Church Planting Case Studies 2024 by First Fruits Press

ISBN: 9781648173875 What church planters need : how community, training, & intentional relationships fuel church growth Edited by Carolina G. Miller. Published in the U.S.A. by First Fruits Press, 2026. Digital version at http://place.asburyseminary.edu/firstfruitsheritagematerial/5/ First Fruits Press is a digital imprint of the Asbury Theological Seminary, B.L. Fisher Library. Asbury Theological Seminary is the legal owner of the material previously published by the Pentecostal Publishing Co. and reserves the right to release new editions of this material as well as new material produced by Asbury Theological Seminary. Its publications are available for noncommercial and educational uses, such as research, teaching and private study. First Fruits Press has licensed the digital version of this work under the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/us/. For all other uses, contact: First Fruits Press B.L. Fisher Library Asbury Theological Seminary 204 N. Lexington Ave. Wilmore, KY 40390 http://place.asburyseminary.edu/firstfruits What church planters need : how community, training, & intentional relationships fuel church growth [electronic resource]/ edited by Carolina G. Miller. – Wilmore, Kentucky : First Fruits Press, ©2026. 1 online resource161 pages; port.) : digital. Church planting case studies ; 2024 ISBN: 9781648173875 (uPDF) ISBN: 9781648173882 (Mobi) OCLC: 1568960849 1. Church development, New. 2. Church development, New--Case studies. 3. Church growth. 4. Church growth--Case studies. I. Title. II. Miller, Carolina G.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS !e Center for Church Multiplication ..............................................5 Contributors .....................................................................................7 Introduction ...................................................................................16 About the Book ..............................................................................17 East Africa Foreward: Bishop Dr. Mike Mutua............................................20 Case Study 1: Dr. Eunice Njenga ..............................................22 Case Study 2: Rev. Kioko Mwangangi .......................................27 Case Study 3: Rev. Joseph N. Mangeb .......................................32 Case Study 4: Bishop Moses Njenga ..........................................35 Case Study 5: Bishop Peter Pharles Kissena ...............................42 Case Study 6: Dr. Martin Munyao ............................................54 Southeast Asia Case Study 1: Rev. Henry Yeo, Northern !ailand ...................64 Case Study 2: Pastor Jason Young, Hong Kong..........................75 Case Study 3: Dwight Martin, !ailand ....................................88 Case Study 4: Dr. Samuel K Law, Singapore Bible College ......100 Case Study 5: Rev. Manik Corea, Singapore ............................116 Latin America Case Study 1: Pastor John Lealand Pastor David López ...........129 Case Study 2: Pastor John Lealand Martha Johanna Rincón ....145

THE CENTER FOR CHURCH MULTIPLICATION AT A S B U R Y T H E O L O G I C A L S E M I N A R Y

Asbury !eological Seminary is a community called to prepare theologically educated, sanctified, Spirit-filled men and women to evangelize and to spread scriptural holiness throughout the world through the love of Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit and to the glory of God the Father. Our motto is “the whole bible for the whole world.” !e vision of the Center for Church Multiplication (CCM) is healthy, multiplying, and sustainable churches in every context on earth. !e mission of the Center for Church Multiplication is to recruit, support, train, and connect Spirit-filled church planters to plant healthy, multiplying, and sustainable churches in every context on earth. !e Center recruits church planters from Asbury !eological Seminary (ATS) and church planting networks, supports church planters through matching grants and prayer, trains church planters through ATS programs, conferences, and coaching, and connects church planters with each other and church planting research, tools, networks, and resources. !e Center for Church Multiplication also engages global conversations on church multiplication to share ideas and learn from others with a posture of humility, curiosity, and grace. !e case studies in this book were presented at a gathering of church planting practitioners in East Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America in 2024. Every year the Center for Church Multiplication sponsors highly participatory gatherings like these (what we call, “Global Gatherings”) to recruit, support, train, and connect church planters, celebrate progress in church multiplication, promote training options through Asbury !eological Seminary, and facilitate conversations on church multiplication issues. !e ultimate goal of every Global Gathering is to increase the growth of healthy, multiplying and sustainable churches in every context of that region.

To learn more about Asbury Seminary, please visit: asburyseminary.edu To learn more about Asbury’s Center for Church Multiplication, please visit: asburychurchplanting.com

CONTRIBUTORS EAST AFRICA REGION CONTRIBUTORS

1. Dr. Eunice Njenga: Nakuru, Kenya B.!.; M.Sc.; Ph.D. Counselling Psychology; Church Planter Dr. Eunice Njenga is a counselor and independent researcher in Nakuru, Kenya, who has studied the impact of counseling services on the quality of life of church members and marital conflict management. She holds a Bachelor of !eology (B.!.), Master of Science (M.Sc.), and Ph.D. in Counselling Psychology. 2. Rev. Kioko Mwangangi: Makueni, Kenya AIC Regional Chairman; M.A. Evangelism, B.!. Rev. Kioko Mwangangi serves as Regional Chairman for the Africa Inland Church (AIC) in the Nzaui region of Eastern Kenya. He holds a Master of Arts in Evangelism and Leadership from Wheaton College (IL), a Master of Divinity from Scott Christian University (Kenya), and a Bachelor of !eology from Africa International University (Kenya). Rev. Mwangangi is widely recognized as a pastor, evangelist, and trainer of pastors, with a special focus on mentorship multiplication among church leaders. Based in Makueni County, he integrates gospel ministry with sustainable agriculture, directing the Malooi Youth Demonstration Farm and leading the development of a new Ministry Training Center in Malooi that will equip pastors, farmers, and community leaders. He is a Kenya Ministry Partner with Burnham Ministries International and continues to invest in rural churches

and young evangelists throughout Eastern Kenya. Rev. Mwangangi is married to Damaris Mbinya Kioko, and they have three children. 3. Rev. Joseph Mangeb: Cameroon B.!.; M.A. Rev. Joseph Mangeb is a pastor and theological educator from Cameroon, committed to equipping the church through biblically grounded teaching and discipleship. He holds a Bachelor of !eology (B.!.) and a Master of Arts (M.A.). His ministry brings together solid theological formation and a heart for strengthening local congregations and emerging leaders across Cameroon. 4. Bishop Moses Njenga: Nakuru, Kenya B.!.; M.A.; Ph.D. Student; Assistant Bishop, LifePoint Ministry Kenya; Former Dean of Academics, Moffat Bible College Bishop Moses Njenga is a Kenyan church leader based in Nakuru, serving as Assistant Bishop with LifePoint Ministry Kenya. He holds a Bachelor of !eology (B.!.) and a Master of Arts (M.A.), and is currently a Ph.D. student, continuing to deepen his theological and leadership training. Bishop Njenga has also contributed significantly to theological education as Former Dean of Academics at Moffat Bible College, where he helped shape and mentor emerging church leaders for ministry across Kenya and beyond. 5. Bishop Peter Pharles Kissena: Mara and Ukerewe Diocese, Tanzania; Bishop, Africa Inland Church Tanzania; Ph.D. Student, Asbury !eological Seminary Bishop Peter Pharles Kissena serves as Bishop of the Mara and Ukerewe Diocese of the Africa Inland Church Tanzania, in one of Tanzania’s remote and underserved regions. 8

He has been instrumental in fostering church planting initiatives across Tanzania’s Lake Victoria basin and Serengeti areas. !rough his leadership, he continues to embody a commitment to transforming communities through faithful evangelism and holistic discipleship. Currently, the bishop is pursuing doctoral studies at Asbury !eological Seminary, to deepen his expertise in biblical studies and ministry leadership. He is married to Ruthie Simon. 6. Dr. Martin Munyao: Nairobi, Kenya Ph.D. Missiology; Senior Lecturer, Daystar University; Assistant Director, ODeL Dr. Martin Munyao is a Kenyan missiologist based in Nairobi, serving as Senior Lecturer in Peace and International Studies and Assistant Director of Open, Distance and e-Learning (ODeL) at Daystar University. He holds a PhD in Missiology from Concordia !eological Seminary, Fort Wayne (USA), along with earlier theological degrees from Daystar University and Scott Christian University. A Global Research Institute scholar and postdoctoral fellow at Fuller !eological Seminary’s Center for Missiological Research, his teaching and research focus on missiology, migration, interfaith engagement, honor-shame dynamics, and online learning in African higher education. Dr. Munyao has authored and edited several works, including volumes on post-pandemic higher education and the African church’s response to COVID-19, and is an active member of the Africa Society of Evangelical !eology (ASET).

SOUTHEAST ASIA REGION CONTRIBUTORS

7. Rev. Henry Yeo: Northern !ailand Methodist Mission Society of Singapore; Country Director for !ailand; M.A. Leadership Rev. Henry Yeo is a missionary pastor from the Methodist Mission Society of Singapore (MMS) and the Country Director for !ailand. Prior to joining the MMS, Revd. Henry served with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) in Singapore from 1988-1990 and YWAM in !ailand from 1990-1996. He holds a Master of Arts in Leadership from Fuller !eological Seminary in 2008. 8. Jason Young: China Urban Missionary & Kingdom Consultant; B.A. Economics; MBA Jason Young started his career as an investment banker after graduating with a BA in Economics from University of Chicago and later with a MBA from University of London. He was eventually called by God into full-time ministry, with a focus on strategy and leadership development, where he has 20 years of experience in local church, NGO, and education contexts. Currently, he is serving as an “urban missionary” & “kingdom consultant”, developing teams and networks to pioneer new church expressions that will be relevant and effective in large cities. Jason and his wife Juliana have five young children, and are passionate about equipping and empowering young adults for Godly marriage & family and for marketplace missions.

9. Dwight Martin: !ailand President, Association of Free Churches in !ailand; Research Coordinator Dwight Martin’s life is a remarkable journey of faith, service, and obedience. As the son of the first Protestant missionaries in Nakorn Phanom province, Dwight grew up immersed in the culture and language of his adopted country. He enjoyed the benefits of having dual citizenship in !ailand and the US. He moved to Bangkok with his family at the age of three and lived there until he graduated from high school in 1974. He then moved to the United States, where he married Mary Kay and had two children. Dwight pursued a successful career in the computer field for many years, eventually starting his own software company. But in 2002, he heard a divine call from heaven that changed his life forever. God told him to sell his business, house, and everything else he had in the US and returned to !ailand as a missionary. Dwight obeyed and embarked on a new adventure of serving the !ai people with his skills and passion. When he arrived, he was welcomed by many !ai Christian leaders who remembered him and his family from his childhood. !ey recognized his expertise in the computer field and asked him to be the Research Coordinator of the !ai church, a role he still serves today. In 2021, after the Association of Free Churches in !ailand (AFT) revival started, Dwight was chosen as the first President of this new church a%liation, a position that requires him to lead and oversee the growth and development of this emerging Movement. Dwight Martin’s story is one of courage, dedication, and love for God and His people. He is a living testimony of how God can use anyone who is willing to follow His voice and His plan.

10. Dr. Samuel Ka-Chieng Law: Singapore Associate Professor; Dean of Advanced Studies, Singapore Bible College; Pastor-at-Large, Evangelical Chinese Church of Seattle; Ph.D. Intercultural Studies; Ph.D. Biomedical Engineering Dr. Samuel Ka-Chieng Law is Associate Professor for Intercultural Studies and the Dean of Advanced Studies at Singapore Bible College, and the Pastor-at-Large for the Evangelical Chinese Church of Seattle where he previously served as Elder Board Chair and pastor for English-speaking ministries since 1996. Sam holds a Ph.D. in Intercultural Studies (Asbury !eological Seminary, Wilmore KY) and a M.Div. from Regent College (Vancouver, BC). Prior to entering ministry, Sam served as a Staff Fellow at the National Institute for Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, US National Institutes of Health (Bethesda MD) and holds a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering (Tulane University, New Orleans LA). Sam’s research interests include contextualized spiritual formation, church revitalization, inter-religious dialogue, research methodology for missions, and science-faith issues. He has authored one book, co-edited two others, and more than 30 articles and abstracts. Sam and his wife Esther have four adult children. 11. Rev. Manik Corea: Singapore National Director, Singapore Centre for Global Mission; Associate Pastor, Crossroads International Church; M.A. Intercultural Studies Rev. Manik Corea is the National Director of the Singapore Centre for Global Mission as well as Associate Pastor of Crossroads International Church, Singapore. He is an ordained presbyter in the Diocese of Churches for the Sake of Others, Anglican Church of North America. Prior to this, he was a missionary church-planter with the New Anglican

Missionary Society (NAMS) in first Colchester, England (2000-2005, leading their international campus ministry) and then in Bangkok, !ailand (2012-2021, where he planted All Nations Bangkok Church with his wife). He was also Global Executive for NAMS from 2017-2022. Manik has a Masters in Intercultural Studies from Asbury !eological Seminary and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Sociology from Goldsmiths’ College, University of London. He has served as an editor in a Singapore Christian magazine called Impact as well having a writing and teaching ministry over many years. He served as the Asbury Global Gathering coordinator for South-East Asia, and in this capacity was involved in organizing the first Church Multiplication Connection conference, during which the case-studies in this book were presented. Manik is happily married to Maple and they have a 16-year old son Josiah. LATIN AMERICA REGION CONTRIBUTORS

12. John Leal: Medellín, Colombia Field Director, Impact Latin America; B.!.; M.A. Candidate (Ministry & Leadership) John Leal is Colombian and lives in Medellín with his wife Susana and their two daughters, Isabella and Valentina. He has a bachelor’s degree in theology from the Colombian Biblical Seminary and studies in Church Planting; He is currently pursuing a master’s degree in ministry and leadership with Asbury !eological Seminary. John has served as a pastor, church planter, seminary professor, and writer of pastoral training materials. He currently serves fulltime as Field Director for Impact Latin America, leading work in 19 countries with multiple denominations. When

he is not working he likes to watch movies and explore new places with his family. 13.a David López: Lechería, Venezuela Multiplication Leader, Free Methodist Church Latin America; B.S. Civil Engineering; B.!.; M.A. Candidate (Transformational Leadership) David Lopez is Venezuelan and lives in Lechería with his wife Ginegda and their two children, David Alejandro and Valery. He has a university degree as a civil engineer and worked in this field for 20 years. He also earned a bachelor’s degree in theology from A Dios Sea La Gloria !eological Seminary, and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in transformational leadership at Bakke Graduate University. David has served as a pastor and church planter in Venezuela and Peru. In Peru, he served as a missionary from 2017 to 2021. Since 2021 he has been leading the multiplication of disciples and churches in the Free Methodist Church in Latin America, helping build more than 1,000 house churches in 19 countries. In his free time, he enjoys activities such as playing and watching soccer, hanging out with his family, and seeing new places. His life is dedicated to serving God and others, and he seeks to bring comprehensive transformation to the communities where he participates. 13.b Martha Johanna Rincón: Medellín, Colombia Multiplication Leader, Free Methodist Church Latin Director of Ministerial Formation, Impact Latin America; B.!., Specialization in Pedagogy; M.A. Candidate (!eology) Martha Johanna Rincón is Colombian and lives in Medellín. She has a bachelor’s degree in theology from the Fundación Universitaria Seminario Bíblico de Colombia,

a Specialization in Pedagogy and is finishing her master’s degree in theology at the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana and serves as a volunteer at Langham Preaching Schools in Colombia. Martha Johanna has served as a seminary and university professor, training coordinators and preachers and serving on the pastoral team of her local church. Currently, she is full-time Director of Ministerial Formation for Impact Latin America, leading the work of training leaders, disciples and churches among different denominations that IMPACT serves. Her favorite hobbies are reading, watching movies, having coffee with friends and spending time with family.

INTRODUCTION Ministry has always been multi-faceted, but in the last decade or so, there have been major shifts due to the weight of modern pressures such as social media and finding a work-life balance in the midst of our productivity-obsessed culture. What does it look like to love others well and make effective disciples in our world today? !ough we are statistically more connected thanks to technology, there is a deep need for the church to exemplify true community and build intentional, meaningful relationships. When it comes to supporting church planters, pastors, and others who serve in ministry positions, community and leadership development are vital. !e importance of community and leadership training in the face of church planting challenges is a recurring theme that spans across many different regions, from Africa to Asia. In each case study and context, you will see how teamwork, community collaboration and individual disciple development is crucial in sustaining a healthy church.

ABOUT THE BOOK Many church planters are overwhelmed and under-prepared. !e work of planting churches, serving communities, and managing numerous ministries can feel isolating, especially when there is a lack of rest or a proper support system. Many of the case studies in this book speak to the exhaustion church planters can feel, as well as the solution that lies in building community-based support structures where church planters, missionaries, and local leaders can lean on each other. Teamwork and collaboration can prevent burnout. When resources are scarce, a team approach not only lightens the load, but fosters a deeper sense of belonging and shared purpose among church leaders and the local community. Another challenge faced by church planters is loneliness, especially in cross-cultural contexts. Many missionaries find themselves isolated because they are ministering in communities where they do not have familiar cultural ties, networks of support, or a shared vision with existing local churches. Building intentional communities around church planting efforts is essential to overcoming this loneliness. In fact, the first disciples modeled this through a deeply relational approach to ministry where leaders shared the Gospel together and did life with one another. Fellowship is vital, not just for the church planter, but for the overall health of the church. Building intentional communities also helps church planters work through cultural barriers. !ese are a significant challenge for church planters in Africa, Asia, and Latin America as they strive to contextualize the Gospel in a way that respects local traditions and engages the locals. Many of the case studies also point to a lack of leadership development across the regions. Church planters often feel ill-equipped to handle the growing demands of their ministries because they lack formal training or access to resources. Leadership development is at the heart of sustainable church planting. A culture of leadership multiplication,

where church planters actively mentor and empower others to take on leadership roles, ensures that the church can grow and multiply in a healthy way. Investing in leadership development practices also gives church planters the opportunity to learn how to integrate their ministry into everyday life. Ministry flows through every space, from workplaces to homes and beyond! Learning these skills allows church planters to feel equipped and empowered to take the gospel into their unique spheres of influence. By focusing on leadership development, team-based ministry, and community, church planters can build churches that are sustainable, adaptable, and impactful. Strong communities and disciple development are not just practical needs- they are imperative as we strive to reflect the body of Christ working together for the glory of God. Editorial Team, !e Center for Church Multiplication

EAST AFRICA CASE STUDIES

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FOREWARD: BISHOP DR. MIKE MUTUA LifePoint Ministry Kenya

In the vibrant tapestry of global Christianity, Africa stands as a beacon of dynamic growth and a resilient Church. As the continent where the church is expanding at an unprecedented pace, it demands innovative approaches to church planting that honor indigenous contexts while drawing from the wellsprings of theological wisdom. It is in this spirit that we present this collection of case studies from the African Regional Church-Planting Conference, hosted by LifePoint Ministry Kenya in fruitful collaboration with the Center for Church Multiplication (CCM) at Asbury !eological Seminary in Kentucky, USA. !ese presentations, born from the lived experiences of practitioners across the region, offer a profound glimpse into the transformative work of God amid Africa’s diverse landscapes—from bustling urban centers to remote rural communities. As Bishop of LifePoint Ministry Kenya, I am deeply honored to introduce this volume. LifePoint, rooted in Kenyan soil since its inception, has long championed holistic church multiplication that integrates evangelism, discipleship, and community transformation. Collaborating with CCM—a bastion of missiological engagement — has amplified our efforts, bridging the gap between academic rigor and on-the-ground praxis. !e value of this collaboration between LifePoint Ministry Kenya and the Center for Church Multiplication for the African context cannot be overstated. In a region grappling with rapid urbanization, economic disparities, and cultural pluralism, church planting must rethink imported models and embrace contextual innovation. !ese case studies illuminate adaptive strategies that resonate with African realities: leveraging oral traditions for gospel dissemination, fostering women-led initiatives, and integrating sustainable development with spiritual formation. For the global church-planting enterprise, this gathering serves as a vital engagement, reminding us that the future of missions lies not in unidirectional export from the West but in polycentric collaboration. From such insights, the global church can glean principles of resilience and 20

creativity, fostering a more equitable and vibrant missional landscape. !is partnership not only enhances capacity building but also models incarnational ministry, where North American scholarship meets African ingenuity in mutual humility. !e conferences facilitated cross-cultural dialogue, resource sharing, and leadership development, empowering African voices in theological discourse. !rough the plenaries, table-talks, prayer times, workshops, and shared research, we have cultivated a network of multipliers equipped to plant reproducing churches. I extend profound gratitude to all participants, presenters, and collaborators whose dedication made this conference a reality. !ese case studies are more than academic artifacts; they are windows through which we glean the manifold ways God is at work in Africa— reviving communities, healing divisions, and expanding His kingdom. May this volume inspire readers to join in this sacred endeavor, sowing seeds that bear eternal fruit.

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CASE STUDY 1: DR. EUNICE NJENGA Mental Health Care for Church Planters in Africa

According to the World Health Organization, mental health refers to a person’s cognitive, behavioural and emotional wellbeing. It affects how people react to stressors, engage with others and make choices. Church planters must constantly be aware of their mental health since their well-being is of great importance. A Church planter faces many stressors and must be able to cope with the daily challenges brought by those stressors. As a Church planter seeks to start a church there are many decisions they have to make and it’s best that he or she makes these decisions with a right mind. Serving the Lord in Africa has never been easy. Most ministers will face tasks that challenge their mental capacity and this may leave negative side effects. Whenever a minister experiences di%culties, it’s important to seek counselling. We all face challenges that require counselling, which is why we always encourage awareness among our Gospel ministers and church planters about pastoral or psychological counselling. Once in a while, it’s appropriate to seek guidance from a person you trust and who is experienced in your area. Mental health is a growing concern globally and in Kenya with many pastor’s reporting about mental issues. A few years ago, I attended a funeral of one of my pastor friends who was discovered one Sunday morning hanging in the church kitchen after committing suicide due to depression. He left behind a wife and very young children. !e cause and trigger for the depression this pastor was experiencing was not established, but it is likely he was dealing with a troubled mind due to a di%cult working environment, poor pay, poor self-esteem and self-image. Many pastors lack a safe space to take their troubles since they believe sharing troubles is a sign of weakness. It is not healthy to stay quiet whenever you feel disturbed. Most church planters feel overwhelmed by the tasks of church planting from the start. Yet because

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they are so committed to their mission, they forget to rest and take breaks. In Africa, it’s not natural to take a vacation and many Church planters do not plan or take vacation from their work. !is means they experience burnout often because of handling very di%cult tasks physically, emotionally, socially and mentally. Some Church planters experience psychological disorders that may affect their mental wellbeing. !e following are some mental disorders that are common among Church planters: • Anxiety disorders – Church planters may experience anxiety because they intend to plant a church and succeed in a given period of time, but depending on where the church plant is taking place, getting converts is not an easy task. Church planters may feel rushed or pressured which can affect their performance. !ey may also fear the future in terms of whether the church will grow or close down due to lack of members. Anxiety includes Panic disorders (panic involving sudden overwhelming terror or a sense of imminent disaster and death) and Phobias (fear of certain objects, things or scenarios such as water, spiders, heights etc). • Obsessive compulsive disorders (OCD) – Church planters may become obsessive as their minds are filled with stressful thoughts and urges, causing them to perform repetitive acts such as hand washing. • Extreme stress – Church planters can face an extremely stressful or traumatic event where they feel the life of another person is in danger. Some of the areas where a church plant is to be placed could be unsafe and make them vulnerable to attacks. !e Church planter may witness people being attacked and killed in their presence or invited to identify a dead body, altering his or her mental wellbeing.

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• Mood disorders – Church planters may experience various kinds of mood swings where they feel low one moment and full of energy and joy in the next. Because of their mood swings, they may have low energy at work and lose interest in pursuing the completion of a project. Mood disorders include Bipolar disorder in which a person experiences intense mood fluctuations. • Seasonal disorders –Church planters may face mental challenges connected to the seasonal changes in Africa. Oftentimes when maize tassels appear, there will be people affected during those seasons, or when the cow peas are flowering. During full moons there are also more mental issues. SIGNS THAT YOU HAVE A MENTAL DISORDER

• You don’t enjoy having fellowship with those around you. You withdraw from your friends, family and colleagues. • You avoid doing the things you love. • Lack of sleep or sleeping excessively. • Lack of appetite or eating excessively. • Feeling hopeless and worthless for a long period of time. • Feeling tired all the time. • Using alcohol and drugs or drinking energy drinks excessively. • Experiencing more negative emotions than usual. • Always feeling confused. • Unable to complete things you set out to do. • Experiencing bad thoughts or disturbing thoughts that come and go consistently. • !inking about how you can kill yourself. • Hearing voices in your head. • Having hallucinations. If you have noticed these signs in yourself, you need to see a counsellor. 24

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ISSUES IN CHURCH PLANTING THAT CAN LEAD TO A MENTAL BREAKDOWN

Starting a new Church plant requires many different resources, from financial to people willing to do the work. We must engage in prayer and fasting to reach our goals in a healthy way. !e following list includes some of the challenges Church planters face that can lead to a mental breakdown if not treated properly: • Creating a healthy Church plant team – Creating a team to spearhead a church plant is vital. !e team has to consist of God-fearing men and women, people devoted to supporting each other psychologically, financially and spiritually, readily available to share the gospel and willing to go out to remote places to spread the good news. !is means selecting the team you will work with ahead of time and choosing people who are like minded and passionate about reaching out to people with the gospel. !ey must be willing to sacrifice for Christ and they must understand the mission ahead. • Ministry related setbacks –When planting a church, you might face rejection from the people you are trying to reach with the gospel. Missionaries have been killed by people while evangelizing because their ministry and mission were not understood. You may face opposition from teammates who oppose you and they may even turn the members of the church against you. Others may steal members of your congregation or spread rumours about you. You will have to change your strategies and assess yourself to see if you are the one in the wrong. You may also face opposition from other well-established ministries because they will see you as a threat and envy you. • Family Crisis – Planting a church may require you to leave your family for long periods of time, allowing your children to be exposed to different lifestyles and develop character qualities without you. Your wife may also grow distant from you because she grows accustomed to doing life without you. 25

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• Relationship strain – Church planting affects how you relate with people and can take up a lot of space in your mind, straining your body. • Sexual relationship strain – Church planting can put stress on your sexual relationship by affecting your mental wellbeing. Pastors may experience challenges with their sexual relationships because of depression and other issues. One spouse may be denied sex when the other spouse feels they are not being properly provided for financially or emotionally. A Pastor can feel starved sexually because the spouse is emotionally distant. HOW TO MANAGE OUR HEALTH TO WARD OFF BURNOUT

• Seek medical attention whenever you don’t feel well. It’s good to seriously pray for health, but you may still need a doctor. • Change your lifestyle if it has not been healthy. Change your diet or sleep schedule. • Exercise at least 15 minutes every day. Keep your body active by walking, swimming, cycling and more. • Increase your water intake. • Identify someone you can trust as your ministry accountability partner who can counsel you and pray for you. • Challenge negative thoughts by looking for scripture you can meditate and memorize. Look for movies and games that can offer a reprieve. • Maintain healthy friendships. • Have a strategy and be flexible with what constitutes a victory and a failure.

