Mission Frontiers

January-February 2016:

Women Engaged in Church-Planting Movements Among UPGs

Contents:

Movements Without Women?

by Robby Buttler

Women Engaged in Church-Planting Movements Among UPGs

by R. Nyman

Women and Vision Casting

If you really wanted to do something better, and could study under the world’s leading expert, would you?

by Erika Parks

Empowering Local Partners

by Kay Parks

Ordinary Women Empowered by an Extraordinary God

How God Draws Women into Intimate Relationship with Himself and Equips Them for Extraordinary Kingdom Exploits

by Liz Adleta

Your Kingdom Come

Extraordinary Prayer and Its Role in Kingdom Advance

by Annie Taylor

Worship

Fuel for Extraordinary Prayer

by Betsy Brown

God’s Word our Foundation, His Spirit our Dependable Guide

by R. Nyman

Fruit in Obedience

Extraordinary Prayer and Its Role in Kingdom Advance

by Millie Lancaster

Spirit Led In Our Unique Role as Female Practitioners

by T.M.Bee

Depending on the Spirit and the Word

by Rachel

Neighbors of Peace

Extraordinary Prayer & Its Role in Kingdom Advance

by Hannah & Sadie

Facilitating What?

Discovery Process with POP

by Rachel

Searching For Persons of Peace

As a Lifestyle

by Ruth Strong

How He Leads Me through the Darkness

Finding POP's

by Hazel Heights

Obedience Discipleship

by Essie Joy

A Big Day Has Arrived

by R. Nyman

Healthy DNA in Obeying Congregations

A Key CPM question is, “What needs to be done? Not what can be done?

by R. Nyman

Zarina’s Story

by Vivian Rawlins

Leadership: Women in African DDM

by Barbara B.

There is Hope

by Sinta Jones

Unflinching Grace-Filled Evaluation

by Essie Joy and R Nyman

THREE FOUNDATIONAL AREAS OF MOVEMENTS

by Steve Smith

Subsidy, Self-Respect, Self-support and Personal Ownership

by Allen Swanson

When Honoring Parents Trumps Christian Duty

by greg.parsons@frontierventures.org

Editorial

Movements Without Women?

by Robby Buttler

Rick is recovering from recent surgery while his house is undergoing major restoration following an attic fire caused by a lighting strike. It is my privilege to fill in for him. Please pray for an outpouring of God’s blessing on Rick and his family that far exceeds the attacks they have recently endured.

R. Nyman compiled more worthy material by and about women CPM catalysts than we could fit in print. Be sure to look on-line for bonus articles!

Winning or Losing?

While followers of Jesus are growing in numbers and as a percentage of world population, so are the unreached peoples. Donald McGavran estimated in 1985 that 50% of the world (2.5 billion people) were then living in unreached people groups.[1] Now, in 2015, IMB researchers count the population of unreached groups at 4.2 billion, 58%[ii] of the world’s 7.3 billion! According to such research, the number of people living in unreached groups has increased nearly 70% over the past 30 years. See R. Nyman’s introduction (p. 6) for additional perspective on these trends.

But this is not the whole picture:

1.           God’s Word promises that “of the increase of His kingdom there shall be no end.”

2.           Jesus described the kingdom as leaven spreading (invisibly at first) through the dough.

3.           And historically—in the New Testament world, China, Korea, etc.—the gospel has sometimes spread quietly first among oppressed women on its way to transforming society in visible ways.[iii]

As Donald McGavran urged in 1982,[iv] one catalytic element is missionaries (men and women) led by the Holy Spirit to pursue Christward movements through winning whole families. With God’s blessing, such movements have the potential to rapidly outpace population growth!

Women as CPM Catalysts

While the story of most Disciple-Making Movements is written by and about men—featuring their roles and exploits—it is doubtful any movement in history has lacked the strategic involvement (as well as prayers) of women. Since women missionaries significantly outnumber men, and the vast majority of single missionaries are women, it is vital that CPM efforts welcome, encourage and empower the efforts and contribution of women. In addressing this issue, R. Nyman has done a great service for the whole body of Christ.

Jesus Model

Mary was the first to learn the specifics of Jesus’ birth, and was prophesied over and encouraged by her cousin Elizabeth. Jesus was of course nurtured by Mary from infancy, and various women later provided for His needs, served Him, anointed His body for burial, and were the first to meet Him and believe He had risen.

In many cultures one of the most appealing things about Jesus is how he related to women, including letting:

·             Martha rebuke him,

·             Mary sit at his feet,

·             the immoral woman wash his feet, and

·             the Samaritan woman bring her whole village to Him.

While the Twelve were all men, women were among the 120 that prayed through to Pentecost after Jesus’ resurrection. And Paul was welcomed into Lydia’s household and he commends a variety of women co-laborers.

In this MF we salute the strategic and varied roles of women in ten essential components common of church-planting: Vision, Reproduction, Extraordinary Prayer, Word of God Foundation with Reliance on the Holy Spirit, Abundant Evangelism, Discipleship, Commitment, Oikos-based Churches, Leadership, and Unflinching Evaluation.

One new CPM manual—Stubborn Perseverance by James Nyman[v]—highlights the involvement of both men and women in the fictionalized account of a real CPM. We close with this excerpt, in which a woman models both Extraordinary Prayer and Abundant Evangelism:

Fatima’s life had gained a new sense of purpose since Faisal had begun sharing with her about CPMs. Fatima herself had talked to many, but no one had wanted to discuss a prophet story. So she determined to pray more fervently. She tried getting up at 4:30 with Faisal, but that didn’t work for her. Then she realized she could pray during many of her daily activities. In fact, washing clothes became one of her best prayer times. She also decided to pray for people in the houses she passed as she walked to the market. Many times she knew the families, and would pray for them specifically. Other times, she didn’t know them, or what to pray for, so she prayed that God would give them dreams and visions about Isa. And when others were resting, she would take out her prayer list and pray through the names.

Fatima also found it helpful to pray with others. Nur and Amina also wanted to improve their prayer lives, so they all agreed to meet three times a week for an hour of concerted prayer. Often it was difficult to coordinate their schedules, yet they persevered because they were convinced of the importance of prayer.

Fatima finished rinsing her clothes and hung them on a clothesline strung between two trees. As she walked to the market, she prayed, “O Lord, lead me to a person of peace.”

On the way, she saw her friend Inne hanging up her own laundry. Inne was slender and average in height. Her stylish hair was pulled back into a ponytail so she could do her work. Butterfly earrings dangled from her ears.

“I just finished hanging up my own laundry! Let me give you a hand,” Fatima offered cheerfully. They chatted causally as they worked, then Fatima asked, “Inne, do you know anyone who has ever had a dream from God?”

Inne’s eyes got big, and she almost dropped her clothes bucket. “As a matter of fact, I had a troubling dream last night; may I tell it to you?”

“Sure, but not here in the hot sun! Can we go inside?”

Stubborn Perseverance is available now on Amazon. Learn more at StubbornPerseverance.org

[1] MissionFrontiers.org/issue/article/a-giant-step-in-christian-mission

[ii] PeopleGroups.org

[iii] Underground Church Movements: The Surprising Role of Women’s Networks by Rebecca Lewis, International Journal of Frontier Missions (21:4 Winter 2014:p. 145–150):ijfm.org/PDFs_IJFM/21_4_PDFs/Role_of_Women.pdf

[iv] MissionFrontiers.org/issue/article/a-church-in-every-people

[v] James is the husband of R. Nyman, who oversaw the development of this MF.

About The Author

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Feature

Women Engaged in Church-Planting Movements Among UPGs

by R. Nyman

What is the place of women in world mission? Jesus said, “You [and the word means all of you, male and female] are my witnesses. You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world.” And there have been countless thousands who, without reference to where they came from or what they knew or who they were, have believed that Jesus meant exactly what he said and have set themselves to follow.

—Elisabeth Elliot[1]

One joy of my life is coaching and mentoring women for effective engagement in launching movements to Christ. Yet often I discover missed opportunities surrounding the role of women.

Sometimes over coffee I hear:

I felt called to the field. I came with a passion to labor alongside my husband. I don’t want to take over. I just want to be involved! Yet my organization only makes CPM training and coaching available to men. Now that we have children I get the subtle message my only job is supporting my husband and caring for our kids.

Single women have similarly told me:

Men leave us out of strategy discussions. We don’t have a lot in common with women on the team who have husbands and children, and when we talk about ministry some moms seem jealous that we have “time” for ministry.

I see this repeatedly: Husbands and wives come to the field to make an impact, yet when the wife doesn’t feel she is making a contribution, this may become a reason the couple goes home.

And the problem goes deeper. A local colleague told me, “Please tell Western women not to come to my country if they aren’t going to make reproducing disciples. When they don’t, they model disobedience to the Great Commission!”

At least 50% of most UPGs are female, and in many cultures men can’t interact with women. Often, especially among Muslim UPGs, women are gatekeepers for their households. Who, if not women, will seek out Women of Peace to open their oikos to the gospel? And as new movements emerge, who will equip the first-generation women leaders?

Regarding equipping missionary women I sometimes hear mission leaders say, “We don’t want to burden women or make them feel guilty.” Is the best solution to not equip them for multiplication? Isn’t it better to help women follow Jesus in ministry appropriate to their season of life, and prepare them to help launch a DMM/CPM?

Will the global mission community make stewardship of missionary women a priority? Will we equip missionary women with competence[ii] and confidence to be and do all He calls us to, especially as catalysts in launching CPMs?

In this issue of MF my co-authors and I urge the Body of Christ to consider how to best steward missionary women. How can we support, inspire and equip them to thrive and bear multiplying fruit? How can we equip and coach women for multiplication in all stages of life?

Why Focus on CPM?

Kent Parks, President of Act Beyond, notes urgently that today there are twice as many people with no access to the Gospel as there were in 1980. As a percentage of world population, the unevangelized—those with no Gospel access[iii]—have increased significantly, from 24% in 1980[iv] to 29% in 2015. This means that in raw numbers those considered unevangelized have more than doubled! In 1980 there were “only” one billion unevangelized. Today that figure has risen to 2.1 billion![v]

Physical births today outnumber spiritual births among the unreached, and the global Church is losing ground there both in absolute numbers and in percentage. This is unacceptable! And this unjust trend requires that we do something differently.

And we can! Since the days of Jesus and Paul, the Church has repeatedly grown much faster than population through the kind of movements we see in Acts, with women playing a key role. The 1900s offer extraordinary instances of movements in China and Korea fueled by women missionaries and spread through oppressed women.[vi] And Acts-like movements today are inspiring and even starting additional movements at an unprecedented and accelerating pace. Jesus’ followers are increasingly eager to learn from experienced CPM catalysts to pursue God for CPMs through prayer and the application of biblical principles and models.

In recent decades God has honored such laborers with movements on every continent. David Garrison has documented CPMs in all nine “rooms” of the house of Islam,[vii] and several are occurring even among “reached” peoples. Today researchers are tracking more than 100 CPMs world-wide, each with four or more (4+) streams of four or more (4+) generations of reproducing disciples and groups, along with another 50 emerging movements of at least three generations.

In 1982 Donald McGavran reported that 90% of missionaries started churches by winning individuals rather than whole families, and that this actually hindered the development of movements. He then repeated himself for emphasis.[viii] Until very recently there has been little change in our methods. To turn the tide reported in the research above, we must train many more of our missionaries (including women) to pursue God for movements.

What will it take for the Church to reach the unreached? It will take the full involvement of women along with men, in a full realignment of our vision, our passions and our resources for a full-throttle attack on the spiritual injustice of some living and dying without ever being invited to follow Jesus.

CPM is not a new phenomenon. Those aiming for CPMs are simply applying principles Jesus imprinted on His disciples, and which Acts shows them implementing. CPM is not a magic bullet, nor is it foolproof. Pursuing a DMM/CPM is often messy, yet sometimes in recent decades it has brought millions of people into God’s Kingdom.

God’s Spirit is using various “models” to start CPMs today. Yet the majority of CPMs are emerging from two models: Training for Trainers (T4T) and Disciple-Making Movements (DMM—sometimes called Discovery Bible Study or DBS).[ix]

At present, more female CPM trainers use the DMM approach: therefore the women who authored the articles here write from this perspective.

Women as DMM Practitioners

All of us (men and women) are to delight in and declare God’s glory, developing intimacy with God. Out of the overflow of this intimacy we are to “be” and “do” in Christ, and seek to reproduce Jesus in others. For all who follow Jesus, making reproducing disciples is a privilege as well as a command.

Essential CPM elements include extraordinary prayer, searching out persons of peace, discipling groups of new believers, and equipping leaders. We need missionary women as well as men for these tasks.

This issue of MF follows an outline of CPM “Critical Elements” developed by fruitful practitioners. In these pages UPG-focused missionary women and their local female co-workers explore each of these ten critical elements. They share how the Lord has moved as they have sought to catalyze CPMs in partnership with their male co-workers. And they describe how women can contribute in every element of CPMs.

Being a wife and mother is one of my greatest joys and privileges. In highlighting points of engagement for women in CPMs, I don’t at all mean to suggest that women short-change their God given roles as wives and mothers. For me, life is integrated: more like a woven tapestry than distinct compartments.

Women: May this MF inspire you in practical involvement in launching CPMs.

Men: May this MF help you creatively nurture your female teammates to engage in launching CPMs.

We invite you to discuss these articles and their applications with teammates and others who desire to pursue God for CPMs.

Regardless of what stage of life they are in, the vast majority of female missionaries with whom I have interacted passionately want to have eternal impact. May this issue help them do so.

CPM Critical Elements List

1.           Vision: God’s glory

2.           Reproduction

3.           Extraordinary Prayer

4.           Word of God Foundation, Holy Spirit Dependence

5.           Evangelism: Finding Persons of Peace

6.           Discipleship: Training Oikos to discover and obey God’s Word through Discovery Bible Study

7.           Commitment: New believers (preferably an oikos) obey Jesus in repentance and baptism while preparing for persecution

8.           Churches: Discipled oikos become obeying, reproducing congregations

9.           Leadership: Equipping indigenous leaders who reproduce indigenous leaders who reproduce indigenous leaders

10.      Unflinching Evaluation: Focus on End Vision

Key Terms:

CPM (Church Planting Movements)—A “rapid and multiplicative increase of indigenous churches planting churches within a given people group or population segment.”[x] Groups of baptized believers reproducing at least four streams wide, each at least four generations deep. Often the result of a DMM or T4T approach.

