1. Matthew 10, Luke 9 and 10 offer an effective strategy for connecting to lost people. 
2. Miracles (healing and/or demonic deliverance) are a consistent component of people entering the Kingdom.
3. The easier the Discovery Process is, the more effective. Thus, we simplified the tool several times. 
4. Training from God’s Word is more powerful, effective, and replicable than human made tools and methods.
5. It is better to go deep in empowering people who are applying CPM principles than focusing on doing more trainings.
6. Everyone is to lovingly obey Jesus, and everyone is to pass on the training to someone else.
7. It is vital to point out when someone is following tradition rather than the Word, but only with cultural sensitivity and growing trust, not as an attack. 
8. It is vital to reach households, not just individuals. 
9. Use Discovery Bible Studies (DBS) for both pre-churches and churches. 
10. Empowering illiterate and semi-literate disciples to do the work yields the most fruit. To that end, we provide rechargeable, inexpensive speakers with story sets on memory cards to those who can’t read. Roughly half of the churches have been planted through the use of these speakers. Disciples sit together, listen to the stories and apply them to their lives.
11. Leadership circles provide sustainable and reproducible mutual mentoring for leaders. 
12. Intercessory prayer and listening prayer are critical.

The movement has consistently reached beyond the 4th generation of groups in many places. In a few locations, it has reached 29 generations. In fact, this is not just one movement, but multiple movements, in 6+ geographical regions, multiple languages and multiple religious backgrounds. Only a handful of churches use special buildings or rented space; nearly all are house churches, meeting in a home or courtyard, or under a tree.

Our Roles as Outside Catalysts (Expats)

• We offer simple, replicable, biblical paradigm shifts.
• We provide strong prayer support as a team, and also mobilize strategic prayer support from abroad.
• We ask questions.
• We train nationals to train others.
• We provide guidance if/when the next step is unclear.
• We are very careful when facing an issue about which we might disagree with Sanjay and John. We consider them as more important than ourselves. They are not our employees, but co-laborers seeking to obey the Lord together. Thus, we encourage them to not just take our word for any issue, but also seek the Lord personally to see what He is saying.
• We sometimes invite our personal DMM mentor to meet with Sanjay and John so they can hear from someone who has seen and done more than we have.
• We strive to decrease their feelings of dependence upon us. We actively choose to get out of the way as quickly as possible.
• We provide tools for discipling leaders (Bible trainings and leadership growth trainings), and tools for discipling churches (Discovery Study).

The Role of Women in the Movement

Female leaders have emerged in disciple making streams facilitated by male leaders. Female leaders have also multiplied and developed other female leaders. In fact, female leaders make up a key component of the work, possibly up to 30-40% of the core leaders of the movements. Women, even young women, lead house churches, plant new churches and baptize other women.

The Role of Key Inside Leaders 

Nationals are the ones who do the “real” work. They walk the dusty roads, enter homes, and pray for miracles and deliverance. They are the ones who start Bible studies with simple farmers and their families, staying in their homes and eating their food, even when it’s over 100 degrees (F) and there’s no electricity or water. They do the work and are thrilled about the fruit they are bearing! Their stories fuel the rest of us to keep going.

Key Factors in Progress

1. Listening prayer. Praying is our job. The Lord has changed and adjusted our approaches many times through prayer. Listening is an important part of prayer. There have been so many changes along the way. So many questions: What’s next? Shall we work with this person? We’ve hit a “roadblock”; what Scriptures shall we use for the next training? Is this a good use of our funding? Is it time to release this brother who’s not applying the model, or shall we give him one more chance? Should we continue training in this city or is this a dead end? We, the entire team, have learned to sit and wait for God’s answer, no matter what the question.
2. Miracles. The movement has grown primarily along relational lines through miracles. We have seen many healings and deliverances from demons. Miracles not only open doors for a DBS, but news about miracles spreads along familial and relationship lines so that other households open. For instance, a disciple might find an opportunity to pray for a demonized person. When the person is delivered, the word spreads throughout their family, including relatives who live in other villages. Those extended relatives ask the disciple to also come pray for them. When the disciple and newly delivered person go and pray, very often a miracle happens for the relatives, too, and another DBS starts. In this way, simple, uneducated people – including those barely in the Kingdom – are seeing God’s Kingdom grow. 
3. Evaluation. We ask a lot of questions: “How are we doing? Will our current actions get us to where we want to go? If we do _____, can the nationals do it without us? Can they replicate it?”
4. We are very cautious about the use of funds.
5. We adapt our material. We are selective about the materials we use. If a new resource we’ve been given doesn’t quite fit, we adjust it. There is no one formula that works for all.
6. We are centered in Scripture. Any “good teaching” we might give would never be as effective as what the Holy Spirit can impress on people’s hearts through the Word. So every training we conduct has a strong scriptural basis. During trainings, everyone makes observations, asks questions, and digs deep.
7. Everyone shares with others what he or she learns. No one is a pond; we are all rivers. Disciples are expected to pass down every training they receive to their own discipleship chains.

We praise God for the great work he has done since our team began focusing solely on the command to make disciples of all nations.

Our team consists of a married couple, another expatriate, and two national coworkers, Sanjay* and John* (Sanjay’s younger brother). We are co-laborers. There’s no sense of “us” or “them.” We are all just disciples of Jesus, people trying to listen to Him and do what He says. Whenever one of us senses a need for a change or a new approach in the work, we present it to the rest of the team as humbly as possible, and then seek the Lord for confirmation in His Word.

We expatriates didn’t come to the field with this perspective. We spent many years on the field spinning our wheels. We were busy but unfruitful. In 2011, we attended disciple making trainings sponsored by our agency. The trainings changed our lives. For two weeks, we studied God’s Word. We didn’t read books about missions or study modern patterns in missions. We simply opened our Bibles and looked for answers to questions such as, “Did Jesus have a strategy for reaching lost people?” 

God used the trainings to shift our paradigms. Most importantly, we faced this question: “What if, instead of focusing on what we can do (engineering, teaching, administration, communication), we focus on what needs to be done?” In all the years we’d been on the field, we had concentrated on using our skills. What if the question had never been about our skills, but rather, “What needs to be done in order to save the lost?” The answer to that question would necessarily include skills we don’t have (like befriending strangers, praying with unbelievers, and following the instructions given in Luke 10). What a relief to realize that obeying Jesus’ command to make disciples (Matthew 28:19) doesn’t revolve around our methods, personality types or intelligence levels. Jesus didn’t invite His first disciples to follow Him because they were the best or the smartest. They were uneducated fishermen, vile tax collectors and oppressed underdogs. But they obeyed Jesus.

We were so excited. For the first time in our lives on the field, we began to focus on God’s desire that none should perish rather than on our skills. We began trying new things, including: 

1. personal obedience (searching for people who would open their households to the gospel),
2. increased prayer (no longer just a personal, devotional time activity; prayer became part of our job description), 
3. casting vision to existing believers to partner in this endeavor, 
4. training interested Christians, and
5. receiving coaching from those ahead of us.