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CASE STUDY 2: REV. KIOKO MWANGANGI “Farministry”– Farministry for Sustainability INTRODUCTION

I thank Mike and Asbury for the invitation. My topic does not sound like Church planting stuff. But if you try to drive a car without fuel, it won’t go anywhere. Mike knows I am passionate about farming, so he called my topic “Farministry.” I will also call it “Fuel-ministry.” !e idea is what was mentioned yesterday, to be self-supporting, but rather the Church planter being self supporting! Can ministry be sustainable? !is is a big question. !is summit is superb. Last week I attended a consultation organized by ACTEA and AEA and just like this one, we had presentations. !ere were about 50 presentations and we had 10 minutes each. I like this way of learning. It introduces collaboration and networking. Above all, it demonstrates that God is at work. !ese days when I am asked to speak on something, I ask myself many questions, some of which go unanswered: 1. Can Church planting work without money? 2. Why such a discussion? 3. Why not? 4. Is money important, and if so, why? 5. Can I live without money? 6. Can I get money without making it? 7. What is the difference between a calling and a job, a vocation and being employed? Which one offers more money? 8. Is Church planting a calling or an employment? A vocation or a job? 27

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9. Can a Church planter make money? 10. Or maybe better, should a Church planter make money? 11. Is there such a thing as donor fatigue? Sometimes I wish a discussion like this was started when I was beginning ministry. I have learned it the hard way. And now I am old. Can I learn new tricks? Is it too late to start? I am having these discussions with young pastors in my area now. I want to talk about making money and my case will be in agribusiness. I will share with you some video clips of Kenyans who are making millions out of farming a fruit called pitaya, also called dragon fruit. Other words for this venture could be: • Self-support • Tent-making • Side hustle !is will help us give the gospel for free. I am becoming more convinced after three decades that this may be the way to go. A BIBLICAL FOUNDATION FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Acts 20:32-35: “Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I have not coveted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing. You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions. In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” 1 !essalonians 4:11-12: “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: you should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as

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we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.” MY JOURNEY

1. From 1-19 I was dependent on my parents. 2. From 20-40 I was dependent on well-wishers and the Church. 3. After 40 I woke up and started farming seriously. MY CALLING TO SERVE AFRICAN PASTORS AND CHURCH PLANTERS

1. Wake up. African pastors and Church workers must wake up and look for ways to make money. !ere are no miracles. Don’t just bless others with prayers. For my first 15 years of ministry, I did lots of prayer-blessings for farmers in my community. I got the first fruit offering, but this did not cover all my needs. 2. Get vulnerable. Visit and learn from others, agricultural shows, demonstrations, etc. 3. Risk. Try many things and don’t give up right away. 4. Seek to learn more. Read, watch TV and explore social media. 5. Develop and maintain a biblical view of money. HOW PASTORS GET MONEY:

1. Borrowing 2. Salaries, offerings and tithes

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3. Manipulating through cheating and non-biblical methods: • Blessing the mtumishi will make God bless you • Giving connects you with the heavenly alters and God will pour into you • When you give, you receive your lost star • Panda begu • Your property is secure if you give to the pastor 4. Stealing from Church coffers 5. Well-wishers and sponsors 6. Working with your hands WHAT I DO:

I cultivate a variety of plants and animals. !is is an ongoing process since I am challenged by the rains. • Citrus

• Avocado

• Mangoes

• Black bean

• Cows

WHAT I HAVE TRIED AND FAILED:

• Melon

• Beans

• Tree tomato

• Goats

• Maize

• Chicken

• Livestock

NEW THINGS I’M TRYING:

• Dragon fruit

• Turkey

WHAT I’M TRYING AGAIN:

• Chicken

• Better livestock

• Fish

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WHAT I AM READY TO TRY:

• Any venture that does not stop my ministry and supports a biblical view of business and money. Lastly, let us take care of our soil. Our soil is home to unimaginable forms of life. One spade has more living organisms than the population of the earth. I am listening to experts and learning all the time. VIDEO CLIPS

• Most Expensive Fruit Farmer | Dragon Fruit Farming (Success Story) youtube.com/watch?v=5cy_bFmSI34 • Harvesting Millions From Dragon Fruits Farming youtube.com/watch?v=SAZsAUbsvKs • Dragon Fruits Documentary by Priscilla Nyairia youtube.com/watch?v=B0FQ049jUUw&t=1285s • How a Bite Into a Dragon Fruit Got Me Sold Into Farming !is Highly Sought Nutrient Rich Fruit! youtube.com/watch?v=uANbUsmK3n4

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CASE STUDY 3: REV. JOSEPH N. MANGEB The State of Church Planting – Missions in Cameroon INTRODUCTION

Cameroon is a bilingual country. Its o%cial languages are French and English and the capital is “Yaoundé”. It is located on Africa’s west coast. !ere are desert plains to the north, mountains in the central regions and tropical rainforests in the south. !e country is well known for its diverse culture with over 300 people groups and 250 different linguistic groups. It is referred to as “!e Africa in Miniature.” Cameroon is triangular in shape and is bordered by Nigeria to the northwest, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, the Republic of the Congo to the southeast, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea to the south and the Atlantic Ocean to the southwest. Cameroon is rapidly growing with a population of about 30 million and 60% of the population is under the age of 30. Its currency is Central African CFA Franc. A BRIEF HISTORY

Christianity was introduced in Cameroon by the English Baptist Missionary Society (EBMS), which was founded in 1782. !e Society sent missionaries John Clarke and Dr. G.K Prince to Fernando-Po, and they arrived at Santa Isabel (Clarence) on January 1st, 1841. !ese two missionaries, after arriving at Fernando-Po, decided to visit the Cameroon coast and established contact with two Kings, “King William of Bimbia and King Bell of Douala.” !ey discussed the idea of beginning a Baptist Mission in the country. In 1843, the first group of recruits and settlers arrived in Santa Isabel with Joseph Fuller, Joseph Merrick and Dr. Prince. In 1844, the second group came with Alfred Saker, and Rev. John Clarke. !ese missionaries established mission schools and health facilities as a point of entry into the indigenous community. As a result, Christianity became the predominant faith in

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Cameroon, practiced by approximately 60% of the population, with Islam professed by about 20%, and ethnic religions, primarily based in animism, at another 20%. !e Baptist missionaries did not prioritize missionary activities in northern parts of Cameroon in their earliest stages. !is left a gap which led to the growth of Islam in the north of Cameroon instead of Christianity. Because of this wide gap, Cameroon is still a mission field and is full of opportunities. It is also a di%cult place to serve due to its diversity of cultural dynamics. Cameroon’s culture is deeply rooted in animistic beliefs, which includes spirit and ancestral worship, witchcraft and traditional medicine. !ese animistic beliefs have been intermingled with other religious practices. Based on these different beliefs, there is a need for church planting missions, to reach out to the communities with the true Gospel of Jesus Christ and offer pastoral training and leadership development. !ese initiatives will revive the spiritual life of the Church in Cameroon. !e Baptist church can’t do it alone. CHALLENGES

!e church in Cameroon struggles theologically. !is is because of a lack of solid theological education for ministers and the damaging effects of false teaching, “for the time will come when people will not endure sound doctrine…(2 Tim. 4:3)”. Prosperity preachers teach people to come to Jesus for better health and more wealth. Sadly, some Evangelical churches in Cameroon have been contaminated with the lies of prosperity gospel because the focus of the church is more on getting members to stay in the physical church rather than the spiritual church of Jesus Christ. !e English speaking part of Cameroon is facing the extinction of Christianity due to the identity crises of the Southern Cameroonians. Many Christians have gone back to ancestral worship and others have relocated to the French areas of Cameroon for fear of untimely death, causing many churches to follow them to the French speaking areas as well. 33

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OVERCOMING THE CHALLENGES

Cameroon is blessed to have seen many “beautiful feet” cross its shores since the time of Joseph Merrick (Rom. 10:15 – “And how can they preach unless they are sent, … How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Gospel of peace”). Cameroon needs a new batch of missionaries to share the true gospel without compromising with tradition and popular culture. Cameroon needs Christian leaders who will stand for the truth and speak out against ungodly traditions. !e Muslim population is rapidly growing in Cameroon, and there is a need to establish churches in the Muslims areas to reduce the threat of Boko Haram. Boko Haram’s aim is to capture the whole central and west Africa for Islam. Church planting is a necessity in Cameroon to overcome the challenges of African traditional religions, Islam religion and others. We need leaders to remove fear, reconcile people to God and preach the gospel of peace to end the crises. Shalom.

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CASE STUDY 4: BISHOP MOSES NJENGA Mission to “…the ends of the earth”

“!is is the end of the “known world,” said a man seated next to us as the rickety, old pickup slowed down to take a turn from the tarmac road to a dirt road. “We are now entering the land of the Pokot, it will be the last you see of a tarmac road and fancy development until the day you return to this same spot on your way back.” I looked at my wife. We were newly married, only a few months into our life together. !is was my second time going to Pokot to encourage my former college mate who was now working as a pastor in East Pokot. !e first time I visited him was in 1999 for a youth camp. Little did we know that this would be the beginning of a long journey of growing Pastoral leaders through non-formal theological training. We would be Church planting by supporting and encouraging the trained pastors to reach out to their communities through strategic disciple making, advocacy and Community Development. My name is Moses Njenga and I am lead Pastor of the LifePoint Church in Nakuru. LifePoint Nakuru is a young missional church planted in 2015 with the aim of multiplying similar congregations in hard to reach areas. We adopted the Pokot tribe in the Baringo East sub-county as our target mission area. However, my calling to the Pokot people began way before the planting of LifePoint Nakuru. !e mission vision of LifePoint Nakuru is to initiate one hundred gospel-centered communities in one hundred villages among the Pokot people in the Baringo East sub-county of Kenya. !e gospel centered communities will grow out of the influence of Church plants that disseminate Christian values in the community, transforming the cultural worldview. East Pokot, now known as Baringo East sub-county, is located in northern Kenya. It covers approximately 4,500 square kilometers and has a population of 153,344 (Republic of Kenya, 2019). !e area is under35

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developed and suffers from very harsh climatic conditions. !e Pokot people are known to be hostile, fighting with all their neighboring tribes. !is hostility stems from cattle rustling, or the practice of stealing cows and other livestock from neighboring tribes as a way of life. !is practice involves heavy warfare which has become complicated through the introduction of guns and modern arms. !e hostility has made the Pokot area very unattractive for investments and government workers from other tribes shy away from working among the Pokot. !e scarcity of well-trained church ministers is a constant problem among the Pokot. !ere are a handful of churches dotting the vast area, yet they offer very shallow biblical teaching. !e lack of ministers often leads to poor discipleship and a syncretistic kind of Christianity. !e Pokot people are animistic in their beliefs, worshiping ancestors and practicing very strict tribal codes of beliefs. It takes very serious commitment to break away from the chains of this cultural way of life to embrace a transformed cultural worldview. Our task is to train Pokot Church ministers in proper biblical interpretation and sound theological beliefs so that they can properly evaluate their belief systems. NON-FORMAL THEOLOGICAL TRAINING

In 2009, I began to have a vision for East Pokot. I developed a model where I would reach a compromise in my conflict with missions. Since I would not go to live in East Pokot, I would find people who already live there and are comfortable there. I would train such people, equipping them with basic Bible interpretation knowledge and also basic pastoral ministry and Church planting skills. Between 2009 and 2013, I gathered 25 men and invested in training them in a cohort. I would travel to East Pokot whenever I had a break from my regular work as a Pastor and Bible School teacher. I tried to make at least 3 visits every year that lasted a week each. In the week I was there, I would provide food, training materials and instruction for the men. I had to travel alone from Nakuru or with my wife because our little car had to carry all the food for the week and all the materials and our own belongings. 36

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We had no support, so we would save up for months to make these journeys. Later, a few friends joined in supporting our work by providing funds for food and fuel to the trainings. As I trained the men, my heart continued to be warmed by their hunger and thirst for the truth that I saw in the people of East Pokot. !ey loved their land, but were living in fear of constant conflict. !ey were a people enslaved by two main shackles. On the one hand, they were caught in a never-ending conflict with their neighbors, while on the other hand, they were suffering from a culture that locked them into a cycle of poverty and oppression. !e training itself was an adventure. Initially, I had planned on using the lessons I taught in Bible school to the men in East Pokot. I soon realized that my approach was wrong. I would attempt to teach, but instead found that I was speaking to myself. !e men understood nothing. Soon, I began to research Non-formal !eological Training. Non-formal education is any type of structured and organized learning which is intentional and planned by an educational provider, but does not lead to formal qualifications recognized by national education authorities (Source nonformaleducation.org). TRAINING PASTORS

!ere are three distinctives within the kind of non-formal !eological Training we use in the training of pastors: First, it is learner-centered, meaning that the focus is not to rush and accomplish some curriculum goals or objectives, but to focus on the understanding of the learner and their ability to replicate the goals of the lesson. It does not matter how long we stay on a particular lesson. All that matters is that they all understand the content. Oftentimes we find ourselves beginning from formal adult education (involving teaching basic literacy) before getting to Biblical education.

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Second, the whole education system is built around the learner’s environment. We ask, what is the learner dealing with and how can the Bible resolve that problem? We seek to come up with answers together rather than feed the learner with predigested answers. !ey must experience the joy of discovery! !is leads to a very important goal of “a self-theologizing” Church. !ird, education is lifelong. Non- formal education involves community. I like to call it Missional Training. We cannot disengage from the learner even after graduation. In our model, we move from equipping the classroom to establishing a community to enabling missions to happen. With a vast area such as Tiaty, we can only handle one village at a time. THE VISION OF ONE HUNDRED CHURCHES IN ONE HUNDRED VILLAGES

As my passion for the work in East Pokot grew, so did my conflict with other ministries I was engaged in. I soon realized that I had no time to serve in Bible schools as I needed more time to concentrate on the mission in Pokot. I had to stop this part of my ministry in order to be effective. I also needed a sending church that would make my work among the Pokot easier and more structured. At that moment the church I served had no bandwidth for such a mission. !e church was hierarchical, which meant that all ideas came from above, leaving no room for new ministries such as what my wife and I were engaged in. I realized also that there was no way I could introduce the idea of a unique mission to our Church at that point in time. Instead, we prayerfully brought together a team of friends who later developed the LifePoint Church in Nakuru in 2015 which supports our work in Pokot. As a Pastor led, congregational church, LifePoint Nakuru has identified and adopted our mission and focused on the Pokot people in Baringo East sub-county as our mission target. We aim to equip, establish and enable pastoral leaders in 100 villages in order to create gospel commu38

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nities throughout East Pokot. We believe that it is only through sustainable discipleship that we can achieve a viable church in Pokot. !is church must cultivate the three self ’s - self governing, self-propagating and self-supporting. Hopefully, with proper training, we can achieve the goal of self-theologizing as envisioned by missiological experts. Our vision is to identify high potential areas and start by planting model congregations, which will later be the light to light the rest of East Pokot. So far we have nine congregations under pastors who have gone through our training and who we visit regularly. In the book of Acts, we see that when the door closed for Paul to evangelize in Asia, he had a dream in which a man from Macedonia was inviting him to take the gospel to his people. !is became the opening through which the gospel reached Europe (Acts 16:6-10). In our case, we have an open door for the gospel in East Pokot. !is started with very excellent ground work done by the men in the first cohort of training. When they acquired their learning they went and put it into practice using new ministry strategies. !is revival was the natural fuel for new churches. We received numerous invitations to villages to take the gospel to them. NOT WITH EMPTY WORD

!e ministry challenges among Pokot communities center around spiritual transformation and the importance of a changed lifestyle for Christianity to completely transform the culture. Discipleship must address other areas of life that are not in tandem with the gospel. I will now highlight how we have dealt with major obstacles to practice holistic discipleship among the Pokot. !e first big challenge has been female genital mutilation (FGM) and early marriages. !e vast majority of Pokot women are married before their 15th birthday. !e culture dictates that a young girl must be pledged to marriage right after birth. !e sole reason for women's existence is marriage and bearing children. Parents feel pressured to ensure that their daughters get wealthy suitors who in turn pay very high bride 39

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prices. !e sooner the girls are married off, the sooner the bride price is paid. !erefore, parents will organize a traditional circumcision ceremony for their daughters when they begin to show signs of puberty. Soon after the girl will start life as a wife. !is practice is not only cruel to the women, but also involves deeply disturbing cultural and spiritual rituals. Pastors have identified this as an area of change among our gospel communities that must be prioritized. Pastors in some gospel communities have begun to send girls to school, disrupting traditional thinking. Parents now have different expectations for their daughters. !ey do not plan for the traditional rituals of FGM, nor do they marry them off at early ages. LifePoint Mission in Pokot has also established two primary schools to provide elementary education to children as a way of responding to the need of rescuing girls from early marriages. !is school is also an answer to the second challenge. !e boys in Pokot culture are the warriors and benefactors of the community. !eir role is to raid neighboring tribes to bring wealth in the form of stolen livestock. To this end, boys are conscripted in the tribal militia at the age of 16. !ey will put their lives on the line countless times to gain recognition and status as warriors of the tribe. !e more people they kill the higher the status. !e more stolen wealth they amass, the greater their prestige in the community. !is all culminates in “Sapana,” a traditional ritual which lasts seven days. Young victorious men are recognized as heroes of the community based on their exploits in tribal warfare. Sapana itself is deeply cultural and involves some very disturbing spiritual practices which have been deemed inconsistent with the gospel. In the gospel communities, young men are encouraged to make a stand against joining tribal militia. !ey will instead go to school and become educated to better their future chances of getting good jobs. For those coming out of militia activities, LifePoint mission has been training them in alternative livelihoods, such as agriculture.

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!e third challenge is food scarcity caused by harsh weather conditions. !e Pokot people are not strangers to long and severe droughts that cause starvation. LifePoint mission has established a two prong approach to tackling this problem, as well as the poverty that arises from it. First, food is provided for children attending the schools. !is acts as a short term measure to stop the severity of food scarcity, as children who attend school are assured of two meals in a day. With children fed, a huge burden has already been lifted from the families. Secondly, sustainable practices are introduced that translate to good stewardship of the environment. LifePoint mission has adopted “farming God’s way” – a biblical approach to farming that is suitable for the climate in East Baringo sub-county. !e fourth challenge is that the area where the Pokot live has very poor infrastructure and social amenities. Many villages are simply out of contact with others due to lack of roads. LifePoint mission has repeatedly dug dirt roads to reach such villages. !is is done with the use of basic hand tools and often involves very long work hours. Between 2017 and 2019, LifePoint mission put up a one kilometer long airstrip in Kokwototo village to enable charter flights to operate between Nairobi and Pokot. LifePoint Mission has also sunk two boreholes to provide clean water for the community. Each of these boreholes are close to two hundred meters deep and are a continuous source of water for communities around them. LifePoint mission also occasionally provides medical outreach camps for the community. CONCLUSION

As part of the great commission in Matthew 28:19, disciples are called to go to all tribes and even to the ends of the earth to preach the gospel. As I reflect on the work accomplished by LifePoint Mission since 2015, I can comfortably say that we are reaching our “ends of the earth” with the transforming gospel of Jesus Christ. Our unique approach is that we not only plant churches, but establish gospel centers that model a transformed worldview for the Pokot tribe. With a vision of one hundred gospel communities, our work in Pokot has just begun. 41

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CASE STUDY 5: BISHOP PETER PHARLES KISSENA Church planting dynamics in the Africa Inland Church Tanzania– A Personal Experience Reaching the Rangi people-group of Tanzania 1998-2014 A BRIEF HISTORY OF CHURCH PLANTING IN AICT

Africa Inland Church Tanzania started as a missionary endeavor by the Church Missionary Society (CMS) from England. CMS came and ministered to the people-groups alongside Lake Victoria.1 CMS’s mission started in the year 1799 to 1909, after which they handed their ministry over to the Africa Inland Mission. !e first AIM missionaries were Marrie and Emil Sylwulka who served as the leaders of the ministry from 1909 to 1937. Emil Sylwulka passed away in 1944. AIM, under the leadership of Peter Cameroon Scott, came to East Africa and landed in Kenya in 1895. In the year 1909, AIM extended their ministry into Tanganyika before it became Tanzania after the union with Zanzibar in 1964. In the year 1937, AIM gradually handed over the ministry to the indigenous people and the mission’s name changed to Ecclesia Evangeli ya Kristo.& !is name lasted until the year 1957 when the name was changed to the Africa Inland Church Tanzania, abbreviated as AICT. AICT had not yet spread their ministry into other regions of the country until recently. It began to spread throughout the Islands and around Lake Victoria. Among the regions reached were: Bulima, Kijima, Kolandoto, Hamuyebe, Nyida, Buduhe, Katungulu, Majahida, Katende, Butundwe, Kahunda, Bukoli, Kisangwa, Mihama, and Isengwa (allaround Lake Victoria). !e Africa Inland Church had more roots among the Sukuma and the 1 2

Peter Kitula Historia ya Dayosisi ya Mara na Ukerewe kwa Kanisa la AICT, 2016. Katiba ya Africa Inland Church Tanzania Inland Press, December, 2021.

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Jita of Lake Victoria. A notable blessing in the southern regions of the Islands around Lake Victoria was the establishment of bible schools and social service centers focusing on educational ministry and health. Because of these ministries, AICT grew larger and spread among the Sukuma, becoming the Sukuma church. !ough the Sukuma church was successfully planted, it would soon be a challenge to reach other areas around Lake Victoria and throughout the country of Tanzania because this planted church was not prepared for missions as Paul the Apostle in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23. Paraphrasing his approach, wherever Paul went, he did not elevate his own culture. Instead, he sacrificed this out of respect for all the people groups he ministered to for the sake of the Gospel. Ikongo claims, “when the church started in Dar, church members cleaved to sing songs in the Sukuma language and to do their Sunday service as they did while in the Lake zone regions.”3 In spite of the fact that the church in Dar existed in the midst of the Zaramo people, the church seemed to not understand the power of contextualization. However, the gospel moved on regardless of the existing cultural challenges. As Luke says in Acts 1:8, issues within the church begin with marginalized ideas in the mind. Paul says that Christ makes all people come alongside each other to create a body of unity in diversity (Galatians 3:26-29). Jesus our Lord also began His ministry in Jerusalem and commanded his disciples to spread the good news. BISHOP PETER PHARLES KISSENA

!e gospel ministry successfully spread throughout Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth (Matthew 28:19; Acts 1:8). Although there were hesitations, biasness and marginalization (Acts 8-11), God used persecution to spread the gospel and strengthen his church throughout the earth. Disciples were made and through them, the church grew larger, fulfilling Acts 1:8. 3 Zakayo Ikongo, Mchango wa Utumishi katika Kanisa Linalokua, Kimechapwa Stadium Educational Investments Limited, Dar-Es-Salam, 2004, 9-13.

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As stated above, the beginning of the church from a single base around Lake Victoria with the Islands was not a problem, but the delayed planting of other churches in other regions became a challenge. !e church was known as “the church of the Sukuma and the Nyamwezi,” a statement confirmed by Ikongo.4 However, most of the Nyamwezi are Muslims and all reside in the Tabora Region. !is nickname brought confusion and vain excuses from other people groups who did not want to believe in Jesus Christ because they said the church belonged to the “Sukuma people group.” Branding the church as a Sukuma church was not the goal since the gospel is meant for all. Until late in the 60s, AIC had not yet penetrated the interior parts of the country because of the founders’ target goals and other evangelical denominations like the Anglicans, Lutherans and Moravians moving all about. However, it has been reported that regionalization of areas by a particular denomination was an agreement between evangelical denominations in that time. !is idea was well received by the colonial government, yet in later days, the plan caused racial challenges and denominational marginalization. !us, the current challenges we face in outreach today are a result of what was planned in the early days. !e regionalization created by the evangelical churches caused many areas to be overlooked. Islam became dominant in these overlooked places. Now, Islam in Tanzania is one of the largest religions alongside Christianity. Since the church had little impact and did little or limited missionary efforts in these overlooked regions, Islam took control. Places like Kigoma, Tabora, Singida, Dodoma, Morogoro, Tanga, Pwani, Lindi, Ruvuma, Mtwara and Zanzibar were affected. However, in the early 70s, AICT and other evangelical bodies began extending their ministries into these regions. !ese efforts came about as a result of a government strategy to assign hired workers to different regions other than their own.

Zakayo Ikongo, 2024, 8-13.

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!e migration of people from one place to another due to the Tanzanian’s constitutional freedom also contributed to the beginning of new churches. !ese churches were filled with migrants fleeing persecution like the Samaritan churches in Acts 8, as well as other regions (Acts 11) and the Antiochian church in Acts 13:1-3. Migration as a result of persecution became the vehicle to drive the message into all other regions, fulfilling what Jesus said in Matthew 24:14, Matthew 28:19 and Acts 1:8. Late in the 1990s, AIM, in collaboration with AICT, crossed over into Islamic regions to further the gospel and plant churches. !e Rangi people in Kondoa, the Dodoma region, were among those targeted. In 1998, missionaries, including myself, came to Kondoa near the Haubi plateaus of the Kolo Mountains to plant churches. Although Kondoa as a region has more than nine well known people-groups, the Rangi people are the largest group. Some of the other people groups include the Sandawe, the Burunge, the Fyomi, the Alagwa and the Iraqi people. Almost 98% of these people groups have not been reached. However, in the year 1998, both AIM and AICT, under the ministry of AIM, went out into the hills and plateaus of Kondoa to target 600,000 Rangi people, over 90% being Muslims. !e Rangi people are industrious, moving from town to city and back again in search of good business locations and regions. !eir movements have boosted Islamic growth in many towns and cities in Tanzania. !us, all marketplaces in Tanzania have many Rangi who do their business openly and further their religion. !is joint missionary effort has allowed AICT to claim the central parts of Tanzania where churches have been planted. Moreover, in the coastal regions in the eastern part of the country and in the southern regions and western regions, the Church has grown. !e northern region where the Church started has become the mother or the feeder and sender of church planters like Paul and Barnabas in Antioch (Acts 13:1-3).

