Simply Church: A House Church Perspective

10 skills to equip others

Our friends in India, who are seeing hundreds of thousands of new believers each year, have various training topics with which they equip people, the majority of whom are oral learners. Everyone is equipped, and those who are in any kind of leadership are trained not only in the concepts, but also in how to train others too.

We in the West have a lot of head knowledge, but are we equipped? Last Friday, I posted on this subject, asking people to comment. One person said this:

"I once took a Saturday morning to teach people how to share their testimony and was shocked at how many long-time Christians were incapable of telling a coherent story about how they came to Jesus and why. The main problem, I found, was that they too often confused giving their life to Jesus with becoming a member of the church..."

 Many who have come out of legacy churches have been used to letting those in full-time ministry "do the stuff" as John Wimber used to say, referring to ministering to others, especially to not-yet-believers.  In simple/organic church there are no longer specially trained people with "doing the stuff" as their job description; it is now up to all of us. Are we ready? Do we know what to do?

In that post I also asked people to give some ideas on the various skills that we need to equip people with here in the West. Here is a compilation of the results:

1. How to proclaim the Gospel
2. How to share your story with others
3. How to lead someone to the Lord
4. Interacting with God's word
5. The need for accountability
6. How to wait on God
7. How to share your faith in a less friendly environment
8. The centrality of Jesus
9. Listening to the Holy Spirit and obeying
10. The fruit of the Spirit

I have several more topics for the toolbox that I will share soon.

How illiterate women in India can teach advanced topics

A few posts ago, I alluded to the fact that some good friends of ours in India, who see many tens of thousands of new believers in their network each year, have illiterate women who are able to teach others, including Bible references. Several people have asked me to expand on this.

The fact that someone is an oral learner doens't make them ignorant or incapable of understanding. They just have a different way of learning. Much as today, in our culture, many young people learn by watching rather than by reading.

Each of the 50 or so topics that our friends expect their leaders to be able to teach on to others is divided down into 9 or 10 main points. Training is given several times per year. There are different levels at which a person is able to understand and impart any given topic. So a house church leader will have a very basic understanding. He/she may know several strategic points about any given topic. A local area trainer will have more understanding, probably with some references. By the time you have a master trainer who is responsible for training on a regional or national basis, they will know the topic fully, including all relevent references.

This happens because of the way a topic is taught. The trainer may speak on the topic, but by using questions and answers and making others repeat what is taught, people remember the subject matter. They are also expected to apply it or put it into practice. When they in turn pass it on to others, it becomes even more firmly fixed in their minds.

Here are a few of the topics that are taught:

The Great Commission

What is church?

God's will and purposes

Persecution

Tenfold functions of the church

Baptism

The role of women

Prayer walking: ten steps

Spiritual warfare

If people in our churches had the same grasp of these subjects at a practical as well as a theoretical level as some of these illiterate village women, we would be far more effective within the Kingdom. Now obviously, we are able to read the Bible--there is no shortage of Bibles in the West.  But there is a difference between learning with the purpose of extending the Kingdom and studying for personal blessing. Maybe we should reconsider strategic training.

How many $$ to start a church?

Continuing our study of Luke 10.

I tried without success to find out the average cost of starting a church in this country.  If my memory serves me right, it's in the region of $350,000 by the time you include buildings and the training and salary for a pastor.  (If anyone has an accurate figure, I would be interested to know.)  Then there's all the paraphernalia surrounding a church plant: a marketing strategy, the new worship team, Sunday school and so on...

Contrast this with Luke 10:4, remembering that this passage in Luke 10 is Jesus' pattern for reaching out to communities of people.

"Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road."

Why would Jesus tell us not to take anything with us?  Surely we need some money and other resources to reach out to a new community? 

There are a couple of reasons why not.  First, if we take nothing with us, where is our dependence?  It has to be on the Lord to provide for us.  Where is that provision going to come from?  Out of the harvest!

This is a huge paradigm shift for those of us who have been involved in traditional church life. All the resources for any new work are going to be in the harvest.  The premises will come from the harvest.  New leadership will come from the harvest.  The workers for any new area are probably not even believers yet.  

If you ask our Indian friends why you don't take things with you, they will add another reason too.  You don't take anything extra with you because you don't plan to stay!  Again, that's because the workers for the harvest are in the harvest.  You do not move to a new area to lead a church, but you will mentor the new worker from the harvest who will lead the church.

Why do you not stop to greet anyone on the way?  We are looking for a specific person, and Jesus tells us later in the passage how we will recognize that person.  Again our Indian friends have a different perspective.  They say that if they talk to the wrong person, they stand a good chance of being beaten up! It's best to let Jesus reveal the right person.