A few months after receiving training, we ran across an acquaintance named Sanjay, a man we hadn’t seen for several years. What follows is Sanjay’s perspective of that meeting.

———————————

I was born into a Christian family. We followed the Christian traditions. When I was old enough, I received four years of Bible training, and then became a Bible teacher. Over time, I started 17 different churches in rural areas over a large geographical area of my country. 

In December 2011, I met Brother Walker on the road in Delhi. He asked if I would like to come to his house for training in church planting. At that point in my life, I was a very proud man. I had a large ministry. I had started a school and a Bible training center. I thought, “What can this guy teach me?” I decided not to go.

However, a month later I called him to wish him a Happy New Year. When I called, he said, “I spoke with before you about a church planting training. Why don’t you come?”

This time, I gave in. I said I would come and bring some friends.

When we arrived, he gave us water to drink and thanked us for coming. Then he gave us paper and pens and said, “Today, we are going to study Scripture. I’m going to go make chai for everyone. While I do that, all of you please copy Matthew 28:16-20 from your Bibles onto your piece of paper. Next to the passage, write how you are going to apply it to your life.”

I thought, “What kind of training is this? All he did was give me a piece of paper and a pen!” I already had Bible college training. I had completed 12 years of very successful ministry. But, in 10 minutes time, I was a changed man. 

I read in Matthew 28 that Jesus said we must go and make disciples. I wrote that down. Later, after I shared what was on my paper, Brother asked me, “Sanjay, you have a very large ministry, but do you have any disciples?”

I thought, “I don’t have a single one. In 10 years, I have done nothing for Jesus. He said to make disciples, but up to this day, I have none.

The next month, I came back to visit the Walkers again. We sat together and studied God’s Word. I decided that from then on, I would leave behind all other things. I returned home with one desire – to do nothing less, nothing else, than disciple making. I resigned from the school I had started, my position with the international ministry that paid a good salary, and my job as president of the Bible training center. I left everything. Since that time, I have focused on obeying Jesus’ command and nothing else. And God has faithfully provided for our every need.

—————-

We began meeting roughly once per month with Sanjay and 15 friends he invited from various districts in his state. Most were Christian-background believers, while a few were Hindu background believers. Those who applied the CPM principles began to quickly see fruit. Sanjay was the head coach and cheerleader for this group.

• By December 2012, there were 55 Discovery Bible Groups, all consisting of lost people.
• By December 2013 there were 250 groups (churches and Discovery groups).
• By December 2014 there were 700 churches, and an estimated 2,500 baptized.
• By December 2015 there were 2,000 churches, and an estimated 9,000 baptized
• By December 2016 there were 6,500 churches, and an estimated 25,000 baptisms.
• By December 2017, there were 21,000 churches and it became impractical to try to count baptisms.
• By December 2018, there were 30,000 churches.

In part 2 we will share a few of the many lessons we learned during this process, the roles of various people involved, and key factors in progress.

My wife Kari and I have lived and served in South Asia since 2000. We’ve been privileged to see many expressions of the Kingdom of God, the multiplication of churches among many unreached people groups. You realize the Finishing The Task effort brings us together to celebrate 20 years since Amsterdam 2000. Hundreds of leaders from missions organizations, various church and denominational backgrounds, gathered in Amsterdam to celebrate the fruit of the Lausanne Congress and the AD 2000 Movement. But ultimately to seek to discern how far we’ve been able to come in the Great Commission pursuit over 2000 years of Great Commission history. 

At that same meeting it was recognized that many thousands of the world’s people groups remained unengaged with the gospel. Of course, that’s unacceptable. It gives birth to the vision that we might finish the task of reaching every people group – every nation, tribe, people and language that will ultimately be represented before the throne of God – that within our generation we might see them engaged with the gospel. As my wife and I have been privileged to see churches multiply around South Asia, we also have become aware of not just unreached peoples but also the unengaged. Even in some cases hidden in our very neighborhoods. 

Over the two decades since Amsterdam 2000, Finishing The Task and other efforts like FTT have been primary catalysts in the engagement of more than 2,500 people groups for the first time in Great Commission history. I want you to think about that with me. Two decades of time, in the context of 2,000 years of Great Commission history. If my math serves me correctly, that’s 1% of Great Commission history. These last two decades, the decades of the FTT movement from the year 2000 till today, represent 1% (20 of 2,000 years) of Great Commission history. What we celebrate today is the fruit of efforts like FTT over those 20 years: almost a hundred people groups, on average, engaged for the first time since the tower of Babel. Having opportunity to know about the Messiah who has given a sacrifice for their sins. 

We have much to celebrate. We are living in a Kairos generation: approximately 20% of the world’s people groups engaged for the first time in 1% of Great Commission history. We’ve often taught that engagement is in some ways like the starting pistol at the beginning of a race. If engagement is like the starting pistol of a race, we recognize that we steward the laps of the race that must be completed. That’s what we’re here to talk about today. 

The point of this session is to ask of the Scripture: “What are the critical components? What are the laps of the race after engagement?” We want to see not only churches established among peoples, indigenous expressions of the Kingdom of God in local contexts and local cultures all over the world. We want to also see those churches reproducing, owning the task, owning the Great Commission effort in the midst of every people group and place. We want to see churches give birth to churches, that generations of churches might multiply, as we anticipate a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language gathered around the throne. We’re in the midst of an enormous task: all the peoples of the planet! Even in the midst of a Kairos generation where so many have been engaged for the first time, we would be deceiving ourselves if we thought our plans, our strategies, and our abilities were sufficient. Not one of us can assume to be the answer. Not one of us can assume we have in our minds, our thoughts, even our plans, a strategy sufficient to finish the task. Ultimately, we have no choice. Praise God, we have no choice but to run to his word and ask the word of God: “How do we run the race that has begun?” 

Would you join me for some Bible study? When we consider fidelity to the doctrine of the New Testament, we often use the term “orthodoxy.” What we mean is that we draw our doctrine directly from the word of God, from the first things of New Testament teaching. In the same way, when we consider mission, it’s important that we pursue orthopraxy. Especially in the pioneer context where we’re crossing cultures or barriers for the sake of engaging new peoples and places for the first time. We have no better place to go for orthopraxy than the pages of the New Testament. For that reason, as we sit down together, I want to ask you to open your Bible to the book actually titled “Praxeis.” You might know it by its English name: the book of Acts. 

As you open your Bible to Acts 13, where we’ll read together, we remember that across the book of Acts, Luke continues to follow those concentric circles of expansion and Kingdom impact outlined in Acts 1:8. Our Savior, on the day he ascended to heaven, instructed his followers to remain in Jerusalem to await the promised Holy Spirit. For when he comes, Jesus said, “You will receive power and you will be my witnesses first of all in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and even to the ends of the earth.” 