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UNREACHED REGIONS IN TANZANIA

Just as it has been previously noted, most of the coastal areas of Tanzania (!e Pwani Regions) are still underdeveloped or unreached. Many missiologists agree that more than 40 people groups from the 125 and 130 ethnic groups5 reported have experienced no outreach endeavors. Among these, 30 people groups have still not heard the gospel. Just as it has been shared before, most of these regions are Islamic regions, whereas most of the Zanzibar Islands have small missionary systems. !erefore, to fulfill Matthew 24:14 and Matthew 28:19, more efforts should be made by all evangelical churches. In Tanzania we have the Bantu, Cushite, Nilo-Hamite and the San people. Most of the San people know little of the gospel. MARKS OF THE CHURCH IN CHURCH PLANTING

Although we may think of causes that lead to failure in church planting, Felker Jones explores four marks of the church which lead to the growth of the church. !ese marks are oneness of the church, holiness, catholicity, and apostolicism.6 According to his arguments, if these four marks are utilized as they should, the church will grow and expand. !e four marks make the church strong in both her witness in communities as well as in church planting through which the church expands. Gregg, in his book “A Public Missiology,” comments that if the church does not thicken in her public missionary endeavors, church planting is weakened and does not bear fruit. !is is what he calls “thinness of theology and public weaving or narrative.”7 If the church is to witness to communities, her image and efforts should produce fruits (Acts 1:8). We should realize that the church is a blessing to the nations (Galatians 3:8,9,14), and it should act as a prepared blessing to the communitie-

5 www.iwgia.org/en/tanzania.html. 6 Beth Felker Jones. Practicing Christian Doctrine: An Introduction to !inking and Living !eologically. Baker Academic, 2014. 7 Gregg Okesson, A Public Missiology: How Local Churches Witness to a Complex World. Baker Academic, a division of Baker Publishing Group, 2020.

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saround it.8 Personalizing ministries leading to marginalization of some other regions deters the Great Commission. !erefore, for the church to spread out and plant other churches it requires obedience to Christ. THE DANGER OF WRONG THEOLOGY

Prosperity gospel and the other “fake gospels” have engulfed most of the corners of the country in Tanzania. !us, many people remain confused both in the church and outside the church. Paul the apostle once said that those who either preach wrong gospels or those that heed a false gospel are both cursed and bewitched (Galatians 1:6-9 and Galatians 3:1-3). !erefore, the outcome of heeding the wrong gospel makes people in church and outside the church unable to see the need to reach others, failing at planting Christ-centered churches which also could plant more churches (2 Timothy 2:2; Acts 1:8). A FALLACY IN CHURCH PLANTING

Church planting is as simple as planting a cabbage crop. You preach today and plant a church because you already have the followers listening and believing. However, church planting may or may not be that easy. Planting a church should involve creativity, perseverance and total dependance on God through the Holy Spirit. !ere are clear procedures that church planters should follow. If we plant quicker churches, depth might not be in the church, similarly to what Okesson says about the “thinness of the church.” If the church is to be planted to last, the Holy Spirit should be involved in the entire process (Acts 1:8). !us, there is a need to understand church planting as it is meant to be (Matthew 28:19; Ephesians 2:20)! DYNAMIC PROCESSES FOR CHURCH PLANTERS

When Jesus says, “go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations,” this calls for both readiness and awareness within the church planter before he engages. !is is because reaching the lost requires readiness, 8 Christopher J. H. Wright. !e Mission of God’s People: A Biblical !eology of the Church’s Mission. Zondervan Academic, 2010.

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prayer, guidance from the Holy Spirit and readiness to be sent or go with a people that sends you and prays for you (Acts 1:8; 13:1- 2; Romans 10:9-17). !erefore, prayers, supporting and going are the three areas we should understand. In Tanzania, these three dynamic elements are not regularly applied. Most churches and evangelicals stay in their cocoon, thinking they have successfully reached all people. Just as those people in England in Carry’s time thought, these people here in Tanzania also think that the gospel has already reached all people and that God does not want to use them as a means to reach the “heathen.” My church should always be ready to go, pray and send messengers for the gospel’s sake. We still have many more people groups that have either heard little about the gospel message or they have never heard it at all. Knowledge and the acquisition of Biblical guidance are other key areas that my church needs to grow in. !erefore, seminars on outreach ministries and church planting ministries should be given to help the church understand her role. CRITICAL GUIDANCE FOR CHURCH PLANTERS

Before any endeavor toward church planting is made, the following items should be closely adhered to. For a person planning on a mission trip or church planting activity, he or she should have: 1. Knowledge of the people-group targeted 2. Knowledge of the local government, politics and economy 3. Knowledge of the history and culture of the particular people group 4. Knowledge of the predominant religion 5. Knowledge of outreach endeavors by any evangelical groups 6. Knowledge of what the church planter believes 7. Knowledge about the other people groups residing near the target group 48

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8. Knowledge of the needs of the target people group. !is will help as we serve the community holistically. PLACE OF VISION AND MISSION IN CHURCH PLANTING

Every church planter starts with a vision and creates a mission statement for the fulfillment of his or her vision. In the AICT, we have a vision and mission that helps us push on with what our Lord Jesus Christ has commanded us to do. When I go back to the vision and mission of the African Inland Church in Tanzania, the knowledge of the two help our church planters thrive. AICT envisions “all people worshiping God in truth and Spirit and having their basic needs met (Psalms 67:1-7, John 4:23-24; 6:1-13). Our vision encourages church planters to act according to our documents and beliefs. !is is accomplished through the mission given with it which is, “a Church that worships God, preaches the gospel of Christ, witnesses to all people without exclusion, teaches the true gospel of Christ and serves people holistically in the light of God’s Word.” !e guiding texts of the AICT are: Matthew 24:14; 28:19, Acts 1:8, Romans 1:16 and 10:13-15. !ese texts urge us to make sure that the whole gospel is sent and preached to all people at all times before Christ comes back (Matthew 11:28-30; 24:14). CHALLENGES IN CHURCH PLANTING

It is essential for church planters and missionaries to understand that there are challenges which may or may not be encountered when planting churches. For instance, when I was ministering among the Rangi people group, I learned that being a missionary can bring loneliness. Many pastors do not want to join because of this. !us, when a missionary engages in planting churches in a different culture, they face loneliness. !e missionary longs for community, but he or she will not have one because he or she is ministering among a people group that is not familiar. !e culture looks different and all other practices will be done in a very different way. !is situation makes missionaries feel misplaced. Fellowship is a need that church planters have that is oftentimes not met, especially when planting churches in places where there are no churches existing. 49

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Suspicion from the community is another challenge. !is may be or may not be common in other countries, but in Tanzania, especially among the Rangi people, there is a tendency to question the presence of new people in communities. !ey struggle to view their guests as harmless and will wonder if they are spies with hidden agendas. I remember when we arrived in Kondoa to serve the Rangi people group. Every person in the community did not understand why we were in this region. !ey always seemed to think we were spies who had a hidden agenda other than evangelism. !eir suspicion led them to take our case to the Ministry of Home Affairs where we were accused of being bad people who wanted to overthrow the government of Tanzania. !is case took almost a month for us to prove that we were evangelists who were in the region for religious matters. We thought it was because the region was Islamic since the people looked for every possible way to kick us out because they thought that their people would change and become Christians and Islam would die. Of course, that was our agenda, but not in a way that would overthrow the government. Other challenges include differences in worldview and cultural practices and family needs, particularly with the missionary children’s needs for better schooling. LESSONS IN CHURCH PLANTING

In any ministry, there are lessons that we learn as we go. Some of these are: 1. Reaching Muslims with the gospel of Christ is not an overnight ministry. It can take longer than expected, as does planting a church. 2. Public and Air meetings, or Crusades, have a small impact on Muslims.

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3. Muslim Covert Care is challenging (Takia, syncretism and immaturity). 4. Personal and home-to-home evangelism to Rangi Muslims is very effective. 5. When witnessing to Muslims, the five senses work (Smell, Listen, Speak, Touch and Look. Watch/see what is happening). 6. Lifestyle evangelism and life testimonies (love and true unity) matter a lot when reaching Muslims with the gospel of Christ. 7. Building bridges (trust, relationships, and love) are key in Rangi Muslim evangelism. 8. Do not ever pretend you know Islam as you talk to Muslims. Let them think that they can teach you. !us, you build trust. 9. Respect Islam, Muslims and elderly people among Rangi Muslims. 10. Revisiting the people group you have invested your time into matters a lot 11. Mentoring and preparing leaders for succession is very important in Muslim evangelism (Not all people can minister to Muslims, they have to be prepared). 12. Do not lay hands too soon on new converts or put them into theological training before further discipleship from you personally (Shairani). 13. Do not be impatient and rush ministry. You want to relate and reach Muslims more effectively with the gospel message. 14. Strategy, structures and respect are a bridge for the gospel.

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TIMO: THIRTEEN VALUES IMPORTANT IN CHURCH PLANTING9

1. Reaching the lost is challenging. 2. Our being and presence among the target people matters. 3. Prayerful life is key to ministry. 4. Testimony and lifestyle evangelism is a method that touches Muslims directly. 5. Relationship making is key. 6. Local church focus is vital. 7. A Learner attitude is important. 8. Local language and culture are a gateway. 9. Living among the target group brings trust. 10. Simpler lifestyles help for relationship making. 11. Teamwork is key because it helps in teaching what love is. 12. Lifelong learning is a good plan when reaching Muslims. 13. Teamwork, brotherly love and family respect is an eye opener for Muslims to see real love and consider knowing more about Christianity. PRAYER NEEDS AND PRAISES

1. Pray for Mission awareness within the church 2. Pray for more outreach endeavors in and outside Tanzania 3. Pray for pastors called to witness and care for the new church plants 9

eu.aimint.org/aim_ministry/timo/.

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4. Pray for unity among church planters in the country 5. Praise God for the churches planted 6. Praise God for groups awakening to outreach ministries 7. Praise God for new believers and converts from the MBB 8. Praise God for the pastors who are ready and have been doing Missions to M people 9. Praise God that we have freedom of religion in the Country of Tanzania BIBLIOGRAPHY

Jones, Beth Felker. Practicing Christian Doctrine: An Introduction to !inking and Living !eologically. Baker Academic, 2014. Katiba ya Africa Inland Church Tanzania Toleo la September 2021. Kitula, Peter. Historia ya Dayosisi ya Mara na Ukerewe kwa Kanisa la AICT 2016 Ikongo, Zakayo, Historia ya AICT Magomeni, Kimechapwa Dar-Es-Salam, 2004. Okesson, Gregg. A Public Missiology: How Local Churches Witness to a Complex World. Baker Academic, a division of Baker Publishing Group, 2020. Wright, Christopher J. H. !e Mission of God’s People: A Biblical !eology of the Church’s Mission. Zondervan Academic, 2010. ONLINE SOURCES

www.iwgia.org/en/tanzania.html. Retrieved November 2023. eu.aimint.org/aim_ministry/timo/. Retrieved 17 November 2023.

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CASE STUDY 6: DR. MARTIN MUNYAO Transforming Distance Learning Pedagogies for Church Planters in Africa: Accessibility, Affordability, and Sustainability ABSTRACT

Church planters in Africa, just like many church workers serving in various parts of the world, face a myriad of challenges. One of the most prevalent is the lack of access to capacity-building avenues owing to the heavy ministry responsibilities that they must shoulder with minimal support and family presence. A lack of training for church planters puts them at risk of zeal for service devoid of capacity and competence with which to serve growing Christian populations around the continent. !is article is a missiological introspection of the hindrance to continuous learning for church planters in Africa. Firstly, this article will give a historical perspective of the problems being faced. Secondly, this article will show the rationale for such a study given that the center of world Christianity has shifted from the global north to the global south. !is shift necessitates a focus on making remote education accessible and affordable for church planters. Lastly, this article will discuss rethinking transformative pedagogies for church planters. HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Most writers who tackle Christianity and missionary activities in Africa have not written much about African church history (p. 1, quoting from J. F. Ade Ajaya and E. A. Ayandele, “Writing African Church History.”) Most of the popular, scholarly writing about African church history has been Eurocentric, almost exclusively devoted to the exploits of missionaries and the work they did in bringing the Gospel to Africa. !e African response to the Christian message and African initiatives in the conversion of the continent is usually left out. Sundkler and Steed (2000) in their book “A History of the Church in Africa,” spend much of their book examining bridges to church growth owing to the work of African converts to Christianity. !ey give 6 reasons for the

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exponential growth of Christianity during the 150 years of Western missionary enterprise. I will highlight just one of them: the place of the Bible in the spread of the church in Africa. From the start, literacy was linked to scripture. Missionaries taught young people to read so that they could read the Bible for themselves. Once the Bible had been translated into local languages, the missionaries themselves became less crucial to the mission. Any African believer with a Bible immediately became a more effective witness than any missionary could be. By far the most important theme in Sundkler and Steed’s (2000) work is the place of Africans in the evangelization of the continent. Time and time again African evangelists were the first missionaries into a new area. Of course, one of the challenges that remained was their tendency to detach Christianity from its Western cultural import, creating a need for contextualization. MISSIO-SHIFT

Christianity’s COG has shifted to the south (Jenkins, 2002). In “!e New Shape of World Christianity” statistics of Christians show that most Christians in the world today are found in the Global South, (Knoll, 2009). Jenkins in “!e Next Christendom” forecasts that by 2030 the number of Christians in Africa will surpass Latin America by 36 million. By 2050 Africa will be home to more than a billion Christians (!e Gospel Coalition).

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MISSIO-SHIFT (SOURCE, DAVID B. BARRET, 2001) Table 2.2 — Evangelical and Pentecostal-Charismatic Adherents (in millions) Evangelicals

Penetcostal-Charismatics

Ev+Pen+Ch %

1900

2000

1900

2000

1900

2000

Africa

1.6

69.6

126.0

2.1%

25.5%

Asia

1.3

31.5

0.0

134.9

.001%

4.6%

Europe

32.4

21.5

0.0

37.6

8.1%

L. Am.

40.3

0.0

141.4

2.1%

35.6%

N. Am.

33.5

43.2

0.0

79.6

31.6%

40.0%

Oceania

2.2

4.4

0.0

4.3

36.7%

29.0%

Despite the increasing numbers of Christians in Africa, churches in the urban areas often struggle with foundations built on the gospel truth. !ere is a significant decline in rural churches owing to less focus on church growth and development along the margins. We now face a growing need for church plants in rural areas to care for and nurture believers in faith and sound doctrine. We need theological education to equip the church planters in the marginal areas of Africa for pastoral ministry. !erefore, if nothing is done to increase the capacity for church planters in the margins, billions of Christians in 2050 will be lost like sheep without shepherds! We must rethink Distance Learning opportunities to equip church planters to serve in the marginal areas among minority communities.

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WHY TRANSFORMATIVE DISTANCE LEARNING FOR CHURCH PLANTERS IS CRUCIAL

Many of the church planting movements are in the hands of self-proclaimed, untrained church planters – which means we must deter another Shakahola from happening. Quality theological training in the mainstream training centers is not accessible to most church planters serving in the margins. !ey can’t leave their contexts since many are multi-church pastors. !e cost of the established theological training is on the rise, making it unaffordable for church planters who must “tent-make” to provide for their families. Emerging Distance Learning programs for pastors are “hit and run” missionary excursions that are not self-sustaining, meaning they don’t last. TRAINING CHURCH PLANTERS THROUGH DISTANCE LEARNING

!e above issues call for the following: 1. A different pedagogy – transformative Distance Learning models 2. Consideration of issues issues such as: • Accessibility • Affordability • Sustainability ACCESSIBILITY

A Transformative Distance Learning approach must recruit students to become actual leaders that are effective at ministry. Some years ago in Papua New Guinea, SIL anthropologist, Dr. Wayne Dye, was invited to address a !eological Commission seminar for theological educators. He made a statement that startled the participants. In his statement, he claimed that many Bible school teachers were “training the wrong people in the wrong place and in the wrong way.” What did he mean? Dye believed that it may be a poor strategy to devote most of our pastoral training resources to untried workers in communities where more experienced people are already respected as leaders. 57

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!e current practice in many seminaries is to train the church planters in locations too far removed from the contexts in which they will serve. Additionally, seminaries are often using unsatisfactory methods to teach inadequately contextualized curriculum. Wayne Dye questioned the wisdom of training “the wrong people,” as well as extracting students from their contexts for several years. !is raises complex issues concerning the comparative merits of training by extraction from the environment in which graduates will work, versus training by extension in the work environment. !e proposed solution is found in imagining a transformative pedagogy. What does transformative pedagogy look like? A transformative pedagogy is very practical and applicable to the context of church planters in training. It aligns itself with Open Educational Resources (OER) to allow for cross-sharing of context across institutions of higher learning in the world. In such an arrangement, learning is driven by the expanse of training materials used within and between courses. In the spirit of OERs, trainers from established seminaries can share curriculum and available resources through their ODEL centers. ACCESSIBILITY TRANSFORMATIVE PEDAGOGY

Transformative Distance Learning pedagogy is practical, shared, and conscientious.

Transformative Distance Learning can be driven by the expanse of material used within and between courses.

Teachers from established seminaries can share curriculum or the available resources through ODEL Centers.

Transformative Distance Learning pedagogy is also focused on sharing in the process of learning as a team (Cohorts)

!e ethics in pedagogy stems from acknowledging contributions from others and being openly willing to critique and share

A collaboration between Asbury and African church plant enterprises can be an example of communcal pedagogy at the institutional level

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Learners in Transformative Distance Learning environments do not learn in isolation as some would imagine. Rather, they learn in cohorts of learning communities. In learning communities, there is a mutuality of learning and accountability, which means that a learner is responsible for another pastor’s learning. !e depth of learning in Transformative Distance Learning for church planters is that ethical standards in the learning process are maintained as the contributors of OERs are open to sharing. !ey are also open to continuous critiques of their material by mature learners who seek to contextualize it to suit their learning needs. A good proposal worth testing is a collaboration between Asbury !eological Seminary with African seminaries and an African church plant enterprise to model a communal pedagogy at the local level. !is is transformative in its imagination, and even better when practiced. AFFORDABILITY

Transformative Distance Learning initiatives are affordable. !e affordability of the learning process is crucial because it cuts the cost of relocation from home to a traditional training seminary. Distance Learning also cuts the cost of paying teachers since only the learning material is being moved in various modes (hard copies or electronic materials). Oftentimes only one facilitator is required to teach a certain course at a time. Distance Learning leverages emerging education technologies for areas where the internet is accessible and printed modules for areas without internet connectivity. Scholarships are also provided for learners through collaborative efforts between established seminaries and local church plant leadership to facilitate needy pastors. SUSTAINABILITY

Transformative Distance Learning is sustainable. !e focus centers around the merits of the extension of learning materials to the pastor learners rather than the extraction of learners from their ministry contexts. Field-based training allows for better contextualization, while institution-based training has greater potential to enlarge stu59

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dents’ horizons and provide access to new ideas and a wider range of contacts through teachers and peers. !e mix of components in some part-time training models, including !eological Education by Extension (TEE), may provide benefits of both kinds while also prioritizing contextual education. Building learning communities is essential for church planters as they take responsibility for each other’s learning. Nigerian Baptist !eological Seminary (NBTS) is exemplary in many ways, including the community of encouragement and support it creates for church planters. NBTS president, Prof. Emiola Nihinlola, posits that the community that makes and surrounds a school – students, alumni, local leaders, other theological institutions and faculty, and donors – enables the school to thrive and contribute to Jesus’ movement. Daily pressures lead administrators to focus on the immediate – the students and faculty- but there is so much more to consider. !is reflects, in part, Nigeria’s distinctively entrepreneurial culture. Perhaps it was also born of necessity when Western support for local seminaries ended and Baptist missionaries withdrew. It reflects the innovative qualities of the school and denominational leaders. NBTS attracts support from all over Nigeria as it forms vocational pastors for the Nigerian Baptist Convention and the broader West African Church. All this is facilitated by NBTS’ close relationships with alumni. !e annual pastors’ conference draws thousands for continuing education and fellowship. A forum of the heads of theological institutions, organized by NBTS, is held regularly and well attended. Specific projects attract funding from inside Nigeria. For example, alumni recently funded a conference center and hostels for graduate students. !e Baptist Convention and its a%liated churches cover almost 80 percent of NBTS’ operating expenses. PEDAGOGICAL STRATEGY: TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING

!e development of sustainable church planters requires a learning process that is connected to the learning outcomes and elements of sustainability. Larry Smith (2018) argues that developing a better understanding of how sustainability competencies can be cultivated in 60

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college and university courses and programs is still needed. A good example is the Burns Model of Sustainability Pedagogy. !e model is comprised of five key dimensions: content, perspectives, process, context and design. ORGANIC NATURE OF CLASSROOMS, COMMUNITIES, AND CAMPUSES

Content: Sustainability !emes

Perspectives Diverse, Critically Questioning

Ecological Design: Transformational Learning

Process: Participatory & Experiential

Context: Place-based

!e ultimate purpose of Burn’s model of sustainability pedagogy is to “serve as a tool for designing education that empowers and inspires learners to be able to solve complex problems and make changes that regenerate and sustain places and communities (Burns, 2009).

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Pedagogical strategy should aim to cultivate holistic thinkers and compassionate learners who can affect global change. !is needs to show up in pedagogy. Distance Learning pedagogy can be sustainable by using online mechanisms of learning in an interconnected way as demonstrated in the Burns model and aligning strategy with sustainability values and goals. CONCLUSION

In conclusion, sustainability in church planter training is a collective goal for a thriving church planting enterprise in Africa. !ere must be adequate Distance Learning pedagogical training for faculty and an explicit, innovative Distance Learning pedagogy to advance a contextualized gospel message that addresses the local peoples’ needs and answers their questions. Established academic institutions of higher learning and theological seminaries need to lead the way forward, as learners are challenged with real-world problems in sustainable Distance Learning pedagogy. !ere are already existing established universities in Kenya such as Daystar University, African International University, St. Paul’s University, etc., that are committed to opening ODEL centers across the country to support the equipping and multiplication of church planters in the country. In learning from the apostle Paul, the super church planter (2 Timothy 4:13), training for church planters should not only be accessible (transferrable), and affordable, but also sustainable. In this church planters’ summit, Asbury !eological Seminary is challenged to support and/or partner with LifePoint Ministries to open ODEL Centers for the training of church planters in this region.

SOUTHEAST ASIA CASE STUDIES

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CASE STUDY 1: REV. HENRY YEO, NORTHERN THAILAND Introducing Sanpranet and Shineforth

!e Sanpranet Methodist Church and the Shineforth Methodist Church in the Sansai district of the Province of Chiang Mai were planted in Northern !ailand between 2000-2004. Both !ai-speaking churches were planted by my wife, Ms Sungwan Yeo, and I as missionaries sent from the Methodist Mission Society of Singapore. Sanpranet MC was planted in a relatively densely populated community in Sanpranet. !e majority of the inhabitants are Lanna !ai people. Most of the other people groups are internal migrants from the mountain tribes, (e.g. the Lahu, Karen, Akha, Hmong, etc) who have made this community their home as they seek economic opportunities in Chiang Mai city. !e community is mainly made up of lower to middle income groups, although there are some very poor families trying to make ends meet because they’re unable to find jobs. Several converts were working for a large pig farm not too far from the church. !e Sanpranet Methodist Church was an off-shoot of a church planted by the Lahu tribe for the Lahu internal migrants living in the community. Since they use the Lahu language in all their activities, my wife and I felt that we also needed to reach out to the rest of the Sanpranet community who do not speak Lahu. !e Shineforth Methodist church grew out of the Sanpranet Methodist Church because it became inconvenient and unsafe for some of the children to travel to attend the Sanpranet church. !e similarity in the church planting model for both of these churches was that they each started off with ministries for children. !ese eventually drew the parents and adults to the churches. !ere were also common challenges in that both churches had di%culties persuading the Khon Mueng (City People) to accept Christ. Most of the people who were attracted to these churches were members of hill tribe people 64

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who had migrated as they sought work in the city. !ey usually resided in rented housing while the Khon Mueng owned their properties. A BRIEF HISTORY OF CHIANG MAI

Chiang Mai, founded by King Mangrai in 1296, was the capital of !ailand during the Lanna reign. It was an important birthplace of !eravada Buddhism (one of the branches of Buddhism adopted by the majority of the !ai people) and the center for the spread of this movement. !e city has more than 100 temples and is referred to as the Northern Buddhism capital.1 People of the Lanna state speak “Kham mueng” (City Language), a variation of the central !ai language that has some distinct differences. !e Lanna people are known as “khon mueng” or “city people”. Recently, the New Testament was translated into the Lanna !ai language using the Lanna script, which is a descendant of the Old Mon script like the Lao religious scripts and Burmese script. Most modern Lanna !ai people cannot read this, so this translated Bible also uses central !ai scripts. A SIGNIFICANT MOMENT FOR CHRISTIANITY IN THAILAND

One of the most significant events for Christianity’s spread in !ailand was the execution of the first convert to Christianity in the city of Chiang Mai. !is also marked the turning point for freedom of religion in the Kingdom of Siam (!ailand’s previous name). After a brief period of evangelistic success, Christians underwent a time of persecution in 1869 during which two converts were martyred. !is persecution abated in 1878 thanks to the Edict of Religious Toleration.2 !e majority of the !ai people feel that to be !ai is to be a Buddhist. Consequently, when someone becomes a Christian, he or she usually

1 2

!e Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Christianity in !ailand, en.wikipedia.org

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experiences considerable family pressure and village opposition, yet is rarely physically persecuted. In Northern !ailand, Noi Sunya (Suriya) and Nan Chai, two early converts to the Christian faith, lost their lives as a direct consequence of their conversion to Christianity. On Tuesday morning, September 14, 1869 the two martyrs were executed by order of the ruler of Chiang Mai. !e reason given was that the two new Christians, who were his employees, refused to work on the Sabbath. !ey were charged with disobedience and sentenced to be beaten to death because of their refusal to do the ruler’s work. Actually, the ruler of Chiang-Mai was under increasing political and social pressures, and he blamed the Christians’ presence for his di%culties in ruling. So, he decided to punish these two Christians as a way to discourage others. Later, challenged publicly by Rev. Dr. McGilvary, Prince Kawilorot openly acknowledged that the only reason the two men had been killed was because they were Christians.3 Despite the Edict, conversion among the native Lanna !ai people is still rare today and some tribal communities won’t allow Christians to build church structures. !ere were several incidents of churches being burned to the ground. Although this sort of physical opposition is rare, Christians encounter very subtle and verbal opposition of various forms. Chiang Mai has the greatest number of Christians in !ailand, although another northern province of !ailand, Maehongsong, has the highest percentage of Christians. However, most of the Christians in these provinces and other northern provinces are from the numerous tribes that have migrated to !ailand. THE PLANTING OF THE FIRST THAI-SPEAKING CHURCHES

My wife and I helped establish the Methodist Mission to !ailand (MMT) in Chiang Mai, !ailand in 1998. We were sent by the Methodist Mission Society with my role being identified as the Country Director. !e main objective of MMT was and still is to plant churches 3 National Report: Christian Mission In !ailand. December 16,, 2016 by Prawate Khid-arn. Asian Mission Association Press.

