Church Planting Movements

When the Wheels Literally Came Off

Aug 12, 2022 | Stories

As Luke* drove back home after visiting a remote village high in the Altai Mountains of Mongolia, the front right wheel came off his vehicle.

While he was making repairs, the jack toppled, causing the vehicle to fall on him. Thankfully, a ministry partner was there and able to free him, but Luke suffered broken ribs, a broken back, and separated shoulder ligaments. He needed immediate medical attention, but the closest decent hospital was many days’ journey away.

After arduous hours of driving through the snow, they finally found a place to rest, at a location Luke had previously visited. He asked about Dache*, a man who used to work there, but people told Luke that Dache had moved away. So everyone was surprised when Dache arrived shortly after that!

“We started catching up right away,” Luke says. “I found out that we now live in the same city. Later, he asked, ‘Are you a Christian?’ When I answered that I am, he asked me to disciple him. I asked.‘If I disciple you, will you disciple others?’ He agreed that he would!”

After focusing for a time on physical recovery, Luke began discipling Dache. In their first few Bible studies, Dache discovered so much: that God created everything, that family was God’s creation, that suffering began with sin, and sin makes God sad. As a result, Dache has committed to following God’s word, loving his family, and sharing God’s story with others.

Dache is growing strong in faith and obedience. He and Luke currently meet three times each week for a Discovery Bible Study. He retells the Bible stories to his coworkers and relatives. Luke is hopeful that Dache will want to be baptized this summer, and prays Dache’s family will join him in baptism.

Out of Luke’s accident, God brought something wonderful! Pray that God will bring about a disciple-making movement in this region.

*pseudonym

Finally Home

Aug 1, 2022 | Stories

Yulia is an eighteen-year-old orphan from a town on the frontlines of fighting in Ukraine. About two months ago Ron received a message asking if he and his family would house a young woman who has been evacuated. Yulia had been in the airport ready to board a plane to a host family in the US. Someone had told her she could fly without her passport. It was in a government building when the women and children had been evacuated.

Ron and Kaylie’s family had just moved into a new house. They had very little furniture; and they were already hosting a family of five other refugees from Ukraine. But they had floor space and a mattress – and Yulia needed a home.

All Yulia wanted was to get to the family in America who wanted to adopt her, the family she already called ‘hers’. She needed to get vaccinated, someone to find her passport, and then a smooth trip to the States.

At any step, something would go wrong. Days turned into weeks and Yulia’s hopes rose and fell several times.

One day, a huge legal hurdle appeared. It was so big that Yulia might be forced to go back to Ukraine! Yulia declared she would never go back, and Ron and Kaylie quickly went to prayer. Ron prayed over the phone with Yulia and her host mom. He knew God would show them that He is real and that He cares about orphans.

Finally, after much prayer and waiting, Yulia boarded a plane bound for America! Ron and Kaylie received a picture of Yulia and her soon-to-be official mom with the caption “finally home.”

Ron and Kaylie – and YOU – have been used by God to alter the course of Yulia’s life. Your giving has helped get critical documents, food, clothing, and more for many refugees. We couldn’t do this without your generosity and prayers.

*pseudonyms

Passion for God, Compassion for People

Jul 29, 2022 | Longer Reads

by Shodankeh Johnson

Practical demonstrations of God’s love play an integral role in Church Planting Movements. They serve as entry points for the good news and as fruits of kingdom transformation in people’s lives and communities.

Access ministries are one of the pillars of New Harvest Ministries (NHM). Since New Harvest began, we have shown God’s compassion, made disciples, and planted churches in more than 4,000 communities in 12 countries. These compassionate engagements have been catalytic in shaping hundreds of thousands of new disciples, and more than ten thousand new Christian leaders.

Compassion is an essential Kingdom value found in the DNA of every Disciple Making Movement. We have dozens of different access ministries. Each one advances God’s kingdom in Africa. Most are not expensive, but with God’s help, they make a great impact. We partner with local people in every ministry. They often provide leadership, labor and materials— things present in the community that can help meet needs.

Heroic Compassion
New Harvest serves many countries from our headquarters in Sierra Leone. When Ebola struck in 2014, we could not stay in safe places disengaged from the disaster all around us. The crisis hit many Muslim villages especially hard, as their burial rites caused the epidemic to explode. Suddenly, because of Ebola, people could not even touch dying parents or children. In that context, several New Harvest leaders volunteered in the most hazardous places. Some survived, but several lost their lives serving others — mostly Muslims.

