One Man Makes A Difference

One Man Makes A Difference

It was D. L. Moody who is credited with the observation that “The world has yet to see what God will do with a man or woman totally committed to the Lord”.

I know each of us can look back in our lives knowing we could have done more and that so often we got in the way of God doing all He could in us and through us.

This is the story of a man that God used in a miraculous way to change a Nation and set an example for generations to come..

Korea post Korean War was a country that was 97% Buddhist. It had endured Japanese occupation and a war that had left the country economically destitute, and morally and spiritually adrift. People from that era describe a situation where hopelessness was the most prevalent governing attitude of the majority. Today reasonable estimates show that South Korea is approximately 50% Christian. Ten (10) of the twelve (12) largest churches in the World are found there including the largest Assembly of God, the largest Presbyterian the largest Baptist and the largest Methodist churches in the world.

Dr. Kim Chi Sun

Into this situation God raised up a man called by his contemporaries the “Jeremiah of Korea”. Kim Chi Sun had returned to Korea after graduating with his Th D from Dallas Theological Seminary and began his ministry in the Presbyterian Church in Korea. His ministry however by God’s grace was larger than that. He helped the Korean churches revitalize and make a regular part of their lives the early morning-prayer times.

This practice when you experience it helps you to understand the phenomenal growth of the Korean church. Each day the salvation of their family, friends, work associates, and yes their whole nation is lifted with fervent passion before the throne of God.

Anyang University
founded by
Dr. Kim Chi Sun

To continue the story of Kim Chi Sun In 1948, Dr. Chi Sun Kim founded Tae Han Theological Seminary and College.  He was a pioneer in biblical education that enabled Korean men and women to study the Word of God and commissioned them to plant churches to spread God’s Word throughout the country and world.  Tae Han Seminary eventually became the liberal arts university known today as Anyang University, a city about one hour outside of Seoul, Korea.

It is also interesting to note that after the Korean War it was the disciples of Kim Chi Sun who ventured into North Korea to share the gospel with their communist countrymen. There has never been any denial of the oneness of the people of North and South Korea and the prayer for unification is prayed every day at the early-morning prayer services. These missionaries, 19 in all went to North Korea and 17 of them lost their lives for the sake of the gospel. This passion is still seen today by all who were touched by Kim Chi Sun’s life.

Dr. Billy Kim
A man with a warm heart and
a fiery message

Over the years, Dr. Chi Sun Kim served as a spiritual mentor to up and coming transformational Church leaders including Dr. David Yonggi Cho, the now retired Pastor of Yoido Full Gospel Church in Korea  (The world’s largest Church) and Dr. Billy Kim who served 45 years as pastor of the 15,000-member Central Baptist Church in Suwon, Korea before being elected to serve a five-year term as president of the Baptist World Alliance from 2000 to 2005.

Praying with Dr. Cho in his office

Dr. Cho tells the story of being taken as a young man to travel around the country to be with Dr. Kim and learn not only how to preach but how to minister with spiritual power and authority. Dr. Cho jokes that in the cold Korean winters they spent many nights sleeping under the same blanket.

 

Dr. Kim had prayed that God would give him a tithe of the nations souls for his labor and more that twice that number came to Christ through his ministry. The best estimates are that close to 6 million Koreans can trace their spiritual heritage to his ministry.

There have been numerous books written about Dr. Kim and the stories of how God used him would be an encouragement to any believer seeking to be used by God.

His passion for souls is reflected
 in the title and content of his
thesis "The Heart Of The Gospel"

I was particularly struck by a story told to me about Kim Chi Sun as I visited one of the churches he pastored in Seoul. During the Korean War Kim Chi Sun was targeted by the North Koreans for death because of the influence he had in the nation even before the war began. As the North Koreans came into the city they were approaching the church where Dr. Kim was praying with his family. Some Russian soldiers came and took them to safety literally minutes before they would have been slaughtered. He was sheltered and protected by these soldiers and when the war ended the Russian Embassy was hosted in his church. Many Russians were also won to the Lord through his ministry.

Dr. Samuel Kim
Founder and Chancellor
California State Christian University

He leaves not only a legacy that helped transform a nation but also a living legacy through his son Dr. Samuel Kim who felt God’s call to the many Korean immigrants to America and has planted churches in the United States and travelled around the world preaching the gospel. Continuing the legacy of training he formed California State Christian University that has expanded to not only train Korean leaders but English and Spanish leaders in the United States and through the cooperative work with indigenous nationals has taken the task of training leaders to more than 13 countries.

The purpose of this article as stated at the beginning is to ask the question,  "What would God be able to do with each of us if we let him?".

It is my prayer that God would use me and I trust it is your prayer that he would use you to do exceedingly more than we could ever ask or imagine.

Reaching Baby Busters(Gen X) With The Gospel

REACHING BABY BUSTERS WITH THE GOSPEL

America is feeling the effects of the baby buster or "X" generation The "X" was (popularized by author Douglas Coupland, who took it from Paul Fussell's 1983 book, Class), those born from 1964 or 1965 to 1980, though some sources give the cutoff date as 1975.