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that will be supported and enhanced by community services and social welfare (!e MMT was renamed in 2004 as the Mettakij Church Association, MCA). When we arrived in Chiang Mai in February 1998, we attended the first church adopted by the MMT. !is church existed before the arrival of MMT and had requested for MMT to adopt it since they needed legal coverage and financial support. Many !ai pastors plant independent churches and seek legal coverage later to become legitimate entities. !is church was planted by a pastor from the Lahu tribe. When my wife and I attended this church in 1998, we found that while it was a vibrant church, the 80 odd members were all from the Lahu tribe. Outreach efforts geared toward villagers who were not Lahu were limited. At the same time, these villagers were not interested in joining the church because of its exclusive usage of the Lahu language in all its ministries. !e majority of the villagers residing in the community were either from other tribes or the native Lanna !ai (Khon Mueng). Apart from using a language foreign to most of the community, the church had not created activities to attract the locals. As a teacher, my wife was interested in finding out how she could use her giftings to serve the community better. She visited an elementary school operated by a local Buddhist temple and found that many of the students needed help after school with their home assignments. Many of the kids were raised by single mothers or lived in broken families. In most situations, both parents were working full time with long hours 6 days a week. !e children had no one to look after them after school, and no one to help them with their home assignments. Even if their parents were home, many were not educated enough to help or too tired after a long week. Because of her findings, my wife decided to start a ministry to aid children with home assignments after school. She called it the “after school program,” attracting lots of children between grades 4-6 because. She

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assessed each child so that she could identify the weaker students and tutor them. During her free time, my wife would visit the parents of these children. She would spend time chatting about their students and praying with the parents. Many of the parents appreciated her and trusted her. However, she found that while these parents appreciated what she was doing for their children, they were not open to receiving Christ as their Savior. My wife began to invite the children to come to church on Saturday mornings. Soon, more than 80 kids were in attendance, learning songs and stories from the Bible. Even though most of the parents are not willing to accept Christ or attend church, they readily allowed and even encouraged their children to attend the Saturday morning activities. At one point, my wife organized a one-day event for children with help from a couple from the United States. About 80 children attended and at the end of the day, at least 40 children prayed to receive Christ. A few months later, most of them were baptized in a nearby swimming pool. MEETING THE NEEDS OF THE COMMUNITY

My wife had no training on planting churches, nor a degree in theology. She was not trained as a missionary. She simply accompanied me as a wife in the mission field, which happened to be her home country. She did what she felt was needed for the community, especially the education and welfare of children in her neighbourhood. For example, she started a child-care center because she realized that many parents worked almost every day and needed a place to send their children while they were gone. My wife and I did not stop at providing for the needs of children in the community. We also looked for ways to meet the needs of local adults. For example, we brought some adults to an evangelistic healing crusade. One elderly lady accepted Christ after pain in her arm was healed.

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A cell-group was formed in her house since her children would not allow her to go to church. Eventually, she had to let go of the cell group because her children did not approve. While my wife and I continued to visit her, she would not allow us to pray for her. She felt obliged to obey her children because she was dependent on their financial support. Her children were controlling her life, including her ability to live out her faith. Unfortunately, this is a very common occurrence in !ai communities across the country. At one time, a group of Christian adults in the community expressed an interest in holding a worship service on Sundays for non-Lahu speakers. A !ai pastor who was from the Lanna !ai (“city people”) was invited to help pastor this newly formed congregation. My wife and I were still not proficient in speaking the Lanna dialect, so this pastor was especially helpful since he could speak both the central !ai language and the Lannan dialect. !is congregation eventually became the Sanpranet Methodist Church. To further meet the needs of the community, my wife and I set up the Student Sponsorship Scheme (SSS) under the MMT. !is organization was established to help some of the poorer families in the community send their children to school. Although tuition is heavily subsidized by the !ai government from grades 1-12, parents still need money to buy uniforms, books, stationery, etc. WHAT ARE SOME HINDRANCES TO THE THAI PEOPLE BECOMING CHRISTIANS?

Societal Pressure/Community Rejection !ai culture is very communal. Expressing one’s individuality is interpreted as arrogance and selfishness, causing much shame. Individuality can create societal pressure that leads to rejection from one’s community and family circles. !ai people avoid offending those whom they feel are responsible for their livelihood and acceptance in their own community.

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It’s also very common to hear !ai people say that to be !ai is to be Buddhist. !e !ai feel proud to identify as Buddhist and view it as a part of their national identity. Buddhism is believed to have spread throughout !ailand as early as the 3rd century BCE in the time of the Indian Emperor Ashoka.4 Since then, Buddhism has played a significant role in !ai culture and society. Buddhism and the !ai monarchy have often been intertwined, with !ai kings historically seen as the main patrons of Buddhism in !ailand. Although politics and religion were generally separated for most of !ai history, Buddhism’s connection to the !ai state would increase in the middle of the 19th century following the reforms of King Mongkut. !is would lead to the development of a royally-backed sect of Buddhism and increased centralization of the !ai sangha under the state, with state control over Buddhism increasing further after the 2014 coup d’état (Wikipedia). With about 65 million followers, !ailand has the second largest Buddhist population in the world after China, which is about 95% of the whole population of !ailand.5 !e 3 pillars of !ai society are Nation, Religion and the King. To invite a !ai person to embrace Christianity can feel like betrayal in denouncing their personal and national identity. It takes more than a personal sacrifice to convert to Christianity. !ey will need to be brave in facing objections from their family circles and !ai community at large. Several !ai people who converted to Christianity retracted their statement of faith because of familial pressure and community pressure. !is is common in most circles, with many elderly people voicing fears that no one will care for them or pay for their funeral when they pass on if they accept Christ.

4 5

Karuna Kusalasaya (2006), “Buddhism in !ailand Its Past and Its Present.” Pew Research Center, “!e Global Religious Landscape”. December 2012.

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Community ownership Most rural villages in !ailand come together to save funds for basic needs such as funeral services. Each villager pays a small monthly contribution. However, those who convert to another religion are excluded from this service. Many communities have a simple crematorium that residents are free to use. Outsiders must have permission to use this and often have to pay a fee. Some villages don’t allow people who have converted to other religions to use the crematorium even if they have lived in the area for many years. Shame In !ai society, shame is a powerful emotion. !ai people must not embarrass each other, even if someone is guilty of something legally or morally wrong. Confrontation is avoided. Becoming a Christian and changing one’s religion brings shame to a family. HOW DO WE OVERCOME THESE HINDRANCES?

Go before Buddhism arrives I was advised to establish churches in tribal villages before Buddhism could take root in the community. We must build a church before they build a temple. Even Christians convert to Buddhism because of the social pressure and the perceived benefits they’ll receive if they are Buddhist. For example, every house in !ailand is said to have a spirit. It is believed that every space on earth is inhabited by a spirit and one should ask permission to reside on any land. One must appease the spirit or spirits by building a small shrine at a corner in front of each house. !ey are to offer food every morning for as long as they reside there. Every big complex, from shopping malls to o%ce buildings and condominiums, have a shrine.

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Reach a Whole Community Converting key people in a village that have authority will lead to the conversion of the majority, if not the whole community. !is happened in the Phetchabun province by the Free In Jesus Christ Church Association in May, 2023, with 1,760 being baptized shortly after. Christianity spread faster because missionaries shared the Gospel with the whole village rather than individuals. Lessen Shame !ere will be less chance of bringing shame to a family or community if many people convert all at the same time. Evangelize to Those Who Have Migrated Out of their Village or are Displaced Most people who migrate into !ailand from Laos, Myanmar or China, such as the Lisu, Karen, and Lahu are easier to evangelize to because they were not originally Buddhist, but animist. When these groups migrate to !ailand, they must be taught about the Gospel before they are taught that they should embrace Buddhism to become !ai. Christianity is also spreading among university students where evangelism happens among peers. !ere is less pressure from family or community when students are on campus, and students are usually more open to new perspectives. Do Children Ministry

!e Sanpranet and the Shineforth MC church grew out of children ministry programs. My wife did very well in meeting the needs of the children by helping with home assignments, finding extra tuition for students and creating activities on weekends. !is ministry also helped parents by keeping their children safe and preoccupied on weekends. My wife was able to establish good relationships with many of the parents and bring their children to church even though the parents were

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not willing to accept Christ. Many of these children continue in their faith even into adulthood. Some walked away for a period of time but returned again as well. We believe the exposure these children received while they were young makes all the difference. As Proverbs 6:22 says “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it” (NKJV). Make Disciples One of the things that we would do differently is spend more time discipling children. Many children who walked away from their faith would not have done so if we had spent more quality time with them building their faith. Many of those who are still in the faith would be better equipped to become disciples who can make disciples if we had been more intentional. Most leaders agree that churches will not continue to grow if there is no effective discipleship. However, it has been an uphill task for most churches. Many Christians are not disciples, nor focused on making disciples. It has been di%cult to bring adults to Christ in this close knit community. Many of them, if not all, have heard the Gospel and experienced Christ’s love, yet it is too costly for them to convert. !e most probable way to reach them is through their children. Starting child-care and other children-related ministries is one of the better ways to open doors and bring the Gospel into families and communities. REFLECTION

My wife and I accomplished much in starting 2 churches through children ministries and meeting the needs of the community. Some of these children accepted Christ and continued in the faith into adulthood, yet many did not. It is important that we help children not only accept Christ, but grow in their faith, becoming faithful and effective disciples through “intentional discipleship.”

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Evangelizing to the majority of the !ai people remains a di%cult challenge, but reaching a community through children ministry has proven to be one of the most effective ways. Unfortunately, most churches in !ailand still do not actively and intentionally develop children beyond the traditional Sunday school. !ese children must learn how to invite their non-believing friends to church so that they may hear the Gospel and become effective disciple-makers.

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CASE STUDY 2: PASTOR JASON YOUNG, HONG KONG Ecclesia Everywhere: Experimenting with Marketplace Church1 ABSTRACT

!is study explores the development of Marketplace Church in Hong Kong. When society and culture experience rapid change through, for example, geopolitics and epidemics, God is still at work and creating space for the Church to innovate. I focus on Mark 2:22 and John 1:14; 4.35 as a call to mission toward Generation Z and the need for the marketplace to be where the Church is. Here, I contend that Marketplace Church differs from marketplace ministry in that there is a shift towards I) Higher Viability, II) Deeper Commitment, III) Greater Authority and IV) Active and Strong Mission. As a result, I argue that this could be the largest and most strategic mission field in Asia. After exploring what and why the Marketplace Church is required, I present how it is established. I also talk about the need for I) Core Principles, II) Commissioning, III) Coaching, and IV) Connectivity. Finally, I outline two case studies and then conclude that while my research on Marketplace Church is in the early developmental stages and the future remains unknown, it is clear that a new marketplace church-planting movement is already underway. It is therefore worth serious exploration if we are to reach this most strategic mission field in Asia. KEY WORDS

Alpha, Church, coaching, commission, disciple, discipleship, God, Hong Kong, marketplace, mission, o%ce, pioneer, pioneering, urban, workplace.

1 In Greek, Ecclesia (or Church) Everywhere is Εκκλησία Πανού. !is case-study was transcribed and edited by Emma Ash from the presentation of the case studies that Jason Young made on Saturday, 13th January 2024 at Singapore Bible College.

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INTRODUCTION

καὶ οὐδεὶς βάλλει οἶνον νέον εἰς ἀσκοὺς παλαιούς· εἰ δὲ μή, ῥήξει ὁ οἶνος τοὺς ἀσκοὺς καὶ ὁ οἶνος ἀπόλλυται καὶ οἱ ἀσκοί· ἀλλ’ οἶνον νέον εἰς ἀσκοὺς καινούς. No one puts new wine into old wineskins, now if not, the wine will burst the wineskins and the wine and wineskins will be destroyed. Instead, new wine [goes] into new wineskins.2 – Mark 2:22 I would argue, in recent years, that God is doing a new thing, given recent seismic political and economic challenges and the global COVID pandemic. I see it as God pouring out new wine for new seasons. In response to the new outpouring, I propose that the Church needs to prepare new wineskins to fully engage in this novel and exciting move of the Holy Spirit that is taking place within our cities and nations. Geopolitics, along with a global epidemic, means that we cannot go back to “business” or church as usual. !is also means mission and church planting must evolve and adapt according to these innovations. My studies center around a couple of urban church planting mission networks within the context of Hong Kong. MARKETPLACE CHURCH: AN EXPERIMENT

Since Marketplace Church is a recent development, further research involving qualitative and quantitative data is needed. Nevertheless, I present research from the early stages of this project. MARKETPLACE CHURCH: WHAT IS IT?

I have begun to use the following definition to describe what a Marketplace Church is:

2 Translation my own.

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Marketplace Church is a legitimate, fully functioning, New Testament Church that is established I) in the marketplace context, II) by indigenous marketplace leaders, III) for marketplace mission, disciple-making and multiplication. It is, however, not limited to impacting the marketplace alone. MARKETPLACE CHURCH: AN EVOLUTION

First and foremost, it is important to recognize the developing process and stages from Christians being in the workplace to the formation of a Marketplace Church. In Diagram 1, I show how someone with strong Christian virtues can transition from being a good colleague to inviting others to a local church service. From here, other initiatives evolve, such as outsourcing events to be hosted by outside ministries, the creation of new marketplace Bible study groups and outreach activities such as Alpha, all happening before a “shift” eventually takes place, creating a Marketplace Church. DIAGRAM 1

Christian Work Ethic Invite Colleagues to a Local Church Service Parachurch-led Christian Activities Marketplace Bible Study Groups In-house Marketplace Outreach Activities SHIFT : I) Higher Viability, II) Deeper Commitment III) Greater Authority IV) Active and Strong Mission.

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MARKETPLACE CHURCH: THE SHIFT

In the last 2 stages, an organic move is seen from outreach activities happening within the workplace toward a more permanent New Testament culture with community living, working and being a Church in the marketplace. I would argue that when the shift takes place and forms a Marketplace Church, it will be made up of four essential parts. !is development takes time. It is clear that the Marketplace Church is no longer an o%ce Bible study, fellowship, or even a lunchtime outreach program. Instead, it has evolved into something more intrinsic for those who live and/or work in this environment. !e shift can be summed up as follows: I.

Higher Visibility, i.e. it is recognised as an actual church both internally and externally.

II.

Deeper Commitment to each other with family values.

III. Greater Authority in embracing and executing all the New Testament functions and responsibilities of the Church. !is includes administering the sacraments such as baptisms and collecting tithes. IV.

Active and Strong Mission focused on multiplication. Here, Marketplace Church is a legitimate, fully functioning, New Testament Church that is established in the workplace context by indigenous leaders.

However, the key point is that we cannot and should not restrict the work of the Holy Spirit. !erefore, while we want to create more Marketplace Churches, we do not want to limit it to reaching the marketplace alone. Nor do we envision such churches merely replacing the four walls of a church building with the four walls of an o%ce building. !is would be counterproductive to a strategic mission. Instead, we want it to be a launchpad to reach urban life and society.

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MARKETPLACE CHURCH: WHY IS IT NEEDED?

οὐχ ὑμεῖς λέγετε ὅτι ἔτι τετράμηνός ἐστιν καὶ ὁ θερισμὸς ἔρχεται; ἰδοὺ λέγω ὑμῖν, ἐπάρατε τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ὑμῶν καὶ θεάσασθε τὰς χώρας ὅτι λευκαί εἰσιν πρὸς θερισμόν. ἤδη Do you not say that “It is yet four months until the harvest comes?” Behold, I say to you, “Lift up your eyes and see the fields, because they are white toward harvest already!3 – John 4:35 Urbanization, along with mass migration, shows that the global Church needs to both adapt and shift with the transitions that are happening within our society. !at being said, practically, the average Hong Kong citizen seeks to be gainfully employed and has a strong work ethic, aiming to provide a better life for his/her family and future generations. As a result, more time is spent in the workplace than anywhere else. !ough I have yet to explore the effects of this on health and quality of life, I would argue that at the very least, it would lead to dissatisfaction and disillusionment when dreams of success do not become reality. Generation Z, our emerging leaders set to make up a quarter of the Asia Pacific region’s population (Kim, McInerney, and others, 2020, p. 2), are now entering the workplace in significant numbers. Consequently, the Church must also adapt and shift to engage them in the marketplace. !is could be the largest and most strategic mission field in Asia. Why? Because I genuinely believe that young adults are interested in Jesus and spirituality, desiring an authentic encounter with God, seeking hope, meaning and purpose as part of their identity. As a result, Jesus’ words that the harvest is ripe in John 4:35 lead me to advocate for the need for specific Marketplace Churches in close proximity to such generations that have tended to stay away from traditional churches.

3 Translation my own.

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MARKETPLACE CHURCH: HOW IS IT ESTABLISHED?

!ere is no blueprint to starting or running a Marketplace Church. Churches come in many shapes, sizes and forms. !e dynamics of pioneering within different contexts means that the “how” becomes difficult to define. However, there are key elements that enable Marketplace Churches and their leaders to thrive and minister in a way that is healthy, sustainable and effective. !ese critical factors include: I) Core Principles, II) Commissioning, III) Coaching, IV) Connectivity. I.

Core Principles Firstly, the Marketplace Church will need strong core principles. I have presented these as examples: I.I.

!e Power of “Yes.” I believe that God is more interested in someone’s availability than their ability. In other words, someone’s “yes,” to God is the biggest qualifier.

I.II. !e Call to All. Everyone partakes in God’s calling. I would argue that each person is called by God to be a messenger and a minister. I.III. Church on !e Go. God’s people are not just attempting to bring their colleagues to church. !ey are actively seeking to bring the church to their colleagues right where they work. I.IV. From Mission Field to Mission Force. God wants to transform the largest mission field into the greatest mission force, advancing the Church through the marketplace. Following these core principles will not only establish healthy communities but will empower each member to feel a part of the Church in their call to serve in the marketplace.

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II.

Commissioning Secondly, commissioning is acknowledging the spiritual empowerment that takes place when someone is authorized and sent out. Pastors and elders who are trained and active in leadership within the Church endorse the ministry of those in the Marketplace Church. !is empowers the community being sent, a%rming their identity in Christ and the spiritual blessings in which they have [See Ephesians 1:3-23]. Furthermore, it celebrates unity within the Church. !ose being sent are an interdependent extension of the wider body of believers.

III. Coaching !irdly, coaching and mentoring are forms of discipleship. New and emerging leaders within the marketplace setting will need regular investment, especially in terms of leadership, spiritual formation and theological development. In addition, coaching enables disciples as life-long learners to remain accountable, protecting the Church from error and weaknesses and allowing it to flourish. I believe that building a process that has high trust and low control will enable such relationships and ministries to grow and mature. IV.

Connectivity Finally, connectivity refers to a peer-led space where church leaders can learn from each other, share best practices and testimonies, and support mission work at the frontlines of marketplace engagement. Here, regular encouragement and collaboration lighten the burden of challenges ministers face and allow time for synergy and impact to take place. In my opinion, the Great Commission needs great collaboration. !is connectivity is summed up in

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three points: IV.I) Creative Inspiration, IV.II) Care and Support, IV.III) Collaboration. By focussing on core principles, commissioning, coaching, and connectivity, we can establish strong Marketplace Churches. APPLICATION

I will now present two case studies in response to the principles I’ve outlined and explained. While there are Marketplace Churches founded in working-class areas in contexts such as factories and construction sites, I’m focusing my case studies on more a'uent segments of society that I’m more familiar with. CASE STUDY 1: “DANIEL”

Daniel is a gifted, young evangelist in insurance sales. Brought up as a Christian, he was unable to reach any friends when inviting them to his church in a local fishing village. As the then National Director for Alpha in Hong Kong and South China, I encouraged him to run a course in the marketplace context. After two courses, Daniel had established a strong community with forty young adults interested in Jesus. However, they did not want to commute to Daniel’s home church each week. As a result, he spoke to his Pastor and was commissioned to establish a Marketplace Church, reaching and discipling believers in the context of their workplace. Aspire Church was established six months later after Daniel began the first Alpha course. Significantly, Daniel’s pastor welcomed other citywide leaders to work closely with Leo and the team, providing coaching and connectivity. !e next few years, new leaders rose, communities launched, and vibrant ministries were started, including a youth church. !ree points to recognize are: I.

Aspire Church is fully owned and led by young marketplace leaders, but it is supported by mature church leaders.

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II.

Instead of just having a centralized convening function, the Mother Church [from Daniel’s home village] took on a new role in sending and resourcing, providing a hub for marketplace missionaries to church plant on the urban frontlines.

III. !e Alpha Course is an effective catalyst for planting seeds for new forms of church. Nevertheless, there needs to be apostolic follow-up to further help establish these churches and enable them to mature. CASE STUDY 2 – “ESTHER”

Esther is a Senior Partner of one of the big four accounting firms in Hong Kong. She was regularly involved in outreach within the workplace, hosting Bible studies, Alpha courses and seeing transformation within boardroom meetings. However, a feeling of discontent led Esther to dream about launching a Marketplace Church along the lines of the principles I have expounded. As a result, Simply Church was commissioned in 2021. !eir first act was baptizing six disciples who had come to faith, were discipled and are now serving in their workplaces. !ey now have six missional families that meet separately covering each day of the week. In addition, they run groups outside of the o%ce to engage with their family members. !e church’s leaders partner with other citywide churches and NGOs to serve the poor and engage with social justice projects in which non-believer colleagues are invited to participate in. Finally, they host training events so that others can launch their own Marketplace Churches, equipping leaders across Hong Kong. Here, Esther was able to implement another key aspect of Marketplace Church - it is not limited to reaching the marketplace alone, but regularly engages with wider families and friends. Where parachurch-led Christian activities once happened prior to a Marketplace Church evolving, these can now still be implemented at any point in time. Furthermore, engaging with social justice projects allows for those in the 83

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workplace to involve their colleagues without needing to come to faith seeing that the marketplace is still an active mission field. Finally, as a leading example of Marketplace Church, Esther’s team is now training and sending others as pioneers in their own workplaces and networking with citywide church leaders, demonstrating the effectiveness of Marketplace Churches in reaching Generation Z. CASE STUDIES: FURTHER THOUGHTS AND POSSIBLE CHALLENGES

While these case studies highlight new ways to plant Churches amid marketplace contexts that are dynamic and challenging, more research is required to address and answer the following issues, such as: I.

How do you equip Marketplace Church leaders in each stage of their development, allowing them to maintain flexibility and creativity in ministry?

II.

How do you prevent burnout for a Marketplace Church leader?

III. How do you navigate complex and sensitive o%ce dynamics? !ere needs to be clear boundaries in place with regard to work hours and how discipleship takes shape and form within an individual’s life. Here, prayer breakfasts and weekly lunch-time one-to-one coaching and mentoring could be scheduled, provided other time is reserved for each person’s recreational and personal needs. Yet, could Marketplace Church incorporate this training into work hours? We need to safeguard against the ever-present threat of burnout, particularly among the less experienced leaders. Employer–employee dynamics are also complicated. Marketplace Church needs to consider this when colleagues are transitioning between jobs and or Marketplace Churches. Colleagues might also need an alternative place to worship whilst transitioning from one industry to another based on contracts. Furthermore, in the case of church 84

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members who are colleagues or staff from the same department or offices, when work performance appraisals are done, the boundary and separation of work-based performances from pastoral concerns need to be upheld. In summary, while Marketplace Church has challenges to face and overcome as it journeys through its developmental stages, clear boundaries and open communication between church leaders and networks will help relationships grow and flourish.4 MARKETPLACE CHURCH: NEXT STEPS

Potential next steps for those interested in launching a Marketplace Church would be to: I.

Identify potential “marketplace missionaries” in your congregation or network and begin envisioning, equipping and empowering them to plant a “seed church” in their workplace, work district or industry network.

II.

Connect with existing marketplace fellowships, cell groups, bible studies, etc, in your networks to explore the possibility of “activating” and “missionalizing” them into Marketplace Churches.

III. Form a team of kingdom-minded spiritual elders in your city/region who have a common vision and passion to commission, cover and create space for lay leaders across the city to explore fresh expressions of church in the marketplace. As these case studies are still in the early stages of development and the research is new, more vision and resources would likely need to be 4 One can add that there has been little research or discussion yet about how we may consecrate particular buildings (as done in Anglican and Roman Catholic traditions) or how to organise sacred spaces and times for Marketplace Church within the work-place context or what church services in the marketplace for Generation Z would actually look like.