DMM (Disciple Making Movements)—A strategy of gathering people to study and obey God’s Word with the DNA of rapidly reproducing churches present from the start, such that disciples reproduce disciples, churches birth new churches, and leaders reproduce leaders. One methodology that leads to CPMs.

T4T—A process of mobilizing and training believers to evangelize the lost, disciple new believers, start small groups or churches, develop leaders, and train these new disciples to do the same. Discipleship is understood as both obeying God’s Word and training others. The goal is every generation of believers training trainers, who train trainers. One methodology that leads to CPMs.

Disciple-Making—Loving and obeying Jesus and teaching others to do the same.

CPM Catalyst—A person called to help ignite a movement. The catalyst, whether expatriate or near culture Christian, is used by God to raise up and coach the indigenous leaders of a movement. Catalysts can be called the “zero” generation (with the first group of believers from the focus group counted as “first” generation).

Person of Peace—An unbelieving cultural insider who welcomes the messenger and their message into their home and community (based on Luke 10 and Matthew 10).

Oikos—New Testament word usually translated “house” or “household.” May include relatives and/or close friends.

Discovery Group (DG)/Discovery Bible Study (DBS)—A DG/DBS is a group discussing the Bible, guided by simple questions that encourage loving and obeying God. DG is the preferred term when participants are not yet believers.

Facilitator—One who invites discovery by asking questions without providing answers. In many cultures this requires a shift from traditional group dynamics.

Church—A group of baptized believers seeking to obey all Jesus taught, meeting regularly for encouragement, fellowship, and worship, and seeking to make disciples who make disciples and grow into all the biblical functions of rapidly reproducing churches.

[1] In a speech at the Urbana 1973 mission conference: https://youtu.be/ApD_KjcdNak?t=4m23s

[ii] Competence means being well equipped to accomplish the vision. In this case, have female missionaries become disciple makers who intentionally make disciples as a lifestyle pattern? Have they had the various aspects of the CPM process modeled for them? Have they learned how to train and coach female near-culture local partners?

[iii] The technical term unevangelized is defined by the World Christian Encyclopedia. justinlong.org/2015/01/unreached-is-not-unevangelized-is-not-unengaged

[iv] World Christian Encyclopedia, David Barrett, George Kurian, Todd Johnson, Eds. 2001, ISBN:0195079639, p. 2: 538.

[v]  “Christianity 2015: Religious Diversity and Personal Contact,” pages 28, 29. gordonconwell.edu/resources/documents/IBMR2015.pdf from Status of Global Christianity, 2015, January 2015, International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Vol. 39, No. 1.

[vi] Underground Church Movements: The Surprising Role of Women’s Networks by Rebecca Lewis, International Journal of Frontier Missions (21:4 Winter 2014:p. 145–150): ijfm.org/PDFs_IJFM/21_4_PDFs/Role_of_Women.pdf

[vii] Garrison, David. A Wind in the House of Islam. Published by WIGTake Resources. P.O. Box 1884, Monument, CO. 80132. ChurchPlantingMovements.com/bookstore

[viii] Reprinted in 1997 MissionFrontiers.org/issue/article/a-church-in-every-people

[ix] For an in-depth comparison and contrast see “T4T or DMM (DBS)?—Only God Can Start a Church-Planting Movement”–a two-part series in the Jan/Feb and May/Jun 2015 issues of Mission Frontiers.

[x] public.imb.org/globalresearch/Pages/CPM.aspx

About The Author

R Nyman and her husband, James Nyman, serve with Act Beyond (http://www.beyond.org) in SEAsia among Muslim UPGs. Their family has served since 1991. Their passion is to see God glorified in the launch of cascading movements to Christ among these peoples. R also facilitates Women2Women CPM/DMM Trainings internationally as well as attempts to give a glimpse of the processes of implementation of DMM/CPM in the blogspot http://www.womeninchurchplantingmovements.blogspot.com

Contact: carmichaeltrotter@gmail.com

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Feature

Women and Vision Casting

If you really wanted to do something better, and could study under the world’s leading expert, would you?

by Erika Parks

In the past few years, workers tired of seeing few results in hard places desperately went back to the Best to learn from Jesus. Through His Bible and His Spirit, they learned biblical “secrets” for how He cast vision and gave strategies for not just making a few disciples, but for launching Disciple-Making Movements in order to make disciples of all nations (ethne). How about you? Are you desperate enough to see all peoples reached that you would be willing to take up that challenge–to change major parts of what you do, in order to reach that goal? If so, consider how Jesus cast vision.

First, Jesus modeled how to be a disciple that the Father could use. For example, He modeled prayer. Only then did His disciples ask him, “Teach us to pray.” He broke “religious” people’s expectations, for the sake of reaching people. He modeled going to people’s households rather than inviting them to synagogues. He modeled how to live the “love and obey” (shema) lifestyle[1] of Deuteronomy 6:4-9.

Laura traveled over 10,000 miles to prayer walk among her focus unreached people group (UPG). Susi, a new believer in that UPG, had God’s heart for her whole people. Laura invited Susi to join her. Susi learned much about prayer walking and spiritual warfare that day. Amazed that one so young would come so far to pray, Susi said, “I live here, but I have never walked and prayed for my people. But I will from now on!” Susi has been “Laura” to many others since then and has launched many reproducing disciples and an amazing prayer movement. Laura modeled, and Susi learned and passed it on to many.

Second, Jesus showed how to follow completely the Father’s heart and end-vision for all ethne. He equipped his disciples to focus toward this goal of His simple but deep strategy. Ordinary people from all walks of life could completely reproduce and implement His strategy for changing lives. His process produced obedient disciples who immediately became the harvest force. As He left, he told them to follow His model exactly–to go and make disciples in the kind of way that will start a Disciple-Making Movement among all nations by teaching them “to obey everything I’ve taught you.”

Grace, an Asian woman from a UPG, became a true believer in Jesus while abroad. She returned home to meet Lynn, recently trained in Jesus’ discipling plan. They together received God’s vision to use Grace’s art to open lives and homes. Grace emphasizes that the Holy Spirit tells her what to paint. The Spirit led Grace and Lynn to hold a “Dialogue with Art” exhibit designed to engage her people in spiritual discussions. They cast vision—and believers gathered to prayer walk neighborhoods, sharing invitations to the exhibit. Local believers chatted and/or prayed with exhibit attendees. The spiritually interested were visited and invited to study about God with their family or friends. Today, people in this UPG are studying His word in new Discovery Groups. The vision of going and engaging people in spiritual conversations in creative ways has multiplied the number of workers who are bolder than ever to seek People of Peace.

Third, Jesus modeled being an outside catalyzer (a spark) who starts a disciple-reproducing fire within each town or people group—in simple ways that will not depend on the outsider. These new disciple-makers depend completely on the Holy Spirit and His Word, not on the outside spark.

Donna was invited for further training after being exposed to these discipling paradigm shifts. She knew it was more important that her three local partners catch this vision. Donna prayed and God provided the funding for them to be trained together. Their table was abuzz as these four took everything they were learning and made needed changes in their ministry to follow these new biblical strategies. Little did Donna know that her days were numbered on this team; God had plans for her and her new husband in other places. But the DNA for reproducing disciples continues in that local team and the reproducing disciples they are training, thanks to Donna and her vision for that team.

Do we women see ourselves as “disciple trainers” or vision casters? Our busyness with family and friends and the challenge of living among the unreached might make us think we can only reach a few women and disciple them. But that’s not what He asked us to do.

Trainings often are held primarily for men. Recently, a trainer working in a culture where women are not highly valued invited women to join the training and the next day, many did. At the end, the trainers emphasized “Now, you women must go and make disciples, too! Go and obey what you have been taught! Pass it on to others as well!” Realizing they could and should do this, they did it! They rejoiced that women, not highly valued in their culture, are highly valued in God’s spiritual multiplication plan. They have discipled multiple households into becoming reproducing disciples.

Once we realize the goal for each of us is “making disciples of whole people groups,” we can joyfully pass on this Great Commission DNA. We can teach those we disciple to be obedient and loving disciples who will make the same kind of disciples who also make disciples. We realize, “He wants spiritual generations from these disciples, in the same way that He wants that from me.”

Thus, we invite them joyfully to raise their own spiritual children and grandchildren into generations. God has called us as ordinary women to be Spirit-powered disciplers, harvesters and vision casters. He is an end-vision Father, Jesus is the vision-casting Savior, and the Holy Spirit enables workers to complete His vision. Faithful is the One who called us, both male and female—and He will do it! (1 Thess. 5:24)

[1] Shema Lifestyle—Intentional statements and actions that give a glimpse of the reality of who God is and how He desires to draw us to Him. Around the world, the top way DMMers find those interested in God is by serving them (with healing prayer, kind deeds and community service) while consistently pointing to God in culturally appropriate ways.

About The Author

Erika Parks serves as Act Beyond Director of Training (http://www.beyond.org). Before their present leadership roles, she and her husband, Kent (President of Act Beyond) served among SE Asian Muslim UPGs from 1988 to 2007.

Contact:  eap@beyond.org

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Empowering Local Partners

by Kay Parks

“Among the 150+ CPMs we are aware of worldwide, only a very small minority have been catalyzed directly by an outsider. The majority develop when the outside CPM catalyzer(s) vision-casts and trains the near / same culture local partner/believer(s), and together they vision-cast, train, and live out these biblical truths.” -CPM Trainer Stan Parks

One joy of overseas ministry is the local partners with whom we get to work. It’s not only wonderful to walk and work beside them, but absolutely critical!

One of my local partners was Flora. She and her husband are local church planters in the area. Flora and I made it a habit together to find people to talk to (i.e. searching for Persons of Peace). We would pray before going out and along the way. Whenever possible we would visit women we already knew and share with them. We would also go into the community to meet new women, looking for those wanting to engage in spiritual conversations.

If I found someone interested in the gospel while on my own, I would invite Flora to go with me the next time I met that person. I never wanted anyone in my adopted country to confuse following Jesus with American Christianity. So having Flora with me was a lifeline in my ministry. (Not to mention that she was so much fun to know and work with!)

The Good, the Bad, and the Messy

We didn’t always feel successful in our ministry. While we found many women who would engage in spiritual conversations, we almost never found those who wanted to meet again with their family and friends. We did find one woman who loved to hear stories from our Holy Book and was always enthusiastic when we visited her. But was she a Person of Peace? Probably not. This woman worked for a local family while her own family lived far away. She never invited others to join us when we shared stories. In the end she moved to another town to work. There went our one open person!

Due to our perceived lack of success we both felt discouraged at times! In fact, if we defined success only as finding a Person of Peace and starting a Discovery Group with that person and her oikos (household/community), we weren’t successful at all! But I’d like to expand the definition of success a bit: In training we learned that when we work with our local partners (and when they work with others) we are to MEWL–Model, Equip, Watch and Letter (keeping in touch even after leaving). By this my measure of success I feel a bit better about my efforts.

When Flora and I met together, I modeled for her ways to share (as she did with me). At times I had to push her to do the talking so I could “watch” as she shared and I could encourage her in the process. This also lent itself to “equipping”—giving helpful thoughts and praying for her as she shared and later talking about what we were learning along the way. When I consider success in these terms I feel more encouraged about our work there.

Recently my husband and I returned to visit the town where we had lived. Imagine my great joy at finding that Flora and her husband have continued sharing with others in their town, praying for them, demonstrating Christ’s love and even seeing some Discovery Groups started. Another local worker has moved to this area, and she and Flora now go out together to share. Flora is now MEWLing (so to speak) and passing on what she has learned.

One thing both Flora and I learned was to just keep doing what we were trained to do. We kept going out, looking for Persons of Peace among women we knew and women we were meeting. We continued to pray. We continued to meet with other women to train and encourage them. Did we feel successful? Not really. But did we give up? Never. Not an option.

Truth be told, I often felt like a CPM failure, and was so thankful others were modeling, equipping, watching and lettering Flora as well. Maybe they would have more success going out with her! But as I look back at my time with Flora I am very thankful. While we never found a Person of Peace, I can see how powerful it was to work with local partners, encourage them, and model for them to never give up. I found great joy going back to visit and hearing how the work has continued. To see Flora continue on and to know other local workers are being raised up encourages my heart in ways I cannot express.

A Reproducing Disciple-Maker Left Behind?

My husband has often said, “It’s not what you can do to start a movement, but what needs to be done.” I believe that praying for and empowering local leaders is the greatest thing any of us can do as we serve to see movements started. So as my husband and I move to a new area I will do my best to model, equip, watch, and letter with other workers. I hope to continually model prayer, training, sharing the gospel and empowering local women to do the same. The words of the Apostle Paul ring true in my heart when I think about the local partners I left behind: “I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Phil 1:3-6) Amen and Amen!

About The Author

Kay and her family served in SEAsia for over 20 years, where she ministered to women in her neighborhood and worked in her local church to increase awareness of and prayer for UPGs. She and her husband then began learning and applying CPM principles. For the past few years she has been training and coaching local believers and international workers. She and her husband serve with Act Beyond.

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Feature

Ordinary Women Empowered by an Extraordinary God

How God Draws Women into Intimate Relationship with Himself and Equips Them for Extraordinary Kingdom Exploits

by Liz Adleta

Extraordinary prayer has been shown to be foundational in every movement to Christ. Each of us begins as a tiny, fragile baby. Even God chose to enter our world this way. Extraordinary prayer can also begin as tiny, fragile turnings toward God, cries for help in our own desperate need. This happened in my story as a newly-returned prodigal, a baby in following Christ. A fellowship we attended taught that every believer could read and understand the Bible themselves and should read it annually and obey. My journal recorded feeble attempts to communicate with God. Page after page chronicled desperate cries: for myself, my family, my church, and the small familiar world of “my” life. Daily time in God’s Word, with growth in my ability to hear God’s leading, opened amazing doors for ministry as kingdom realities widened my perspective. I was being transformed from the world of “my-centric” prayers into the embrace of God-centered vision and passion. In other words, God’s “super” began to meet my natural, and fruit was born of this cultivated intimacy.

