Stay in missions long enough and you’ll hear the stories, accounts of faraway events. Somewhere, a missionary has discovered the Grail, the Promised Land, and the Ark of the Covenant all rolled into one. Yes: it’s a church planting movement.
I’ve been working in missions for about 10 years. I’ve seen the work in 5 countries among various people groups. I have yet to see, experience, or begin a church planting movement. In fact, from what I have heard, only people in certain far-off inaccessible parts of the world get to see this elusive goal; you know, places I’ll never get to see, like Asia and those rare countries that still have unicorns. And it begs the question:
Why?
The Company, as I call my employers, has a list of all the things typical in a church planting movement. This document extols the value of prayer, preaching, stuff like that. Duties are listed, characteristics explained. It’s great stuff, really. I think it shows amazing insight. The only problem is I’ve looked over the list and compared myself to what I’m reading. I’ve compared other more intelligent, more spiritual, more dedicated missionaries to what I see on the list. What I can’t figure out is this: does only Asia have really good missionaries who do all the right things, or are we doing it just as well as they do with different results?
And you, whether you’ve been in missions a short time or a long time, know the feeling of hearing others from around the globe absolutely gush about the results they are seeing. “Oh, and last week we baptized the entire province using only a gallon water that never ran out! This makes our 7th province this year, making a total of 68,670.2 square miles of pure Christianity! That’s about the size of your home state of Oklahoma, isn’t it? Tee-hee!”
You’re prompted to make comments like, “Wow, are you still walking on water, too? I’ll bet your corner of heaven is going to be really beautiful! Oh, and the water that never runs out? Please….that’s so Old Testament.” Instead, you sit there and think, “So what am I doing wrong?” An even worse feeling is, “What are you saying that I’m doing wrong?” You don’t begrudge others the rush of success, nor of the chance to see something amazing. You would just like to know why it doesn’t happen where you work.
Knowing that all individuals come to Christ at a different time and in different ways does not explain how entire towns can come to Christ. It does not rationalize why some countries grow strong national Christian leaders while other countries do not. It doesn’t help us grasp why we never get to walk into a town and have someone say, “Oh, we’ve been waiting for someone tell us about Him. Look everyone: the Prophecy was TRUE!”
All the venting and joking aside, let’s consider something that might actually be Biblical.
In Luke 7: 36-50 we find an account of Jesus visiting the home of Simon the Pharisee. To say that the Pharisees were staunch opponents to Jesus’ teachings would be a gross understatement. Nonetheless, Simon invited Jesus over to the house, though he failed to provide Jesus with the proper hospitality.
Along came an uninvited guest, a sinful woman known in the city for her unholy ways. In her own fashion, she provided the missing hospitality. As the woman served the Christ, the Pharisee began to doubt this Jesus person; a true holy man would not have allowed this spiritually filthy woman’s attention and ministrations to continue. In the Pharisee’s mind, Jesus should have shooed the woman away.
Knowing what was in the Pharisee’s heart, Jesus posited a theoretical situation in which two men were each forgiven a debt. One man owed a pittance while the other owed a fortune. Which man would appreciate his creditor’s actions the most? Simon the Pharisee answered, “I suppose the one who was forgiven the greater debt.” Jesus used the logic of this scenario to illustrate something vital: sinners who realize they have come to faith from a great distance are often more appreciative of His grace than those who feel as though they’ve always been pretty close to God.
Jesus applied this principle to individuals, and perhaps we can see it playing out even today. Former drug users, ex-prostitutes, and reformed convicts fill the ranks of lay and ordained ministers. This pattern repeats itself all over the globe, as many missionaries and pastors can confirm.
Suppose, though, we were to apply the pattern not to individuals, but to cultures.
Suppose we were to evaluate the relative distance between our Creator and various countries, cultures, and people groups. I realize we are all far away, but relative to each other, some groups have a greater understanding of Biblical matters than others. A predominantly Buddhist country, for example, will have farther to go than a largely Catholic nation will. A formerly communist people group will have institutional atheism blocking the way while other ethnic groups can boast having seminaries.
Where are these church planting movements? As best I can tell, the rapid advance of the Gospel happens in the Buddhist countries, in the places with engrained atheism, in places where no one has heard of Christ.
Could it be that, like individuals, those people groups and countries that have the furthest distance to cross in their journey towards Him are also those whose deep gratitude will lead them to become the boldest Christians around? Is it possible that the hardest task lies not in reaching the ignorant but instead in reaching those who know enough to think they know it all? Is this why church planting movements always seem to happen way over there?
What does this mean for that pastor in the most jaded Christian nation in history, the USA? Where does this leave me, working among nominal Catholics? How does this apply to my friends, who work in danger and yet see lives changed daily?
