Movements that change the world

Back from two weeks in Central and East Asia. I need to be a little vague about specific places and names for security reasons.

The picture above sums up the transition in Asia between the new and the old.

I’m still thinking and praying through the lessons and implications of the trip. Hoping the blog will help the process.

Let’s start with “Barney”. We renewed our friendship over a lunch and he updated me on his story.

In his first year in the country, with inadequate language, he led a local to Christ. We’ll call him “Paul”. Paul had become interested in the Gospel after he saw God answer prayer for healing.

Eventually Paul began to stand out by his passion to follow Christ, to make disciples. Barney challenged him to begin training others to do evangelism. As Paul demonstrated faithfulness Barney made it a priority to spend time with him — up to 20 hours per week!

They prayed together. Ministered together. Had fun together. Studied the Scriptures together. Traveled together.

As Paul began other growing leaders Barney continued to support and train him. Barney made sure the training was geared towards obeying Christ and simple enough to be passed on to others.

All the while Barney made it clear that Paul had to go to God for the wisdom and power to lead a growing movement of new churches.

When the police came to shut down the movement, Barney challenged Paul and his new leaders to come up with a strategy in response. Despite persecution, the movement now has around 400 churches with 3,500 to 4,000 believers.

Barney has since moved on to a different region and begun the process again. A few times a year he drops back to encourage Paul and his key leaders as they continue to make disciples and multiply groups. Apart from Paul and about half a dozen other leaders, Barney is unknown by the vast majority of believers in the movement.

What am I learning?

1. It takes faith
Barney is committed to mastering the language and culture. But the significant breakthrough came when he was out of his depth trusting Jesus to intervene in someone’s life.

2. God’s timing
There is a sense of God’s “kairos” time in the country in which Barney serves. His story is repeated in different versions across the region.

3. Keep it simple
Barney made sure that his training of Paul was always geared towards obedience in following Christ. He made sure it was simple enough for Paul to immediately begin training others who would also follow Christ and make disciples.

4. Grow leaders
Once Barney saw Paul’s faithfulness and effectiveness as a leader he made it a priority to invest large amounts of time in him. Not in the classroom but doing life and ministry together.

5. Make room for pioneers
A key to an indigenous church planting movement is the emergence of someone with an “apostolic” gift.

6. There’s still a job to do
There is still a role in world missions for westerners like Barney, if they are willing to find and empower emerging leaders like Paul.

That’s enough for the moment. I’ll be back next week with some more reflections. Still making sense of it all. And I haven’t forgotten the Ten Major Trends series. It would be great to get some more input before I get Howard Snyder to respond.