In my bumbling attempts to homeschool our growing brood of children, we had “read aloud” time after lunch daily. Missionary biographies offered windows into history, and grew our faith. Prayer figured prominently in these lives. Praying with my children for the world impacted my heart. I longed for the faith of these missionaries. Step by step, God opened doors to the world for our family.

After several mission adventures, a dream about a country of which I’d never heard led us to the Himalayas. God awakened desires in us, and as we prayed He walked us into His plan. Prayer became not a laundry list of needs expressed, but a dialogue with God on a journey of faith. Bible reading became a rich part of our interaction. And as our family began to serve the Lord in an unfamiliar, hostile context, I discovered a deeper and more desperate need for God’s presence, strength, and provision.

This restricted access nation and its peoples seemed much like Jericho—a walled city shut tight, with no one going out or coming in. Impossible! Yet God miraculously opened doors to make our home nearby. It was not by might or power but by His Spirit! We formulated a key ingredient in extraordinary prayer for our context: we recruited a prayer team to join hands with us through every challenge and opportunity.

Communication was the glue of our relationships with these intercessors. Our daily family routine included praise, worship and prayer as we watched to see what God would do, taking steps of faith as He showed us.

Give and It Shall Be Given

Of the thirty-five churches in our village, few cooperated. Gossip and a spirit of offense characterized relationships. With two other expat families, we prayed for breakthroughs. God planted an idea in our hearts: disunity was the main hindrance to the move of God’s hand among these UPGs. We were to host a pastors’ prayer breakfast and honor their service in such a difficult area. We invited several of the pastors to pray at the breakfast. As the first pastor stood and prayed, the Spirit moved him to weep in repentance.

One by one, the pastors responded to God’s gentle conviction. Repentance became the norm for these pastors. As a result, several of them continued meeting monthly for prayer and encouragement. Prayer, generosity and obeying God removed a major barrier to the launch of movements among these UPGs.

A Little Child Shall Lead

As a homeschool mom of eight, I constantly juggled competing demands. If I began my day seeking God’s face first, the day would be amazingly fruitful and I’d have wonderful peace. Conversely, if I rushed into the day, I never seemed to have enough of anything, including patience. At first, my contribution to ministry was to intentionally reproduce prayer, hospitality, and encouragement. One of my earliest equipping opportunities was to facilitate a training on reproducible intercession. I realized early on that unless we modeled what we wanted to train others in, we were not modeling obedience.

Outside my comfort zone and beyond my limits I learned to lean on God in prayer. When I offered Him my “little boy’s lunch,” He blessed it and made it more than enough. Desperation drove me deeper into God’s presence and God met us there. Prayer was integral to the fabric of the movement that God launched among these UPGs, not something we tacked on. Our standard method of operation was pray and obey. We modeled that to our local partners, and it became part of their DNA as well. God gave the strategies and empowered us to execute them in His time, in His way, with His resources. Ordinary men and women, that’s true; but we serve an extraordinary God for whom nothing is impossible!

About The Author

For 30+ years, Liz Adleta and her family served under Global Christian Network, Inc. From 1995, they focused on the Buddhist world, during which time Liz spearheaded the Billion Hours prayer project. Through cutting-edge tools, training in prayer, church planting, discipleship, & micro-enterprise, teamwork, and community transformation, God ignited rapidly-multiplying Church Planting Movements. In 2004, they began working with the Ethne movement (http://www.ethne.net ) to focus on the 7,000+ unreached groups. Liz served on the steering committees of numerous partnerships including Ethnê, co-facilitated its prayer workgroup and now serves its Ephesus Global Support Team and the Fellowship of Prayer Strategists. Email prayer@ethne.net

Contact: sdprayer@ethne.net

http://www.ethne.net

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Your Kingdom Come

Extraordinary Prayer and Its Role in Kingdom Advance

by Annie Taylor

“Intercessory prayer is spiritual defiance of what is, in the name of what God has promised. Intercession visualizes an alternative future to the one apparently fated by the momentum of current forces. Prayer infuses the air of a time yet to be into the suffocating atmosphere of the present…History belongs to intercessors who believe the future into being.” Walter Wink, in The Powers that Be, p. 185

Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Matthew 6:9-10 ESV

Envisioning a God-sized Future and Praying It into Being

What in your life and in this world doesn’t yet align with God’s promises? What alternative future is God giving you to believe into being?

One of my ongoing God-sized dreams is for John 17 unity in the global church. “I [Jesus] in them and you {God the Father] in me, that they [my disciples] may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me” John 17: 23 ESV.

I prayerfully envision a future where all followers of Jesus live God-empowered holy lives, wholly surrendered to Him; a future where multitudes of freed captives abide in Christ and joyfully worship together in Spirit and truth; a world where believers in Christ love one another well, are quick to resolve issues in godly ways, and pray continually.

As I observe ways in which this vision is not yet reality—in myself or others—I pray kingdom opposites into being. I pray unity over division, hope over despair, truth over lies, light over darkness, good over evil, life over death, love over fear, and faith over unbelief. I know these things are according to His will and so I pray in faith, believing. By His grace and power, I will continue to pray until the global church is fully unified. “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him” 1 John 5:14-15 ESV.

I have seen God move mountains of unforgiveness, shame, fear, depression, hopelessness, and disunity. I have watched in awe as He has healed wounded hearts, restored marriages and resolved “unresolvable” conflicts. He has answered intercessory prayers in ways that are only possible by His Spirit. He has moved in power as I and others have simply worshipped. Recently He has been healing me of scoliosis that I’ve had for over 40 years. So far I’m at least an inch taller, and I no longer need a lift in my shoe or a small pillow for my back. He continues to align me with Himself physically, spiritually and emotionally.

An Invitation

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 ESV.

God uses many kinds of prayer in His global advance: listening prayer, intimacy and abiding, worship, thanksgiving, confession, repentance, intercession, wholeness prayer, prayer walking, 24-7 prayer, prayer-shield teams and more.[1][1]

For the past fifteen years I’ve been most involved in Wholeness Prayer[ii]: learning, receiving healing, praying for and training others. I have watched in awe as He has transformed hundreds of lives for His glory. Reproducible approaches to helping laborers walk in emotional and spiritual health are an important piece in becoming the kind of people God uses to launch of movements. The approach described above is just one of several that promote emotional health. It has been taught and born great fruit in multiple languages and cultures around the globe, and is easily reproduced. Our goal is to model, assist, watch, and release others into healthy self-care, so that multitudes of former spiritual and emotional captives will be set free. Healthier laborers launch healthier church planting movements. “His Kingdom come. His will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

What is your part in God’s Kingdom advance? How can you infuse extraordinary prayer into your life? Maybe by using time spent awake at night or praying while waiting for others? By using challenges as a launching pad for envisioning a God-sized reality and praying it into being? By praying Kingdom opposites where needed? By joyful worship? By…

Lord God, please show us the future you’ve called each of us to pray into being, and empower us to persevere until these dreams become reality. We look to you. We depend on you. We rejoice in you. “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts” Zechariah 4:6b ESV. “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

[1] See http://www.ethne.net/prayer/prayer-strategies for more information.

[ii] [ii]See www.freemin.org. The Simplified Version gives an excellent introduction.

About The Author

Annie Taylor and her husband serve with Act Beyond http://www.beyond.org They .have served in Southeast Asia since 1993. In 2001 Annie began praying with people and seeing God set them free spiritually and emotionally. She launched Freedom for the Captives Ministries (http://www.freemin.org) in 2004. She has trained hundreds of believers around the globe in Wholeness Prayer and seen God set free hundreds of spiritual and emotional captives. Since 2010 she has been increasingly involved in global intercession. She serves on a multi-organizational global support team that empowers workers involved in church planting multiplication around the world. Contact Annie at ffcm@emailglobe.net.

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Worship

Fuel for Extraordinary Prayer

by Betsy Brown

For many years I didn’t think of “Worship” as being a part of “Extraordinary Prayer,” but then the Lord brought me a fresh insight. I first experienced this different perspective on the last day of a prayer walk among a hostile people group in Southeast Asia. We had walked and prayed and walked and prayed. We gathered the last night in the home of the long-term workers who were struggling. We had prayed through the whole house…over computer connections, the baby’s bed, the various rooms and so on.

Then we gathered back together to worship. It was August, the season of “hot and hotter” in this climate. I was playing my guitar, softly listening for God’s instructions. I sensed he wanted me to sing “Joy to the World,” and I thought I must have misheard His instructions. After hearing it three times I obeyed. But in this staunchly Muslim context, that I didn’t want to offend, so I sang the song very slowly:

“Joy to the world, the Lord is come.
Let earth receive Her King.
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing.”

In the middle of the song, I got it; I understood! So I asked my team to stand and turn the circle outward. Then I asked them to sing this song over the house, the neighborhood, this unreached and resistant people group…to prophesy or sing it as if it were true.

Intangibles in the Move of the Unseen Realms

It is hard to document the result of something so intangible. But the long-term couple saw a distinct difference in the spiritual atmosphere. This one worship time wasn’t the only element in bringing breakthrough. But what if we consistently worshiped in a way that demonstrated faith for God to visit UPGs in such moments?

Since that time we have seen the beginning of a movement among that people group! And since that experience I have paid more attention to God’s nudging, both as an individual and as a worship leader among people passionate to reach the unreached. Worship allows us to proclaim Kingdom realities in the darkest places of this world. By savoring God’s presence in the midst of worship, we can speak back to him the promises to be fulfilled in and through the bride of Christ. As Ephesians 3:10 says, “…so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.” The goal of missions is worship to our God. It may also be a means the Lord uses to break through the darkness and bring in his light. Worship is one delight-filled kind of prayer; it can become the extraordinary kind that opens the door for church planting movements.

About The Author

Betsy Brown partners cross-organizationally in Ephesus Global Teams, Ethne and Act Beyond as a worship facilitator for the launch of cascading movements to Christ among UUPGs/UPGs. She enjoys iimplementing the DMM process in her home base of Texas. She brings a unique style of worship as warfare—worship that forms a DNA for movements to reproduce the embrace of worship in the midst of DMM/CPM. She is also involved in the equipping of others for Crisis Response with a long-term CPM focus. For further ideas on how to weave worship into the process of DMM/CPM.

Contact: betsy@sr21.com

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God’s Word our Foundation, His Spirit our Dependable Guide

by R. Nyman

We know God wants us to discover truth through His Word. He gives us all the direction we need in order to do His work. We are invited to partner with Him in the extraordinary task of making disciples who make disciples in this world. The launch of cascading movements to Christ depends on the efficacy, inerrancy, and supremacy of God’s Word in partnership with deep reliance on the power of the Holy Spirit. In the process of Discovery Bible Study, the group/household learns to dig deep and to discover the richness in the Word of God rather than being told what the passage says. Even pre-believers can discover truth from the Word.

Transformed by the Spirit

Here’s one example of the DMM process, from our UPG focus:

Fatima, Muliati, Amina, Mun, and Fitri chatted excitedly shared their stories with our local partner, Anna. She had them review their steps of obedience from the previous week’s prophet story from the Old Testament. Each of these Muslim women had come into contact with Anna while she was facilitating a literacy program.

I had been training Anna in looking for Women of Peace, as described in Matthew 10 and Luke 10. She and I had gone out together looking for those whom God was preparing to open their respective households and/or affinity groups in order to discuss the Straight and True Way of Allah.

To model, assist, watch, and continue to coach Anna is a great joy. God provided five Women of Peace for Anna. Yes, five! To discover one person whom God is preparing and who will open their household often takes a lifestyle of intentional trust in the Holy Spirit to lead at any moment, in any situation, and with anyone.  One Person of Peace is a big deal but to have five Women of Peace in one stream is pretty amazing! Anna began to model, to assist, and to coach/watch for these women to take the Prophet Stories, one by one, back to their respective households. All five of these Women of Peace are at various places in life: Fatima is married with children, Muliati is a widow with grown children, Amina is divorced with no children but a large extended family, Mun is one of five wives, Fitri is married with high school children.

On this particular day, three of the five women discovered they each had experienced a dream on the same night.

“Forgive your husband,” Fatima recalled Isa Al Masih telling her in her dream.

“What you are studying with Anna is My Truth,” Muliati relayed as she described Isa Al Masih instructing her in her dream

“Isa pulled me to Himself and hugged me!” exclaimed Amina.

The other two women shared their steps of obedience. “I told the local Imam about these stories of the prophets,” explained Fitri, as she recalled her application point from the previous week.

“Though I was nervous I shared the story about Adam with my son’s household. I used the questions Anna has helped us to ask. They liked this story so much that they have asked me to visit their larger group of friends and share the next story.  Before they left, I encouraged them to share this story with their friends,” recounted Mun.

The Word and Spirit in the Reaching of Households/Affinity Groups

A few weeks later, the group studied the story of Jesus healing a blind man (John 9). Anna asked all five of the women which of the people in the story (the blind man, the parents, or the Pharisees) best represented their hearts before God.

Each made a clear profession of repentance and followership to Christ. Their salvation stories rang clear, describing their choice to follow the way of Isa. Soon thereafter, Anna helped them discover in Scripture the role of outward obedience as a demonstration of inward followership of Jesus, and they were baptized at a nearby rice field.

Each of their households were using the same pattern of 8 simple Discovery questions and engaging in the same group process. At that time, they each facilitated DBS groups which extended to 2nd generation and, in one case, 3rd generation households.

One strategic piece for coaching these forming house fellowships was to equip the women facilitators to engage the men in their respective households in the process. Where Women of Peace are the first contact for the households or relational groups in a DBS, we train the women to ask for help from their men in a natural yet honoring way so that these men become the leaders. They might say, for example, “Oh husband, thank you for your desire to lead us spiritually as a household. Would you be willing to ask us what we are all thankful for?” Then, the women are trained to affirm the men all the way through the 8 DBS questions.

As God’s Spirit moves, the Word of God speaks and people are drawn to Jesus Christ. Admittedly, at times this process is messy! However, in the midst of the challenges, I am so grateful for the opportunity to trust God’s Spirit and His Word to bring the launch of movements according to His ways, in His timing.

