Healthy Church

The main thing we teach our CP's is about God's purpose and goal and how we can reach them. God's purpose comes from Habakkuk 2:14- "For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." God's goal is seen in two places in Revelation- 5:9-"And they sang a new song: "You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. " and 7:9- "After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands." So, in church planting, our purpose and goal needs to be the same as that of God. If they are different or they do not line up with God's, our plans will fail.
We teach them that the key to reaching God's ultimate goal is through healthy church. However, many church planters do not know what healthy church is, so we have to teach them and show them what healthy church is from the Bible.

1. 1 Goal and Purpose- God's Glory- The church has to have the same purpose as God- that his glory cover the earth; and same goal- that every person come to salvation. If the church's purpose and goal is not in line with God's, there is no health and the rest does not matter.
2. 2 Authorities- God's word and the Holy Spirit. This does not excuse us from other authorities as believers. In fact, we are directed by God's word to submit to authority, so we are not free from following the law. The Holy Spirit is given by God, and we know that the Holy Spirit will not do anything against God, so the church must be led by God to be healthy.
3. 3 Offices- Pastor, Deacon and Treasurer. We know from scripture- Ephesians 4:11-12- "It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up" The term used here is pastor, and is also seen in some translations as "shepherds." It means to give care to the believers in the church and to teach/equip them for works of service. The job of pastor is one who equips the body of believers. If 80% of the work in the church is done by 20% of the people, and much more done by the pastor, whose fault is it? It is the pastor's fault for not equipping God's people for works of service. He is to equip those to be apostles (missionaries), prophets, evangelists and even other pastors. Paul gives the qualifications for pastors in 1Timothy 3:1-7. Deacon is the second office that is needed in the healthy church. We see this modeled in Acts 6. The Apostles told the church to appoint deacons to take care of the needs of the believers. The deacons are the servants of the church, and are to take that responsibility. The qualifications for deacon are given by Paul in 1 Timothy 3:8-12. The third is a treasurer who takes care of the money taken in church as tithes and offerings. This keeps the pastor from accusation of dishonesty with the money. Also, his job is already busy enough equipping the believers; he really has no time to deal with the money. The same goes for deacons; they are busy serving the church. The church planter doesn't need to handle the money because he is probably working around other places and also might be seen as untrustworthy after handling the money. The treasurer, however, should be one who is trustworthy, but is given responsibility to hold the money. He is not the one who decides what to do with the money but only the one who holds it and gives it out at the decision of the church. We do not have any scripture references regarding the qualifications of a treasurer, but we know they are needed and we can assume that the qualifications are similar to that of deacons. Actually, we can follow Jesus' example of this. Jesus was accused of many things- being a drunkard, associating with sinners, breaking the Sabbath, being demon possessed, and even blasphemy. However, He was never accused of mishandling money. Why? He had a treasurer, though maybe not the best choice for the job in Judas! The treasurer's job is to protect church leadership from accusation. If any one of these three offices are not present, the church cannot be healthy.
4. 4 Marks of Maturity/Self Sufficiency- Self-Governing, Self-Supporting, Self-Reproducing and Self-Correcting. By Self Governing we mean that a healthy church can make decisions for itself without any outside influence, such as the church planter or missionary. Who was it that chose the first deacons in Acts 6:1-7? The church! The apostles instructed the church to appoint them, but there was no debate when the decision was made. The apostles trusted the leading of the Holy Spirit in the church to choose the right men and they left the decision to the church. They empowered them to govern themselves and it went well for them in the future when the church was scattered by persecution. A church dependent upon the apostles may have been destroyed by this troubled time. A Self Supporting church must have ownership of its function. It means that the ministry and outreach the church performs is fueled by its own resources. Acts 2:44-45, the believers had everything in common and gave to anyone as they had need. Acts 4:34-36, there was no needy person among them. People sold land and the money was distributed to any who had need. Other scripture regarding self-supporting is in Acts 11:29, 2 Cor. 9:10-15, and Philip. 