How to start a simple/organic/house church

We have had the privilege of spending time with the leaders of several church planting movements over the years.  (A church planting movement occurs when there is rapid and spontaneous multiplication of churches, comprised mainly of new believers). We always ask them what principles are behind the growth that they see.  They usually point to Luke 10 (or Matthew 10).  So the next few posts will look at this passage in greater detail. 

Luke 10 is the passage where Jesus sends out the 70 (or 72,depending on your version of the Bible) disciples.  The passage follows Jesus' teaching on the cost of discipleship.

Verse 1: The Lord now chose seventy-two other disciples and sent them ahead in pairs to all the towns and places he planned to visit.

A few points on verse 1:

• These are "other" disciples--presumably other to the 12.  This means he sent at least 82 disciples (41 pairs) out.
• He sent them in pairs--not in teams and not individually.  It's interesting to note that when the disciples are listed, in at least one location they are listed in pairs (Luke 6:13-16)
• Jesus sent them ahead of him to all the places he planned to visit.  If Jesus sends you somewhere, it's because He plans to go there too.  Your job changes, then Jesus plans to meet the new people you work with.  You move house, Jesus plans to touch your neighborhood through you.
• Jesus not only planned to visit towns, he planned to visit places too.  Maybe Jesus said to them, "You two are to visit such and such a town, and you two go the tavern on the road to Capernaum."

Jesus had a strategy for the area.  He has a strategy for your area too.  The disciples job was to listen to him and to obey when he told them where to go.  We have the same responsibility--to listen to Jesus and do what he tells us.  That is why knowing how to recognize his voice is so important.

Ways to see a greater harvest #1

  

 

 I recently reread the book, "destined for the throne" by Paul Bilheimer. The main premise of the book is based on a quote by John Wesley: "God does nothing except an answer to prayer." Bilheimer goes on to explain that God has chosen to limit himself in order that we might get on-the-job training for reining in his kingdom.

If this premise is true, then we need to rethink some of our strategy. In places where church planting movements are thriving, prayer plays a key role. David Garrison in his book "Church Planting Movements" lists the 10 features common to all CPMs. Prayer is high on his list.

We have friends in India who tried an experiment. They picked two villages; one they prayer walked, the other they did not. When they later went to do some evangelism in the first village, 45 families found the Lord. They were thrown out of the second village.

David Watson has seen many tens of thousands of churches planted in India and Africa. Recently, he questioned his top church planters to see if there were any common factors. He discovered that prayer was key to these people. Each of them prayed at least three hours per day on their own, and more time was spent in prayer with the team.

Paul Yonggi Cho, pastor of the Full Gospel Central Church in Seoul, Korea was interviewed by Rick Warren. He stated that when he first started his church (at one time the largest in the world), in order to see the Holy Spirit work, he had to pray for at least five hours per day. He has now been able to cut this down to three hours.

I do not tell the stories in order to condemn us. Most of us lead very busy lives. How can we commit to that kind of time in prayer? What is God asking of us?

What do you think? Is it true that "God does nothing except an answer to prayer"?  What should our response be?

A Woman Church Planter (Part 3)

The final part of the interview with "Mary," a church planter in India.

When asked to tell more about prayer walking, Mary says this:

“When I go prayer walking we go as a group.  It’s not just going for a walk in the morning.  We are entering into battle.  We have to go fully clad with spiritual armor—the name of Jesus, the blood of Jesus, the Word of Jesus, fasting, praising and prayer.  Whoever we take with us, we teach.  First we submit ourselves to God and then we have battle with Satan. 

“Each city is divided into voting divisions which contain a number of colonies.  We prepare many prayer warriors and divide them up so that each colony is covered. My city has 2,000 slum areas. The basis for prayer walking is the word of God.  Jeremiah 29:7 says And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare.”  We are to pray for the city and work for the city.  The colony where I live is my responsibility.  Every person is responsible to prayer walk the area where they live.  We have a special strategy at certain times of the year.  Whenever there is a Hindu festival, we prayer walk around any big temple every morning and evening before the festival.  We get good results from this.

“The same is true at election time.  We surround the election booth with prayer.  We appoint people to pray that there shouldn’t be any corruption or bad events.  The government is very anti-Christian but because of prayer they don’t do any damage to us.”

For more information and on-going news of global and regional house church summits and training events please visit www.222foundation.org

A Woman Church Planter (Part 2)

Continuing the story of "Mary," a church planter in India.

Mary and her team believe that there should be a house church in every language and people group.  There are 20,800 villages in Chhattisgarh, and they have reached 1,800 of them with 6,000 house churches (some villages have more than one if there is more than one people group in that village.) The house churches meet every day, not just on Sundays.  Each day they share fellowship, intercede, have teaching and take communion.   The team keeps teaching in a church until a leader emerges from that group.

