The Rationale for Church Planting and Evangelism.
a. Church Planting
Matt 28:19
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Making disciples, not conversion or proselytisation. Disciples are made
in the context of the church not in a vacuum.
b. Evangelism
Mark 16:15
And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to
every creature.
The world today is almost 13 billion strong. Only 10% are Great
Commission Christians. Another 20% are nominal. So there is a need to reach out
to the rest of the 70% (approx. 9 bil) by evangelism and church planting.
What are we waiting for?
The world is ready, the fields are ready and the people groups'
responsive.
a. The World is Ready
Matthew 9:37-38
Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful,
but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out
laborers into His harvest.”
b. People Groups are Responsive
The Macedonian Man
Acts 16:9-10
And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and
pleaded with him, saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” Now after he
had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that
the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them.
c. Hearts are Fertile
Parable of the Sower
Matthew 13:3,8,9
Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower
went out to sow. But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a
hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”
Let us reach out, reach up and reach
down.
Reach down to the disenfranchised, uneducated and the poor. Reach up to
the influential, rich and educated.
It is interesting to note that besides a general commissioning
commandment to reach out to all creation, strategies could be learned on how
reaching out could be done effectively.
a. Reach out for those whose hearts that are fertile
Parable of the Sower
Matt 13:8
But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some
a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 He who has ears to hear, let him
hear!”
b. Reach out to the ‘sons of peace' (SOP) in each area.
Luke 10:1-6
1 After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also,[a] and sent
them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was
about to go. 2 Then He said to them, “The harvest truly is great, but the
laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers
into His harvest. 3 Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves.
4 Carry neither money bag, knapsack, nor sandals; and greet no one along the
road. 5 But whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ 6 And
if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest on it; if
not, it will return to you.
c. Reach out to the ‘seekers of God' (SOG) like the Ethiopian
eunuch.
Acts 8:26-40
26 Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, “Arise and go
toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This
is desert. 27 So he arose and went. And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of
great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of
all her treasury, and had come to Jerusalem to worship, 28 was returning. And
sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet. 29 Then the Spirit
said to Philip, “Go near and overtake this chariot.” 30 So Philip ran to him,
and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, “Do you understand what you
are reading?” 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture,
preached Jesus to him. 36 Now as they went down the road, they came to some
water. And the eunuch said, “See, here is water. What hinders me from being
baptized?” 37 Then Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And
he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”
d. Reach out to the ‘God fearers' (GF) like Cornelius.
Acts 10:22-23
22 And they said, “Cornelius the centurion, a just man, one who fears
God and has a good reputation among all the nation of the Jews, was
divinely instructed by a holy angel to summon you to his house, and to hear
words from you.”
e. Reach out for to the ‘worshipper of God' (WG) like Lydia.
Acts 16:13-15
13 And on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside,
where prayer was customarily made; and we sat down and spoke to the women who
met there. 14 Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of
purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God. The Lord
opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. 15 And when she and her
household were baptized, she begged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be
faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” So she persuaded us.
f. Reaching Up and Down the Social Scale
However, reaching out may not panned out the way it should be due to
lack of boldness and vision. The are also many barriers to the work of an
evangelist and church planter. Due to each background, culture, respect of the
elders and protocol the evangelists will not reach up but will be reaching down
from his/her station of life. It is like the caste barrier.
I saw this 'reaching up and down' phenomena in Mongolia. The church I
was in was meeting for Easter in 2008 in Chinggis Khan Hotel, a top-rated hotel
in the capital city of Ulaan Bataar. I met a ‘sewer rat’ testifying of how he
was saved. He was once homeless and living in huge underground sewers under the
city. He is a back-up singer in the worship team. On the other side of the
spectrum was a very famous musician playing the keyboard for the same service.
This church is only 3 years old. And 80% of the congregation was saved the last
2 years.
I feel that this has happened to the Chinese underground church
(mostly peasant and uneducated), Vietnamese underground church (mostly peasant
and uneducated), Myanmar churches (pre-dominantly tribal and minority). There
are more examples. From my experience this is ever present in many countries in
Asia. I wish to see the church reaching up and reaching down in the efforts to
reach out.
Hypothetical example:
If District XYZ have 24
villages and each village has 100 families. Assuming only3 families are
receptive in each village. These are the SOP (or SOG, or GF or WOG).
Rather than focus on the
100 families in each village of District XYZ, look for the 72 SOPs in the 24
villages in the District XYZ. This is a job and evangelist can do easily, more
difficult in country where persecution exist. The 72 SOP can be trained in
stages as they are won and equipped and discipled by the evangelists to do his
work. These born again SOP can do the job better as they are 'locals',
accepted, speak their language and understand the local customs.
Win the 3 SOP in each of the 24 villages
