cpm... a new testament pattern

“…You became examples to all in Macedonia and Achaia who believe. For from you the word of the Lord sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place” (I Thessalonians 1:7,8a).

God’s word was spread by the Thessalonian churches to every place in their region. Paul’s teachings, “his ways in Christ,” were taught in every church everywhere by faithful disciples like Timothy and the churches Paul planted (I Cor. 4:17). Churches reproducing churches so that ultimately every place can have access to the gospel is what we call today a “church planting movement”. The phenomenon of church planting movements is nothing new. CPM is a term used today to describe a Holy Spirit driven process for evangelizing whole nations, or people groups.

We observe a pattern for what we call “CPM” in the New Testament and especially in the book of Acts. Following are passages that describe a movement of the Holy Spirit that led to the first “CPM” (Acts 9:31).

Observe what happened after the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, Peter’s message and the results …
“And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit…we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God… Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers… So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house… praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:4a, 11b, and 41-42,46a,47).

Observe what happened after the healing of the lame man, Peter and John’s arrest, and the results…
“And they laid hands on them, and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. However, many of those who heard the word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand” (Acts 4:3,4).

Observe what happened after the prayer of believers in response to threats and the results…
“And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness. Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they shared all things in common” (Acts 4:31,32).

Observe what happened after the signs and wonders done among the people through the apostles and the results…
“And believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women…” (Acts 5:14).

Observe what happened after the trial and beating of the apostles by the religious council and the results…
“And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. Now in those days, the number of the disciples was multiplying…” (Acts 5:42-6:1a).

Observe what happened after the multitude of disciples chose seven new leaders to serve and the results…
“…Whom they set before the apostles; and when they had prayed, they laid hands on them. Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly…” (Acts 6:6,7a).

Observe what happened after Stephen’s murder, how the Jerusalem believers fled persecution and the results…
“Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word. Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles, which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice came out of many who were possessed; and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed. And there was great joy in that city… But when they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized” (Acts 8:4-8,12).

Observe what happened after Saul’s (Paul’s) conversion and the results… “Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied” (Acts 9:31).

Early on in Acts, even before the great missionary Paul, we see a pattern for evangelism and church planting that reproduced and multiplied rapidly among all the people of a particular region (primarily Jewish people at this point). God performed mighty acts through His obedient followers that resulted in what we identify today as a “church planting movement”. In Acts chapter five, we see a shift in the momentum of the first church planting movement. Earlier in chapter five, “believers were increasingly added to the Lord” (Acts 5:14). However, later in chapter five it is recorded that, “the number of the disciples was multiplying” (Acts 5:42). In every Holy Spirit driven movement we see this same characteristic. At some point the believers, churches and leaders that are added in the beginning of the movement start to multiply. This happens when several spiritual generations are reproducing themselves, much like a family will multiply when grandchildren start having great grandchildren, and then the great grandchildren reproduce, and so on. Every church planting movement sees this type of spiritual reproduction that results in rapidly multiplying indigenous churches that get the gospel to every place.

In Acts 9:31 we see that the churches throughout that entire region were multiplying. Today God continues to do the same work that He did through the early church. He is using His obedient healthy churches that are reproducing disciples, churches and leaders to get the good news to every place.

How can we join God in a movement like this among our own focus people?

It will require following a Biblical pattern that is indigenous and easily reproduced by the people. It will go beyond adding disciples to multiplying churches. What kind of church in your context will do this? It may look quite different from other churches or anything anyone has ever seen before. Have you discovered a “way in Christ” that works for reaching your people? The test is: the people can easily follow that way in Christ and teach others to do the same. If we are struggling to see a Holy Spirit driven movement happen among our people, let us persevere in vigilant prayer and walking in the Spirit, until we discover that breakthrough that will lead to a church planting movement.

For more information about church planting movements today, order the book from:
churchplantingmovements.com

prayer request

Some have graciously offered to pray for our ministry. Below are some specific requests. I include earlier reports so you can know the background for the prayer request in the final paragraph:

UPDATE: FEBRUARY 2006
One of our church planter families has a tailoring shop in a village where they are starting a new church. The village doctor’s wife enrolled in sewing classes. She worshipped the monkey god faithfully, performing elaborate worship rituals before her idol, spending a lot of money on the rituals hoping for blessings and peace. Instead, she suffered from persistent migraines and never felt any peace, only torment. The church planter prayed for her in front of the sewing class. From that day on, she never had another migraine. When she concluded that Jesus healed her, she believed in Christ and threw away her idols. Her husband, the medical doctor, had heard about someone called Jesus when he was in the eighth grade, but never found anyone who could tell him more (he is now in his thirties). He found the church planter to learn more. He also accepted Christ, especially after he witnessed the change in his wife. The doctor is so enthusiastic now that he is sharing his testimony with everyone in his village. The doctor said, “This is wonderful news, everyone needs to hear this! Before now, there was no one to tell us about Jesus.” He plans to take the gospel to all of the surrounding villages. Pray for this couple as they continue in discipleship and are trained by the church planter.