They're called "busters" due to a decline in the U.S. birth rate during this period. There were about 43-46 million people born in the U.S. during the "bust" years; adding immigrants and subtracting deaths, it's estimated that there are now 41 million still alive today.

These 41 million members are an important consumer-buying group, representing $125 billion in spending power.

They're 20% of the U.S. population and consist of the following ethnic makeup: 70% White, 13% Black, 12% Hispanic, 4% Asian, and 1% American Indian.

They are an important evangelistic focus for the church that hopes to have a bright tomorrow as the builder and boomer generations age and pass from the scene. It is also important to recognize that just as the Builders who were in excess of 60% churched themselves had the boomers who followed them be less than 45% churched. This ‘passing the faith’ issue has been exacerbated, as the Buster or Gen Xers are currently only 18% churched.

I had the privilege of meeting with a little over 100 Gen X students. With the generation following the Busters, the Millenniums’  (Born after 1982) only 10% or less are churched  at this time. We must  take seriously as Church leaders the responsibility of sharing the faith with our own generation and passing the faith along to the next generation. This task will put demands on the existing church like we have not seen in decades and how we meet the challenge may determine the future of the church in our country.

A REPORT TO THE STUDENT LEADERS

ON THE BABY BUSTER RESEARCH

INTRODUCTION

In order to assist the leaders of the South Carolina Baptist Churches in their ministry I was asked to conduct a series of focus groups which would interview groups of churched and unchurched Baby Busters. I visited 6 major university campuses on which Baptist Student Union ministers. There were 11 groups of people interviewed 6 of the groups were primarily churched and active in Baptist Student Union and 5 who were not active and primarily unchurched. This report is not prescriptive but descriptive of what we heard.

HOW DO BUSTERS VIEW THEMSELVES

Families

The majority of the unchurched (over 50%) came from divorced and broken families. Among the churched the percentage was nearer 40% but it was clear to us the broken family was a shaping force for this generation. The pain of this divorce and brokenness was seen in both the comments and the visible body language of the participants.

Entertainment

The busters as a group want life to be fun. This was a comment heard in reference to Baptist Student Union and why they attended as well as to why they did what they did with their free time.

Television

Sports, ER, Party Of  Five, Seinfeld, Cops, Days of Our Lives, and Cartoons were the most often mentioned. Three things emerged in the TV viewing patterns: 1. They like programs that portray real life, 2. They like programs that talk about real relationships, 3. They like programs that help them "zone out" and escape.

Music

While there is a broad spectrum of preference the musical preferences mentioned most often were classic rock and alternative music. Country music was liked intensely by about 50 % of the group but the other 50% seemed to hate it. The common denominators were that the music should be contemporary, have a beat, and be fun to listen to.

Fathers and Mothers

Mothers were praised and many students both male and female expressed how much help and how close they felt with their mothers. Fathers were described as distant or absent. It was clear that the absence of a father figure and example caused pain in these students. Students whose parents had remained married called themselves lucky.

Time

The baby busters live for today. The future is most often described as “scary”. There was a great deal of difficulty getting them to think much beyond the next few days.

Attention Span

The busters admit to having a short attention span. They state that if it doesn’t grab them they tune out quickly. They describe that which doesn’t have good flow and pace as boring.

Fixers

The busters feel they live in a broken world and the role of their generation will be to fix all the problems created by previous generations.

Marriage

Busters have rejected the easy divorce pattern of their parents. They describe marriage as “forever,” “takes work,” “permanent,” “a commitment to make it work.” The tend to talk about their grandparents rather than their parents as the good example.

Government

The most common descriptions were “corrupt”, “too big”, and “distant” “too intrusive”. They have a basic distrust of the political system.

Inner self

Busters have a desire to live with self-integrity.  They describe themselves as having a lot of internal pain. They are concerned that they do what is right in relationships, and that they are accepted by their peers. They struggle with knowing how to change to what they want to become.

Sex.

Scary and disease were the first words expressed. From the discussion with the unchurched it seemed clear that the fear of disease is doing more to drive persons to morality than abstinence for moral or spiritual reasons.

Welfare

There is not much support for welfare, as it presently exists. The busters describe it as “abused” “a mess,” “overburdened” “needing an overhaul”.

HOW DO BUSTERS VIEW THE CHURCH

In the context of the questioning I asked an open ended question, “When I say Southern Baptist (any other label could probably have been inserted) what’s the first things that come to mind. The perception of the church by the unchurched was the biggest surprise and shock to me as the researcher.

Racist

The unchurched and churched both condemned and described the church as racist. Christian kids having brought colored friends to church were told never to bring them back. Unchurched kids also described experience with churches that reflected an anti black pro white mentality. The busters describe themselves as tolerant and color blind. If this attitude is seen in churches it will virtually assure that this generation will be noticeable by its absence. It also knocks a huge hole in the traditional understanding of the homogenous unit principle. It was often assumed by church leaders that people wanted to worship “with our kind of people. The reality is, churches like this are the biggest turnoff to this generation as it reinforces the stereotype commonly held.