About The Author

R. Nyman and James Nyman serve with Act Beyond in SE Asia among Muslim UPGs. Their passion is to see God glorified in the launch of cascading movements to Christ among these peoples. R also facilitates Women2Women CPM/DMM Trainings internationally as well as attempts to give a glimpse of the processes of implementation of DMM/CPM in the blogspot http://www.womeninchurchplantingmovements.blogspot.com

Contact: carmichaeltrotter@gmail.com

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Fruit in Obedience

Extraordinary Prayer and Its Role in Kingdom Advance

by Millie Lancaster

“Ever since going through these stories together I feel closer to God,” mused Zahira, a local woman from a UPG. My friend Zahira, her aunt and I had been going through a Creation to Christ set of Bible stories for several months. Sometimes I felt like I was in over my head, yet I was thrilled to see God actively working through His Word—not only in my own heart but especially in the hearts of these genuine seekers. The Holy Spirit was leading and guiding with increasing clarity in the lives of these women as they learned the Word of God and sought God for wisdom to know how to apply it in their lives. Little by little, we were all are becoming grounded in His Word and dependent on His Spirit.

Sharing life, prayers, and a heart level connection—this is where our journey began. These daily interactions led into stories. Then came a moment when I simply asked, “Would you like to study more of these stories together?” Zahira said yes and our tea times began, at first with a kind of awkward formality. We did everything orally, as neither she nor her aunt could read. We soon realized much of our awkwardness was from not fully understanding the questions, nor the flow of time intended. Soon, however, Zahira “got it,” and rose to the task of clarifying and implementing with her aunt all the elements of Discovery; including both obeying and sharing the stories with others.

Eventually we were confidently working through the process with every new story, naturally integrating all the elements into our relaxed tea time. We began to feel a sense of equality and mutual responsibility in our times together. Our growing consistency also led to a more focused dialogue. At first, our time was filled with comments like, “this reminds me of in the Koran, when…” and “I saw in a movie that….” As I repeatedly redirected us by asking “Where does the story say that?,” Zahira also began redirecting discussion back to the story. As a result the group’s tendency toward distraction faded.

As they grew in telling the biblical stories—both with each other during the group and with others during the week—their engagement with and memory of those stories grew. They naturally linked content and themes in the stories together, seeing them all as interconnected, building toward a cumulative point. This linking of stories and limiting of references to outside sources has led to exciting insights and heart-felt decisions. With this and other groups of women it has been very tempting to just answer their questions or teach them from my own store of wisdom. And yet as we have looked at stories from the Word together we have been amazed to see what the Holy Spirit has brought out of the story for each of them. The result has been so much deeper and longer-lasting than anything I could have taught them.

For example, we had just finished the Passover story when Zahira said, ‘The thing standing out to me from this story is the significance of blood. There is something very important to God about blood—a need for a sacrifice. Just as in the first story of Adam and Eve when they left the garden and the Lord killed an animal to clothe them, blood was needed. I want to ask the Lord why.” God began to answer her through dreams that connected with these stories!

Several months later we finished sharing the story of the 10 Lepers and Zahira said something that floored me. “In all these stories Jesus refers back to the law of Moses…like the unclean should be outside the camp and other things like that…and yet He (Jesus) then changes the law…and goes to the unclean to make them clean. It’s like He is making a new law.” What a privilege to see the Holy Spirit teach her such concepts. She learned these things from the Word of God as each week she took away something from the story to obey and then shared the story with her husband (or another person or group).

As we continued discussing stories, Zahira and her aunt began to see each story as spiritually significant and unique. Zahira also began attributing any good things done by me or other believers to the good things seen in the stories, and she gave “credit” for this good to God Himself. Likewise, she began giving God the “credit” (glory/praise) for her own steps of obedience. She now increasingly understands the relationship between discovery in the stories and discovering truths about God. She knows that as she obeys these stories she is obeying God. We are trusting God for the promise of Acts 2:39 for these women and many others: “The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

About The Author

Millie and her family have been serving among North African UPGs since 2008. Their team has been actively applying DMM principles for the past three years. Millie is believing to see God’s glory among the women there as He draws them to Himself.

Contact: millielancaster1950@gmail.com

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Feature

Spirit Led In Our Unique Role as Female Practitioners

by T.M.Bee

We had hiked several miles on windy paths through rural communities of clustered houses and bright green rice paddies. So we stopped to rest at a local “coffee shop” on the side of the road. This “coffee shop” was a wooden bench in front of a simple kitchen with open windows. We were on a three-day hiking trip in our focus area of seven million people, asking the Holy Spirit to direct us to people of peace.[1] Up to this point, we had met many friendly people, but seemingly none that the Lord was drawing to Himself in this conservative majority Muslim area. Prompted by the Spirit (or perhaps my impatience), I blurted aloud “Is there anyone sick in this community who needs prayer?” After a long pause, an older man said, “Yes, there is a woman up the hill who just had a miscarriage.”

We traveled the short distance up the hill and found a young woman with her head covered in the traditional manner. She was sitting with her mother in a bamboo-walled house with wood floors. After hearing a bit of the woman’s history, I explained I was a follower of Jesus, and asked if I could pray for healing in His name. The family was quite responsive as I prayed for healing and comfort, gently touching the young woman’s shoulder. After this visit, we stayed in contact, but over time I realized that though she was open to prayer, this woman was not ready to study the scripture in her home alongside her family.

One hallmark of DMM (Disciple-Making Movements) is identifying a person willing to gather others in their household or sphere of influence to study scripture.[ii] They then gather to explore passages from the Bible together and discover its message as the source for all belief and practice. The Scriptures lay a foundation for bringing transformation. While exploring new communities in our focus area, I personally have not yet identified a person of peace who has opened a group to Bible Study. However, we use this method of study in our own house fellowship while sitting on grass mats with our local believing colleagues. The Holy Spirit always gives insight, and challenges us to practically apply the text during the following week until our next gathering.

As I, along with my husband and our local colleagues, continue to sow broadly toward finding those in whom the Lord is at work, I apply the truth of John 15:4: “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”

We sow broadly by taking trips into our focus area like the one described earlier in this article. In rural communities near our home, opportunities arise with many of the female farmers to pray in Jesus’ name or testify of His power.

As an obstetrical nurse by training, and known as a Jesus follower, my offers to pray in Jesus’ name are consistently welcomed for safe deliveries, increased breast milk production, or healing of infants’ with fevers. What a privilege it is to partner with God, alert to what He is doing by His Spirit in the lives of these women.

We also interact with local people in our rural area via agro-business, promoting nutritional edible plants, relating with local health practitioners, and having a presence in our community.

As I am alive to Christ, resting in Him, making my home in Him, the Holy Spirit is at work. The Spirit guides me, and I am alert to those women in whom He is at work. As a female cross-cultural practitioner in an unreached context, I have a unique role in partnering with God to see His kingdom extended in these least-reached areas. Although I have yet to see a Church Planting Movement first hand, the Lord has formed house fellowships among our focus Unreached People Group. The challenge before us is to remain expectant, while faithfully abiding in Christ. As women, we have a unique contribution and privilege to partner with Him in seeing every nation, tribe and tongue become true worshippers o

[1] Man of peace is a term used in Luke 10:6.  David Watson 2008 “The person of peace is the one God has prepared to receive the gospel for the first time into a community.” Church Planting Essentials-Find the Person of Peace. 2015, February 26 davidlwatson.org

[ii]  “Fruitful faith communities use the Bible as the central source for life, growth and mission. In a culture where many books are viewed as holy, a fruitful faith community views and uses the Bible as the central source for their understanding of God and how to live their life as followers of Jesus” From Seed to Fruit: Global Trends, Fruitful Practices, and Emerging Issues Among Muslims, Dudley Woodberry, ed. Pasadena: William Carey Library, 2008,165.

About The Author

T.M. Bee is a student of Jesus, a nurse, a mother, a grandmother, and has been a field worker for 25 years, partnering together with her husband. She and her husband live on a volcano (not currently active) in Southeast Asia.

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Depending on the Spirit and the Word

by Rachel

A Lifestyle of Discovery

Priya is our house helper. My husband and I have met in her home with her family to discuss True Stories over cups of chai. The problem is, our meetings have been few and far between due to scheduling conflicts. When they’re free, we’re not, and vice versa. We finally concluded that they didn’t really want us to come and were too polite to tell us, so we stopped mentioning it. After a few weeks, Priya asked, “When are you coming to my house again?” We suggested a few dates. Yet again, no date worked for our whole families. Too many people and too many schedules.

Others in our organization share Stories with families in homes, but they live in truly closed countries. So, they meet with a person like Priya (someone interested in the Stories) in a place they (the foreigners) have access to, such as a nearby village. The “ Priya” memorizes the Story, goes and shares it with his/her family, and then comes back and tells the foreigner how it went. In this way, workers can share Truth even in closed locations.

The Power of God’s Word

A few days ago, we wondered if this approach could also work for us. We asked Priya if she'd like to try this: She would come to our home every day, we would teach her a Truth Story, then she would go home and share it with her family. They could discuss the Story, and then she would come back and tell us how it went. She said she'd love to do that!

Today, we met for the first time. Steve made chai for the three of us. As soon as we sat down, the doorbell rang. It was our friend and translator, John. He visits often, so Priya knows him. Having John as a last minute addition to the group was great.

First, I told the Story of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Luke 18:9-20). When I finished, Priya asked about that tax collector. What exactly did he do? Our friend helped explain how the man in the Story was like officials here - corrupt, taking bribes, living richly off the poor. Priya was befuddled. "He did bad things, yet HE was the one who was forgiven?" I asked her if she remembered how the religious leader prayed. "Oh, yes, full of himself," she said. When she realized that it wasn't what the men had done, but the attitude of their hearts that made them forgiven and right with God, she became very quiet.

Next, we acted out the Story. My husband and our friend were the two men. I narrated. After that, we took turns telling the Story together. One person told a few lines, then the next, and so forth. Suddenly, during the fourth time through the Story, Priya realized the applications of the Story. She exclaimed, “If everyone lived this way (believing that those who humble themselves will be exalted and those who exalt themselves will be humbled), then there would be no problems in the world." Then she began to cry.

The Transformational Work of the Holy Spirit

Priya was overwhelmed by the beauty of Jesus’ perspective. She told us that pundits and religious leaders have always told her people that God doesn't care for her and her family because they are of low caste, and she daily faces this prejudice from her employers (our landlords). She's cleaned their floors for years, yet she's still not allowed to touch the furniture in the grandma's rooms. They consider Priya polluting. She's to wash the floors and leave, and the grandma watches over her to make sure she doesn't touch anything. When Priya sits to rest for a few minutes, it’s on the steps outside the house, never in the home. Yet here we were, all sitting on our furniture, drinking chai that my husband had made (the husband cooked!), and she was hearing that in Jesus' Kingdom those with humble hearts are elevated.

Priya couldn't believe it. She'd never heard anything like this Story before or seen anyone value humility. She finally commented, "But those hard-hearted people (like our landlord), they'll never believe anything like this.” Our answer was that next week, she will hear a Story about exactly that, a changed heart (Zacchaeus, the tax collector). We noted that this Story about humility seemed to touch Priya more than any of the miracle Stories we had discussed in her home. It's almost as if she expected God Incarnate to do miracles, but learning that He also elevates humility rocked her world!

She left smiling. She went home to tell the Story to her family and then discuss it with them. We don’t need to be there. They don’t need to wait for us. We look forward to hearing about their discussions. I wonder if this elevation of humility will touch the family? I wonder if they will agree? I wonder how they will apply the Story to their lives? Will they even try to, or will they assume humility is irrelevant in this society?

About The Author

We are Rachel and Stefan, serving with Act Beyond http://www.beyond.org We li.ve and work in Northern India, mostly with Hindi speakers, but we are also starting to see a movement begin in another language group. Contact:  rls@safetypost.net

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Neighbors of Peace

Extraordinary Prayer & Its Role in Kingdom Advance

by Hannah & Sadie

We, the women behind this article, are your fellow travelers. We are sisters, friends, and neighbors, asking the Lord to show us how to find persons of peace and love our neighbors as ourselves—to find ways to share the love of Jesus in the daily rhythms of our lives.

To start, let’s define some terms. A Person of Peace (POP), according to Luke 9, 10 and Mathew, chapter 10 is someone who is spiritually interested and one who opens a door for a community (household/affinity group) to hear about Jesus. A POP is not always highly respected in their community nor are they necessarily a peaceful person. Consider the Samaritan woman in John 4. She was shamed in her community, but after hearing the truth, she ran back to her town and shared, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” The whole town came to see Jesus, and many of them repented and put their faith in Him. What sets a POP apart from others is their link to influence in a community. They share with others what they are hearing and learning.

How do we find people like this, especially in our ordinary daily lives? When Jesus sent out the 72, he told them to start with prayer: “Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field” (Luke 10:2, ESV). Pray for opportunities and for increased awareness— kingdom eyes to see where the Spirit is guiding you. Maybe a first step for you could be praying with a friend once a week for a POP to share with. This is a prayer our Father delights to answer! This week, a friend of ours was praying and asking God for opportunities to share the gospel and to love people. As soon as he finished praying this, a woman came up to him and asked him to borrow a cell phone charger. Her cell phone had died, and she had run out of fuel. Because of his increased awareness, he saw this as an opportunity. He didn’t have a cell phone charger, but he offered to help in other ways. He learned that she had recently fallen on hard times and he was able to serve her. He was also able to share the gospel with her, and this woman put her faith in Jesus in a fast food restaurant! So pray and believe that God will give you kingdom eyes.

You may read that story and think, “I can’t be like that person.” You may feel inadequate, unsure, or just busy. However, the beauty of God’s command to bring the gospel is that God equips us and empowers us to obey in our daily rhythms. This is huge. Jesus has placed you where you are because He plans to come there. He plans to come to your work, your neighborhood, your grocery store, your kid’s school, your local park, and your favorite coffee shop or bar. The world apart from Christ is in chaos, and people need the peace that Jesus has to offer through us. So, let’s season our speech with “Peace be to this house,” in the form of testimony, praise, and prayer. The Psalmist says it like this, “Sing to the Lord, bless His name; tell of His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples.” (Psalm 96:2-3, ESV) Speak aloud about the goodness of Jesus. We women naturally speak about things that we love and that we are proud of. Let’s talk about Jesus as openly and excitedly as we talk about our favorite clothing boutique.