UPDATE: MARCH 2006
Thank you for praying for the village doctor and his wife who gave their lives to Christ. They followed the Lord in baptism this past month and shared a powerful testimony to all who witnessed the event. The doctor took all of the images and idols that had decorated their home and threw them in the river where he was baptized. He said, (to the idols), "You have been a curse to me and my family, now you are dead to me." What a beautiful picture of what baptism means... our old life is dead and buried; we are raised to a new life in Christ! The doctor has a goal of reaching and baptizing 50 families for Christ. Continue to pray for him and his family as they continue in discipleship and seek to spread the gospel to all the surrounding villages.

UPDATE: JULY 2006
A radical religious group arrived at our tailoring center a few days ago and threatened to beat the church planter family if they did not stop teaching Christian songs and sharing the gospel with people. This radical group was planning to make a disturbance but the landlord came to the rescue and dispersed the group. Our church planter (John) has been warned not to enter this village where he has been going to share the gospel. The believers in that village are also being threatened with death by the radical religious group if they continue to meet as a church or have any Christian meeting. The new believers are very afraid right now. John has not been able to return to that village. Please pray for protection and perseverance for all the believers, and for the three new house churches in this area. Please pray for the three local leaders and their families, including the village doctor that was baptized recently.

am i being followed?

How did Paul and his missionary team come to be known in Thessalonica as, “these who have turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6b)? How did they leave a new healthy reproducing church in Thessalonica after only 3 to 4 weeks? We know from the letters written later by Paul to the Thessalonians that they: “Became examples to all in Macedonia and Achaia who believe. For from you," (not from Paul), "the word of the Lord sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place” (I Thess. 1:7,8a).

Even after a very short time, Paul and his partners left behind vibrant reproducing churches that extended to reach every place in that region with the word of God. How is that possible? We find the answer in God’s word through the follow-up letters of Paul to churches that he planted, and in his letters to faithful disciples like Timothy and Titus. Paul reminded the Thessalonian churches: “For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus” (I Thess. 2:14a). Paul said to the Corinthian believers: “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ” (I Cor. 11:1).

When physical reproduction takes place in a family, characteristics are passed on from parents to children. The children grow up demonstrating not only some physical resemblance to the parents, but also acting out some of their character traits, both good and bad. These characteristics can be passed on from generation to generation as children form their own families reproducing grandchildren and so on.

The same is true of spiritual reproduction. The disciple will imitate his teacher. The new church will imitate the mother church. Imitation of fellow believers in Christ through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit is the means for spiritual reproduction. If disciples, churches and leaders reproduce, this will lead to multiplication, and the kingdom of God can be extended to populate every place, just as it was in the first century.

But what or whom should we imitate? There must be a pattern or model that we follow in order to reproduce. Paul gave the churches a model to imitate. This model was reproduced over and over again through faithful disciples like Timothy. Paul told Timothy: “Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us” (II Timothy 1:13,14). Paul instructed the Corinthians: “Therefore I urge you, imitate me. For this reason I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful son in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church” (I Corinthians 4:16,17). Paul also said to Timothy: “And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (II Timothy 2:2). Jesus said, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19). So this process for training came from the Lord. Christ gave a model for His disciples to follow and reproduce. Paul imitated Christ and modeled for others like Timothy how to follow a pattern so that they could teach others also.

If we followed a pattern, could we become a model for others to imitate, train them to teach others and see reproduction for many spiritual generations to come? This would need to be a model that anyone among our focus people could follow and reproduce. I am not saying the pattern would look the same for every people and place. But I am saying that we need a simple reproducible model/pattern for making disciples among our focus people group, if we want to see multiplication.

Let's ask ourselves: "Am I being followed?" The next question: "Are my disciples being followed?"

the power of baptism

Our training in South Asia involves meeting with indigenous church planters regularly to mentor/teach. Every time we meet, we use a process outlined as follows:
1. Accountability/Encouragement 2. New Teaching 3. Practice and 4. Assignment. This is basically how we “teach to obey”. There is much more about this that we will discuss in future posts. This post continues the discussion on baptism.

