One way to reach them would be to train and deploy 62 missionaries in 62 countries who would spend 2-3 years learning the local dialect and culture, and be supported financially for the rest of their lives to live in those countries (where they may never be fully accepted).

This, I think, is our primary international missions strategy and it is effective. We need to continue sending missionaries to live and serve in nations around the world. We need to count the cost and go to them.

Where are the Unreached Most Reachable?

However, in our great cities, the nations of the world are coming to us. They are sacrificing everything for the privilege of living in my neighborhood. They are leaving family and severing strong social bonds to be here. They are learning our language.

We can show them kindness by helping them adjust. We can share a meal with them and provide for basic needs. We can help them learn the language. We can help them create strong social bonds here with the Christian community.

More importantly, we can share the Gospel with them and disciple them to be effective evangelists to their own people. The unreached are more reachable in our own cities.

A New Strategy For Reaching the Unreached

We need to continue training, funding, and sending missionaries there, but that needs to be the backup plan. The primary strategy ought to be to reach the cities. The church in America is barely keeping up with population growth, let alone the population growth in the cities. We need a massive influx of church planters to come to the cities yesterday.

But there’s another strategy for reaching the unreached that builds on both of the existing strategies. If a missionary is preparing to go to Serbia for example, why not send him to work with a multi-ethnic church in a US city that is close to a Serbian community. He would work as a missionary-in-residence for one to two years making disciples especially amongst Serbs but also with others in the community. Meanwhile, he is training, raising support, etc.

Then, when it’s time to go to Serbia, he may already have made connections through the new believers he has been discipling in that US church. The church in the US would then become the sending church and might even send that missionary with one or two of the Serbian families to work with him.

Churches in the city (and especially New York City) should become learning labs for cross-cultural mission for future missionaries. Such a church could have 2-3 potential international church plants in the works with several missionaries-in-residence working alongside the pastoral team. The missionary-in-residence might even select their future location based on who is being reached and from what people groups.

Of course, the people being reached in the city can also be discipled and deployed without a white missionary but all options should be explored. If a missionary is called to go somewhere, he might as well get some good cross-cultural on-the-job training in before he goes.

What better place to do that than in New York City?

The above is what we envision doing with our church plant in Queens, NY. 48.1% of the 2.3 million people living in Queens are foreign born. Many will stay and work and bring their families to live here permanently, but many will return to their nations. We need to meet them here.

Our goal is to plant churches throughout the 61 zip codes in Queens and as we reach people from various people groups (especially the unreached people groups), we want to train them and send them home fully equipped to proclaim the Gospel in their towns and cities. We would love to have 2-3 missionaries-in-residence and 2-3 church planting apprentices working with us at any given time.

Contact us if you want to learn more about how to partner with us or work with us to plant church planting churches within reach of more than 60 unreached people groups.

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When the promised Spirit filled them on the day of Pentecost, He turned ordinary fishermen into extraordinary fishers of men.

Simple Galileans began preaching the Gospel in the languages of the nations. Peter, who had denied Jesus three times preached a powerful message of the Gospel and 3,000 people were added to their numbers.

A movement began.

The next day, and the next, and the one after that, the new believers committed themselves to one another and to God.

Acts 2:41-47 is a record of those first few days and weeks of the movement. These verses reveal some key traits or marks of a Spirit-empowered follower of Jesus.

1. Wholehearted Worship

Then fear came over everyone…

Wholehearted worship is active. Worship is sacrifice. Whether “in the temple complex” (large gatherings) or “from house to house” (smaller, more intimate gatherings), when we are together with other believers, our worship should be filled with energy and praise.

Worship is both ritualistic and relational. A spirit-empowered disciple will dedicate himself to the celebration of communion, to prayers, and to other elements in a consistent way with other believers. On the other hand, worship is also spontaneous and from the heart. There ought to be a holy awe that permeates our corporate worship and our private worship because God’s Spirit is on the move.

2. Radical Obedience

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching…

These Spirit-empowered disciples in Acts 2 were committed to “observing all that [Jesus] commanded” (Matthew 28:18-20). As the apostle’s taught the Word to these new believers, they devoted themselves to it. They sought to know it, understand it, apply it, live it, and share it.