Speaking about Jesus with strangers might seem uncomfortable at first, but with practice, it can become a natural overflow. Here are some ways we have loved Jesus out loud and met a POP:

·             Sharing our testimony

·             Telling stories of answered prayers

·             Asking about hopes, dreams, fears, and hurts

·             Praying for people on the spot

Take time to practice these things. What are a few of the most common questions you get asked? How can you answer them in a way that transitions conversation from casual to spiritual? If someone asks how you are, you could say, “I am really well. God answered a prayer of mine today. Is there anything I can pray for you about today?” This is a comfortable way to transition a really basic conversation into one where you are talking about spiritual things. A person of peace would respond to this with interest, asking more about your answered prayer or how you know it was God that answered it. Another person would just ignore the opportunity for spiritual conversation, which is fine (and happens to us all the time). Practicing these things before they come up helps you capitalize on opportunities the Lord brings. The idea is to walk in obedience and keep speaking about God until we meet those POP’s who will open gates for Jesus to enter their communities.

We are continually learning what it means to look for people of peace and to love our neighbors as ourselves. We want to invite others to follow our example as we follow Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1). You likely have a busy life and you may feel like you can’t squeeze anything else in. Maybe the Lord would ask you to rearrange or reprioritize. We pray God uses you right where you are to find people of peace, neighbors of peace, who will introduce their spheres of influence to Jesus.

About The Author

Hannah and Sadie are with Launch Global, a U.S. mobilization ministry that prepares believers for a lifetime of fruitful service overseas. They train in and live out CPM principles. Sadie is in mobilization in a southern college town. Hannah is the women’s shepherd for staff in the southeast. Launch Global is currently located in Alabama, Georgia, and Texas.

Contact: stone.launchglobal@gmail

launchglobal.org

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Facilitating What?

Discovery Process with POP

by Rachel

POPs Want to Be Found

John 4 records an encounter Jesus had one day with a woman from Samaria. She had serious problems. She had married and divorced 5 times, and was then living with a man who wasn’t her husband. That’s a lot of marriages, especially in the first century! Also, since we know that women in first century Palestine didn’t have the right to leave their husbands, we know that this woman had been left, discarded, by five different men, and her current man didn’t even bother to go through the ceremony. What pain she must have harbored in her heart!

When Jesus met this woman he had a need (he was thirsty) and He allowed her to meet that need (she gave Him a drink). They had a conversation. Then at the end of their discussion, the woman ran back into her village (where everyone knew she had problems) and told people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?”

One thing I love about this story is how little the Samaritan woman actually understood. During the conversation, she’d been confused by Jesus’ double meanings for different words and ideas. Later, when they finished talking, her testimony was: “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did.” To me, that is the most interesting line in the story. The woman didn’t say, “Come, see the man who claims to be God,” or, “Come, see the man who did this amazing miracle,” or even, “Come, see the best teacher I’ve ever heard.” She doesn’t mention any of these things. We don’t know if she even knew at that point that Jesus could do miracles. What she did know was this: Jesus knew her, inside and out. So she ran back to her village and proclaimed that to anyone who would listen.

God Prepares the Hearts

I feel I have witnessed another such testimony today. This morning, I was over at our former landlord’s house. Each Monday, I go meet with Vio, our former landlord’s wife, to discuss a Truth Story. Today, for the first time, one of her neighbors, Bhartia, joined us. As soon as Bhartia sat down, I got a little nervous. Would she understand my accented Hindi? Did she even want to be there, or was she joining us simply to be polite to Vio? Would she argue, or would she discuss? (There is a difference!) Vio and I have a routine. We start our time with chai and chit-chat. Then, I pass her the story to read. I could read the story in Hindi. In fact, I love to read Hindi aloud, but Vio likes to read aloud even more than I do, and since her accent is better (smile), I pass her the story. Today was no exception, and as soon as Vio finished reading Bhartia began to talk. It seemed she had no desire to discuss a story at all. She just wanted to talk about how hard her life is.

I didn’t know what to do. What should I say? Should I correct her? After all, we weren’t meeting together in order to hear her whine. How could I steer the conversation back to the creation account?

Then suddenly Vio began to speak. I didn’t need to say a word. Now Vio is no Bible scholar. To date, Vio has heard a total of three DBS stories. Only three. Yet she began sharing with Bhartia all she has learned from applying those three stories to her life. She shared about how much peace she feels in her heart now that she, like Mary (Martha’s sister), is choosing to sit at God’s feet each day and be with Him.

There is so much Vio doesn’t know, but a beautiful thing about our meeting was that what Vio doesn’t know didn’t matter. Like the Samaritan woman, she simply shared what she did know. One woman said, “Come, see the man who told me everything I ever did!” For Bhartia, it was, “You’ve got to believe me: even spending two minutes at God’s feet has changed me.”

Being a Catalyst

And I? I just needed to sit and watch, listen and pray. It was beautiful and humbling and inspiring. Vio simply read the story from the Old Testament, helped us retell it in our own words, walked through the discovery questions, and shared her experience. It was all she knew. It was more than enough. Bhartia left saying that she wants to return next week because she wants to once again feel the peace that she felt during our time together.  One of Vio’s application steps is to share this same story with her own oikos (household), as well as with others who could do the same with their respective households, like Bhartia. What will I do? Hopefully, as I continue to coach Vio, I will give her the story to read even sooner than I did today!

About The Author

We are Rachel and Stefan, serving with Act Beyond http://www.beyond.org We li.ve and work in Northern India, mostly with Hindi speakers, but we are starting to see a movement begin in another language group, too.

Contact: rls@safetypost.net

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Feature

Searching For Persons of Peace

As a Lifestyle

by Ruth Strong

It was a normal hot humid day. I was again asking the Holy Spirit to show me where He was moving and what was my part in His work. I organized the kids and explained to them: “We are going on another adventure! We are asking God to lead us to someone who is open to hear stories of our great Savior…who in turn will open up their households to hear those stories.” As we started to walk around the neighborhood I decided to visit our next-door neighbor, whom we had heard recently lost her husband. The kids and I met not only this grieving woman, but also her new tenant, Liz.

Liz was a young married woman who yearned to have children. After what seemed like an eternity of almost two years, she remained infertile. Shame had begun to color her daily life, as her culture predisposed her to assume this “withholding” of blessing was somehow a curse from Allah. I asked if I could bless her and pray for her in the name of Jesus. She agreed, and I prayed.

DBS Storying with Muslim Women

As I continued to interact with these two women over the next few weeks, I began to share a brief Bible story during each encounter. Beginning with the story of Hagar, continuing through to the story of the Samaritan woman (John 4), I offered to study more stories of the prophets in the Holy Books. Liz said yes!

Immediately, I encouraged her to gather her friends to study with her. Liz was the first Person of Peace I had met in our new city. And just as the pattern of Matthew 10 and Luke 10 describe, Liz opened up her household (affinity group) for the truth to be discussed in her home.

Model-Assist-Watch-Letter/Leave/Coach

Within a few days, we all met together to start a Creation to Jesus story set. After meeting twice, they had caught the pattern of 8 questions used, so we started rotating facilitation of the group. By the fourth meeting, Liz facilitated while I coached. I found I had to rely on the Holy Spirit’s direction throughout the “handoff” process. I visited Liz several times to encourage her to gather her friends and family.  Several times I would show up and they were not ready--something had come up but I continued to persevere and pray for the Holy Spirit to move. We are at the beginning phases of what it means to implement a DMM approach.

How do I facilitate a Discovery Group?

When we meet together we follow a standard format: share praises, share concerns, repeat the story we learned last week, check in to see if we followed through with our commitments (obedience) during the past week, learn a new story and ask each other the same five questions at the end (see below).

It is clear that they do not have the Holy Spirit inside of them, since they have yet to trust Christ as their Lord and Savior.  However, they are being drawn, being convicted of their need for repentance, and being messed with by the efficacy of God’s Word and the Holy Spirit.

How can I be more intentional?

Part of my increased effectiveness has come when I am more intentional in pursuing these women. At the beginning of each week, my husband and I spend time praying over the week and asking the Father, “What needs to be done in order to see the launch of a movement among these UPGs?” We then compare notes of what we sense needs to happen to that end for the upcoming week. Then, we make a plan in how to organize the week. For me to be intentional is to partner with my husband.

Though sometimes life circumstances are messy, I find that if I am more intentional that I can meet with these women to coach them to multiply.

For this particular Discovery Group, they have completed the OT stories of the prophets and are now moving into the stories of Jesus. Soon we will study the commands of Jesus to follow Him in the Discovery Group process. As I obey His commands to go and make reproducing disciples who fall in love with His ways, I am increasing in my trust in the Holy Spirit to be the one who draws these ladies and their respective households to Himself.

Discovery Group Questions for Households of Peace
(that don’t yet know Jesus)

1. What are you thankful for?

2. What are your struggling with / stressed by? How about your family, friends, and neighbors?

3. REVIEW the previous story—How did you apply/obey?

Ask someone to retell the story from the last meeting.

4. READ the new story two times and have everyone RE-TELL story two times as a group.

5. What does this teach us about God?

6. What does this teach us about ourselves / people?

7. What do you need to apply / obey? “I will…”

8. Who among your family or friends are you going to share this story with? “I will…”

About The Author

Ruth Strong and her husband have lived in Southeast Asia for over 10 years, and have 2 children. They oversee teams implementing DMM in surfing communities. Ruth has a passion to see DMM on a grass-roots level, and trains and equips others to catalyze movements. Ruth also enjoys using the arts (dance and music) to engage unreached people groups in spiritual conversations.

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How He Leads Me through the Darkness

Finding POP's

by Hazel Heights

I knew nothing. I was just beginning to speak Urdu. I didn't know how to dress, where to shop, or the value of the local currency in my wallet. Out on the streets it was just a “man's world.” They all ran businesses and stood on crowded sidewalks chatting over chai. Women were only seen coming and going to destinations. It was a big accomplishment if I could get another woman to smile at me, let alone find ones hungering for God. I was completely in the dark. I had been trained in DMM but was finding it difficult to implement.

Susana, working her successful chai stand with her husband, was the only one I found to connect with. I must have smiled five times at her before she returned the gift. The street had hardened her, the sun baked her skin and her wrinkles made her look fifteen years older than me, instead of just a few.

Pray and Keep Vigilant Watch

I would pray for Susana before visiting her chai stand: “Would you soften her? Please lead me, give clues you are working in her heart, give me discernment.” It took a while before I could read body language that hinted at someone's character in this culture. Lots of prayer and watching became my new norm. A variety of experiences trained my eyes to see: meals at Susana’s home, visiting her sister, taking a taxi with her family to meet her clan, going to the fall “fair.” Through all this I started to learn. I learned how an honorable woman lives. I also learned to study people. How did they treat others? What conversations indicate softness toward spiritual truth?

I noticed that Susana always invited me over when she needed a ride to work. She let me pay every time. She thought of ideas that included my paying for things. She became jealous when I spent time with her sister. She stirred up trouble between the families when I was there. God let me glimpse her heart. It wasn't soft toward Him, it was out to get whatever it could to make life “better.”

I consider this one of the most difficult pieces of pursuing DMM: knowing when to move on to search for others whom God is preparing as Persons of Peace, while still loving those with whom we have acquaintance.

How can I give to others what I have not received?

Before you go out to look for People of Peace you need to hunger and receive living bread and water yourself. How can you give to others what you yourself have not received? Pray for your heart to be humble and open to whatever God has for you in this time. Pray for your focus people, that He would be drawing and wooing them to Himself. Ask the Holy Spirit for visual clues of what that Person of Peace might look like. I understand: that idea first struck my Western practical mind as somewhat crazy when I first heard it. But when we ask, God hears and answers. Why not ask for more help in weeding through the people to get to the ones who are searching for him? God knows the limits on your time; He made you with all your limitations. He is present to help.

Walk and Pray

One day I took three local partners prayer walking in the neighborhood behind my house. We spent some time praying beforehand. God showed me the color purple. Shortly into our walk we met Moham. I smiled; she smiled, and then motioned us over to talk to her. She asked what we were doing. I said that God had asked us to come out and pray for people on the street, then I asked if she needed prayer for anything. She said yes, her brother wanted to kick her and her son out on the street and she was worried for her future as a widow. She had no one to protect her. We covered our heads in accordance with the custom in that region, lifted our hands and came to God with her needs. I opened my eyes and realized she was wearing a bright purple salwar kameez! As Jesus said, “Ask and you will receive.” Our next step was to ask her to meet with her household in a Discovery Group so we could learn together God’s heart for each of us.

We need to ask God at each turn which way to go. Take the time to listen to the Spirit’s lead and then follow that lead. God uses our thoughts, interests and instincts to guide us. It is a process to discern how to trust Him in this. The enemy wants to put doubt and insecurity in our hearts that God would lead us so specifically, but we have to learn to rebuke that doubt and have confidence in God's guidance.

We need to constantly remember that God is preparing the hearts of those who want to be found. We go, in the power of the Holy Spirit, living a lifestyle of looking for these POPs in any situation, at any moment, in each encounter with others. Are they interested in spiritual truth? Invite them to discuss spiritual truth with their household or group of friends. These are basic patterns of what it is to look for Persons of Peace, offer the stories of the Prophets from the Old and New Testaments in a Discovery Group.

About The Author

Hazel Heights lives with her husband and four children in South Asia where she befriends burka-covered ladies journeying towards Jesus. Leading a team among unreached in South Asia for 3.5 years, she and her husband have grown in coaching, DMM, teaming, and local language. Currently they equip workers to carry out God’s calling among the unengaged. They focus on self-stewardship, relational wholeness with God and others, and becoming movement catalysts. They long to witness and be a part of how God is redeeming his lost children in South Asia.

She can be reached at heightshazel@gmail.com

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Obedience Discipleship

by Essie Joy

One of the cornerstone verses for the launch of a Disciple Making Movement is Matthew 28:18-20. Here we learn to make disciples (not converts). This means teaching people to obey everything that Jesus commands. Although most churches desire to be filled with disciples, too many have only a very loose or non-existent accountability system as a part of the fabric of fellowship. In DMMs, accountability to obedience functions as part of the DNA of the “8 Question” Discovery Bible Study (DBS) format. When a member hasn’t followed through with their stated step of obedience, other group members ask, “What can we do to help you accomplish what you promised to do?” They don’t judge, nor do they settle for excuses. They assist the disciple of Christ to obey because obedience demonstrates love for Jesus (Jn. 14:15-16, 21-24; 15:10).