On one occasion, we were receiving reports about church planting efforts during a two-month period. They had followed the pattern we taught: praying as you go, sharing your personal story, finding the person of peace, gathering the household to share gospel stories, and staying with the new disciples to teach them to obey (among other things). We were greatly encouraged to hear that this particular small group of church planters now had 150 new believers!

We praised the Lord together and shared words of encouragement. Then we asked, “How many of these are baptized?” The main leader answered, “They are all ‘ready’ for baptism.” I then asked, “Why are they not baptized?” The main leader replied, “I have not had time” (he had traveled and was involved in some other activities). Of course, a red flag went up for me. I asked, “Who does the baptizing?” Only the main leader raised his hand.

We had already covered practical “how to” instruction on baptism, as well as the why, where, when, etc. So, I knew that was not the issue. We went back over those things again, just to make sure. But that was not the problem. The issue was one of authority. Only the main leader appeared to have the authority to baptize. After consulting with other national partners and with the main leader, we decided that the rest of the church planters needed assurance that they too have the authority to baptize. So, the next day we organized a special service and had the main leader lay hands on them, pray for them and “authorize” them to do all the Great Commission commands. We explained that this was not legal ordination to avoid problems with traditional denominational churches and the government. This was confirmation of their leadership to do all that was necessary to plant New Testament churches. I gave them the assignment, to go back and baptize every new believer in Christ that has confessed Jesus as their only God. In our context, this confession also involves cleaning house of all idols and images, along with other evidence of repentance. Also, in our context, ritual bathing is practiced by the main religion, so we must be careful that new believers fully understand the meaning of baptism and that it has no power to save or cleanse.

The next month we expected to hear that they baptized around 150 new believers. To our amazement, they returned the next month to report over 450 baptisms and over 50 new house churches! Of course, we were cautious about the reports and we wanted to confirm everything. After confirmation of names, dates, places, details, etc., we set out to determine what happened to bring in such a harvest. Here is what we discovered: The church planters felt empowered; they did not wait on permission from a higher authority. They baptized a new second generation of disciples and then empowered them to go and make disciples (with training of course). The second generation reproduced a third generation of disciples and they were baptized! Now, they were not baptized by the second generation. It all happened so fast that the second generation leaders did not feel confident (or authorized) to baptize. So, the first generation baptized the third. Now they are doing intensive training of the second and third generation leaders so that all will be fully equipped and empowered to obey the Great Commission.

If you sat under my teaching, you would know that this happened in spite of my abilities, intelligence, etc. I have made so many errors, a comedy of errors, but it’s not funny. I have failed the Lord over and over, the only way to explain this little success is: God. He is sovereign, He is at work in people’s lives, and He will use the most unlikely people to accomplish His will for His glory. So, we want to give all the glory to God and I will take responsibility for the failures.

I wanted to share what God is doing in our midst to illustrate a point about the power of baptism. While it is true that baptism is symbolic and no special power is derived from it, there is something about this step of obedience that emboldens believers. Where we serve, most new believers suffer consequences for publicly identifying with Christ through baptism. Their families reject them, or even disinherit them. They can lose jobs or businesses. But despite this, one can note the difference in their faith and life after following the Lord in baptism. Both, the baptizer and the one baptized, participate in a worship experience that somehow changes things. God honors their obedience and blesses them for it.

“As you are going, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them …” (Mt. 28:19a). I have to confess, in the past as a missionary I failed to emphasize the importance of baptism in making disciples. We would postpone, go easy on new believers, require they go through a discipleship course before baptism, etc. We set a pattern that diminished the importance of that part of the Great Commission. Many times new believers wandered off and out the back door of the church because of our neglect. I believe now that it had an adverse affect on our ministry and was probably one of the major factors in not seeing greater harvest. For church planting, we see a pattern in the book of Acts for immediate baptism. I think that pattern is there for a purpose. Still, we do not baptize immediately, but now we do encourage baptism as one of the first steps of obedience for a new believer. If they are not willing to take that step, we take that as a “no” to following Christ. We don’t expect new believers to be fruitful disciples until they follow the Lord in baptism.

baptism blues

“I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, lest anyone should say that I had baptized in my own name. Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas. Besides, I do not know whether I baptized any other. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect.” (I Cor. 1:14-17).

