222 Foundation

The Time Has Come to Restart the Church - Without Her Accumulated Problems!

2009-11-09T09:06:00.000-08:00

Meet the New Christianity,

A high-powered blend of the best from many traditions

minus the less Biblical and divisive customs of our medieval past.

Piggybacking on the exploding social networks of the Internet,

it will strive to bring together a billion ordinary believers

plus a billion of their friends into a highly upgraded style

of relational, high-commitment, fellowship life . . . all within two years.

You could call this, Facebook meets the house church.

Riding on the power of Skype and other visual, face-to-face tools, the New Christianity will aim to do the formerly impossible: Draw in and disciple the whole world via Internet friendships . . . even at a distance of 12,000 miles.

Indeed, its greatest challenge Internet anonymity may turn out to be its greatest strength. Its leaderless structure is modeled after such decentralized, egalitarian networks as Wikipedia, Craigslist, Amazon, e-Bay, YouTube, and Alcoholics Anonymous. So it lets people be who they are and everything they can be. They'll be unimpeded by hierarchies and institutional speed bumps like programs, staff, buildings, mortgages, and official pastors. (In point of fact, pastors will be very welcome and respected but never as pastors!)

Obedience Trumps Knowledge

The hallmark of the Western church is its intellectual capital, not its humble obedience and self-sacrificial love.

The New Christianity will try to change this. One of its main concepts is, Jesus didn't say, Teach them what I taught you, but Teach them to obey what I commanded you.

So yes, we are focused on drawing two billion people to Christianity, but a whole different kind of Christianity: one that has love and teeth!

Reboot, Defrag, Set Free

Typical pew-bound believers can accomplish a hundred times more for Christ and the Kingdom when they are set free from being supervised to death. That is key.

This principle springs from one of the central verses of the Bible, where God, in a moment of joy and excitement in 1447 b.c., just two days before giving the Ten Commandments, says to Israel AYou shall be my prized possession, dearer to me than all other peoples! For all the earth is mine, and you shall be for me a kingdom of priests! (Exodus 19:6)

But alas, He never got that great host of priests . . . and the rest of the Bible is a saga of the Lonely Creator trying to develop that army of people who would be His intimate friends.

Whatever hope God had for that got put on ice 407 years later when Israel told Samuel flat out: No! We want a king over us, that we may be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and march in front of us and fight our battles. (I Samuel 8:19-20)

Then much later, before the ink was dry on the New Testament, a similar mega-problem popped up (which Jesus said He hated), a practice called Nicolaitanism. The word comes from the Greek nikos (to conquer or control) and laos (people). In brief, it meant Give us a priest.

In the New Christianity we bear in mind the torn veil in the temple, and everyone is a priest, living as close to the fiery presence of the Lord as he can stand!

Be a hub, too!

As if being a priest and friend of God were not enough, members of the New Christianity are also qualified to invite their Internet friends to join. Thus they become Ahubs which you can think of as rookie-level apostles.

But this is not the old-fashioned, come-to-meetin' kind of invitation like: Come to our church, hear our pastor, raise your hand, go forward, get baptized, take our new members' class . . . and then you can be our friend. (This totally turns off the postmoderns, who want the friendship part first and working out the details later.)

Instead, the invitation may sound like this:

How would you like to have a team of fifteen sharp people who are committed to helping you in every way possible, a team that would stand by you, no matter what, in any kind of trouble? They would all pledge to be there for you at the big turning points of life and help you to reach your highest possible levels of success, solve your toughest personal problems, and become the kind of person everyone admires. If you were in trouble, you could call on them day or night, and they wouldn't rest until you were OK. In return, all they would expect is the same sort of loyalty from you. Would you like to have that kind of group around you?

The offer is so irresistible, many people will laugh and say, Well, who wouldn't?

Over time, we shall develop several other such invitations.

How will this type of invitation play out on Facebook?

The average member of Facebook has a roster of friends that grows almost automatically. The average number, we hear, is about 33 friends.

They can forward our messages to each of them with the click of a computer or cell phone.

We will supply New Christianity members with a variety of sample invitations and follow-up explanations as desired free of charge, mostly via an autoresponder computer.

All a member will need to do is forward them to their e-friends, which can be done with little more than a single click.

As more friends join, excitement will build, and there will be many phone calls and e-mails taking place. In fact, if it weren't for the individual contact and chat, the network could multiply about six times every two days!

So more realistically, our average member will likely pull in: two friends in the first week, then one more friend in each of the next three weeks. That means a growth rate of six times in each month.

But after that initial rush of activity, I am not counting on anything further. Obviously, the more excited members may continue to bring in a lot more, both online and offline, but if so, it will become daunting to calculate. The theoretical rate would continue at six times a month.

For those of us who are the pioneer, first-level hubs, it could be especially daunting to keep track of the growth because I expect to launch this, in God's timing, with about 300 lists. Each one will probably contain an average of 500 people. (Most lists will have only 50 to 100 names, but a few organizational lists will have 5,000 to 10,000.)

Riding the Whirlwind

If these numbers seem unlikely, let's put them into perspective.

The horse we're riding is Facebook along with a few others to be explored. (If you have any specific suggestions, please let us know.)

As of July, 2009, Facebook had 250 million members. Just 75 days later, it had 300 million.

That's a monthly growth rate of 7.5%. Pretty fast, but not the 600% I'm estimating.

Why the difference?

Because we have the most exciting content (message) in the world! The good news of a fresh, cleaned up gospel loaded with life-changing benefits compares starkly with the typical Facebook/MySpace/Twitter post: Ahi, i'm going down to the corner for a beer. Or, AHey, wassup?

That is so banal it's repulsive! In complete contrast, we have the heart-warming appeal you just saw, offering 15 loyal friends. Or a New Christianity hub might put out a simpler but intriguing message: AYo, Larry. We've fixed the church! It's the New Christianity, and it has all the things you've always loved about the church . . . and none of the things you hated! We'll be holding membership open for another week. If you're interested, bounce back with YES, tell me more!

The Quid Pro Quo

1. Free books. To ensure that our one-to-one e-mails stay at the highest possible level, we will offer members a maximum of two free e-books or articles per calendar month.

We will search for the absolute best in spiritual growth and discipleship works every month and other topics if the Lord so leads, such as house-church-planting helps. The emphasis in our meetings and constant global conversations (e-mail and Skype) will thus be on the positive and cutting-edge events in our lives.

The most common cause of failure of house churches is failing to bring something to feed the flock. Our ideal here is to have so much exciting content that it'll be hard to get a word in edgewise in our meetings.

2. Guidance without governance. As with Wikipedia and e-Bay, accountability and leadership will normally emerge and evolve on their own. Self-policing will develop as people learn to be aware of limits and the need for everyone to act and grow. Leadership is vital, but top-down hierarchy is deadly. What we need is a well-developed lowerarchy consisting of servant leaders.

Consider how different things would have been in Ezekiel's day if God could have found even one man to stand in the gap and prevent the captivity by saying, No, Lord! Don't let this happen to your people!

Iron will sharpen iron both online and offline. This is no longer a curiosity; today, it's the most common evidence of any healthy, leaderless network.

Hiding your faults will come to be seen as very poor form. In fact, that will soon be recognized as cheating yourself of the main benefit of community life supportive, caring correction! Why turn your back on dozens of friends who can make you stronger and wiser than any seminary?

So the quid pro quo is, you give loyalty, you get support.

3. Make disciples or else! It's fun to watch Victor making a big group of church planters memorize the Great Commission. The hard part is figuring out what it is. The other hard part is getting it into their heads! But it's worth the effort because they eventually see that it's all about letting the Lord Jesus build the church while we make the disciples!

So in our New Christianity network, we will probably settle upon some sort of computer program that will quietly drop you if you don't bring in one new member a month. (You could get back in later, of course!)

I'm sure that will take some adjustment in practice. The members may decide that this requirement may be met by having a new member join anywhere in your entire downline group.

But please notice that this is not the usual project that tolerates lukewarmness and dead wood and a slow death.

4. Stewardship may be part of the package of benefits.

The Western church is in danger of raising a whole generation of stingy disciples, people who seldom give much to any Kingdom enterprise. That's just not the spirit of Christ, who gave everything he had.

I'm not sure how this will play out in reality, but we'll be toying with the idea of an honor system where members will affirm each month that they've given something to some cause that is not themselves.

5. The virtual will become the real.

Online groups will be faster to launch than face-to-face house churches, but house churches allow for much closer ties and friendships. Experience and time will tell us how fast the Spirit wants us to transpose from virtual contacts and start building real home groups.

White Unto Harvest

A survey of 10,000 Brits found that they have an average of 33 friends on the Internet, but only a fifth of them are close friends.

But ironically, they spend more time with their social friends than their close friends. In fact, women tend to see their social friends every three or four days, but see their close friends only six times a year!

Two-thirds of these Brits call this attrition of friends one of their biggest regrets in life.

Did you hear that? Most folks are majorly sad because life doesn't give them any solid ways and common ground to maintain their ties with their most precious friends. So they just drift away into a morass of convenient contacts that they bump into all the time.

Those friends are just sitting there, white unto harvest, all neatly arranged in strings on computers or cell phones, ready to hear anything that can liven up their meaningless conversations and bring life into their dying friendships.

Missions will never be the same. No passports, no visas, no shots, no language training school. If you know even one bilingual online guy in the bush or in the mountains, you can invite him into your circle, and he can take the easy-to-spread message in his native language. And bingo, the Kingdom has broken into another people group!

None of our forefathers ever had a tool like this.

Luther Never Had It So Good

Is this cheating? Is it short-circuiting a long, painful process that God wants to be slow and difficult so our apostles can have many years of experience before we toss them out into the world?

Granted, there's a lot to be said for years of hands-on experience.

But there's also something to be said for the 13-year-old Indian girl who attended one of Victor's seminars for five days . . . and went home and led 56 people to the Lord and baptized them all in one month! Would you have stopped her for the sake of doing all things decently and in order?

Yes, it would be nice to have the names and addresses of all 300,000 of those that took a ritual bath on Pentecost Day, but I'll take all of those new brothers and sisters I can get!

Likewise, let us not be rigid or proud of our standard ways as we consider the four or five billion people who have Internet access. Martin Luther himself had only a hammer and a big sheet of paper. But Caxton and Gutenberg had preceded him, and enterprising printers took his brave message everywhere without paying him a cent in royalties!

By grabbing the ready-made mantle of the Internet, we can perhaps follow in Luther's footsteps.

It's a Fresh Start

We've walked away from the basic malpractice or Aheresy that Jesus said he hated, the problem that had crippled Israel and the church for 3,120 years. Freed from this burden, we are able to enjoy the presence of Christ in our gatherings as a band of priests.

By supplanting the clergy, we are blowing the trumpet like Nehemiah and calling the entire church to build the Kingdom borders together.

The burden is shifting from the 1% to the 99%. The mantle is shifting from overworked, burned-out professional church pastors to Kingdom apostles, prophets, church planters, elders, and serious intercessors. And this has been confirmed in visitations by angels and by the Lord Jesus himself.

God has certainly not abandoned the institutional phase of his ekklesia, but the Spirit's focus is now on the house churches and similar groups. The angels are waiting on us.

Christ himself will do this new but old work. His Kingdom is the rock that was cut out of the mountain, but not by human hands. His is the altar that was not to be touched by human tools. And he will build his church . . . if we just bring him the building blocks, the billions of would-be disciples whose hearts are crying out for the presence of Him for whom they were made.

As two poets recently said,

So if this is not a place where my questions can be asked,

then where shall I go to seek?

And if this is not a place where my heart cry can be heard,

then where shall I go to speak?...

And if this is not a place where tears are understood,

then where shall I go to cry?

And if this is not a place where my spirit can take wing,

tell me, where shall I go to fly?

14:45

Fifty Days of Harvest 2010 by Victor Choudrie

2009-11-05T20:39:00.000-08:00

Fifty Days of Harvest 2010

From the Passover 30th March to 19th May Pentecost

Pray for a million souls

Sequential Steps for Precipitating a Mass Movement:

1. Repent for the remission of sins. Acts 2:38,39; 17:30; Luke 24:47

2. Be baptized and become a baptizer. Matthew 28:19

3. Receive the empowerment of the Holy Spirit for you and your household. Acts 2:39; 1:8

4. Remember in the New Testament, repentance, baptism and empowerment happened simultaneously without delay. Baptism in not earned, it is a free gift of God.