As we read through the first half of the book of Acts, we begin to see the Jerusalem phase of ministry, then the Judea and Samaria fields engaged through evangelists like Philip and Peter. Then we come to Acts 13 and find the intentional sending of Barnabas and Saul from the Church of Antioch, establishing and solidifying the “ends of the earth” phase of mission among the ethne. Please read with me Acts 13. I’ll begin in verse one. “Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers,” and we have five names listed here. Verse two: “While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ So after they had fasted and prayed they placed their hands on them and sent them off.” This is often termed the beginning of the first missionary journey of Paul. Of course we see that it wasn’t only Paul but rather Barnabas and Saul, his name before the first journey here. They were identified based on the calling, the setting apart, by the Holy Spirit of God. 

There are several reasons we would turn to this passage and consider it a matter of orthopraxy in the sending of missionaries. For one, in this passage, Luke gives us the first time we see intentional sending. That originated from this Antioch church. The church then gathered its leaders in the midst of prayer and fasting, a posture of abiding. They were able to hear the Spirit’s voice and respond by releasing those sent ones into the work of mission. Perhaps more than any other reason we would highlight this passage, is the simple fact that this is one of the few places in all the Bible where the third person of the Trinity is quoted. This is that Spirit that was hovering over the waters in Genesis 1 as an agent of creation, when God said, “Let there be light.” The same Spirit who, according to 1st Peter, picked up and carried Old Testament prophets, who would give to us by inspiration the very words of God. This Holy Spirit is often silent; it’s rare that we can quote the Holy Spirit. 

This passage is unique in that for the first time in all of Scripture, including post-Pentecost, we have the Holy Spirit of God speaking, being quoted an instruction to the church. What is that instruction? “Set apart for me these two: Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which I have called them.” Luke is introducing a section of Scripture here, with the quotation from the Holy Spirit of God. We realize the Holy Spirit initiated this Spirit-empowered mission, and he will be seen directing the steps of these missionaries at every turn throughout their missionary journey. But we see this same section of Scripture come to a conclusion in Acts 14. Would you turn one page with me in your Bible? 

In Acts 14:26, the work initiated by the Holy Spirit is here again mentioned by Luke. Acts 14:26 says “From Attalia they (Barnabas and Saul, now called Paul) sailed back to Antioch, where they had been committed to the grace of God for the work they had now fulfilled, completed, accomplished.” Luke is using a literary device here. It’s called an inclusio. It amounts to a set of brackets around a passage of Scripture. In this case, the brackets are the work. Acts 13:2 quotes the Holy Spirit saying, “Set apart Barnabas and Saul for the work which I’ve called them”. In Acts 14:23, Luke concludes the section with the second bracket. They returned to where they had been committed to the grace of God for the work they had now fulfilled, completed, accomplished. By putting brackets around this first missionary journey, Luke is telling us to read these two chapters as a textual unit, to read them together. 

If we were missionaries sent out to engage the ethne, the peoples at the ends of the earth in our generation, and we wanted to pursue orthopraxy (to have fidelity to the first practices of mission, most especially in the pioneer context – the ends of the earth where we might be sent), it would be natural, in fact maybe necessary, that we revisit the book called Praxeis and find ourselves here in the center of the book of Acts: looking at a textual unit designed around the work of mission. It seems appropriate then, if our desire is to finish the task, the work the Lord has a assigned, that we would come to such a passage and simply ask the question: “What was the work that Paul and Barnabas put their hand to?” Secondly, “How could the work they put their hand to be described as ‘fulfilled, completed, accomplished’?” Evidently, the work they had done had been done with integrity. 

Now this passage is not new to any of us. Some of us have read this same first missionary journey hundreds of times. What’s interesting as we consider the work that Barnabas and Saul, (soon to be called Paul) were commissioned and sent to do, is that once again it was initiated, empowered, directed by the Holy Spirit. We see these two sent ones, these two apostles, in Acts 14:14. These sent ones are pioneering in otherwise unreached and unengaged provinces and cities. Pioneering – the itinerant ministry of Barnabas and Paul across these two chapters – leads them to encounter not only language barriers like that in Lystra (the Laconia language), but also all sorts of pagan idolatry. In several cases, as in the transition from the Jewish synagogue (as we’ll see in Pisidian Antioch), we see a turning consistent with Paul’s statements of calling to the ethne. We see them pioneering in and across the whole of the island of Cyprus coming to Paphos. We see Sergius Paulus the proconsul hearing the word of the Lord and coming to faith. Then other challenges later in Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe. 

As they pioneer among these peoples and places over and over again, we hear on their lips the “word of the Lord,” “the word of the Lord,” “the word of the Lord.” It’s actually written nine times in two chapters that the word of the Lord is preached by the sent ones – the missionaries. They cared as they pioneered for sowing the seed of the gospel witness. In Acts 13, Luke commits no less than 25 verses to a single sermon in Pisidian Antioch. As Paul and Barnabas went about preaching, that gospel was not received everywhere. In fact, as we look at the end of chapter 13 (verse 46), the Jewish audience in the synagogue of Pisidian Antioch actually find themselves jealous of the response to the gospel. Verse 46 says, “Then Paul and Barnabas answered those who opposed them boldly: ‘We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you rejected and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the ethne. For this is what the Lord has commanded us.,” Quoting the Prophet Isaiah, Paul says, “I have made you a light to the ethne that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.” Verse 48: “When the ethne heard this they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; all who were appointed to eternal life believed.” Verse 49: “This same word of the Lord spread through the whole region.” 

So we don’t just see the pioneering missionaries engaging the field (in this case Pisidian Antioch), preaching the word of the Lord among the ethne. We see those same ethne, those who had been appointed to eternal life, immediately turning to the Lord. We see them across the whole region, carrying on and joining the same work of seed sowing. This is an important transition. In the first missionary journey, before the end of chapter 13, in verse 52, we see the word “disciples.” There in Pisidian Antioch, the disciples were filled with joy, and with this same Holy Spirit, so that where the gospel was preached, where the seed had been sown, we see new life emerging in the field, in the form of disciples. Before the end of the journey, in chapter 14, the word disciple will come up three additional times. In the Galatian cities of Iconium, Lystra and Derbe, even in Lystra where Paul had been stoned presumably to death, and his body dragged outside the city, the new believers gathered around him. The disciples gathered, and when they had prayed, Paul got up and went back into the city. It’s disciples in Derbe, Lystra, and Iconium, who are instructed by Barnabas and Paul that “through many hardships we must enter the kingdom of God.” Paul and Barnabas not only pioneered, not only preached the Gospel message, they also nurtured the new growth in the form of disciples in each of those cities, even returning to cities where they had been persecuted. (In Paul’s case even stoned presumably to death for the sake of encouraging this new growth.) 

If you have your Bibles open, look at Acts 14:23. On the return trip, revisiting all those same cities where they had sown the word of the Lord, where disciples had been made, we see that Paul and Barnabas go about appointing elders in all the churches. Evidently, they cared enough about church formation that they were willing to revisit and recognize local shepherds, local elder-overseers emerging from the harvest who could be appointed there to shepherd and steward the new flock. This missionary task, this first journey, described by Luke as “the work,” has these various components. The task of mission for us, to finish the task, requires that we pioneer. This task that begins with engagement. But realize, as sure as engagement is the starting pistol, we also need to run the laps of the race. Where we engage empty fields, we do so for the sake of gospel seed sowing. Where the gospel is sown, it is normal, natural – even partnership with the Holy Spirit of God – to follow up, to nurture the new growth in the form of disciple making. That’s where the harvest is gathered, so churches can be formed. 