A devotion to learning and living that is based on Jesus’ commands is an essential mark of one of  Jesus’ followers.

3. Deep Community

And they devoted themselves…to fellowship

The word “fellowship” has almost as little meaning today as “community” but what these early followers understood was that they were on a mission and they needed each other to fulfill that mission.

A meeting without a mission is boring. And a mission without a meeting is lonely.

Deep community forms, not because it is planned that way but because our koinonia is deepened when believers are on mission together.

4. Captivating Generosity

So they sold their possessions and property…

Nothing is more important to the Spirit-empowered disciple than loving God, loving people, and fulfilling God’s purpose. Possessions and property are evaluated according to their usefulness for the mission. Luxurious lifestyles are traded for simpler lifestyles to free up more resources to care for those in need.

The generosity of a Spirit-empowered disciple is captivating to others. Those early followers had “favor with all the people” primarily because of their selfless compassion and generosity for their brothers and sisters in the faith.

5. Viral Witness

every day the Lord added to them those who were being saved.

People can’t help but notice a life that is marked by wholehearted worship, radical obedience to Jesus’ commands, deep community, and captivating generosity. A Spirit-empowered disciple’s witness is validated by his or her actions. Word and deed go together. It’s important not only to live the life but to speak the Truth. The Gospel is a message and followers of Jesus are messengers. That message goes viral when all of the marks of a Spirit-empowered disciple are evident to others.

Defuse any one of these traits and there is a danger of slipping into fake worship, disobedience, counterfeit community, self-centered greed, and a weak witness. Taken together, these qualities are explosive.

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Here are a few thoughts from Keller’s talk about why we must reach the great cities of the world with the gospel and a few of my own reasons for sharing the Gospel in New York City specifically.

Reason #1: Cultural

According to a Foreign Policy article:

The 21st century will not be dominated by America, China, Brazil or India but by the city.

In an age that is increasingly unmanageable, cities rather than states are becoming the islands of governance on which the future world order will be built. Time, technology, and population growth have massively accelerated the advent of this new urban era.

Already, more than half the world lives in cities and that percentage is growing rapidly.

Just one hundred cities account for 30% of the world’s economy and almost all of its innovation.

New York City is arguably the cultural capital of the world. It has often been said that as goes New York City, so goes the rest of the country in the next five years (or some variation of that sentence). The art, the laws, the music, the fashion, and etc. of NYC will soon become the standard for other cities, states, and, on a global level, other countries around the world.

With all of that in mind, it is vital that we marshall our individual, church, denominational, and/or network resources to catalyze a gospel-centered movement in the city of New York…yesterday!

Reason #2: Missiological

1. Young people want to live in cities;
2. Most unreached peoples are more reachable in cities (they break ties, are in a more pluralistic environment, etc.);
3. The people who have the biggest impact on culture are in the cities;
4. The poor are moving to cities (1/3 of people moving to cities are moving to live in shanty towns)

The above list are exactly the kinds of people that live in NYC. From rich to poor to everyone in between, young and old, influential, and people from all sorts of religious backgrounds, film makers, artists, musicians, business men and women, bankers, lawyers, and people from nearly every nation in the world live in NYC.

In Queens, the borough where I am planting churches, there are at least 64 unreached people groups. There are 800 languages spoken in the Metro New York area. The unreached, the young and influential, and the poor are my next door neighbors.

Reason #3: Visceral

To make the visceral case for reaching cities, Keller points to the story in Jonah 4 where Jonah is more emotionally attached to a vine that was providing him shade than he was concerned about other people. God, on the other hand, loves people more than plants because people are made in the image of God.

Keller concludes,

In cities, you have more ‘Image of God’ per square inch than anywhere else in the world.”

Indeed, 8 million people move into the cities of the world every 2 months!

In NYC, there are 20 million people in the Metro area. My own small corner of Queens has nearly 85,000 within 3.5 square miles. That’s ridiculous amounts of “Image of God” in such a small area. With evangelical Christians numbering around 2% it’s obvious that the vast majority of NYC ears need to hear the message of the gospel!