4:14-19. If funds continually come from the outside, the church cannot be self-sufficient and becomes dependent upon others to provide. Also, the church never have to be taught about giving because of the support they receive. Until the church practices disciplined giving, dependence will keep the church from becoming healthy which limits the spread of the Gospel. Self-Reproducing means that the church is able to send apostles from its own body and plant other churches. The healthy church will take responsibility to evangelize its field and reproduce other churches. Paul talks about this in 1 Thessalonians 1:7-8; that they became a model to all believers in Macedonia and Achaia, and that their faith in God has become known everywhere. The church is called to be an example and multiply, and only by multiplication will the kingdom of God grow quickly. Healthy churches reproduce new believers and new churches. The last is self-correcting. A healthy church has a firm grip on scripture as its guide, and a proper use of scripture shows that health. 2 Timothy 3:16 says, "All scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness," Scripture must be the source of teaching and training and can be trusted for rebuking and correcting as well. Again, we can say that the two authorities of the healthy church are scripture and the Holy Spirit. Just like an infant is dependent in the early part of its life, so is the developing church. However, when the child is helped to grow correctly, it grows into a self dependent and self sufficient adult. If the early church is developed correctly and is encouraged and taught to be dependent upon itself, it can grow into a self-sufficient healthy body. On the other hand, an adult who is still dependent upon its parents to feed it and make decisions for it is silly. In the same way, an older church that is dependent upon a church planter for teaching and decision making or outside funds for support is just as silly.
5. 5 Functions of Healthy Church- Worship, Fellowship, Evangelism, Discipleship and Ministry/Service. We get these functions from two passages of scripture- In the Great Commandment, Matthew 22:37-39- "Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' " From this we get three of the functions. Worship is the expression of love toward God. Anything that the church does as an expression of love toward God is worship. That could be singing, giving, praying and acts of obedience to His word. Fellowship is loving the body of Christ. Believers have two kinds of neighbors- lost people and believers. Loving our brothers and sisters in Christ is fellowship, and any act of love toward our spiritual family is fellowship- praying for one another, giving to those brothers/sisters who have needs, and carrying each others burdens are all acts of fellowship. Ministry- we are also to love our lost neighbors. Showing the love of Christ through our actions and attitudes is ministry. In order for the church to be healthy, it needs to consider these acts of love as a strategic aspect of its function. In other words- serving the sick and the needy but not sharing the Gospel with them while doing this is not the function of a healthy church. God wants to draw people to Himself through our actions, but those actions need to lead to an opportunity to share Christ with the lost. Serving people's earthly needs is important, but their eternal needs must also be addressed. The last two functions are found in the Great Commission, Matthew 28:18-20- " Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Evangelism means to go and make disciples; share the Gospel with those who have not heard. It may also be called missions. According to Acts 1:8, this can be done locally and at great distances. For a healthy church, doing evangelism/missions should be a part of everyday life. Discipleship means to teach others to obey everything Jesus has commanded. A healthy church is actively focused on moving believers forward in their relationship with Christ. The church must plan to provide tools and accountability. The five functions of a healthy church can be seen in the 1st church in Acts 2:41-47. If you look at the passage of what this church was doing, you can find the five functions happening. All 5 functions of the church should be happening for the church to be healthy. If any one of them are missing, then the church is unable to be the key to reaching God's purpose and goal.