Leaders might emerge not only to shepherd the flock locally, but (as in Acts 16:1 where we see Timothy emerging from this same church in Lystra) also that they might join us in pioneering and gospel seed sowing in the next empty field. Do you recognize this pattern? The work of mission in the book of Acts? It’s not just tied to the first journey. What is introduced here – the bookends of the work in the first journey – we see repeated in the second and in the third. We see them also taken up as stewardship among the churches left behind, as Paul and Barnabas (later Paul and Silas, including Timothy) continued toward a Macedonian call. Toward the Corinthian founding in the Achaean province, toward the founding of the Ephesian church in the province called Asia. 

In each case, through the ringing of the gospel, through disciple making and churches that plant churches, we see evidence of multiplication. We see evidence of resources coming from the harvest that lead to the harvest. I believe each component of this this pattern is essential. Where we are finishing the task of starting, the race is being run. Where we have engaged empty fields, we put our hand to the task of gospel seed sowing, disciple making, church formation and leadership reproduction that can carry on the process. 

Let us seek to steward well our life, our days, even according to Psalm 90: asking the Lord to teach us to number our days, that he might establish the work of our hands. The task, the task, the task. Seeing it finished, seeing the Lord’s return, remains our highest priority. To be found doing his work when he comes, is to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” according to Matthew 25. Consider the task he has called us to finish: mobilizing believers in our churches, our denomination, our sending organization. In each case, whoever that audience may be, it’s simply a matter of asking the questions, answering the questions, “Who do I share with? Who do I engage with the Gospel?” FTT stands ready to help you answer that question. As you discern a target, as you find your calling to the ethne, even perhaps to the ends of the earth, a second question arises: “What do I say? How do we go about carrying the integrity of the word of the Lord among those who haven’t heard?” A third question is, “What do I do if they say yes ? How do we go about making disciples?” If you can answer that question in the hearts and minds of your disciples, they can be mobilized to go and make disciples also.” A fourth question: “How do we form the Church? Beyond our preference, our cultural expectations, or even denominational traditions, what does the word of God have to say about the bride of Christ? How do we form them?” If we answer that question from the word of God, we might see our disciples even as church planters in the midst of pioneer fields. Finally, “How can we reproduce leaders who could go and do all of these same things: engage empty fields, sow the seed of the gospel with integrity, follow up in order to make disciples among those who say yes, form churches out of that harvest, then from the harvest raise up everything needed for the harvest, even raise up leaders who will go out again and multiply. This is the critical path to the multitude from every nation, tribe, people and language. 

The vast multitude described in Revelation 7 does require that we multiply at some point. Are you willing to give these same tasks to your disciples? Are you willing to see them released and sent out even among the ethne, the peoples of the world? Maybe the prior question: are you hearing the voice of the Spirit of God who continues to call out and to send laborers? 

To finish the task is to be found on mission. To finish the task is to send missionaries. “How shall they call on the one of whom they have not heard?” Romans 10 continues, “How shall they hear unless someone preach to them? How shall they preach unless they be sent?” To the local churches, to the denomination structures that might be listening in, the economy of the Kingdom of God begins with sending. And we are in the midst of a Kairos generation. 

A hundred years ago, a missionary hero of mine named J. O. Fraser, worked among the Lisu people in southwest China. He said this about missionary work: 

On the human side, evangelistic work on the mission field is like a man going about in a dark damp valley with a lighted match in his hand seeking to ignite anything ignitable. But things are damp through and through and will not burn however much he tries. In other cases, God’s wind and sunshine have prepared beforehand, the valley is dry in places and when the lighted match is applied, here a shrub, there a tree, here a few sticks, there a heap of leaves. They take fire and they give light in warmth long after the kindled match and its bearer have passed on. This is what God wants to see. Little patches of fire burning all over the world. 

Thanks to the Finish The Task effort, in two decades of this generation, there literally have been a thousand fires started all over the world. 20% of the world’s people groups engaged in the last 1% of Great Commission history. If engagement is like a starting pistol, if engagement is like entering an empty field, the laps of the race of the race must still be run: the gospel seed sowing, the disciple making, and the church formation. To use Fraser’s metaphor, like wood being put onto a small fire. 

As we move forward to engage the unengaged and run the race of church planting among them, be sure of this, brothers and sisters: those thousand fires that have been lit by organizations, efforts like FTT, all those fires are burning toward each other. Recognize with me that the inferno is upon us: the work of the Kingdom of God in our generation. Why couldn’t we be the generation that finishes the task? FTT stands ready not only to cast vision, not only to help you identify a people, but to equip and to train. To see you mobilize your church, your denomination, even your missions organization, so that gospel seed sowing might lead to discipleship and church formation. That from the fruit of those churches, we might see an ever-increasing multiplied labor force joining us in the task of mission. 

Let me pray. Lord God, by the Spirit, by your initiation, by your power, by your direction, Lord God as you led in the first century, we know, we trust, you’re at work in this generation. Do the work of calling. Do the work of sending among so many brothers and sisters who would respond to your call Lord God. Show yourself powerful. Show yourself mighty, show your wisdom among us. Lord God, where your word dwells in our heart, may we never run beyond your Spirit but in step with what you’re doing. Lord God, may we be found about your business until the task is finished. We love you and praise you. In Jesus’ name, Amen. God bless you.

Practical demonstrations of God’s love play an integral role in Church Planting Movements. They serve both as entry points for the good news and as fruits of kingdom transformation in people’s lives and communities.

Access ministries are one of the pillars of New Harvest Ministries (NHM). Since New Harvest began, they have played a major role in showing God’s compassion, making disciples, and planting churches in more than 4,000 communities in 12 countries. These compassionate engagements have been key catalysts in shaping hundreds of thousands of new disciples, and more than ten thousand new Christian leaders.

Compassion is an essential Kingdom value found in the DNA of every Disciple Making Movement. We have dozens of different types of access ministries. Each one plays a unique role in helping us advance God’s kingdom in Africa. Most are not expensive, but with God’s help, they make a great impact. We partner with local people in every ministry. They often provide leadership, labor and materials— things present in the community that can help meet needs.

Heroic Compassion

New Harvest serves many countries from our headquarters in Sierra Leone. When Ebola struck in 2014, we could not stay in safe places and not engage the disaster all around us. The crisis hit many Muslim villages especially hard, as the burial rites caused the epidemic to explode there. Suddenly, because of Ebola, people could not even touch dying parents or children. In that context, several New Harvest leaders volunteered in the most hazardous places. Some survived, but several lost their lives serving others— mostly Muslims.

