Acquire Wisdom

Copyright © 2007 by Edward Aw, George Patterson and Galen Currah
May be copied, translated and posted freely without permission.

Former marine, Ed Aw, offers an apt illustration of the importance of maps. In military operations, a key to success is having accurate maps in hand, not only the commanders but also the front-line soldiers. Maps allow commanders to plan proper strategies. We called them "beans, bullets, and bandages" strategies. You have to know how to supply the front-line troops with food, how to provide fighting equipment, and how to take care of the wounded. The best course of action becomes evident from factors indicated on maps, such as enemy strongholds, geographical terrain, friendly encampments, and prisons where civilians are unjustly imprisoned. Based on these data, you can determine a strategy for battle. As the battle advances, field-level soldiers must update their maps pass them up to the commanders, so that they can make strategic adjustments and lay new plans to move toward the end goals of defeating the enemy and setting captives free.

How much more important are the soldiers of Jesus, who wage battle to recapture territory dominated by the evil one and set his captives free! Maps can help us see the harvest fields, plan for the harvest, assign workers and allocate resources to them. (Matt. 9:35-38, John 4:35)

Some church and mission organisations invest big amounts of time, money and personnel in demographic, cultural and social research, generating reams of statistics, tables and charts. Such information, without question, proves useful in creating vision, laying strategies, co-ordinating efforts, evaluating outcomes and adjusting plans in a timely manner. Even if your organizations cannot afford such big investments, a few of your workers should plan to spend about five percent of their on-going ministry time in research in the field. One practical way to do so is with paper and pencil, drawing and revising maps.

Here is an example of map-making from a ministry in India. The individual involved oversees a church-planting movement across an entire state. As a strategist, he requires a high-level, working map that he draws, showing all the districts of the state, including several items such as these:

• Number of believers at each district.
• Numbers of Hindus, Muslims, etc., according to the level of detail that he needs.
• Numbers of house churches and traditional congregations.
• Number and names of leaders by district, region, postal code, etc., according to the level of detail that he needs.

Moving down the leadership chain, those at each level of leadership prepare maps showing more details from smaller areas. The leader over a particular village or house church would have a map that might show:

• Mosques (using the crescent moon as a symbol), Hindu temples (use the om symbol).
• Geographical features such as streets, rivers, lakes, mountains, rail roads, and highways.
• Traditional congregations (use a triangle with a cross on top); house churches (use a round circle with a cross inside it).
• Potential house churches (use a round circle with NO cross in it, yet).
• Draw arrows from "mother" churches to "daughter and grand-daughter" churches.
• Distances between house churches.
• Dates when house churches were started or are projected to start.

In training and coaching sessions, take workers through a mapping exercise. Doing so helps workers to focus, by faith, on potential house churches by indicating them on their maps, revealing family and friendship networks that already exist. Have workers write down on their own maps:

• Family names.
• Number of people in each home (Noting names can lead to specific prayer).
• Prayer items.
• Date on which they will visit each home or send someone else to do so.

The person who has brought a house church leader to Jesus should help him or her make a neighbourhood map, using the simple, easily reproducible tool that you can download from the site noted below, and freely translate and photocopy it. (We can format your translation for you. Just make a comment below and include your email address. We’ll get back to you.) Notice that both sides of the booklet are exactly the same. A worker can draw his map and make notes on one side, and keep the other side clean to photocopy and share with other workers to draw different maps.

Every leader, from house church leaders on up, should have someone to whom they report (Exodus 18:22 and 2 Timothy 2:2). Leaders should often review workers’ maps and consolidate appropriate details into higher-level maps.

You will find maps very helpful in mentoring leaders. Their maps hold a wealth of facts that one cannot learn so easily from conversations. You will be able to see weaknesses in their strategies, both planned ones and implemented ones, and you will be more able to make corrections. Maps provide concrete items to discuss and from which to develop and improve strategies. For instance, knowing where the enemy’s strongholds (mosques, temples. etc.) are located is critical to strategy planning. Perhaps you will arrange for prayer walks around these fortresses, asking the Lord to bind the strongman and set his captives free.

Patterson reports, "A turning point in our Honduras work, when pastors began taking serious initiative to plant churches, came when they drew a map of their area on a large piece of cardboard. They noted every village and urban area that lacked churches. They noted ‘mother churches’ and drew arrows from them to potential ‘daughter churches’ with names of potential workers beside the arrows. From these they added arrows to granddaughter churches and so on, until they had a plan for reaching every village and neighbourhood. Details changed over the years, but the original vision portrayed by the map remained a major motivating force that God used".

Making maps of this type proves powerful in the battle for souls in which we are engaged. Remember the Israelites who scouted out the Promised Land before they entered it. As a final note, do you remember the research I mentioned above that should take only about five percent of your time? Well, since every leader, down to the house church level, gathers data by making a map, data for strategic research can be easily obtained from their map!

Download the simple map-making guide:

Copyright © 2008 by George Patterson
May be freely copied, translated, posted and distributed.

This article by a long-time mentee of mine deals with a fascinating and little-discussed factor in Church Planting Movement (CPMs), the role of local adaptations of the Bible. As a CP mentor-trainer, you may have to advise those whom you mentor on this topic.—George Patterson

The term Bible Translation Movement (BTM) was first described to me by a colleague in a nearby country, where the largest turning of Muslims to Christ in history is happening. What can we learn from what the Lord is doing there? BTMs and CPMs both see rapid multiplication of God’s Word in various languages. Thus, rapid refers not only to numbers of new translations and churches but to rapid obedience to the King. A BTM happens when new churches start to multiply in an unreached people group and new believers and leaders start to translate God’s Word into their own language. Such new believers will also, normally, prove motivated to help translate God’s Word into neighboring languages, which are culturally similar to their own. BTMs are not currently a missiological fad or dream, but they are happening, often in the second generation of new churches.