One Muslim chief was discouraged by people trying to escape his quarantined village. He was amazed at seeing Christians coming to serve. He privately prayed: “God, if you save me from this, if you save my family, I want us all to be like these people who show us love and bring us food.” The chief and his family did survive, and he kept his promise. Memorizing passages from the Bible, he began to share in the mosque where he had been an elder. A church was birthed in that village, and the chief continues going from village to village, sharing the good news of God’s love.

Discovering Felt Needs, Engaging Lostness
For NHM, access ministries begin with assessing the felt needs of a community. When we complete a needs assessment, the partnership with the community must develop mutual respect and trust. After a while, the relationship leads to story-telling and Discovery Bible Studies (DBS). Access ministries let them see the love of Christ and powerfully touch their hearts.

The On-Ramp to Kingdom Movements
Prayer is the foundation for everything we do. So once an assessment is done, our intercessors begin to pray for:

open doors and open hearts
the selection of project leaders
open hands by locals
a supernatural move of God
the leading of the Spirit
God to provide needed resources

All our prayer centers know the communities being served. They fast and pray for each of them. And God always opens the right door, at the right time, with the right provision.

Prayer is the most powerful and effective access ministry. We are convinced beyond any doubt that strategic fasting and prayer consistently leads to the defeat of dark powers. Sometimes praying for the sick opens wide a door for access. Through persistent prayer we have seen hostile communities opened, unlikely Persons of Peace identified, and whole families saved. All glory goes to the Father who hears and answers prayer.

Prayer undergirds everything we do. I tell people that the three most important elements of access ministries are: first—prayer, second prayer, and third prayer.

Every Project Makes Our King Famous
We do whatever it takes to get the gospel to people so Christ receives glory. Our work is never about us. It is about Him. We make Him known with a strategic focus on unreached people groups.

Agricultural Team
Our first access ministry was agriculture. In places where farming is critical, agriculture becomes a great gateway to serve people. Most farming is subsistence farming, mainly for family consumption. Often no seed is saved for the next planting. This led us to develop seed banks for farmers.

We trained nine agriculturists who are also trained church planters. These agriculturists/disciple makers educate the farmers. Their training and mentoring led to relationships that resulted in DBS groups, baptisms and eventually churches. Today many farmers have become followers of Christ.

Education Team
When education is an obvious need, our intercessors take this need to God in prayer. While we are praying, we engage the community to discover what resources they have. We find out what they can provide to meet their own need. Often the community will supply land, a community building, or construction materials to build a temporary structure.

We usually encourage the community to pay part of the teacher’s salary. The teacher is fully certified, and he or she is also a veteran disciple maker or church planter. Schools start with a few benches, pencils or pens, a box of chalk, and a chalkboard. The school may start under a tree, in a community center, or in an old house. We start slowly and grow the school academically and spiritually.

When a Person of Peace opens his or her home, it becomes the launching pad for DBS meetings and later a church. We have launched over 100 primary schools, most of which are now owned by the community.

From this simple program, God has also raised up 12 secondary schools, two trade technical schools, and Every Nation College. This college has an accredited School of Business and School of Theology. Contrary to what some might expect, Disciple Making Movements also need strong seminaries.

Medical, Dental, Hygiene
When we identify a health need, we send in teams of well-qualified medical practitioners with medicines and equipment. All our team members are strong disciple makers and skilled in facilitating the DBS process. Many are skilled church planters as well. While the team treats patients, they also look for a Person of Peace. If they don’t discover one on their first visit, they make a second visit. Once they discover a Person of Peace, he or she serves as the bridge and future host for the DBS. If they don’t find a Person of Peace, the team will go to a different community, while still praying for an open door into the previous one.

Ten church planters have been well trained, equipped as dentists. They are accredited by health authorities to do mobile dental extractions and fillings. One of them also doubles as an optometrist. He checks eyesight and dispenses suitable glasses. He does this at cost, to keep the process going and to avoid dependency. Other health team members provide training on hygiene, breast feeding, nutrition, child vaccines, and prenatal care for pregnant women.

A Most Unusual Access Ministry
We do all of this in a Christ-like manner, seeking to make God’s kingdom visible. God moves and makes His presence known. This often starts with one family or an unlikely community leader.

One large community in southern Sierra Leone had been very difficult for us to enter. They were extremely hostile toward Christians. Christians found it difficult even to enter that place. So we prayed. But time passed, and none of our strategies worked.

Then something happened! Young men were becoming ill and dying in that town. It was found that their infections were related to the fact that the village never circumcised their boys. As I prayed, the Lord convicted me that this was finally our open door to serve this town.