The Muslim chief of one community was discouraged by people trying to escape his quarantined village. He was amazed at seeing Christians coming to serve. He privately prayed this prayer: “God, if you save me from this, if you save my family, I want us all to be like these people who show us love and bring us food.” The chief and his family did survive and he kept his promise. Memorizing passages from the Bible, he began to share in the mosque where he had been an elder. A church was birthed in that village, and the chief continues going from village to village, sharing the good news of God’s love.

Discovering Felt Needs, Engaging Lostness

For NHM, access ministries begin with assessing the felt needs of a community. When we complete a needs assessment, the partnership with the community must develop mutual respect and trust. After a while, the relationship leads to story-telling and Discovery Bible Studies (DBS). Access ministries let them see the love of Christ and powerfully touch their hearts.

The On-Ramp to Kingdom Movements

Prayer is the foundation for everything we do. So once an assessment is done, our intercessors begin to pray for:

• open doors and open hearts
• the selection of project leaders
• open hands by locals
• a supernatural move of God
• the leading of the Spirit
• God to provide needed resources.

All our prayer centers know the communities being served. They fast and pray for each of them. And God always opens the right door, at the right time, with the right provision.

Prayer is the most powerful and effective access ministry. It has caused a cascading effect throughout the movement. We are convinced beyond any doubt that strategic fasting and prayer consistently leads to the defeat of dark powers. Sometimes praying for the sick opens wide a door for access. Through persistent prayer we have seen very hostile communities opened, unlikely Persons of Peace identified, and whole families saved. All the glory goes to the Father who hears and answers prayer.

Prayer undergirds everything we do. I tell people that the three most important elements of access ministries are: first—prayer, second prayer, and third prayer.

Every Project Makes Our King Famous

We do whatever it takes to get the gospel to people so Christ receives glory. Our work is never about us. It is about Him. We make Him known with a strategic focus on unreached people groups.

Education Team

When education is an obvious need, our intercessors take this need to God in prayer. While we are praying, we engage the community to discover what resources they have. We find out what they can provide to meet their own need. Often the community will supply land, a community building, or construction materials to build a temporary structure.

We usually encourage the community to pay part of the teacher’s salary. The teacher is fully certified and he or she is also a veteran disciple maker or church planter. Schools start with a few benches, pencils or pens, a box of chalk, and a chalkboard. The school may start under a tree, in a community center, or in an old house. We start slowly and grow the school academically and spiritually.

When a Person of Peace opens his or her home, it becomes the launching pad for DBS meetings and later a church. We have launched more than 100 primary schools, most of which are now owned by the community.

From this simple program God has also raised up 12 secondary schools, two trade technical schools, and Every Nation College. This college has an accredited School of Business and School of Theology. Contrary to what some might expect, Disciple Making Movements also need strong seminaries.

Medical, Dental, Hygiene

When we identify a health need, we send in teams of well-qualified medical practitioners with medicines, equipment and supplies. All our team members are strong disciple makers and skilled in facilitating the DBS process. Many are skilled church planters as well. While the team treats patients, they also look for a Person of Peace. If they don’t discover one on their first visit, they make a second visit. Once they discover a Person of Peace, he or she will serve as the bridge and the future host for the DBS. If they don’t find a Person of Peace, the team will go to a different community, while still praying for an open door into the previous one.

Ten church planters have been well trained, equipped as dentists. They are accredited by health authorities to do mobile dental extractions and fillings. One of them also doubles as an optometrist. He checks eyesight and dispenses suitable glasses. He does this at cost, to keep the process going and to avoid dependency. Other health team members provide training on hygiene, breast feeding, nutrition, child vaccines, and prenatal care for pregnant women.

A Most Unusual Access Ministry

We do all of this in a Christ-like manner, seeking to make God’s kingdom visible. God moves and makes His presence known. This often starts with one family or an unlikely community leader. In this way we consistently see ongoing multiplication of disciples, Discovery Bible Groups, and churches.

One large community in the Southern part of Sierra Leone had been very difficult for us to enter. They were extremely hostile toward Christians. People identified as Christians found it difficult even to enter that place. So we prayed for that town. But time passed and none of our strategies worked.

Then suddenly something happened! The national news reported a health problem in that town. Young men were becoming ill and dying. It was found that the infections related to the fact that the village never circumcised their boys. As I prayed about the problem I felt the Lord convict me that this was finally our open door to serve this town.

We gathered a volunteer medical team and went to the community with the proper equipment and medications. We asked if they would let us help them. We were delighted when the town leaders agreed. In the first day they circumcised more than 300 young men.

Over the next days the men were just healing. That gave us opportunity to begin Discovery Bible Groups during the healing days. We saw great response, and soon Kingdom multiplication began happening with churches being planted! Within just a few years a place where Christians could not enter was transformed into a place where God’s glory shone brightly. The compassion of God’s people, the power of much prayer, and the transforming Word of God changed everything.

Agricultural Team

Our first access ministry was agriculture. In places where farming is critical, agriculture becomes a great gateway to serve people. Most of the farming is subsistence farming, mainly for family consumption. Often no seed is saved for the next planting.

These situations led us to develop seed banks for farmers. As with our other teams, we trained nine agriculturists who are also trained church planters. These agriculturists/disciple makers educate the farmers. Their training and mentoring lead to relationships that result in DBS groups, baptisms and eventually churches. Today many farmers have become followers of Christ….

Planting Churches

About 90% of our attempted access ministries have led to a church. Very often one engagement results in several churches planted. As we revisit communities we hear many testimonies of individual, family, and community transformations. Compassion for people, making God famous!

In Part 1 of this post we shared the development and pilot project of the two-rail model. Here is how God worked, through four years of applying this approach. 

3. Year One: Training and Filtering Participants 

During the first year, we provided training consisting of sixteen topics. This was done during a full day of training every other week. I agreed that half the training topics would grow the “Rail 1” church. This helped them see that we wanted to serve the above-ground church. But my priority was the other half of the training topics – designed to equip the “Rail 2” group. These focused on serving Muslims outside the church and discipling them quietly in small groups. 

The initial training year of training focused on character and eight basic skills of leadership. One of these skills is “Egg Management.” This is what we call our report using circles (like eggs) to show small group multiplication. We manage based on fruit, not activity. On the field, we want to find workers who use a variety of strategies and tactics. But we mainly want to evaluate the fruit being produced by their activities. So we explain to field workers the markers of progress. After they agree to those markers, we do regular evaluation together.

The Kingdom Unleashed: How Jesus’ 1st-Century Kingdom Values Are Transforming Thousands of Cultures and Awakening His Church by Jerry Trousdale & Glenn Sunshine. (Kindle Locations 701-761, from Chapter 3 “Praying Small Prayers to an Almighty God”)

I’m the President of Lifeway Mission, based in Nairobi. Kenya. I also serve as Director for New Generations East African region. I’d like to share about the importance of developing discipleship materials. When you make disciples, you need to have content that will help in that process. Many churches and mission organizations have attempted to obey Jesus’ command to “Go make disciples.” But some of these ministries are ineffective at making disciples because they lack fitting materials for making others into Jesus’ disciples. I want us to explore together the process of developing discipleship material that can help us make others into Jesus’ disciples. 