5. Apostolic teaching (Global Mission: Go and make disciples of all nations). Acts 2:42

6. Fellowship. Church is a fellowship of Royal priests. Hebrew 10:25;
7. Breaking bread (Love feast). Luke 10:5-8; Acts 20:7; Revelation 3:20

8. Demolish strongholds through spiritual warfare, prayer walking and intercessory prayers for the nations. 1John 3:8; Matthew 12:29; 16:19; 2Timothy 2:8; 1 Timothy 2:1-4

9. Unity “of one accord” will bring fear of the Lord on the people Acts 2:43

10. Preach through signs, wonders and miracles. Luke 10:9; Acts 2:22; Romans 15:19

11. Sharing of material blessing with the needy. Acts 2:44,45; 4:34-37; John 13:34,35

12. Going out two by two to look for the lost sheep. Acts 2:46; Luke 10:1,2

13. Finding “persons of peace”; breaking bread and sharing the whole counsel of God from house to house. Luke 10:5-9; Acts 2:46; 20:27

14. And the Lord adding new believers to the church daily. Acts 2:47; Hebrew 3:13

15. Multiply disciples who make fruitful disciples by teaching foundational teachings. Acts 6:1; John15:8,16; Hebrew 6:1-3,7

16. Entry of priests (big fish) will make the growth exponential. Acts 6:7; John 21:11

17. Cultural contextualization will result in qualitative and quantitative growth and rapid multiplication. Acts 16:1-5; 17:23,28; 18:18

18. Appoint elders with integrity, good managers of households, given to hospitality and can teach doctrine with competency to refute those of other faiths who contradict. Titus 1:5-9; Acts 14:23

19. Teach them proper use of instruments of dynamic worship (Genesis 22:5-7): A. Scripture, the double edged sword including their scriptures as God has not left Himself without evidence among them (Acts 14:16,17; 15:14); B. The Fire which is the power of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 3:11) and C. The Lost sheep as a living sacrifice (John 10:16; Romans 15:16; 2Peter 2:5,6).

20. Mentor, mobilize and monitor multiple generations of disciples for a mass movement.
2Timothy 2:2; Acts 14:26,27

Apostolic Gardens Declaring 2010-2020 The Decade of Abundant Harvest by Victor Choudhrie

2009-11-05T19:15:00.000-08:00

Phase 1. Consisted of world evangelization: “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world…” Matthew 24:14

Phase 2. Consists of discipling the nations and Saturation Church Planting i.e. fulfilling the Great Commission.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,) teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

Matthew 28:19,20

So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily.

Acts 16:5

Phase 3. The next phase will consist of healing/greening of the earth.

” If my people, who are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” (2Chronicles 7:14)

Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the LORD will do great things. Joel 2:21-26

1. The history of the earth begins in a garden and ends in a garden with a river flowing from the Throne with fruit bearing trees. Revelation 22:1-3

2. Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it and have dominion over it, is not just a biological command but to transform the wilderness into Garden of Eden.

And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth." Gen 1:28

The instruction He gave to achieve this was, “If my people humble themselves, pray, seek my face, repent, then I will heal (restore) this land.” 2 Chron. 7:14; Isaiah 32:9-15

3. The indicators of the kingdom through the pouring out of the Spirit are ; (Isaiah 32:9-18):

a. Wilderness will become fruitful (Abundance)

b. Justice will be available to all

a. Righteousness (right relationships 1. Vertically with God the Father, 2. Horizontally with the neighbors and 3. Downward with the creation, as it was in the Garden)

And he answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself." Luke `10:27

For the whole creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. Romans 8:19

C. Peace and security Isaiah 32:15-18

When the Spirit is poured out on us:

The wilderness will become fertile, and fields will produce rich crops.

Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field.

And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever.

My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.

4. Millions of people entering the kingdom are mired in poverty, hunger, lack of justice, bad relationships, with no peace and security. They are looking to God’s people who will wipe their tears.

5. The business of the church is to glorify God by bearing much fruit and providing abundant life, justice, peace and security and restore relationships.

Herein is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit; and so shall you be my disciples. John 15:8

I am come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly... John 10:10

For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron: I will also make your officers peace, and your taskmasters righteousness.

Violence shall no more be heard in your land, desolation nor destruction within your borders; but you shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise. Isaiah 60:17,18

6. God is not looking forward to the earth getting filled with brick and mortar church buildings but “with the knowledge of His glory as the waters cover the sea” and the earth restored as the Garden of Eden. Habakkuk 2:14

For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody. Isaiah 51:3

Everyone will talk about how this land, which was once a wilderness, has become like the Garden of Eden, and how the cities which were torn down, desolate and left in ruins, are now inhabited and fortified. Ezekiel 36:35

7. Biblical “Restoration” is more than return to the original condition. Just like Job was restored double of what he had. Job 42:10-12

Yeshua has promised hundredfold restoration on our investment. Mark 10:29,30

We need to convert our colorless faith into Green faith.

The simplest way to do is to convert all your house churches into multiplying organic churches with organic kitchen gardens and restore relationship with our difficult neighbors by sending fresh fruits and vegetables wrapped up in the gospel.

Shalom,

vchoudhrie@gmail.com

Britain/Ministry Report by Peter J. Farmer

2009-11-04T17:53:00.000-08:00

1. Our Current Vision

‘Mission Britain’- (www.missionbritain.wordpress.com) Our Vision is to see Church Planting Movements in each of the 12 EU Regions of Britain.

2. Our Major Success

‘Intermission’: Starting in 2009, I (Peter Farmer) have been travelling to 1 region per month for a period of between 7-12 days. This has involved prayer walking, strategic research and meeting and staying with those who have started a simple church in their home, work or leisure.

I have managed to visit around 3-4 churches in each region. Most simple churches I have visited are about 1-2 years old.

The Simple Church UK site’s directory lists names of 70 people involved in simple/house church (although the data needs updating)

Some of these names represent individual simple churches whilst others are small networks. There are many more unregistered simple churches (estimates are approx 40,000 people involved in house/simple churches in the UK)

Our major success this year has been in helping to facilitate networking between otherwise isolated simple churches.

Our City Mission Team has also seen success this year in finding people of peace in our home city of Nottingham and are in the process of coaching and forming evangelistic bible studies/outreach groups in the 9 wards of the city with the hope if these becoming simple churches

3. Our Greatest Challenge

Britain’s Challenge (the stats below are from ‘Religious Trends’ a statistical analysis of religious practice in Britain):

· 10% of the UK adult population go to church at least weekly.

· 15% attend church at least monthly.

· 26% attend church at least yearly.

· 59% never or practically never go to church (Tearfund 07)

Between 1998 and 2005, half a million people stopped going to church on Sunday
Daily Telegraph's religious affairs correspondent, Jonathan Petre, says "While 1,000 new people are joining a church each week, 2,500 are leaving"
6.3% of the population go to church on an average Sunday, compared to 7.5% in 1998
29% of churchgoers are 65 or over, compared with 16% of the population
Sunday churchgoing is declining at 2.3% per year, slightly slower than the 1990s rate of 2.7% per year
Nearly all Church 'growth' is due to immigrants. A massive influx of Polish workers have filled some churches
"The Roman Catholics have recorded the largest drop [...], it has halved over the past sixteen years"
The drop in the 20-29 age group was 29% (English Church Census 2004)
‘Church attendance in Britain is declining so fast that the number of regular churchgoers will be fewer than those attending mosques within a generation, research published today suggests.
The fall - from the four million people who attend church at least once a month today - means that the Church of England, Catholicism and other denominations will become financially unviable. A lack of funds from the collection plate to support the Christian infrastructure, including church upkeep and ministers’ pay and pensions, will force church closures as ageing congregations die.
In contrast, the number of actively religious Muslims will have increased from about one million today to 1.96 million in 2035.
According to Religious Trends, a comprehensive statistical analysis of religious practice in Britain, published by Christian Research, even Hindus will come close to outnumbering churchgoers within a generation. The forecast to 2050 shows churchgoing in Britain declining to 899,000 while the active Hindu population, now at nearly 400,000, will have more than doubled to 855,000. By 2050 there will be 2,660,000 active Muslims in Britain - nearly three times the number of Sunday churchgoers.
The crisis is particularly acute for Methodists and Presbyterians, as many worshippers are aged over 65. The report predicts that these churches might well have merged with others by 2030. “The primary cause of the decrease in attendance is that people are simply dying off,” the report says.
By 2050 there will be just 3,600 churchgoing Methodists left in Britain, Christian Research predicts. Anglicans will be down to 87,800, Catholics to 101,700, Presbyterians to 4,400, Baptists to 123,000 and independents to 168,000.

Simple Church Challenges:

Many of the simple churches I have visited throughout the UK are very small (between 4-6 people), are made up of Christians who have left traditional/inherited churches (mostly new charismatic churches like Vineyard and Newfrontiers) and are very inward focused. Most groups are also amongst the white middle class.

Churches need to become outward focused, there’s need for greater networking across simple churches, the need for more regional training and home-grown resources and tools, strategic targeting of unreached people groups and greater understanding of multiplication and movement dynamics

Our greatest challenge in the UK is to see churches birthed amongst the harvest, reaching out to our surrounding communities and seeing multiplication occur at every level

4. Our Main Strategies

12 Apostles/Regional Strategy Co-ordinators

We are praying that God will network us with those who feel called to see CPM’s in their region. Through travelling this year we have possibly met about 6 people in this respect. We are currently building relationships and exploring ways of encouraging one another

72 Apostolic/Evangelists Circuiting Counties or Cities

We are also praying for those who have a call to preach and plant churches across a county or city to partner with us in the work (Mission Britain)

City Mission Pioneers

In 2010 we will be training others to go out in 2’s as pioneer prophets, preachers and planters

Newforms (www.newforms.ning.com)

We hosted Newforms UK Gathering June 09, a weekend conference with friends and co-workers involved in simple/house/missional church. We are aiming to host a UK gathering each year

We have set up a Newforms Social Networking site that facilitates communication

We have just piloted regional training- Newforms Episode 1: Planting Simple Churches that Multiply and hope to launch Newforms Episode 2: Reproducing Disciples, Leaders, Churches, Tribes and Movements in March 2010

Antioch Gathering 2009

2009-11-04T17:42:00.000-08:00

For a week, from 10th to 17th October, 2009, 72 Christian leaders from around the world gathered in Seleucia, the

ancient sea port of the biblical Antioch (Acts 13:4) and the historic stepping stone of Paul’s apostolic missions. The

purpose was to seek fresh answers and a new awareness from God about the status and future of the remaining task Jesus has left his followers with, to disciple all the nations of the world. This summary report attempts to condense some of the themes we found ourselves facing,

either hearing from God, or as we heard from each other (or both). Rather than focussing on strategy issues (facts, numbers, methods) many of us felt God wanted to call together a token group of people in order to share what is on his heart at this decisive hour in the history of Missions. In order not to drown out God’s voice by our own strong opinions and preconceived convictions, we knew that the main speaker had to be God himself. This called for a rather unusual conference format. Instead of the classical line-up of speakers on current subjects and projects we needed to make space for God to have his voice heard, and attempt to facilitate a process of corporately seeking God’s face for whatever is on his heart right now. Rather than crying out to God: “Please do something for us!”, we needed to hear what we can do for him. This

required a new and tough discipline from all of us. It would be so easy to come to God simply presenting our ideas,

plans and agendas; we knew that we had to go beyond that and learn to do what he is blessing, not have him bless

what we are doing. The challenge was in grasping his ways, not only his works, and learn to align our hearts,

motives and ultimately our agendas with God – and with each other. The Antioch Gathering had three distinctive

parts: first, coming corporatedly before God and learn to listen where he thinks we are on his map; a trip to Tarsus,

the place of “apostolic death” in the life of Paul; and finally a prophetic outlook into the future of the remaining

apostolic task.

I. What did many of us sense God speak to us:

Urgency. Many sensed a great urgency, a “one minute to twelve” situation that defines the situation we are all in.

Celebrate and repent. Throughout Missions history, we have seen amazing advances and great breakthroughs

which need to be celebrated. However, we also saw the deterioration of much of Missions into religious or even

cultural colonialism, organized good deeds and the expansion of narrow-minded denominationalism and the

subsequent fragmentation of the Church. This has created “Missions made by man”, a form of pseudo-Christian,

religious expansionism, fragmented beyond recognition, where the proverbial left hand does not know any longer

what the right hand is doing. The result is duplication, paralleling of programmes, the wasting of scarce finances,

time and human resources. More dramatically, Missions made by man dared to take the mandate for Missions away

from the Holy Spirit and declared a new mediator of Missions: the 40.000+ church and missions headquarters that

exist globally. The world at large remains fairly unimpressed by this fractured thrust, Turkey, with almost as many

missionaries as Turkish believers, being a prime example of this sad fact. For this, we seriously need to repent.

Return to an old pattern for a new time. In Antioch, at the birthplace of missions, the Holy Spirit initially spoke

into an atmosphere of corporate receptivity and collective obedience. The very first mission journey occurred after

Agabus prophesied “by the Spirit” a famine (Acts 11:28-30; Acts 12:25), and the believers responded by sending

financial relief to Judea through Barnabas and Saul. Again, into an atmosphere of worship, prayer and fasting (Acts

13:1-3), the Holy Spirit called Barnabas and Saul for their second mission, commissioned by both the Holy Spirit and

men “laying their hands on them”.

The Mission mandate came directly from God (through prophecy), and was received and put into action in “quick,

costly obedience”, as one of the participants of the Antioch Gathering put it.

As many of the shared testimonies showed, very clearly a new and possibly final season of Missions has arrived.

“The New” is mainly characterized by a decisive return to the Kingdom of God as the home base of Missions. Some

of the symptoms are: unheard of acceleration (as one example: in India, on the day of Pentecost 2009, more than

300.000 persons were baptized); the phenomenal and historic growth of house churches that are now beginning to

make their own contribution to Missions; the re-emergence of prophetic and apostolic ministries; and a return to

Kingdom economics – a life by the financial principles of the Kingdom, not the market.

This new season will require all of us to reassess what we are about and freshly realign ourselves with what God is

currently doing, or we might miss a crucial and defining moment in the history of the Kingdom.