Legalistic

Baptist churches were describes as “intolerant”, “ Bible thumpers” and as “having more rules than God does”. People perceived this legalism and felt to become a member of a church would mean all fun in life would cease and they would be excepted to follow a long list of do’s and don’ts. Baptists were better known for what they are against rather than what they are for.

Boring

A good percentage of the unchurched had church experience. Both they and the church busters described church as boring, slow paced, and not relevant to their lives.

Political

There was a condemnation of what they described as “too political”. Even among the churched Busters they spoke with disdain about how the business of the church was conducted and how much conflict they observed with the pettiness and political infighting in what was done.

Traditional and not relevant

The church keeps on doing the same things and doesn’t change and adapt to where the world is.

Hypocritical

The non-churched knew Christians fall. Their condemnation is the hypocrisy of pretending you’ve got your act together when it is obvious you haven’t yet you condemn others for the behavior you exhibit.

Dress code

Both in these focus groups and previous groups people express that they don’t feel comfortable in Baptist churches because they either don’t like to dress up or can’t afford to dress up. This unwritten dress code was a frequently mentioned item.

God at a distance

The personal nature of God was seen as missing. They were looking for a God who is “right here” and felt that the church’s God was “out there”. Busters are looking for an immanent God who can be experienced and felt in the now. This might explain why Busters are attracted to cell or house churches.

A Sense of Family

The one item mentioned more often than any other and the only consistent positive remark about the church concerned the sense of acceptance and family that those who were regular participants felt.

HOW DO THEY VIEW EVANGELISM

I interviewed Baptist Student Union participants to discover what worked in evangelism. Methods that violate these finding are seen as ineffective.

Relational

A strong unconditional love for the prospect is prerequisite to any outreach. Having the bridge of friendship was seen as indispensable for any witness.

Patience

The BSU students acknowledged that it takes time, multiple exposures, and a willingness to hang in for the long haul.

Authentic

The life of the witness either validates or invalidates the message. We heard from the unchurched a clear rejection of the message based on the life of the witness.

Acceptance

The willingness to care for people with no conditions.

WHAT KIND OF CHURCH WILL REACH BUSTERS

We asked both churched and unchurched to describe the kind of church they would attend if given the chance. This list may be a valuable starting point for any church desiring to reach busters.

Contemporary

Music, use of audiovisuals were some examples of what they meant by contemporary.

Fast Paced

Services that are poorly planned and slow paced are described as boring.

Acceptance

The church that reaches the buster will be color and class blind.

Relevancy

Sermons and programs must help people make sense of the world they live in today. Religion to be relevant must be useful.

Small Groups.

The busters expressed the desire and importance of a non-threatening, caring, nurturing small group.

Growing.

Busters are attracted to churches that on the outside appear to be successful

Socially Active

Busters want to be part of a church that does mission and is serving people in practical ways. They want to feel the church is making a difference.

Community

They want a place to be accepted unconditionally.

The Coming Evangelical Collapse

Mike Spencer
The Internet Monk
A Modern Day
Prophetic Voice

This article is a wake-up call to all of us who think of our church ministry as business as usual. Michael Spencer lived his life seeking to communicate relevant information designed to shake us from our lethargy to following Christ with whole-hearted devotion. After a long battle with cancer he recently went home to be with his Lord. His work is carried on by his friends and colleagues and Mikes writing and thinking can be seen best on his blog. InternetMonk.com. His blog has consistently been in the top 20 Christian blogs and is well worth a regular visit.

An anti-Christian chapter in Western history is about to begin. But out of the ruins, a new vitality and integrity will rise.

By Michael Spencer from the March 10, 2009 edition

Oneida, Ky. - We are on the verge – within 10 years – of a major collapse of evangelical Christianity. This breakdown will follow the deterioration of the mainline Protestant world and it will fundamentally alter the religious and cultural environment in the West.

Within two generations, evangelicalism will be a house deserted of half its occupants. (Between 25 and 35 percent of Americans today are Evangelicals.) In the “Protestant” 20^th century, Evangelicals flourished. But they will soon be living in a very secular and religiously antagonistic 21^st century.

This collapse will herald the arrival of an anti-Christian chapter of the post-Christian West. Intolerance of Christianity will rise to levels many of us have not believed possible in our lifetimes, and public policy will become hostile toward evangelical Christianity, seeing it as the opponent of the common good.

Millions of Evangelicals will quit. Thousands of ministries will end. Christian media will be reduced, if not eliminated. Many Christian schools will go into rapid decline. I’m convinced the grace and mission of God will reach to the ends of the earth. But the end of evangelicalism as we know it is close.

Why is this going to happen?