I see three stages in developing discipleship material. The first stage is preparation. This stage addresses the things we need to know before we start developing discipleship material. The second stage is organizing our materials into sessions and topics that address the needs of new disciples. The third stage involves developing the content. We will look at principles for developing discipleship material, focusing in on preparation. 

Preparation involves four activities that anybody who wants to prepare discipleship material needs to do. First is prayer. A disciple-maker needs to pray for God’s leading in developing materials that fit the new disciples. We need to know the mind of God, the leading of his Spirit. The Spirit will lead us to the best content – the best food we can give a newborn baby. Because a new disciple needs to learn new things. If we can’t pray effectively, we will not know God’s mind and the leading of the Holy Spirit in this area. So the first step is to engage with God in prayer. 

Second is getting to know your audience or your target people group. In reaching unreached people groups, we can’t just feed them bowls of solid food when they’re newly coming to saving faith in Jesus. We need to get to know where they are in their spiritual journey. What do they know? What they don’t know? What is their level of education? What is their economic situation? What are their challenges? Are they from a Muslim background or Hindu background? How old are they? We need to know all these things before we start thinking of developing discipleship material. That is why any disciple maker who wants to develop discipleship material needs to understand their audience. I’ve seen too many people taking material from one place or group and thinking it can apply directly to a different group in just the same way. This will not work effectively. For example, we have people who are oral learners and others who have significant education. If you don’t really understand your audience, it will be very difficult to develop effective discipleship material. That’s why the second step in preparation is so important: get to know the audience we are discipling, as individuals and as a group. We need to know them very well. 

The third activity is to develop a team that will work on developing the discipleship material. This team has to consist of people who have experience working among the target people group or community: the kind of people you want to disciple. This team can brainstorm, think together, and pray together. They can get to know the details of the focus group. A team is critical to the process because one person sitting alone cannot come up with all the issues that will need to be addressed in the discipleship of this focus people group.

I’ve seen people around the world going online and downloading material that sometimes doesn’t address or even fit a people group’s issues. We can sometimes borrow ideas from other tribes or other people groups, but that doesn’t mean the issues in that tribe are the same issues that this tribe has. That’s why it is critical that this team have knowledge and understanding of this specific people group. 

The fourth activity is analysis. This team comes together to look at issues and start analyzing issues they need to address in the discipleship process of this people group. The team will collect information and look at all the issues and challenges the focus group has. What are their world view issues that the Scriptures need to address? What beliefs do they have that the discipleship process needs to work on? 

That is how you can choose your topics and sessions in the discipleship material. If you are not able to collect and analyze information about the beliefs and practices of the people group, you will come up with something you think fits them, but it may not. Many discipleship materials being used today do not address either the spiritual needs or the physical needs of the people groups. That is why we need to have a team of people who can analyze and develop the topics needing to be addressed for each tribe or people group. These activities are important in this first step of preparing yourself to develop discipleship material. You don’t need to rush into this. The more time you take, the more you will understand the needs of this people group. This will enable the development of materials effective for making disciples of Jesus within their own context.

Our country is very diverse. Many areas have no believers in Christ. Yet some regions have established churches. Some of these churches have potential to reach Muslims. However, most churches in majority (90 to 99 percent) Muslim areas have not added Muslims as believers for years. They often fear a reaction if some were to believe. In many majority Muslim areas, churches hold on to Christian cultural traditions. They don’t connect with the unreached peoples in their communities. Cultural practices of the visible (“above-ground”) church, and reactions to it, make it difficult to connect with Muslims. The culture of above-ground (“first-rail”) churches differs greatly from the culture around them. This increases social obstacles for spiritually hungry Muslims. We propose a different model: a “second-rail” church. This underground church comes out of the same “station,” but meets in small groups and is not easily noticed by the community. Can a traditional church in a majority Muslim area start a “second-rail” (underground) church? Can they disciple Muslims in small groups, while also protecting the “first-rail” ministry of the church? 

When the encrypted message came across my phone I was stunned by its simplicity and boldness, and humbled again by the words of “Harold,” my dear friend and partner in the Middle East. Though a former Imam, Al Qaeda terrorist and Taliban leader, his character has been radically transformed by the forgiving power of Jesus. I would trust Harold with my family and my own life – and I have. Together we lead a network of house church movements in 100+ countries called the Antioch Family of Churches. 

I had sent Harold a message the day before asking if any of our former Muslim, now Jesus-following brothers and sisters living in Iraq would be willing to help rescue Yazidis. He replied:

 “Brother, God has already been speaking to us about this for several months from Hebrews 13:3 (NLT) ‘Remember…those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies.’  Are you willing to stand with us in rescuing persecuted Christians and Yazidi minorities from ISIS?” 

What could I say? For the last several years our friendship had bonded into a deep commitment to walk the same path with Jesus and work together toward fulfilling the Great Commission. We were working feverishly to train leaders who would multiply our passionate surrender to Jesus, carrying His message of love to the nations. Now Harold was asking me to take another step deeper into rescuing people from slavery to sin and the horrific crimes of ISIS. 

I responded: “Yes, Brother, I am ready. Let’s see what God will do.”

Within hours, teams of trained, experienced local church planters from the Middle East, volunteered to leave their posts to do whatever it would take to rescue these people from ISIS. What we discovered changed our hearts forever. 

God was already at work! Broken by the demonic, barbaric actions of ISIS terrorists, Yazidis began pouring into our underground secret locations we called “Community of Hope Refugee Camps.” We mobilized teams of local Jesus-followers to provide free medical care, trauma-healing counseling, fresh water, shelter and protection. It was one movement of Jesus-following house churches living out their faith to impact another people. 

We also discovered that the best workers came from nearby house churches. They knew the language and culture, and had the heartbeat of evangelism and church planting. While other NGO’s who registered with the government had to restrict their faith message, our non-formal church-based efforts were filled with prayers, Scripture readings, healings, love and care! And because our team leaders had been lavishly forgiven by Jesus, they lived completely surrendered and filled with courageous boldness. 

Soon letters began to pour in: 

I am from a Yazidi family. For a long time the condition of my country has been bad because of war. But now it has become worse because of ISIS. 

Last month they attacked our village. They killed many people and kidnapped me along with other girls. Many of them raped me, treated me like an animal and beat me when I didn’t obey their orders. I begged them, “Please don’t do this to me,” but they smiled and said, “You are our slave.” They killed and tortured people many people in front of me. 

One day they took me to another place to sell me. My hands were tied and I was yelling and crying as we walked away from the men who sold me. After 30 minutes, the buyers said, “Dear Sister, God sent us to rescue Yazidi girls from these bad people.” Then I saw there were 18 girls they had purchased. 

When we arrived in the Community of Hope camp we understood that God sent His people to save us. We learned that the wives of these men gave up their gold jewelry and paid for us to be free. Now we are safe, learning about God and have a good life.

I’m William J. Dubois, the Co-leader of the Antioch Family of Churches, a global alliance of indigenous Church Planting Movements. For the last 30 years, we have focused on building the leadership capacity of first-generation Christians who live in closed countries and helping them learn to multiply house churches. Today I will focus on launching movements among Muslim peoples. 

