Can missional, simple/organic church multiply the harvest? A story

Photo credit: williamcho (Creative Commons)

Simple/organic church is a great way to not only conserve the harvest, but also to multiply it.

We have a friend who is an evangelist in countries that are hostile to the Gospel. We originally contacted him because we were interested in the large healing/evangelistic meetings that, amazingly, he is able to hold in these countries. When he discovered we are involved in simple church, he asked to spend some time with Tony and me because the Lord had told him that he was to be involved in a different kind of church. So we spent a weekend with him, explained the principles of Luke 10 and answered his myriad questions.

A few weeks later he conducted a major meeting again, but this time, instead of his usual training for the church workers who were going to be involved in follow up of those who responded to the message, he trained them in Luke 10 principles, teaching them to look for people of peace, to pray for the sick and to start churches in homes.

The people came to the meeting in buses, often 150 to a bus. The harvest workers looked for people of peace in the buses on the way home after the meeting.

A few months after this meeting we traveled with him to this country to discover what had happened. The results were extraordinary.

A typical story went like this: "I started four churches following the meeting, but the people have told their friends and relatives in other villages about Jesus and now I have eight."

Two young men, aged 24 and 26, were so excited after one of the subsequent trainings that they didn't wait for the next harvest meeting. They started spreading the Good News right away, and six months later had 700 new believers in 25 churches.

The typical results of an evangelistic crusade in the West is that around 1% of those who respond are going on with the Lord a year later. In the nation we visited, thousands of churches have started.

What might happen if new believers were followed up using Luke 10 principles? 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Tobie]

Thanks Felicity, what a marvelous testimony. I have been following your blog for some time and note your references to Luke 10 principles. Please direct me to a post/article where this is explained in more detail. I seem to have missed it, and your posts of late have made me extremely curious.

[Graham Carter]

Thx a lot Felicity. I always get a lot out of your blogs. Like Toby I would like to know more about Luke 10 principles. Blessings

[Erin]

Thanks for the evangelist story Felicity. Way cool! Who woulda' thunk - organic church and crusades combined? Now we can use a new term "organic crusades"!!! Seems like an oxymoron.

[Felicity Dale]

Hi Tobie and Graham,

Forgive the delay in responding to your question. Life has been really crazy around here recently.

I have written about this on several occasions in my blog. There are a number of ways to access this. First, if you scroll down the right hand column, there is a section labeled categories. One of those categories is called Luke 10. You will find a large number of posts there.

Second, a have done two series of blog posts on this topic. One begins in July of 2010 (The votes are in). This series tends to meander off topic from time to time. The second begins on Friday Sept 9th with Rosa's story.

Hope this helps
Felicity

[Felicity Dale]

Erin, I love your oxymoron!!