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developed over time so that more organizations and Mother Churches could actively promote and send leaders into urban workplaces to form a Marketplace Church. As a follow-up, I believe that it is important to advance this work personally through conferences, engagement via networking, and liaising with others who can carry this mantle so that Generation Z can have an opportunity to go to church and be !e Church in the places and spaces where they spend most of their time. CONCLUSION

In this essay, I have presented what Marketplace Church is: A legitimate, fully functioning, New Testament Church that is established I) in the marketplace context, II) by indigenous marketplace leaders, III) for marketplace mission, disciplemaking and multiplication. !is model of church must evolve through a series of events and activities until a shift takes place. From here, a Marketplace Church can be launched that follows a pattern of I) Higher Viability, II) Deeper Commitment, III) Greater Authority and IV) Active and Strong Mission in the place that I believe to be the largest and most strategic mission field in Asia. !rough core principles, commissioning, coaching, and connectivity, Marketplace Church has ample mission capacity and strategic vision to teach and equip others to begin fresh new expressions of church. It would lead to what I term Ecclesia Everywhere (Εκκλησία Πανού in Greek), that is, the people of God on the mission of God right where they live, work and play. As seen within the research presented, Marketplace Church is not confined to the four walls of the o%ce but is designed to move with the Holy Spirit, touching and impacting all walks of life within and beyond the marketplace. In our experience, we are already seeing ordinary people do extraordinary things by being available and saying “Yes” to the mission of God. Both case studies give ample evidence to this. !ey show that while

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there are challenges to exploring church-planting and discipleship in workplace contexts, the fruits of ministry currently outweigh the challenges, albeit recognizing that clear boundaries need to be established to keep the Church flourishing. It is hoped that these studies would provide insight and a glimpse into what new innovative Marketplace Churches might look like in an ever-evolving future. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Kim, Aimee., McInerney, Paul., and others. “What makes Asia-Pacific’s Generation Z Different?” McKinsey & Company, (2020), 1-10 <www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/ our-insights/what-makes-asia-pacifics-generation-z-different> [accessed 29 February 2024]. Nestle-Aland. (2016). Novum Testamentum Graece: 28th Revised Edition. Institute for New Testament Textual Research (Eds.). Deutsche Bibelstiftung: Stuttgart. !e Holy Bible: (2016). NRSV: New Revised Standard Version. (Anglicized edn.). Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.

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CASE STUDY 3: DWIGHT MARTIN, THAILAND From Resistance to Revival: The Journey of the Association of Free Churches in Thailand INTRODUCING THE ASSOCIATION OF FREE CHURCHES IN THAILAND

In 2016, the Association of Free Churches (AFT) in !ailand, led by Pastor Somsak, aimed to establish 1,000 churches and welcome 10,000 new believers by 2020. During that same year, I served as the Research Coordinator for the !ai church and discovered that despite two centuries of the Gospel’s presence in !ailand, 95% of villages had never heard of Jesus. !is led me to Pastor Somsak and we worked together to establish 1,087 house churches and add 11,883 new members by the end of 2020. In 2021, we focused on the Phichit province and established churches in every village despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Our two-year efforts significantly improved Phichit’s ranking from one of the least evangelized provinces in !ailand (70th out of 77), to the 4th most evangelized province in terms of Christian population percentage. With the wisdom of experience under their belt, the AFT has embarked on a grand journey in !ailand. We envision a house church in every one of !ailand’s 85,000 villages and at least one district church in every one of !ailand’s 928 districts. !is is no small feat. It’s a vision as vast as the country’s lush landscapes and as deep as its rich cultural heritage. Yet the AFT church planters are armed with invaluable experience from the past seven years and are boldly stepping forward to reach this goal. !eir determination is unwavering and their spirits are high. !is is their journey, their mission - to bring light to every corner of !ailand.

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FROM VISION TO REALITY: THE TRANSFORMATION OF PHICHIT PROVINCE

In the year 2016, nestled within the heart of !ailand, the AFT was a vibrant network of eight churches scattered across three provinces and was under the dedicated stewardship of Pastor Somsak, a local country pastor. It was during this time that a vision was received from God. In a divine revelation, Pastor Somsak was entrusted by the Holy Spirit with a monumental vision that would alter the course of his life. He was to establish 1,000 churches and welcome 10,000 new believers into the fold by the year 2020. !is colossal task seemed insurmountable at the time, and Pastor Somsak was unsure of how this vision would materialize into reality. However, he took a leap of faith and embarked on this spiritual journey, taking one step at a time. Guided by the Holy Spirit, each step unveiled a part of the grand plan that was initially shrouded in mystery. Pastor Somsak also sensed that the Lord would bring an unknown partner who would join him in this grand endeavor. I was a missionary born and raised in !ailand to parents of the same calling. During the time Pastor Somsak was discerning these things, I held the position of Research Coordinator for the !ai church. With over a decade of experience and comprehensive data on all !ai churches at my disposal, I found myself profoundly moved by a verse in Mark 1:38. In this verse, Jesus says “let us go to the next village and preach the gospel there, for that is why I have come.” !is resonated with me on a profound level. My meticulous research also revealed a startling fact. Despite two centuries of the Gospel’s presence in !ailand, a staggering 95% of villages do not have a Christian presence and most of the people have never heard of Jesus. !is revelation ignited a spark within me, leading me on a quest to find someone who shared my vision of reaching every village with the Gospel’s message. In February 2017, my quest led me to Pastor Somsak, and we decided to join forces. !rough a process marked by trial and error, we embarked on a journey of learning and discovery. We learned how to successfully share the gospel with !ai people, how to disciple them effectively, and how to

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establish house churches that would serve as sanctuaries of faith within their communities. By the end of 2020, our relentless efforts bore fruit in ways we could not have imagined. We exceeded our 2020 goal and established 1,087 house churches, welcoming 11,883 new members (of which 5,885 people have been baptized) into our growing community. !ese initial house churches were established in random locations without a strategic overall plan. At the end of 2020, after succeeding in their 2016 vision, the leaders of AFT established a new vision for the year 2021. !is new vision was to establish 800 more house churches. Using the data at my fingertips, I suggested a way for the AFT church planters to be strategic, rather than random, and do something that had never been done before; to completely reach every village in a !ai province with the Gospel. Having data on all the churches in !ailand, I knew that Phichit province had over 800 villages without any Christian presence. I suggested establishing those 800 churches strategically by reaching every village in Phichit province with the Gospel. Once a house church had been formed in every village, they would establish a district church in every district to continue mentoring and growing the village churches. So that is what the AFT decided to do. !e Phichit province was a province steeped in Christian mission history as being ‘hard soil.’ !is term, a metaphor as rich and layered as the soil itself, represented the formidable challenges missionaries faced in spreading the Gospel in this area. Phichit, with its reputation of resistance to the Gospel, was perceived as a tough nut to crack. But the AFT leaders, armed with faith and determination, were about to unearth a truth that ran contrary to this belief. After embarking on their mission, they discovered an unexpected reality. !e people of Phichit were not resistant to the Gospel; they were yearning for it. !eir hearts were like parched land, desperate for the life-giving rain of the Gospel. !ey longed for the good news of Jesus Christ, the only God who could liberate them from their endless cycle of karma and sin.

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!is revelation was more than just an eye-opener; it was a turning point in the AFT mission. !e leaders were infused with renewed vigor and determination as if they had found a hidden wellspring in a desert, promising hope and salvation to those who sought it. !is newfound understanding fueled their resolve to bring about a spiritual awakening in Phichit, transforming its ‘hard soil’ into fertile ground for faith to flourish. To carry out this mission, the AFT planned to deploy approximately 40 church planting teams. Each team was made up of four individuals whose goal was to share the gospel in 20 villages. !ey would return to these villages each week for 26 weeks, nurturing and discipling the new believers in their faith. !ese volunteer teams were the backbone of this mission, unsung heroes working tirelessly week after week. !ey embarked on an impressive journey, exploring every secluded nook and unseen cranny in the pursuit of finding “persons of peace” following the teachings of Jesus as depicted in Luke 10. !eir mission was not merely to disseminate the word, but to establish house churches, emulating the apostle Paul’s approach in the book of Acts. Each house church they established stood as a living testament to their relentless efforts, serving as a beacon of faith amidst the villages. However, they were met with an unexpected obstacle – the COVID-19 pandemic. !is global crisis posed significant challenges to their mission, threatening to halt their progress, and casting a long shadow of uncertainty over their efforts. But these leaders, fortified by their faith, were not deterred. Instead, they turned to God in prayer, seeking His guidance in the midst of the adversity. In response to their unwavering faith, an opportunity was revealed. !ey decided to provide masks and hand sanitizers to the people as they shared the Gospel. !is act of service, a beacon of hope during a time of fear and uncertainty, transformed their mission. It allowed them to connect with the community on a deeper level, opening doors for meaningful conversations about faith and providing a tangible demonstration of God’s love and care in these challenging times.

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Over the course of two transformative years, their tireless efforts began to bear fruit in ways that surpassed their wildest dreams. House churches, like seeds of faith sown in fertile soil, sprouted in every village, painting a picture of unity and shared belief. District churches, symbols of resilience and determination, were established in all 12 districts of Phichit province. !e seeds of faith they had sown blossomed into a thriving community of believers who were strong and unwavering like the leaders who guided them. !is transformation was nothing short of astounding. Phichit province rose like a phoenix from the ashes to become the 4th most reached province. !e Gospel’s message resonated with over 19,424 souls and more came to know Jesus every day. Emboldened by their success in Phichit province, the AFT in !ailand set another ambitious goal. !eir vision is to form house churches in all of !ailand’s 85,000 villages and establish a district church in all 928 districts across all 77 provinces of !ailand. !eir next target was Phetchabun province. In 2023, AFT church planters embarked on a mission to form house churches in every village and a district church in every district of Phetchabun province. !eir goal was not just to establish churches, but to create sanctuaries where people could meet with the one true God and continue to grow in love and confidence in their faith in Him. !is mission was not just about building physical structures, but about fostering spiritual growth and nurturing a community of believers, each house serving as a beacon of hope where people could find solace and strength in their faith. !is ambitious plan is a testament to AFT’s unwavering commitment to spreading the Gospel across !ailand. In 2024, the AFT set its sights on the provinces of Nakorn Sawan and Khon Kaen. !eir goal is not just to establish house churches in every village, but to create a network of faith that spans across provinces and villages. In the subsequent years of 2025-2026, they plan to reach every village in the provinces of Chaiyapum, Phitsanulok, Loei, Nong Bua Lumphu, Sukhothai and Kumpaeng Phet. In the years after, they 92

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remain open to divine guidance, ready to follow wherever their mission may lead them next. !ey understand that their journey is about lighting a beacon of hope that guides others toward faith in Jesus Christ, touching lives and transforming communities through faith. CHANGING METHODOLOGIES AND CHALLENGES

When I first encountered the work of the AFT, I observed several aspects that differed from the conventional evangelism methods I was accustomed to. My first observation was that Pastor Somsak spoke about coming to know Jesus, eschewing the traditional verbiage used by !ai pastors and missionaries which typically referred to coming to “know God”. Upon inquiry, Somsak explained that he was aware that !ai people recognized many gods, but knowing that salvation is found in no one else but Jesus, he intentionally used the name Jesus instead of the generic term ‘god’. Somsak understands the !ai people and their worldview deeply. !is gift, along with his remarkable ability to communicate in a way that resonates with them, enables him to share the Gospel in a compelling and effective manner, truly touching the hearts of his fellow citizens. !e unfamiliarity of the villagers with the name “Jesus” would often add an element of intrigue to their encounters with the AFT church planters. !is curiosity opened doors for meaningful conversations about faith, providing the church planters with an opportunity to introduce the villagers to the teachings of Jesus. Another observation I made was that initially, Pastor Somsak was the sole evangelist. It seemed like a daunting task for just one church planter to start 1,000 churches. However, the leaders of the AFT recognized this challenge and embarked on a journey to train and disciple hundreds of other evangelists and church planters who would be just as effective as Somsak in sharing the Gospel. As of 2023, the AFT has successfully trained over 800 volunteer evangelists, a testament to their commitment and adaptability in spreading the Gospel.

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In the early years of church planting, AFT evangelists would seek permission from the village head to hold an evangelism event to share the “good news”. Most of the time, the village head agreed. On the day of the event, the AFT evangelists would bring food, lights, a loudspeaker, and walk around inviting the villagers to this event. However, they soon realized that while this method was effective, it was also costly and demanded a significant amount of time. Now when the church planters from AFT set their sights on a new village, they begin their mission with a “prayer walk.” !is spiritual journey takes them down the roads and lanes of the village, their hearts and minds open to discovering “persons of peace.” As they encounter these individuals, they share their personal stories of faith, explaining why they are followers of Jesus and how His teachings have helped them overcome their sins and karma. !ey extend an invitation to these individuals to pray to Jesus, offering them an opportunity to experience His divine grace. !e AFT evangelists are recognized for their heartfelt slogan, “Do you have a problem in life? Jesus can help you.” !is simple yet powerful message resonates with many, often marking the first step in the new believer’s discipleship journey. !is encounter is not just a meeting; it’s the spark that ignites a new faith community. It’s the beginning of a new house church, a place where believers can gather to worship, learn, and support each other. I was born and raised in !ailand 67 years ago. As a result, I hold dual citizenship in both !ailand and the United States. My upbringing was steeped in missionary work since my parents were the first Protestant missionaries in the Northeast province of Nakon Phanom, !ailand. My childhood home was nestled in the !ai countryside on the banks of the Mekong River, overlooking the country of Laos. After graduating from high school in 1974, I left !ailand. I became a software developer, yet in 2006, I returned to !ailand after receiving a divine calling from God. Soon after I returned, I was asked by the national !ai Church leaders to serve as the Research Coordinator of the !ai

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church. My unique perspective – shaped by my childhood experiences of being raised in !ailand, knowledge of the !ai language and culture, and many years of research on the work of missionaries and !ai pastors, was a valuable asset. When I joined the AFT, I noticed that they were leading hundreds of people to Christ- but their method of tracking these new believers was archaic, relying on names scribbled on pieces of paper. Recognizing the ine%ciency and limitations of this system, I decided to leverage my expertise in software development. I developed a software application called “KapTrack”, a digital solution designed to bring clarity and e%ciency to mission work. KapTrack is a smartphone app that allows users to keep track of remote data, such as new believers in Jesus, and track their discipleship progress. !is innovative application allows AFT church planters to capture vital information, such as the believer’s name and photograph, the GPS coordinates where they first heard about Jesus, the date they believed in Jesus, their age, phone number, who led them to Christ, what level of discipleship they have achieved, and if they have been baptized. !is wealth of information can be easily accessed and updated, enabling AFT church planters to monitor each believer’s discipleship growth and follow up with them effectively. In addition to tracking individual believers, KapTrack also helps the church planter keep track of the thousands of house and district churches. Every time a new house church is started, the information is recorded. !is includes data such as the current date, picture with GPS coordinates, attendance, date started, name of leader, and more. !is “real-time” data provided credibility to AFT’s work. When people unfamiliar with AFT question their results, they can show them live data on the internet about the work they are doing. !is data not only encourages AFT workers but also helps them manage their workload and stay informed about the progress they have made. Kaptrack transformed AFT’s approach from a manual and ine%cient system to a streamlined and effective digital solution. !is software didn’t just track numbers; it tells stories of faith and growth. It paints a vivid picture of AFT’s mission work, making it tangible and real for everyone involved. 95

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One of the most frequently asked questions that members of the AFT encounter is whether their work faces opposition from the government or Buddhists. !e answer, quite surprisingly, is a resounding no. In fact, in some instances, the government has shown support for their work. !ey have witnessed the transformative changes that the AFT’s efforts have brought to !ai villages and have encouraged them to continue their mission. !ey see the positive impact on people’s lives when they believe in Jesus and recognize the value of such change. As for the Buddhists, the AFT’s approach is not one of comparative religion or forced conversion. !ey do not compel new believers to drastically change their way of life. Instead, they place their faith in what the Great Commission says, which is to “go and make disciples.” !ey believe that as they disciple new believers, the Holy Spirit will guide these individuals in their spiritual journey. As a result of their transformation, they discard their old beliefs and ways of life naturally. !e traditional method of evangelism, which often involves forcing individuals to convert, is not part of their strategy. Interestingly, the most significant opposition the AFT faces comes from an unexpected source - the traditional Christian church. !ese churches, entrenched in their conventional methods, seem resistant to acknowledging the innovative ways in which the Holy Spirit is working within the AFT. As a result, rumors and false accusations are often circulated. !e AFT leaders desire open and honest dialogue with these churches to address any misconceptions, but such conversations rarely occur. !is situation presents a unique challenge for the AFT. On one hand, they are making significant strides in spreading the Gospel and transforming lives in !ai villages. On the other hand, they face opposition from those within their own faith community. However, they remain undeterred. !eir focus is on their mission and the positive impact they are making on individuals and communities. In conclusion, while the AFT’s journey is not without its challenges, their unwavering commitment to their mission continues to drive them forward. !ey navigate through opposition and misconceptions 96

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with grace and determination, always guided by their faith and their commitment to spreading the Gospel. Indeed, the evolution of AFT methodologies is a testament to their adaptability and commitment to their mission. From organizing large evangelism events to adopting a more personal and cost-effective evangelism approach through “prayer walks,” the AFT has shown remarkable flexibility in their methods. !is willingness to learn, adapt, and innovate is a key factor in their success in spreading the Gospel across !ailand. WHY THAI PEOPLE EMBRACE JESUS

Over the course of seven transformative years, the AFT in !ailand has been on a remarkable journey. !is journey, however, is not just about the miles traveled, but about the lives touched and the communities transformed. At the heart of this journey is a clear, unified vision that everyone within the AFT supports and works tirelessly toward. !is vision is not just a distant dream but a guiding light that illuminates their path and gives purpose to their efforts. !e AFT is powered by hundreds of passionate volunteer church planters. !ese individuals are not just volunteers; they are torchbearers of faith, driven by a profound passion to reach their fellow !ai people with the Gospel. !ey carry with them not just the message of Jesus, but also the hope and promise it brings. !eir approach is methodical and heartfelt. !ey traverse every village and road, seeking out “persons of peace.” !ese individuals are not just random villagers; they are the key to opening doors and hearts to the Gospel. !ey are the bridge between the church planters and the community. Every new believer recorded in the database is significant, not just numbers in a record. !eir faith journey’s are a chronicle of spiritual growth and transformation. !e AFT evangelists bring a gospel of love, hope, and reconciliation with the Creator, not religion, rules, and regulations. !ey encourage new believers to immediately develop a relationship with Jesus through prayer. Instead of sending new believers to a “big” established church, 97

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they form house churches where these new believers can grow in a spiritually safe and comfortable environment. After forming a house church in every village, they start a district church. !e district church continues to work with the house churches to help them grow. !rough continued discipleship and additional teaching, these churches continue to grow. !is journey is more than just numbers or statistics - it’s a story of lives changed, and communities transformed. It’s a testament to the power of faith and resilience in the face of adversity. REFLECTION

I used to believe, like most Christians, that !ai people were hard to reach and that !ailand was a di%cult place to spread the Gospel. !is belief seemed to be supported by the fact that !ailand is the least reached country in Southeast Asia with a Protestant Christian population of only 0.75%. However, after being a part of the AFT for the past seven years, my opinion changed dramatically. I now believe that the issue does not lie with the !ai people, but with the missionary methods that have been used to reach them for the past 200 years. I’m advocating for a shift away from traditional religious methods and toward a more passionate and intentional approach. By going to every village and telling people about Jesus and how He is the God that loves them and can free them from their sin and karma, they will respond. !e key is to return and disciple them without imposing “Christian” religion, rules, and regulations on them. Instead, let the Holy Spirit convict them and transform them. !is approach is very natural and does not incite opposition from their family or society. As they are transformed by the Holy Spirit, they will give up their old ways of life. As you delve into this account, envision the faces behind these statistics - individuals who have discovered hope and purpose through their newfound faith. Picture the joyous gatherings in house churches across Phichit, Phetchabun, and all the other provinces. Imagine the sense of community as people come together, united in their worship and their

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quest to learn about Jesus. Each gathering is a testament to their faith, a celebration of their shared beliefs, and a beacon of hope illuminating their path forward. !is is more than just a case study; it is a vivid tapestry of faith, resilience, and community woven together by the shared belief in the Gospel’s transformative power. It is a testament to what can be achieved when we dare to dream big and remain steadfast in our mission, even in the face of adversity. I invite you to explore this dynamic dashboard (through the link below), which is updated daily to reflect the tireless efforts and extraordinary achievements of the AFT church planters. !is dashboard vividly illustrates the growth of the AFT faith community, with new believers continually joining. To witness this inspiring journey firsthand, please click this link: estar.ws/AFT.html Each point on the map signifies a person who has accepted the salvation message of Jesus Christ. !e varying colors denote the district where they believed in Jesus. Feel free to utilize the dropdown filters and menus to delve deeper into various facets of this spiritual revival. Witness the power of faith and community in action. Kaptrack is the application that enables the creation of this “Business Intelligence or BI” dashboard. It is a revolutionary application designed specifically to bring clarity, transparency, and e%ciency to mission work. !is groundbreaking tool is transforming the world of missions, making it easier for individuals and organizations to track, manage, and enhance their mission efforts. Visit kaptrack.com to learn more about this innovative application that’s changing the game in the world of Christian missions.

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CASE STUDY 4: DR. SAMUEL K LAW, SINGAPORE BIBLE COLLEGE Navigating the Axes of Church Multiplication in the 21st Century EFFECTIVE CHURCH MULTIPLICATION: INTRODUCTION

Reflecting on the Church Multiplication Conference (CMC), the most critical principle to be remembered is that contextualization is essential in the navigation of any successful church multiplication process. !e CMC presentations confirmed my experience as a second-generation church planter with roughly thirty years of personal experience as a planter and missiologist. Properly understanding the context of church multiplication endeavors enables you to choose the most appropriate model and processes that will increase the effectiveness of the churches and the long-term viability of the fledgling congregations. !e diversity of the presentations on church multiplication, in !ailand by Reverend Henry Yeo through the Methodist Mission Society of Singapore, Pastor Dwight Martin through the Association of Free Churches in !ailand, and “marketplace” churches in Hong Kong by Pastor Jason Young, clearly illustrate that it is impossible to apply a “cookie cutter” approach to church multiplication. In this reflection, I will add narratives with my own experiences to expand our horizons, then close with a look across church multiplication history to uncover three axes that church multipliers need to navigate: the sodality-modality relationship, the organic-institutional timeline, and the local-central identity dimension. For the purposes of this reflection, I will use “church multiplication” to refer to a movement of church plants and “church plant” for the establishment of a single church. While church planting will be discussed, the focus of the article will be on effective church multiplication.

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A SUMMARY OF THE PRESENTATIONS

From the discussions following the CMC presentations, several common themes emerged despite the disparate models and contexts of the church multiplication case studies. Reverend Yeo’s presentation was a case study of his church plant in !ailand under a denominational mission society. Pastor Jason Young’s presentation was a case study of “marketplace” churches that were primarily self-initiated and what might be termed “free-form” congregations that are still in the process of self-definition. And lastly, Pastor Dwight Martin’s presentation seemed to center around what church growth scholar, Donald McGavran, might have described as a “people movement.” Despite the differences among the case studies, three common axes emerged that determined the shape, pace, and trajectory of multiplication. Two of the axes overlap with McGavran’s five axes (McGavran and Wagner 1990:17-19). !e first axis is defined by the roles of “sodalities” and “modalities,” terms coined by Ralph Winter to describe two kinds of missionary communities (Tennent 2010:441). A “sodality,” originating from the Latin word soldalis or “companion,” is a group of companions that share a particular purpose. In contrast, a “modality” is a diffuse movement or “unstructured fellowship.” A church planting/multiplication team is generally considered a sodality while a church plant congregation may be considered a modality. From the presentations, the interaction between sodalities and modalities shaped each case study. It seemed that when modalities were given ownership and the right to self-differentiate, the speed of church multiplication was faster and diffused more naturally as in the cases of Young and Martin’s presentations. Sodalities provided the impetus and the framework, but the more autonomy modalities were given, the higher the rate of propagation, something that McGavran also concluded (McGavran and Wagner 1990:153). !e second axis centers around the definition of “church” across the organic-institutional timeline and the question “what does it mean to be a church?” In church multiplication and planting, is there a need 101

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for a church building? Is there a need for a specific identity, name or theology? Does there even need to be clergy or full-time workers? !e common theme across the presentations was that when a church plant or multiplication process remained organic for a long period of time, relational transmission sped up propagation. Both Young and Martin’s case studies were organic and undifferentiated, and both grew faster. Even Rev Yeo shared that he and his wife focused on relationships. !ey tried to delay the more formalized institutional structures of the Singapore Methodist churches among their church plants. All three cases noted a need for institutional structures as the church plants grew, but it was clear that the longer the organic nature was preserved, the faster the churches multiplied. !is was also McGavran’s main assertion (McGavran and Wagner: 199) since many studies have shown that increased institutionalization contributes to a decline in the multiplication process and over institutionalization results in the stagnation and decline of churches (Hiebert, Shaw, and Tienou 1999:357). !e third and final axis focused on the issue of local versus central identity. Greater freedom within the church to self-differentiate enhanced the effectiveness of the church multiplication processes. All three case studies allowed the local contexts to define the approach and shape of the “churches” to be formed. Yeo focused on children’s ministry in response to the high degree of brokenness among !ai families, Young focused on the marketplace context and its related issues, and Martin indigenized evangelistic efforts through oral narratives and lifestyle witness. Training was given and resources were provided, but these were quickly handed over to local leadership. As a result, the church plants and multiplication processes were more readily contextualized and incarnated. It is important to understand that these three aspects should not be seen as “either/or” choices, but “both/and.” Over time, churches will shift around on each axis to navigate the internal life of the church and the external changes of their contexts (Saarinen 2001:6). !e ability to be flexible and to appropriately navigate contexts determines not only

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the viability of church plants and the health and longevity of churches, but for church multiplication, the speed of propagation. But can one generalize the observations of the three case studies? !e next two sections seek to expand the perspectival horizon to confirm these observations. EXPANDING THE CHURCH PLANTING HORIZONS

My church planting experience began with watching my parents as they planted two churches, one in Ipoh, Malaysia from 1964 – 1968 and the other in Tacoma, Washington (USA) from 1971 – 1976. I had the opportunity to plant a church in the Seattle, Washington (USA) metroplex while pastoring the Evangelical Chinese Church of Seattle from 1996 – 2009, and now I’ve served as a missiologist since 2009 studying church multiplication movements in the US, Taiwan, South Asia and Southeast Asia (Law 2016). To set a frame of reference, I’m a third-culture American-born Chinese that has lived overseas for a third of my life and two-thirds in the US. !e majority of my ministry experience has been among the Chinese diaspora. !is may limit any generalization of my reflections. REFLECTIONS ON MY CHURCH PLANTING PARENTS

My church planting lens was significantly impacted by my father’s ministry. My parents, Reverend Jeremy Chong-Hian and Elsie WenHua Elsie Law, both seminary-trained at Bethel Bible Seminary (Hong Kong) and Western !eological Seminary (Holland, Michigan), were called from their teaching posts at Bethel Bible Seminary (Hong Kong) in 1964 to establish a Chinese congregation at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Ipoh, Malaysia. !e Scottish Presbyterians recognized that Malaysia’s independence would eventually lead to a significant decline in the expat population.1 Desiring to ensure the longevity of St. Andrews after their departure, it was important that a congregation of local Christians be firmly established. In the context of 1960s Ipoh, 1 db.ipohworld.org/view/id/4108, roxborogh.com/REFORMED/malaysia.htm. Accessed January 2024.