These are the things that compose a healthy church. The basic functions are all there for church health, and all backed by scripture and examples given by God. There are some things the church should do that are not mentioned here like baptizing new believers, taking the Lord's Supper and giving. However, if the basic functions of the church are addressed, then these other functions are realized through the leading of the two authorities- God's word and the Holy Spirit. Through these, the church will see them as necessary functions as well and will do them in submission to those authorities.
I realize this has been a long post, but I felt since we have been really stressing to our church planters the need for them to plant healthy churches, that I needed to share this. Test your own church in these and see if they are happening. I'm proud to be part of a church that is doing all the above mentioned things to grow God's kingdom not only locally but globally. I am also proud to be witness to national brothers here in South Asia who are catching this vision and working within the plan of God- that they see the key to realizing God's purpose and goal fulfilled in this place is through healthy church.

Change Your World View

This past week, we had our monthly meeting of the 14 we are training- a time of sharing and teaching. This meeting was probably the most meat-filled, solid life practical teaching we have had together since we have been meeting these last 6 months.

The first day, we always come together for relational time where the guys share their successes in church planting and ministry. We have seen some good growth from these guys- the kind of growth that has started from a good seed.

The second day, we taught on observing the Lord's Supper, and surprisingly many of them had some good questions- we were able to clear up their questions and confusions surrounding this sacred time that a body of believers does together. First, we asked the question of what does the Lord's Supper mean to us as believers. Then, we looked at what the Bible says about it. We all came away with a much deeper meaning of what the Lord's Supper is, and we remembered the Lord through Lord's Supper together. With this, they should be able to teach their churches the meaning of it and model it for them, so it does not lose its meaning.

We also taught on Tithing- reasons for giving, how much to give, how to give, etc. Again, many questions were raised, and we looked at scripture together to find the answers. Many times, it is easy to try to give our answers to these questions, but we forget that our authority in our lives is God and God's Word. It has been a critical time for us to instill this into these men of the importance of scripture and how it MUST guide their lives and ministry.

The last day, we brought up something we have noticed lately when spending time in the field with our guys. Our translator, who is one of the guys we are training, asked me a question about water and oil, and how many believers in this part of the world bring these things for the pastor or church leader to pray over and take them home and use them. He asked if I knew of anything in the Bible that taught on these subjects. I could only think of the passage in James 5 where it talks about the sick brother who should call the elders to pray over them, annoint them with oil in the name of the Lord for healing. I visited one of our guys soon after this, and to my surprise, while we were praying in a house, our church planter brought in a cup of water. After we prayed for the house, no one drank it and the church planter then handed the cup of water to the house owner and said something to him in the local language. It happened at another house soon after, to which I asked our translator about it. We decided to bring it up during our next meeting, because most likely there were others who were practicing this in their ministry. So, we brought it up. To our amazement, 90% said yes to the question about whether it is right to pray over water or oil for healing purposes. This led us to a discussion about worshiping or putting our faith in created things other than the creator. That when we do this, we are making the name of Jesus meaningless- we are taking the name of the Lord in vain. It is idolotry, and idolotry is a sin. The object does not have the power. God has the power to heal. The discussion opened up, and after an hour of back and forth discussion, all changed their yes's to no's- some more enthusiastically than others, but I think God's Word made its point. It is amazing what the Bible can teach us if we just open it up, read it and study it.

Like I said, this was a great time (probably one of our best) of teaching and learning together. And, even though we are teaching, we are learning right along with these guys. My team-mate and I looked at each other during many of these discussions and said-"This would never be an issue in the U.S." It is a different world we are viewing here. So much of the Bible is living itself out right in front of us here in South Asia- more so than I would ever have imagined it.

God's love and grace is enough to cover it all.

2nd Generation

One of our main goals here is to equip nationals to plant churches that plant churches, so that we can have an out of our control/in God's control CPM. We have taken 14 and have been training them to be master trainer/church planters. One of the 14 has taken this to heart. I wrote not too long ago that he was skeptical about our method at first, of finding the man of peace in the village (from Luke 10:1-11). He went out on his own and used the Luke 10 method to see if it would work. To his amazement, God showed him 7 new villages with persons of peace. Since then, he has been on fire to continue and progress with these churches and get them to a healthy state so that they too can send out leaders to new places and find men of peace. He has also taken our training and taught 10 of his own existing church planters the methods we are teaching from the Bible. He challenged all of them to go to new villages that God leads them to and find men of peace. One has found 4 new places with 4 men of peace, all of them have accepted Christ and are now beginning to meet for church in their house. So, with just over 7 months of intensive training with our CP's, one has taken the challenge and ran with it. Even though, so far, only one out of 14 is really taking off, one is all that God needs to work with to bring glory to Himself and increase His kingdom on earth. Now the task is, as I said, to get these places to be healthy, solid churches that can one day send out leaders to new villages to build the kingdom. It is exciting what God is doing in this place.