Here’s the video of Keller’s plenary session from the Lausanne Cape Town 2010 Congress entitled What is God’s Global Urban Mission?

Thoughts? How important are the cities (and specifically the great cities) of the world in reaching every tribe, language, and nation with the gospel?

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As a way of showing my appreciation, I’d like to give one of my readers a new NIV Archaeological Study Bible from Zondervan. I’ll explain how you can get a copy below.

But first, here are my top 11 posts from 2011:

1. Making Disciple-Making Disciples - “Sermons, seminars, and classes need to be extra-curricular to the more risky and time consuming core curriculum of modeling a transformed life in front of others.”
2. Bible Translations, Tools and Tech for the 21st Century: HCSB - “After 2,000 years of church history we have never been more advanced technologically nor have we ever had more ancient manuscripts and a better understanding of the ancient world than we do now. My view is that the Holman Christian Standard Bible does the best job (not perfect job) of utilizing all of these new innovations and ancient manuscripts to give us the most trustworthy English translation yet.” 
3. 7 Reasons Why You’ve Never Made A Disciple - “Jesus tells His disciples to make disciples. That’s our mission. But apparently, only 1 in 20 Christians has even shared the Gospel…If you’ve never made a disciple (or haven’t in a long time) there are at least 7 factors that might be contributing to your disciple making slump.”
4. Research Suggests Accurate Count of Christians Closer to 4% in US - “The research may be troubling, but enough about the bad news, we’ve got good news to share!”
5. A Fresh Look at the HCSB Translation [Video] - More than 100 Bible scholars from 17 denominations (What!? Not just a bunch of Southern Baptists?) gave several years of their lives to this translation because they felt the advancements in archaeology, linguistics, and Biblical research were so significant that there needed to be a new translation (not just a revision).
6. The Pastor Driven Church - “The Pastor Driven Church sacrifices bold preaching and personal disciple making for powerless people pleasing.”
7. The Mission of the Church - “Are the programs and ministries of our church contributing to fulfilling the Great Commission? Or are they simply services rendered to make things easier on our members?”
8. Four Crucial Habits To Help A New Disciple Form On Day One - “If you were only interested in a notch on your evangelistic belt then you might be tempted to outsource this new disciple’s growth to a church program.”
9. You Don’t Have To Be A Super-Christian To Make Disciples - “Not everyone is a super-Christian! We don’t all have stories of how we glanced at the stranger seated next to us on the plane and led them to Jesus right there on the spot.”
10. A Lack of Multiplication (of Disciples, Small Groups, and Churches) Leads to Division - “We all know that division is failure, but so is subtraction and addition. Multiplication brings glory to God. It is what we are commissioned to do. If a church is dividing, subtracting, or merely adding it’s not enough. Only multiplication will do if we are truly pursuing Jesus’ mission. Only multiplication can be attributed to the power of God at work through His people.”
11. Disciple Making vs. Downline: Practicing God’s Presence or Pyramid Scheme? - “The argument I’ve heard recently is that those of us who emphasize making disciples as the mission of our lives more closely resemble sellers of Amway than ambassadors for Jesus.”

A Big Thank You Gift

I wish I could give every one of my readers a gift this Christmas season. Alas, the only way I know how to do it is by rewarding at least one of you with what I wish I could do for all of you! Merry Christmas!!

Can’t see the form? RSS readers may need to click through to the blog to see the giveaway form.

Giveaway applies through the first week in January!

**Update: A winner has been chosen. Subscribe to my blog via rss or email to find out about more awesome giveaways!

Congratulations to @jonstieglitz for winning an NIV Archaeological Study Bible from http://t.co/FmeYBKVa cc: @zondervan @punchtab

January 9, 2012 10:59 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@nathancreitz

nathan creitz

Thanks for reading My Top 11 Posts In 2011 // Plus A Free Gift!! Have a comment? Click on over and share your thoughts. I'd also like to encourage you to subscribe to my free newsletter.

Seth Godin

This morning I ran across a post Seth wrote a couple of years ago called First, ten. Check it out and let me know in the comments how his marketing “secret” applies to church planters and leaders:

First, ten

This, in two words, is the secret of the new marketing.

