Never fear making mistakes

After Monday's semi-depressing post, I was encouraged to find the following quote by former IMB missionary Curtis Sergeant on the YWAM Church Planting site...

Never fear mistakes. The U.S. Marine Warfighting Manual states that risk is inherent equally to action and inaction. This is manifestly untrue in matters of church planting. Inaction has infinitely more risks than action. Almost any way of planting a church is better than not planting a church at all. Wayne Gretzke says, "You miss one hundred percent of the shots you never take." Nothing significant is ever achieved without taking risks, and there is no risk greater than the status quo in our situation. If the situation does not change, unreached people groups will remain unreached, and millions will die and enter a Christ-less eternity. No possible alternative is a greater evil than this. So the greatest risk of all in our situation is the status quo. We must not fear making mistakes, because the mistakes can be no worse than the current situation.
-- Curtis Sergeant

So, therefore, fellow laborers in the harvest, let's get out there and go ahead and try some of those ideas we fear will not work. If only 1 of 10 things we attempt bear fruit, we will be making an impact on lostness and lives will be touched for eternity. That is what is at stake.

9 out of 10 things we attempt don't bear fruit

The other day a fellow missionary commented to the effect that our Guayaquil church planting efforts seemd to be going so much better than their own. The comment caught me totally off guard. Do they not know that 9 out of every 10 things we attempt in the work don't bear fruit? In our own eyes we are scratching and struggling everyday. We are at a loss most of the time to get a handle on the overwhelming lostness around us. How are we supposed to reach the 3.3 million people in our province for Jesus?

It is easy to become disillusioned with it all. So much of our effort seemingly goes for naught. We have many more failures to show than successes. Disappointments far outnumber the success stories.

Last night is typical. I spent the evening at one of our Baptist churches who had invited me to share about our COSECHA (Harvest) church planting materials. My understanding was that the church was eager to implement the plan to reach their community for Christ (why else would they have invited me to share the materials?) After an exciting, interactive evening with people pumped up and ready to get on board with the vision, I turned the service back over to the pastor. He thanked me for coming out and wished us the best and from there went on with the weeks announcements and the meeting ended. We were just another Sunday night service! I drove home upset and disappointed. It didn't help matters to drive by a large open air AOG church packed to the hilt. Instead of rejoicing over the multitudes they are winning to Christ, all I could think about was how we had been turned down, how sad, lonely and confused I was feeling.

It is frustrating to spend months training a group of believers to go out and make disciples and plant new churches only to see nothing come of the effort. How many times have we poured ourselves into a project that was supposed to make a major impact for the cause of Christ, only to honestly evaluate and realize it accomplished very little? How many hours I have poured myself into individuals with little to show for the investment into their lives?

I hate to count the times we have prayed, invested time and money, expended vast amounts of spiritual and emotional energy, but when all the dust settles at the end of the day there is little to show for all the effort. Church plants begun in a burst of excitement and glory dissolve after a few short weeks without much of a reason. People we thought won to Christ just melt back into the multitudes. What on earth is going on?!?!

Where is the promised victory? The spiritual fruit that remains? Why is there so little to show for all our effort and sacrifice? Why does everyone else seem to be getting the job done and we are still trying to figure out what it is we are supposed to be doing? Why do 9 out of 10 things we attempt come to no avail?

Oh yeah, we are good about putting on a good public face about all we are doing and the "great things" happening out there (the 1 out of 10)... But in our prayer closet we sit stupefied before the Lord asking those painful questions: What happened? Where did we blow it? Why weren't you able to bless this, Lord? What am I doing wrong? Where's that abundant fruit promised in John 15?

I wish I could now turn the page and write a spiritually satisfying response. Something to give a nice spiritual perspective to the above frustrations (I'm sure 9 out of 10 reading this could!)

After sitting here a long time thinking on these things, the only consolation I can come up with is that which Paul tried to explain when he wrote the Corinthians, "while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." (2 Cor.4:18)

We simply have to trust God on all these matters. It really is a faith journey. That which is "seen" is not real. That which is "not seen" is real. We just need to keep on keeping on...

Somewhere in the mystery of God's ways, His will is being accomplished through our lives. It is not up to us to judge or question God's ways with us. We tend to measure ourselves by the world's standards of success--yes, even missionaries to do this!--but He clearly states,

"My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it." (Is.55:8-11)

So what if 9 out of 10 things we attempt don't bear fruit according to our good intentioned plans? God is at work accomplishing what HE DESIRES. Our part is to be happy knowing that we are allowed to even play a small part in this mysterious drama of the ages. He is faithful to bring about his purposes in his own good time and pleasure.