Where does this leave you?
I’m left in Gospel saturated America, like almost all trained Southern Baptist clergy, and in the South where the coin-of-the-realm is church growth, something 80% of churches will never know, perhaps leaving 80% of pastors with feelings of failure.
But the question about CPMs overseas leads those of us who care about international missions, and who realize that dollars are and will be scarce for such, wondering where we will be putting our people and our money.
Do we eschew the ‘Christianized’ continents of Central and South America, Sub-saharan Africa, and Europe for the places where the Gospel is seldom heard nor Christians of any stripe seldom encountered?
Do we find those elusive CPMs and pour money and people into them or do we put them into places where people have little opportunity to hear the Gospel but which also have meager results ?
Do we continue to put a significant proportion of our many millions for missions in old-line fields?
Do we yield completely to the missiologists and to the latest trends in the field?
Where will Southern Baptists be going?
The church-growth goal in the south, or the church plant goal in the north/west, or the church planting movement goal internationally…they are all fit into the discussion.
My real question here is whether we can actually apply Jesus’ words to groups instead of individuals. If so, then what impact does this have on our work?
You are right in that a follow-up question relates to where and how we channel our efforts. It is a logical next step.
Jeremy, you raise some absolutely fascinating questions. I wish either you or I has some answers.
I’m convinced that one of the keys is perseverence – keep on going even when it is hard and there is no response and things are discouraging.
That can happen in Sioux City, Iowa, and in every point around the globe.
Dave, I was with you up until that comment about Iowa. Sorry, but that’s crazy talk.
Part of perseverance is support from others. There are many of us who labor in those lightly-churched environments where people just don’t seem to listen; our colleagues in other parts of the world are unwittingly condescending. Our supervisors are too often critical that we can’t be like the others. I think if we could look past the individual and see the group’s response, we might be less critical of the slow-class ministers and pastors.
Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof. And sufficient to the place is the struggle thereof.
Our struggles are certainly not the same or of the same magnitude, but I think I can find a way to get discouraged no matter where I am or what I’m doing!
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The Book of St. James, Chapter 1 gives some encouragement:
“2 Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials,
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for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
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And let perseverance be perfect, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
The persecutions and trials? They bring blessings, according to St. Matthew, chaper 5:
“10 Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, 9 for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you (falsely) because of me.
12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
Patience to endure . . . the early Christians knew what that meant, and may we all thank God that they did. They put their hand to the plow, and did not turn back. May we embrace the Source of their strength in our own lives.
Thanks for sharing this.
-On the one hand I think it’s legitimate to say that a person/group’s perception of the greatness of their forgiveness will affect how faithful and fruitful they are. So we read about the importance of not neglecting so great a salvation, etc.
-But I don’t think it’s legitimate to make Jesus’ words into such a big, universal principle. He’s mainly just explaining this one particular situation with the woman and Simon.
-It also doesn’t seem legitimate to say that a group’s degree of gratefulness will be a deciding factor in starting a CPM. Certainly the ppl sparking CPMs are ppl on fire for Jesus. But then there are plenty of ppl on fire for Jesus who never spark CPMs. The book of Acts does not show a consistently positive response to faithful gospel preaching – but it does show the gospel always triumphing according to God’s plan. From a human standpoint it looks like mixed success, but from Luke’s Spiritual perspective the gospel is winning. Maybe, to a degree, that’s how we should see our CPM-less ministries.
Sometimes I wonder if CPMs are really not that different from other faithful church planting, except that CPMs happen crazy fast. Is it possible that CPMs are different mainly due to cultural dynamics rather than spiritual dynamics (gratefulness for salvation, etc)?
I would say that it is quite possible that both cultural and spiritual dynamics come into play. In fact, that combination might be what makes it possible to apply this section of the Bible to cultural responsiveness. Or not.
I realize that Christ was talking about a specific situation, but I think He also referenced a larger general principle. I am not sure we can make it universal, but it could a general pattern applied to both individuals and the cultures in which they exist.
You may very well be right that there’s a larger principle, brother. I just tend to be pretty hesitant about pulling principles/patterns from parts of a narrative when the author’s main point in the story seems to lie elsewhere.
I’ve found Blomberg’s book Making Sense of the New Testament really helpful for application of the Gospels
I agree with and affirm that particular hesitancy. This is why I asked IF we can apply it this way.
I know I am reaching beyond the usual application of the passage, but I don’t think I am twisting the meaning. I just wonder if we can logically say that since cultures are comprised of individuals, can we also claim that the gratitude and worship of far-off sinners that come to Christ can be seen on a group, or cultural level.