We gathered a volunteer medical team and supplies and went to the community. We asked if they would let us help them. The town leaders agreed. The first day, they circumcised more than 300 young men.

In the following days, as the men recovered, we had the opportunity to begin Discovery Bible Groups. We saw great response, and soon Kingdom multiplication began happening with churches being planted! Within a few years, a place where Christians could not enter was transformed into a place where God’s glory shone brightly. The compassion of God’s people, the power of much prayer, and the transforming Word of God changed everything.

Planting Churches
About 90% of our attempted access ministries have led to a church. Very often one engagement results in several churches planted. As we revisit communities we hear many testimonies of individual, family, and community transformations. Compassion for people, making God famous

This article was used with permission and first published in Mission Frontiers.

About the Author: Shodankeh Johnson is the team leader of New Harvest Global Ministries, based in Sierra Leone, West Africa. He is an integral part of New Generations involved in training, coaching, mentoring and prayer mobilization in different places in Africa and worldwide. He has been an active DMM practitioner for more than 15 years. He is a key leader in the 24:14 coalition in African and globally.

The Great Commission: Not a Job for Experts Only

Jul 29, 2022 | Stories

“How are you doing at making disciples? Are you teaching them to obey what Jesus commanded?”

These questions were asked of Phillip’s group as they participated in a Phase One Disciple-making movement training, and they really challenged him.

“If I answer truthfully, I don’t know how I am doing at making disciples. I work at a Christian missions organization. I volunteer at my church. I spend time with my Christian friends. These are all good things, but they don’t leave much room for connecting with lost people.”

Far too often we place the responsibility for obeying the Great Commission on professionals. We believe it is for them to do. We illustrate this belief when we say things like: “I am just not gifted in evangelism.” Or, “I don’t know enough about the Bible.” Or, “I don’t want to offend anyone.” All excuses are just excuses.

Phillip says, “I am thankful for the Phase One training, because it shows me how to be open about my faith. If the task remaining was left only to Christian ‘professionals,’ Christianity would soon fade away.”

Beyond’s Phase One program helps everyday, ordinary Christians begin living out their faith openly and effectively. Our goal is to equip believers to be confident and competent in making disciples wherever they are. That way, if the Lord calls them to other nations, they will have already learned biblical principles of making multiplying disciples in their own culture. Thus they will be all the more ready to learn how to make disciples in the new cross-cultural setting where they will serve.

Learn More about Phase 1 Training

He Taught a Communist Rebel to Study the Bible

Jul 22, 2022 | Stories

Two years ago, Ethan and Nicole* led an introductory disciple-making training in the Philippines with 14 seminary-trained pastors. Honestly, they had doubts about the outcome. Would traditional, denominational pastors be willing to go outside the walls of their church, outside the walls of their own traditions, in order to obey Jesus’ command to “go” (not invite)?

Sure enough, months later, they’d barely heard a word from any of the participants. Then, nearly a year after the training, Jacob, one of the pastors, contacted Ethan. “I am mentoring a group of young pastors in Manila,” he wrote. ”Would you and Nicole spend a few days with us, doing what you did last year?”

After praying together, they decided Ethan would hold the training with Alex, a BEYOND colleague who lives in the Philippines. After the training, Alex could coach those wanting to apply what they’d studied.

Since then, Ethan has occasionally wondered if anyone was applying the training and, if so, how it was going. In May, he received an encouraging email from Jacob.

“Three months ago, “Pastor G” taught a former Communist rebel how to study the Bible in his home with his family. He has been doing this for several weeks. Last week, the rebel’s son became severely sick, to the point of death. The father remembered the story of the woman who touched Jesus and the story of Jairus’ daughter. At his son’s death bed, he prayed, “Lord, we surrender our son to you if this (his death) is your will, but can you please heal my son as you have done for this woman and for Jairus’ daughter?

His son immediately sat up and asked for water!

Thank you for this life-changing experience (the training and coaching). Today, our group has 45 non-Christian families studying the Bible in their homes.

Alex adds that since March, when the COVID-19 lockdown started, Pastor G’s church has transformed into eleven house churches, and it is still growing! They have many more people involved in these house churches than they had in their “building” church before the lockdown.

In Matthew 16:18, Jesus said, “I will build my church, and the forces of Hades will not overpower it.” Jacob and these pastors are discovering the joy and fruitfulness of simple obedience to Jesus. The Lord is building his church among the nations (the ethnic groups) of the earth! “All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him” (Ps. 22:27). Hallelujah!

*pseudonym

« Older Entries

Next Entries »