God is God. Enough said.

What do we mean by 'simple church?'

We are often asked about the kind of church planting going on overseas. There seems to be much interest in what these churches look like in comparison with the home churches back Stateside. They say a picture is better than a 1000 words. With that in mind a few days back I attempted to "draw with words" a description of a typical Guayaquil house church meeting.

Today's entry is an accompaniment piece to the one linked above. It is taken straight from the House2House website and in a few broad strokes describes characteristics of what we call 'simple church.'

What do we mean by 'simple church?'

Some call them house churches. Some call them organic churches. Some call them simple churches. We prefer to just call them churches.

They are rapidly multiplying, simple communities of believers, meeting in homes, offices, campuses, wherever God is moving. This is the pattern common to many parts of the globe, and is now becoming more and more common in the U.S. as well.

Where are two or more are gathered in His name, there is church.

Where "DNA" is present among people, there is church.

"D" stands for Divine Truth (loving God/Jesus)
"N" stands for Nurturing Relationships (loving one another deeply)
"A" stands for Apostolic Mission (being on Jesus' mission to the world)

Buildings, programs, and professional clergy are not essential elements of a church.

By 'simple church', we mean a way of doing and being church that is so simple that any believer would respond by saying, "I could do that!"

By 'simple church', we mean the kind of church that is described in the New Testament. Not constrained by structure but by the needs of the extended family, and a desire to extend the Kingdom of God.

By 'simple church', we mean a church that listens to God, follows His leading and obeys His commands.

By 'simple church', we mean spiritual parents raising spiritual sons and daughters to establish their own families.

House Church

House Church is a term sometimes used in the way we use the term Simple Church. It can be confusing in that: A Simple Church may or may not meet in a house (it can meet anywhere).

Church Planting Movements

Church Planting Movements occur when simple churches multiply rapidly.

This is a Very Old "New" Idea

Churches in the New Testament were most often small gatherings that met in homes.

"Greet Priscilla & Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus. They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful for the. Greet also the church that meets at their house." Romans 16:3-4

"But when the Jews opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, 'Your blood be on your own heads! I am clear of my responsibility. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.' Then Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house of Titius Justus, a worshiper of God." Acts 18:6-7

Does 'simple' mean lower quality?

Absolutely not! While no structure or format can guarantee quality, we believe that the small, participatory, family-like environment of a simple church is ideally suited to the goal of helping people become passionate disciples of Jesus Christ.

Lower the bar of how church is done; raise the bar of what it means to be a disciple!

"We want to lower the bar of how church is done and raise the bar of what it means to be a disciple." --Neil Cole, "Organic Church"

Neil goes on to say: "If Church is simple enough that everyone can do it and is made up of people who take up their cross and follow Jesus at any cost, the result will be church that empowers the common Christian to do the uncommon works of God." (p.27)

Our "simple" church planting here in Guayaquil is known as "La Iglesia En Tu Casa" (LIETC)--The church in your house.

We have identified at least 13 guiding values that the Lord has seemingly been pleased to bless over the past 5+ years of church planting.

1.) LIETC is built upon a foundation of prayer, which is the most important work in which we are engaged. (Luke 10:2)

2.) LIETC is built upon the idea of "mobilizing the laity." The laity is empowered to go and do tasks traditionally assigned only to trained professional clergy. (Eph.4:11-12, 1 Pet.2:9-10)

3.) LIETC is built upon the concept of taking the church to where the people are, rather than bringing the people to the church. (Matt.28:18-20, Luke 10:3)

4.) LIETC crosses denominational lines and works with Great Commission Christians to plant New Testament churches. (Eph.4:4-6)

5.) LIETC depends on God to provide the workers, free of recruitment or manipulation. Prayer is the key. (Luke 10:2)

6.) LIETC is built upon the understanding that women are likewise called to plant churches. (Matthew 28:18-20)

7.) LIETC is built upon the understanding that it is Christ's responsibility to build His church, not ours (Mt. 16:18). Our task is the Great Commission; his to build His Church.

8.) LIETC is built upon an understanding that the missionary task is primarily one of praying, modeling, teaching, training, encouraging and mentoring. (Eph.4:11-12)

9.) LIETC is built upon the strategic use of locally available and reproducible communication media. We don't use or model anything that can't be done/reproduced locally by the people we work with.