While Bible translators should normally have proper theological training, the mentoring relationship that I have with my apprentices remains their only theological education, yet they are leading more of their Buddhist friends and family members to Christ than the salaried, professional church planters working in the same area. These Buddhist-background believers’ BTM started spontaneously as churches were multiplying among receptive people who saw the need for a relevant translation in their own tongue.

Twenty-five years ago, Dr. Viggo Olson of the Association of Baptist for World Evangelization and his colleagues undertook to retranslate the entire Bible into a Muslim majority dialect. This proved a groundbreaking work of contextualization that helped stimulate an unprecedented CPM in that country. The standard Bible translation had been made in the minority Hindu dialect a century earlier. Today, at least a quarter of a million Muslim-background believers have been baptized across several CPMs where Dr. Olsen’s translation is used. This movement has spilled over the border to every adjacent country. Praise be to the Most High God! Jesus is fulfilling His Mission, sometimes allowing us foreigners to be a part of it.

Most animistic, tribal and illiterate people groups now have Christian churches. The days of a missionary couple venturing into an isolated area to start churches, and spending twenty-five years to translate God’s Word into the local language might be at an end. Most of the remaining, unreached people groups live within reach of national or trade language learning centers.

Something similar to that BTM is happening in Buddhist background CPM that I work with. The new church leaders in this unreached people group did not regard the traditional-language Bible translation as relevant to the Buddhist masses that avoid the minority, predominately tribal churches that are scattered in every corner of our country. Not long after I arrived in the area, a handful of believers from a Buddhist minority people group came to find me. We began to translate gospel tracts and multimedia materials into their language. However, there was no Bible translation with which to disciple new believers among them. So, we told Bible stories and had leaders learn those stories in their local language, but they said this was not enough.

Some “orality” experts writing today have little or no experience with Church Planting Movements. Most of their experience and materials have been written in the contexts of animistic, tribal peoples. They have their own views on Bible “storying” and avoid producing practical, hands-on tools that relate to making disciples of leaders. Some orality specialists teach about the “scarlet tread,” the sacrificial atonement theme in the Bible. My Buddhist friends would say, “You serve a blood thirsty God who demands so much blood!”

The new believers I work with wanted the Word of God written in a language that speaks to the very soul of their Buddhist communities. The main apostle of this movement laughed out load as he and I read the words of Martin Luther, “I do not want a Bible in German. My people need a German Bible.” When I asked him why he laughed, he pointed to a contemporary language version lying on his table. “That is not a Bible in our national majority language, for it is not of our culture. It was not translated by our people but by a foreigner.” I thank God for the traditional scripture translations that He has used to bring many into the Kingdom, and that have helped westernized, tribal churches to communicate and theologize between themselves. The existing translations will never lose their predominance in the established church. However, if churches are to reach both majority and minority Buddhist peoples, they must use other versions and adaptations, as well.

I thought that we had planned for a successful CPM by translating the eminent Train and Multiply leadership training course and Activity Guide written by George Patterson. However, the Buddhist background leaders turn up their noses at the existing Bible translation that these excellent materials were based on. Many of the exercises in those materials that we translated read, for example, “Find in Acts 10, whom Peter brought with him to start the first Roman church.” Well, they could not “find” anything, because they did not have Bibles, and my apprentices would not distribute the Bible in the majority language.

Currently, these new church leaders from a minority people group have formed their own translation committee and are translating from the United Bible Society’s Contemporary English Version into the majority language. They have completed the synoptic gospels and Acts as of first importance for them. New believers and seekers prefer Matthew’s Gospel, after asking for evaluations from their Buddhist family and highly-educated monk friends. In contrast, most international Bible consultant organizations have agreements with the national Bible Society that they will not work on newer translation of the existing Bible.

The minority translators follow Jesus’ example in adapting key terms. For example, Jesus redefined the traditional Jewish terms kingdom (basileia) and God (Theos). Jesus also added meaning to traditional terms. For example, He called Theos “Abba” (Father). Calling the Old Testament God “Father” imported a scandalous new meaning into the Jewish community, which it still has in Muslim cultures. He redefined old key terms by pouring new meaning into words like “Kingdom” through his parables and similes (“The Kingdom of Heaven is like…”).

          Many Bible translation consultant groups will not work closely with church planters, for they have written agreements with national traditional churches that they will only work on languages where those churches focus, and will not tamper with traditional key terms and phrases. Over the past five years of watching a minority-people CPM, I meditate daily George Patterson’s words, “Just trust the Holy Spirit in the hearts of obedient believers… Trust the Holy Spirit!” “Help seekers and new believers to obey all of Jesus commands in love.”

Copyright 2008 by Galen Currah, Ed Aw and George Patterson.
Freely copy, translate, reproduce, post, sell and distribute.

Galen Currah writes, “These eight training management principles derive from both practice and Scripture. Implement them at your own risk, and blame me if you must.”

1. Train those who need it, not only those whose turn it is to be trained.

In big programs, training can serve as a kind of short vacation, a reward for staying in one’s job, or a periodic “refresher,” everything except serious training to help workers achieve on a higher level. Training programmes should seek to help less-competent workers, who need more training, to get it. Reward competent workers in some other way, perhaps with vacations, cell phones, or a bit of public praise.

2. Train to fill learning gaps, not only to review all relevant ideas.

Not all trainees require the same lessons. Competent trainers first assess workers’ current learning needs: What do these workers need to know (cognitive), to feel (affective), to value (discriminatory), and to do (behavioural)? Next, trainers can choose or design lessons, exercises, demonstrations, reading, lectures, mentoring and workshops, that provide learning experiences.