1. Evangelicals have identified their movement with the culture war and with political conservatism. This will prove to be a very costly mistake. Evangelicals will increasingly be seen as a threat to cultural progress. Public leaders will consider us bad for America, bad for education, bad for children, and bad for society.

The evangelical investment in moral, social, and political issues has depleted our resources and exposed our weaknesses. Being against gay marriage and being rhetorically pro-life will not make up for the fact that massive majorities of Evangelicals can’t articulate the Gospel with any coherence. We fell for the trap of believing in a cause more than a faith.

2. We Evangelicals have failed to pass on to our young people an orthodox form of faith that can take root and survive the secular onslaught. Ironically, the billions of dollars we’ve spent on youth ministers, Christian music, publishing, and media has produced a culture of young Christians who know next to nothing about their own faith except how they feel about it. Our young people have deep beliefs about the culture war, but do not know why they should obey scripture, the essentials of theology, or the experience of spiritual discipline and community. Coming generations of Christians are going to be monumentally ignorant and unprepared for culture-wide pressures.

3. There are three kinds of evangelical churches today: consumer-driven megachurches, dying churches, and new churches whose future is fragile. Denominations will shrink, even vanish, while fewer and fewer evangelical churches will survive and thrive.

4. Despite some very successful developments in the past 25 years, Christian education has not produced a product that can withstand the rising tide of secularism. Evangelicalism has used its educational system primarily to staff its own needs and talk to itself.

5. The confrontation between cultural secularism and the faith at the core of evangelical efforts to “do good” is rapidly approaching. We will soon see that the good Evangelicals want to do will be viewed as bad by so many, and much of that work will not be done. Look for ministries to take on a less and less distinctively Christian face in order to survive.

6. Even in areas where Evangelicals imagine themselves strong (like the Bible Belt), we will find a great inability to pass on to our children a vital evangelical confidence in the Bible and the importance of the faith.

7. The money will dry up.

What will be left?

• Expect evangelicalism to look more like the pragmatic, therapeutic, church-growth oriented megachurches that have defined success. Emphasis will shift from doctrine to relevance, motivation, and personal success – resulting in churches further compromised and weakened in their ability to pass on the faith.
• Two of the beneficiaries will be the Roman Catholic and Orthodox communions. Evangelicals have been entering these churches in recent decades and that trend will continue, with more efforts aimed at the “conversion” of Evangelicals to the Catholic and Orthodox traditions.
• A small band will work hard to rescue the movement from its demise through theological renewal. This is an attractive, innovative, and tireless community with outstanding media, publishing, and leadership development. Nonetheless, I believe the coming evangelical collapse will not result in a second reformation, though it may result in benefits for many churches and the beginnings of new churches.
• The emerging church will largely vanish from the evangelical landscape, becoming part of the small segment of progressive mainline Protestants that remain true to the liberal vision.
• Aggressively evangelistic fundamentalist churches will begin to disappear.
• Charismatic-Pentecostal Christianity will become the majority report in evangelicalism. Can this community withstand heresy, relativism, and confusion? To do so, it must make a priority of biblical authority, responsible leadership, and a reemergence of orthodoxy.
•  Evangelicalism needs a “rescue mission” from the world Christian community. It is time for missionaries to come to America from Asia and Africa. Will they come? Will they be able to bring to our culture a more vital form of Christianity?

Expect a fragmented response to the culture war. Some Evangelicals will work to create their own countercultures, rather than try to change the culture at large. Some will continue to see conservatism and Christianity through one lens and will engage the culture war much as before – a status quo the media will be all too happy to perpetuate. A significant number, however, may give up political engagement for a discipleship of deeper impact.

Is all of this a bad thing?

Evangelicalism doesn’t need a bailout. Much of it needs a funeral. But what about what remains?

Is it a good thing that denominations are going to become largely irrelevant? Only if the networks that replace them are able to marshal resources, training, and vision to the mission field and into the planting and equipping of churches.

Is it a good thing that many marginal believers will depart? Possibly, if churches begin and continue the work of renewing serious church membership. We must change the conversation from the maintenance of traditional churches to developing new and culturally appropriate ones.

The ascendency of Charismatic-Pentecostal-influenced worship around the world can be a major positive for the evangelical movement if reformation can reach those churches and if it is joined with the calling, training, and mentoring of leaders. If American churches come under more of the influence of the movement of the Holy Spirit in Africa and Asia, this will be a good thing.

Will the evangelicalizing of Catholic and Orthodox communions be a good development? One can hope for greater unity and appreciation, but the history of these developments seems to be much more about a renewed vigor to “evangelize” Protestantism in the name of unity.

Will the coming collapse get Evangelicals past the pragmatism and shallowness that has brought about the loss of substance and power? Probably not. The purveyors of the evangelical circus will be in fine form, selling their wares as the promised solution to every church’s problems. I expect the landscape of megachurch vacuity to be around for a very long time.

Will it shake lose the prosperity Gospel from its parasitical place on the evangelical body of Christ? Evidence from similar periods is not encouraging. American Christians seldom seem to be able to separate their theology from an overall idea of personal affluence and success.