We served in Latin America for many years before moving to South Asia a couple of years ago. Why we did that is a whole ‘nother story. One of the big issues among Christians there (and just about everywhere) is who can baptize, who can be baptized, and when? (Does this sound familiar)? Most established churches have their tradition or custom and that has become “bible” for them. The last place we lived in Latin America we helped with a new house church. One of the first converts was a medical doctor. Unfortunately, we had a long-time believer from an established church that kind of pushed his way into the situation. He insisted that we should have an ordained pastor baptize this new brother in Christ. It did not matter that this pastor, who was not even involved in the house church, was not discipling this new believer. I wanted one of the lay leaders in the church to baptize the good doctor. He was a leader in the new church and one of the people discipling the new brother. I thought we had everything worked out until we arrived at the pool for baptism. There was that ordained pastor and at the last minute, he was pushed to go into the pool and stand on one side of the doctor while our lay leader stood on the other side. They both baptized him taking one arm on each side, and boy did he get dunked, but good! To make a long story short, that house church did not reproduce. A precedent was set that day with the first five baptized believers – “we must have a certain type of authorized person to baptize”. That started a “domino effect” with other issues that came up … the Lord’s Supper, “qualified” leadership, church structure, etc. It is possible that a church planting movement was killed that day by the poolside, we will never know. The Lord always finds someone else to obey His will if we are unwilling. He used someone else out of that church to start another house church that has reproduced many times over. Meanwhile, the original “house church” became a congregation with an inward focus.

Jesus commands us to make disciples and baptism accompanies obedience to that command (Mt. 28:19). Jesus modeled this in his ministry (Jn. 4:1,2). We see the pattern for immediate baptism of new followers of Christ throughout the book of Acts. It is interesting that Jesus did none of the baptizing (see Jn. 4:2). The great missionary Paul did very little baptizing (see I Cor. passage at the beginning of this post). In fact, Paul said that it was not a big deal who did the baptizing (my paraphrase of that passage). This issue (among others) had caused division in the Corinthian church. Paul rebuked them and said basically – you are missing the point! “Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel!” Baptism is still important; it accompanies the making of disciples. But extra-biblical rules for baptism should not be a barrier to obeying the Great Commission. Sadly, it is one of the barriers to the expansion of God’s kingdom on just about every mission field today.

We will continue this line of discussion in the next post. What are your thoughts? What issues concerning baptism have you faced while on mission?

sop for kiss

As we train indigenous church planters here in South Asia, we try to practice the KISS principle (Keeping It Super Simple). We take the Great Commission from Matthew 28 and teach that Jesus gives us authority to do four things: Going; Making Disciples (the command); Baptizing; and Teaching to Obey. Then we answer the questions: How do we go? How do we make disciples? How do we baptize? How do we teach to obey?

This post will continue to address "how do we go"? We discussed the principle of searching for the "man of peace" in the previous post. The person of peace will be the bridge to his community/household - "oikos". This is his closest circle of family, friends and neighbors. If the person of peace and his oikos receive the church planter, an evangelism/discipleship process begins with stories from the word of God. As the Holy Spirit uses the word, people respond in faith, are reborn and a new church is planted with the first baptisms. Discipleship continues through teaching to obey.

The standard operating procedure (SOP) for our church planters in our corner of South Asia is as follows:

1. They go as a team, following the leadership of the Holy Spirit to a particular people/place.
2. They pray before they go and as they go (prayer walking).
3. They find people who will listen and share their testimony, and God's story.
4. They discover the person of peace and meet separately with his oikos to share more gospel stories and more of their personal story.
5. They baptize those who believe in Christ.
6. They stay with the new household of faith to teach them to obey Christ.
7. They move on but will revisit to encourage and appoint local leaders.

We see this same pattern in the apostle Paul's ministry:
1. Paul and his companions followed the leading of the Holy Spirit to focus on a particular people and place (Philippi) (Acts 16:6-10).
2. Paul and his team went to a place to pray. Could this be a biblical example of "prayer walking"? (Acts 16:13a).
3. Paul's team discovered a group of people (women) the Lord had prepared to hear the good news and shared God's story with them (Acts 16:13b).
4. They identified the person of peace (Lydia) that God had prepared to respond to the gospel and met with her household separately to explain the gospel in more detail (Acts 16:14).
5. They baptized the household, or group of new believers. This group was within the oikos (circle of influence) of the person of peace (Lydia) (Acts 16:15a).
6. Paul and his companions stayed with the new household of faith to teach them to obey (met in homes) (Acts 16:15b).
7. Paul and his team revisited the newly formed church to further equip leaders and encourage them to continue as obedient disciples, but then left them to go start churches in other places (Acts 16:40).

We train indigenous church planters in how to share your personal story (testimony), how to tell gospel stories, and how to pray as you go (prayer walking). Then we send them out to follow this pattern from the book of Acts.

This is "how we go" in our corner of South Asia. We apply patterns from Scripture as our "how to" model. What is your experience in going on mission? What patterns, if any, have you followed? Could the pattern mentioned in this post be adapted for your context?