But first and foremost, it requires a series of preparations. God seemed to say to all of us: unless we prepare

ourselves, we will not be able to play a significant role in these unfolding chapters of Kingdom history. Amongst

them are:

Travel lighter. Far too many carry too much weight that God simply has not placed on their shoulders.

Learn to listen before we act. In a busy and fast world, listening to God’s voice requires disciplined time-

outs and the creation of agenda-less spaces so God can speak his heart, if he so wishes. God desires not

only individuals, but a body to speak to, which, on our side, requires corporate listening, hearing God’s

voice together, and discerning not only what he says, but what we therefore need to become and later do

(being before doing). A group of leaders that, for the lack of a better word is called “Listening Group”, has

come together several times since 2007 for typically three days in a row to learn to listen together. The

group helped to steer a part of the Antioch Gathering to avoid jumping too quickly to conclusions, and

help carry the creative tension between prophetic tarrying and apostolic action. The ultimate goal of

listening together is that we can again become “pillar-people”, reminding us of the people of Israel in the

desert that only moved when the pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud (Ex. 13:21) moved. Otherwise they

rather tarried on the spot, waiting for new and clear instructions.

Abandon false gospels and re-embrace the Gospel of the Kingdom. The Kingdom is an invisible but

very real political space ruled by Jesus the King that encompasses the entire created world – except the

human race which is given a choice under whose rule to live life, Mammon or Jesus (Matth 6:24). Those

humans that join and populate the Kingdom are the ones that are saved by grace, say farewell to

Mammon and decide to place themselves voluntarily under his kingship in loving obedience, not merely

saying “Lord, Lord” but doing what their King says. The Kingdom is essentially the domain of God’s

uncontested rule. As such it is a disposition, not a destination. “The gospel” was originally the news that

there is a new king; the main message of Jesus was exactly that: he is our new King and we are all invited to

live in the Kingdom, not any longer under the domain of darkness. This is the essence of the Gospel of the

Kingdom. In the history of the Church three false while incomplete gospels have gradually replaced the

Gospel of the Kingdom: a) the evangelistic gospel of “come ye and be saved”; b) the pastoral gospel of

“come ye and be safe” by joining our church or group; and c) the gospel of the teachers and theologians

that created doctrinal systems of truths that can be correct, but lifeless. It is of ultimate importance that

The Gospel of The Kingdom is rescued from its historic obscurity and re-embraced and resonated by all

that belong to Christ.

If the Kingdom of God is to come, ours has to go. The three kingdoms that most violently fight against

the Kingdom of God is a) the kingdom of self, our own drivenness by selffish ambition, a career mindset

and the idea “what is in it for me”; b) our primary identity in the “kingdoms of we”, groups, labels,

organizations or denominations that displaces everything else, including the Kingdom of God, to a rank of

secondary priority; and c) the kingdom of nationalism, tribalism and patriotism, where our sworn or felt

allegiance to an ethnic group, a political expression or a political preference stands in the way of our

primary citizenship in the Kingdom.

A new authority: from charisma to exousia. The current level of spiritual authority in the church is far too

much based on charisma (gift, ability), in which people are typically encouraged to function based on their

personal giftings without the proper legitimization (exousia) that comes by accurately functioning within

the framework of the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God is no democracy or even anarchy that boasts a

permissiveness where everyone can do what he likes, when he likes, if he likes. The secret to the spiritual

authority of Jesus was not to free-flow in his charismatic gifting, but to only do what he saw the father

doing and to only speak what he heard the father speak. The devil who tempted Jesus in the desert to

make him use his spiritual gifts for and on his own, outside a Kingdom framework, was utterly frustrated as

Jesus basically told him that he would not function disconnected to his father but is absolutely bound to a

higher reality, to the wishes of the father; he cannot and will not do as he could, but only as he should. This

sets the standard for our own spiritual authority and calls for all of us seeking a level of authority that is not

based on our charismatic gifting alone, but in the authenticity and legality (exousia) we are awarded as

citizens and emissaries of the Kingdom.

Deal with the “burnt earth syndrome”. The devil, in a diabolical attempt to intercept or at least corrupt

and therefore discredit any new initiative of God has tried to “burn the earth” and create an atmosphere of

distrust or even rejection of whatever new initiative God is causing. Seeking to mobilize immature

believers and appealing to their desire for significance Satan has often created a smokescreen of distorton

that serves to confuse the body of Christ and immunize them against the real thing God is bringing. For

example, before the larger Body of Christ could regain a healthy and balanced discipleship focus,

wellmeaning movements like the “shepherding movement” in the 70s burnt trust, relationships and

dampened the hope of many. Before a healthy prophetic or apostolic species is again seen as functioning

accurately within a Kingdom framework, immature, uncrucified, unhealthy, flaky, selfappointed and

selfsustained “prophets and apostles” and their organizational creations brought a large amount of

mistrust into the wider Body of Christ, up to the degree that many have simply dismissed the prophetic or

apostolic dimension of servanthood. Rather than resigning to this demonic strategy and pointing only to

the damage and carnage it has brought, God is calling us to see through this satanic plan, deal decidedly

with any hurt or suspicious residue in our hearts and move on to live God’s healthy original, life in the

Kingdom, leaving behind a life of constant complaint, warning and pointing out what is missing. Rather

than being experts in regards to the problem, we need to live the solution.

A new level of unity. It is a proper stage to begin our lives as servants of God. The unity amongst servants

is often expressed in a “labor union”, a form of unity that is task oriented and makes sure the needs of the

servants are heard and met. When Jesus said to his disciples: “You are my friends if you do as I say” he is

inviting his former servants to step up into a more intimate relationship to him and each other. A society of

friends lives a far deeper, relaxed and informal relationship, not only towards Jesus, but also towards each

other. We sensed that Jesus, as a preparation for the decisive days to come, is inviting those that are

already friends to step up into yet another level of unity, that comes out of being partners with Jesus

because of our destination to become and act as his bride. Bride and bridegroom will need to learn to

function at an eye to eye level and live out a love-based unity, where the body of Christ and Jesus, the

head of the body, function again in sync to finish the apostolic tasks that Jesus began 2000 years ago.

II. Who has not yet been to Tarsus?

Tarsus, the birthplace of the Apostle Paul, has not at all welcomed it’s most famous citizen of all times when he

returned home a converted man. Paul did not come home with a big success story. He had even become a serious

problem to the church that sent him home (Acts 9:30). Paul had believed that after his three years in the desert and

Damascus, following his conversion, he would fit in with the other apostles, but he was obviously unaware of the

fact that he, as a person, was still far too strong, forceful, argumentative and irrefutable (in other words, immature,

too much Paul, not enough Christ). His ministry did not cause conversions, but made his audience wanting him

murdered (Acts 9:23 & 30). For eleven long years in Tarasus Paul went through a deep process of humiliation. From

the perspective of his family and former community, he was neither fitting into his original place as a Jewish rabbi

any longer, but he was even rejected and sent home by his own new “cult”. He was ignored, rejected, probably

publicly flogged five times until he would say “I am dead; Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20) and “I discard everthything

else, counting it as garbage” (Phil 3:8). Only after Barnabas called him away to Antioch, Paul left Tarsus as a changed

man, utterly dead to the idea of showing off his apostolic role, establishing elitist apostolic clubs or even pseudo-

apostolic kingdoms, or simply following his own immature ambition any longer. If a prophet does not count much

in his home country, how much less does an apostle count in his home town? In this way, Tarsus had become an

altar for a premature apostolic man, a place of death to his own visionary self, a place of apostolic preparation

through a time where seemingly nothing happened. Only by enduring this stage of apostolic life as the ego-driven

seed was falling into the ground and died, not rebelling against it or becoming bitter, God finally entrusted this

man with a foundational apostolic work that changed this world forever. Visiting Tarsus in this spirit was like

visiting an important stage in the maturing process of every follower of Christ. We dare not miss the importance of

everyone of us “going to Tarsus” and dying to self, before we become engaged in the work God is calling us to do.

Otherwise, too much of us and not enough of Christ will be built and planted into everything we do, and this has

never been the way of the Kingdom.

III. Outlook into the future of “Missions”

Ideally, all of us wishing to participate in Missions will need to accept that the Holy Spirit is not only the head and

CEO of Missions, but we are to accept and respect each other as “commissioned agents” in the same Kingdom

Mission. He still speaks and is in control, we follow his orders and are not in control. The prophetic scriptures of the

Bible even speak of a time “in the last days” where “the word of the Lord will go forth from Zion” (Isa 2; Micha 4),

where Jesus gives directives to those that want to hear them in order to complete the task. In practical terms this

means that, for the final leg of the missionary initiative of God, our human Missions headquarters are going to fade

in their significance, while the center of Missions will wander back to Jerusalem that becomes, yet again, the final

place of commissioning, the last epicenter of Missions. This will not mean that Mt. Zion, a hill west of Jerusalem, will

see the construction of an impressive Missions complex, but that God choose and foretold to reveal himself and his

directives in Zion “in the last days”. Some of us sensed that very soon God might be calling those from among the

nations that he wants to come to Jerusalem to hear and implement his final decrees in regards to finalizing the

apostolic Mission of the Kingdom.

How will this look like? Some of the facets of this we strongly felt about in Antioch were:

“The Kingdom of God is right behaviour (according to the constitution of the Kingdom), peace and joy in the

Holy Spirit” (Rom 14:17). Rather than defining Missions in the very narrow terms of evangelism, soul winning and

planting churches, what this world waits for is “the revelation of the sons of God”, the visible modeling of life in the

Kingdom, the “city on the hill”, where the people can see good deeds and praise our father in heaven for them. This

means that in every significant sphere of life – family, education, culture, business & finances as well as politics – the

Kingdom needs to be first modelled and demonstrated, before anyone has the right to be publicly heard. Rather

than copying secular models of life (like business or arts) and creating Christian versions of it, we need to pioneer

expressions of life inspired and designed from the very beginning by the Kingdom of God. To act constitutionally,

according to Kingdom principles, that, if needed, superseeds any political law, and to do so with peace and joy in a

time where love grows cold and many people grow bitter, is the primary hallmark of Kingdom people. Mission

shaped by the Gospel of the Kingdom therefore needs to be dramatically expanded in order to express life in the

Kingdom in all areas of the arena of life, and no longer hide God’s light under a bowl (like a church building).

Some of the ways this will have to be expressed are:

Missions flows primarily from divine fatherhood and sonship, not the expansion of denominational

spheres or the visions of individuals. From the time of Adam and Eve, there was a “baton of Missions”, a

sense of missional responsibility passed on through the generations, moving through the hands of people

like Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Josef, Moses, Joshua, David, Solomon, Jesus and his apostles until today. We

sense there is an apostolic grandparents generation alive today that needs to let go of their agendas, give

their heart (and the baton of responsibility) to the fathers, who will in turn pass it on to the young men,

who will, in turn, pass it on to the children.

A divine partnership between the apostolic and prophetic will need to be forged in and across regions

and apostolic jurisdictions so that apostolic-prophetic foundations can be laid in all areas of the globe.

From the 12 to the 72. Many of us have grown accustomed to working in “groups of 12”, smaller, intimate

and even organic groups of leaders like Mission agencies, church planting thrusts or newer networks.

Many of these groups have been given valuable experiences and insights, but need to face the reality that

God is building Kingdom synergies over and beyond traditional Missions wineskins and is forming a

Metamission, a level of Kingdom partnership in Missions goes beyond all our former alliances.

We need to learn dealing with the “Keys of the Kingdom” (Mt 16:19), a symbol of Kingdom authority to

“lock and unlock” situations, gates, portals, demonic claims etc. For this we need to learn to function not in

our own names or in the name of human organizations, but in corporate selflessness, in legal

representation of the King, in other words, in the name of Jesus.

Can the dove land somewhere? God spoke to us about the prophetic significance of the dove landing on

Noahs arc, bringing in the first fruit (an olive branch) after a time of judgement. Could it be that the age of

Missions made by man is being graciously covered by the waters of God, and he is wanting to bless and

therefore multiply the new fruits of a Kingdom shaped Mission? Just as Jesus was riding into Jerusalem on

two donkeys, the mother donkey and her colt (representing the old religious system and the new

wineskins?), the new moves of God seem to currently receive unprecedented anointing and blessing from

God to multiply and “carry Jesus” into his destination.

Just as the Kingdom is a metacountry, God seems to be calling us to the formation of “Kingdom

Ministries”, global competence groups that function like ministries of a particular government that draw

together the best spirits and minds on the planet. Some of these ministries are:

A council of gifted men and women to re-define, promote and defend the “Gospel of the Kingdom”, as this

is the core message of the Kingdom that cannot be watered down. Ministry of Women. We know about the role of women in church-as-we-know-it, but the role of women

in the Kingdom needs fresh definition, so that women are free to function not under the constraints of a

religious church age, but within a healthy Kingdom framework.

Ministry of family and education. This entire arena needs to be rescued from secular and humanistic

goals and shift from being market shaped (producing human resources for the workplace) to being

Kingdom shaped (training humans to fulfill their Kingdom calling).

Ministry of Kingdom economics. The “World Economic Forum” in Davos brings together those excelling

in a materialistic, market-driven economy. A global council on Kingdom Economics (in connection with

regional councils) will have to start its work to formulate, express and help shape economic behaviour

based on the Kingdom to introduce the nations of the world to the “radical original” of the economic

wisdom of the Kingdom, providing God’s original to the flawed alternatives of Capitalism & Communism.