10.) LIETC is built upon the idea of church being more a "family gathering" held in a home setting, and less a "traditional church service." (1 Cor. 12-14, 14:26, Book of Acts)

11.) LIETC is built on the twin pillars of prayer and lifestyle evangelism. There is a continuous emphasis on these two areas.

12.) LIETC is built upon the understanding that group multiplication is the focus, not addition to existing works. (Matthew-Luke, the "parables of the kingdom.")

13.) LIETC belongs to God, and He can do as He pleases. Change in the way things are done is an on-going process as God continues to open our eyes to his ways of building the Kingdom.

Good news and bad news about our evangelism efforts

Do our evangelistic efforts count for anything? The good news first...

Baptist Press has a recent story quoting SWBTS Evangelism Professor Roy Fish as saying,

"On average, one person who is lost comes the seventh time he or she is exposed to the Gospel."

"To illustrate, Fish recounted the many exposures to the Gospel in his own journey to faith -- a Sunday School teacher, someone who placed a tract in a bus station and a sermon from a pastor. Each individual shared the Gospel with Fish, but none of them were present when his moment of salvation came. Fish challenged [his audience] to be willing to be the fourth or fifth contact in the process of someone coming to salvation."

"There would never be a number seven, he said, if there wasn't a number four."

That is certainly something to think about. How many of us really know where in the Holy Spirit's time-line we fit in? It is good news to know that the Holy Spirit is at work in people's lives, and we are part of that work that will eventually lead to many of them coming to Christ.

The bad news?

The longer we are Christians, the less we tend to hang out with people who aren't. I got this from a great post by Dan Kimball. His graph says it all.

Instead of being "salt and light" in the world, we tend to spend all our time with other Christians who are just like us. Shouldn't the opposite be true? How is the world ever supposed to get a clear picture of who Christ really is if we are never around those who need Him most?

If we are honest the reason most of us don't hang out with non-believers is not so much that we don't have much in common with them, it is that we are just plain scared! Have you ever noticed that new believers don't seem to have near the problem with sharing their faith as much as the older ones of us?

I have learned much from my fellow Ecuadorian believers over the years. They are constantly thinking up new and creative ways to evangelize through small group events, large group events, and personal evangelism projects. But what impresses me the most is that they have so many non-Christian friends and family whom they relate to on a daily basis. They...

• visit their friends
• play soccer in the streets with them
• do things together
• go to each other's houses for parties and celebrations
• help one another in times of need--not as a means to "earn the right" to share the Gospel, but simply because it is the Christian thing to do.

Maybe that is why they win so many to Christ. They actually "love their neighbors" like Jesus said to do. What I have learned is that evangelism is less about preaching the Gospel and more about genuinely "loving our neighbor as ourselves." If we do our part, the Holy Spirit will certainly do his part and allow us to be that 4th contact, or even 7th getting to see a new birth take place to the Glory of God.

Can women baptize?

Over the years whenever there has been a tough theological/doctrinal issue, or practice that is causing concern in the churches being planted, one of the spiritual exercises we do with our house church people is:

1) ask everyone to close their eyes and imagine they were born and raised on a deserted island with no outside voices to influence their thinking

2) one day they discover in their midst a single book, the Bible.

3) what conclusions would they come up with about the question at hand by having no other outside influences, tradtions, or sources to interpret for them? Just the Bible, the Holy Spirit, and nothing else.

The first time we used this exercise was when the question arose whether or not a woman can baptize?

This is what happened...

Instead of just telling them either yes or no, it was a weighty enough issue to bring before the assembly of believers in what might be called our own "Council of Trent".

What does Scripture have to say about women baptizing?

The easy way would have been to just answer them according to our own tradition and what we had been taught. As missionaries, our say on the matter would have probably been accepted as the final word. Instead we set aside a block of time to gather, pray, and discuss the issue.

Our role as missionaries was to facilitate the gathering together of all the verses related to baptism in the New Testament. We didn't even distinguish between the narrative and didactic portions. The real question for us was whether the Holy Spirit would be able to guide sincere Christians to discern the truth as found in the Word of God without relying on outside influences or extra-biblical sources.

After praying and asking the Spirit to reveal to us the truth from His Word and show us his will on the matter, we carefully examined each passage of baptism Scripture. For several hours we went back and forth, around and around, until the group came to a solid united consensus. Their conclusions?