The loss of their political clout may impel many Evangelicals to reconsider the wisdom of trying to create a “godly society.” That doesn’t mean they’ll focus solely on saving souls, but the increasing concern will be how to keep secularism out of church, not stop it altogether. 

The integrity of the church as a countercultural movement with a message of “empire subversion” will increasingly replace a message of cultural and political entitlement.

Despite all of these challenges, it is impossible not to be hopeful. As one commenter has already said, “Christianity loves a crumbling empire.”

We can rejoice that in the ruins, new forms of Christian vitality and ministry will be born. I expect to see a vital and growing house church movement. This cannot help but be good for an evangelicalism that has made buildings, numbers, and paid staff its drugs for half a century.

We need new evangelicalism that learns from the past and listens more carefully to what God says about being His people in the midst of a powerful, idolatrous culture.

I’m not a prophet. My view of evangelicalism is not authoritative or infallible. I am certainly wrong in some of these predictions. But is there anyone who is observing evangelicalism in these times who does not sense that the future of our movement holds many dangers and much potential?

Michael Spencer was a writer and communicator living and working in a Christian community in Kentucky. He describes himself as “a post-evangelical reformation Christian in search of a Jesus-shaped spirituality.” This essay is adapted from a series on his blog, InternetMonk.com .

Healing Scriptures

HEALING SCRIPTURES

“He sent His Word,

and healed them”

Psalm 107:20

With so many of my friends going through sickness, operations and facing so many health issues I believe it is important that we never lose sight of who the great Physician is. I have been meditating on the wonders of how he cares for each of us no matter what we are going through. There are so many passages in scripture that remind us to keep our hope in Him

HEALING IS IN CHRIST’S ATONEMENT….

He bore it all “Surely He hath borne our griefs (literal Hebrew is “sicknesses”) and carried our sorrows (pains); yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:4-5).

He healed all the sick “…and He…healed ALL that were sick: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, ‘Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses’” (Matthew 8:16-17).

By His stripes… “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by Whose stripes ye were healed” (I Peter 2:24).

In Deuteronomy 28:15-22, 27-29, 35-61 we read that all sickness and disease is a curse of the law. But in Galatians 3:13 we then read that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law:

Redeemed from the curse “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, ‘Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree’ (Galatians 3:13).

HEALING IS THE WILL OF THE FATHER….

God is our healer “…for I am the LORD that healeth thee” (Exodus 15:26).

Healing as God’s blessings “And ye shall serve the LORD your God, and He shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee. There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in they land: the number of thy days I will fulfill” (Exodus 23:25-26).

Healing and protection “There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling…with long life will I satisfy him, and show him My salvation” (Psalm 91:10, 16).

He heals all diseases “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not ALL His benefits: Who forgiveth ALL thine iniquities; Who healeth ALL thine diseases” (Psalm 103:2-3).

The power of His Word  “So shall My word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11).

JESUS’ WORKS INCLUDED HEALING…

Jesus anointed to heal “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and power: who went about doing good, and healing all who were oppressed of the devil…” (Acts 10:38)   Christ is the Healer, the enemy is the oppressor; we need to appropriate Jesus’ finished work on the Cross.

Leper “And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped Him, saying, ‘Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth His hand, and touched him, saying, ‘I will; be thou clean” (Matthew 8:2-3).

Fever “And when Jesus was come into Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother laid, and sick of a fever. And he touched her hand, and the fever left her: and she arose, and ministered unto them” (Matt 8:14-15).

Paralytic “Some men brought to him a paralytic, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.’ At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, This fellow is blaspheming! Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, ‘Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Get up and walk? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...’ Then he said to the paralytic, ‘Get up, take your mat and go home.’ And the man got up and went home”   (Matt 9:2-7).

Bleeding woman “And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, ‘If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.’ Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering” (Mark 5:25-29).

Blind man “So Jesus answered and said to him, ‘What do you want Me to do for you?’ The blind man said to Him, ‘Rabboni, that I may receive my sight.’  Then Jesus said to him, ‘Go your way; your faith has made you well.’ And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the road” (Mark 10:51-52).

Cripple woman “And a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, ‘Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.’ Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God” (Luke 13:11-13).

Lepers “As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, ‘Jesus, Master, have pity on us!’ When he saw them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were cleansed. (Luke 17:12-14).

Withered hand “And, behold, there was a man which had his hand withered. And they asked him, saying, ‘Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day?’ that they might accuse him. And he said unto them, ‘What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the Sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out? How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath day.?’ Then saith he to the man, ‘Stretch forth thine hand.’ And he stretched it forth; and it was restored” (Matt 12:10-13).

Jesus: God’s will in action Jesus said of Himself, “I came not to do My own will, but the will of Him that sent me” (John 6:38). Everything Jesus did was the will of the Father, for He was the will of God in action. If you want to know if healing is God’s will, look at Jesus. “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, to kill and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

Jesus healing every sickness and disease “And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching…and preaching…and healing every sickness and every disease among the people” (Matthew 9:35).