Notes From The Field

I have just returned from four days on the field, and I had an encouraging time visiting 3 of our 14 this past week. We went with Paul*, whom I had visited with a couple of months back. He was excited to find people in a new place interested in the Gospel. Paul has been going back there often, and has 2 men of peace in this village of fishermen. One of them was always drinking alcohol and getting drunk. He would argue with his wife and children. He had been listening to the Gospel from Paul*, but hadn't accepted. One day, one of their children was sick, but he had no money to take him to the doctor. He remembered that he could pray to Jesus for help, and the next day, someone gave him money to see the doctor- the exact amount needed! From then he has been believing more. One night, his wife had terrible stomach pain. It was 1 o'clock, so no doctors were available at that time. He prayed to Jesus to heal her. Immediately, she felt better! Since seeing God's power, he has repented and believed. He no longer drinks and he feels peace in his heart. He has been a witness of how God can change lives. Many others have seen the change in him, and it is only a matter of time before this village begins to accept Jesus. Church meetings take place every week in their house, and Paul* is teaching him the things we teach Paul*. Praise the Lord!
I visited with another of our 14, Matthew*. Recently, he had 2 young men come to know Jesus. They went and shared with one of their friends, and he accepted Christ. I taught all three about assurance of salvation in the Bible, and also about baptism, as they have not taken it yet. They have been believers now for 1 month, and their friend for 1 week. One of Matthew's* church planters that he has been teaching, has had 5 people in a village he has been sharing in come to him wanting to know more about Jesus. On Saturday, December 6, he and Matthew* are going to share the gospel with them. We are praying that they receive it and become fishers of men!
I also received word from my team member about another of our 14, who I was not visiting this week. James*, who has a network of CP's and a mission organization, has been very forward about pushing his guys to do the things we are teaching. He himself committed in his plan to visit 6 new villages. However, running a network and organization, he has been very busy and unable to visit any new villages. James* called and he had taken Thomas*, another of our 14 who lives near him, with him to a new village. He said that he was excited to have found a person of peace and that they accepted Christ as their savior!
Slowly and little by little, our 14 are catching the vision. Once we get more of them to consistently do what we are teaching, and coming back to report to the entire group to rejoice, the whole group will begin to move forward even quicker.
Pray for our 14, that they continue to put into practice the things we are learning together, and that they remember that planting churches is not enough- they need to plant churches that plant churches. That is how over 1 billion souls have a chance to hear and respond to the Gospel of Jesus!
*Names of 14 changed to Apostle names for security.

BPI- A Must for CPM Training

Well I and the family have been doing our best to survive the rains, floods, start of homeschooling BOTH kids- one in 6th and one starting Kindergarten. Tough enough on its own, but in a foriegn country, I have to admit, is a monumental task. My wife has done a great job juggling the 2 kids schooling, and my daughter has really toughed it up by being self starting- mostly. She is doing well, and getting used to doing things on her own, and then my wife checks all her work and helps her understand what she just finished. I have been home preparing for upcoming trainings, so have been able to help with some of the schooling.

We went to another city for BPI- Best Practice Institute, training Strategy Coordinators in CPM work. It was an 8 day course that our company puts on and any GCC, national CPM partner and company personnell can attend. Company personnel are required to take the course. For someone who has trouble organizing thoughts and plans of action, this gave me real tools to use in the upcoming work we are going to be doing the next year. It also gave me much clearer vision to do what God is calling us to do here, and with the daunting task of reaching 90 million strategically through our focus people group, I have a much better understanding about how CPM should work through the biblical model given by God. I am way fired up to really pour these best practices into our 14 CP's in the coming year, and as the bible says in Mark 4:26-29, God will cause the growth of the CPM whether we sleep or get up. That gives us an enormous responsibility to have faith and trust that God will bless the sowing that we do. It is an exciting time, and the BPI was just what I needed at this time. Once training starts, I and my partner will be splitting and going separate ways to meet with our CP's to train and equip them to train others to also become trainers of others (2 Timothy 2:2). I cannot wait to give updates on progress. Anyone who still reads this blog, I apologize for the lack of updates lately. Just not much going on, but when it does, you will have much to read. I promise to keep updates frequent. All I need is a promise that you would pray for us, and the task we are trying to accomplish for God.

Rejoice!!

Our training in specific areas goes on over a 4 meeting period, with a couple of weeks in between meetings. I recently finished the first training which was a two day event about 1 hour from where we live. About 125 believers, 37 of whom were baptized after the training, were in attendance. Our first training consists of challenging them with the statistics of how many of their fellow people are dying without even knowing about the salvation that Jesus has made for us. The numbers here are astonishing. Every day about 2400 people die in our state, the majority of whom are going to hell because they had never heard of Jesus. So there needs to be a sense of urgency to share the Gospel and give everyone the same chance that they have been given- a chance at salvation.

