I’m older and wiser now. If I was running a bootcamp now, we’d spend the first couple of days reading the book of Acts. In Acts, the risen Lord, continues his ministry through his disciples empowered by the Holy Spirit. The unifying theme of the book is the spread of the dynamic Word of the gospel which results in new disciples who form new churches.

So I’d ask this question,

In Acts, what were the obstacles to making disciples and planting churches, and how were they overcome?

The learning that comes from asking this question will help ensure you don’t just plant a church, but spark a movement.

What this clip and learn from the simplicity of how it communicates. The medium is the message.

But if you want to see a disciple making, church multiplication movement, you’re going to have to see beyond the picture it paints of the missional church. What’s missing?

HT: Epoch

Five years ago I sat in on a vision retreat with Tim Scheuer (front left) and the leadership of the Church Army. God showed up. The team bought in. The rest is history.

Tim has stepped down as national leader is now back on the frontline in one of the toughest suburbs in Sydney.

The third in a series of interviews with Tim Scheuer on what God is doing in Airds. You’ll be encouraged and learn about multiplying disciples and churches in the real world.

You can also listen in by subscribing to the Movements podcast.

The resources Tim refers to:

The five questions

Christianity Explained

Share Jesus without fear

Want to learn how to do what Tim does? Download the Movements study guide for groups.

I share Tim’s prayer letter for three reasons.

First, so you can learn about the price that has to be paid for each breakthrough and the battle that has to be won every day.

Second, because some of you need to hear the call to step into the mess of broken people who need Jesus.

Lastly, so you’ll pray for Tim, his team and the work in Airds.

Dear Friends,

I am writing from Newcastle at the start of the 3rd day of a 5 day youth event called Soul in the City. There are 12 of us here from Airds joining about 450 other young Christians from all over NSW and the ACT. Our young people from Airds are having many new experiences of worship, bible teaching and prayer ministry in a big group. So far the kids have soaked up much with only a few hiccups.

Today will be a great test as I am leading about 30 young people in one of the practical 3 day projects. My group will be targeting the housing commission blocks in Cooks Hill with a simple door knocking strategy. My group consists of kids from a couple of churches on the north shore of Sydney along with my group from Airds.

Please pray that the young people will rise to the challenge of taking the peace of Jesus out into the streets; that we might find those that are spiritually receptive, and that we will experience the presence and power of Jesus as we go in His Name…

One of our boys has their 13th birthday today – Rylli. Please pray for him as he has had some struggles yesterday. I am mindful that all of our kids are carrying some pretty big stuff inside with what goes on in their streets and homes. Please pray that they will take this opportunity to draw near to God and receive from Him.

Over recent weeks we have had some good things happen and some very challenging things.

Three new groups have kicked off and we plan to kick off three other groups in the next two weeks. I have been very excited about those willing to host groups in their homes. However, it has been a little disappointing that several who indicated willingness to attend have not yet shown up. Please pray that we might have a breakthrough with this. I feel there is a very real battle out in the streets for the hearts and souls of these ones.

Last week we had one of our guys turn violent fuelled by alcohol. He did some damage to one of our single mothers home, threatened her repeatedly in front of her kids and then assaulted another one of our young guys who was trying to provide support for her. This unfolded over several days and was really ugly. The police were involved repeatedly. Sorry for no names but please pray for the perpetrator, who had started to follow Jesus, and for the victims, that somehow God would bring good from this situation.

Sorry this is short but I have to go and cook pancakes for about 300.

Thanks for prayers.

Blessings

Tim

Here’s what Tim taught me in our last coaching call (I’m supposed to be coaching him!).

Be up front about Jesus. There are many more people out there than we realise who are ready for someone to tell them about Jesus.

Keep moving. Most of the evangelism Jesus did was harvest evangelism. He went into town looking for responsive people who became a beachhead for the gospel. Paul did the same.

Stop planting churches. Start making disciples. Then help those disciples to form churches in their world.

Cast vision early for simple neighbourhood churches.

Stop trying to reach one person at a time. Look for the person of peace and then through them reach networks of relationships.

Don’t focus on “mature” Christians. The newest believers are excited about knowing Jesus. They don’t know that they shouldn’t be sharing their joy with everyone they meet.

Begin with the end in mind. What is it going to take to give every person in Airds the opportunity to respond to Jesus and follow him together?

If you’ve got this far and now you’re saying to yourself, “That nice but door-knocking won’t work in my context.” I have a question:

What will you do in your context to find the .1% or 5% or 55% of people who ready now to respond to Jesus and follow him?

They are out there. Like the woman at the well (John 4), and Cornelius (Acts 10), they will become the first of many.

I’ve just finished a coaching call with Tim Scheuer.

For the last six weeks, Tim and his team have been out knocking on doors in Airds, one of Sydney’s most disadvantaged suburbs.

Tim asks five simple questions to discover people who are ready to find out more about following Jesus.

For most of us that would be hard work, but Tim loves every minute and every encounter with someone who doesn’t know Jesus.

Of 45 homes, 42 people wanted to talk more, 11 wanted to join a Christianity Explained group in their neighbourhood, 2 wanted to host a group and invite others.

Soon there will be 10 groups meeting in homes around Airds. Tim explains tells people the purpose of the groups is to get to know Jesus and follow him together in a simple neighbourhood church.

At one house, Tim suggest the name of a woman who might be interested in joining a group. The lady of the house told him, “The group in our home wouldn’t work for her. Yesterday we had a fist fight!”

Tim is finding that the more visits they do, the more people they meet who know people they know. Trust is building in the community. Locals are advising Tim on who he should visit next. They’re also recruiting friends and family to join a group.