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much of the work was evangelistic through door-to-door and community visitations. My memories of this time center around sitting with my parents as we were welcomed into living rooms, shophouses, and nursing homes – and being scolded for consuming all the snacks provided by the hosts. By the time they left Malaysia in 1968, the Chinese congregation numbered about 40 parishioners. Today, St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church numbers are in the hundreds with multiple language congregations at two locations.2 !e second church plant was in Tacoma, Washington (USA) while my father pastored the Evangelical Chinese Church of Seattle. A faculty member of Pacific Lutheran University, Dr. Kwong-Tin Tang, and a surgeon, Dr. Chung-Chun Chan, were leading Bible studies for Chinese-speaking students in the Tacoma area. For a period of four years beginning in 1971, my parents would drive down from Seattle to Tacoma on Fridays to support the Bible studies and host outreaches for the small Chinese community. After three years, Sunday worship services were started and eventually the Evangelical Chinese Church of Tacoma was established in 1976.3 My memories were of reading books or playing under the tables while my parents led the Bible studies and playing with the college students. Although both church plants were among minority Chinese diaspora people groups, the context shaped my parents’ church planting efforts. !e Ipoh church plant was through community outreach to a diffuse population for an existing institutional church while the Tacoma church plant was targeted toward a homogeneous group that was yet to be defined. In each case, the placement of the loci on three axes gleaned from the Church Multiplication Conference were consistent as factors that determined the success of each church plant. Although the role of my parents was sodal, they were dedicated to equipping the modality. !ey 2 3

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considered the training of Bible study leaders and deacons to be vital. !is allowed both church plants to develop a greater sense of ownership (that is, self-differentiation) rather than having to rely on external leadership and sponsorship. But unlike Young and Martin, the two church plants were more similar in process to that of Rev. Yeo and the Methodist Mission Society in that institutionalization occurred earlier. !is connected St. Andrews to the Malaysian Presbyterian Church and the Tacoma church plant to the Evangelical Chinese Church of Tacoma, their Statement of Faith and the Articles of Incorporation nearly identical to the Evangelical Chinese Church of Seattle (my father, being Reformed, removed “premillennial” from ECC-Tacoma’s Statement of Faith). REFLECTIONS ON MY CHURCH MULTIPLICATION EXPERIENCES

Personally, I have been blessed to participate in three church plants through the Evangelical Chinese Church of Seattle (ECC) which is counted as among one of the one thousand best congregations in the United States (Wilkes 2001:257). Before the adoption of its current church, multi-campus model (OCMC) in 2005, ECC’s mission statement was to plant a church in the Seattle area every four years. From 1975 through 2000, it planted or assisted in planting the Eastside Christian Community Church (1980), the Evangelical Chinese Church of Kent and Renton (1994, later renamed South King County), and the Evangelical Chinese Church of Snohomish County (1999, later to become ECC’s North Campus). !ere was only one failed church plant in Federal Way, Washington.4 ECC also helped church planting efforts in what is now the Anchorage (Alaska, USA) Chinese Christian Church and the Bellingham (Washington, USA) Chinese Christian Church. In 2005, ECC moved to the OCMC model that resulted in planting three language congregations in Redmond, Washington between 2001 - 2012. !e shift to the OCMC model resulted in the church doubling from 600 to over 1200 between 2002 – 2009. Also of note- in 2021, almost 20 years after its incorporation in 1999, the 4

eccseattle.org/en/home/. Accessed January 2024.

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Snohomish County church plant was re-incorporated as ECC’s North Campus. Each church plant was assigned a lead pastor from the ECC Pastoral Staff. I was blessed to support the Federal Way and Snohomish County church plant efforts and lead the planting of our Redmond campus, helping with the formation of two of its three congregations. How did the loci on the three axes contribute to the success or failure of ECC’s church plants, Federal Way and Snohomish County being considered “failed” church plants? In the first axes, the failed church plants relied heavily on sodalities and failed to mobilize the modalities. !e same lead pastor for both church plants relied heavily on members from the mother church to support the church plants, but unlike the lead pastors for the other church plants, he did little to develop local community leaders. !e Federal Way church plant never took off and the Snohomish County church plant, lacking sustained leadership, was eventually re-incorporated into ECC as the third campus twenty years after its incorporation. In the second axes, the two failed church plants were more institutional rather than organic, seeking to replicate the mother church in its worship service, leadership structure, and its various ministries. Little was done to contextualize the church plants to the two local Chinese populations who came from different immigrant streams and had different socioeconomic backgrounds compared to the mother church. Finally, in the third axis, the church planting pastor of the failed church plants retained full control and authority throughout the church planting efforts. Everything went through him with little input from the local community. !is was partly due to the lead pastor’s high church, denominational background where clergy did most of the work compared to the lead pastors of the other church plants. He also did not identify the differences in the demographics and cultural differences arising from different immigrant streams (Law 2016:87) between the church plants and the mother church, keeping the format and style of the ministries identical with the mother church. In contrast, the lead church planting pastors of the successful church plants all focused on discipling the modality, and cultivating organ-

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ic development by first understanding the local context, then quickly establishing local leadership, ownership and identity. For example, as the church plant immigrant streams were more from mainland China than from Taiwan and Hong Kong, the song selections, choice of leaders, and even the language script (simplified versus traditional) were adjusted to account for the demographic changes at ECC South King County and in the Redmond campus. REFLECTIONS AS AN OBSERVER OF CHURCH MULTIPLICATION MOVEMENTS

In my years after leaving ECC to become a theological educator at Singapore Bible College in 2016, I’ve had the opportunity to study different church multiplication efforts in the US Chinese diaspora, Taiwan, Singapore, Cambodia, Nepal and India. I’ve noticed that the way church multipliers navigate the three axes, consistent with the CMC case studies and my previous experiences, often determines the trajectory and the success or failure of multiplying churches. In almost all successful cases, modalities were quickly mobilized. !e two case studies in the US Chinese diaspora, the Houston Chinese Church (HCC) and its seven church plants, and the Chinese Bible Church of Maryland (CBMC) and its five church plants, focused heavily on developing “core congregations,” or members who lived in the region of the church plants. !e sodality consisted of the church planting pastor and some elders, but the majority of the church planting teams were those from the area that needed reached. !e multiplication processes of ECC, HCC, and CBMC were almost identical. !e same can be said in the case studies of the church multiplication work of Elder Yung Wu of Nanjing Chinese Christian Church and its twenty-plus Mandarin-speaking churches throughout Taiwan over thirty years, one Nepal church multiplying over 70 churches across the country in twenty years, and in Jharkhand, India a church multiplication movement the resulted in fifteen thousand Christians among a special caste tribal group of 7.5 million (names of churches withheld due to geopolitical sensitivities).

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!e cultivation of organic growth over structured institutional approaches is also consistent across the church multiplication movements studied. Many of the church planters and fledgling church leaders were serving in their respective roles within a year of their conversion, with some village church planters having less than six months of discipleship and theological training. !e sharing of the gospel was through personal testimony and the active manifestation of God’s power in the lives of those they shared with. After Martin’s presentation, it prompted one of my students who was attending the CMC to ask me, “so why do we need a graduate level seminary degree?” !ere is a need for theological education, but from all the presentations, experiences, and research, one cannot deny that natural, organic growth trumps a structured institutionally-dictated church planting process. Institutionalization is a natural and necessary aspect of church maturity, but church multipliers need to properly discern the timeline to allow organic growth to take place. Lastly, the various case studies confirm that if a church plant reflects local agency and identity, its rate of multiplication is faster than if it replicates the central mother church. One case is that of the Houston Chinese Church whose church plants are not identical to it. Even congregations within each church can have different worship styles and formats. For example, the 1997 church plant sought to become more multicultural, renaming itself the “Fort Bend Community Church.” Similar to the free churches in !ailand, my study of Cambodian churches revealed that church multiplication processes did not focus on church buildings, but sought to reflect the early church models of house churches. !e Cambodian churches that multiplied fastest and those that are healthier are those who have adopted local models. According to Martin’s example, many of the healthy churches were self-supporting as they adopted the bi-vocational model for their pastors, eschewing Western church models that rely on church offerings and the foreign mother church for their salary (Law 2022:22). In the case of Jharkhand, India, where the Christian minority faces ostracism and persecution and must be increasingly self-reliant in the face of

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government restrictions on foreign aid (Dasgupta and Mohan 2024), Christian communities band together to create a “system within a system.” !e church I studied is not merely a center of worship. It has now become an agricultural cooperative where Christians work together to generate income to support members’ livelihoods and provide education for their children from primary to secondary and vocational schools. Hence, when church identity, structure, and agency are allowed to reflect the local context, church multiplication is faster than trying to replicate the central, mother church. !is has led some to question whether Asian churches should retain denominational adjectives such as “Lutheran,” “Anglican,” and “Methodist,” as the percentage of Christians in Asia surpasses that of the West. Already, many Majority World Christians have separated themselves from their Western parent denominations as the divergence in theology, social values, and politics increasingly widens. I believe the case studies are consistent with my experience and my study of church planting and multiplication in the broader perspectival horizon. !e conclusions I’ve made suggest that 21st century church planters and church multiplication processes should eschew church multiplication methods from the last several hundred years. It has already been argued that such methods work best in an era of colonialism, but in the polycentric, multicultural context of the 21st century, such methods may no longer be appropriate. But are the three axes untested innovations? My next section strongly suggests that the conclusions are not new, but tested, tried and true processes. 21ST CENTURY LESSONS: ANCIENT-FUTURE CHURCH MULTIPLICATION

Reflecting on the CMC presentations in the light of my own perspectival horizons strongly suggests church multiplication efforts in the diverse, multicultural, fluid landscape of the 21st century require more robust and contextualized processes. While not discounting the great advances in mission by Western missionaries (though the role of indigenous missionaries also played a significant part (Roberts 2009:172))

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in the post-World War II era, with Majority World Christians now accounting for more than half of the world’s Christian population in a myriad of contexts that are dissimilar to Europe and North America, to use late 20th century models will most likely be a recipe for failure. For example, while long considered a modern missions success story, reflecting on the precipitous decline in Korean church attendance in the last decade, Hyung Keun Choi argues that this trajectory is a consequence of Korean churches defining their identity and ministries by Western definitions of church (Choi 2017). Similarly, colonialism was a critical element in church multiplication throughout the Majority World, yet traditional methods have now increasingly become obstacles in the postcolonial era of the 21st century (Tennent 2010: 26). It is perhaps one of the reasons Roland Allen was challenged to write his book Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or Ours over a hundred years ago. Decolonizing church multiplication processes is warranted not only in the Majority World, but in the Western World of Christendom due to the changing context of the 21st century (Gould, Dickinson, and Loftin 2018:9). However, decolonization within Christendom is not to be considered a new method. It should be characterized as a return to precolonial, premodern, and pre-Christian processes that were formulated in the early Church. Hence, while the history of missions from 1492 can be said to be one of the greatest phases of human history that contributed in the spread of Christianity throughout the world, it may not be appropriate in the 21st century where Christianity has its greatest representation in the Majority World and may once again be an Asian religion (Tennent 2010:34). Echoing Allen, church growth scholar George Hunter III argues that church multipliers in the post-Christian world would do well to note lessons from the pre-Christian context rather than those from the more recent Western, Reformation context (Hunter 2000:62). !e following section seeks to expand the perspectival horizon further by looking at church multiplication in the early church and in the pre-Christian era using George Hunter III’s case study of St. Patrick in Ireland.

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Michael Green’s landmark classic, Evangelism in the Early Church, provides an authoritative account of church multiplication in the first century of Christianity. Looking through the lens of the three axes, one finds evidence that correlates with the case studies mentioned thus far. While Green notes the social aspect of Acts 13 when Paul and Silas were sent out by the church in Antioch (Green 1970:168), he concludes that church multiplication was primarily by modality, for “Christianity was from its inception a lay movement” (Green 170:173). Comparing the early church methods of church planting, Green writes, “all of this makes it abundantly clear that in contrast to the present day, when Christianity is highly intellectualized and dispensed by a professional clergy to a constituency increasingly confined to the middle class, in the early days of the faith it was spontaneously spread by informal evangelists” (Green 1970:175). !is made early churches more organic rather than institutional. Irvin and Sunquist note that there was no clear organizational structure up until the third century, but a strong network of leadership that provided community and continuity among the churches, writing that “the true power that joined people together in churches was that of love and faithfulness” (Irvin and Sunquist: 2007:68). Finally, agency was grounded in every Christian with the identity of churches reflecting their local contexts. “!e great Church of the third century cannot be described as a monolithic entity. Institutionally, it was a network of local churches stitched together across several cultural zones by lines of communication and personal relationships’’ (Irvin and Sunquist:107). !ese conclusions are consistent with the axial trajectories of the two previous sections. From a historical perspective, St. Patrick’s efforts in the pre-Christian era share similar patterns in church multiplication. Prophetically, it is why George Hunter III entitled his study, !e Celtic Way of Evangelism: How Christianity can reach the West again, arguing that modern 20th century church multiplication methods are an anomaly in the context of the breadth of global church history. Hunter argues that continuing such methods lack “both the precedent and the ‘paradigm’ for engaging the West’s emerging mission fields” (Hunter 2000:9-10), resulting in the decline in church attendance as the West becomes postmod111

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ern and post-Christian. He concludes that we must take pre-Christian church multiplication and Majority World processes seriously if “all (or most) effective advocates do certain things, or that all (or most) Christian movements do certain things, or that all (or most) primal peoples respond to the gospel in certain ways” (Hunter 2000:11). Hence, pre-Christian, pre-Reformation church multiplication methods strongly support the Majority World presentations as the pattern for the 21st century globally, including the West. Hunter describes the contrast between the church multiplication efforts of the Roman Church and those of St. Patrick. By the fifth century CE, traditional church planting efforts required target populations to be first “civilized,” in order to be considered “a church” (Hunter 2000:17). In other words, the “Roman Way” of church planting relied heavily on the sodality, the establishment of an institutional church, and to have a civilized, Roman identity and appointed Roman leadership. Restricted by this approach, “the Church assumed that reading barbarians was impossible” (Hunter 2000:17). In contrast, during St. Patrick’s lifetime, his “Celtic” church multiplication processes resulted in about 700 churches, the ordination of perhaps a thousand indigenous priests, and with 40 or more of Ireland’s 150 tribes becoming substantially Christian (Hunter 2000:17). Patrick “found a new kind of church, one which broke the Roman imperial mold and was both Catholic and barbarian” (Hunter 2000:26) According to Hunter’s case study, St. Patrick leaned more toward modal communities, organic growth, and local patterns of ownership and identity to enable more rapid and effective church multiplication. While monasteries were established throughout Ireland, Hunter argues that they were less “mission stations,” and more the centers of communities. For example, many Irish ceased to go to shamans, but went instead to the monasteries (Hunter 2000: 32). As St. Patrick ordained large numbers of Irish priests, monks, and nuns, church multiplication in many aspects reshaped modalities to become sodalities, so much so that within two to three generations, filled with missionary zeal, it was

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these Celtic modal sodalities who went on to “save Europe” (Hunter 2000:40). !us, Celtic church multiplication grew organically, with ordination seen less as an institutional status, but a commission to share the gospel. Finally, Celtic churches, from the perspective of the Roman Church, remained “barbarian” as churches, even in their theology, and were heavily indigenized (Hunter 2000:70). However, they were so successful that Celtic church multiplication processes even received the blessing from Pope Gregory (Tennent 2010:237). Sadly, when the Roman wing of the Church regained power to espouse only the “Roman Way” in the 7th century CE, the era of Celtic church multiplication came to an end. It would not be until the Counter Reformation in the 15th century that the Catholic Church would once again grow with such speed through the Jesuits (Hunter 2000:43). Hunter’s case study of St. Patrick is not unique in church history. As church multiplication is no longer seen through the biographies of Western missionaries, and indigenous historiographies become increasingly available, Allen’s conclusion that St. Paul’s methods are more appropriate in the 21st century context becomes increasingly more valid. Readers are referred to Dana Robert’s case studies of Bernard Mizeki among the Shona in the African context and Watchman Nee in the Asian context in addition to that of St. Patrick (Robert 2009:142-172). SUMMARY

In conclusion, the case studies presented in the CMC are prophetic in pointing us to pre-Christian church multiplication processes in the post-Christian 21st century context. !e case studies have helped to identify a framework to understand what variables define the trajectory of church multiplication. Learning how to navigate along the axes of sodality-modality, organic-institutional, and local-central agency and identity will aid church planters and multipliers to attain successful outcomes. In reflecting on the perspectival horizons presented, one can find assurance that such methods are not new nor untested, but have been used far more extensively and far longer than current modern methods by a great host of church planters and multipliers across the ages. 113

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Allen, Roland. Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or Ours. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, (1962). Choi, Hyung-Kuen. “Missional Conversion and Transformation in the Context of the Korean Protestant Church.” Mission Studies 34:53-77, (2017). Dasgupta, Debarshi and Rohini Mohan. “India blocks think-tanks, NGOs from access to foreign funds in blow to research and social work,” !e Straits Times, February 6, https://www.straitstimes. com/asia/south-asia/india-blocks-think-tanks-ngos-from-accessto-foreign-funds-in-blow-to-research-and-social-work. (Accessed February 2024). Gould, Paul M., Travis Dickinson, and R. Keith Loftin. Stand Firm: Apologetics and the Brilliance of the Gospel. Nashville: B&H Academic, (2018). Green, Michael. Evangelism in the Early Church. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, (1970). Hiebert, Paul G., R. Daniel Shaw, and Tite Tienou. Understanding Folk Religion: A Christian Response to Popular Beliefs and Practices. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, (1999). Hunter III, George G. !e Celtic Way of Evangelism: How Christianity Can Reach the West Again. Nashville: Abingdon Press, (2000). Irvin, Dale T. and Scott W. Sunquist. History of the World Christian Movement, Volume I: Earliest Christianity to 1453. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, (2001).

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Law, Samuel K. Revitalizing Missions on the Cusp of Change: Complex Systems Science Mazeways for Mission !eory amid Twenty-first Century Realities. Lexington: Emeth Press, “!e Rebirth of the Church in Cambodia,” in Kwa, Kiem-Kiok and Samuel KaChieng Law. Missions in Southeast Asia: Diversity and Unity in God’s Design. Carlisle: Langham Global Library, 2022: 13-27, (2016). McGavran, Donald and C. Peter Wagner. Understanding Church Growth, third edition. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, (2002). Roberts, Dana L. Christian Mission: How Christianity Became a World Religion. West Susses: Wiley-Blackwell, (2009). Tennent, Timothy C. Invitation to World Missions: A Trinitarian Missiology for the Twenty-first Century. Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, (2010). Saarinen, Martin F. !e Life Cycle of A Congregation. Bethesda: !e Alban Institute, (2001). Wilkes, Paul. Excellent Protestant Congregations: !e Guide to Best Places and Practices. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, (2001).

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CASE STUDY 5: REV. MANIK COREA, SINGAPORE Being, Becoming and Doing – Spiritual Formation and a Rule of Life for Church Planting

I could not imagine a worse start to a Sunday morning service. !e year was 2015 and my family and I arrived early at the shop house in Bangkok, !ailand where we met as a church-plant. Isaac, my young intern from England who lived on the top floor of the shop-house, was sitting outside the ground-floor kitchen wearing a look of despair and disgust. He told me that the sticky traps we had laid in the kitchen had caught another large, ugly rat which was struggling and squeaking away in fear, but he had no heart to deal with it. (We forgot to add “rat-killer” to the job description for Isaac’s internship!) I put the rat out of its misery and disposed of it before we got on with the Sunday gathering. I was soon leading the blissfully-unaware congregation in singing God’s praises with gusto and preaching my heart out. Looking back over the 13 years my family and I were involved in cross-cultural missions in a mega-city like Bangkok, there were many more di%cult times and harder issues to deal with than those presented by those pesky, relentless rodents. But perhaps rat-infestation is an appropriate metaphor for the irritating and often unexpected, sometimes overwhelming challenges and di%culties that church-planters must be ready to face in the course of their work. It is no easy vocation for those of us who, like the Apostle Paul, have been called by God to be church planters and pioneers of new communities of disciples141. Personal weaknesses, interpersonal conflict, temptations from within and without are things we seem to face often. You can be sure that the devil will find every opportunity to throw problems at those who labor at the 1 Paul described in 1 Corinthians 3:6 the work of church-planters and pioneers as “planting” while others, exemplified by Apollos, were called to water - that is, to nurture through a teaching ministry. In both cases, it is ultimately God who works to bring growth through human agency.

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front-lines of claiming lives and communities for Christ. !ere were particular demands in pioneering work that are unlike anything I have experienced in any other facet of Christian ministry. Church planters seek to advance the Kingdom of God into new territory, and it takes perseverance and unflagging zeal to go and work with a team, and to see people of different communities, backgrounds and cultures, reached and discipled for Christ. SPIRITUAL FORMATION FOR MISSIONAL VOCATION

Church planting is primarily a spiritual enterprise. It is a Spirit-empowered work rooted in obedience to the Great Commissions in Matthew 28:18-20, where Jesus, on the basis of His universal authority and his guaranteed presence, called the apostles to the discipling of people from every ethnic group on the face of the earth. !e making of disciples also necessitates the planting of new churches. Everywhere in the book of Acts, wherever the Gospel is proclaimed and disciples are made, churches are planted.2 Gathering disciples into new churches or communities is the context in which such disciples may be matured, encouraged and multiplied (see Acts 14:21-23). Yet the doing of Gospel work such as evangelism, making disciples, planting churches and the raising of leaders and shepherds for their on-going maturity and multiplication, can often and easily overshadow the tending of the inner life of those called to pioneer, plant and lead such endeavors. !is is because church-planters tend to have extroverted personalities and are typically rabid activists, impatient to complete the tasks God has set for them - like Paul’s godly ambition, to go with the Gospel to where no one has gone before (Romans 15:20). Vision and passion often drive them to be and do the things they lead others in. But therein lies a deep challenge. 2 Craig Ott and Gene Wilson, Global Church Planting, Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011, page 23. Ott and Wilson mention that there are only two possible exceptions to this in the book of Acts - the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26-39) and the few believers made in Athens (Acts 17:34).

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In their haste to bring to birth what God has shown them, they may rush on ahead, hungry to seek and see the fruit of their efforts, worked out with much blood, toil, tears and sweat. !e result is often that church-planters get burned out by the demands of ministry and the constant ‘rat-like’ challenges that seek to discourage and drive them to failure or giving up.3 !e work of pioneering and leading teams and pastoring people as church-planters is demanding when it comes to maintaining our inner life and interpersonal relationships within marriage, family and community. We easily believe that our efforts, skill and giftings will exclusively or predominantly determine the outcome of our labors. !is often creates an unbalanced perception where one prioritizes “doing for Christ” over “being with Christ.”4 Winfield Bevins and Mark Dunwoody in their book “Healthy Rhythms For Leaders” speak of the rhythm of an ebb and flow to the spiritual life, consisting of inner tending of our walk with God by withdrawal and practices that help us abide in the presence of Jesus, to an outward living out in mission and good works.5 Both are needed, in as much as breathing consists of both breathing in and breathing out. !ey write,”Breathing is a beautiful analogy for the Christian life because it reminds us that our mission is directly connected to our spirituality...Mission isn’t just doing something for God; it begins and ends with being with God.”6 !ey illustrate this by drawing from church history and the remarkable 6th century Celtic mission in Lindisfarne (or Holy Island) on the North-East coast of England, led by St Aidan, whose missionary teams 3 In March 2022, a Barna study found that 42% of pastors in the USA considered quitting, and more than half listed “immense job-stress” as the main reason. Source: https://www.barna.com/research/pastors-quitting-ministry/ 4 Scarzzero, in his classic study on healthy leadership said the following: “!e emotionally unhealthy leader is someone who operates in a continuous state of emotional and spiritual deficit, lacking emotional maturity and a “being with God” su%cient to sustain their “doing for God.” Peter Scazzero, !e Emotionally Healthy Leader: How Transforming Your Inner Life Will Deeply Transform Your Church, Team, and the World, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2015, page 25. 5 Winfield Bevins and Mark Dunwoody, Healthy Rhythms for Leaders: Cultivating Soul Care in Uncertain Times, Exponential, 2021. 6 Bevins, Dunwoody, Healthy Rhythms, page 29.

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did so much to spread the Gospel all across northern England. Aidan and his missionary monks followed a “pattern of outreach and withdrawal, advance and retreat” aided by the fact their monastic base was on an island that would be cut off by the tides from the mainland except for low tide twice a day.7 During the times the tide shut them out as an island, the monks would retreat for worship, prayer and rest. But when connected to the mainland, they went out on mission to find many similar monasteries that themselves became centers of evangelism and mission. Bevins and Dunwoody argue that there needs to be a re-discovery of spiritual practices that bring about formation for holistic mission into the world and that form the heart of a truly missional spirituality. We retreat to God to be effective on mission with God. “!e ultimate fruit of spiritual formation is not retreat from the world, but missional engagement with the world.”8 Why is this a critical issue for church-planters and their teams? Because the ultimate fruitfulness of our work for Christ is dependent on how strong and steady our walk is with and through Christ. !erefore, giving attention to the inner life and formation of our hearts is just as important as the specific vision and mission we are called to in the work of church planting. DEVELOPING HOLY HABITS THROUGH A RULE OF LIFE

!e church planter is first and foremost a disciple of Jesus. Christian discipleship is a journey of a lifetime, requiring consistency and constancy of habits that are developed over time to help us and others, to daily deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Christ (Luke 9:23). Jim Elliot, the famed missionary and martyr, wrote: “one does not surrender a life in an instant – that which is lifelong can only be surrendered in a lifetime.”9 In other words, the call on church-planters and all believers is to ensure that our discipleship translates and is reflected

7 Bevins, Dunwoody, Healthy Rhythms, page 33-35. 8 Bevins, Dunwoody, Healthy Rhythms, page 35. 9 !is quote is taken from the January 31st, 1949 entry in Jim Elliot’s journal. Elisabeth Elliot (ed.), !e Journals of Jim Elliot, (Grand Rapids: Baker Books House, 1978) page 114.