3. Train with new methods that meet needs, not only with traditional methods.

Trainers are not always the best practitioners. Training directors must discover the most productive programme workers, learn how those workers succeed, and incorporate their “best practices” into the next round of training. Discovery comes through evaluating field outcomes.

4. Train to make workers competent now, not only to educate for the future.

Evaluate training program at least every year or two. Evaluators must measure worker’s performance and success in the field, not in order to humiliate the less competent but in order to improve the training methods, so that weak workers can improve. Marks received in classrooms seldom have any significant relation to church multiplication outcomes.

5. Train the obedient who show gifting, not only the willing.

God gives to churches apostles (extension workers), prophets (word workers), evangelists (expansion workers), shepherds (direction workers) and teachers (Word workers). He always does. These are the kinds of folks whom you find doing the work with or without training. Train them to increase their effectiveness.

6. Train the socially acceptable, not only those who are the most faithful.

Even though Timothy remained socially unacceptable (young, unmarried, ethnically mixed), Paul coached him to appoint only the socially acceptable into leadership positions (married, proven character, competent, respected). The work remains critically urgent; therefore the qualifications of trainees remain critical. Train mostly adult, married, self-supported men and women for church planting and leadership.

7. Train those whom you have empowered, not only those who can pay their fees.

Jesus called a small numbers of workers, appointed them, delegated his authority to them, instructed them in what to say and to do, sent them, and listened to them report back on what they had said and done. He neither asked for volunteers nor accepted those who proposed themselves. Prefer those who have proved able to follow instructions.

8. Vary teaching techniques, even with the same students, in the same teaching session.

Wherever one holds training events for big numbers of learners, one should use several techniques which include (a) short lectures (abstract learning), (b) group exercises (concrete learning), (c) hands on experience (active learning), (d) time to think about new ideas (reflective learning), and (e) specific plans (mentoring).

Avoid getting into a rut of linear thinking. Much of the world flops back and forth between linear logic and situational thinking. At a restaurant in the West, ask for a seat in a non-smoking section, and the waiter will put you in a reserved, protected section of the place. Do the same in the East, and the waiter will simply look round for a table with no smokers nearby. One response was linear, the other situational. Which? Intensive interaction between trainer and trainee helps to avoid such linear thinking, if the trainer sincerely aims to equip each trainee for the ministry that he or she is involved in.

There is hardly a messier occupation that that of church planters! They deal with sinners, enemies, demons, discomfort, and rejection besides their own ignorance, lethargy, self-doubt and financial collapse. For example, trainees in India come to a workshop led by an “expert” from the West who dispenses lectures, draws diagrams, distributes thick documents, and takes photographs with which to raise more money for himself. Ask: What can these church planters take back to the field that will enhance their faith, work, joy and effectiveness? Here lies a challenge!

Sample Articles on Adult Learning

http://www.joe.org/joe/2006december/tt5.shtml

http://tip.psychology.org/knowles.html

http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/ILSdir/styles.htm

Copyright © 2008 by Galen Currah, George Patterson and Edward Aw
Permission is granted to copy, distribute, post, link, translate, plagerize, even sell.

Those who engage in evangelism and church planting find that many folk eagerly respond to the Good News and start coming to a church. However, in new ministries, the drop-out rate can prove high. Many folks who started well lose interest, become discouraged or abandon their new faith. Jesus warned that this would be the case, because of temptation, persecution and worldly allurement (Matthew 13:20-23). Even so, wise church planters can preserve most of the fruit of their labour by following several New Testament instructions. We recommend the following, as starters.

1. Baptise new believers straight away.

“Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Corinthians 13:7). Show God’s love and your love to those who repent, and baptize them. Many will not believe that God has forgiven and accepted them, until you accept them in the way that Jesus commanded (Matthew 28:19).

Baptise without undue delay. The apostles often baptized the same day that folks expressed their repentance. They taught the meaning and implications of baptism afterwards. Remember, the command to baptize was given to you, not to the new believer. Waiting a long time before baptism will discourage most new believers. Some will fall away, but, then, even some long-time believers fall away, too. DO NOT delay baptism unless there is a good reason for doing so, such as winning other family members so they can be baptised together.

Baptise amongst friends. If you baptise new believers with no witnesses, then they will often feel isolated and lonely. Only baptise in secret if the new believers’ life would be in danger otherwise.  New believers will often bond with the place where you baptise them. Thus, if you take them into a chapel or another church and baptise them there, then the newly baptised will often consider that church to be their spiritual family, and may soon lose interest in your simple church or cell group.

2. Bring them into a culturally suitable church.

New simple church plants can prove just as foreign and unnatural as big, traditional mission-planted congregations. The very foreignness of churches can discourage new believers who respect their own culture. Some adult new believers will find your simple church frivolous or accommodating only to women or youth.

Speak their heart language. Most folks will more deeply sense God’s love for them, more clearly understand God’s Word and more readily obey Jesus’ commandments, if they learn in their own language and culture. With new believers, coming into a culturally-comfortable church proves more important than making a social statement by attending a culturally-mixed congregation. Thus, most new, simple churches should be planted with a single ethnic, linguistic and economic community.

Employ imitable methods of worship and evangelism. If new believers cannot participate in worship and evangelism from the start of their new faith, then they may never consider those practices their responsibility. Methods should be chosen that prove culturally acceptable, immediately available, and affordable to the poorest. To do so, avoid bringing new believers into churches that are dominated by outsiders and employ foreign worship practices. From the start, let new believers explain the Good News to their friends and family in ways that they find natural, and plant new churches in the homes of adult men whenever possible.