Great multitudes healed “And great multitudes came unto Him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus’ feet: and He healed them: insomuch that the crowd wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see: and they glorified the God of Israel” (Matthew 15:30-31).

Jesus’ constancy “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).

HEALING AS THE MINISTRY OF THE CHURCH…

The importance of faith “For verily I say unto you, that whosoever shall say unto this mountain,  ‘Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea,” and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith…therefore I say unto you, what things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them” (Mark 11:23-24).

Greater works “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also: and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto My Father” (John 14:12)

These signs shall follow… “And He said unto them, ‘Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature…and these signs shall follow them that believe; in My Name shall they cast out devils…they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover’” (Mark 16:15, 17-18).

One way the church is to respond to the sick “Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him” (James 5:14-15).

God’s desire “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth” (3 John 2).

The believer is an overcomer “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

Church Planting Revisiting The Subject

Planting New Churches

Revisiting The Subject

For the past number of years I have had the privilege of teaching in India at Nava Jeva Ashram. Good  friends of ours Ken and Vinni Henson teach there. . I was asked to write an article for them to encourage Church Planting. The article that follows here is what I sent to them for publication. May it encourage you to think afresh about the important task of multiplying new congregations and also about what is the most effective means of so doing.

New Library and Chapel  and Music

building Nava Jeva Ashram

(New Life Bible College)

The number of Christians still attending traditional, legacy-type churches as their only expression of faith is rapidly declining. Currently only 34%-36% of persons in America attend a church of any kind weekly and an even smaller percentage of the total is part of these legacy type churches. The apparent but sad truth is that even people who claim to be Christians have rejected the traditional churches and are either not worshipping with any congregation or are attending a new kind of church.  
The followers of Jesus Christ in the United States who do not attend a local traditional church will grow from 30% to 70% in the next twenty years.

Ken and Vinni Henson

ken.henson@gmail.com

This coupled with the fact that the last 50 years have seen the church to population ratio go from approximately one church for every 600 people in America to approximately one church for every 2000 persons today. Our current influence as the church upon culture is waning and if we are to be faithful to the Lord's command and commission to us we must look pragmatically at what He has and is blessing. The current model is broken.
The most common form of the church around the world, which in spite of national and international trends  is a home based or cell based church. These churches around the world are springing up and thriving. The 25 largest churches (See earlier blog article on Growth Mix) in the world have all grown and are built using this strategy.
It was the most common form of the church in New Testament times and it still flourishing today.

The percentage and number of Christians on a worldwide basis who meet in these home-based or cell-based churches has consistently been higher than in the United States and in most other areas of the world are actually the predominant model of church life.

Alternative, organic fellowship forms (house churches/simple churches/cell churches) currently home to 5% of American Christians will grow to make up 30% - 35%; another 30% - 35% will live out their faith in the fields of media, arts and culture; the remaining Christians attending non-traditional forms of church will have a family-based spiritual life. The participants in this revolution are not anti-Church! In fact, it is their desire to return to New Testament Christianity. In the opinion of most of these folks, it makes you one of the more pro-Church people around.

Student Body Nava Jeva Ashram 

These gatherings of smaller, organic groups outside the Sunday "talk-in-the-box" modality is not just another "bolt-on" program for the traditional church, but exists as one of the most effective ways of actually "doing" church differently in this 21st Century.

These observations about the emerging church model are the introduction to this article for a reason. I seems clear that what God has been and is doing is reaching this world through community based home churches where Christians in their locales live out the Christian faith in practical ways and their faith in Christ is visible for all to see.

It is also an observation of this missiologist that the largest most effective churches in the world are so because they are cell-based with hundreds and thousands of home based churches all around their cities and villages. It is clear that if persecution was to shut down the public worship of the church as happened in China in the 1950’s these churches rather than die would continue to thrive.

It is sad but true that if the public worship was destroyed in the modern institutional church there would not be much left and the church rather than progressing would have, whatever its witness was, silenced.

A new church in Kissi. Kenya The cells are gathered.
This 2 year old church has seen 140 plus new converts
in the last 6 months

When we then think about Church Planting and the modern missionary movement and we think about theological education and its role in the training of the next generation of leaders in the Christian movement the question is clear.

 “Does modern theological education by its curricula, and models of practical Christian service undermine the most effective strategy for reaching new persons with the gospel of Jesus Christ?

The obvious answer would seem to be “Of course not!” Not one theological institution of a basic evangelical persuasion would ever want to see what they taught be a detriment to persons coming to faith in Christ and serving Him as responsible members of His church

Teaching  At Nava Jeva Ashram
Bangalore India

However as I examine my own theological education through Bachelors, Masters and Doctoral work there was no hint of a class or course devoted to this critical issue. If the starting of a new church was mentioned at all it was most certainly assumed that it would be a church with a building, enough worship attendance to support the programs and a pastor. It’s not that the professors were against church planting however, but for the vast majority of them their total life experience was in the paradigm of an existing institutional church. The problem was an over all ethos in the educational environment that seemed to have certain assumptions upon which the education process was built. Let me give you a few.

