How Will We Plant Organic Churches in Asia and North Africa?
How is Christ Church planting 30 new organic churches in Asia and North Africa? Discover the strategy behind the mission, the role of every believer, and how discipleship fuels church multiplication even in areas where persecution is high.
One of our goals as a church family reads that we will labor to plant 30 new organic churches, with a focus on North Africa and Asia. [READ MORE: Regarding Our New Goals as a Faith Family]
A common and healthy question for all of us is, “How are we going to do this?”
In responding to this question, I will use Asia as an example.
Last fall, the Christ Methodist family sent a team into Asia to make disciples and plant new organic churches. We are sending another team to Asia later this fall. The entire church family plays an important part in the mission, with some serving by going, others serving by praying, and others serving by resourcing the mission. Everybody in the church family plays a part. For a deeper understanding of how everyone’s role is essential to the mission of Jesus for the whole world, I encourage you to read the book Loving the Church, Blessing the Nations. (The Church Council and the entire Christ Church staff spent the last year reading, discussing, learning from, and reflecting on this book.)
Allow me to walk through the sequential steps in how we plant organic churches:
1) We Train.
Before we send a team into Asia, we train them in how to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how to disciple first-generation believers. While we train the team before going into Asia, there is also a team of Christian leaders in Asia being trained. The two teams from both countries will link arms when our team arrives in the host nation.
2) We Identify “Persons of Peace.”
A Person of Peace (POP) is an individual who is open and receptive to the gospel message, willing to listen to it, and potentially introduce it to their social network among neighbors, coworkers, or friends. Persons of Peace are identified by the national leaders within the country before our team arrives. To understand more about the biblical rootedness of identifying a POP related to the strategy of Jesus in advancing God’s Kingdom, read Luke 10:1-11. Our team will spend much of their week in the homes of POP, sharing the Gospel with persons who have been invited into the host home of the POP, and in intentional discipleship of new believers.
3) The Discipleship of New Believers.
The Christ Methodist team will share the Gospel through a methodology called Creation to Christ. This methodology is simple and suited for many oral-based, Hindu background cultures where illiteracy is high. As God honors His Gospel and people are drawn to Christ through the grace of the Holy Spirit, the team will immediately begin discipleship. Discipleship begins with the Discovery Bible Study methods, which are now regularly utilized within the Christ Methodist family. As new persons arrive in the home of the POP throughout the week, they share the Gospel again. Nevertheless, the team will spend more time in discipleship than sharing the Gospel throughout the week.
4) As New Believers are Established through Discipleship, a New Organic Church is Birthed.
As the new believers are being discipled throughout the week, indigenous pastors are assigned to the new organic churches to oversee the continuation of discipleship among the new believers. As they continue to grow in their faith and mature, new organic churches become established.
5) Organic Churches Propagate.
Deeply embedded in both the training and the Scriptures are instructions to continue sharing the Gospel with friends, neighbors, and coworkers. The new believers take up the mantle of not only growing in Christ through discipleship that takes place in the home of the POP, but also of continuing to reach out to those around them who do not know Christ. This results in Kingdom momentum and the multiplication of additional organic churches meeting in homes.
Both North Africa and Asia are regions of the world where the persecution of Christians is severe. The organic church model also enables the Kingdom of God to continue advancing in regions of the world where building formal church buildings is either prohibited or severely restricted.