3. Serve the Lord’s Supper often.

Just as baptism is for bad people who have repented, so the Table is for bad Christians who need frequent forgiveness. Allow new believers to obey the Lord Jesus’ command frequently to celebrate His supper, and empower all new churches to do so from their start. Whether or not there is a capable speaker or competent teacher, let new churches celebrate the Table every time they meet. Communion is often the only way, besides prayer, that new congregations can sense that they have entered into the awesome presence of God.

Teach and practice its biblical meanings. The Lord’s Supper provides a mystical participation in the body and blood of Christ (1 Corinthians 10:16), is done as a proclamation of the Lord’s death, and allows believers to discern the Lord’s body and to examine themselves. Be very careful to avoid two extremes: explaining the bread and cup in ways that go beyond the Bible, and explaining them away as mere symbols or reminders. Let new believers commune with the Lord and with each other through the bread and cup. This will prove hugely encouraging.

Provide frequent forgiveness of sins. Even though they have repented from sin and turned to the Lord, most new believers will still be involved in many sinful practices and relationships that they have not yet overcome or abandoned. As they become aware of personal and social practices that dishonour the Lord, they will hurry back to the Table to be assured of the Lord’s forgiveness. If you do not provide the Table often, then they will carry their sense of guilt or shame and become discouraged. Many will not feel good enough to stay in your church or cell.

4. Ensure joyful fellowship in the church.

Most newly repentant believers still have many friendships and social groups where they feel welcome. If the church does not provide healthy relationships, then many new believers will return to godless groups where they can enjoy friends who accept them. When possible, win entire families to Christ and bring them into the church together; new believers seldom fall away when they are accompanied by their closest friends and family members,

All meet each other’s needs. New and old simple churches must remain highly participative, allowing all participants to speak and to prophesy (1 Corinthians 14:3, 24-26). In both the formal time and the informal times, older believers show love and concern for the new believers, including them in all the activities they feel comfortable with. Allow the new believers to express their joy, their faith, and their needs. Let others respond to them. When they have material needs, find ways in which the church can help.

All serve with spiritual gifts. Even the newest believers have received the Holy Spirit and have spiritual gifts. Thus all have something to say or something to do to serve one another. Help believers to recognize and employ their gifts from the start. Guide believers to serve one another according to their strengths and gifts. Avoid assigning tasks to new believers for which they are neither gifted nor motivated. Being left alone, ignored or assigned unwanted drudgery work can discourage new and old believers alike.

5. Teach loving obedience to Jesus.

All new believers’ heart has been flooded by the Holy Spirit with the Father’s love for them, and they easily express their new love for Jesus. Obeying Jesus expresses one’s faith and must never be confused with ‘legalism’ which is a futile attempt to please God by following the Law.

Follow Jesus’ Commandments. In a simple church plant, base all that you do on the commandments of Jesus, especially those illustrated in Acts 2:37-47. Always be willing to abandon any practice that is not commanded by Jesus or is not in the New Testament. God gives the Holy Spirit to those who obey Jesus, filling even new believers with joy and strength (John 14:15-17; Acts 5:30-32). If your church practices are dictated mainly by church traditions and unbiblical rules, then its legalism will prove lifeless, loveless and discouraging.

Continually make disciples. As simple churches and cell groups mature and multiply, there will always be room to grow and develop as disciples. Within the church, slowly introduce the New Testament “one-another” practices according to current needs and opportunities. Empower new believers to make new disciples from the start. New believers will often prove the most zealous and winsome in drawing others to Christ. New believers who are growing rapidly in obedience will often prove the best simple church planters and shepherds. Mentor, coach and train them as soon as they are willing to follow instructions by leading others to Christ and to lead new simple churches. Otherwise, many will come to feel useless and unwanted.

6. Model response to persecution.

Jesus warned that the world would hate his followers as much as it hates him. Part of evangelism is asking folks to count the cost; part of disciple-making is to provide new believers with ways in which to cope with intolerance, bigotry and persecution. Otherwise, many will fall away to avoid public shame.

Teach Jesus’ warnings. A basic need of every new believer remains a way to respond to insults, opposition and persecution from unbelievers and from tradition-bound believers. Remind them that Jesus himself was misunderstood, maligned, falsely accused, even murdered. It has been given to believers both to believe in Jesus and to suffer for him. However, just as Jesus humbled himself, and refused to insult his persecutors, so we believers are to humble ourselves (1 Peter 3:13-16; 5:6-11).

Promise help from the Holy Spirit. Those who work to advance the Kingdom of Jesus must be ready to tell the truth when asked and to depend on the Holy Spirit to give an answer when brought before authorities (Matthew 10:16-32). Learning to hear from the Holy Spirit is a privilege of every believer, especially of those who must suffer opposition, as Jesus did. Those who have suffered and stood their ground grow very bold in the Lord. This works as well for new believers as it does for others.

7. Provide pastoral care.

New believers have many bad habits, attitudes, and vices that they will soon want to overcome. God gives to every church apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers to help all the saints grow more like Christ (Ephesians 4:11-13).

Deal with personal and family problems. Pastoral leaders of simple churches must visit new believers and provide biblical guidelines for overcoming sins, ignorance and evil cultural practices (1 Thessalonians 2:7; 5:12). Without pastoral care, new believers, made sensitive to their own sin by the Spirit of Jesus in them, can quickly grow discouraged and feel that they are not good enough be keep coming to church. Teach generally in the church about every believer’s need to grow and change, and deal with individual problems in private, a man helping men and a woman helping women. Otherwise many will feel that God is not able or willing to help them.

