The Only Way to Disciple Whole Nations:
Church Multiplication by Tentmakers
David S. Lim, Ph.D.
We have come to the Third Millennium, which is almost 2,000 years since our Lord Jesus gave His Great Commission to “make disciples of all nations” (Mt. 28:19-20). With His full authority over heaven and earth (v.18), and with his promise to build His church without hindrance from the powers of hell (16:18), why has His church failed to finish the job? Why is one-third of the world’s populations still largely unreached? May I humbly venture to suggest a possibility: the church has failed to faithfully move in His wisdom! The challenge before us is to think, plan and work strategically under the guidance of the Holy Spirit!
For the past two millennia, the church has been working on a self-defeating (or counter-productive) strategy, thereby disabling herself to mobilize the whole church to reach the whole world. The early church was doing quite well, until Constantine made the church shift into the slow-paced mode of operation. If we continue this slow expansion, we will not be able to evangelize the world in another 1,000 years! Since AD 313, when Christianity became a state religion, the church has become dependent on “full-time missionaries” to reach the nations! It’s no longer the whole church, but only a few “called ones” who answer the Great Commission to be witnesses for Christ to the ends of the earth!
A. What? The alternative mission strategy
Instead, the church should have remained under a “total mobilization” mode. In the early church, cross-cultural (and local) missions had been done by almost all believers (Ac.8:1,4;11:19-21). Simple believers who scattered due to persecution in Jerusalem just used their homes to reach their neighbors and disciple them for Christ. As the saying goes, “Everyone with Christ is a missionary, and everyone without Christ is a mission-field.”
In this strategy, cross-cultural missions happen “naturally” through all believers (so-called “lay-people”) making disciples of other (newer and/or younger) believers, and also being encouraged to migrate, work or study among the unreached as “tentmakers” (i.e. Christians using their vocations to go among the unreached to be models and witnesses for Christ). Like the Apostle Paul, these “bi-vocationals” would not only be supporting themselves, but also subsidizing their co-workers and even helping the poor (Acts 20:34-35)!
Or better, global missions will be mainly through sending our leading disciple-makers to train Christians near the major unreached peoples to do this “natural” church multiplication strategy (or “church planting movement”). They will aim to disciple just a few (perhaps a dozen, like what our Lord Jesus did in His earthly ministry) “faithful people who will be able to teach others also” (2 Tim.2:2). To go cross-cultural, these disciplers just have to focus on a few contacts who are bi-lingual or bi-cultural; and these disciples will be able, usually within a few months’ time, to make new disciples among their compatriots through the “natural” webs of relationships (esp. kin and friends) – almost always with greater effectively, more cultural sensitivity and faster “multiplier effect.”
The best instance that I know of was done by an American tentmaker in China. After a few weeks in China, he sought God’s guidance for the fastest way to evangelize his target people. He thought of one strategy: win one convert to Christ each day. But he calculated that even if he faithfully did this, he would hardly make a dent among his people-group of 6 million souls! He was 25 years old, so if he retired at 65, he had 40 years to make 365 converts per year, that totals only less than 15,000. So at the end of 40 years of faithful ministry, there will still be 5,985,000 still unreached!
Then he thought of a second strategy: together with his Chinese Christian friends, they will form 20 church planting teams, each planting one church per year. With a church for every 1,200 people in the region, he needed to plant at least 5,000 churches. How many years will it take to plant 5,000 churches, if 20 are planted per year? 250 years! By then, at least 8 generations would have died, and the population would have increased to 60 million or more!
It’s good that he knew of the explosive growth in the house church networks in China. So he though of a third strategy: rapid church multiplication through planting reproducible churches! That means, each church should be able to plant another church within one year. The result? He can plant 5,000 churches within 13.25 years only! Achievable! The key is to plant reproducible churches. When he implemented this strategy with his Chinese friends, they had 55,000 believers (from an original group of about 60) meeting in about 4,000 cells or house churches within 3 years! He left them very soon, in order to repeat the same process elsewhere. He has been training other missionaries to do “church multiplication” since then.