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in the totality of our every-day life - devotion, worship, service, family, workplace, community, recreation, rest and meal-times. I would encourage every church planter to consider designing a personal Rule of Life to help cultivate inner formational life that supports faith lived out in the world. A Rule of Life (ROL) is a set of statements outlining a commitment to practice particular devotional acts and life-enriching habits to help guide and direct a devoted follower of Jesus into the pursuit of the will of God by regular and constant practice. Justin Earle points out that the English word ‘rule’ is derived from the Latin word ‘regula’ which is associated with a bar or trellis that acts as scaffolding for which a plant can climb on as it grows up.10 In other words, it acts as a support to aid our growth in the right direction. Rules of Life historically provided Christian monastic communities and religious societies with a clear list of communal and devotional acts that were expected to be practiced and followed by all members. !ese rules promoted focus and purpose through acts that were pleasing to God and outward or other-centered. Earley described a reworking of the Rule for Christians today as “a set of habits you commit to in order to grow in your love of God and neighbor.”11 It is meant to help Christians establish holy habits that form faith in increasing measure through daily practice. !e goal of a ROL is to help us live a life of integrity, consistency and honesty that glorifies God. It’s also a means of grace to help us stay focused on God and in love and service to others.12 BEING, BECOMING AND DOING

In his book “Crafting a Rule of Life,” Stephen Macchia argues that an ROL must be empowered by the Spirit, helping us glorify Christ and

10 Justin W. Earley, !e Common Rule, Downer Groves: IVP Books, 2019, page 14. 11 Earley, !e Common Rule, page 21. 12 Earley argues thus: “!is vision—of a whole and coherent life—is the goal of a life curated by habit.” Earley, !e Common Rule, page 163.

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follow the example of Jesus.13 He recommends including both specific rhythms and naming relationships that are part of helping us be and follow after Jesus. !e goal is Christ-likeness. !e illustration (figure 1) is a sample of some of the rhythms and relational commitments that form the major parts of my own ROL. It is divided and organized into 3 main sections that are inter-related areas of the Christian life: Being, Becoming and Doing. !ese areas are supported through regular habits and acts that are either practiced daily, weekly, monthly or annually. MY RULE OF LIFE:

1. Being In Christ - Anchoring my identity. a. Daily - Devotion before Devices. First thing every morning, I commit to prayer and a time of reading and reflecting on the Scriptures and journaling my thoughts and prayers before I look at my phone or emails. b. Weekly - Working From Rest. I’m committed to taking a Sabbath day off regular ministry on Mondays in order to rest, recreate and renew my mind and body. c. Yearly - Retreats for Renewal. I’m committed to taking an annual retreat (alone or with my wife) to seek the Lord, reflect on the past year, hear His Word afresh and seek His direction anew.

13 Stephen A. Macchia, Crafting a Rule of Life: An Invitation into the Well-Ordered Way, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2012, page 17.

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2. Becoming Like Christ - Stewarding my calling. a. Daily - Tending to my family. I’m committed to reading the Scriptures and doing daily evening prayer with my wife and son, ending each time with the Lord’s Prayer. b. Weekly - Tending to my Marriage. I’m committed to having a date night with my wife, watching a movie or going out together. c. Monthly - Tending to my Faith. I’m committed to attending a Band (accountabilitygroup) meeting with two other leaders who will keep me accountable to my primary devotion to Christ and His community. 3. Doing !rough Christ - Bearing fruit. a. Weekly - Evangelistic Relationships. I’m committed to making time at least once a week to have a meal or coffee with a non-believer to witness to him or her. b. Monthly - Discipling Others. I’m committed to spending time one-on-one with my young brother who is a leader at least once a month to mentor and disciple him.

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FIGURE 1

Being (in Christ)

Doing (through Christ)

Becoming (like Christ)

As illustrated in Figure 1, these three-fold facets intersect together and add to each other, leading to a holistic expression of discipleship that is devotional, formational and missional. !e intersection of the Venn diagram, represented by the cross, indicates that the center of true discipleship is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is at the very heart of true faith, the very goal of our lives lived in praise and honor to God, the One we are following and whom we are being made after (Matthew 10:25, 11:29; 2 Corinthians 3:18). He is the source, the base, the cornerstone and foundation of all that is godly and good in us (John 15:5; Colossians 1:16-17; Ephesians 2:19,20; 1 Corinthians 3:11). He is the Who and the Why of our lives! !is is fundamental and critical because activity for God can so easily be equated with, or replace, intimacy with God in the life of missions. Why do we do what we do? Or for Whom? Jesus predicted that many will, on the day of His judgment, profess or boast of impressive works of prophecy and miracles, but His dismissive reply will be the same: “I 123

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never knew you” (Matthew 7:22,23). !erefore, intimacy with Jesus is primary and preliminary to service for Him. !e question is not “do we know Jesus” but rather “does Jesus know us?” Are we intimate with him? Are we living ONLY for him? Each of the things I seek to live by in my Rule are formed and founded in my true, God-sustained desire to be aligned with the will and call of God in Christ by the Holy Spirit in order to transform, renew and sustain my life of faith. COHERENCE AND CORRESPONDENCE

“Being” pertains to my true and fundamental identity in Christ (i.e. we are new creations, born from above after his image through God’s regenerative work in salvation). Included in this section are practices that maintain my purity of devotion to Christ through the daily priority of devotional time with God, weekly Sabbath rest, a monthly Band meeting where I am accountable to two others and a yearly 2-day retreat to seek God and to examine my life before Him. While “Being” pertains to our roots in Christ (and so tending to the nourishment and support we receive and are dependent on), “Becoming” is about the process of growth into Christ-likeness. We must grow in holiness and righteousness from one degree of glory to another through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. Included in this section are practices that build upon the other-centered and relational aspects of life, whether they be my marriage, family or friendships. Each of these help me become all I am called to be in Christ - a husband, a father and a friend before (or rather, in harmony with) any ministerial and vocational responsibilities I might otherwise also carry. Finally, the practices categorized under “Doing” are connected to the missional nature of my life. !e disciple is called to be a disciple-maker.14 Included in this section are more missional acts - for example, a weekly commitment to build a witnessing relationship with a non-believer and a monthly commitment to be discipling at least one other believer. 14 124

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FIGURE 2 BEING

my rule of life

DOING

BECOMING

Illustrated in Figure 2 through the cyclical direction of the arrows, each facet of life as a disciple builds and supports the other. Being rooted in Christ is the basis and prerequisite for the on-going process of becoming like Christ.15 Becoming like Christ will ultimately move us toward being His witnesses and workers in the world, to “show and tell” the good news through our actions and interactions with others. Doing the works of God calls us back to cultivating our walk with God, lest we are tempted to do the works of the Kingdom in our own strength and are found wanting (as Jesus emphasized in John 15:5b). CONCLUSION

Having an ROL helps us give attention to that which will matter most in our lives and relationships. Church Planter and theologian Stuart Murray said, “church planters need to know their strengths and weaknesses ... .and be committed to practices that sustain and renew them.”16 Church-planters are judged mostly by the outcome of their works and can therefore be tempted to be pragmatic and hard-working at best, obsessive and compulsive at worst. To call for a greater commitment to self-awareness, prayer, rest and reflection may seem counterin15 We see this in the Ordo Salutis or Order of Salvation, that describes the milestones in the life of faith by which salvation is truly effected. In the Wesleyan tradition, this typically is depicted as proceeding from the following 4 steps, and in rightful order: 1) Prevenient Grace through God’s initiative, 2) Conversion through repentance and faith in Christ, 3) Regeneration through justification and 4) Renewal and perfection through sanctification. 16 Stuart Murray, Church Planting: Laying Foundations, Pennsylvania: Herald Press, 2001, page 167.

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tuitive for many. However, I have learned and seen that allowing God (through His Spirit and through other people) the power to shape and mold us is the biggest factor in determining if we can last the course of our work and ministry. Humility, accountability and brutal honesty before each other for the sake of God trumps talent and ability in the long-run. When I was church-planting in !ailand, the Anglican mission I served under had a Rule of Life that all members vowed before God to follow. Among the most distinctive things in their Rule was a call to all their members to abide daily in the word of Jesus, to be in a discipling relationship with their spouses (if married), as well as to take a spiritual retreat (1-2 days) every three months to be with the Lord and to seek to be renewed in vision, focus and vitality. Such holy habits were life giving to me in the work of church-planting. !ey helped my team and I define and refine our plans and purpose so that they aligned fully with God’s will and glory. !ey ensured that we not only did what was right, but for the right reasons. We must be careful in how we build - with care and wisdom (1 Corinthians 3:10). Ultimately, if church-planters do not allow their lives to be ordered after devotion and faithfulness to Jesus, some other love/s will bend us out of shape into despair. !e outcome of the works He has called us to will not last the test of time (on earth) or perhaps even the fire of God’s judgment (on that final day) if we are not balanced.17 In conclusion, a ROL will help us keep Jesus as the treasure and telos (goal) of our hearts and daily lives through devotional, communal and missional habits centered around Him.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bevins, Winfield Bevins and Dunwoody. Healthy Rhythms for Leaders: Cultivating Soul Care in Uncertain Times, Exponential, 2021. Earley, Justin W. !e Common Rule, Downer Groves: IVP Books, 2019. Elliot, Elisabeth (ed.) !e Journals of Jim Elliot, Grand Rapids: Baker Books House, 1978. Macchia, Stephen A. Crafting a Rule of Life: An Invitation into the Well-Ordered Way, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2012. Murray, Stuart. Church Planting: Laying Foundations, Pennsylvania: Herald Press, 2011. Ott, Craig and Wilson, Gene. Global Church Planting, Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011. Scazzero, Peter. !e Emotionally Healthy Leader: How Transforming Your Inner Life Will Deeply Transform Your Church, Team, and the World, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2015.

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CASE STUDY 1: PASTOR JOHN LEAL AND PASTOR DAVID LÓPEZ Fundamental Principles of Community Church Planting (CCP); Leaders Multiplying Leaders: Extending the Movement of the Spirit; and Multiplication of Disciples INTRODUCTION

Below are three presentations that were shared at the Central America regional summit of Impact Latin America that took place May 3-5, 2024. !ese presentations are the fruit of a team that constantly reviews material, seeking to incorporate the best practices we have learned over the last five years of field work. !e three presentations are: Fundamental Principles of Community Church Planting (CCP); Leaders Multiplying Leaders: Extending the Movement of the Spirit; and Multiplication of Disciples. !ese were presented by Pastors John Leal (Field Director of Impact Latin America) and David López (Director of CCP in the Free Methodist Church in Latin America). John Leal is Colombian and lives in Medellín with his wife Susana and their two daughters, Isabella and Valentina. He has a bachelor’s degree in theology from the Colombian Biblical Seminary and studies in Church Planting; He is currently pursuing a master’s degree in ministry and leadership with Asbury !eological Seminary. John has served as a pastor, church planter, seminary professor, and writer of pastoral training materials. He currently serves full-time as Field Director for Impact Latin America, leading work in 19 countries with multiple denominations. When he is not working he likes to watch movies and explore new places with his family. David Lopez is Venezuelan and lives in Lechería with his wife Ginegda and their two children, David Alejandro and Valery. He has a university degree as a civil engineer and worked in this field for 20 years. He also earned a bachelor’s degree in theology from A Dios Sea La Gloria !eological Seminary, and is currently pursuing a master’s degree

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in transformational leadership at Bakke Graduate University. David has served as a pastor and church planter in Venezuela and Peru. In Peru, he served as a missionary from 2017 to 2021. Since 2021 he has been leading the multiplication of disciples and churches in the Free Methodist Church in Latin America, helping build more than 1,000 house churches in 19 countries. In his free time, he enjoys activities such as playing and watching soccer, hanging out with his family, and seeing new places. His life is dedicated to serving God and others, and he seeks to bring comprehensive transformation to the communities where he participates. FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF COMMUNITY CHURCH PLANTING

In our experience implementing Community Church Planting (CCP) in Latin America, we have found 9 fundamental principles: Constant prayer, Multiplication of leaders, !e strategy of Jesus, !e person of peace, Biblical and relational discipleship, Biblical concept of church, Holistic mission, !e priesthood of all believers, and !e provision of God. 1. CONSTANT PRAYER: WITHOUT PRAYER, THERE IS NO PLANTING

“!e harvest is abundant, but the workers are few,” he told his disciples. !erefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send workers into his field” (Matt. 9:37-38). Prayer is the primary factor in developing a church planting movement. !rough prayer we can understand the heart of the Father, know the mind of Christ and tune our lives to the will of the Holy Spirit. When we have a spiritual vision of God’s will and plans for a community, and we pray fervently and passionately for God’s will to be fulfilled in the community, we can be sure that God hears and answers prayers. Prayer aligns us with God’s will, asks for anointing on God’s servants, and advocates for the transformation and healing of a community. Prayer leads us to places of need so we can see and feel the desperation of unreached people.

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2. LEADER MULTIPLICATION: THE BEGINNING 222

Our Lord Jesus desires the world to be reached with the gospel. However, in Matthew 9:37-38 and Luke 10:2, he pointed out that there is a major obstacle in the way. !e obstacle is that there are few workers. !is is why in church planting we must very intentionally follow the “222 principle,” which owes its name to what we find in 2 Timothy 2:2: “What you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to believers worthy of confidence, who in turn are qualified to teach others.” !is text tells us about the responsibility of each Christian leader to intentionally raise up at least two new leaders, who in turn will invest in at least two others until reaching at least fourth generation leaders. !e distinctive characteristic of CCP is the belief that in order to saturate the world with the gospel, we need an exponential increase in workers. !ese workers are trained continuously without leaving the places where they live, work and minister, allowing them to remain active in ministry by applying what they learn. 3. JESUS’ STRATEGY: 4 STAGES OF THE FIELD, 5 PARTS

In the task of growing the kingdom of God, we use the model that we find in Mark 4:26-29 and what we call “the strategy of Jesus: 4 stages of the field, 5 parts.” !is strategy is similar to the process that a farmer follows when growing a crop. It all starts with identifying an empty field that has the potential to produce a great harvest. At first, the farmer prepares the field by weeding, plowing, etc. Once the soil is ready, he spreads the seeds. !ese seeds produce plants that begin to grow. At this stage, the farmer’s job is to take care of the plants, so he waters them, protects them from pests, etc. Finally, the plants bear fruit, and now the farmer reaps the expected harvest, which is as large as the sowing that was done. !ere is something else that the farmer does. Of all the fruit collected, he places the best ones aside to serve as seeds for the next crop.

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4. THE PERSON OF PEACE

Jesus spoke of people and houses of peace (Luke 9:3-5; 10:1-21; Matt. 10; Mark 6:8-11). A person of peace is someone who the Holy Spirit has prepared to fulfill a strategic role in the expansion of God’s kingdom (workers around the world consistently testify to this. God always prepares people of peace to facilitate the spread of the gospel). !ese people, despite not being believers, receive the workers kindly and are willing to listen and learn more about Jesus. At the same time, they facilitate the spread of the good news among non-believers, as they gather their family, friends and acquaintances to hear about Jesus. In summary, we can say that the person of peace is someone prepared by God to: • Receive the messenger (they are hospitable). • Receive the message (they are responsive to the gospel). • Receive the quest (they have a reputation and are influential). 5. BIBLICAL AND RELATIONAL DISCIPLESHIP

Another key concept in church planting is discipleship. Unfortunately, this has been understood as ‘teaching of commandments and principles’, or the transmission of information. However, discipleship is more about teaching obedience and this is only possible if we establish a close relationship with the people we are discipling. If we limit discipleship to a classroom lesson or a faith meeting, we are doomed to fail. On the contrary, if we are genuinely interested in people and walk with them, each lesson will be internalized in a radical way by the disciple. 6. BIBLICAL CONCEPT OF CHURCH

As we read the New Testament, especially the book of Acts (e.g., Acts 2:42-47; 4:32-37), we can find that the church is a community of people who, under the direction of servants of God, have believed the gospel, have repented of their sins, and have expressed this publicly through baptism. !is community perseveres in the Word, commu132

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nion, the Lord’s Supper and prayer; !ese practices are carried out in groups that constantly meet to worship God and show each other love, and are part of a larger body. Additionally, the church continues to make disciples through divine signs and wonders, and the practice of generosity (especially toward the most vulnerable). All of the above makes them win the favor of society. A simplified statement that summarizes all of the above: the church is a community that loves God, loves people, and makes disciples. 7. THE COMPREHENSIVE MISSION

Community churches exist to serve and reach a community, extending the kingdom of God among a group of people. !is church is there to bring God’s shalom, or peace, to every community. In this regard Murray mentions, “Neither church growth nor church planting is the end goal. Both are subordinated to the theological principle of the advancement of the Kingdom of God. Church planting can often significantly advance the cause of the kingdom: forming communities of faith that embody Kingdom values and lifestyles in new ways and in new places; proclaiming a comprehensive gospel; functioning as salt and light in society; bringing prophetic perspective to your context; confronting injustice and championing the cause of the poor and marginalized; working with others to restore broken lives, and collaborating in the healing of people and communities. Church planting of this type is a sign of the kingdom of God” (Wagenveld, 23-24). 8. THE PRIESTHOOD OF ALL BELIEVERS

It is a great advantage when a leader is inspiring and has charisma, but that is not the only model, as demonstrated by so many examples of suitable leaders in the Bible. It is thought that Timothy himself was a bit reserved and shy. !e Word shows us that, sometimes, the person we least expect is the person God uses for his greatest works. However, it is essential to challenge the congregation to achieve the established goals and objectives. An effective leader delegates to others, not to “take work off his hands,” but because giving them more responsibility in the 133

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church will allow them to use their gifts and minister. !ere are leaders who do not want to delegate because they think that others will not do the tasks equally well or with su%cient quality. !ey are not willing to take risks and never take the time to teach someone else. Some do not want to delegate because they think that others will do the task better than them and it will damage their image with the public. !ese leaders allow pride and jealousy to overshadow ministry and leadership development. Moses, in Exodus 18, had to recognize his father-in-law’s advice and stop doing everything himself (Wagenveld, 207). 9. GOD’S PROVISION: THE RESOURCES ARE IN THE HARVEST

We should never use lack of funding as an excuse not to get involved in a church planting movement. Nothing can limit what God wants to achieve through a person who is totally committed to his cause, his values and his plans. We must remember that the Bible teaches us that God promises to pay his workers. In Matthew 10:9-10, Jesus is said to have encouraged his disciples to go without gold, silver, or copper; His promise was that, by going out to do the work, they would find sustenance. !e danger of having the resources beforehand is putting our trust in those resources. !e workers of the kingdom of God go out confidently, believing that God will provide. In a sense, this is like the farmer who works and trusts that God will bring enough rain and sunshine so that when there is fruit, he can partake of it. !e resources are in the harvest. When we talk about resources we refer to time, ministry partners, finances, talents, spiritual gifts, and meeting places. All of the above comes as an addition when we take steps of faith and obedience. CONCLUSION

We have looked at these nine key principles for church planting. Each of these principles are connected to each other and together they form a cyclical process in which we ensure that each established church repeats the process again. By doing this, we will see a generation of disciples making disciples and planting churches. In this way, we will be able to see a transformation from within the church that will impact a 134

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generation that longs for God. In this sense, as leaders and pastors, how can we respond to this challenge? LEADERS WHO MULTIPLY LEADERS: EXTENDING THE MOVEMENT OF THE SPIRIT

One of the key elements in the movement of the Spirit is the rapid multiplication of leaders. We need a movement like the one that the Spirit of God started when our Lord Jesus Christ began his ministry. A movement like that described in Luke 4:14-20: “Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and his fame spread throughout that region. 15 He taught in the synagogues, and everyone admired him. 16 He went to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and one Saturday he entered the synagogue, as was his custom. He got up to read, 17 and they gave him the book of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: 18 “!e Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to announce good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom to the captives and give sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. 20 !en he rolled up the book, handed it back to the assistant, and sat down. Everyone in the synagogue looked at him closely, 21 and he began to speak to them: “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your presence.” 14

THE MODEL OF JESUS

In the Gospel of Luke 6:12-13, 17-19, we read how Jesus multiplied leaders: “At that time Jesus went to the mountain to pray and spent the entire night in prayer to God. 13 When morning came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he named apostles... 17 …!en he went down with them and stopped on a plain. !ere was a great crowd of his disciples there and many people from all Judea, from Jerusalem and from the coast of 12

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Tire and Sidon, 18 who had come to hear him and to be healed of their illnesses. !ose who were tormented by evil spirits were liberated; 19 So all the people tried to touch him, because power came out of him that healed everyone.” Here we find guidelines for an effective leader multiplication model: 1. Pray. In Luke 10:2 Jesus invites us to pray for the multiplication of workers, of leaders, of people who help gather the harvest and of people who participate in the restoration of this world. But Jesus not only commanded us to pray- he personally modeled this for us. In Luke 6 we notice that Jesus did not dare to promote a multiplication of leaders without first spending time in prayer before the father. How much more need do we have to pray! 2. Choose. We must make decisions. We must be able to intentionally choose people in which to invest in. It is interesting that many Christian leaders stay praying indefinitely because they have a hard time making a decision either due to insecurity or past hurts. Given the previous objections, we must say that if the problem is insecurity, we must take courage in the Lord and be willing to make mistakes. But if the problem is wounds from the past, we must heal them. If we look carefully, some of the people Jesus chose also betrayed him. However, even though Jesus knew that, He took risks and was vulnerable. In Paul’s case, it was the same. He chose people and a few of them abandoned him, loved this world more, or even slandered him later. However, he persevered because while there were those people, there were also others who were faithful. 3. Appoint. Jesus gave a new and special appointment to the 12 disciples. Jesus publicly highlighted the responsible role that these 12 were going to fulfill.

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4. Accompany. Verses 17-19 allow us to see that Jesus did not end at the appointment of the disciples. He accompanied them in their spiritual growth and taught them how to carry out the mission. He showed them the love of God, imparted wisdom to them, and empowered them to be effective leaders. In Mark 3:13-19 he tells us why he chose them: “so that they would be with him and to send them to preach and exercise authority to cast out demons”. !e apostles did something very similar to what Jesus did. In 2 Timothy 2:2, we find the “222 Principle.” !ere Paul is ensuring that Timothy learns and practices the process of intentional multiplication of leaders. Paul tells Timothy that he must choose faithful and qualified believers to teach others. Paul not only multiplied leaders- he made sure those leaders did too. !e standards he used were faithfulness and suitability. He raised up faithful disciples that persevered and were obedient to what they were taught, as well as suitable and capable for the mission. In the same way, we must multiply leaders and ensure that they also multiply leaders. To do this we must pray, choose, appoint and accompany them. WHERE ARE THE LEADERS?

Jesus did not go to a synagogue, or a rabbinical school to recruit disciples who had a certain moral, theological, or spiritual stature to promote the movement that the Spirit had started. Jesus went to the shore of Lake Gennesaret, walked through the streets and saw the people that many did not want to look at (the tax collector). It was there that he found his first disciples whom he made his first ministers. He looked at those that others had never looked at. He called those whom no one would have called. He chose people who were vile and despicable in the eyes of the rest of the Jews. For the Lord takes what is vile and despised to shame the wise people of the earth. A sign of a movement of the Spirit is the rapid multiplication of leaders dependent on God and not on their knowledge, experience and money. Leaders who make other leaders, who in turn make other leaders.

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THE METHODIST MOVEMENT: A REMARKABLE HISTORICAL EXAMPLE OF LEADER MULTIPLICATION

John Wesley clearly understood the power of multiplying leaders committed to God. He stated: “Give me a hundred preachers who are not afraid of anything but sin and who desire only God, and I don’t care if they are clergy or laymen. Only they could shake the gates of hell and establish the kingdom of heaven on earth” (Wesley, 144). Francis Asbury, a follower of Wesley, brought this approach to the United States in the 18th century. When he arrived, there were only three Methodist meeting houses, but at the time of his death, there were more than 4,000 ordained preachers in Methodism in the United States. OUR RESPONSIBILITY

As followers of Jesus, we have a vital responsibility in extending the movement of the Spirit. Each of us can make a difference. Each of us can be a match that lights others. We must inspire men and women of all cultures and nationalities to join the cause of the Gospel. Our testimony and dedication can be powerful motivators. By living authentic, committed lives for Christ, we can influence others to also become multiplier leaders. However, we must not only recruit them, we must accompany them, train them and equip them so that they can bring the light of the Gospel to others. Sharing knowledge, skills and resources with those we are discipling is essential for their growth and multiplication. We need an army of men and women who are willing to embrace the extension of the movement of the Spirit. CONCLUSION

Our responsibility as followers of Jesus is clear: we must inspire, empower and equip others, being matches that ignite new flames of leadership. It is imperative that we live authentic, committed lives for Christ, using our influence to motivate others to join the cause of the Gospel.