Protect from false teachers. Jesus warned against false prophets who would lead many astray (Matthew 4:11), and Paul warned the elders at Ephesus about false teachers and about church leaders who would seek to draw the disciples after themselves, requiring that elders take special care of the church (Acts 20:28-30). Warn the new believers about false teachers and give them instructions in how to respond to such. If you do not, then some will be led away from your church even a few weeks or months after they have repented.

Copyright (c) 2008 by Galen Currah, George Patterson and Edward Aw
May be reproduced freely in any form.

When mentoring new church leaders, help them find ways in which to let all the believers experience Christ in their gatherings, along with learning sound doctrine about Him. Some key texts in this regard include Matthew 18:18-20 and 1 Corinthians 14:3, 24-26. Find together with your coworkers culturally-appropriate ways to do each of the following activities, just as the first church in Jerusalem did, in Acts 2:37-47.

1. Remain devoted to the apostles’ teaching (Acts 2:42).

The apostles continually taught all that they had seen Jesus do and that they had heard from him. He had instructed them to make disciples by baptizing and by teaching everyone everywhere to obey all that He had commanded. Such teaching whether done by speaking, singing, stories or dramas, instructs and gives hope. Teaching in a way that lets people feel Christ’s presence is a gift from the Holy Spirit. When the church comes together, each one has something to contribute, and all can prophesy. Such manifestations of the Holy Spirit prove so helpful, even delightful, that believers feel the presence of Christ. “One who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation…. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be exhorted.” 1 Cor. 14:3, 31

Hint: Make Bible teaching and discussion with application a part of most gatherings, but not the only activity.

2. Remain devoted to fellowship, giving to meet needs, and common meals.

When believers come together for worship, the real presence of Jesus is there in their midst (Matt. 18:18-20). Participation in the Body of Christ includes sharing, giving and receiving according to each one’s needs. Those who give cheerfully delight in doing so, and in seeing the genuine benefit that their generosity brings to others. Jesus commanded this kind of love that gives to meet practical needs. It flows from the Holy Spirit of Jesus who indwells believers. One particularly enjoyable way to provide for all is to take some meals together.

Hint: Make giving to meet practical needs a frequent part of life in the community. Let believers prove generous.

3. Remain devoted to the breaking of bread.

Partaking of the Lord’s Supper has historically been called Eucharist (which means thanksgiving) and Communion. When believers partake of the holy table with faith, they experience a deep sense of forgiveness and cleansing, as the Holy Spirit floods their hearts with the love the Father has for them. Traditions that expressly deny the supernatural presence of Christ during communion destroy its reality for many believers. To avoid the table becoming ‘routine’, vary the Bible passages you read to introduce it. Sometimes use drama, a song, a testimonial or a Bible story.

Hint: Celebrate the Lord’s Table often, varying the Bible texts you read. Avoid rationalistic explanations.

4. Remain devoted to prayers, praising God, and witnessing wonders and signs.

Believers of all ages and traditions have found praise a joyful experience, and answered prayers a great encouragement. Those who pray together over time normally sense within them the mind of Christ, guiding their prayers and inspiring their praise. Those who persevere in asking for supernatural help normally get it. Prayer made in the Name of Jesus secures help from God and praise rejoices them more than any other spiritual disciplines. Private, personal prayers develop an ability to hear from God, and common, group prayers prove powerful.

Hint: Have believers pray together and one for another in small groups at most gatherings. Allow those who see their prayers answered to report about it to the others.

5. Let sinners repent, be baptized, receive the Holy Spirit, and join the church.

In gatherings that allow for all the believers to prophesy (speak to one another for strengthening, exhortation and consolation) and share their gifts, it is not unusual for unsaved guests to be converted. “If all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all; the secrets of his heart are disclosed; and so he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you.” (1 Cor. 14:24-25). As these call upon the Lord in repentance, accept baptism and receive the Holy Spirit, the believers share in their joy. Churches in which many folk regularly come to faith prove highly encouraging to all and show to all that the Lord is present in their midst to save those who call on him.

Hint: Allow for all believers to prophesy, that is, to speak to strengthen, to encourage, and to edify one another. Encourage them to invite unsaved folks to experience Christ.

Copyright © 2008 by George Patterson, Galen Currah and Edward Aw
Permission is granted to copy, print, distribute, post, link, translate, plagiarise, even sell.

In developing healthy churches that multiply in a normal way, gospel workers must keep a healthy ratio and relationship between two valid, divergent aspects of each of the vital area of church life depicted below. (The order of these aspects has no importance.)

• Let all who love Jesus strive prayerfully and carefully to maintain a healthy ratio and relationship between the two dynamics that make up each of these action areas, in a movement for Christ.
  
• In a pioneer field, a proper ratio will sustain a church planting movement. In older churches, it will sustain the multiplication of vital cell groups and daughter churches in neglected communities.
  
• Churches that fail to multiply in pioneer fields invariably have a lopsided ratio that conforms neither to reason nor Scriptural guidelines. In any field, a church’s greatest weakness is almost invariably its greatest strength taken to excess, revealing a lack of balance.
  
• Scolding workers for allowing a poor ratio often moves them merely to defend the error. To liberate them from stifling traditions, a wise mentor enables them to calculate for themselves an effective ratio.
  
• It would be foolish to perpetuate a particular ratio merely because a church has done so for a long time.

What is the authority for what your churches do? The crown reminds us that Jesus is our King. Obeying His commands must be kept in proper relationship with accountability to God-given leaders and their rules. If loving obedience to Jesus’ commands is not taught when a church is born, Satan rushes in to fill the authority vacuum with spiritual sounding programs that dethrone Jesus as the church’s true head. Proper ratios in all other areas stem from this foundation of loving obedience.