He has come up with 5 characteristics of “reproducible churches,” with the acronym”P.O.U.C.H.” These are” (1) Participative group meetings – the leader is a facilitator of discussion around God’s Word, instead of a lecturer or preacher; (2) Obedience – the goal of meetings is to make disciples, to teach them to obey God’s word; (3) Unpaid lay leaders (read: tentmakers!) – they found out that the most effective leaders were housewives who hardly finished Grade 3! (4) Cells or small groups – Maximum size is 15 adults; before reaching that number, the house church must start another house church; and (5) Houses or venues that do not require rent or lot purchase. With almost no “overhead costs,” believers can start new churches among their friends and contacts through “natural relationships” and simple witnessing for Christ in their hometowns and in their friends’ facilities!
B. Why? Back to Basics: Biblical missiology
From my observation, experience, biblical studies and theological reflection, this alternative mission strategy follows that of Jesus, Paul and the early church in the New Testament. It is based on a simple doctrine (“priesthood of all believers”) and a simple practice (“making disciples”) in a simple structure (“house churches”). We have inherited quite a complex Christianity filled with man-made traditions, so that it has become harder for us to practice “basic Christianity” (prayer, Bible study, fellowship and witnessing) in “basic Christian Communities” (small groups, called “house-churches” in the NT). So we think that missions can be done only by experts to plant (actually, to transplant) our (traditional/denominational) local church to other lands/cultures.
But in the NT mission paradigm, every Christian is expected to become a disciple-maker (a spiritually mature reproducing believer). After all, the NT teaches that every believer is a prophet, priest and king (servant-leader) in our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only and unique Second Moses, High Priest and Royal Messiah (with no mediators in between). It is “upon all flesh” that the Spirit is poured out at Pentecost, so we all (not just professional evangelists) can declare God’s words and works to the nations (Ac. 2:17-18; 1 Pet.3:15). It is the “entire people of God” that functions as a priesthood (1 Pet 2:9-10; Rev. 1:6 etc), so that we all (not just ordained pastors and priests) can intercede for people and offer sacrifices of praise and obedience to God (Heb.13:15-16; Rom. 12:1-8). And it is the “whole body of Christ” that reigns with Christ in the heavenlies (Eph. 2:6-7), so that we all (not just “full-time” church workers) can work for the transformation of cultures and structures through the use of our spiritual gifts in loving service to all humankind (Mt. 5:13-16; 2 Cor. 10:3-5).
I believe this was the original strategy that our Lord Jesus used when He was on earth: to win the world, he just used this simple disciple-making strategy: He called 12 ordinary people (mostly rural folks!) After discipling them for a while (Mk. 3:13-15), he sent them out two by two (that’s 6 pairs) to make 12 disciples themselves (Matt. 9:35-10:16). When he sent his disciples out the second time, he didn’t send out the 12, but the “72 others” (Lk. 10:1,17). These “72 others” were sent out two by two: that’s 36 pairs going forth to make 12 new disciples each, thereby making 432 new disciples in all! 1 Corinthians 15:6 mentions that after the resurrection, our Lord appeared to more than 500 (432 + 72) brethren! If these 500 paired up, that’s 250 making 12 new disciples each. Then they would be able to disciple exactly 3,000 new converts! And that’s exactly what happened on the birthday of the church at Pentecost: all converts were baptized immediately, since the apostles knew they would all be followed up and disciples in at least 250 house churches in Jerusalem (“from house to house”, cf. Acts 2:41-47). No wonder their numbers increased DAILY!
Of course, there is a place for church leaders who will serve more or less “full-time.” But they are to serve as equippers (read: teachers and trainers), not to monopolize the ministry, but to empower all the saints to do the ministry so that the whole church may be built up (Eph. 4:11-13). The ministry is therefore that of “making disciples,” training a group of “faithful people” who will be able to disciple others also (2Tim. 2:2). The role of these “tried and tested” disciple-makers is to model how to facilitate and coordinate the partnership of the house churches, as well as monitor and help enhance their qualitative growth.