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!e task requires prayer, dedication and total dependence on God. We need an army of men and women willing to embrace and extend the movement of the Spirit, becoming leaders who in turn train other leaders, thus perpetuating the growth and vitality of the movement. REFLECTION QUESTIONS

1. Who am I actively accompanying in their spiritual growth this year? 2. Who am I intentionally passing on my knowledge and experience to in order to develop them as a new leader? 3. Is there someone in my environment who could do my job as well or even better than me? Am I investing in their development as a leader? 4. What concrete action can we as a team agree on in response to the principles presented in this message? MULTIPLICATION OF DISCIPLES1

Last words are meant to have an impact. On those rare occasions when we are allowed to know that our words are “final” in some sense (for example, a daughter leaving for college, a son’s wedding day, a pastor’s last sermon, a goodbye on the deathbed), we think a lot about what we will say because we want our words to count. Just before ascending to heaven, Jesus spoke these last words to those who had been following him for three years: “!erefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20). Of all the things Jesus could have said on that momentous occasion, He chose to charge His disciples to take the message and the life He had given them, and give it to others around the world. In this way our Lord clearly defined the 1

Adapted from the book “!e Free Methodist Way” Cowart et al., p. 93-97

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central mission of every Christian and every church: to make disciples. In addition, he modeled for us the way to do the mission: multiplication. Disciple multiplication means that a disciple is making a new disciple and training him to continue making more disciples. THE EXAMPLE OF JESUS

!e gospel of Jesus Christ (the message He proclaimed, the life He lived, and the ministry He practiced) set into action a redemptive movement destined to fill the entire earth. Jesus’ approach to discipleship was primarily relational in that He devoted most of His time to a few with the expectation that they would follow His example. His goal was not only the transmission of information, but also the transformation of lives by empowering those who followed Him to do what He had been doing. Jesus first invested in his twelve disciples and then the church grew from those discipled believers. Jesus ministered on earth for three and a half years. When it was finished, there were probably a few groups of disciples in Galilee, Jerusalem, and Samaria. However, Jesus’s training allowed those disciples to care for the helpless and scattered multitudes, who were like sheep without a shepherd. First there were 12, then 72, and by Pentecost, there were already 120. Pentecost happened because there were enough leaders willing to lead the thousands who had been added to the Jerusalem church. Have you ever considered the fact that Jesus could have come into the world the way He wanted? He could have spent a thousand years personally carrying his message to all the nations of the earth. He could have waited for the digital age to deliver his message overnight. Instead, he chose to embark on a three-year ministry journey during which he dedicated the vast majority of his time and energy to 12 people. Jesus invested deeply in the lives of a few to maximize his impact on their lives and train them to do the same for others. In doing so, he chose to trust in the process of multiplication to bring the gospel to the ends of the earth. Regarding this Ogden says:

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Jesus had a big enough vision to start with what was important, no matter how insignificant it seemed. Focusing on a few did not limit their influence, but rather served to spread it. When Jesus ascended to the Father, he knew that there were at least eleven people who could continue to minister with his authority, and that those eleven had lived the model of how to invest in people (Ogden, 33). OUR REALITY

Central America2 is a region of a little more than 50 million inhabitants, in which approximately 85% consider themselves Christian (half Catholic, half Evangelical) and 15% do not identify with any religion. As for us, looking at the reports we can see that currently: • !ere are 82 people serving in PIC as planters (68) and network coordinators (14). • Of which 77 are involved in the Ministerial Training plan • Serving 99 Houses of Peace (house churches) • In which approximately 1095 new people are being discipled • In which we have registered 201 new people baptized However, despite the enormous growth of the evangelical church in recent decades, social problems persist. In other words, the increase in the number of Christ’s disciples up to this point has not meant a social transformation. Serious problems of social inequality, corruption, violence, machismo, extreme poverty, violation of human rights, ecological crises, etc. still persist in Central America. !is is a clear indicator that we still must continue working to ensure that the truths of the gospel take root in the new disciples and plant the peace of God.3 2 !is term can refer to different classifications. In this document, when using “Central America” I refer to the countries of Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama. 3 In this article I do not intend to delve into the social, economic, and environmental problems of the region. If anyone wants to go deeper they can find multiple reports from organizations online.

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OUR NEXT STEP: BE A MOVEMENT

We must become a movement or die slowly. However, this cannot be orchestrated by mere human will, but will happen when God’s people return to the essentials of following Jesus. 1. We need to return to our first love for Jesus and his kingdom. We need churches and all disciples to bow down before God and ask Him to forgive us for being distracted by non-essential matters and commit ourselves completely to knowing Jesus Christ and making Him known throughout the world. 2. We need to rediscover the power of intentional (biblical, relational) discipleship. Many pastors often put their trust in all the “organic” ways they disciple believers: preaching, teaching, helping people find a place to serve, and connecting them through small groups. !ey believe that if people rely on sound teaching and get involved in the life of the community, discipleship would happen naturally. !is may work for some, but not on the broad scale we expected. Jesus understood that multiplying disciples requires a more intentional strategy and relational discipleship. We would be wise to follow his example. If we hope to see disciples multiply throughout our movement, we must be willing to be intentional. We must look to the Wesleyan movement for one of the most powerful examples in church history of how such an intentional approach to discipleship can shape a movement. In his book “Marks of a Movement,” Winfield Bevins notes that one of the greatest benefits of Wesley’s emphasis on intentional discipleship through bands and classes was that he consistently produced the type of leaders needed to support the expanding movement: “With a high commitment to discipleship, thousands of leaders emerged from the ranks of early Methodism.” Effective leadership development is essential to any multiplying movement and is best understood as a form of advanced discipleship.

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3. Finally, we must reject the idea that evangelism and discipleship are specialized forms of ministry. Luther recovered the biblical principle of the “priesthood of all believers.” !e church is most effective when everyone works together toward the same purpose. We must recover the fundamental idea of the New Testament that “every believer is a missionary.” Although they certainly played an important role, organized mission trips were not the main reason the church grew exponentially in its early years. In the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20), Jesus was not so much advocating for people to leave home and go somewhere else to make disciples. His mandate was to make disciples “on his way,” wherever it happened. Most people are not familiar with the responsibility they have in sharing their faith and making disciples. Some have not even received discipleship. !is is a mistake that we must correct if we want to become a multiplier movement again. CONCLUSION

Can you imagine how our movement would multiply if every disciple followed Jesus’ example? Church historian Michael Green describes what it looked like in the early church: !is [sharing the gospel] need not always have been formal preaching, but spontaneous conversations with friends and casual acquaintances, in homes, in warehouses, on roads and around market places. !ey went everywhere talking about the gospel; !ey did it naturally, with enthusiasm and with the conviction typical of those who do not receive any payment for their work. And so they were taken seriously and their movement spread, especially among the lower social classes (Green, 309).

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REFLECTION QUESTIONS

Is the main mission of our churches to reach those who do not yet know Jesus rather than to retain those who are already believers? • Are we more interested in reaching non-believers than in preserving a form of Christianity? • Is church growth seen as secondary to multiplication? • Are we empowering all church members to go and multiply? • Are our methods so simple that the newest believer is using them? • Are we depending on the guidance and supernatural power of the Holy Spirit in such a way that we transcend human initiative and resources? • Do we see the world as a mission field rather than a dark place to be avoided? BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cowart, Keith, et al. !e Free Methodist Way. Light & Life Publishing, 2021. Green, Michael P. Evangelization in the Early Church. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1998. Ogden, Gregory J. Discipleship Handbook: Growing and Helping Others Grow. CLIE Editorial, 2017. Wagenveld, J. Let’s Plant Healthy Churches. Unilit Publishing, 2010. Wesley, John. Wesley’s works. Edited by Justo L. González, vol. XIV, Wesley Heritage Foundation, Incorporated, 1999. XIV vols.

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CASE STUDY 2: PASTOR JOHN LEAL AND MARTHA JOHANNA RINCÓN Urban Context; Strategic Principles to Reach Cities; Anthropology and Prayer for Cities INTRODUCTION

Below are three presentations that were given at Impact Latin America’s regional summit in Venezuela July 5-7, 2024. !ese presentations are the result of a team of experts, with a long history of ministry and experience, working with teams from different parts of Latin America. We especially thank Dr. Paul Olver and Dr. Delia Nüesch-Olver who developed the original material that was shared at IMPACT’s 2023 Leadership summit in. Medellín, Colombia. !e four presentations are: Urban Context; Strategic Principles to Reach Cities; Anthropology and Prayer for Cities. !ey were presented by Pastor John Leal and Martha Johanna Rincón. John Leal is Colombian, who lives in Medellín with his wife Susana and their two daughters, Isabella and Valentina. He has a bachelor’s degree in theology from the Fundación Universitaria Seminario Bíblico de Colombia and studies Church Planting. He is currently pursuing a master’s degree in ministry and leadership at Asbury !eological Seminary. John has served as a pastor, church planter, seminary professor, and author of pastoral training materials. He currently serves full-time as Field Director for Impact Latin America, leading work in 19 countries across different denominations. When he is not working he likes to watch movies and explore new places with his family. Martha Johanna Rincón is Colombian and lives in Medellín. She has a bachelor’s degree in theology from the Fundación Universitaria Seminario Bíblico de Colombia, a Specialization in Pedagogy and is finishing her master’s degree in theology at the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana and serves as a volunteer at Langham Preaching Schools in Colombia. Martha Johanna has served as a seminary and univer-

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sity professor, training coordinators and preachers and serving on the pastoral team of her local church. Currently, she is full-time Director of Ministerial Formation for Impact Latin America, leading the work of training leaders, disciples and churches among different denominations that IMPACT serves. Her favorite hobbies are reading, watching movies, having coffee with friends and spending time with family. URBAN CONTEXT

It is incredible how the Community Church Planting movement has grown and expanded in Venezuela. !ere are 4,688 people being discipled in 658 houses of peace, led by 520 planters who are supported by 111 network coordinators. Since July 2020, 1,512 people have been baptized. We are in 11 states and the Capital District. To God be the glory for all this progress! However, there are still 12 states and multiple cities that need to be reached. And, above all, millions of Venezuelans who need the peace of God in their lives, families, communities and cities. We here are the team of men and women whom God has called to be part of a movement that plants God’s peace in Venezuela. But how do we do it? Let’s start by describing how this has been done in the past. !e international missionary movement has had several very defined and studied missionary stages or eras: 1. Coasts. At this stage the focus was to send believers from their countries by boat. Wherever the ship arrived, these believers evangelized to those who lived in those ports and those who arrived at those ports as sailors or merchants. Generally, the evangelized were very transitory people who, when they moved, carried the gospel with them. !e idea was that by continuing to travel they would spread the gospel. 2. Continents. From that port base, missionaries and new believers left the port areas and went to the interior of those countries and planted new churches.

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3. Cultures (ethnic groups). In 1974 in Lausanne, Switzerland, there was a huge interdenominational congress of world evangelization. !ere, something that had already begun was formally identified. A new era of missions focused on reaching ethnic groups or tribes worldwide. !e idea was to reach a tribe or ethnic group with the gospel, disciple them, and then reach as many of that group as possible. !en they were supported in every way so that they could reach their people in other parts of the world. 4. Cities. Now we are in a new missionary era. !e effort is not coasts, continents, or ethnic groups. Currently, efforts and resources are focused on reaching the largest cities in the world. !e international missionary movement has had several very defined and studied missionary stages or eras: 1. Because the world is mostly urban: Currently 56% of the world’s population lives in cities. In Latin America the percentage is 81%, and in Venezuela it is 90%. Big cities are growing at a dizzying speed. People are looking for work to support their families, young people are seeking educational opportunities and others want to reinvent themselves (they take advantage of the anonymity produced by the large number of people to remake themselves or be reborn as someone different). !is is the direction of our world today. Perhaps growth becomes a little slower for reasons such as pandemics. But the train of accelerated growth of cities has already left the station and if we want to reach Venezuela, we must get on board. It is not only a current reality but also a future reality (it is estimated that in 2050 the index will increase from the current 56% to 70%). In Venezuela, 50% of all inhabitants live in the 10 most populated cities (+500,000 inhabitants): Caracas, Maracaibo, Valencia, Barquisimeto, Maracay, Ciudad Guayana, Maturín, Barinas, San Cristóbal and Ciudad Bolívar. !ere are another 60 cities between 100,000 and 500,000 inhabitants, totaling 147

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10.5 million inhabitants, 36% of the country’s inhabitants. Any plan to reach Venezuela for Christ has to include a strategy to reach the cities. If we do not reach the Venezuelan cities, we will not reach Venezuela because Venezuela is mostly urban. 2. Because God wants it: God loves people, and if people are in cities, He invites us to the city. He wants us to bless the cities, to work for the peace of the cities; In Jeremiah 29:7 it says “...seek the well-being of the city where I have deported you and ask the Lord for it, because your well-being depends on the well-being of the city” (NIV). If we put on city glasses, and study the Bible with a map of its time, we see this biblical urgency from the Old Testament through the entire New Testament. Let’s start by remembering that the biblical story begins with a garden, but ends with a city. We could also talk for hours about Nehemiah in relation to the city and the place it occupies in the heart of God and God’s people. We could continue mentioning Jonah’s call to the city.”Get up and go to the big city of Nineveh and proclaim to him the message that I am going to give you” (Jonah 3:2); !at story ends with God reminding Jonah how God feels compassion for that city. In Acts 1:8 Jesus said that his disciples were going to be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Many times we understand this only in terms of geography, and we overlook that Jesus is saying: start with the city! Furthermore, Jerusalem is not only a geographical reality but encompasses realities of culture, religion, worldview, context, etc. In the same way that Jerusalem was a center of religious, political, economic and cultural life, cities today are also strategic centers of education, communications, national and international transportation, business, creative endeavors, innovation, fashion and much more. Our Lord continues to call us to influence those spheres of culture and society! !e book of Acts shows us how the apostles very intentionally took the gospel to key cities of the Roman Empire. Once you see this

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pattern of the apostle Paul’s emphasis on cities, it will change the way you read the scriptures! You will find a great example of the urban strategy of the Apostle Paul, and the team he trained and sent. 3. Because cities need it: Martín Caparrós talks about “...overflowing, overwhelmed, failed cities. Cities that are collapsing: collapsing services, collapsing tra%c, collapsing infrastructure – and lives that try to avoid it” (p. 33). Let’s talk about 4 realities of life in cities: a. Diversity. Each state capital is a microcosm of its region and the largest cities are a microcosm of Venezuela. Families and groups of people have moved to cities, displaced by the social/ economic situation, violence or looking for an opportunity. !is diversity of races and ethnicities in cities often brings discrimination and conflict. “Every city is many cities, the sum of those cities or their interaction or their conflict” (Caparrós, 246). b. Inequality. In every city there is poverty and wealth. !e richest of the rich and the poorest of the poor sometimes live right next to each other. Venezuela is a largely urbanized country, and at the same time, a country with economic inequality. Each city has its “temporary” communities. “One in six people in Latin America live in these temporary neighborhoods. !ere are some 70 million people who live in miserable houses or falsely temporary dwellings”(Caparrós, 223). c. Delinquency. !ere is a lot of crime, violence, and gangs. !ere is a list, which is reviewed annually, of the 50 cities in the world (outside of war zones) where the most homicides occur: 7 are in the US, 4 in South Africa and sadly, all the other 39 cities are in Latin America (we do not have data for Venezuela). 149

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d. Disorder or dysfunction. Endless construction, perpetual change, frustrating bureaucracy, noise and drama. Almost no system works as it should and people have to adapt. One wonders how these cities work? But somehow they continue to work and they continue to grow and people find creative ways to make a life for themselves. God loves the city. God loves the people who live in the cities of Venezuela and all the inhabitants of all the cities of Venezuela need to know about God’s love. What hope is there for city dwellers but the peace of Jesus? Missiologists have been clearly saying that if we reach one city we touch the region and the country. So, if we reach the cities of Venezuela we touch Venezuela. But, why have we not reached the cities? 1. Fear. !e challenges just mentioned have intimidated many. Sometimes we have seen the power of the rich or the needs of the poor as insurmountable. It makes us feel helpless. But we believe that God goes ahead of us. God is not just a regional God (for Maturín). He is the Lord of all the earth, including all the cities of Venezuela, and he is already working in each city! 2. Lack of models. !e evangelical church in the US has been antiurban for reasons that would take too long to explain here. Most missionaries who come to Latin America come from churches in small towns or rural areas without seeing examples of effective ministry in the cities. But with CCP we have examples: networks of houses of peace flourishing in Maturín, Caracas, Medellín, México, Montevideo, Quito, Managua, Lima, etc. 3. High cost. Everything costs more in the cities. If our strategy is to start with a church building, we are not going to do it. One of the geniuses of CCP is that it does not depend on church buildings.

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!e heart pumps blood back and forth throughout the human body; enters and leaves. It pulses the blood and keeps that body alive and vibrant. In the same way, cities pump people in and out from here to there. !is reality makes planting stable, solid, firm houses of peace in cities not easy. But this coming and going, entering and leaving from here to there gives us incredible opportunities for the evangelization of the country. When people go from here to there and have been discipled, they take the gospel with them wherever they go (from Maturín to Maracaibo, from Maracaibo to Valencia, etc.). I am convinced that God has a purpose in these big, chaotic, complex, beautiful and ugly, dirty and attractive, fun and dangerous cities. If we reach the city we will touch the whole country. If we want to reach Venezuela with the peace of God we must have a strong impact on the Venezuelan cities that are enormously influential and growing in size and influence. If we want to fully participate in God’s plan, if we take the Great Commission seriously, we must impact great cities. !at is the only way God’s shalom will cover Venezuela. STRATEGIC PRINCIPLES TO REACH CITIES

God loves everyone who lives in small towns and rural areas. God wants everyone to enter into an intimate relationship with him through Jesus Christ and to receive the gift of the Spirit. CCP must continue to plant the peace of God in small and rural towns. We must continue to multiply disciples, leaders and churches everywhere, but the vast majority of Latin Americans live in cities and an extremely high percentage lives in megacities. For us, ignoring cities is not an option because it means deciding that 81% of the population of Latin America does not need, or deserve, to hear the gospel. In Venezuela, which is a largely urban country, 90% of the population lives in cities. An estimated 12,044,068 million people live in the seven major cities alone. If we want to reach Latin America we have to think seriously about the cities. If we are not intentional in reaching the cities, we will not reach Latin America.

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LET US EXPLORE TOGETHER SOME STRATEGIC PRINCIPLES FOR REACHING CITIES:

1. Be intentional about including cities in our plans: Early Christianity gives us evidence that it was a largely urban movement, which was present in the main cities of the Roman Empire during the first century (Richter, 58). !e New Testament, especially the book of the Acts of the Apostles, presents us with an example of how to reach an urbanized world. !ere were four great cities within the Roman Empire: Rome, Corinth, Ephesus and Antioch, which were also the most important. Today we could think as if we were talking about Latin American megacities such as Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Lima and Bogotá. God sent his disciples to these four cities. Acts 16 shows us Apostle Paul’s strategy – a combination of intentionality and spirituality – in prioritizing the cities, but listening to the Spirit of God. Looking at the map we can conclude that he had in mind to go to Ephesus, but he had a vision of the man from Macedonia saying, “Come and help us.” “We sailed… to Neapolis (port city), but they did not stay there – they continued walking another day to Philippi, which is a Roman colony and the principal city of that district of Macedonia.” Time after time, Paul began his ministry in the main city. 2. Be alert to take advantage of volunteer missionaries: I am intrigued by the story of Priscilla and Aquila in Acts 18:1-3. We are told that they were from the city of Rome, but the Jews were expelled from there by the emperor Claudius. When they decided to go to Corinth, they met Paul and connected since they both manufactured tents. Acts 18:18 mentions that after a time Paul said goodbye to the brothers in Corinth and began the journey to Syria. On this trip he was accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila. A little later we read that Paul left them in Ephesus. In 1 Corinthians 16:19, Paul writes from Ephesus to Corinth the following, “Aquila and Priscilla greet you in the Lord, as well as the church that meets in their house (in 152

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Ephesus).” In Romans 16:5 Paul writes from Corinth to Rome, “Also greet the church that meets in the house of Priscilla and Aquila (in Rome).” Priscilia and Aquila were from Rome, but we found them in Corinth, Ephesus and back in Rome and in each city as they started a church in their house. 3. Pray intentionally and systematically for cities: Pray with a map, interceding for the cities. Jeremiah 29:7 says “Ask the Lord for it (the city where I have deported you).” Pray for empty fields in the cities, for people of peace in the cities, for open doors. Pray that the Lord will raise up and send workers to the cities. 4. Seek the well-being of the city: Jeremiah 29 teaches us a model of how to live and minister in the city. !is is a letter that the prophet sent to the exiles in Babylon – a symbol of evil. Jeremiah 29:7 says “Seek, pursue, work for the peace (shalom) of the city where I have deported you, build houses... plant gardens... get married and have children and grandchildren.” !is is a comprehensive vision that includes the physical, emotional, relational as well as the spiritual, all focused on investing in healthy families. Many times people in cities feel isolated and alone. Creating community and family is very important. We must learn to love our city, blessing it and not cursing it. 5. Learn to incorporate diversity in the church: !e Church of Antioch in Acts 11:19-30, 13:1-3, is a case study of a healthy church in a megacity. It is a multiethnic church since Jews and Gentiles from different cities, regions and languages were found there (Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Aramaic). !ere we also found a diverse team of leaders: Simeon nicknamed the Black, Lucius of Cyrene (North Africa), Manaen (raised with Herod the Tetrarch from a rich, privileged family), and Paul who was also more educated than was common at the time. Many churches in cities will be multiethnic and will help their members recognize and celebrate differences as a good thing. An effective city church has to model and demonstrate positive 153

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diversity in its congregation, in its leadership, and in its worship team. In everything you have to raise and send leaders who represent diversity of all kinds: age, gender, ethnic group, social level, and race among others. 6. Seek the power of the Holy Spirit: Some have the idea that to find God they have to go out into nature and attend a camp or retreat center in a quiet, secluded place to hear God’s voice. !e first disciples of Jesus were peasants, fishermen from Galilee. !e city of Jerusalem was a strange and probably frightening place for them. After the resurrection, when Jesus appeared to them, he said: “Stay in Jerusalem until you have received the promise of my Father (Acts 1:4). When the Holy Spirit comes upon you you will receive power and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem.” It was in the city, in a diverse and multiethnic context, that the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples and the Christian Church was born. In the first part of the book of Acts, we see again and again how the Spirit came upon groups of new disciples in cities. God does not send us to the city on our own, God gives us the power of his Holy Spirit in the city and for the task of reaching the city. In CCP we have a good biblical model, good materials, and good leaders, but our faith, trust and hope is not in these things. If God does not go with us, we will not be successful. !at’s true wherever we go. Without prayer there is no multiplication. But with the challenges of cities, we need the power of the Holy Spirit. ANTHROPOLOGY AND PRAYER FOR CITIES

!e large cities of our continent are not only immense but also very complex and di%cult to understand. If we are going to be serious about participating with God to bring his shalom to Latin America we must not only have a general interest in big cities, but we must also be very intentional, focused and strategic. In order to be intentional we must have some tools, one of those being anthropology. Urban anthropology means that we study the city we are trying to reach in a systematic, 154

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organized and logical way. We study the internal and external systems that make a city work – or not. Anthropology gives us the ability to understand what is happening, what works, what needs to change, what is evil and what is from God and how to introduce the peace of God into those city systems. Anthropology provides us with a scaffold, framework, structure or skeleton to interpret and understand the city in order to intercede in a more focused and intentional way. Below are some steps that will help us see and understand the city in a different way. 1. !e History: We begin by investigating the history of the city. What have been the most important historical events? How was the city born? What does the city regret? What is a good thing that characterizes the city? History often provides super valuable information to understand the present. !en we must intercede for the city through prayer. Every city has things it needs to repent of. In our prayers we want to name and cut off those things in the name of Jesus. We can pray that God breaks off every evil thing and elevates and multiplies every good thing. 2. Demographic Diversity: We can investigate the population of the city. Not only the number of inhabitants, but the demographic composition (age, gender, ethnicity and religious practice). How do we use that information as scaffolding for prayer? As a movement we are already accustomed to praying for ethnic groups or tribes. We can also pray for people from different regions of the country who have arrived and who will arrive. We can pray for God to open doors and connections. Each individual who arrives from another part of the country or continent is a door to a family. Each family is a door to a tribe or community. 3. Economy: What are the main industries and employers? Understanding the local economy is essential to understanding

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the quality of life people have and the economic opportunities in the city. We must pray that God would prosper the economy of this city and that there would be enough employment worthy for all those seeking to provide for their families. We must pray that God breaks diabolical bonds that destroy human beings for the economic benefit of others through economic engines that are malignant (drug tra%cking, human tra%cking, economies that depend on gambling addiction, etc.) We must pray that God helps create and prosper economic engines that are healthy for the city and its inhabitants. 4. Educational and Health Services: All of us have been touched by these services and understand their importance and the influence of these sectors. Most of our teaching on people of peace is based on a geographic area/sector. But the person of peace is sometimes in one of those systems and the system itself can be transformed into a “person of peace!” We must pray for teachers, doctors and nurses, school and hospital administrators and more to make good decisions. We must pray for the children who come to school from homes with so much need (hunger, hostile and violent environments) that do not allow them to learn and grow healthily. Also, for cities to commit to forming education and health systems that are compassionate toward all, especially the poor, providing access to what students need to learn. 5. Government and Politics: I believe that in this part of the scaffolding we need a lot of prayer throughout our continent. Prayer for the rulers and the next elections, that God may choose and direct. Also for fair elections where the will of the people is respected and that those who lose admit that they lost and let those who win govern. But also, in some of our countries where it is compulsory to vote, there are still voting systems that exclude people. 6. Quality of Life: We must pray for pollution, tra%c, lack of 156

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housing and inequality. For the safety of this city, including safety on our streets so that citizens/children/women/elders can walk the streets without fear. Prayer that God would direct the planning for the future of this city and that those who steal out of hunger would be able to have their hunger satisfied in some other way. Finally, we must remember that each city is unique and has its own distinctive characteristics and challenges. But we do NOT need to accept what is. Rather, we should visualize a different world and pray that God’s dream for the city would come true. Cities full of Him where all inhabitants are treated with dignity simply for the fact of having been made in the image and likeness of God. Genesis 18 presents us with a very strong account of Abraham interceding for the city of Sodom. Let us pray to the same Jehovah God who said about Nineveh, 11 “Shall I not have pity on that great city? And shall I not have mercy on Nineveh (name your city), that great city?” PRAYER

God, I thank you because you have put a powerful key in our hands. We do not want to stop using it and forget it in a drawer. Teach us to unlock access to the message of your Kingdom through prayer. Show us the closed doors that you want opened. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Caparrós, Martin. America. RANDOM HOUSE, 2021. Richter, Eric E. “Paul’s method and evangelism in large cities.” Strategies for Fulfilling the Mission | Vol, Vol. 15, no. 01, 2017, https://revistas.upeu.edu.pe/index.php/r_estrategias/article/ view/476/Richter.

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