How should workers be supported? The tent recalls tent-making, as the apostle Paul did it. To sustain church multiplication, a very high ratio of leaders must be self-supported. Most church planting movements occur among the working class, and count heavily on non-budgeted, volunteer-led projects.

What evangelism methods should your church use?

The network of interconnected dots reminds us to keep new believers in a loving relationship with friends and relatives. In church planting movements it is new believers that win nearly all who come to Christ. Keep them witnessing in a proper ratio with evangelism by electronic media. To initiate a biblical kind of networking, find a ‘child of peace’ as Jesus said, that is, a host who will enable the gospel to start flowing from friend to friend and family to family. Avoid “pushing camels through the eye of a needle”, as Jesus said, by working with receptive people, normally the poorer working class. “Shake the dust,” leave, as Jesus said — if a community fails to respond.

In what ways should new believers’ know Christ? Experiencing the risen, ascended, living Christ (see MentorNet #56), who is present among them, must be balanced with learning truths about Him. In many cultures, it is the experiencing of Christ that proves catalytic in explosive growth of the church, as ordinary folk experience the reality of the biblical Immanuel who walks and talks with them.

How should your churches enable their members to do serious ministry? The group of folk with different characteristics reminds us to keep a proper ratio of interaction between those having different gifts with specialized ministries that segregate individuals who have the same gift.

How large should your congregations be? Keep rabbit churches (house churches or cells) in proper ratio and relationship with large churches. A characteristic of widespread church-planting movements is many tiny churches. In most pioneer fields, movements for Christ thrive much better by multiplying house churches.

How should pastors and other workers receive training? The chain recalls Paul’s mentoring chain whereby he trained Timothy who trained others who trained others also. Keep this explosive form of mentoring in an effective proportion with lecturing, seminars and conferences!

If you want help to think through these church planting dynamics and apply them to your field, contact Paul-Timothy trainers and we will put you in touch with a mentor who has experience in your type of field whether Asian, African, Muslim, tribal, Latin, or European. There are no fees. Contact: MentorAndMultiply@gmail.com

Copyright © 2008 by Galen Currah, George Patterson and Edward Aw
Permission is granted to copy, print, distribute, post, link, translate, plagiarize, even sell.

Patterson recalls, “A Roman Catholic priest once scolded me for starting ‘unauthorized’ churches in his Honduran parish. He argued that our churches lacked legitimacy because no government had ever officially endorsed them.” Many Protestants make similar assumptions without realizing it. Western Christians often thank God for their freedom, rejoicing that their churches are not abused by a hostile government like in many eastern countries. But have well-intentioned governments in Western democracies also caused churches to be organized inadvertently in a harmful way? Lord, grant us wisdom and courage to answer this thorny question honestly!

The Situation

We must admit some painful facts before we can think wisely about state control.

In the East, illegal, non-registered churches in countries such as China, North Korea, Bangladesh, Northern India, Myanmar, and others, are usually more energetic and win more people to Christ than do registered churches that have submitted to state control.

In the West, to get tax-free status and tax exemption for donors, governments require churches to incorporate or to register legally, to form a board of trustees that represents a church before the state, and to write bylaws that embody policies that assure adherence to state requirements. (Even professional scholars of ecclesiology often fail to discern how state-dictated policies often clash with Scriptural guidelines for church organization.)

The naming of officers for a specified term opens the door to an institutional mentality and structure. For example:

l Although Scripture affirms that gifts from God are permanent (Rom. 11:29), churches often elect shepherding elders for a specific term of months or years.

l Many congregations assume that their legal status and church constitution gives them the right to settle spiritual matters by majority vote in business meetings. Thus, uninformed believers often make decisions of a pastoral nature that should have been decided by godly, experienced elders. How many churches have suffered seriously because of petty squabbling during such business meetings!

l Church history mentions no church building for almost three centuries after Christ. The Book of Acts and Paul’s letters reveal that churches normally met in homes. The word ‘church’ (ekklésia) often meant a regional cluster of tiny house churches, which was neither a specific congregation nor the universal church. State requirements for incorporation or registration invariably move believers toward a ‘big church’ mentality. They need the trustees, a treasurer and statutes associated with a body larger than a house church. Instead, a ‘simple’ church should try to stay small enough for its members to practice the New Testament’s many ‘one another’ commands, such as “teach one another” (Col. 3:16).

l Samuel Wang speaks from his ample experience in China: “Whereas the (registered, ‘official’) TSPM churches take the government as their head, and apply its religious policy as their guideline for church management, the house churches have Jesus Christ as their Head and manage the church according to the principles set out in the Bible.”

Remedial Action

Large churches can operate on two levels, one level that meets government requirements, and another level that provides shepherding according to the New Testament. To implement these two levels will require prayerful and perhaps painful adjustments; it is not easy to correct long-standing traditions and procedures. 

Small churches can unite as a regional body that is big enough to meet state requirements, while still practicing New Testament guidelines. To do so requires courageous leaders who strongly confirm and thoroughly apply organizational principles from the New Testament.

New Testament Organizational Guidelines

Conscientious shepherds must lead, or enable others to lead, small groups of some kind, as mentor Jethro advised his son-in-law Moses (Exodus 18). Such groups need to be small enough that all who are present can speak, exhorting, building up and consoling one another (1 Cor. 14:3, 24-26).

Shepherding elders must share pastoral responsibilities between them. For every professional, full-time, highly-trained pastor, there should also be dozens of lay, self-supported shepherds who care for their interactive small groups. A large church should develop some kind of cell groups which are tiny churches within the big church.

