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24:14 – The Story

24:14 – The Story

– By Chris McBride – 

Old Treasures as Well as New

The early 1990’s was a good season for the global church. We labored hard and encouraging things happened. The Iron Curtain had opened and people were coming to Christ.

But we were not reaching the hardest to reach places. Whole people groups had generations of souls entering eternity without Christ. The global population was growing rapidly, and the Church was not keeping up.

Then something unexpected happened. Breakthroughs started to occur as gospel messengers began to take a fresh look at the original commands of Christ. Surprising news came from India. From China. From Southeast Asia. Then in Africa: Simple, reproducible models facilitating multiplication of disciples. Empowered disciples obeying Jesus, making disciples, and gathering in new churches. Exponential multiplication of these churches among the lost. Incredible growth such as this happened in the early church (as recorded in the book of Acts) and only occasionally in church history (such as Patrick’s ministry in Ireland in the early Wesleyan movement). 

New treasure had sprung from old wisdom.

The Spirit Blows

As the inaugural decade of the 2000s progressed, more and more of these Church Planting Movements (CPMs) emerged. (CPM is an umbrella term we use to describe movements of multiplying disciples that form multiplying churches.) By 2007, missiologists were tracking more than 30 CPMs. In 2010, they could count more than 60, many of which had started completely independently of one another. Then the number exceeded 100. While most movements endured and a few ended, workers pursuing multiplicative movements to reach the lost continued to learn and increase in number.

As the movements continued to grow in numbers and spread in impact, many leaders realized this was the wind of the Spirit blowing on Church Planting Movements. Millions of new believers were coming into the Kingdom. It was time to put up the sails. 

A Community Is Born

In 2017, 24:14 was birthed following two international summits where global leaders gathered from mission organizations, churches, networks and movements already committed to reaching the unreached through CPMs. We grappled with a simple question: 

“What will it take to pray and work together to start kingdom movements in every unreached people and place in our generation?”

​The Holy Spirit moved 24:14 Summit attendees to humbly pursue a unified effort to engage the unreached — specifically through Church Planting Movements with sacrificial urgency by 2025. As a result, we launched a global coalition of like-minded organizations, churches and believers—known as 24:14—to see this God-sized vision fulfilled.

Building Together

Since 2017, we have been sharpening that vision together: Every people in every place with a community of believers focusing on multiplying disciples of Jesus in a Church Planting Movement. We watch and work to see this seed fall on good soil and multiply into a harvest fit for the King.

24:14 is an open collaborative community serving those catalyzing and supporting Church Planting Movements. We raise no organizational flags; we work in collaborative unity in service to Jesus alone.

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