1) The New Testament is SILENT about whether or not women can baptize.

2) Since Scripture does not expressly allow, or prohibit it, then women are free to baptize, BUT...

3) Since their culture is "machista" where men dominate the women, it was determined culturally appropriate that a woman NOT baptize under ordinary circumstances, but seek out a brother in Christ to do the baptizing.

4) If for whatever reasons no brother is available, a sister would be free to do the baptizing, but normally it was best to have a brother do so if at all possible.

What a great answer to a tough question! At this point, it has become irrelevant to me what I think about women baptizing. That day the Spirit, the Word, and the Body of Christ spokie in unity and I am quite content to abide by the consensus.

Responsiveness

What is one of the most aggravating things about being a missionary? Well there are many, but surely one of the most frustrating is something all of us live with and that is the lack of response we so often get from the people God has given us to work with.

How often we organize events, call people, set up meetings, leave messages, send emails, pray, plan training events only to end up waiting for people to respond who never do? It is such a personal disappointment, and is surely the source of much frustration causing us to "reconsider our call" about 20 times a day!

I wonder how God feels at our unresponsiveness to His Word? How He feels when we don't bother to spend time with him? When His Spirit impresses us to do something and we ignore it and go on our way?

One of the bloggers I read often is Jon Dale's "Chasing the Wild Goose." Today he links to an article by Michael Hyatt on the Secret of Success. While coming from a secular viewpoint, this is nevertheless a GREAT ARTICLE that will bring a big AMEN! to your lips.

The key word Michael looks for in people is: responsiveness...

What's the secret to your success? As a CEO, I get asked this a lot. And, I'm always a little embarrassed by it...I received an email from one of my readers. He [asked]... If you had to boil it down to one thing, Mr. Hyatt, what would you recommend to a young, aspiring person such as myself?"

I'm not sure I could boil it down to one thing. Life isn�t usually that simple. But if I really, really had to boil it down to one thing, I would say this: responsiveness.

So many people I meet are unresponsive. They don�t return their phone calls promptly. They don�t answer their emails quickly. They don�t complete their assignments on time. They promise to do something and never follow through. They have to be reminded, prodded, and nagged. This behavior creates work for everyone else and eats into their own productivity. Sadly, they seem oblivious to it... [read the rest of the article HERE.]

A Church Planting Movement Among All Peoples

A Church Planting Movement among all peoples,
the gospel to every person,
every believer a full participant in the Great Commission.

The first part of our region's vision statement speaks of "A Church Planting Movement among all peoples..."

What is a church planting movement?

David Garrison, in his classic book "Church Planting Movements" defines a CPM as a "rapid multiplication of indigenous churches planting churches that sweeps through a people group or population segment..." There is a whole lot more to it than that, but this gives a general idea of what it is we are talking about.

In the book Garrison identifies ten common elements found in every CPM taking place around the world (it is my understanding there are some 40+ confirmed CPMs going on in the world today):

1-Extraordinary Prayer (we are talking about a lot of serious praying going on)

2-Abundant Evangelism (the idea of sow abundantly=reap abundantly; sow sparsely=reap sparsely)

3-Intentional Church Planting (not just evangelism, but planting new churches with the new converts, not trying to get them into existing churches)

4-Authority of God's Word (not only in doctrine, but in church practice)

5-Local Leadership (locals "call the shots" not so much the foreign missionaries)

6-Lay Leadership (not seminary trained professional pastors, but everyday lay people in leadership positions)

7-House Churches (no church buildings, instead many small home-based churches averaging 10-20 per house)

8-Churches Planting Churches (the idea of multiplying new groups rather than adding numbers to existing groups)

9-Rapid Reproduction (they multiply very quickly and in short time)

10-Healthy Churches (rapid reproduction in no way means lower quality, deficent teaching, or unhealthy church life)

In our case here in Ecuador we do not have a CPM--(yet!) While all ten elements can be found in our church planting efforts, we are weak in most of the areas that are crucial to seeing a CPM. I feel we are weakest in elements #1,3,8,9. Areas that we are making good progress would be 2,4,5,6,7,10. If I had to label what we are observing in Guayas province it would be an "emerging CPM". We are doing the right things, but not consistently enough to see a true CPM in our midst.

Our goal is to see 500,000 people come into the Kingdom in the next five years. Will you pray with us to this end? Thanks!