After centuries of sending missionaries across oceans and continents, why are there still unreached and unengaged people groups who have not heard the gospel. With all our technology and advanced scientific methods of language development, why are we still failing to evangelize the world? I am not saying that progress has not been made, but considering the rapid expansion of the gospel in the Early Church, something is wrong with our method.
I quote from Oswald J. Smith in his book, The Challenge of Missions, page 100, and ask that you seriously consider his words. “Then why not consider another [method]? A plan tried and tested by the Early Church. A plan fitted to every country the world over. A plan that succeeds wherever it is put into practice. A plan that completely solves the financial problem. A plan through which the Holy Spirit can operate, God’s plan. God’s way!” Let me just add that the Early Church was successful in expanding the gospel and they did it without budgets, formal education, and organizations. Could it be that these very requirements we have placed on world evangelism have been inhibitors to the very progress we are crying for? Go to our web page on Training Materials and discover a way to get back to the New Testament model. Please contact us with any questions.
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We have just received a special prayer request from a brother in Thailand working with the Pathein Karen Baptist saying there is a “still a need for devoted workers to serve the Lord. Hundreds of fields over there are ready for harvest and many Buddhist monks…are intruding the villages. We need evangelists who can train and lead others in harvesting the field before pluralism comes to take over the villages.” This people group affects Thailand, Burma (Myanmar) and India.
This reminds me of Jesus’ words; “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” (Luke 10:2). Do you feel the sense of urgency in both this brother’s plea and in the Lord’s words? How “earnest” are we in prayer regarding evangelizing the unreached? *India, Delhi: October 16 – 20 Terry and Tim will be following up with the Oriya leaders who were introduced to the Oriya GPHC by Sherman and Randy in August. These are 150 key leaders in Odisha representing over 20,000 churches.
*Thailand, Chiang Mai: October 26 – 30 Randy will be following up, training and introducing both the GPHC manual and the seminary course to Karen Baptist students. *Myanmar: October 26 – November 13 Tim will be training a group of trainees from all over Myanmar who will gather in Yangon for three weeks. We believe God is going to use this to impact Myanmar, preparing leaders to reach the unreached. PRAY! *India, Chandigarh: November 2 – 5 Randy will be introducing the new Punjabi GPHC to a group of 100 key leaders along the India/Pakistan border. Prayer Requests: God would grant favor and opportunity to teach clearly the Word of God: Through the power of the Holy Spirit in us and in those attending. Unity in the Spirit so that every mind & heart will grasp God’s truth and principles. Protection from harm and health as we travel and speak at these events. That these events will result in the ever-expanding work of God among the lost nations. That God will provide every need and give continual wisdom and discernment. We ask that you pray for our wives and families at home. “The twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb…and they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you…for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:8-9). www.NewFoundationsInternational.org As a follow-up to yesterday’s blog on Acts 14:19-23, there are a couple of additional points worth noting about the church in Lystra and Iconium. Not only were the new believers Gentiles, but the elders appointed in verse 23 were from their own number. The qualities and qualifications of the elders quickly emerged as Barnabas and Paul “strengthened the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith” (see also 1 Timothy 3:1-7).
Notice also that Barnabas and Paul did not stay behind as the “pastor or overseer” of this newly planted church. Leadership was truly “native or indigenous”. This is further evidence that the Apostles trusted God’s work in these new believers and the active work of the Holy Spirit in them. Do our present-day church planting efforts follow this model? Why have we lost trust in the biblical model and followed other ideas for church planting? A close look at Acts 14:19-23 reveals four strategic phases of ministry that we must connect together in expanding God’s work and planting churches. Note how they develop and build on each other in these verses.