We do this by teaching them how to share the gospel, because many do not know how and think that they need to bring someone to a pastor or church leader for them to be saved. This issue is solved by teaching them Matthew 28:18-20: that Jesus has given all of us the authority to go and make disciples. We teach them a method of sharing the gospel that is very easy for them to understand and remember, even though they may be illiterate. It is called 2-3-4. The 2 represents the Gospel, which has 2 parts- The first part is (1)Your Story or Testimony, and the second part is (2)His Story, or Jesus' story. Your story has 3 parts- (1)Your life before Christ, (2)How you met Christ, and (3)Your life after Christ. His story has four parts- (1)Judgement, (2)Repentance, (3)Jesus' sacrifice to take the punishment or the judgement for our sins, and (4)God raised Jesus to new life so that we could also have new life. We also teach them Romans 10:9, that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

We then challenge them to write out a list of all the people that they know who need to know Jesus. These are family members, friends, shop owners, etc. They are then to pray for God to lead them to the ones who will be most receptive to the Gospel, and share it with them using
2-3-4. They are to share with at least 5 people per week and tell the group the results during the next meeting. This is a way of showing them that we must be accountable to each other.

Yesterday, I did a 2nd training meeting with this group. The group dropped from 125 people to 60, but the results about their sharing was incredible. Some did not share, others shared with some, but many shared with at least 10 people if not more. We tallied up the totals and over 200 people heard the gospel for the very first time. We also counted how many accepted, and OVER 120 PEOPLE ARE NOW NEW BELIEVERS AND FOLLOWERS OF JESUS!! So, as the title of this post says, REJOICE!!

I reinforced to them on the great job they did, and told them that even though some of the people did not accept Jesus, those people have the seed of the Gospel planted in their hearts and minds and it is up to them to make the choice to follow Jesus now. We cannot force them to follow, only show them the way and let them decide.

So now, our next trainings are to encourage the people to continue to share the gospel, but then also teach them 2-3-4 and help them to start sharing the gospel also. We have also told them that they can baptize the new believers, as this is the first step of obedience to being a follower of Jesus. The teaching we are giving them, they are to begin grouping those new believers and teach them the things we are teaching them. We follow Paul's pattern in Acts, and through his letters where he entrusted his teaching of the Gospel to obedient and faithful men and women who would also go and teach it to others.

I look forward to meeting these obedient followers of Jesus again, and see how many more people have heard the Gospel and are now followers of Jesus. What's that sound? It's either the devil stomping mad or all God's people rejoicing! (Or both!)

Authority

As believers in Christ, we have to know that we have authority to do the things that Jesus has commanded us to do. Matthew 28:18-20 says that all authority in heaven and earth has been given to Jesus, and he then turned and gave all disciples the authority to go and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey everything Jesus has commanded. We have this authority as believers and disciples of Christ. In 1 Peter 2:9, we are told that we are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that we may declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into His wonderful light. WE, ALL BELIEVERS AND DISCIPLES OF CHRIST, are the priests of Christianity. We have authority to do the things Jesus has commanded in His name!

I recently finished a two day training in a village outside of our city with about 125 believers, 90% of which are brand new believers (within the last 3 months) and part of our training is to empower every new believer and let them know that they have the authority to do these things. Since God is our Everlasting Rock, we should trust in Him forever (Isaiah 26:4). And since all scripture is God-breathed and good for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16), then we should also trust the Bible.

The area we are in, many are Hindu, and their whole lives they have been brought up to think that the Hindu priests are the only ones who are able to talk to the gods for them. Even when they become believers, they still think that the leaders or pastors or teachers that they listen to are the only ones that can pray for them and ask God for healing or help in their situations. After re-instating the above facts of their authority from God during our training, they still came to me and my interpreter, who is a pastor, for prayers for themselves, their husbands, children, animals, homes, etc. It saddened me to realize that they are still locked into thinking that they cannot possibly communicate with the Heavenly Father, even though they are believers. While it says in scripture we should ask for our elders to pray over us in the name of the Lord (James 5:14), we must also know that we are able to communicate and pray directly with God because of the sacrifice Jesus made to allow us to be in right relationship with God. It may take a long time to help these people understand what they are able to do with the new life they have been risen to. This is the reason we train new beleivers instead of just telling them to attend a church.

Please pray for these new believers that they understand that God wants to hear from them. He wants them to cry out to Him and rely on Him, not just pastors and leaders of the church. 37 of these new believers were baptized yesterday after we left. HALLELUIA! They have taken the first step of obedience in their committment to follow Jesus.