The Value of Loving Obedience

Jesus demonstrated the value of obedience. He did what he was calling his disciples to do. “Knowledge without obedience creates a spiritual dichotomy between knowledge and obedience. . . . However, knowledge coupled with obedience creates disciples and draws them closer to God.” (Miraculous Movements, p. 100)

The application questions in the DBS facilitate this critical element: “What will I do with what I learned today?” and “What will we do as a group?” An “I will . . . “ statement brings essential clarity.

An Oikos Touched by Loving Obedience

Yani looked around the room. Her thoughts were filled with delight. On her right sat her father, now an impassioned facilitator of several DBS groups. He had recently been asked to be the cluster group leader for that area. Stunning, she thought.

On her left, her mother reclined on the straw floor mat as she served the family’s favorite snack food, fried plantain bananas. Yani rejoiced that her mother facilitated several other DBS groups. She herself had enjoyed facilitating several DBS groups since moving back from college to her hometown.

Taking the piping-hot delectable snack between her forefinger and thumb, she considered how the healing hand of Isa touches to the depths of human need.

Her Muslim family had fallen in love with Jesus. Their lives were being transformed by the power of his Spirit in them. Their community was being permeated with the new life of Christ, through obedience to him as a norm of life. As Yani savored the sweetness of this family favorite, she also recalled the taste of God’s goodness in less than a year. Just one year earlier, things had been so different!

One Year Passes, God’s Transformational Power Visits

“I hate my father!,” Yani convulsed with fury. After she calmed down a bit, Yani continued in measured speech, “I hate him for all the evil he has done to me. He doesn’t deserve love or respect. I’m so glad that I could go to university far from home.” Yani lived with bitterness and hatred, resulting in depression. She was scheduled to return home in a few months, at the end of her senior year. She agonized over this imminent reality. One day her friends introduced her to a man whose story was similar to hers. But he lived in freedom from bitterness, anger, and depression. When he asked her about her relationship with her parents, she broke down in tears. She couldn’t believe her ears as she shared with him her hidden heart sins of resentment and unforgiveness. He then explained how she could be free from the anger and shame that her earthly father had brought to her.

Yani began to study the Word of God and was discipled into love and obedience as the norm. After she came to trust Christ, she began the process of choosing to forgive her father.

Yani returned home from college. Her father was very confused. He and her mother kept asking what had changed in her. At first, she remained silent, but after a few weeks, she couldn’t be silent any longer. She shared with her mother that she had begun to learn from the Kitab Suci Injil (the Holy Book of the Gospel), and had learned forgiveness from Isa (Jesus). Her mother started studying also. Soon the disposition of both mother and daughter were so beautiful and evident, that the father was dumbfounded.

Together, Yani and her mother shared with him that they had learned forgiveness from Isa Al Masih and were living as His followers. Her father wanted to understand what had brought the change in his wife and daughter. Yani was able to explain the Truth from Scripture. At that point, the entire household made a decision to follow the way of Isa.

For Yani, the healing touch of Jesus was just the beginning of a huge shift in her life’s journey. Reconciliation is on the heart of God: for her life in Christ and with others in her life through the power of the Holy Spirit. Through this one obedient returning college student, eight DBS groups have begun and five previously unengaged UPG’s have been engaged.

About The Author

Essie Joy (pseudonym) moved to SE Asia about a decade ago. Her passions include prayer, fighting Human Trafficking which includes restoring lives, and seeing the Kingdom of God grow to fulfil “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Her current inspiring passages are Isaiah 45:2, 3 and 61. She and her husband serve with OCI, and are trusting God for the launch of a CPM among several UPGs.

Contact: essiejoy4@gmail.com

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Feature

A Big Day Has Arrived

by R. Nyman

As my husband and I continue to implement, train, and coach others in DMM among UPGs, one of the dividing lines of commitment among these Muslims is the area of obedience in the step of baptism.

In coaching others to implement this step, the first breakthrough came when God shifted our local partners’ paradigms as to who is able to baptize. They discovered through Scripture that there is no instruction that only ordained people can baptize. They then adopted the principle that the person who led another person to faith would do the baptizing after a brief baptism DBS.

These days, in what is a beginning of a CPM, male and female, young and old, baptize those who have made a commitment to follow Jesus in their DBS groups. Whether in a rice field, river bed, wash room, or the ocean, baptism is an outward commitment of the inward reality of followership of Jesus.

This story, taken from the book entitled Stubborn Perseverance, shows what this process looks like.

* * *

The big day had arrived! Faisal and Fatima picked up Ahmad and his family in a borrowed car and drove to the beach, making sure not to park under a coconut tree. The sun was just coming up over the horizon, and a light breeze blew off the ocean. The place was secluded except for a few fishermen in the distance cleaning their nets after fishing all night. Yusuf and Nur were already there, along with Nasrudin and Amina.

The group stood in a circle near the water’s edge. Excitement filled the air as Faisal opened to Matthew 28:18–20 and read:

And Isa came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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 all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

“Baptism is one of the commands Isa gave His followers. Ahmad and his family have come to obey that command today. Baptism has three primary meanings.

“First, baptism is a public statement that you have made Isa your Savior and Lord.

“Second, baptism is an outward symbol of the inner change in your life. When you place your faith in Isa you become a new creation, a change occurs in your heart. Being immersed under the water symbolizes that you have been washed and changed.

“Third, just as in the days of Abraham where circumcision joined a person into the family of faith, so baptism joins you to every other person who has been baptized. You become members of one worldwide family in Al Masih.

“Finally, baptism doesn’t save us; faith does. Baptism is not a work to ‘earn’ salvation. It is a command to obey.”

“Now I want you to each share your personal salvation story, starting with Ahmad.”

When each of them had finished, Faisal asked Ahmad and his family:

Do you believe the Taurat, Zabur, and Injil are inspired by God and free from error?

Do you believe Isa Al Masih is the eternal Word of God who became a human being?

Do you believe Isa is the Messiah, and the Son of the living God as described in the Injil?

Do you believe Isa Al Masih shed His blood on a cross to cleanse you of your sins?

Do you believe God raised Isa from the dead and took Him to heaven, and when you die Isa will take you to heaven?

Have you confessed your sins, asked God to forgive you, and received Isa as your Savior and Lord? Are you willing to obey Him even to death?

Have you severed all ties with the occult, ancestor worship, and idolatry?”

They responded to each question with an exuberant “Yes!”

Then Faisal prayed, “Bismillahi arrahmani arrahim, O God most merciful and most gracious, our Father who is in heaven. We praise and exalt You for the way You have worked in Ahmad and his family’s life.

“Thank You for calling them to be Your children, and for giving them the courage to obey You in baptism. Strengthen them so they will be faithful to You when persecution comes.

“May You always be glorified in their lives. In the name of Isa Al Masih, our divine master and king. Amen.”

It was high tide, and the waves were small. A seagull landed and pecked at something on the beach. Faisal, Yusuf, Ahmad, and Ahmad’s family waded into the sea. The water was cold, and took their breath away.

Faisal stood in front of Ahmad. Yusuf stood behind Ahmad to steady him because he couldn’t swim. Faisal placed his hand on Ahmad’s head. “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” Ahmad lowered himself under the water. Then he jumped up with a huge grin and gave Faisal a giant bear hug!

Ahmad then stood in front of Hajar, with his hand on her head, and declared, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” Hajar lowered herself under the water, with Faisal and Yusuf each holding an elbow to steady her. Ahmad then proceeded to baptize the rest of his household.

When they exited the water, the men moved to one clump of trees to change into dry clothes while the women went to another. Gathering again, Fatima, Nur and Amina spread out food on a woven grass mat. All eyes turned to Faisal to bless the food.

“Hey, am I the only one around here who can pray?” Faisal joked. “Let’s ask Ahmad to pray!”

About The Author

R. Nyman and James Nyman serve with Act Beyond in SE Asia among Muslim UPGs. Their passion is to see God glorified in the launch of cascading movements to Christ among these peoples. R also facilitates Women2Women CPM/DMM Trainings internationally as well as attempts to give a glimpse of the processes of implementation of DMM/CPM in the blogspot http://www.womeninchurchplantingmovements.blogspot.com

Contact: carmichaeltrotter@gmail.com

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Feature

Healthy DNA in Obeying Congregations

A Key CPM question is, “What needs to be done? Not what can be done?

by R. Nyman

As my husband and I continue to reflect upon the behemoth-sized task of what it is to believe God for what He promises among these UPGs, we also consider the sheer simplicity of what Jesus modeled in Matthew 10, Luke 9, 10.

In the following excerpt from the book entitled Stubborn Perseverance, we observe the process of how my husband and I equip our local partners  to develop healthy DNA in the reproducing house fellowships.

* * *

Faisal tightened the laces on his jogging shoes. So many things were happening in their little movement. He needed time to think about where they had come from and where they were headed. Maybe an early morning jog would help. Faisal headed down his street, and turned at the mosque. The road rose gradually. There were few people and vehicles, and the view was inspiring. On one side of the road, he could see terraced rice fields. On the other, cows and goats grazed.

The original group had gotten off to a slow start. They had tried every way they knew to find a person of peace — incorporating shema statements in their conversation, sharing a personal salvation story, asking others if they have had a dream about a prophet, praying for needs, saying a prayer of blessing, discussing references to Isa in the Qur’an, and recounting a “Creation to Al Masih” story. They had faithfully shared with others, but at first no one was interested in discussing the prophet stories with them. Then spiritual attacks had nearly wrecked their group. After Faisal had rallied them in prayer, God had answered in dramatic ways.

Everyone on the team had started one or more discovery groups to discuss chronological stories in the Taurat and Injil. Recently, Ahmad and his household had been baptized. What a joy and privilege it was to be used by God to lead people to Al Masih and see the beginnings of multiplying house churches.

The team had learned there are two key but difficult transitions for the house church planter: first to gather the oikos together to begin discussing the prophet stories, and second to stop attending the group after appointing and equipping a leader from within the oikos.

It helped that they had a clear goal of planting healthy, independent, multiplying house fellowships led by oikos leaders, and a deep commitment to seeing those house churches reproduce to four generations and beyond.

Their experience had confirmed that they needed to continue relying on the Word of God and the Spirit of God. Their study had taught them that followers of Isa are blessed to be a blessing; consequently they were actively seeking ways to bless others.

Their meetings were encouraging. They prayed, supported each other, and held one another accountable. They laughed and enjoyed one another, and were a team in the fullest sense of the word.

Up the road Faisal could see women carrying baskets of vegetables on their heads, walking toward the market.

Now that Ahmad and his family had been baptized and become a house church, it was time to discuss with his team the essential ingredients of a healthy church, so the right DNA would be present in these groups from the outset.

Faisal suddenly saw he had run farther than he had planned. As he headed home, he thought, What an adventure this has been!

* * *

Faisal, Fatima, Yusuf, Nur, Nasrudin, and Amina gathered for their weekly meeting. There was excitement in the air; God was on the move. They were experiencing a sense of awe, perhaps like what the early disciples felt.

Following their usual pattern, they shared what they were thankful for, and what they were struggling with. Each one also shared what was going on in the groups they were facilitating, and they prayed for each other and their respective groups.

Faisal then directed them to the day’s topic, Essential Church Ingredients. “Once a household is baptized it becomes a house church. This study will help us discover from the Injil what must be present for this church to become healthy. It is also important to note that house churches can become stronger by joining with other oikos.”

Afterward Faisal said, “This discussion has been very fruitful. Let’s summarize these verses.”

Together the group listed these essential ingredients of healthy churches:

worship, prayer, discussion of the Word, fellowship (applying the “one-another” commands), the Lord’s Supper, giving, baptism, evangelism leading to new churches, godly leadership, and regular meetings.

Faisal asked Nasrudin to pray, then Fatima brought out tea.

About The Author

R. Nyman and James Nyman serve with Act Beyond in SE Asia among Muslim UPGs. Their passion is to see God glorified in the launch of cascading movements to Christ among these peoples. R also facilitates Women2Women CPM/DMM Trainings internationally as well as attempts to give a glimpse of the processes of implementation of DMM/CPM in the blogspot http://www.womeninchurchplantingmovements.blogspot.com

Contact: carmichaeltrotter@gmail.com

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Feature

Zarina’s Story

by Vivian Rawlins

Zarina is a bubbly extrovert who has trouble not talking too much. She loves the Lord who rescued her out of a life of darkness and heroin trafficking, and she is now a successful businesswoman who travels and trades between two countries. She was once held at the border of these two countries for several days because she was found to have Scripture portions on her. For years, as part of the traditional church, she has studied the Word and grown in her faith. She has led multiple seminars on evangelism and is very outspoken wherever she goes.

I have been investing in this woman for about six years now. She had asked me to help her start a “jamoat” (group meeting) for women who would never go to a traditional church. I gladly helped, teaching her a simple discovery method of Bible time with these women, in which different women took turns facilitating the time. She was receptive but headstrong in many ways—especially when it came to doing things differently than she had been taught in the traditional church. Several times I considered giving up, but her potential caused me to persevere. I had reduced my proactive investments in her life, but was responding to her requests for fellowship and help. One of her initiatives was to faithfully attend, with her husband, a weekly prayer meeting for the lost that we hosted for her language-group. So when we decided to train this small prayer group in DMM, she and her husband were part of our group.

During each lesson we could see her wheels turning. She took careful notes. When we got to the oikos (household) lesson she began thinking about the bazaar. Spiritual discussions are normal for her, with anyone within range. The new norm of looking for Persons of Peace, as laid out in Matthew 10 and Luke 10 intrigued her.

What Needs To Be Done?

At the end of the first level of training we encouraged everyone to practice sowing seeds of the kingdom (shema lifestyle) to look for people who might be People of Peace, to practice doing Discovery Bible Studies in whatever situations they could, and to tell others about this training. I suggested she start doing a Creation to Christ study with her older sister, who seemed to be opening up to her kingdom- sowing efforts. She looked at me like that was a brand new idea; but within a day or two she asked her sister if she would like to read and learn about the prophets.  Zarina’s sister answered, “Of course!” Not only her sister, but also her husband and their daughter-in-law also often sit in on the study. They comment that they have never had the opportunity to learn all this before. Zarina is amazed at the openness of her sister’s household and wonders why she didn’t do this ten years ago!