For the first 20 years of our work, much of our efforts were filled with missteps, mistakes, and failures. However, it was through a personal crisis in my own life that we learned to make adjustments that would lead to breakthroughs. In 2004 I was helping underground house church leaders from Iran learn and understand 2 Timothy. After this training was completed, I was poisoned by an Al-Qaeda operative and nearly died. A lot of people were praying for me, and after two and a half months of doctors’ and hospital visits trying to determine what had happened, I was miraculously healed.  I’m very grateful for that!

But the power of the story came later – years later as a matter of fact. I was co-hosting a church planting movement training for leaders from Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan, and at the beginning of our time together we were introducing ourselves. I found out that one of our church planters there was the man who had commissioned my poisoning! 

At that moment I began to understand that multiplying movements requires much more than cross-cultural language and culture ability. The power of incarnation begins with learning about the soul of people. And in this case, developing a deep understanding of those who were radicalized for evil. The Lord put me on a journey to begin to understand the heart of what it would take to start movements among Muslims. 

Today that same Antioch Family of Churches has 1,225 movement engagements in 748 languages in 157 countries. There are 2.3 million house churches with 42 million adults. What God has started, in and among us, began with our brokenness, our missteps, and our misunderstandings. But after the Lord graciously allowed us to learn of some powerful tools and effective principles, exponential breakthrough has taken place. 

We focus on three priorities. The first one is rescuing people from slavery into sonship. That slavery may be human trafficking, but it’s always the slavery of sin. And it’s a life filled with discrimination, pain, and heartache. But when they enter into a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ, they become sons and daughters of the living God, and co-heirs. So our relationship, even with new believers, is not hierarchical. It’s like a family because we’re asking them to be baptized into Jesus, and then into the Church, and then into the world. We never ask anyone to join our culture before they find our Savior. We make sure they meet our Savior first. Then together we discover what church would look like in their own culture. So, the first priority is to rescue from slavery into sonship. 

The second one is to empower people to bring others to Christ. You may have heard the term “seeking out a man of peace.” In our model, we seek out a man or woman of influence. We call it the Cornelius Model, from Acts chapter 10. We ask the Lord to show us people who have incredible influence in their village or their community, or their country. By bringing the gospel to them, they in turn have the ability to spread that good news to all the people in their social network. Then, just like the Apostle Paul asked Titus to establish elders in every church, we ask these Corneliuses to help raise up leaders and establish elders in every house church. Our ministry, then, is from church to church. Not organization to church but a local church partnering with another indigenous house church to ask God what needs to be done and then work on it together. 

Then comes our third priority which is multiply. Second Timothy 2:2 says that the things we have heard from reliable people, we are to pass on to those who can share it with others. It’s a three-generation multiplication. We’ve found that if we focus on growing generations of leaders, we can multiply movements. Our leadership training is based on obedience, not knowledge. I’ll give you an example. Several years ago, we opened up a new ministry in a major city, and we found someone interested in spiritual things. One of our workers began having a conversation with them, and soon they were asking about Jesus. But before explaining the depth of the Kingdom, we asked that person to go find five friends. 

The goal was not to bring these five friends together into a house church meeting, but rather, have each one of them be mentored by this “Cornelius.” These five would begin immediately sharing with five of their friends, and those five friends would find five of their own friends. So from the very beginning, multiplication was embedded into the whole ministry. 

With these three things – rescue, empower, and multiply – we discovered that we can learn so much from people who are just coming to Christ. So instead of us teaching them with declarative statements, we begin by asking powerful questions. Here are the three questions that we ask. We ask, “Who is spiritually hungry? When are they spiritually seeking? And where are they spiritually attentive?” We try to find the cultural and spiritual rhythms of those to which we are ministering. 

For instance, Easter weekend isn’t going to be a high holy day for a Muslim because they don’t know Jesus yet. We found, actually, that Ramadan is the most important calendar moment when we can share the good news with Muslims. Why? Because that’s the month when they’re seeking God. Granted it’s not the same God. They’re not seeking after Jesus the Son of God; they’re just trying to find a way to earn enough credit that God might accept them. So instead of introducing them to our holidays first, we’ve decided to come alongside them, understand their spiritual rhythms, and pray for those who are spiritually hungry. We find where they’re hungry and what they’re attentive to. Then through spiritual conversations, we can find a Cornelius. We ask him to find his friends and the multiplication process begins. 

We have equipped our leaders with a translation of Scriptures or key verses. We often provide them Wi-Fi boxes, so that with the push of a button they can spread the JESUS film or portions of the New Testament, at least in trade languages. If the people group is unengaged, we provide our teams mobile backpacks, so that if they’re in villages they can show the JESUS film to as many as 300 people. And we give them lots of training in how to start spiritual conversations with people – so that people want to know the God who can rescue them, empower them and multiply their influence. They can meet God, Jesus, who can forgive them of their sins. 

In the midst of all of this, we found that if we come together and pray, if we build teams to intercede, there’s tremendous opportunity in these moments. There’s one special day, toward the end of Ramadan (the 27th day actually), called the Night of Power. On that single night, many Muslims all over the world believe that their prayers carry a thousand times the weight of other days. And on that night, they ask God for a revelation of who he is. They ask God for forgiveness of their sins, and they ask for dreams and visions. So we send our people in, to mingle with those seeking a God they don’t know, so we can share about the God that we do know. 

On May 19th, 2020, more than one billion Muslims gathered together in homes to fast and pray. For the first time since 622AD, the mosques were closed, because of the coronavirus. They prayed on this “Night of Power” for a special revelation from “Allah” and for forgiveness of their sins. At the same time, more than 38 million Jesus followers from 157 nations – all former Muslims – lifted their voices in prayer asking the one true and living God to reveal Himself through signs, wonders, dreams and visions to the Muslims around the world. They prayed that for the first time, through the power of the Holy Spirit, Muslims would understand the mercy, love, and forgiveness found only in Jesus Christ. And on this “One Miracle Night” God heard our prayers. 

When we agree together in prayer and go to the throne room of heaven, we ask Jesus to intercede on our behalf – so we’re going to have spiritual conversations at the right time in the right place. We can expect miraculous things to happen. I want to tell you a story that happened this year during the month of Ramadan. We sent teams from village to village during this time, asking the Lord to give us open doors and open hearts. One team went to a country (I apologize that for security reasons I am not able to share the details of the country), but they went to a village where no one received them. No one showed hospitality, no one opened their door. 

By the end of the day, the team was very discouraged. They went outside the village and all sat under a tree and built a campfire so they would be warm for the night. They began to pray and ask the Lord what to do, asking for a way to have a breakthrough in this village. As the night went on they fell asleep. Soon they were awakened and one of the leaders saw a blazing fire coming their way. It turned out to be 274 people with a fire torch in their hands, walking toward them. The team was initially filled with fear until one of them said, “Hey, we prayed that we’d have an opportunity to go to this village and share Jesus. Now the village is coming to us!” 