Find ten people. Ten people who trust you/respect you/need you/listen to you…

Those ten people need what you have to sell, or want it. And if they love it, you win. If they love it, they’ll each find you ten more people (or a hundred or a thousand or, perhaps, just three). Repeat.

If they don’t love it, you need a new product. Start over.

Your idea spreads. Your business grows. Not as fast as you want, but faster than you could ever imagine.

This approach changes the posture and timing of everything you do.

You can no longer market to the anonymous masses. They’re not anonymous and they’re not masses. You can only market to people who are willing participants. Like this group of ten.

The timing means that the idea of a ‘launch’ and press releases and the big unveiling is nuts. Instead, plan on the gradual build that turns into a tidal wave. Organize for it and spend money appropriately. The fact is, the curve of money spent (big hump, then it tails off) is precisely backwards to what you actually need.

Three years from now, this advice will be so common as to be boring. Today, it’s almost certainly the opposite of what you’re doing.

This post jumped out at me this morning because it is how I approach church planting. I find it remarkably similar to Jesus’ method of primarily investing in 12 men. It reminds me of 2 Timothy 2:2. Funny how, as Seth says, “it’s almost certainly the opposite of what you’re doing.”

What do you think? Is this the opposite of what you are doing? How does this post change (or clarify) the way you approach your ministry? 

HT: Copyblogger

Thanks for reading Seth’s Secret to Viral Church Planting! Have a comment? Click on over and share your thoughts. I'd also like to encourage you to subscribe to my free newsletter.

Check out this video for a look at what Downline is all about:

What do you think?

The irony is that I recently wrote a post entitled Disciple Making vs. Downline: Practicing God’s Presence Or Pyramid Scheme. I wrote that post because I had been hearing some negative voices criticizing discipleship as some sort of multi-level marketing pyramid scheme. Those negative critiques spoke disparaging about discipleship as some sort of “downline”. Personally, I don’t care what you call it and if what I do to make disciples (in obedience to God’s will) looks like a pyramid scheme to critics, then so be it.

The little bit that I’ve seen of Downline Ministries, it looks like we are on the same page.

For example, DM says their goal is to “make, mature, and multiply disciples of Jesus.” I know I’ve said the same thing on numerous occasions (though I usually just say, “make and multiply” since I assume that making includes maturing).

DM talks about discipling someone until that person can make disciples. I’ve written a lot about making disciple-making disciples and a goal of the eBook that I’m writing is to equip any Christian to make a disciple in the next 12 months who will make a disciple in the next 24 months.

Anyway, we seem to be speaking the same language. Maybe we are reading from the same Book.

So, to the guys behind Downline Ministries I say keep up the good work and don’t worry about the critics. Pursue the mission! As DL Moody said, “I like my way of doing things better than your way of not doing things.”

If you haven’t seen Downline Ministries, go check them out now!

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The goal is to make disciples and plant churches in the heart of Queens, NY. We will eventually be working with the North American Mission Board. For now, we are just getting used to the idea that we are now New Yorkers.

Today is my first opportunity to sit down and get organized.

Here are my goals for the week:

1. See as many apartments as possible until we find the right one for our family and our ministry;
2. Send an email update to our prayer partners with more details about our church planting and disciple making activity in Queens and our prayer requests;
3. Touch base with our ministry contacts in NYC to begin the commissioning process with NAMB;
4. Get a NYC driver’s license and health insurance;
5. Eat lots of New York pizza and bagels.

Thanks for reading Arrival in Queens + Church Planting Goals for Week One! Have a comment? Click on over and share your thoughts. I'd also like to encourage you to subscribe to my free newsletter.

HT: MPT

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StudioPress is offering 25% off if you buy any of their WordPress products. Use the code THANKS at checkout (don’t forget that), you can save 25% off of anything you’d like at WordPress design shop, StudioPress.