Kingdom Media. Rather than listening to one more Pastor X, TV Evangelist Y or teacher Z who raised the

funds to put himself on TV, Kingdom content, particularly of apostolic and prophetic nature, needs to be

aired in a way that introduces billions to the most well-kept secret of the planet: life in the Kingdom. In his

brilliant communication strategy, Jesus used parables for everything he said to outsiders, but explained

the secrets of the Kingdom only to insiders (Mk 4:10 & 11). Much of Christian media today does the exact

opposite and attempts to preach plain text to those outside, while telling stories and parables to those

inside. This media situation needs to be turned the right way up again and therefore calls for a new

Kingdom synergy in media.

Transport Ministry. God is on the move, and many speak of the epicenter of Christianity, after having

circled the globe westwards, moving decidedly from Asia “back to Jerusalem”. Interestingly enough, the

ancient Silk Road from China to Jerusalem enters its last leg of the journey at the port of Antioch.

Reflecting on this in our gathering in physical Antioch, we need to develop new logistical solutions

(Kingdom logistics) to move information (including “war rooms” discerning prophetic intelligence for

apostolic action), money (including regional apostolic foundations), goods (products, relief etc) and

personnel in such a way that it serves, and not obstructs, Kingdom expansion.

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PS: During the conference in Antioch, the PDF-version of the book „The Starfish Manifesto“ by Wolfgang

Simson was released and is now ready for download at www.starfishportal.net.

A series of five TV shows on DVD, produced by the Finnish TV7 group, are soon available as the “Starfish

Vision Series” on www.starfishportal.net as well.

Global Trends, Concerns and Challenges From the Cathedral back to the House Church by Victor Choudhrie

