I’m talking about is Family Church in West Palm Beach Florida. Led by Jimmy Scroggins.
Rankings come and go. Churches rise and fall. Jesus didn’t come just to plant a church, he came to spark a movement that multiplies disciples and churches. Everywhere.
This is a growing church that is fuelling movements. They have trained thousands of people to connect, share the gospel, make disciples. They already have streams of multiplying disciples. They have begun to launch church planting teams with zero budget and no buildings — no resources apart from the Word and the Spirit and some great training and mentoring.
It’s still early days, but this church is working hard at doing the right things, and trusting God to do what he alone can do.
What to learn more about Jimmy Scroggins and Family Church West Palm Beach?
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Outreach Magazine has released its 2015 list of the 100 Fastest Growing Churches in America.
The research, which was done by LifeWay, examines the increase in average attendance (adults and children) over the last twelve months. That’s interesting, but from a movements perspective we’d like to know a few more details like:
There’s nothing wrong with counting. The book of Acts counts. When Luke counts he is making a point about the unstoppable spread of the dynamic Word of God — the message of the gospel.
In Acts the Word spreads, grows and multiplies. And wherever the Word goes the fruit of its growth is new disciples and new churches.
In 33AD the church in Jerusalem topped the list of 100 fastest growing churches. Jerusalem stayed at the top for some years. But Jerusalem’s greatest contribution became the missionaries — apostles and ordinary believers — who were thrust out by the Spirit to spread the gospel, make disciples and plant multiplying churches. Everywhere.
That’s what should get our attention.
Related:
]]>Troy Cooper shows how to tell a true story from the Word of God.
Why don’t you:
Read Light: Move on.
Yellow Light: Ask if they want to meet again and hear some more stories.
Green Light: Lead them to Christ and begin discipleship using the 7 Commands.
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Pioneering Movements is due out in December. IVP US is taking pre-orders at at 50% discount if you use the coupon code 506-491.
In addition they are offering Movements that Change the World and What Jesus Started at a 50% discount.
Thanks IVP!
UPDATE on Kindle: Movements that Change the World and What Jesus Started will be discounted on Kindle from November 3-9.
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Nick and Steph share the story of pioneering movements in Thailand. Steve Parlato is asking the questions.
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For years I’ve been saying that the church in the West is lost in a missional fog. Ask eighteen missional experts what they think is mission is and you’ll probably get nineteen different answers. One will have two views.
Only half of them will identify the Great Commission and the making of disciples as the essence or heart of the mission of Jesus.
Perhaps it’s time to get back to basics and look again at the words of the Risen Lord and ask afresh how we can obey them today.
The Commission itself is amazingly compact. No words are wasted in a powerfully clear statement. No fog here.
Let’s look at the structure. There is one main verb, ‘make disciples’ supported by three participles, ‘going’, ‘baptizing’ and ‘teaching’. [ed. My high school English teacher would be proud]. Jesus’ one command is to be carried out in three ways.
The goal of our mission is to make disciples, we do that by going, teaching and baptizing.
So far so good. Jesus has told us what to do and how to do it. So let’s step out of the fog created by experts and take Jesus at his word. Let’s assume these are the words of our Risen Lord. Every one of them is true and binding on us, his disciples. We are to obey what he says.
If you want to emerge from the fog it’s a good place to start.
Related:
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I’d go anywhere to learn from Chuck and Deb Wood. They’ll be running Communities of Practice in Australia and New Zealand in October.
A Community of Practice is for people who have done some basic training in multiplying disciples and churches and are out actively sharing the gospel.
Chuck is a regular on the Movements podcast:
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