In the bazaar Zarina is busier than ever. In our training she saw Jesus’s method of sharing the kingdom in diverse ways with those who are open — little by little, not necessarily dumping out the whole message at once. She began using various tools, sections from the Scripture that we suggested in the training, and seeing openness and interest. She has been using every opportunity to express God’s kingdom to people around her. Zarina now understands that the point of the Great Commission is not to make converts but to make reproducing disciples who love and obey Jesus, as the norm.

Her older brother’s family is opening up for the first time. Her older sister is listening for the first time. And here in her husband’s home country she is taking weekly trips to her husband’s extended family, practicing along with another woman how to lead them in a Discovery Group time. Interest is swelling among a group that had previously been quite opposed.

When I met with her for coaching a couple of weeks ago, she said she didn’t know how to keep up with all the people and opportunities. This is a good problem; it causes her to have to grow in multiplication principles. We’re helping her notice the groups and focus in on them rather than the individuals. We’re also helping her think about how to keep her group times so simple that the group members are the ones who take it to their other relatives, not her.

Willing to Be Willing to Be and Do Anything for God’s Glory

She has changed. She now notices people who are not only looking for spiritual truth but also willing to open up their households to the same. Her new pattern is to facilitate a Discovery Bible Study, to get people into the Word instead of just leaving them with bold declarations that possibly meant little. As a result of on-going coaching, she now works more strategically – using methods that multiply instead of thinking she needs to do it all herself. Recently a woman invited Zarina to her home. The woman’s household were present: her husband, daughter, and daughter-in-law. Zarina facilitated a Discovery Study from the OT. The husband asked if Zarina could find him one of those books (the Bible). He then asked her to join him in taking the same story to his relative’s household. Instead of saying she’d go, she challenged him to go and facilitate the same Discovery study they had just finished.

As Zarina expressed amazement at all of the opportunities, I asked her if it feels very different from a year ago. She responded, “Of course!” And why? She said it was due to the prayer group, the DMM training we facilitated this year, and the “team-ness” she experiences as we focus together on the task. This indigenous woman is now reproducing laborers for the harvest.

About The Author

Vivian Rawlins (pseudonym) and her husband have served in Central Asia since 1990s. Having learned two of the languages of the area they are seeking to catalyze and support concerted efforts that result in movements of disciple-making communities among these two language groups and beyond.

Contact: vivrawlins@fastmail.com

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Feature

Leadership: Women in African DDM

by Barbara B.

“If I had to choose, I would take a woman any day over a man as a church-planter.” Jon Lewis was startled to hear this from an East African mission leader. Jon says, “In an African culture where wives are normally extremely submissive to their husbands, not to mention the strong male-dominated Islamic culture, I was surprised that women would be seen as acceptable in the context of church planting.”[1] This mission leader “…was unequivocal in his praise for the women who are having tremendous success in starting up small, house-churches…”

Sub-Saharan Africa has over 60 Disciple Making Movements—to the fourth generation. Several of them are in East Africa, where over 100 denominations, churches and organizations carry a common vision to plant Movements among UPGs. With over 5,000 new churches, fruitfulness has come not only through organizational partnership but also through partnership between male and female. The leaders of East Africa’s network invest in women by equipping them as disciple-makers and trainers of other women. In the past three years, God has used female disciple-makers to plant over 250 reproducing churches in this region.

According to one woman who is an African DMM Trainer and leader, the following is just one of numerous scenes which occurs as they intentionally equip women, alongside men, for the launch of cascading movements:

In East Africa, one female worker enters an open air market where tables and baskets are laden with colorful fruit and vegetables. Venders vie for customers, selling household goods, clothing and food. Children with big eyes and shy smiles tug at their mothers’ legs while the haggling over price takes place overhead.

In a context like this, Yannet strolled through the market, praying for God’s work among this UPG. She prayed for a Person of Peace and was alert to the faces, waiting for the nudge of the Holy Spirit. She searched the crowd for anyone the Lord would have her speak to this day, and noticed one woman who continued to stand out. Yannet asked herself, “Really, Lord, is that what you want me to do?” Yannet then went obediently to the woman, hugged her, and said, “I love you, because of Jesus.” The woman responded, “If you love me, come to my home for coffee.”

On the appointed day, Yannet and a co-worker returned to the city and arrived at the new friend’s home, to find a group of 15 people gathered! Yannet quickly asked the Holy Spirit what to say to them, and he said to tell them about HIV/AIDS. While Yannet spoke, her praying co-worker observed that a deaf girl was demon possessed. The two workers prayed, cast out the demon, and the girl’s hearing was restored. Seeing this miracle, all present accepted Jesus Christ, and a church was planted – followed by 14 more churches in the area.

These East African women are about the Father’s business. One is a 60 year old grandmother, retired from her career, now traveling weeks at a time to unreached peoples. Most of the women are homemakers and not funded from any outside source. Some sell jewelry or dishes, if necessary, for their bus fare to a UPG. When one woman leader was asked how her group raised funds to accomplish such amazing results, she said, “We don’t. They just go.”  THEY….JUST…..GO! Men are releasing women. Women are being obedient. God is producing the fruit. Thank you to our African brothers and sisters for showing us what this kind of partnership looks like in the Kingdom!

[1] http://jonlewisblogs.blogspot.com

About The Author

Barbara B. is with Act Beyond. http://www.beyond.org  She lived in Africa for several years assisting MANI (Movement for African National Initiatives) with UPG assessment. Barbara now serves with the Ephesus Global Team for the purpose of seeing cascading movements to Christ among UPGs.

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Feature

There is Hope

by Sinta Jones

Among the many skills needed to establish a Church Planting Movement is a willingness to unflinchingly evaluate our work. This has been integral to our journey. It is for His glory, and worth the change and pain to see fruit where there has been none or very little.

During a worship time at an all-women’s CPM training, Jesus pointed over my shoulder to the future and I heard the words “for the joy set before him.” For the joy set before Jesus He endured the cross and despised the shame. For the joy set before us we choose to despise shame and fear, and willingly embrace evaluation and correction so that we can bring the treasures of darkness to the feet of the One who loved us to His death.

Dissatisfaction with fruitlessness has forced us to continually evaluate our practices on the field. Our first evaluation led us to start a local, near culture team.  These were local partners, not from the UPG, but from another people group within our country, whom we recruited. We never could establish a CPM alone. Other changes have come as we reviewed what role we played and what language was most effective: as we listened to the Father’s voice about where to go and confronted fear and intimidation. At every turn we have found it helpful to be ruthless with our evaluation of what is happening and what can be done more effectively.

The beginning of this year found us at a very low point. Two interns and five team members were leaving. I was recovering from cancer and my husband showed signs of burnout. After six years on site we were desperate and our team was discouraged. Why were we not seeing people excited about Jesus? Why did those who professed faith not seem to be changed by their choice to believe? Why were people keen to have story groups but their enthusiasm didn’t last more than four or five gatherings? We went searching for answers. We spoke with church leaders and other experienced workers, and asked for help from our organization, then decided to hold another CPM training in our city.

The breakthrough came for us as we brokenly shared with Dr. Bill Smith and our country director. The question asked was “What are you preaching?” It was humbling to admit how we had tried so hard to be contextual that we had never emphasized repentance. We avoided talking about the cross. And what we had modeled to our national partners, they were simply reproducing.

We had also been too slow in our follow-up. We went by the calendar instead of the clock – by days instead of hours. So simple, and yet we could not see it by ourselves. We knew we would gain nothing by hiding our failure or pretending all was well when it was not. As we made ourselves vulnerable in our request for outside evaluation, Jesus came and met with us. The harvest is ripe and God longs to gather those of us in his family back to total dependence upon His heart.  We don’t want to miss the harvest because of our pride or shame, our fear or independence.

Half way through the training we called our team together and repented in tears before them. We re-visited what needed to be shared so that we could be sure our listeners had heard the full gospel. Everyone was excited, especially when Indah brought back the beginnings of the following story to the training.

Ms. Indah, determined to practice what she had just heard, went with our female intern down to a village to share the gospel. For the first time she shared the message including the cross. Mrs. Faye repented and wanted to be baptized. The next day they returned, shared the gospel again and Mrs. Faye was baptized in the ocean as the sun was setting. Yes!!!

Mrs. Faye immediately started sharing her testimony with family and friends. She even had an encounter where Jesus stood before her in her house. After hearing about healing she prayed for her daughter and Indah, and both were healed. Her husband allowed her to open her house so that they could meet and share stories from the Scripture.

Mrs. Faye tried to share with her husband but he didn’t understand. In one of our weekly accountability meetings I suggested to Indah that she take a male team member down to share with the husband. He went and the husband repented and was baptized. Soon after that their son was also baptized, followed by his friend.

One morning before dawn Mrs. Faye’s fisherman husband went out by himself very early to fish. Suddenly he saw a white-robed figure in the boat. Terrified, he stood up to jump out of the boat, thinking it was a ghost. The man grabbed his arm and said “Don’t be afraid, I am Isa Al Masih.” That morning he caught 250 fish, which was 100 more than his usual daily catch.

When things don’t seem to be working, we can find hope through honest evaluation. Willingness to change opens the door to a way forward. If you are desperate to see a harvest in your field, be relentless and evaluate everything. Listening to the Lord and seeking wise counsel from others can open new paths to greater effectiveness toward Church Planting Movements.

About The Author

Sinta Jones has been working together with her husband for 7 years in Asia, leading a team with an end vision for CPMs in their region.

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Web Only

Unflinching Grace-Filled Evaluation

by Essie Joy and R Nyman

If a pilot flies a plane off course by only one degree without correction, after an hour of flight the plane will be miles off of its planned destination. This can also apply to DMMs. Unless we unflinchingly evaluate all that we’re doing we may find ourselves way off course.

Spirit-led Realignment

David Watson and Victor John did this with the Bhojpuri people movement in India. One case was when they trained the church planters into becoming church planter catalysts.

After this period of re-evaluation, David and Victor gathered the church planters together. At this point, they probably had 40-50 fully supported church planters. They gave them new instructions: “You may not plant any more churches. Nor can you pastor any churches!” The church planters were shocked: “Then what can we do?”

David and Victor gave them new instructions. They were to train church planters from the Bhojpuri. They were to go back to the same villages where they had planted churches and tell them: “We will not start any more churches or pastor your churches. It is your responsibility to do these two things. We will help you do it.”

Essentially, the church planters were changing roles from church planters to church planting catalysts. The trauma of changing roles was too great for some, and over half left the work. For David and Victor, it was a difficult transition. However, they trained the catalysts that remained. These catalysts went back to the villages with the goal of helping the churches plant second generation churches. Many of the Bhojpuri churches succeeded in starting new churches.  (BHOJPURI CASE STUDY: 3 phases of work [April 2009])[1]

Reaching Households

My husband and I (R Nyman) had been serving among Muslim UPGs in Southeast Asia since 1991. We had a strong understanding of reproducing disciples and had already seen four house fellowships catalyzed. In partnership with our national colleagues, we had succeeded in reaching individuals but were stumped as to how to reach households. We asked senior missionaries and they also didn’t know how to reach households and see those households of disciples multiply.

In 2003, David Watson led a DMM training on our island. We were amazed at how the Lord had been catalyzing disciple-making movements in India. Following David’s example, we changed our approach and began trying to reach households through Discovery Groups.

Willing to Be Willing to Do Anything for God’s Glory

To move forward in DMM, we and our local partners frequently ask these simple questions:

·             What do we need to stop doing in order to focus on what needs to be done, to see the launch of cascading movements?

·             What do we need to start doing?

·             What do we need to continue doing?

As my husband and I wrestled with these questions, we realized that our area leadership role with expatriates took 80% of our time in recruitment, orientation, shepherding, training, coaching, and member health. Our local partners were floundering, as we didn’t have the time needed to model implementing the basics of launching a movement.

After much prayer, fasting, and seeking godly counsel, we realized that we needed to align ourselves with an organization which focused exclusively on implementing a DMM strategy among UPGs. We joined a new organization and poured our lives into our local partners. In the first year, we saw the four house fellowships explode to 40 Discovery Groups from 1st-3rd generation, with 9 new house fellowships birthed in the 2nd generation. We are still far from a 4 x 4[2] DMM, but this unflinching grace-filled[3] evaluation helped us make the decision we needed to make.

Healthy Realignment

Unflinching grace-filled evaluation has helped my husband and me (Essie Joy) pinpoint problems, lift them up in prayer, and acquire new insights into the process of launching a DMM. Practically speaking, we try and evaluate all that we do based upon what needs to be done for the launch of a movement to Christ, not what can we do. It has enhanced growth both personally and as a community of believers.

Unflinching grace-filled evaluation helps provide a healthy way forward and avoid failure. We do well to work like the pilot who needs to periodically give a one-degree correction on the course of the plane.

[1]

[2]

[3]

About The Author

Essie Joy (pseudonym) moved to SE Asia about a decade ago. Her passions include prayer, fighting Human Trafficking which includes restoring lives, and seeing the Kingdom of God grow to fulfil “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Her current inspiring passages are Isaiah 45:2,3 and 61. She and her husband serve with OCI, and are trusting God for the launch of a CPM among several UPGs. Contact: essiejoy4@gmail.com

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Kingdom Kernels

THREE FOUNDATIONAL AREAS OF MOVEMENTS

by Steve Smith

In any multi-generational movement in which disciples and churches are multiplying beyond the fourth generation in multiple contexts, a set of common characteristics will be in place. Church planting movement (CPM) and disciple making movement (DMM) practitioners present a variety of frameworks to summarize those critical elements. Many of those frameworks detail 10-15 elements in movements.

All of these elements can be summed up in three essential areas. Without any of these areas in place a CPM/DMM will not emerge or remain sustained. The purpose of this article is not to review or debate the various frameworks (or ways of detailing movements) but to summarize what the three most critical areas are.

If a framework is complete its elements can be summarized in three basic areas: 1) spiritual climate, 2) a clear, simple path and 3) a reproducing discipleship process.

SPIRITUAL CLIMATE FOR HEALTHY MOVEMENTS

One common example is the Heart and Four Fields framework that was highlighted in the article “CPM Essentials on a Napkin” in the July-August 2013 issue of Mission Frontiers. In this framework around twelve major factors summarize how movements start and progress. This is just one way of looking at the same elements that other practitioner summarize in their frameworks.

