This is Post 6 in Don Dent’s “Finding Direction” Series
Jesus told the disciples they were to proclaim Him to the whole world, including all the nations (Matt 24:14). Paul took up that task and affirmed that Jesus died for all so that we would not live for ourselves but for Him who died and rose for us (2 Cor 5:15). So, God’s intention, and our task, is to proclaim Jesus so the whole world can hear and believe.
Since Pentecost, this primarily involves two missional structures – 1) the “sent ones” who go to other places/peoples to proclaim Christ where he is not known, and 2) the churches that result from this mission who continue to share Christ in their own context and beyond. The sent ones are pioneers, initiators, and foundation-layers, not the long-term leaders (pastors) of those churches. In order to share Christ with the whole world, it is absolutely necessary that mission efforts work toward reproducing witnesses, disciples, and churches.
Today there are over 8,000,000,000 people on earth, more than have lived throughout human history before 1950. Gladly, missions has successfully proclaimed Jesus around the globe and there may be a higher percentage of evangelical Christians than ever before. Sadly, there are many more lost people today than at any time in history, and they are multiplying. We cannot keep up and get ahead of the curve through addition.
So, we should pray and work for movements to Christ which are multiplying witnesses, disciples, and churches. Ironically, Baptists express doubt about massive movements to Christ overseas although we are the result of one. The first Baptists in England multiplied from 1 to 50 churches in their first 50 years in spite of severe persecution. Similar growth occurred on the American frontier as the Sandy Creek Association and others focused on sharing with as many people as possible, contributing to evangelizing America in the 1800s.
Sometimes we seem unaware or skeptical of Jesus’ teaching that God’s work could produce 100-fold in a season, grow so big it could shelter thousands in a few years, and be humanly inexplicable (see Mark 4). Perhaps we find it difficult to accept that God could even use us, but this is how He gets all the glory!
Movements arise from success in massive evangelism, multiplying discipleship, and planting churches that reproduce. Clearly, this is the pattern of ministry in Acts, although functioning this way is foreign to most of us today.
EVANGELISM
Multitudes of lost people hearing the gospel is absolutely essential to starting a movement. It is the engine that pushes everything else. This is not developing a program people will come to so they might hear the gospel. This is our going- out to share with all who will hear about it. This concept is foreign to established churches; two churches I recently offered to help develop a strategy for sharing the gospel with 75% of their city in five years did not even respond to such a preposterous offer.
Missionary Ying Kai was approached by a man who shared a familiar gospel presentation with him. Ying traced back and found that this man was the 17th generation of disciple/witness from his own ministry. Over a million believers were baptized from this simple T4T process that is being used around the world.
In South Asia, tens of thousands of churches have been planted by recent converts with simple, powerful faith. These believers share their testimony and biblical truth with their 20 closest relationships in the first couple of months after they believe. This simple, verbal declaration of the good news is spreading like a wildfire (4Fields).
IMB missionaries, local partners, and trustees did an intensive survey in one province of South Asia where over 14,000 churches were planted during COVID in 2020. Thousands of SD cards with a recorded series of 35 Bible stories were distributed in an area with less than 1% believers before the pandemic. Under government lockdown, households listened to the audio stories over and over. When the pandemic slowed, it became obvious that a great act of God had taken place in thousands of those homes as listeners believed.
Missionaries model sharing boldly, but local believers share with an increasing multitude of their lost families and friends. Unlike many of us, these new believers do not have to overcome a long-term habit of disobedience when it comes to verbal witness.
DISCIPLESHIP
Transformed lives of new believers are undeniable and attractive, but the change must be quick and deep for those coming from non-Christian backgrounds. They are hungry to learn and change, so discipleship has to be immediate, intentional, and intensive. If fundamental life change does not take place in the first couple of months, that reality will become the pattern of their faith. Teaching obedience that includes daily Bible study (usually inductive), and sharing their faith is simpler than telling them everything we know. It is also more transformative and empowering. They trust the Bible and the Holy Spirit to teach and transform them. This is how Paul left a church in Thessalonica in about 6 weeks.
They not only do these things themselves, but as they lead others to faith they show them the new pattern of obedience they now live. In a movement, disciples often start reproducing within a few weeks of baptism, which is immediate. Because Jesus commanded that we make disciples, how can anyone be a disciple who is not making other disciples?
CHURCH PLANTING
Movements usually take place where there are not a lot, or any, local churches. We usually think of churches planted by professionals, but in a movement new believers plant churches. Their obedience results in others coming to faith, their discipling results in those believers growing together, and it is a fairly simple step to get to church. For us, church planting probably involves raising money, training a team for months, planning programs, and finding a venue. In a movement churches are being planted more spontaneously. Just show these disciples what a church does in Acts 2, and let them follow the model. Most movement churches are house churches and the longer they stay simple, the more they will reproduce.
Leaders arise in each group because believers are witnessing and discipling in small groups; it is often obvious who should become the leader because he is already shepherding. Leadership function before status is more organic and reproducible. The missionary models, guides, and prays, especially vigilant to keep out any extra-biblical elements from the new churches, just as Paul did. Steeples, signs, staff, salaries, schedules, and seminary are not biblical requirements.
The largest survey ever done of movements found that the new believers need to establish their own faith community within one month. A surprise finding was that those who were reached in a movement showed deeper doctrinal understanding and life transformation than believers who were reached individually or in a small group. As we saw in the last post, outside funding or an outsider as primary teacher (not including some coaching) undermines the Spirit’s empowering this new community to transform their own people.
Don Dent is an Emeritus IMB missionary and Senior Professor of Missions at Gateway Seminary. He studied at Mississippi College, GGBTS with Baker James Cauthen, and Malaysia Baptist Theo. Seminary where he earned the Doctor of Missiology with Mark Terry. His daughter, Chesed, and son, Rob, both work to extend missions to the nations. He is the author of The Ongoing Role of Apostles in Missions and the recently published Finding Direction to Redeem the Nations. Don loves reading non-fiction, hunting, and since moving in 2023 to MS from CA is looking for an alternative to kayak shark fishing in the Pacific.