2009-11-02T10:18:00.000-08:00

Global Trends & Concerns Yeshua Messiah came and changed the system: 1. Change from Jewish Jehovah to Loving Father: He liberated Jehovah, the God of the Jews from the temple and declared Him to be Father God of all nations. John 4:21-24 2. Change of Venue: He destroyed the brick and mortar temple and shifted His residence back into the homes of the people. He changed the covenant written on the stone tablets and rewrote it in the hearts and minds of the people. Now every place that we tread becomes the holy ground. Matthew 24:1,2; Luke 19:9; Acts 7:48,49; Hebrew 10:16 3. Change of Priesthood: He disenfranchised the monopoly of Levitical priesthood and franchised every follower of Christ to be a Royal priest to the nations. Priests no longer led the worship but the Body of Brethren (men and women) prophesied over the unbelievers, who repented and were added to the church. 1Peter 2:9; Revelation 5:9,10; 1 Corinthians 14:24-26 4. Change of Worship: The instruments of worship in the Old Testament were the sword, the fire and the sheep (Genesis 22:5-7). The instruments of worship in the New Testament are the double edged sword (the word of God- Hebrew 4:12; Ephesians 6:17); the fire (the Holy Spirit Acts 2:4; Luke 3:16) and the lost sheep (John 10:16). He redefined worship from offering four footed animals to offering two legged repentant Gentiles as spiritual sacrifice. Making abundant disciples became the primary form of worship to glorify God. Romans 15:16; John 15:8,16; 1Peter 2:5,6,9; Psalm 51:17 5. Change from Gathering to Scattering: He changed the temple-centric gatherings to scattering to the ends of the earth by pouring out His Spirit on all flesh to make disciples of all nations. The Ethiopian Eunuch, the Samaritan woman and Cornelius the Gentile could not meet God in the temple so He met them on the road, at the well and in their homes and declared His house to be a house of prayer for all nations. Mark 11:17 Matthew 28:19; Acts 1:8; 2:17,18 6. Change in Training: He shifted the formal academic training of religious leadership dominated by the scholarly Rabbi in Beth Midrash (house of learning) to informal training in the real life situations, on the street, the market place and the homes of the people and produced world changers. 7. Change of Sabbath: He superseded the Sabbath and said that from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, incense (intercessory prayers) and repentant Gentiles will be offered as pure offerings in heathen home as the holy altar. Malachi 1:11 8. Change of Economics: He radically changed the world economic paradigm by asking the rich to dispose of all their extra possessions, give it to the poor and follow him. The disciples practiced it and so did Zacchaeus the tax collector and Yeshua declared that salvation has come to this house. Matthew `19:21-24; Luke 19:1-10; Acts 4:34-37 9. Change of culture: He rejected Jewish exclusive culture and made it inclusive by eating and drinking Samaritan bread and water. He annihilated the caste, class, race and gender divide by declaring that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile, free or bond, male or female. He changed the hate paradigm of tooth for tooth and life for life and replaced it with love your neighbour and your enemies. (Galatians 3:28; Matthew 5:44) 10. Change from Religious Rituals to Kingdomization: He came not only preaching the kingdom of God but he lived it out in His daily life and changed the stagnating hierarchical and oppressive structured religion into a dynamic, relational, experiential and replicating movement that would change the political, social and economic systems and transform waste cities and wilderness into the Kingdom of God as modeled in the Garden of Eden. Matthew 4:23; Isaiah 51:3; Ezekiel 36:33-38 The changes mentioned above are the benchmark against which we must evaluate and measure all the changes that are taking place now. Introduction: “The early churches were strong in faith and grew in numbers daily” (Acts 16:5). There was both quality and quantity. But even in the first century, the seven churches of the Revelation of St. John were already lukewarm and corrupted. Then came Bishop Ignatius (Martyred AD 110) who ruled that the Bishop was to be treated on par with the Lord and that no baptisms or love feasts (Holy Communion) could be celebrated without the permission of the clergy, thus killing the Body Ministry of 1 Corinthians 14:26 led by the Brethren (fraternity of men and women). This Episcopal decree resulted in 1% of the clergy dominating as the administrators and worship leaders and dehumanized over 99% of believers as laymen. Then came the Roman Emperor Constantine (CE 272-337), a sun worshipping hybrid Christian who did a lot of good but also imposed the solar cross instead of the Menorah the lamp, as the sign of the church (Revelation 1:20). He built the first Cathedral, appointed professional clergy, declared Sun-Day as a day of worship, appointed himself the virtual Pope, banned the house churches and herded all believers in the brick and mortar buildings and called it a church and corrupted the church for 1700 years. However the authentic church survived in secret, often illegal house churches. The church has undergone cataclysmic changes, especially in the last decade, as had not taken place in centuries. With 80-100 million followers in secret house churches in China; 100,000 house churches planted in India; one million evangelical Latin Catholics now worshipping in Basic Ecclesial Communities (BEC) and five million Americans in 30,000 house churches and several other countries reporting explosive growth, the return of the prodigal church back to the house church is a full circle reversal to God’s intended original form and function. It seems that the 2000 years of incubation period is over and suddenly the churches are sprouting everywhere to welcome Christ the King. Of course, some of these are only recycling institutional Christians (IC) from the pews to the sofa without further penetration, but in many countries they are changing the demographic profile. The house churches (also called simple church, organic church, biblical church, underground church etc.) are scripting and dictating new rules and roles. It is not the location or the rituals but the Body life and replicatability that distinguishes her. The house churches are a living room revolution and thank God that they are becoming alive again. They are no longer a fad but a trend that is destined to fill the earth as the waters cover the sea (Habakkuk 2:14). Vision: Our Lord had very clear vision: “For this reason I came into the world”, 1. To seek and to save that which is lost (Luke 19:10); 2. To destroy the works of the Devil (1John 3:8) 3. To give abundant life (John 10:10) and 4.To be a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28). Then he set his face like flint and without wavering marched to his death on the cross. Sadly many Christians and many churches do not even have a vision document, but fortunately some Christians are now seeing the big picture and turning into global thinkers and implementers of God’s end-vision that all nations, tongues and tribes must be gathered before the throne of God to worship Him. There is a growing realization that the harvest is actually ready and we should be busy reaping the harvest and bringing in the sheaves and not just be spectators. (Psalm 126:5,6) The precipitous fall in the number of major (100,000 or more) Unreached and Unengaged People Groups (UUPGs) from 639 worldwide and 345 List in South Asia to 170 or so in South Asia is a very encouraging sign (Matthew 24:14). But adopting and reaching UUPGs is not the end of the task as hundreds of millions remain Unreached and Unengaged with each major People Group (PG) requiring customized strategy to be discipled and mentored “until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in” (Romans 11:25). Our God is God of covenants. He made covenant with Adam, Noah, Abraham and David and many others. While the New Testament model of house churches make a covenant to fulfill the Great Commission of going and making disciples of all nations, to the ends of the earth, the Constantinian church makes no such covenant and hence remains fruitless, directionless and therefore worthless. We are seeing early signs of traditional churches moving into house churches and the house churches moving into worksite, market place, board rooms, the parliament and eventually the United Nations. Hopefully there will be an explosion of these ministries. Fulfilling the Great Commission is not just a desirable option but is becoming a fundamental requirement to qualify as a Christian. The Christian-centric church is rapidly becoming Gentile-centric, to a dynamic multi-cultural, multi-language and multi-ethnic tapestry. “Completion thinking” is rapidly replacing status quo mindset. Prayer: Proseuchomai meaning prayer, includes making a vow (covenant). Prayer is no longer a private shopping list but covenanting with Elohim to bring His kingdom here on planet earth. Believers are increasingly praying kingdom prayers (Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth), touching the very heart of God and transforming lives and nations (Ask me and I will give you nations for an inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession. Ps. 2:8). Prayers for healing and deliverance, for unreached people groups, finding the man of peace and planting churches is rearranging paradigms and shaking the nations. AD 2000 Movement birthing prayer explosion for the unreached 10/40 Window countries, is resulting in Saturation Church planting Movement (SCPM) all over the world. The knee jerk effect of 9/11 trauma precipitated a massive prayer response which is creating a huge turbulence in the Arab/Muslim world. Prayer walking, all night prayer, nation-wide and even global prayer events are taking place. Coupled with individual and corporate fasting and putting on ashes and sack cloth (repenting), is demolishing strongholds, shaking the very foundation of the kingdom of darkness, changing governments and rearranging religious landscapes. All great church planting movements are preceded and bathed by great prayer movements. “Bless me” prayers are giving place to kingdom prayers, “Bless all the nations of the earth”. The New Wineskins: The cerebrals (theologians) are taking the backburner (Institutional church). Movers and shakers are adopting cities, regions and nations (People Groups) and turning their world upside down. The little trickle from the pews to the living room sofas will soon become a mighty stream, unshackling millions out into the harvest field. The house church is not the destination but only a debriefing center and a transit camp for launching out into the enemy camp. The very first wine of 3000 believers practiced four things 1. Apostolic teaching, 2. Fellowship (Household of God) 3. Breaking of bread 4. Intercessory prayer. This resulted in 1. Fear of the Lord on the people, 2. Signs and wonders, 3. Sharing of material blessings, 4. Going out to find the lost sheep, 5. Breaking bread from house to house, 6. People rejoicing, 7. And the result was, the Lord added to their numbers daily. Within a few days 5000 additional “men” (families) joined the church and soon it was a torrent of multitudes of disciples that could not be numbered. (Acts 2:42-47, 4:4; 6:2). All these components are growth accelerators and produce maximum yield with minimum persecution as people come rejoicing. As the house churches become more and more like the New Testament model, daily addition becomes the benchmark. Leadership Ladder: There are three main levels of leadership operating now. The Top Leadership has apostolic vision, strategy and the ability to raise resources to fulfill that vision. The vision gets flawed when Kingdom building is replaced with empire building. The Second Level Leadership, the master trainers build up the infrastructure (foundation) by teaching training and mentoring multiple generations of Timothies (2Timothy 2:2). The larger the apostolic infrastructure the greater the yield. The new believers, who form The Third Tier, are the real kingdom expanders. They have experienced healing and deliverance; and open closed doors and remove blindness through their testimonies, “I was blind but now I see”. The cerebral Christians, like Paul’s synagoguians, play secondary role of maturing new believers in sound doctrines, as they do not have the competencies to disciple persons of another faith. The primary force for opening the frontiers are the new believers. Blind eyes and closed doors are opened by power preaching through signs and wonders and through witnessing in their own culture and context (Acts 26: 18; Romans 15:19). Academic theology is of little use in this phase. In the second phase, “Scriptures are profitable for instruction, for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and righteousness” (2Tim 3:6). Just like in Yeshua’s ministry, the healed leper, the seeing blind, the hearing deaf and the leaping lame, it is the brand new believers, the Insiders, who are the real kingdom expanders. They are the ones who are re-painting the religious canvas of the nations through their powerful testimonies. Pew warming or sofa squatting is not the destination. While the institutional church is busy writing its own tombstone and marching into oblivion, the God’s army marches on her knees advancing on mats and mud floors to the ends of the earth to take possession of her eternal inheritance (Acts 26:18). Mentoring Multiple Generations: This is going to be buzz thing in the coming days. Disciples who rapidly replicate multiple generations of disciples, (2Tim.2:2) thus maximizing potential of every believer into a champion disciple maker, baptizer and equipper, is the key to hyper-acceleration. Boxed in Pastors and Evangelists are being empowered and changing into itinerant Apostles, Prophets, anointed Teachers and shepherds of the fivefold ministry gifted equippers. New believers have a burden for reaching their own oikos (extended family and fraternity). These new believers are not interested in ministry of resurrection of the dead churches (revival and renewal). They are redefining the church as an assembly of passionate Royal Priests (1Peter 2:9) and zealously taking ownership of their kingdom (king + domain), adding to the statistics, changing religious demography, enforcing kingdom values and kingdom culture. (Luke 12:32) Leadership is no longer knowledge (academic) based but Christ based. Transition of power from the clergy to “no bodies” is the greatest change that is taking place. God is increasingly choosing foolish things of this world to confound the wise (1Cor. 3:11; 1:27). Leadership is no longer congregation or pulpit bound but dynamic and people bound. The church is reinventing herself from inward centripetal force, “churching the unchurched”, to outward centrifugal force, “unleashing Yeshua Messiah everywhere”. Baptisms have shifted from the church baptistery to pools, ponds, rivers and bathtubs. Kingdomization: Metamorphosis of merely worship-centered churches into catalytic agents of holistic community restoration. Not just religious centers but that which bring abundant life to the whole community. Yeshua did not come to plant brick and mortar churches. He came preaching the kingdom as well as living the kingdom in His daily life in the context of the community. Church planting is not our goal (Math. 16:18) but only a means for Kingdomization of the community and reconciling the whole creation (2Cor.5:17-20). The House church is not the only way but the Body of Yeshua Messiah has many expressions. Kingdom culture includes love, joy, peace, justice and abundant life with social, political, economic, health, educational and ecological transformation. Kingdomization includes redeeming the professions, so that the worksites, offices, businesses, the market place, the board rooms and the parliament become outward authentic expressions of the kingdom of God. The congregation model is being replaced with community model. Accountability (authority) structures are being replaced by relational equations (spiritual fathers and mothers). The colonial model of appointed (salaried) leadership is changing to self-supporting fruit bearing anointed leadership. People of other faiths do not respect paid preachers. Democratization (people’s will be done: government by the people, for the people and of the people) is being replaced with Kingdom colonization (God’s will be done) by apostles and prophets, which depends on intentional strategy of loving God, loving each other, loving our neighbour and praying for our enemies. The Devil comes to steal and to kill and to destroy (John 10:10). The media and the news papers are his mouth piece which daily scream about stealing, killing and destroying. The appalling Human Development Index (HDI) in terms of longevity, health care, education, and income in the third world is the direct result of the Dragon’s demonic stranglehold. Where else but the house churches, to begin the change process? The real indicator of Kingdomization is the change in the headlines. Training: Neurological sciences have come to validate the interactive house churches. Research shows that sermons/lectures and tuitions especially by authoritarian figures like pastors and professors create dependency and produce oxymorons while interactive sessions produce creative challenges which develop problem solving dexterity. Toppers do not necessarily make the best problem solvers. Harvard and Yale give first preference to home schooling. This is reflected in diminishing role of seminaries which offer extensive and expensive classroom based education (transfer of knowledge). Years of interaction with Christians, by Christians, for Christians only creates a huge disconnect with the lost people of the world, the real object of the training. There is increasing role of interactive house gatherings as equipping hubs for hands on practitioners to mentor champion disciplers, baptizers and equippers to fulfill The Great Commission. The Jewish Beth Midrash or the house of learning also means house of interaction. Unlike our tame and boring seminaries, the Midrashas are called pilpeliya (hot pepper) because of the hot interaction (literally yelling) that takes place there. Yeshua interacted all day long in the synagogues, houses and conducted highly interactive, daily road shows. Orthodox Hindus and Muslims will not be seen dead or alive inside the colonial model of a traditional church. Very few come to Christ through intellectual discourses. The objective is not to catch stray fish here and there but to create a mass movement by incarnating Christ in their hearts and minds and redeeming their culture. Vast majority of them come through power manifestation such as healing and deliverance and increasing numbers, especially Muslims are coming through dreams, visions and direct revelation, just like Paul did. The Mismatch: There is a total mismatch between Yeshua’s dialogical style and the way the modern church functions. Leaders are equippers rather than sermonizers. Long term formal training prepares pulpit orators for the faithful, while interactive house churches prepare fishers of men for those outside the fold. Not the Sunday anointed sermon but continual contextualized discipling is the key to church reproduction and multiplication. The content of the training material and teaching activities are being filtered through the Great Commission grid and kingdom framework. Producing bookish scholars, with the Great Commission buried under a pile of books, is no longer the preferred destination but mentoring champion disciple makers, baptizers and church planters. Performance evaluation: is on the basis of soul winning skills (fruit bearing) rather than oratory skills (John 15:5). Not academic qualifications but past performance is being recognized as the best predictor of future accomplishment. Yeshua, Peter, John and even Paul were “achievers” rather than orators. Quality of worship, academic excellence, gadgetry, large crowds, big budget, churning out large number of seminary graduates or impressive numbers of missionaries on the field are no longer the benchmark but the number of diptisms, number of villages and People Groups reached and effectiveness in changing the religious demographic landscape. Not increasing your workforce but optimizing their effectiveness is the way forward. The primary objective of teaching, training, coaching and mentoring is for embedding the DNA of passion for the Great Commission. Stability and sustainability are no longer the buzz words. Mobility, flexibility and multiplicativity are the key indicators. God will not give you 100,000 souls in a hurry unless you first make an apostolic covenant (to be blessing to all the nations) and then build a credible apostolic infrastructure of competent “disciplers and baptizers” who have the capacity to mature and multiply multiple generations of disciplers to bring forth thirty, sixty, hundred and even thousand fold fruit that remains (Isa. 60:22). The larger the apostolic net of “skilled fishermen”, the bigger the catch. Raise the Bar on Diptisms: History teaches us that charismatic leaders brought thousands into the kingdom who then melted away into nothing for lack of follow up teams. The delinquent church must delete divisive denominational practices; stop speaking with forked tongue and start preaching and practicing networking so that there are no holes in the fishing net. This will help the Body to catch large number of fish. Yeshua baptized more than John (John 4:1). Peter opened his account with 3000 dips on day one because he had a team of 120 Pentecostal baptizers. We must raise the bar on the number of diptisms to catch up with the birth rate of the nations (180K dips per day worldwide today to one million per day) just to break even and plan even higher trajectory to catch up with the backlog. Yeshua did not command us to go and get baptized but to be baptizers (Matt. 28:19). The end time formula that our Father has given to us, “the little one shall become one thousand”. All you and all your disciples have to do is to diligently disciple just one person into the kingdom every month and you will become one thousand in ten months. If all the two billion Christians of the world were mobilized to do this, then the remaining four billion people of the globe can be evangelized in just two short months. More realistically if 90% Christians were considered dysfunctional, the remaining 10% can still bring back Christ on earth in our own life time. (Isaiah 60:22). Money multiplication: Wealth is not silver, gold, money in the bank, stocks or property. Wealth comes from an old English word “weal” (well being) and “th” (condition), meaning “the condition of well being”. Economics comes from Greek word oikonomia meaning “the management of household”. If our households are managed biblically then we will not be subject to consumerism, market manipulation and meltdown orchestrated by god Mammon but the economy will be kingdomized which means that there will be honesty, transparency, moral integrity and equitable distribution of resources. It is time the church redefined the world economic order and assured abundant life for all. Encounter with Yeshua resulted in total transformation of Zacchaeus through redistribution of wealth. House churches are the key for changing the economics of the world. (1Timothy, 3:3-5; 1John 1:2,4; John 10:10) As it is, just 5% of the families own 90% wealth of the nations while we all work for them. This is because they know how to make the money work for them. Even though we are called to be the head and not the tail and lend to the nations, Christians remain the tail because the church does not teach sound biblical financial principles other than ad nauseum and ad infinitum teachings on tithing. The church must realize that the whole world is the stakeholder to whom she is accountable. God owns it all and we are called to be His wealth managers so that there is equitable distribution to all. Millions entering the house churches are ravaged by poverty and its devastating consequences. It is not the governments, multinationals or the rich people who will change the financial profile of the world. They are part of the problem and not the solution. Through biblical principles of money multiplication, wealth management and job creation, new believers are turning into