Interactive church body life as described in 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4 requires that believers having different spiritual gifts serve one another in a tightly-knit body. The institutional model of church often cancels out such service by creating specialized programs and departments, clustering those having the same gift. You must correct this problem by forming cell groups that include believers who have different gifts, and by fostering intensive interaction between groups.

Church elders have at least five responsibilities to their Lord Jesus Christ: 1) to teach pure doctrine, 2) to safe-guard unity, 3) to maintain order, 4) to keep finances honest, and 5) to protect from wolves. The tempter appeals to human flesh and distorts those five responsibilities into five fears, fears that sharing authority would 1) lead to false doctrine, 2) cause divisions, 3) compromise quality, 4) cost too much and 5) bring on criticism or persecution. Many churches’ bylaws stipulate legal duties of church officers without even mentioning their biblical responsibilities. Even the “leaders” themselves often become trapped and severely impaired by the structures they build. A remedy is to give much more attention and authority to the historically-proven, biblical guidelines for overseeing God’s flock that consistently bring about healthier churches.

Copyright © 2009 by Galen Currah, George Patterson and Edward Aw
This document may be stored, shared and published in any media.

Wise relief and development workers avoid helping the poor in ways that build dependency. It is well documented how careless handouts make the poor lose initiative and self-respect; many begin to depend on others’ generosity, and greed moves them to lie about their needs. However, this grave error is not unique to those who serve the poor. Church and mission history reveals that dependency is just as common, and far more destructive, among churches and believers who are not poor. The demon of ‘Sophisticated Dependency’ is an invisible member of the advisory board of many churches, mission agencies and seminaries. Two major problems arise.

Problem #1. This demon always whispers the same lie, “There’s not enough money to do that.” He blinds believers to the fact that they have needlessly let a lack of material resources force them to violate God’s commands. For examples:

• Believers believe that fully supported pastors are the only legitimate ones. This lie stifles many church planting movements, because finances — as always — are limited. A material barrier needlessly becomes a spiritual barrier. Leaders can just as easily commission and mentor self-supported, or partially-supported, lay pastors, as churches commonly did a hundred years ago as well as in New Testament times, to keep right on extending Christ’s work without any slowdown.
  
• Bible schools and seminaries sometimes limit missionary training that would have the strategic effect of reaching thousands for Christ, because Sophisticated Dependency whispers in educators’ ears, “There’s not enough money to do that,” when they could apply all their brain power to arrange volunteer mentoring to train missionaries in obedience to Jesus’ Great Commission. Often the same educators find enough money to erect ornate buildings, not to mention their own comfortable houses. Opulence wins out over obedience!
  
• Mission agencies sometimes let limited funds needlessly dictate the extent of their outreach. Mission history abounds in cases where, because of revolution or financial crisis, the flow of dollars from the West ceased and — lo and behold! — churches, liberated from the demon of Sophisticated Dependency, multiplied far beyond what the missionaries had dreamed. For example, in China, Mao forced church buildings to close, so believers met in homes where non-paid lay pastors led tiny flocks; as a result, many millions have come to Christ.

Every theological school that becomes accredited must raise its academic standards for those who can be students. Those standards keep most Christian workers out of the schools. The demon of “sophisticated dependency” whispers into educators’ ears, “You must maintain the pursuit of excellence!” Since the vast majority of gifted apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers cannot afford to earn requisite academic credentials, they cannot attend those schools. Those who have the credentials, but not enough money to pay fees, become dependent on scholarships and stipends, or they go deeply in debt to pay school fees with no guarantee that they will be able to pay their debts. This is a form of financial enslavement.

Solution #1. Thus, those who train church planters and shepherds in ever-expanding church planting movements must ensure that generations of mentors are set up and keep extending, wherever new churches get started. Most mentors will be local leaders and shepherds who train others, in turn, according to the model of Exodus 18 and 2 Timothy 2:1-2. Where mentoring chains grow, both mentors and their apprentice learners continue to earn their own living; they do not go farther away than they and their flocks can afford to send them.

Problem #2. Frank Viola – has identified several practices of pagan origin that rich churches and missions have adopted, practices that have no basis in the New Testament. These include chapels and buildings, paid clergy and evangelists, special costumes and electronic media. Wherever the demon of “sophisticated dependency” requires such expensive objects and workers, the workers themselves often seek income and funding from other organisations and from getting the Christians to pay tithes and make frequent money offerings. This, in turn, has led to many abuses including fraudulent reporting about ministry success as well as untrue theology about God and money. This happens in every country, not only in developing nations.

Solution #2. Thus, those who envision whole countries, regions, languages and tribes becoming disciples of Jesus must introduce practices, methods, materials and equipment that local workers and believers can find, afford, imitate and pass on to others, rapidly. This may require that believers gather in their own homes and other venues, and that they keep starting many little fellowships. As a rule of church multiplication, never require new churches and workers to adopt any practice or method that they cannot afford and cannot perform without big budgets and lengthy training. Rather, teach all new workers to help seekers and new believers to experience the real Presence of Jesus Christ in their midst and to depend mostly on the gifts of the Holy Spirit to accomplish lasting work.

Let Christian leaders form a tight circle, hold hands, and agree before God in Jesus’ name, to detect and to bypass blockages imposed by the demon of ‘Sophisticated Dependency’.

Resources

To subscribe to MentorNet or to download earlier messages – http://AcquireWisdom.com/mentornet-articles/.

P. O’Connor, Reproducible Pastoral Training -  http://www.MissionBooks.com.

Free CP training software “Come, Let Us Disciple the Nations” – http://www.Paul-Timothy.net/dn/.

Free mentoring tools and materials for new leaders – http://www.MentorAndMultiply.com.

Train & Multiply® church planting and pastoral training course – http://www.TrainAndMultiply.com.