You can get the Genesis Framework for only $45. (normally $59.95)

2. Snag most Genesis / design combos for a song and save close to $20.

3. Wipe the entire shop clean and get the StudioPress Pro Plus All-Theme Package. Get Genesis plus every design they’ve made, plus every design they make in the future, and save more than $74 off the regular price and over $875 off the retail price — and that’s just the existing 43 designs!

All you need to do is use the code THANKS when you check out and you’ll save 25% on anything and everything at StudioPress.com.

This deal ends promptly at 7:00 pm Pacific time on Monday, November 28, 2011. Hurry up and claim your new WordPress theme before the code expires!

WHAT OTHERS SAY ABOUT GENESIS

Darren Rowse - Founder, ProBlogger.net

“Genesis lets me sleep easy. Knowing my blog is well optimized, secure and easy to update lets me get on with developing content, community and building a business from my blogging.”

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Less than that will ever lead someone to Christ.

Less than that will ever invest time in leading that new disciple toward Christlikeness?

What are we to make of so few disciples actually making disciples? If you’ve never made a disciple (or haven’t in a long time) there are at least 7 factors that might be contributing to your disciple making slump.

You aren’t obeying

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20)

What you can do: Confess your disobedience and ask God to equip you to become a disciple-making disciple. Remember, it’s in the context of the Great Commission that Jesus says, “I am with you always…” (What else? – Read this post on The Mission of the Church)

You aren’t praying

Devote yourselves to prayer; stay alert in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us that God may open a door to us for the message, to speak the mystery of the Messiah, for which I am in prison, so that I may reveal it as I am required to speak. Act wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time.” (Colossians 4:2-5)

What you can do: Stop right now and pray for the first person that comes to your mind when you answer the question, “Who am I close to who is far from God?” Begin praying consistently for that person.

You aren’t preparing

but honor the Messiah as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. However, do this with gentleness and respect, keeping your conscience clear, so that when you are accused, those who denounce your Christian life will be put to shame.” (1 Peter 3:15-16)

What you can do: Answer the question, “What is the reason for the hope that is in you?” Be ready to share the answer but also be ready to explain why your experience of faith makes sense. (What else? – Help me write an eBook that will help prepare any Christian to make and multiply followers of Jesus.)

You aren’t preaching

But how can they call on Him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about Him? And how can they hear without a preacher?” (Romans 10:14)

What you can do: If you’ve never talked about Jesus, your friend will never know about Jesus. It’s simple, the Gospel is a message. Messages need to be communicated. Let stories about Jesus permeate your conversations every day (but don’t force it)!

You aren’t fleeing

Flee from youthful passions, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. But reject foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they breed quarrels. The Lord’s slave must not quarrel, but must be gentle to everyone, able to teach, and patient instructing his opponents with gentleness. Perhaps God will grant them repentance leading [them] to the knowledge of the truth. (2 Timothy 2:22-25)

What you can do: Ask God to point out your sins and give you victory. If your lifestyle conflicts with your message then no one will believe you. Ghandi said, “I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” Don’t let that be true of you.

You aren’t enduring

Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that lay before Him endured a cross and despised the shame and has sat down at the right hand of God’s throne. (Hebrews 12:1-2)

What you can do: Obeying, praying, preparing, preaching and fleeing from sin all take discipline and endurance. You need to beat your body and make it your slave so that you won’t be disqualified in your task.

You aren’t accountable

And let us be concerned about one another in order to promote love and good works, not staying away from our [worship] meetings, as some habitually do, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:24-25)

What you can do: Let’s be clear: I’ve written this post to YOU but being a disciple who makes disciples is impossible without US. That is, apart from the other members of the Body of Christ, you will find it extremely difficult to be a disciple who makes and multiplies other disciples. So, with that in mind, consider sharing this post with your small group and begin working through this list together. Make sure everyone in your group is obeying, praying, preparing, preaching, fleeing and enduring.

Finally, don’t beat yourself up if you aren’t currently making disciples! Satan would love to defeat you before you start. Hopefully, I’ve given you a few reasons why you might not be fulfilling your mission and also some practical steps to get you started.

Which one of these is the reason why you haven’t been making disciples? What steps are you going to take to change that? If this post just kickstarted your own mission to make disciples, let me know in the comments and I’ll happily pray for you!

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