Just before they met these people, one of the 274 men stepped forward and said, “We don’t know who you are, we don’t know where you’re from, and we didn’t open our homes to you when you were in our village today. But tonight, every single one of us has had the exact same dream. And in that dream an angel appeared to us and said, “These people who came to your village are the ones who have the truth. You should go and ask them, and follow what they say.” 

That was the moment: spiritual conversations with the right people, at the right time, in the right place occurred. And before the night was over, 274 leaders of homes all made professions of faith and left their religion to walk in relationship with Jesus. That’s the power of prayer and having spiritual conversations in the right place. 

I want to leave you with one other story about launching movements among Muslim peoples. It comes not from the idea that the worker or the missionary is the one who’s supposed to do this. It’s about equipping and building leaders, a Cornelius, who will multiply the work. Several months ago, leaders came to me and said, “You know, we haven’t been able to reach certain villages and there’s no way to get to them using regular means. So we prayed, and we feel the Holy Spirit has asked us to set aside teams of people who will go across the desert and make sure that all of the unengaged people, all of those who are unreached and untouched, would hear the good news.” 

You and I have an opportunity to launch movements among Muslim peoples. It begins when we train local people who are living nearby and are near culture. We find a Cornelius, we invest in that person, and he helps us understand how to mobilize his friends to tell their friends. It can be as far away as the deserts of the Middle East on camels. If we empower local churches to take on the responsibilities God has given them instead of us being at the front, we become the Barnabas who supports these apostles and people who are sending. So I would say that our responsibility is to equip people with training and tools and to build trust. They appoint leaders and they send church planters to multiply other people who will then share the good news. 

In summary, I think we can look at launching movements among Muslim peoples in this way. First, a book of Acts culture can produce a book of Acts breakthrough. Second, we launch movements among Muslim peoples by adjusting our conversations, so the conversations are spiritually led with the right people, at the right time, in the right place. 

We ask people to be baptized into Jesus, then help them discover what their church looks like, rather than asking people to find their way in the culture of our church. We need to also ask God for a Cornelius, a man or a woman of influence, who will use their influence to multiply the Kingdom among the relationships they already have. I want to encourage you as you consider launching movements among Muslim peoples, to look for tools, to find quality training, and to build trust. One church, connecting with the nearby and near culture church, so that together you can go to unengaged, unreached peoples, and see a Cornelius multiply the Kingdom in partnership with you. God bless you.

Amid a pandemic and uncertainty, God is still at work. His Spirit is moving in the lives of people all around the world.

As people have found themselves at home, at times alone, and with questions, many are seeking answers to the challenges and emotions they are feeling. One of the places that people are turning to for answers is the internet. The number of people online – searching on Google, watching videos on YouTube, making comments on Facebook, and more – continues to rise.

Facebook has over 2 billion users, and YouTube is the second largest search engine behind Google (which owns YouTube). This increase in social media users is also increasing opportunities for social media ministry and discipleship.

God is truly opening doors for the gospel for many who are seeking.

From One Comes Many

God opened a door to the gospel for Azzibidiin through an evangelistic ad he saw on social media. He responded to the ad and was connected with a local disciple-maker named Bishara. Bishara had come to faith a year ago and has enthusiastically shared his faith with anyone who will listen. As a result, 300-400 have come to faith, representing 30 unique communities of faith. Bishara has been greatly persecuted for his faith but has kept his hand to the plow and is currently discipling and equipping Azzibidiin for ministry.

You Are Not Alone

For college students in one Asian region, God opened a door to the gospel through video clips from the Jesus Film used in a social media ad campaign. One student responded to an ad with a message saying, “I thought I was the only person feeling so lonely during the pandemic, yet I hear of you Christians and your love for us.” This student was not alone in hearing the love of Christ. At least three people have accepted Christ after responding to these ads.

One ad campaign asked, “What kind of prayer would you ask God to answer?” Hundreds of students replied with statements such as “God, please forgive me.” “God, please help me with the things that make me afraid.” “God, please bring me someone who understands and loves me.” “God, please show me what choices to make.”

The Unreached Reaching Out

Social media is allowing many in unreached areas to connect with those who can share the good news. For example, a Facebook ministry page gained more than 1,800 followers from an unreached group in Southeast Asia. Local Christians have been connecting with those interested in the gospel, and at least one person has already been baptized.

Not A Coincidence

Through the use of targeted ads and organic (non-paid) content, people are hearing about Jesus. In a country that is 99.9% Muslim, this message arrived to a team using mass media to find seekers: “Everywhere on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube I always came across things about Jesus and so on. I don’t think this could be a coincidence. I wonder if … I can believe in Jesus. I wonder if I can see a miracle.”

Extraordinary Times and Tools

Since the beginning of the Church, people have been sharing the good news. We share the hope within us as we interact with people throughout the day in our work, schools, and elsewhere. With the power and scale of the internet, we now have tools and technology that allow us to reach out to distant locations 24 hours a day. Even as we sleep, God’s Spirit is at work drawing seekers to those who can share about His Son, Jesus Christ.

Digital outreach does not replace us personally living out a missional life, but it does allow for a radically different ministry paradigm as seekers reach out to Christian workers. These seekers are contacting people who can start a conversation with them (both online and then offline), which can ultimately lead to a disciple who can make disciples.

Not A Magic Bullet

Digital outreach is not a magic bullet. We cannot just run a paid ad and expect thousands to be saved. Much strategy, training, and thought is needed to best leverage these digital opportunities. But with those in place, this powerful tool can be used for God’s glory and the advance of his kingdom.

If you are curious or want to start finding seekers via mass media, several ministries offer coaching and provide resources for Christian workers using such media. A few are:

Media to Movements – The Media To Movements team equips disciple makers in media strategies to identify and engage spiritual seekers who accelerate a movement of reproducing disciples. They provide coaching and mentorship from the first steps through ongoing outreach. www.Mediatomovements.org 

Kingdom Training – This group has been doing digital outreach for years and has several excellent courses to help people get started. www.Kingdom.training 

Mission Media U – MMU is a mentored, online training platform designed to help Christ-followers be more effective in making disciples and establishing churches by using media, story, and innovative technology. www.missionmediau.org/foundations-of-media-strategy 

Kavanah Media – Specializes in helping mission teams and churches find seekers in their context. Specializing in training, media creation, management of campaigns, and coaching, they work with ministries to make the most of their advertising budget. They also host of a weekly media outreach podcast: “Christian Media Marketing.” www.Kavanahmedia.com 

A coalition of Media to Movements, Kingdom Training, and Mission Media U have put together  a great video reflecting what these teams are working towards. Watch the video What Is Media Outreach? to see a great example of collaboration.

The strategy that the above groups use all begins with the end in mind: reproducing disciples. The research-informed, creative, and culturally sensitive media content—videos and social media posts, combined with strategic marketing, invites people to explore and respond to Scripture. I pray that we might look at these times, and like the men of Issachar (1 Chron. 12:32) understand the times and use all possible means to see that all can know of Christ’s love, sacrifice, and forgiveness.