All healthy CPM frameworks highlight elements that are not simply methodological but also spiritual. For instance the Heart and Four fields framework highlights several major areas:

·             God’s heart (His vision) has so gripped the hearts of believers that they are sacrificially committed to seeing multi-generational churches start in every major segment of their
society because they believe this is the way to reach the vision.

·             These disciples bear fruit because they abide deeply in Christ and Christ’s Word abides in them (John 15). They want to be the type of people God uses to launch movements.

·             They cry out to God in fervent prayer for Him to fulfill what’s on His heart and are unwilling to turn loose of heaven’s throne.

·             And they die to self and persevere in difficult times to see God’s heart fulfilled. They are completely surrendered to the Spirit.

These elements highlight that a spiritual climate is in place in which appropriate biblical methodologies can bear fruit. Without the spiritual climate and surrender, methods become mechanistic and bear little or no lasting fruit. The proper spiritual climate must be addressed first, and frankly, it is the most difficult of the three areas to instill. That is because it involves complete surrender and reliance upon the Holy Spirit.

When training believers, this is always the first and chief area I look to in trying to develop them into disciples who pursue the Father’s heart.

All of us have a natural tendency to overemphasize one of the three major areas. There are dangers inherent in each tendency. Those who emphasize spiritual climate alone sometimes feel it “unspiritual” when others put emphasis on CPM/DMM methodologies. Those who emphasize the spiritual climate to the detriment of the other two areas will find that they will not put into the hands of disciples practical handles to implement the vision.

This leads highlights the second critical element.

A CLEAR, SIMPLE PATH TOWARDS HEALTHY MOVEMENTS

Proverbs clarifies the need for a clear path to attain a vision:

Hope deferred makes the heart sick,

but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life. (Proverbs 13:12, ESV)

When a vision of Father’s heart grips a group of people but they can see no clear path on how to fulfill it, their hearts will become sick. When we point them to a clear path forward, it produces life in them.

Every CPM emerges because it has found a way to move forward practically toward the vision in the midst of the spiritual climate. Believers must have a clear path that they can walk through the major elements of a healthy and sustained movement. They know what to do when their disciples say “yes” at each stage. Their path is also simple enough that a new disciple can reproduce it. In this manner a movement can multiply generation by generation.

In the Heart and Four Fields framework, for example, five elements of this path are highlighted:

1.           How to find God-prepared people (saved and lost) and how to start the spiritual process with them (entry)

2.           How to evangelize the lost in a reproducing way

3.           How to disciple them for the short term and the long term in a reproducing manner

4.           How to form reproducing churches

5.           How to raise up and develop leaders in a reproducing manner.

In each of these “fields” content is clear and simple, and naturally leads to the next field. It is simple enough that a third or fourth generation believer can use it and pass it on.

What is essential is that this path leads to the essential elements that make for healthy movements, not lopsided ones. The methodological path forward must be clear and simple enough that disciples entering this movement know how to walk through these stages of a movement. These basic areas of methodology can be summarized in other ways, but for a movement to emerge believers must know the plan and be able to walk out the plan. Without such a plan with clear content and clear methods, the vision never reaches fruition.

There are inherent dangers in overemphasizing the path over the other two areas. Believers walking out the path can become burnt out if the spiritual elements of abiding in Christ and surrender are not in place. In addition, the plan can remain theoretical if the third critical area is missing.

REPRODUCING DISCIPLESHIP PROCESS

Many practitioners have a clear plan but the way they implement it will not reproduce because they lack a reproducing discipleship process. It is not uncommon to observe CPM/DMM practitioners training believers in the methodology in a sterile, lecture format – devoid of spiritual encounters with God and devoid of a reproducing format for discipleship.

Every CPM has a reproducing process of discipleship that equips believers to gain confidence and competence to implement the path and attain the vision. It is a process that encourages and coaches the believers forward. It is a process that sets expectations high and catches disciples in the safety net of love when they fall down.

Every movement needs a weekly or bi-weekly reproducing discipling encounter to help believers fulfill the vision. A PATH without a PROCESS will make very little PROGRESS. The process is the manner of meeting with disciples—the essential elements of what makes a discipleship meeting.

Every movement that I know of uses a regular long-term discipling process to help believers implement this path. Virtually every CPM system (e.g. T4T, DBS, DMM) includes something like a three-thirds discipleship process. The exact elements in each section may vary but the overall three-thirds elements are achieved:

1.           In the first third of the discipleship meeting believers take time to look back and evaluate how they’ve done lovingly obeying the Father.

2.           In the second third they take time to look up to ask the Father what He has for them that week in the Word. They seek to encounter God.

3.           In the last third they take time to look ahead to ask how can we then implement this with their disciples and in their evangelism the following week.

This discipling process creates a spiritual culture of stirring one another up to love and good deeds:

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:24-25, ESV)

In the Heart and Four Fields framework, it is depicted by the three-thirds discipleship process of field three.

A process is in place to equip believers to implement the plan much like Paul describes:

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ…. (Eph. 4:11-13, ESV)

As with the other two areas, we can overemphasize this area in an unhealthy way. Practitioners may implement the three-thirds process in a mechanistic way, putting faith in the elements of the three thirds rather than the encounter with God. Emphasizing the three thirds over hearing and responding to the Spirit in each discipleship meeting is a recipe for disaster.

In addition, emphasizing the three thirds but giving the believers no clear path or no clear content for how to begin discipling their friends will end in frustration for everyone. The content must be clear as well as the process.

HOLD ALL THREE IN BALANCE

It is not easy, but CPMs emerge when practitioners learn how to hold all three areas in balance: spiritual climate, clear simple path and reproducing process. Movements of God are a spiritual work, and we must learn to follow the Spirit’s leading in how to balance the three areas. It is helpful to periodically evaluate the climate, the path and the process at key junctures in our ministries. At times we will find that we must overemphasize one or the other to bring a movement back into balance. But without frequent check-ups, this overemphasis can lead to pushing the movement too far into another direction.

By understanding the three areas, however, we can encourage movements to emerge and continue as healthy, spiritual movements for many years to come. These areas must remain balanced at each generation of the movement. It is not uncommon for them to be balanced at the first generation but to become unbalanced further downstream.

As you look at your ministry, is each of these areas in place at each generation? What needs the most emphasis at this point?

About The Author

Steve Smith

Steve Smith planted a church in Los Angeles and then helped initiate a church planting movement (CPM) among an unreached people group in East Asia. The last ten years he has trained believers in CPM and currently oversees the work of the International Mission Board (SBC) in reaching Southeast Asian Peoples.

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Raising Local Resources

Subsidy, Self-Respect, Self-support and Personal Ownership

by Allen Swanson

We arrived in Taiwan as enthusiastic young missionaries with three pre-school children. I had a fresh BA, M.Div. and fortunate to have a full year of pre-field training.

But nothing prepared us for what we encountered. The Communist takeover of China in 1949 unleased a flood of over 1.5 million refugees creating poverty and chaos.   Compassionate missionaries responded as they have always done. They planted churches, built worship centers, established training schools and trained men for the ministry to take over their churches. They had hearts of gold, loved their people, loved the Lord, and – held the purse strings (read: “power.”).  After the 1949 collapse of China to the Communists, experts wrung their hands in despair, asking “where did we go wrong?”  “What lessons can we learn?”  Many books were published on “Lessons Learned from Mainland China.”  As I studied their works, I slowly understood that “All we learn from history is that we learn little from history. “ We are stubborn students!

We were slow to learn that a high missionary presence can be an overwhelming and often crippling factor. Unwittingly, local believers mold themselves to our expectations.  They became what Mao Tz Tung derisively called “dzou gou” or “running dogs,” – handmaidens of western imperialism who work for westerners to enjoy the largess that comes with it. Those who join “western” churches were often referred to as “rice Christians.”

What was true then is still true today.  Subsidy is accepted but too often privately resented. My first lesson was from a young pastor who took over a church from a missionary.  The missionary had a heart of gold which was the problem!  He never failed to help those in need. But, the national pastor was trapped. “They say I don’t have the “ai xin” (loving heart) of missionary xxx” he shared with me. Why? Because he could not provide the level of financial assistance the missionary had given.  From that day I resolved to never humiliate a national colleague because of my access to money. My response to genuine need was to channel help through anonymous parties sworn to secrecy to avoid special recognition.  I feared being “discovered.”

I did a lot of searching. I discovered that in our midst were large, growing churches with no missionaries and no foreign funds. Missionaries could not explain who they were or why they were growing so much more rapidly than ours.  Nationals labeled them “sects” because they “are not one of us.”  Churches like the “True Jesus” (A Pentecostal Church) and the “Assembly Hall” were indeed different. After collecting tons of data, interviews and notes from their meetings, I headed to the new School of World Missions at Fuller Theological seminary to analyze the data. I discovered that one-third of Taiwan’s Christians belonged to such churches, all marked by their independence of any western organization and their consequent pride of ownership.  The same had been true on the mainland of China and, they form a large part of the Christian community around the world . We just had never been aware of them! These were the last Churches to fall to Communist persecution, surviving long after western-backed churches had capitulated. These were truly “national churches.”  And, they warmly embraced me for finally recognizing what God was doing in their midst.

They shared many similarities with the principles of Dr. John Nevius who, in the 1890’s was invited to Korea, a land just beginning to open to the Gospel. It was a fresh opportunity to introduce a “new method” for church planting . Nevius became a chief architect of one of Asia’s most dynamic churches. While other factors were also at work, “The Nevius Method” escaped the plague of dependency and reflected what I saw in the “independent” Churches. His method, in brief, included:

1.           No church shall be built nor paid for by a missionary.  All meetings begin in a home and expand from there. It is cheaper to enlarge a living room than to build a foreign church building.

2.           When a group has the ability to support their own minister they chose a natural leader from their midst.  Here, Nevius and other missionaries played a critical role by providing annual training for those leaders.

3.           All finances shall be handled by the local believers.

4.           All government is locally controlled.

5.           Systematic bible study shall be a part of all fellowship groups.

A church was born void of the subsidy, management conflicts and missionary control issues that mark so much of world missions. The independent churches around the world can teach us much.

About The Author

Allen Swanson and his wife, Jean, served in Taiwan for 28 years and 3 in Malaysia as Pastor of an International Church.  In Taiwan he co-founded The Taiwan Church Growth Society, sponsoring seminars, writing articles and books and training pastors. He founded the Dept. of Cross-Cultural Missions in Taipei, the first in Taiwan and served there for 15 years. His final years were as the Director of Missions at a large Minneapolis, MN church. Dr. Swanson holds an M. Th. In Missions from Fuller Theological Seminary and a D. M. The Swanson have five children, 11 grandchildren and currently reside in Gainesville, GA. He can be contacted at: Allen@Swanson.com

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Further Reflections

When Honoring Parents Trumps Christian Duty

by greg.parsons@frontierventures.org

With the recent changes in China, families can now have two children. Much has been written about this and the impact of this policy. I heard about a Chinese mother who was only able to have one child, a boy.

However, that boy died in a car accident in his 20s. Now, they suffer the pain of loss, complicated by the fact that they can’t have more children, they grieve in ways most of us can not understand. I can’t imagine the pain she and her husband feel.

Think for a minute how you might feel if this were you. What would be your biggest concern.  She raised the question: who will take care of his grave when we are gone? Who will take care of our grave when we are gone?

While most westerners don’t think in those ways, it draws us into the issue of family honor. All of it is impacted by how we look at God’s law, “honor your father and your mother….” (Exodus 20:12) It is the only one of the ten commandments that comes with a promise: “that your days may be long….” Jesus chastised the religious leaders when they didn’t do this. (Matthew 15:1-9) Paul talks about this and the promise in Ephesians 6:2.

Many Christians consider the “veneration of ancestors” is a form of worship and automatically reject. But a number of Asian mission and church leaders I know take a different view. They believe taking care of parent’s graves is a great way of honoring parents. Often, they came to faith when they were younger and rejected the family’s annual trips to the grave—thus offending non-believing family. Later, one brother I know, came to believe he was wrong, and brought dishonor to his parents—which he did not need to do because of his faith.

Too often, we use biblical passages as “weapons” over others. In the U.S., the elderly are not honored, families are splintered. We don’t even understand shame and honor. So we excuse our actions under the guise of “obeying God and not man.”

So, let’s apply this to an actual situation a global worker in Thailand experienced. For context: it is very hard for us to fully grasp the profound importance to a Buddhist mother for her son to serve in the Buddhist Temple/Monastery for a short time. To some this is the main reasons younger Thai men do not believe in Christ. The Thai young man in this story had promised his mother he would serve in the Monastery before he trusted Christ. After he believed, he said he felt relieved that he didn’t have to (some Christians told him he must not.) After some discussion, the global worker asked:

“Did you borrow any money from the bank to go to school?”

Thai young man: “Yes”

Worker: “When did you borrow it?”

Young man: “As a freshman, prior to entering school.”

Worker: “That is great, you borrowed it before you came to
Christ, now there is no need to pay it back.”

Young man: “What? What do you mean?”

Worker: “You made a promise to your Mom which you no longer consider binding because you came to Christ. Why would the promise to the bank still be binding?”

The worker went on to discuss God’s sovereignty in his earlier promise. The first question to answer was if his promise was still binding—not how to keep it. Just because you may not know how to keep it doesn’t mean it is not binding. Instead of thinking, “What will the Christians think?” he should consider, “How do I become a Monk and remain loyal to Christ?”

In effect, the worker was asking: are the sovereign acts of God no longer sovereign or binding because my birth place, nation, people, parents, culture…all happened before Christ entered my life? In Christ my sins are forgiven but I am still responsible.

Another friend noted that respect for our fathers/elders often includes dimensions of covenant with family and community that new believers are not released from in Jesus. Our commitment to Christ can increase our connectedness to family and community. We know some will reject us, but often even in hostile contexts, family members see the new lifestyle of a believing brother or sister as a clear testimony of Christ’s power to change lives. Why cut off that witness unnecessarily.

About The Author

greg.parsons@frontierventures.org

Greg has been on the staff of Frontier Ventures (formerly USCWM) since 1982. He and his wife, Kathleen, have two children and one grandchild.

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