Bindu is the coordinator of the women’s ministries and Mary is one of her master trainers.  There are six levels of leadership in the work:

1. Working at a grass-roots level by starting a house church.  These people are given the vision of taking their own village and nurturing the people there.
2. Leading a cluster of house churches in a block of 150 villages.  They have vision for their block.
3. Leadership of several blocks of house churches.
4. Master trainers at a district level—these are more mature leaders.
5. Master trainers at a state level—they are responsible for all the training that goes on in a state.
6. Master trainers at an international level.

 

Mary is training to be an international master trainer.  They use different teachings for different levels of trainer.   New believers are not trained with the same teachings as those who are more mature.

A Woman Church Planter (Part 1)

While I was in India I had the opportunity to visit with "Mary," a church planter who has seen more than 6,000 churches start under her leadership.  Here is a little of her story:

Mary has been a church planter for the past 10 years.  She works in Chhattisgarh, a state in India.  Prior to her association with Victor and Bindu Choudhrie, she evangelized by sharing the word of God in villages and passing out tracts to every home in a village.  This produced no results.  People would come and get healed and then go away.  When she understood Luke 10 from Victor’s teaching, and the importance of gathering rather than scattering, her pattern changed.  She started using the principles in Luke 10, and the results are surprising. People come up to her and ask, “What must I do to get salvation.”  Wherever she prayer walks, a church starts.

Today, people come and get healed.  They become mature and then go to their own people group teaching the Word of God.  They baptize people and start house churches among their own people group.

Mary trains others in church planting.  Initially they survey the area.  This research determines where they plant a church.  Then they prayer walk the area on a daily basis.  Prayer walking has been a key to what they have seen.  The whole world is in the power of the evil one, and people are to be rescued from his clutches and brought into the Kingdom.  This is done by spiritual warfare and the power of binding and loosing.  It has been the key to the establishment of churches.

So what did I learn from India?

India is seeing a remarkable move of God.  We met several people from India at the World House Church Summit who have more than 100,000 new believers in their networks.  I interviewed a middle-aged housewife who is responsible for seeing more than 6,000 churches.  I know that numbers are the world's way of judging success, and that God is more interested in our faithfulness and obedience than anything else.  I also know that you cannot manufacture a move of God. But are there principles that they are applying that translate across cultures that help to produce such a movement?  

As I have meditated on what we have seen in India over several visits, the first thing that strikes me is their commitment to prayer and prayer walking.  We have an Indian friend who tried an experiment.  He picked two villages.  The first he prayer walked regularly before trying to reach out to the people who lived there.  The second he did not.  Forty-five families became believers in the first village.  He was thrown out of the second one. 

A similar experiment was tried in Phoenix, AZ, as documented in the book, The Praying Church Idea Book by Douglas A. Kamstra.  The church randomly selected 160 names from the phone book and divided then into two groups.  For 90 days they prayed for one group while they ignored the other.  At the end of 90 days they called all 160 homes, identified themselves and offered to stop by and pray for the family and any needs they might have. Of the 80 homes that were not prayed for, only one person invited them in.  From the 80 homes that were prayed for, 69 people invited them to come over and of those people, 45 invited them into their homes.

David Watson, who has seen more than 40,000 churches start in North India and more than 5,000 in Africa, surveyed his top 100 church planters to see if he could identify any common characteristics in the methods they used.  The only one he found was a commitment to prayer.  Even though these people mostly had jobs, they prayed 3 hours per day on their own and then 3 hours per day with their teams. Fasting was also important to them.

How does this translate into a Western culture where we are so busy and so preoccupied with many things?  The last thing we want is some kind of legalistic "ought to" duty praying that somehow seeks to earn God's favor. 

I remember when our business was seriously struggling a few years back. There was no sense of compulsion about praying for it.  We wanted to pray for hours every day, initially out of desperation because we knew it was the only hope our business had of surviving, but it became an adventure and delight as we watched as the prayer produced results.

What will produce that kind of desire to pray for this nation and the nations?

Gems from India

 

The following are some thought-provoking one liners from the pre-conference sessions at the World House Church Conference in India.  They are from talks given by the leader of a church planting movement that baptized more than 300,000 on the Day of Pentecost in 2009.  Worth taking note!

Jesus never said, "Be baptized."  He said, "You baptize." 

You disciple--you baptize.

Jesus baptized Peter--but only his feet.

You will not see a movement without signs and wonders.  Ninety five percent of our house churches have signs and wonders.

Apostolic teaching is the teaching to GO.

There are 19 commands of Jesus to be found in the New Testament.  All lead to the fulfillment of the Great Commission.

Hospitality is the secret to precipitating a movement.

Sit and soak, and you stagnate.  Eat and chat and you will multiply.

Goat prayers are "meeee" prayers.  They focus on me and my needs, my family and my situation.

Use the newspaper headlines as your prayer list.

Theologians think, not from Genesis to Revelation but from genetics to evolution.

We need a problem-based theology.  In our house churches we solve problems--finances, sickness etc.