Paul-Timothy church planting and pastoral training course – http://Paul-Timothy.net.

Order Church Multiplication Guide from a bookshop or at http://www.WCLbooks.com.

Copyright © 2009 by Galen Currah and George Patterson
This document may be stored, shared and published in any media.

The role of Western missionaries in church planting and disciple making is changing because of fewer volunteers, legal restrictions, reduced funding and a shift to short-term mission. While some missionaries are becoming more fruitful, others show symptoms of despondence as sending churches lose their missionary vision. Great missionary work is yet to be done, but it may not be done in the same ways it was done before. Here are a few recommended points of counsel with which mentors should be able to help churches, missionaries and candidates think, pray and plan.

Keep mission a priority. Combat waning ardour for mission in the West by strongly affirming God’s purposes. All through Scripture, the Creator has been inviting peoples, families and individuals to repent and receive new life. Thus missionary work is part of God’s mission. This is more urgent now than ever because pressing social needs, cultural trends and rationalistic theology have steered many churches away from serious involvement in mission.

Combat apathy due to rising costs.

Promise God’s power to do mission. God gives his Spirit, opens opportunities and provides material means to those who determine to extend His kingdom into neglected peoples. This is crucial now because in the West mission budgets are declining and churches perceive mission as wastefully expensive. Meeting the costs of maintaining church programs, clerical salaries and expansive building programs have reduced the funds available for supporting missionaries. Also, some missionary societies require candidates to raise huge amounts of support, even if the candidates have never proved their ability to do mission work.

Find support creatively. Options include bi-vocational workers, missionary business folk, supported two-year terms, self-supported volunteers, retired folk and emigration. A current trend is to mobilize more “tentmakers.” Workers with a vocation that authorities permit can reside in fields otherwise closed to missionaries. This is more crucial now than ever, because for some workers, money has become more prominent than proven methods. Often Western missionaries prefer to support high-budget projects with lofty goals, rather see churches multiply, which requires less pleasant work.

Have churches send missionaries. In the New Testament, churches sent missionaries. In later centuries, missionary societies were launched to help churches. Good agencies do not replace churches as senders, but rather help them with cultural matters and logistics.

Assert God’s mission over “missions.” Your church will grow in strength, maturity and numbers as it seeks to participate in God’s mission to the nations, with or without missionary societies. Many societies focus on reached fields and have an institutional mentality. They send workers to countries and peoples where they are not needed, and support schools where graduates do very little evangelism, church planting and mission.

Uphold a biblical model. Send proven workers in small, temporary teams.

Only send missionaries who have shown proof of their abilities, and allow them to reform their teams as often as their work requires. Let’s face it: some missionaries have not won believers and started churches, yet they seem to enjoy living overseas at home churches’ expense, and often form an elite caste, living several social levels above the receptive segments of society. This opposes the apostolic model and seldom produces lasting fruit.

Send missionaries who are able to travel, following the gospel into receptive regions. Some Western workers become immobile trying to make life comfortable for their families.

Keep disciple making first. Jesus said that his mission is one of making disciples who lovingly obey his commandments. Every mission effort must be evaluated by its disciple-making outcome.

Multiply workers and churches. Effective missionary work helps believers, churches and their leaders to reproduce, by training them to employ methods that others can afford to imitate.

Make these recommendations to missionary candidates:

Confirm your apostolic gift. Do not seek to be sent to do mission work until you have made disciples at home, formed them into new churches or cells, and raised up leaders among them.

Hone your skills. Learn on the job in your home church and city, so that you will have the required skills when you go to another place, people and culture.

Affirm your role. Let your apostolic gifting and call be evident to those whom you expect to send you by laying hands on you, supporting you, interceding for you and welcoming you back.

Lay concrete plans and keep updating them. Lay out a plan to complete the task within a few years. Review your plans at least annually and change them to fit opportunities. Report on progress regularly to those who send you.

Make these recommendations to sending churches:

Seek evidence of God’s call. Provide opportunities for potential mission workers to do local mission work with your counsel, training and public approval, observing outcomes.

Provide on-the-job mentoring. Most gifted apostolic workers will respond positively to mentoring that empowers them, trains them, affirms them and makes their work fruitful.

Agree on purposes, goals and methods. Expect reports and provide guidance. If you send through a mission agency, then secure its agreement on the work your missionaries are to do.

Evaluate outcomes and lay new plans. Jesus ordered his followers to make disciples. Every activity and budget item should be evaluated by how it contributes making new disciples.

Make these recommendations to receiving churches:

Ask for gifted, skilled missionaries. Hosting workers from other countries may help your ministry win and teach new disciples. If current ones cannot do so, then ask for those that can.

Assign missionaries to empower your workers. The most valuable missionaries are those who have godly passion, gifts, skills and a plan to train local workers to become successful.

Beware of the money trap. You and your churches never have enough money, and you could be tempted by some foreigners to adopt costly programs that do not succeed very well.

Inform missionaries when their work is done. Find a gracious manner in which to let missionaries know that it is time for them to go home, before they become more a hindrance that a help.

Resources

To subscribe to MentorNet or to download earlier messages – http://AcquireWisdom.com/mentornet-articles/.

P. O’Connor, Reproducible Pastoral Training -  http://www.MissionBooks.com.

Free CP training software “Come, Let Us Disciple the Nations” – http://www.Paul-Timothy.net/dn/.

Free mentoring tools and materials for new leaders – http://www.MentorAndMultiply.com.

Train & Multiply® church planting and pastoral training course – http://www.TrainAndMultiply.com.

Paul-Timothy church planting and pastoral training course – http://Paul-Timothy.net.

Order Church Multiplication Guide from a bookshop or at http://www.WCLbooks.com.