1.    To help the student learn and understand the Bible and Theology is our primary task. We are not the determiners of what is done with this learning after the students leave. We are called to be faithful teachers.

2.    Most students if they enter full time ministry will go and serve existing churches (that look like the traditional institutional church) so if practical ministry skills are to be taught, they are the skills necessary to build effective existing local churches.

3.    If students are to be church planters they either have an extremely rare set of entrepreneurial skills or the training on how to plant churches will be found in other agencies within and without denominations. It’s not the task of theological institutions to encourage and train for church planting.

4.    There is bias that new churches even if they are started need to look and act like existing churches and if they don’t the church plant has failed. (A personal experience in a “Church Planting” Course)

A Cell Church Baptism

5.    The assumption that because we as professors have advanced degrees earned from institutions filled with others who have advanced degrees we are effective because of what we know, rather than what we can do. Can you imagine what would change in our teaching if rather than graduation rates and GPA,  success was to be measured by how many churches were planted by those we taught? After all is that not the true meaning and intent of “matheteuo” making a disciple.

Let me illustrate: Pastor A (An actual pastor) felt God’s direction calling him to plant a church in a new area of the community which had few churches and a large unreached population. The community was made up of persons who homogeneously were like the pastor. It had people in it who were highly educated, had well above average incomes and above average debt. The housing costs were in the top 1/3 of all the houses in the larger area. After going through a battery of tests to examine his and his families fitness for church planting and attending denomination sponsored and paid for church planting courses it was determined that he was a superior candidate and was approved to plant a church. At that point funding was secured to start the new church. A three-year commitment to supplement the pastor’s salary was made and the church was launched. He began to gather a nucleus which meeting in a number of homes grew to about 60 persons. The decision was made it was now time to launch “the church” and so a rental site in a local school was secured, flyers were printed and mailed and for that first Sunday a little over 100 persons “showed up”. It became clear early on that the services were primarily a gathering of these cell groups and those who had just drifted into worship through the advertising for the most part didn’t hang around very long. A stream of people came, stayed for a few weeks and drifted away unassimilated into this lager group. 

The congregation in Kissi Kenya gathered 
to learn how to be more effective in 
reaching the lost. In spite of their growth over 
the past year their passion for 
reaching the lost has not diminished. 

As the church entered the second year the struggle continued. Since the funding was on a 3 year declining scale the pastor had to take a part time job in the community and was actually putting less time and energy into the church than he had at the beginning (Remember survival is an extremely high and critical value). By the third year the pastor was working full time and struggling just to plan, fund, and execute the weekly worship services. So much of his energy was put into this weekly meeting that virtually all the effort that was at one time given to the home cells was all but abandoned. In year four public worship ceased and the church was now back to approximately 45 persons who were meeting weekly in homes. They were planning mission trips together, supporting missionaries, using their resources to help real people with needs in their community and they have now started to invite these persons to come to their homes. Baptisms occur but now instead of a church service they go to the beach and do it out in the open for the whole world to see. The people in the church love and care for one another and are growing in there faith not only in what they know but what they do. They still gather occasionally as a larger group when all the cells come together to do something together that would have been impossible to do as a simple home cell.

John and Mary Thannickal
Founders Of 
Nava Jeva Ashram

What has been the reaction to all this? First of all, from an institutional perspective, this is not considered one of our “successful church plants” by the denominational church planting committee. After all you hear people say there’s not a church, and by that they mean a building with a Sunday worship service. We invested all this money and they should have had 200 or so people now and should either have or be in the process of getting their first building.  (PS Most persons are blind to the fact that even a modest house in that area is over $1,000,000 and for all but wealthy or large congregations a building is out of reach). Even the pastor has bought into this model. While he is faithful in these multiple home groups he looks forward to the day he can have a full time pastorate with a building and a salary.

Pastor A has the best theological education possible with an M Div from a prestigious evangelical seminary.  He serves in a denominational body that has prioritized church planting. Why would Pastor A feel this experience as one of failure rather than success?

If we go back to the earlier observations about theological education and church planting and the measurement stick provided by them it is clear the church plant of Pastor A didn’t measure up and he was a “failure”. There will be a dissection of the experience asking what training he lacked, what mistakes were made, and that community will probably be branded as resistant to the gospel. Already a large regional church is being blamed as they could provide the program the church plant couldn't staff or afford.

It’s a surprise to me that as many of these churches actually survive and at some point thrive considering the uphill battle they must face. We can all point to the stars and assume every church start should measure up to “that”, whatever “that” is.

I believe the assumptions that were made set the church up for failure.  The image created the frame of reference for the judgment.