entrepreneurs, which is giving them abundant life and also making them rulers over 5/10 cities (Luke 19:11-27). “The earth is mine and all the silver and gold is mine and all the cattle on the thousand hills are mine; says the Lord. The heaven and the highest heaven belong to the Lord but the earth He has given to us” (Haggai 2:8; Ecclesiastes 10:19; Psalm 115:16). Subduing the earth includes subduing wealth. The future house churches will be economic powerhouses fueling spiritual, social, political, environmental and economic revolution. Multiplication of disciples includes money multiplication. The church must change from economic tail to economic head (Deut. 28:12,13). Making money through ministry is out and making ministry through money is in. Donor Agencies are increasingly leveraging outcome oriented ministries rather than traditional ministries, which is rapidly expanding the kingdom. Short term funding however leads to donor hopping by the mission leaders which takes their prime time from the mission field. Asking zillions of questions (in the name of reporting) after laying the gifts at the Apostle’s feet is not biblical. It is a sign of controlling spirit and shows lack of trust. It also encourages funky leaders lusting for Yankee dollars and leaves behind the real performers on the field. There is an encouraging sign that there is greater openness among donors. They are increasingly getting together, consulting each other and prioritizing ministries. House churches function without external support. Transitioning from salaried pastors to bi-vocational volunteer church planters is a very healthy trend. It is the training of the leaders that needs the money. Finding alternative sources of funding for training from the harvest field must be our priority. Cultural Indigenization: There is a huge tension between Westernized Christianity and the indigenous cultural expressions of ecclesia. There has been a massive cultural invasion and colonization of the indigenous church from the west. Modern Christianity is just another name for Western culture and needs to be addressed just as Judaizers and circumcisers had to be dealt with in the New Testament times. It is not necessary to be called “Christian” and go to church to connect with God. Hindus and Muslim followers of Christ will be in heaven while maintaining their cultural identity. Our goal must be to incarnate Yeshua Messiah in the hearts of people within their own heart language and cultural context. Reaching the unreached requires a completely different syntax than what is used from the pulpit and in the Christian circles. Institutionalized Christianity dismantles new believers’ cultural and socio-economic moorings. To precipitate exponential growth among the Jews, Paul circumcised Timothy in broad day light and instantly! “The churches were strengthened in faith and grew in numbers daily” (Acts 16:1-5). For qualitative and quantitative growth circumcise (debug) church vocabulary and redeem cultures in which they understand their spirituality, morality and identity. Finding the “Hidden treasure” and making known the “Unknown God”, just as Paul did in Athens, is being increasingly used as bridges to reach people of other faiths. Paul did not take Christ to Athens; He was already there in their sacred texts, poems, stories and culture. By all accounts Paul was a failure in Athens with no miracles, no baptisms and no churches planted. But he had sown the seed and in due course of time, Athens became the capital of eastern Christendom. Similarly the present day pool of influential crypto believers will greatly swell until it goes critical and explode. Initially Yeshua taught his disciples to launch out into the deep and catch boat load of small fish. Later he upgraded their skills to cast the net in the shallow waters (He did not say launch out into the deep this time) and catch 153 great big fish (Luke 5:4; John 21:6). Governor of Cyprus, treasurer of Ethiopia, Cornelius the Centurion, Lydia a seller of purple and Phoebe a multinational business woman were great influencers. It is time for the church to shift from fishing in muddy waters of low caste untouchable high profile intellectuals, business people and high Dalits (crushed) and move to the next level of catching caste priests, the big fish, who are influencers of the society. The church does not need Western garb, she needs fishing gear. Theory and Practice; There is problem both with orthodoxy (theology which does not focus on the apostolic agenda of fulfilling the Great Commission); as well as with orthopraxis (church practices like the church building, the clergy, the Sunday service, sermons, music, ritualized sacraments, tithing, hierarchy, programs, tele-evangelism, mega-churches, Christmas, Easter, Good Friday etc.). All these are being recognized as institutionalized merchandization of faith and exploitation of the gullible. The world cannot change until the “Laymen” suffering from grasshopper syndrome, take their butts off the pews and recognize that they are Kingfishers (Royal Priests) to their friends, neighbours, colleagues and clients in their neighborhood, worksites and businesses. Mercifully many are shifting into “best practices” of the New Testament pattern of house churches such as becoming participatory, breaking bread from house to house and celebrating Good Friday as the Day of Sacrifice, Easter as the Resurrection Day and Pentecost as a Day of Harvest of souls. (1Cor. 14:26; Acts 2:46,47) “Systematic” theological training for boxed in pastors is being replaced with “menu based”, live, interactive, real time customized training, delivered on site, for converting grasshoppers into kingfishers. The absolute minimum anyone with a Christian label must do is to go out and make a small difference in the world s/he lives in, as a fitting tribute to Christ. Four years of seminary training produces pulpit focused orators while four days of church planting seminar is producing apostles with a vision to reach the ends of the earth. The New wine is gathering in new wineskins, which not only looks radically different but behaves and functions differently. It is a foolish army general who plans a prolonged war on a long term basis. Quick victory must be the objective. Yeshua Messiah commanded us to reap the harvest now and not four months later (John 4:35). Church is becoming more relational (household of God) and vertical hierarchy is giving way to the horizontal. The House church is not just a shift of venue from the pew to the sofa but is a nodal agency with an apostolic agenda for replicating the Garden of Eden model all over the earth. Like the Hall of Tyrannus, the house church is becoming the nodal point for trumpeting the gospel all over the world (Acts 19:9,10). The Women have played a key role in the spread of the gospel from the inception of the church when Mary of Magdala, a reformed prostitute, carried the good news of the resurrection of Yeshua to his disciples. Lydia, Priscilla, Phoebe, Junia an apostle (Romans 16:7), Mary the mother of Mark, Apphia, Nympha and many other women opened their homes which became discipling hubs. All the house churches mentioned in the New Testament were led by women. The modern day Pentecostal church of Azusa Street in 1906 was founded by a core group of eighteen Afro-American women. Thanks to women that the Pentecostal/Charismatic church is now the largest and the fastest growing church with 500 million strong membership, even as gender benders continue to oppress women based on distorted versions of Paul’s statements. Kitchen church continues to be the fastest growing church today. Non-literate and non-theologically trained women are not lusting for upward migration to the pulpit but downward to the lost people. They are fulfilling Rebecca’s blessing, “You will bear tens of thousands of children who will possess the gates of the enemy.” (Gen. 24:60). Empowerment of women to go and make disciples, baptize, equip and send has been the single most significant change that has changed this decade. The Youth: There has been an alarming exodus of the youth from the traditional church. They have tried many things including electronic music etc but it has not really worked. Lucifer was choir leader of the heavenly music team. In our interactive house churches, interestingly it is mostly the young people from other communities who are becoming followers of Christ. Because of persecution, there has been diminishing role of loud music of any kind. While the “qualified” but culturally misfit youth (clad in jeans and T shirt) passing out of Bible schools look for paid jobs, the “unqualified” rural house church product reaches out to his/her oikos (friends, family and the community) without expecting monitory gains. The time for professional Reverends is over as the volunteers take over. In the meanwhile infant mortality rate, especially among the girl child has gone down substantially. Millions are now going to schools while many more millions are still grazing cattle. Some missions are doing a commendable job of introducing Christ through literacy classes. This 4/14 Window GenNext is undergoing cultural hybridization and more open to the gospel and ready to change. Reaching this population segment is the biggest challenge of the decade. However, it would be a folly to focus on youth in isolation. In the east, seminary trained youth are not accepted as spiritual leaders by the village elders. Biblical model is inclusive and involves the whole household. Fatherlessness: Rapid urbanization in search of quick prosperity is destroying fatherhood like nothing else (James 4:13,14). Almost 40% of children do not sleep in their biological father’s home. Even where they live together, the children rarely have any fellowship with the father, as he leaves early in the morning and comes late and brings back work. Any free time is spent on the mobile phone, watching TV or provoking children at the dinner table. Fifty years ago a child could reasonably expect to spend his youth with family. No longer is this true as the father has put his tent in Sodom of prosperity cult and worships Babylonian Mammon (James 4:13). The fatherless children suffer from rejection and naturally drift into alcohol, drugs and sex to fulfill their craving for love. The house church based on Deut. 6:1-14, (diligently teach your children while they are sitting, lying or walking so that they may not go after other gods), is the Magna Carta for restoring relationships in a dysfunctional family. A father has to be a priest to the family first before he can be priest to the nations (1Timothy 3:5). Glitzy church programs are not the answer but healing broken hearts and homes and wiping every tear is the challenge. Children below the age of twelve years (Bar Mitzvah) were not allowed in the temple but Yeshua Messiah reversed it by commanding, “Let the little children come unto me”. It is time the church took the children’s ministry more seriously than just sending them to Sunday school. Fathers need to prepare their children so well that they can intelligently dialogue with elders just as the boy Yeshua did. Matthew 19:14 E-Blasting: Internet is rapidly shrinking the world as a global village. Teaching, prayer requests, information and host of other things can be blasted to the members of the network in a jiffy. Christians are far behind Muslims who are already planning e-Jihad (suitcase nuclear bombs which can be exploded though the internet). Mean while a segment of the younger generation that literally lives in the cyber space. To reach them we have to plant cyber churches. Mobile cell phones are now ubiquitous. Bible and teaching materials can be loaded as a very convenient learning tool. Instant short messages (SMS) can be sent to inform or send instant prayer requests. Power point presentations and e-learning on interactive digital platform is substantially reducing the learning span and increasing the information highway. Even though the electronics can never replace the one on one discipling, the church must seriously train techno-evangelists to reach those who live in PC environment and cyberspace. “Virtual church” through blogging, video-conferencing and Skype is already a reality. Muslims are already running a very effective, round the clock user friendly interactive program on “How to convert to Islam”. While God is working to a plan and keeping His schedule, most churches lack strategic visionaries and planners who bring direction and purpose and save the church from fruitless programs. Flawed vision at the top is rampant and road to disaster. When Communism collapsed at the Berlin wall, the church was not ready. Now that Islam is on the boil and Hinduism and Buddhism are in turbulence and Mammon (money) worshippers are suffering meltdown, the church is the only institution that is not ready. Naturally the radicalized and hawkish leadership is filling the vacuum. Verbal bombing from the pulpit must give birth to action plan otherwise it is just a noisy gong. Internet is a fantastic tool for short-circuiting distances and conducting a live two-way training global leadership in “sound doctrine, best practices, strategic planning, management, innovation and entrepreneurship” even in turbulent environment to those who are already in the ministry as well as those who are holding secular jobs and wish to be involved in ministry, in the privacy of their homes. Almost all the programs of the churches, such as Bible study classes, prayer cells; women’s, youth and children’s programs working in isolation are fruitless stuckages. They need to merge, so that all engines start firing simultaneously to dethrone the kingdom of darkness and enthrone the kingdom of light. Today the institutional church is the biggest stuckage in expansion of the kingdom. Removing “stuckages” is the key to acceleration. Orality: All great religions and cultures have been sustained through songs, poems, drama and storytelling. Haggadah or “telling” was the most important component of Jewish feasts where the elders told all the great things Hashem (The Name) had done for them. A sermon however anointed is soon forgotten, but a story is not only retained but replicated. Yeshua taught through parables and without parables He taught nothing (Math. 13:34). If it worked for him then there is no reason why it should not work for us. Four billion people of world belong to the oral culture. The Bible is the story book of God. While the big churches are busy marketing themselves and in the process mongrelizing brand Jesus into merchandise, it is the simple story tellers who are turning the world upside down in favor of Christ today. Research and Information: Gone are the days of haphazard evangelism. Mission agencies are now systematically researching Nations, Tongues and Tribes, their geographical locations and cultures and so on and reaching them intentionally and proactively. Spiritual mapping is helping us to locate and destroy strongholds through intercession and prayer walking. Global tracker mapping significantly increases velocity of movement in unreached areas because the strategy is based on information. Monitoring tells us whether we are achieving our goals and objectives but more importantly the task that remains to be done. Dynamic data base helps in making strategic course correction. Apostolic Gardens: God commanded humankind to “be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it and have dominion over it”. This is not just a biological command but implied in it is the mandate to replicate the Garden of Eden model and fill the earth until the whole earth becomes a Garden where God can come for a walk during the cool of the day. This commandment has never been abrogated. We still have to subdue the earth and impose God’s kingdom (King + dominion). God is not looking forward to the earth getting filled with concrete church buildings but breaking land curses and transforming wilderness into fruitful gardens and reconciling the whole creation dripping with milk and honey. The house church must ramp up “Green faith” with organic farming, water harvesting, biodiversity, food grain banks, handicrafts, market linkages for local produce and declare villages free of hunger, indebtedness, illiteracy and exploitation. All this must be done strictly with locally available, affordable and acceptable resources and community participation, ensuring abundant life for everyone. The most enduring signs of peace, security and abundant life in the Scriptures, is a man sitting under his vine tree drinking herbal tea made with healing leaves from the tree of life with his neighbor (Zechariah 3:10; Revelation 22:3). The brick and mortar concrete church is meandering into Apostolic Gardens and having a picnic. Persecution is often the result of unbiblical methods. The noisy churches wake up the sleeping wolf and hence subject to self inflicted persecution. The biblical methods followed by the disciples, the new believers came rejoicing (Acts 2:46-47). Often it is precipitated by conversion from the kingdom of darkness into kingdom of light. It is inevitable as the Dragon does not like to lose its captives. It will increase both in severity and frequency. Consequently Christianity will leap frog in the predatory (persecution) environment. It will also go below the radar and meet in micro-mini groups and multiply rapidly as it happened in China (Matt. 1`8:18-20). Non-predatory environment produces come, sit, soak and stagnate churches. “Speaking” in unknown tongues is shifting to the next level with “listening” to what the Spirit is saying and the Spirit is revealing to the church that the Gentiles must become part of the Body and partakers of the eternal inheritance (Ephesians 3:5,6). Inheritance is two dimensional: 1. Land and 2. People (Psalm 2:8; Genesis 15:18; Luke 12:32). The mushrooming house church movement of the global south, mired in poverty and persecution, is increasingly unleashing Christ everywhere with a holistic paradigm. The church is becoming more organic and less institutional. Traditional church castrates them into nonperformers while persecution mutates them and puts them on the run and on the fast track. Persecution from within and without results in exponential growth of the authentic inheritance oriented, land and people possessing church. Armageddon: The white races have reduced the procreative act to acrobatics and a mere act of lust and are not being fruitful and multiplying. Their birthrate has come down alarmingly which cannot sustain their gene pool (absolute minimum 2.5 per family to sustain a population). In the meanwhile Muslim’s (M’s) are rapidly reproducing (Europe 38 million; USA 2.5 mil.). The terrorists will not come from outside. They are being bred within. The World War III, the mother of all wars, is not in the future. It has already begun. To defuse this demographic time bomb, the white people not only need to be obedient to God and become fruitful and multiply but they also must urgently learn ways of turning the sword of Islam into plowshares and making the sons of Ishmael, the followers of Isa al Masih. This is not difficult once you know “how to”. All this is only possible in the context of house churches as the orthodox M’s will not be found dead or alive in a traditional church. They must be diptized not only to keep pace with their birthrate but a higher trajectory must be set to catch up with the back log of 1.6 billion Ms. God is not shifting the 20th century church forward but backward to the first century model. The Bible lands are on the boil as Arab Muslims in the lands of Abraham and Esther, like Joseph and Daniel are seeing dreams and visions and coming to Christ in numbers unprecedented. They can be matured only in secret underground, below the radar house churches by culture specific trained leaders. The noisy Western model is not only unsuitable for them but downright suicidal. Allah has revealed ninety nine names to sons of men so that they may worship Him, but the one name, the one hundredth name He has revealed it only to the camel; and the camel, he is not talking (A Muslim Proverb). Christians need to tell them that the name of Isa al Masih is already in their holy book Quran, 96 times. Jews are the most persecuted people on earth. Ever since they said that let his (Messiah’s) blood be upon us and our children, thing simply got worse. The Romans, the governments, the Catholic Church including Martin Luther, the Crusaders, and the British, Germans, French, Spaniards, Russians and just about every European nation murdered them by the millions. Things will get worse and Yeshua will not return until the Jews say, “Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord” Math. 23:29. There are already about 200 Jewish house churches worldwide, of which 30 are in Israel. This is alarm signal for us as the times of Gentiles will soon be over and the second coming of Christ will become imminent. We must complete the task before the ingathering of the Messianic Jews begins (Matt. 21:24,28). Europe, which contributed so significantly in terms of men, money and materials for centuries for the expansion of the kingdom, is now under siege. It is living in Post-church era and is a matter of great concern. To be a practicing Christian is like becoming a second class citizen and an object of ridicule. The Bible is being daily criminalized. The Dragon’s claws are daily tightening and at this rate soon Christianity will be relegated to the back pages of history books. Something needs to done and done urgently and house churches can be the only answer. But first we must pray for men of peace who will take ownership of post-Christian Europe. Literature, tools and Transport: One decade ago there were hardly any books on the House Church but today there is a plethora of well researched books and training materials. However, all these books on discipling are useful only after the blindness has been removed and the doors have been opened. There is hardly any material available on how to remove blindness, demolish the gates of hell and open closed doors. Appropriate tools, technology and literature are essential for motivating, mobilizing, managing, mentoring and managing momentum for a mass movement (7M’s). Picture books, radio, VCD and other devices in their heart language, are being developed for a largely non-literate clientele. Although many donor agencies are shy of providing transport facilities, gone are the days of barefoot evangelist with a shoulder bag; bicycles and Hero Honda motor cycles are putting the gospel on the fast track to remote villages. Multiplication of mature disciples depends very much on multiplication of necessary tools and transport. Changing role of Cross-cultural missionary: On the 7th of February 09, Pope Benedict proclaimed that the house churches are authentic churches as Saint Paul sent greetings to them (1Cor. 16:19). All the functions of the church including baptisms and the Eucharist can be served by the local leaders without the presence of an outside priest. He further added that this is the way forward for the Catholic Church in the third millennium. Cross cultural missionaries played a dominant role in the past but now there is increasing realization that they are only a rocket that launch the satellite into the space and must disengage. If they do not then the satellite will malfunction. The very first thing God preached and practiced was delegation, “Let them” subdue the earth and have dominion over it. Finally it does not matter whether the cat is white or black as long as it catches the mice but empowering the sons of the soil is the critical growth-driver. The time has come for us to stop gagging and instead harness the fervour and synergy that is already in the pews and the pulpit and release them to turn our nations to Christ so that all tongues and tribes can hear the gospel in their own heart language and be made worthy to stand boldly before His throne and worship Him. Revelation 7:9,10 The Devil knows that his time is short and it is time that the church also realized that her time is also short and put her own house (church) in order. Revelation 12:12; 1Peter 4:7 We praise God that the come, sit, soak and stagnate Cathedral church, Made in Rome by Constantine, is slowly but surely getting out of Alice in blunder land and imploding like Humpty Dumpty in innumerable pieces and shifting into motivating, mobilizing, managing, mentoring and maturing believers in House churches for a for mass movement (M7). Shalom, vchoudhrie@gmail.com

