My Weblog

Rebellion is a good thing

Meet two rebels, Sheila and Joshua. They met and married in North India and then moved to another city where I met them on my recent trip there. When they had moved to work with a mission organsiation, Sheila noticed many Nepali's in that city and felt deeply especially for the Nepali girls trapped in prostitution. However her mission had a clear policy of working only in teams so did not allow her to begin a ministry amongst the Nepali community until she was able to gather a team. Sheila's problem was that she didn't have a team, so she went ahead alone and secretly began to reach out to these girls in her spare time. She faithfully served in her day job while after hours she began to reach out to these girls.

One by one these girls responded to the message of Jesus. Sheila and Joshua soon realised they would have to develop a discipling community around these girls to truly help them and rescue them from the virtual slavery that is often found in prostitution in India. So one night they drove around on a motorbike and invited nearly 400 Nepalis (all Hindus) together to share with them the good news of Jesus. Numbers responded and this secret Church plant was under way in earnest. It wasn't long before a pastor was raised up and Sheila began her second plant, and then her third and so on. All in her spare time. Finally it became to much to hide so she 'fessed' up to her mission about what had been going on. Would they please forgive her? She had gone ahead and planted nine churches!

The good news of this story is that many of those girls have now been rescued, as well as some of the young men who used to visit them. Numbers of them are now active believers in these new church plants, some have even married! Today Joshua and Sheila are a part of the leadership team in their mission helping CP teams amongst the unreached.

What would happen if we all started to rebel against the rules and policies that stop the gospel from spreading? I wonder what Jesus would do?

Meet Abhay!

Hey, today I fly out for India. In the first week I catch up with my friend Abhay. Abhay is a Church planter and is spawning a movement of churches amongst Nepali people. Signs and wonders often happen under his ministry. Listen to his story. You'll enjoy hearing more about his story in posts to come!

Kicking out the box - By Jus Simpson

Justin and Debbie are dear friends who are planting a Church here in Melbourne... In fact they dream of a church planting movement. I have the privilege of walking this through with them... Below is a devotional that Jus wrote recently.

Kicking out the box
'...the believers who had been scattered during the persecution after Stephen's death travelled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch of Syria.  They preached the word of God, but only to Jews.  However, some of the believers who went to Antioch from Cyprus and Cyrene began preaching to the Gentiles about the Lord Jesus.' (Acts 11.19-20)

For a while now, our community hasn't grown with people becoming followers of Jesus.  Its had me worried, but I haven't known how to lead us out.  Last week, my mentor Dave asked me some questions which really helped.  He asked how much of my 'church' day, I spent preparing for our Sunday get-togethers and how much I spent getting out and fostering relationships with people.  He suggested I spend no time preparing our meeting, and the bulk of my time out connecting with new people.  So this week I did something I've never done before.  I caught the train to Boronia and walked around the shops and prayed.  I went into a few shops and asked the owners if I could pray for their business.  At times I felt incredibly awkward, but when one shop owner accepted my offer, it made my day! 

Sometimes we get boxed in.  We want something more than we currently experience, but we don't know what to do about it.  Sometimes, our thinking limits us from experiencing more of God - our thinking has boxed us in.  Sometimes, we have got so used to what we have become, that we don't expect anything more or anything different - our low expectations box us in.  Sometimes, we have routines which we follow, day after day, week after week, and we don't venture out from these - our routines have boxed us in. 

Dave's questions kicked out the side of my box - he challenged my thinking and routine.  Me trying something new ripped the side of the box off.  I won't being going back to my usual routine.

The believers who travelled to Antioch and preached to the Gentiles are my heroes.  Prior to this, the early Christians had seen the Jesus movement as being essentially within Judaism.  But these believers changed their thinking and did something very different.  They reconsidered God's Good News and how Jesus wanted to save Gentiles as well as Jews.  (This thinking was very different from how some Jewish people regarded the Gentiles; cf. Acts 22.21-22).  They also changed what they were doing, connecting socially with the Gentiles, so they could share this Good News.  (This change of routine was very radical, even within the Jesus movement cf. Acts 10-11; Gal 2.11-13).  These believers kicked out the side of their box!

There is a song lyric, 'There must be more than this.'  What do you long for more of?  Do you sense God wants to do more or different within or through you, but you have no idea how to get out into it?
Do you have any patterns of thinking which box you in, and limit what God wants to do in you? 
Do you have any routines which box you in, and limit what God wants to do through you?
Do you have someone who is helping you get out of your box?

A prayer.
'Now to him who is able to do immeasureably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus thoughout all generations...' (Eph 3.20-21).  Jesus, please help me recognize any box I have put myself in.  Please help me see out of it.  Please give me the courage to kick out the side of the box.  I want to move out of my self-imposed limits and live in all that you can do.  Please connect me with wise friends who will help me kick.  Amen.

Jus

Meet some of my heroes!

Meet some of my heroes!

Hey click on this and get a glimpse of some of the heroes of our church planting family!

Luke 10 - it only works if we lay down our lives like Jesus did

Floyd McClung's CPx students have returned from outreach ... I love some of the 'Jesus comments' he writes

... When Jesus sent out the 70 they came back with joy because of what God did through them. Jesus affirmed them, he taught them, and he corrected them. And he invited them to be leaders in the movement he started to change the world.