A successful church (if we look at it biblically) is not considered a church, an effective pastor is not considered an effective pastor and a receptive community is considered resistant to the gospel. All because we had a legacy based institutional model with its assumptions and baggage.

With Dr. Cho in his office. He not only saw 
God use him to buildthe largest church in the world
 but see it develop over100 ,000 cells. 
Each year thousands of Pastors, church planters
and lay leaders converge on the Yoido Church 
for the annualCell Church Conference

We have so valued the church as an organization and institution that we have missed the tremendous potential as we live out the church as part of a living organism. The church as the body of Christ is alive and vital. The church as an institution can become tradition-bound and ineffective.

What if the model was changed.  Perhaps we need to measure success by the changed lives of individuals both those of us who are Christians and the conversions of those who at one time were not. Maybe its time to put to rest the existing gold standard that ‘bigger is better”.

For example the institutional church in China had at its most optimistic estimates under a million persons who claimed to be Christians before the persecution drove the church underground. When the church moved from this institutional large gathering to being forced to live out it's Christianity in home cells/churches the church in China grew to be somewhere between 50 and 75 million believers. Some would even argue that God had the institutional church closed to reach China with the gospel.

The concept of the church in the New Testament has 3 pictures or models of how it is expressed.

1. The universal church that has in it all believers of all time who are in this church by virtue of their relationship with Jesus Christ
2. A church gathered in a local town or region where believers, usually a larger number than could meet in a home, came normally on a set time to a set place for worship teaching etc.
3. A group of Christians who met in a home and were the witness to Christ in that community and the group practiced the essentials of what a local church is to be and do.

While we could give scores of scriptures to validate that these three forms of the Church are taught in the Scriptures, I would submit to you that the church which met in the home was the most common expression of the church in all the New Testament. When the scriptures teach that the number of churches multiplied daily there is no evidence archeologically or biblically that this was a church like our modern churches with multi- million dollar campuses, huge staffs and all the rest. All the evidence points to the fact that these were churches that met in homes. In fact you have to move a few hundred years into church history to see churches having buildings at all.

This should be so obvious to us that we would be praising Pastor A or any layperson who saw this scriptural truth clearly enough to actually reach the people that were their neighbors and friends, and dare to be in a relationship and accountability with other persons where the 30 or so “one another” commands of scripture could actually be practiced and that the celebration of baptism and the Lord’s supper would really be all that God wanted them to be.

Putting down the church that meets in a regional or local public setting would not be the purpose of this article. This article is to elevate the expectation that every Christian should be part of an effective church that meets in a home (whether they are also part of a Regional Church is not critical here). This article is also advocating that theological education ought to be giving the training in and modeling of this most effective means of church planting and effective evangelism. Would it not be an interesting requirement that every faculty member be a church planter in the true sense of the word? (Is this not what is taught when it says an elder is to have a good reputation of those without. Is it also a place where the leadership of the home church pastor is seen in relationship with spouse and children). Students could be in one of these churches as apprentice leaders and by the end of their first year I believe the majority could have planted a new church. The macro and micro skills of effective church leadership would have been taught not only cognitively but also by the modeling and example of the existing leader.

I close with this story from South America. I had the privilege of working with some missionaries in the villages and towns of the Amazon Basin. Power in a larger town was sporadic and resources were scarce and the poverty of the area was evident at every turn. The church did meet weekly but it was primarily the meeting of all the house church leaders and their assistants who came for training and accountability. If you were part of a cell you met together with the other cell leaders at the annual conference and perhaps once a quarter for a evangelistic crusade where you would be expected to bring your unsaved neighbors. Each cell also, approximately once every 5or 6 weeks, comes to the worship center where perhaps 10% of the cells are assigned for that Sunday. If you wanted to see the real church you waited until after dark and you would see on street after street a little fire being built in the middle of the road and as the fire started people came and gathered around. You could hear songs of praise, petitions of prayer and the study of God’s word. Attending where people from every generation. From the youngest babies to the oldest adults they were there. There were people who had been Christians many years, new Christians and persons that lived in the neighborhood who as yet didn’t know the Lord. As we walked through intersection after intersection and looked either way we saw literally hundreds of these effective churches sometimes 5 or 6 in one block publicly worshipping the Lord for all to see. That kind of witness is rarely seen in our existing institutional churches but here it was literally transforming a community.

Congregation of Village Church Plant 

As a missiologist I see this as what God is doing around the world. The majority of the new churches that are planted and new people being reached is being done through these effective house churches planted by Christians passionate about seeing the Great commission fulfilled in their location.

My appeal is to theological educators that they would understand the Biblical Theological, and Mission mandates and we would bring the practices in our personal lives and in our educational institutions into conformity to all of what God calls His church to be.

Can you dream with me of the potential if we really took all this seriously? Professors would have a wealth of illustrations as practitioners of the faith in a very real sense, students would become motivated to make a impact for God wherever He planted them, thousands of new churches would be started, and the desire of the Lord that this gospel be preached “panta ta ethne” would become a reality. Let it be Lord, let it be!