A Changed Family Life as the Most Powerful Evangelistic Weapon by Mitsuo Fukuda

2009-11-02T10:03:00.000-08:00

Put Priorities Back Into Relationships

A full-time housewife is making a cake wearing an apron in the kitchen of her own house looking out onto a large yard. Her husband is enjoying a chat with their children in the big living room. This was the ideal life presented by the media in movies, magazines, and family life TV dramas. Between the postwar period and the period of high growth, this ideal family model was based upon the image of white middle-class suburban residents in the prewar days of America. In addition, commercial messages showed married couples happily drinking coffee together, causing Japanese people to dream of a perfect family that was gradually getting richer economically as well as emotionally (Sodegawa, Hanashima and Morizumi, 2005).

That dream was largely reached until the 1970’s. Most Japanese felt that they were approaching the dream because they could move to a better house, buy electric appliances, and educate their children to have successful academic careers. Once the recession started, however, many people lost the economic foundation of that dream. In the 90’s, most families gave up chasing that dream in the economic sphere, and only a small number of the upper class were able to reach it. However, they still held on to the dream to have quality time with their family members. Being influenced by media like family life TV dramas, a new expectation emerged that the members of a family should feel affection for one another.

In the high-growth period, Husbands’ role was to work hard outside of the home and to earn wages in order to buy electrical appliances, and to be able to make a down payment for a new home, while the wives’ role was to administrate the family budget and to do their best to keep house and take care of the children. In the low-growth period, men’s employment situation became increasingly unstable and they could not expect to have an ever-increasing standard of living. Japanese people realized that their marriage relationships were dependent on the shaky foundation of their divided roles. For that reason, husbands and wives expected more than just divided roles from each other. Now they wanted quality communication. This higher expectation required the Japanese families to step beyond their traditional roles. They needed to travel together, go shopping and do leisure activities together, and enjoy hobbies, conversation and sex together. These new behaviors needed to engage their emotions and cause them to feel that their partner was “likable". If they could not have such an emotion, their relationships got worse and worse. In 1990, the divorce rate climbed rapidly. Now Japanese couples have a series of problems: divorce at a young age, domestic violence, child abuse, and withdrawal from society.

I have a pastor friend, whose name is Keishi. Keishi used to have many problems in his marriage. He often criticized his wife, Kazumi, in front of the church people, and blamed her in a loud voice. When he was a university student, he won first prize in martial arts, so his attitude toward Kazumi was like he treated the former lower ranking members of his martial arts club. He was a typical Japanese husband. He thought that he played enough of a role as a husband by working hard outside of his family setting. He never imagined that he had to do anything more in order to have quality communication with his wife. One day, Keishi’s friend, who had recently been divorced, asked Keishi if his marriage relationship was OK. The friend told him, “You are just like I was with my wife.” Keishi was shocked and began to worry about his marriage. Then he visited me with his wife to ask for help. My wife and I were doing an accountability group for marriage couples, called the “Three Dailies”, and had found it useful for our marriage to become a healthier couple. So, I recommended that Keishi and Kazumi start it.

Christian Counselor Douglas Weiss insists that many marriages have little to no structure to encourage intimacy in their relationship (Weiss, 2001). Passion in marriage is a result of making intimacy a priority for life. Passion is a dividend that comes from making consistent investments in the priorities of a marriage relationship. Many couples try to get the passion back into their relationship, when what they need to do is to get their priorities back. Once you re-establish the priority of the relationship, the passion naturally follows and grows. One way to do this is by using the "three daily exercises". Each couple agrees to perform three simple daily exercises to the best of their abilities as a couple: pray together, clearly express their feelings for one another, and encourage and praise one another. They should attempt to make this a top priority in their schedule.

Weiss likes to share an analogy of broken bone and a cast. When your bone is broken, the doctor applies a structural treatment to your structural problem in the form of cast. “The cast is a structural treatment that allows the bone to heal. The cast itself is just plastic or plaster, and it has no healing properties. But when it is applied to a broken bone to hold the bone in place, surprise; Healing can and does happen. The same thing happens when you place the priorities back into your marriage. No matter how sprained or broken a marriage is, healing can and does take place.” (Weiss, 2001: 154) Attending marriage seminars might provide a clue for their future solution, but it is not enough. A structure is needed where couples can mentally focus their attention to put right insight into right practice in their daily lives.

What happened to Keishi and Kazumi? They faithfully incorporated the three dailies into their lives. They came to understand each other better. Keishi said, “Now I can accept my own wounds and weaknesses, and realize her pains and grief. One day God told me that you were created to bear her pain together. I found my heart filled with a passion for her.” Kazumi said, “I was amazed to feel so many emotions in my daily life, as well as to find many new aspects in Keishi. The more I know him, the closer I feel to him. It is like falling in love the second time.” It was difficult work at first, but it became easier over time, and now it has become a core value for both of them. They experienced not only a restored relationship as a couple, but also as a family. Keishi said, “I woke up at midnight and looked at my wife and our four children sleeping in the same room. I thought that I could die for them. It was the natural flow of my thoughts. However, I could not have said such a thing before our marriage was restored.” Their children also found a new sense of peace in their relationship with their parents and with each other. Blessings overflowed from the restored couple to their children.

Intimate Family Model

If Japanese people really seek to have relational intimacy among family members, they need to give up on trying to be rich, and prioritize building up their spouses with prayer, sharing and accepting of emotions, and affirming their love by giving and receiving praise. When the couple becomes healthier, they can become a good team in helping each other to raise up their children. When their children observe how their parents express intimacy in their daily life, they will have dignity and hope in their own lives. They could potentially form their own families after the ones in which they were raised. If family life TV dramas and commercial messages from a coffee company could imprint the ideal family image for the Japanese, how much more impact they will have when they have a real experience of intimacy in their family life. The DNA of intimacy will be planted in the families of the younger generation.

John White, a coach for house church planters, believes that the “Three Dailies” will be used not only to heal dysfunctional families, but also to bless all the families of the earth through healed families. He insisted that marriage is the basic discipleship group as well as the first and most foundational expression of the church. He encourages many Christian couples to start the “Three Dailies” and share their story with other couples to facilitate and train them to plant a church in their own home. Couples are trained and are accountable to other couples in the small church that meets in their living room. It is called an MTG, or Marriage Transformation Group (White, 2003). This group meets weekly and functions as a kind of house church. The benefits are: 1) each couple gets healthier, 2) each couple comes to the larger house church gatherings with significant needs already met, which results in healthier and more positive meetings, and 3) there is potential for rapid multiplication of churches because it is easy to teach other couples about practicing the basic disciplines and about being church.

This kind of healed community would be highly contagious in Japan because it is what people have been consistently seeking since the time of the last world war. Healed couples will multiply by sparking other couples to do the same thing. There is no need to train teachers or to produce textbooks. When a couple experiences intimacy through doing the “Three Dailies,” it is easy for them to teach a new couple because it is simple, organic and realistic. There is potential to multiply rapidly as a grass-roots movement. Now is the time to present this “Intimate Family Model” to Japanese society with testimonies by ordinary Christian couples. I believe that this model will appeal to many young couples who have little or no hope to maintain the living standard that their parents had. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3) The economic recession is a blessing for Japanese in the spiritual realm because they have an opportunity to see the kingdom of heaven expand through intimate family relationships of Christian couples.

In order to implement this new family model into Japanese society, Christians in Japan need a huge paradigm shift. We have been trained to think that church life is made up of religious programs led by sacred clergy in a holy church building. We thought that evangelism was inviting in evangelists twice a year. However, while we were involved in the religious programs in the church buildings on Sunday as well as possibly on Wednesday night, our family life was largely neglected. The same problems in the secular world are taking place in church, too. We have been suffering with ecclesiological dualism.

Marvin R. Wilson shares many practical teachings of marriage and the family for today’s Christian church from a Hebrew perspective. He asserts “the dinner table of the home became, as it were, the altar of the Temple.” (Wilson, 1989: 215) Eating is a spiritual instrument for religious service. At the table, the family sings while the father served as priest instructing his family in the words of the Scripture. The home reflecting God’s glory through prayer and praise was the original form of Christian community. We have missed the most powerful evangelistic weapon, that is, “a changed family life.” We rarely see couples who express their love toward their spouses in an adequate way. Roger Gehring correctly insists that houses served as bases of operations and meeting places for prayer, table fellowship, and teaching in the missional outreach of Jesus’ disciples (Gehring, 2004:295; cf. White, 2008). We need to renounce this dualism and reunite church with family, in order for the home to function as a house of prayer, as a house of study and as a house of assembly where community needs can be served. May all the couples in Japan experience Jesus among them, and function as the 24/7 Embassy of the Kingdom of God, in order to see the promise fulfilled, that "All the families of the earth will be blessed through you" (Genesis. 12:3).

Applications for Japan

Several couples have already experienced a new season in their marriage relationships through their steady practice of the “three dailies” but they have yet to release the potential of this new movement. Many Japanese couples, once they start the three dailies, taste the joyful fruit of restored relationships, but then stop after a couple of months. The reasons for their leaving off are probably three dimensional. The first dimension is an incomplete motivation to start the three dailies. A healthy relationship with their spouse at all costs is not enough for them. If the couple did not agree to invest the time for this exercise as their top priority for at least 100 days, they will not reap what they sow. The second dimension is a lacking of the vision to see that all the families of the earth would be blessed through restored families. Thus, the husband or wife is not understanding the contagiousness of the simple obedience that comes from loving their neighbour, which would be their spouse in these occasions. The third dimension is an insufficient support system for these couples. They need to be part of a spiritual, extended family where they can see, experience and be encouraged by models of intimate relationships in other couples who are already doing the three dailies regularly. Then they would be able to keep on trying to do the three dailies until these skills become a permanent, positive part of their marriage.

At least three measures should be taken for future development. First, both of the spouses need to have a written agreement to start the three dailies by a certain time over the next one hundred days. If they have an alternative timeframe, then that would be helpful, too. Secondly, the couple should be challenged to pray not only for their relationship but also their entire family. To pray in this way would help them to remind them that others need to be saved also. If the couple gets to know Jesus through seeing the intimate relationships of other couples, it would be easier for them to reproduce the process. They could do the same thing for other couples as they have learned from their mentors. Thirdly, accountability should be employed. The couple should decide together, and write down who their accountability person would be, how they will meet, making phones call and timing, etc. For example, if they agree together to implement an outside source of accountability if they miss more than three days of the three daily exercises, it would increase their motivation.

A longer version of this paper will be published by William Carey Library in early 2010 as a chapter A longer version of this paper will be published by William Carey Library in early 2010 as a chapter for the latest volume in the Buddhist World series, which includes Sharing Jesus in the Buddhist World, Sharing Jesus Holistically with the Buddhist World, Sharing Jesus Effectively in the Buddhist World and Communicating Christ in the Buddhist World (cf. http://missionbooks.org/williamcareylibrary/home.php?cat=38).

Bibliographic List

Gehring, W. Roger House Church and Mission: The Importance of Household Structures in Early Christianity, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2004.

Nishi, Fumihiko & Mari Kan, “Oya to Doukyo no Jyakunen Mikon-sha no Saikin no Jyokyo sono-1 (The Recent State of the Young Unmarried Persons Living with their Parents, No.1)” in Tokei (Statistics) August, 2005 ed. Nihon Tokei Kyokai (Japan Statistical Association: Tokyo, Japan, 2005, http://www.stat.go.jp/training/2kenkyu/zuhyou/parasit1.pdf

The Institute of Statistical Mathematics Kokumin-sei no Kenkyu: Dai 11-ji Zenkoku Chosa (The Research of National Character, 11^th National Investigation), Tokyo, Japan, 2004.

Toshihiro Mori “Kakusa-Shakai to Koukousei no Genjyo (The Gap-Widening Society and the State of High School Students)” in Kakusa-Shakai to Wakamono-no Mirai (The Gap-Widening Society and the Future of the Young Generation, ed., Zenkoku-Minshushugi-Kyoiku-Kenkyukai, Tokyo, Japan: Doji-sha, 2007.

Reich, Robert B. The Future of Success: Working and Living in the New Economy, New York, NY: Alfred A Knopf, 2000.

Sodegawa, Yoshiyuki, Yukari Hanashima, Masahiro Morizumi, Dankai to Dankai Junior no Kazokugaku: Heisei Kakudai Kazoku (Family Sociology for the Baby Boomers and Baby Boom Echo: The Extended Family in Heisei Era, Tokyo, Japan: Dentsu, 2005.

Weiss, Douglas Intimacy: A 100-Day Guide to Better Relationships, Lake Mary, FL: Siloam Press, 2001.

White, John, “A New Kind of LTG,” An e-mail letter in a personal E-List, named “House Church Coach”, April 30^th, 2003.