Jesus didn't come to waste his time or life for nothing. When we debrief the 70 we sent out we will invite them to give their lives for the same cause Jesus lived and died for. We believe in the power of the gospel to transform lives, but it only works if we lay down our lives like Jesus did.

Our 70 disciple/leaders are students in CPx, a discipleship/leadership training program. Many of them are enlisting with All Nations full time to keep on making disciples and training leaders and planting churches. Others will return to their home churches or movements to do the same thing. Others are going into the market place to make disciples and start simple churches.

Doing what Jesus did is the most important thing a person can do with their life. It's the most important thing a person can do to help change Africa. The non-Muslim parts of Africa have been evangelized many times over. But they have not been discipled.

The world doesn't need more decisions - it needs disciples, and disciple making leaders. It needs men and women who have had their hearts and minds transformed by the gospel, men and women who don't ask what they get out of it, but what they can do to give their life away.

In CPx we teach principles and practices to start disciple making, simple church planting movements, just like Jesus did. We do it in the market place and in the nations.

Read more

Floyd McClung on Church Planting session 2 - podcast

Here is the second session of Floyd's Church Planting session held at Crossway 31st of May.

Download floyd_cp_session_2.mp3

Floyd McClung on Church Planting session 1 - podcast

Here is the first session of Floyd's Church Planting session held at Crossway 31st of May.

Download floyd_cp_session_1.mp3

It was a powerful gathering!

Have a read of what my good friend Peter Roenfeldt emailed out about our gathering of Church planters with Floyd and Sally. Peter has a great blog, check it out by clicking on the link above.

Hello Friends,

One evening this week almost 40 people gathered in a Melbourne suburban home for coffee, and a chat with Sally and Floyd McClung. One participant said, "It was a powerful gathering!" and I think I understood what was meant! It wasn't primarily a reference to Sally or Floyd's teaching, although their story was inspiring and they encouraged and blessed all gathered. But in that room were people who are planting house churches, factory churches, and skate-park churches. Some are planting a church among Afghans in Melbourne, others working in the growth corridors of the city, some working in country towns. There were youth there who are reaching children, and others building faith communities among young adults. Some came from planting churches in Buddhist and Muslim cultures. It was an unbelievable mix of people on fire for God and his kingdom.

After years of ministering in the States, Afghanistan and the Netherlands, Sally and Floyd have moved to South Africa. Floyd told us, "We wanted to be where God is active, among the poor and dispossessed. We are planting churches and planters come in to see what we are doing, to be equipped. We are working with planters in over 20 countries".

We have a lot to learn from the majority Christian world, where the Christian faith is experiencing explosive growth. In Church Next Eddie Gibbs and Ian Coffey identified lessons from this majority Christian world. These are some they noted factors that could revolutionize a church in the western world.

(1)   Most pastors are first generation Christians

(2)   Education and training is through apprenticeships, rather than residential seminaries

(3)   Churches are missional (sometimes used as a synonym for the essence of emerging church in a western context!)

(4)   Apostolic leaders are emerging from within the harvest or breaking from bureaucratic systems

(5)   Leaders mentor new leaders, who go out to plant new churches

(6)   New missionary movements are being mobilized, and

(7)   Organisational structures are of a networking nature based upon mutual recognition and strong

relationships.

How would your church plant be impacted by cultivating these principles? Maybe it would become a movement, not just a local plant!

Be radical. Be faithful,

Peter Roennfeldt   

Floyd McClung- 5 steps to plant a Church

Floyd spoke at the YWAM base in Surrey Hills and gave 5 steps to plant a Church. They are pray, meet, talk, gather and multiply.

1. Pray. Prayer changes us, and helps us participate in how God sees things and how he feels. It all starts as we seek God's heart. Everything comes out of this. As we do this we start to see people as God sees them. We share his heart for neighbourhoods and peoples. The beginning point is to start praying, to fast, get up early, stay up late, to get desperate for God and express that desperation. We need to stir our hearts and take a risk.

2. Meet People. Making disciples is not a command for building Christians, but rather it is a command regarding people who don't know Jesus! Jesus did not make disciples out of the religious, rather he made disciples from those alienated, those that religion rejected. We need to follow Jesus example and do the same. It's hard to do if we don't get to meet these people. So Floyd says find some 'bad' people and hang out.

3. Talk to People. The next step is simple... begin to talk to people. Hear their story and share your story with them. Do you want a lot of fruit? Meet a lot of people. Serve them. Shy people will not produce a lot of fruit. Find those who are ready... think of the parable of the sower. Spread the seed with abandon, wildly and generously. But then find the good soil and invest your time there. Out of fifty people you might get five who are good soil. Only some will be ready. Look for deep serious hearts. Share Jesus, sow the good news, do a Bible study together.

4. Gather People. Get creative and base Church around the needs and gathering point of the community. Maybe it's in a sports team, or in a business. Gather people and eat together, share together, sing songs and worship together and pray together.

5. Raise up leaders and multiply. The final step is to do yourself out of a job. Raise up leaders who will multiply.

Anybody can do this! Simple stuff isn't it.

The dynamite of the gospel!

While in India, I had the privilege of being at the sidelines of some 'CHE' (Community Health Evangelism)training and ministry. It's great!When you get hold of the idea that the gospel is not simply about going to heaven but the transformation of communities... you have dynamite on your hands! It can result in explosive church planting, communities being impacted in every aspect of life, and the empowerment of people. That's what a Jesus movement can do!