Tim and his team have a plan. They want to meet everyone in Airds and give them a chance to hear about Jesus and respond to him. They’ve divided Airds up into 30 areas with about 35 homes in each area.

The pattern so far is that over 90% of people want to talk. About 25% of people want to join a group. Of that 25%, about one in five are happy to host a group in their home and invite others.

Here’s the scary thing, until Tim went visiting everyone would have said, “Airds is unresponsive to the gospel.” That’s why you shouldn’t listen to “experts” like me who write books — unless they’ve been listening to people like Tim.

Most denominational systems don’t know what to do with someone like Glenn. This is what I’d do with him. . .

First, I would leave him in his current role for a very long time. Let him lock in the change and raise up the leaders who will take this emerging movement into the next generation.

Next I’d give him the best. I’d identify the next wave of pioneering leaders and send them to Western Australia to plant reproducing churches under Glenn’s leadership.

Once they’ve done that, they’re ready to return to their home state and do it again.

I’d find leaders in other regions who are silly enough to do what Glenn has done, and teachable enough to chase Glenn for coaching. I’d let them grow through the experience of implementing change and locking it in.

Finally, I wouldn’t make Glenn the exception. I’d set the bar at the same height for everyone. I’d expect every district to multiply disciples and churches. I’d look for godly, determined, and teachable leaders who will make it happen, or die trying.

The thing to remember is that it is not talent or luck that separates guys like Glenn from everybody else. He’s just an ordinary guy, doing his job.

One hundred and ten people turned up for an Adventist church planting summit in Western Australia recently. Up from forty-five the year before.

Two new churches have already been started since the summit. They’re not just starting individual churches, whole networks of new churches are popping up. Among indigenous people, immigrants and Aussie battlers. Another among university students and young adults. There’s a third expanding network of house churches.
Since 2003 we have started forty three new churches, twenty-five of them in the last two years. That’s an increase from 50 to 93 in six years.

In 2003 the denomination was growing at 1% per annum. Now they increase by 2.5% each year. The target is 10%. They have no problem with existing churches, but their clear bias is for reproducing churches of all shapes and sizes.

Most of the rest of the church in Australia is on the decline. So why do the West Australian Adventist stand out as an exception? I’ve been tracking with Adventists in Western Australia for last five years. Here’s what they are teaching me about fueling church planting movements within existing denominations:

1. Leadership makes a difference

I can’t go past the influence of the state President. There’s no razzmatazz about Glenn Townend. He’s godly, committed to the gospel, determined and gracious. He knows how to steer a course, and take others with him. He can outlast the few who resist change. He’s the sort of guy people want to follow.

2. Shared ownership

Five years ago when Glenn walked into a training event I was running, he walked in with a team. Other leaders had people with them, but Glenn had a team. Young men and women and the young at heart who had signed up for action. Glenn is not the one man band. He knows how spot good people and give them a job to do that fits their strengths. I’m thinking of Warrick Long, his business manager. Warrick knows how to build robust systems around a vision. I’m thinking of Phil Brown, his coach/trainer of church planters, he knows how get alongside the early pioneers. I’m thinking of Peter Roennfeldt who drops in every now and again as the movement’s “Gandalf”.

3. Conservative and radical

Glen is conservative, he’s not out to impose his agenda on existing churches. He’s out to win them to a kingdom vision. He’s also radical. He promotes all kinds of innovative ways to reach people with the gospel and multiply disciples and churches.

4. Money isn’t everything

These guys are not throwing big dollars at church planting. They spend their money carefully, investing it in activities that build momentum and capacity, rather than propping up dependent church plants.

5. Multiple streams

A number of leaders have emerged who have multiplied new churches. Glenn has resisted the denominational tendency to centralize and control. He’s encouraged diversity around a single purpose.

If these West Australians can make a difference, why are they the exception?

Australia’s population is growing at double the world average.

Underpinned by an economy that weathered the global financial crisis, Australia grew by 451,900 people in the year to last September, taking it beyond the 22 million mark, Australian Bureau of Statistics figures reveal.

That is an increase of 451,900 people during the year, keeping the growth rate high at 2.1 per cent — almost twice the world average of 1.1 per cent, and higher than China, the US, Canada, Indonesia and most other nations.

The majority of the growth, 66 per cent, was due to overseas migration, with the remainder, 34 per cent, due to there being more births than deaths.

Just to keep up with this population growth Australia needs 451 churches (of any shape and size) every year. One church for every one thousand new Australians.

Instead we’re closing churches at an alarming rate.

To turn our decline around, we need 10,000 new churches today to lift the current ratio of one church to 2,000 people, to one church to 1,000 people.

If we keep doing what we have been doing, will we catch up?

Friends

Over the past week I have been building relationship with a new single parent family met while door knocking.

I have just finished praying for mum – Julie – who has nasty ulcers on her arm that have been very slow healing. The pain has kept her from sleeping. I prayed that God would give her relief from the pain tonight, heal up those sores more quickly and give her His peace.

I prayed for her teenage son Matt, who is an atheist who likes to argue his point but he likes talking with me. I prayed God would reveal himself very personally to Matt. I asked Matt to stand with me as I took his mum’s hand and prayed for her.

His dad died of a heroin overdose when Matt and his sister Annie were young. Matt reminds me of myself when I was a teenager – he can really state an argument!!!

Please pray with me that God would show up in their lives and do something powerful. I have never been much good at praying for healing but God has been prodding me about stepping out in faith and giving him a chance to work.

Blessings

Tim

Someone should tell Tim that “door knocking” is so 1950s. I’m sure Jesus prefers Facebook. . .

Don’t forget to pray.