White, John, “Gehring: Church Centered in the Home,” LK10.com, 2008 http://lk10.com/practices-and-patterns/simple-church/gehring--church-centered-in-the-home.html

Wilson, Marvin R. Our Father Abraham: Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith, Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1989.

Yamada, Masahiro Meiso-suru Kazoku: Sengo Kazoku Model no Keisei to Kaitai (Runaway Family : Declining of Postwar Family Model in Japan, Tokyo, Japan: Yuhikaku, 2005.

Brief report of House Churches Movement in Myanmar.

2009-10-29T14:19:00.000-07:00

I went to New Zealand in 2003 and became friend with pastor Tony Collis and his wife Lynette.He came to Myanmar (4) times in 2005, introduced and shared us the ministry of Micro Churches Movement.

Pastor Tony conducted the seminars in 4 different cities in Myanmar in 2005.We brcame understand the differences of Elephant church and Rabbit church.Our spiritual eyes became open to see and to know the streadgies of planting Micro churches and Micro Businesses,

Pastor Tony keep and touch with us by equipping and supporting to plant the micro churches and micro businesses in the different regions in Myanmar. This, is great privilege for our people to be saved.

After first seminar in early 2005 we started planting micro churches.

Month / Year No of Micro Churches No of Believers

March 2005 20 63

Dec 2005 152 751

Jan 2006 181 895

Sept 2006 503 2,507

Jan 2007 1,217 5,735

Dec 2007 3,700 13,300

Jan 2008 3,840 13,860

Oct 2008 3,953 13,922

Jan 2009 5,189 20,237

June 2009 6,119 23,159

Due to Nagis cyclone on 2nd May 2008, atleast 400 micro churches and 1,600 believers were lost in the delta region, Myanmar.

We can equip,train and produce micro church leaders in the different places in Myanmar.We also train the new believers to become the spiritual mature christians and to be good followers of Jesus Christ.We can create micro businesses to support their local house churches to grow more leaders,more micro churches and more new believers. Praise God for extending and expanding His Kingdom in Myanmar by the streadgies of House church Movement

The Indispensable Key to the Unfinished Task - Elizabeth Adleta

2009-10-29T14:08:00.000-07:00

Ethnê is the Greek word Jesus used for “nation”—a word which means tribe, ethnic group or people. Our world today has 6.4 billion individuals living in 234 geo-political nations but over 16,000 ethnê, or people groups, by country. Of those ethnê, more than 6,000 groups remain least-reached. This simply means they are a people group lacking an indigenous community of believing Christians with adequate numbers and resources to evangelize their own people group. Studies have revealed that until a group has greater than 2% evangelical Christians, it simply does not have enough critical mass to reach its own group with the gospel. This means 1 in 4 people still remain without reasonable access to the gospel—the Forgotten One Fourth World. The Ethnê Movement is simply the Body of Christ together--individuals, churches and agencies--peoples glorifying God among all peoples, Ethnê to Ethnê, this generation!

Why are these groups still “least-reached” after so many years of prayer and missionary effort? Significant barriers exist which keep these groups bound in the darkness of tribalism, Hinduism, atheism, Islam, Buddhism, shamanism, the occult, and other spiritual strongholds. Geographic barriers remain which limit access to these groups. The peoples may live in remote regions as yet inaccessible to most of the outside world. The climate of their region may be harsh and inhospitable, making access difficult. They may be nomadic or semi-nomadic, moving periodically to follow their herds or available water; reaching these groups requires specialized strategies which are adapted to this continual movement.

There are linguistic barriers which keep the gospel from these 6,600+ groups. Over 2,500 languages remain without Scripture. Many languages used are unwritten and some peoples are illiterate or semi-literate; oral means of communicating the gospel must be developed and employed for them to receive an adequate presentation of the good news so that they can understand and respond. In some areas, the language is so permeated with opposing religious understandings that the resulting terminology confusion is itself a significant barrier to the gospel.

Political barriers exist in many parts of the world which restrict access by believers to the people groups living within. Evangelism may be forbidden, the practice of Christianity illegal, or the people may live in hostile environments which are experiencing war or terrorism which hinders the practice and transmission of the Christian faith.

Beyond politics, linguistics and geography though, there are often significant social and cultural barriers to the gospel which prevent the spread of Christianity within groups. Those practicing Christianity may be isolated or rejected altogether from the society. Persecution of Christians makes conversion and the practice of Christianity exact a high price from its followers. Change of any sort may be viewed with skepticism and fear. Often Christianity has come in such a foreign seeming package that it is not seen as relevant or appropriate.

There is yet one other key reason why many groups remain “least-reached”—they may simply be unrecognized as needing witness. Believers may be living nearby but simply not “see” the peoples and opportunities to share the good news may be ignored or neglected. Some groups are resented or even hated by the very Christians who should be sharing the message. At times, the people groups have come as refugees, immigrants, asylum-seekers, who compete for limited resources and jobs with resident believers. The people groups may be perceived as second class or misfits by believers; in these cases, the prejudice of believers creates huge barriers to the gospel. Some people groups are small in size and simply not considered “worth the effort”. Or, the people group may isolate itself in attempts to preserve its language and culture in a foreign setting—and this very isolation itself is the barrier to receiving God’s message of love and forgiveness.

Where are these groups located? Over 600 least-reached people groups live in South Pacific and Southeast Asia; many are either Muslim or Buddhist in this region. Every year just following the Global Day of Prayer on Pentecost Sunday in May, the Ethnê HeLPS Initiative (Harvest-Linked Prayer Strategies) begins praying for the least-reached peoples of this region, moving then east to west, region by region. Outreaches and prayer journeys focused on the least-reached are encouraged for each region for the 90 days during & immediately following the month of global prayer. Over 3.5 million believers around the world pray along with this initiative. In Northeast Asia, nearly 500 groups remain, many of which are found in China; prayer for the groups of this region comes in July each year. The Chinese Church is actively working to bring the gospel to the groups in their own nation, but their effectiveness may be limited by the resentment these groups may hold against Chinese who are viewed as oppressors. In South Asia, more than 100 people groups follow a form of Buddhism and there have been wholesale conversions to Buddhism from Hinduism by Dalit groups seeking to escape the repression of their caste system. The Church of South India still struggles to address these issues and reach across the lines of caste to incarnate the message of Jesus Christ to peoples of every group. August is the month for prayer for these groups. In fact, the largest single block of least-reached peoples are the Hindu groups of South Asia—over 2,000 of them. The good news is that church planting movements are growing in many areas of this region and beginning to penetrate some of these groups, but a mammoth task remains here and militant Hindus strongly oppose and persecute Christians in many areas. September brings the HeLPS focus to this region’s Hindu peoples. Over 500 Muslim groups also live in South Asia; because of the threat of terrorism and political strife, bringing the gospel to the Muslim groups is quite a challenge so the prayer in October for these groups is vital. Central Asia is home to nearly 800 people groups with limited access to the gospel. Political instability and repressive governments hinder the spread of Christianity in this region but the annual prayer every November is making a difference. Over 350 groups live in the Middle East and North Africa—the epicenter of political instability in the world and home to many of Christianity’s competitors. As we celebrate the birth of Christ in this region every December, we also remember to pray for these remaining least-reached people of this region. Eastern and Southern Africa still hosts over 350 people groups with little access to the gospel. And we begin the new year in January directing our prayers to the Lord’s Throne for these groups. Over four hundred fifty groups live in West and Central Africa; February is the month of prayer for this region’s groups. Nearly 200 peoples find their home in Eastern Europe and Eurasia, including the former Soviet Union and another 200 now live in Western Europe. March brings our prayer to Eastern Europe and Eurasia’s groups followed in April by prayer for the groups in Western Europe. Many of these groups are “new faces” to the region, having immigrated fleeing war or famine or seeking jobs or education. Over 200 groups still live in the Americas and Caribbean—and probably over another 200 uncounted groups still live along the Amazon River alone in Brazil. These hidden tribes migrate continually and avoid contact with the outside world as much as possible. Little is known about them except that they do exist. A new partnership is exclusively focusing on learning about them and developing effective ways to reach them with God’s love. We move toward the Global Day of Prayer each year by concluding the year of prayer for these least-reached peoples and preparing our hearts to begin the cycle once again, trusting that every prayer is significant and is making a difference to bring His Light to the Forgotten One Fourth World!

Prayer is certainly one way that you too can become involved in changing this neglected segment of our world today. Prayer changes things! We know that Jesus observed that the harvest fields were already white for harvest; the problem was the laborers were few. His solution? Ask the Lord of the Harvest to thrust forth workers. [Luke 10:2]

Prayer ushers us into God’s presence as we turn our faces and hearts to seek Him. As Isaiah saw the Lord, high and lifted up on His Throne, he realized his own sinfulness and the sinfulness of his people which brought him to a place of confession and repentance. God’s response was to cleanse his lips. Prayer sensitizes us to our own neediness and places us in a position to confess and receive forgiveness from the Lord equipping us to be more effective in prayer and ministry. [Isaiah 6]

When Isaiah’s lips were cleansed, then he heard the Lord speaking, “Who shall I send and who will go for us?” Intimacy with God opens our ears to hear His heart. As we delight ourselves in Him, His desires become our desires. Prayer further reveals God’s plans so we can cooperate with them.

Prayer invites God’s presence and participation in the process. God has chosen to move His hand in response to believing prayer. He has delegated to us as His children authority to come into His presence and ask. Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross rent the veil and opened the way into the Holy of holies that we might come with full assurance of faith and bring our requests to Him.

Prayer removes hindrances to the gospel and prepares the hearts of unbelievers to hear and respond. The Word tells us that Satan has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel apart from the revelation of the Holy Spirit. As we pray, the Holy Spirit moves to warm the hearts of those to whom we speak, preparing the way for them to understand and receive Jesus as their Savior and Lord.

Prayer releases resources for the task. An old saying goes, “what is God’s will is God’s bill.” God has promised to meet all our needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Surely as we trust in Him and work to accomplish His purposes in the earth, we will surely find Him graciously providing all that is necessary to do just that.

Nehemiah was on mission with the Lord in rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem. He encountered severe opposition all along the way. His response was to pray, over and over again. When the attacks came, Nehemiah prayed. Prayer ensures protection for the workers and the work. As we cry out to the Lord when the enemy comes in like a flood, we raise up the standard of the blood of Jesus and the enemy is routed.

Prayer releases spiritual power to fulfill the call of God. Jesus specifically instructed His disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on High. The Holy Spirit comes to give us power to BE His witnesses to the ends of the earth. He anoints us with the supernatural ability to know what to do and how to get there as He directs us.

Prayer exercises divine authority to change situations and people. Whatever the challenge that stands in the way of the gospel of Jesus Christ, nothing is any match for His authority and power when we pray in His will. Jesus assured His disciples that all authority in heaven and on earth was His. The basis of His command to go into all the earth to preach the gospel, baptize, and make disciples was predicated on this authority and its delegation to His disciples. We also know from scripture that Jesus holds the keys of David to open the door that no man can shut and to shut the door that no man can open. Matthew 18 also tells us that what we bind in heaven will be bound on earth and what we loose in heaven will be loosed on earth. As we pray, situations and people are changed by His power.

We see in Ephesians 6 that we are clothed in heavenly armor for the battle and prayer IS that battle and prayer maintains the victory. [Ephesians 6]

How then can we specifically pray for these least-reached peoples of the Forgotten One Fourth World?

1. Pray that Jesus thrusts forth more than enough workers to every place where they are needed and that they are equipped to BE His witnesses, living the message of good news. [John 4:35]

2. Pray that believers will see those whose hearts are already prepared by the Holy Spirit and that they will share the gospel with them in a way that they can understand and receive. [Luke 10:2]

3. Pray that believers work together in the unity of the Spirit keeping the bond of peace, so that the world recognizes that our message is true. [1 Cor. 3:9]

4. Pray that God meets the needs of His workers according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus so that they have seed for the sower and bread for the eater. [2 Cor. 9:8-11]

5. Pray that much fruit that remains abounds for His glory throughout every people group globally. [Matt. 4:20]

What else could be done? Join the Ethnê Movement. Visit www.ethne.net for further updates and information and to connect with the active strategy groups: prayer, holistic gospel movements, crisis response, member care, worker mobilization and training, ethno-arts, information/research, and youth. You may email prayer@ethne.net with questions or for more information. Encourage others to join you in praying and reaching out to groups near you and around the world. Subscribe to the monthly Global Prayer Digest for regular prayer points and daily devotions; visit www.global-prayer-digest.org to read their items online or to subscribe to a text copy delivered daily to your email box. Research the groups beginning with Joshua Project www.joshuaproject.net/ethne.php and use their new prayer cards in 6 languages to pray regularly and to mobilize others to pray. Visit www.prayerguard.net/ethne for 3-minute scripture-based prayers for specific least-reached people groups. Be a promoter of prayer for these groups with Etnopedia—an outstanding website providing people group profiles in 12 different languages www.etnopedia.org. Help Etnopedia provide these profiles in your own language by offering to translate; information is available on their website on how to volunteer. Give finances to support work among the least-reached peoples. Take a prayer journey or short term missions trip to work among these groups. Better yet, prepare and go as a full time worker. Mission to Unreached Peoples is one of the many excellent agencies that focuses exclusively on these least-reached peoples using cutting edge, culturally appropriate strategies and can help take you from home base to the field; visit www.mup.org to learn more.