· Verse 21 – they preached the gospel. · Verse 22 – they strengthened the souls of the disciples and encouraged them. · Verse 23 – they appointed elders in every church. · Verse 23 – they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed. As we follow the development of the Early Church, there is no question that Paul’s method led to complete confidence in the Lord about leaving a new church plant in His hands. This fostered rapid expansion and growth of the church. I am convinced that long time-lines for planting churches works against the spontaneous work of the Spirit and we place more confidence in our own strategies than in the Lord’s faithful Headship of His church. “Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.” (Hebrews 13:3). For the last three days we have been looking at the value of persecution and how God uses it to accomplish His purposes. Today I want us to take a moment to reflect on those who are suffering for Christ and the gospel as you read this. The above verse makes it clear that we should remember such “as though [we were] in prison [and suffering] with them”. Why should this be the way we think of those suffering for Christ? Because we are connected in the same body with them – the body of Christ.
Paul makes this point again when he says, “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.” (1 Corinthians 12:26). If we live disconnected lives from the rest of Christ’s body, we will miss the beauty of how God made the church to function together and represent Christ to the world. This is part of “loving one another” just as Christ has loved us (John 13:34). Such ‘connectedness’ sends the world a message about Christ, the author and founder of the church. How do you “remember” those suffering for Christ? Do you just say a quick prayer for them and pass on to the next item of interest? Or do we ask for the presence of Christ and power of the Holy Spirit to sustain them in the suffering so their witness powerfully impacts their persecutors? The ripple effect of Stephen’s death did not stop in Acts 8:1. There was much more that God was going to do through that event. “Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.” (Acts 11:19–21).Now the gospel has been carried into Gentile territory and the Lord is with these unnamed men from Cyprus and Cyrene to “preach the Lord Jesus” to Greek speaking non-Jews. These men were not told by the church in Jerusalem to do this. It was the Holy Spirit using the scattering of the church and these men to reach another “ethnos” (people group) that God already planned for the church to reach.
What a result! “A great number who believed turned to the Lord.” Humanly speaking, it is difficult to find value in suffering and persecution – until we look for God’s sovereign hand turning such scattering into victory and glory to His name. Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians has poignant meaning here: “having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints (those the gospel is yet to reach through you and me),” (Ephesians 1:18). One of the unique characteristics of the ‘true church’ is that resistance and persecution becomes the pollination for more rapid growth. An example is the church in China. When the government has closed or bulldozed large churches, the believers split off into multiple home groups which allows them to effectively evangelize neighbors and friends. THE WORK OF GOD IS UNSTOPPABLE! The key is not letting political maneuvers distract you from what God has planned and is doing.
After the public stoning of Stephen for speaking truth to his audience, God makes “persecution against the church” serve the mission of the church. Notice the account in Acts 8:1; “And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.” How interesting that God used the fallout of Stephen’s martyrdom to produce a scattering of the Jerusalem church so they would fulfill Jesus' words in chapter one. Judea and Samaria were the next places where He wanted them to be witnesses, but they had become stuck in a ‘Jerusalem comfort zone’. We need to let God’s Word shape our vision and thinking, otherwise we may find ourselves forced to rethink our strategy by painful circumstances. I am challenging your thinking now by God’s Word. Don’t wait until you are pushed out of your ‘comfort zone’ unwillingly before taking His Word seriously. It seems almost cruel to even infer that there is value to persecution. After being in a country where it is a daily occurrence to the point that lives are being snuffed out, it makes us recoil from such a statement. But before we dismiss this idea, allow me to point you back to the Early Church.
From Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit inaugurated the church through chapter 6, there were minor problems, apart from Peter and John being put in prison for a short time. During this period, the church experienced amazing growth. You might conclude that it was the first ‘mega-church’. But, had they forgotten the last words of Jesus in Acts 1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”” (Acts 1:8). Had their numerical growth eclipsed Jesus instructions to move out into other fields as witnesses? We will come back to this topic tomorrow, but I leave you with a quote from John Piper in his book, Let the Nations be Glad! (pages 94-95). “The lesson here is not just that God is sovereign and turns setbacks into triumphs. The lesson is also that comfort and ease and affluence and prosperity and safety and freedom often cause a tremendous inertia (lack of movement) in the church. The very things that we think would produce personnel, energy, and creative investment of time and money for the missionary cause instead the exact opposite: weakness, apathy, lethargy, self-centeredness, and preoccupation with security.” |
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