C. How? Effective implementation of strategy
In light of this, every Christian should belong to a “disciple-making group” (not more than 15 members, lest the group loses the informal and intimate sharing of its body life) where s/he can participate actively and meaningfully. In this cell, s/he discovers her/his calling as s/he uses her/his spiritual gifts to serve and edify others in faith, hope and love (1 Cor. 14:26; Heb. 10:24). Note that Christian ministry is repeatedly described as done to “one another” in mutual service and submission – 1 Th. 5:12-22; Mt. 18:15-20; Js. 5:16, etc). S/he is thereby empowered and sent by the Spirit through such body life to go into the world (far or near) to be salt and light, making disciples wherever s/he goes!
To become a disciple-maker, every Christian just needs to learn two basic skills: “friendship evangelism” and “leading cells.” (A) Each learns how to share the gospel and their personal testimony after making a friendly approach to their non-Christian relatives, friends, colleagues and even strangers. At each instance of their life, they should be praying for a few non-believers among their contacts, and focus evangelistically on one or two of them at a time. Converts and potential converts are then brought to her/his cell, or better, encouraged to start an evangelistic cell at their convenient place and time. (B) And then it becomes necessary to also learn how to lead small group discussions where one can facilitate a meeting where all members can participate in setting the group’s agenda and in seeking the proper interpretation and application of God’s Word for the issues relevant to their personal lives and social contexts.
An excellent model of this mission paradigm is that of ”Prayer Evangelism:” the goal is to equip “every Christian to be a minister/missionary,” and mobilize “every Christian home to be a church.” They are trained to bless, befriend, serve, evangelize and then disciple their neighbors one by one in their house (as a “lighthouse” of prayer and evangelism). This model is now being used in many parts of the world.
Each house-church should be given freedom to manage their body-life (as prescribed in Ac. 2:42), according to their unique combinations of spiritual gifts. They should be able to collect and use their own funds for their own ministries (including about 10% for the support of the pastor and/or the “elders’ council” in which their “servant-leaders” belong), as well as their own missions. Preferably at least 50% of their common fund” should be used to subsidize their own outreaches to non-Christians locally and internationally.
The wonderful thing about this “total mobilization” strategy is that it is persecution-proof. In fact, it thrives under persecution! This is especially significant since most, if not all, unreached people groups (mainly Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Communist or animist) are warily (and often violently) opposed to any attempt to do overt evangelism among them! This low-key strategy may be the best, if not the only way to evangelize the vast unevangelized peoples in the world, esp. Asia!
Thank God that in these last twenty years, the churches in China, Vietnam, and Cuba have somehow learned to survive and even thrive under great duress with this paradigm. Am most recently, also the churches in India, Cambodia and Sri Lanka (that I clearly know of). There are more and more churches and mission groups that have started to adopt this model of missions, too.
They all have proven that this strategy is even also poverty-proof: poor churches can multiply this way without the need for external financial help! They have learned to KISS (“keep it simple and small”) and MULTIPLY! Hence, the “Back to Jerusalem” movement of the house churches in China can optimistically plan to send 100,000 missionaries (mostly micro-entrepreneurs) among the unreached. And the “tentmaker movement” of the Philippine churches can plan to train and send a million effective missionaries (mostly skilled workers and professionals) by 2020!
Conclusion
So, can we transform churches to use this best strategy of missions? Actually in the Philippines, several Evangelical groups (like Philippine Missions Association, Center for Community Transformation, Fellowship of Christians in Government, Agape, Navigators, Cru, Inter-Varsity, etc.) have been moving in this direction already! If all of us, go full blast on this, we can surely “finish the Great Commission in our generation” at last!
Let’s stop maintaining “complex Christianity” (which can hardly reproduce in five years) and start spreading “simple Christianity” (which can easily multiply 2 or 3 times every year!) Let’s promote “church multiplication” through mobilization of our “laity” as local disciple-makers and global tentmakers. Let’s challenge the whole church to take the whole gospel to the whole world – quickest – “and then the end will come” (cf. Mt. 24:14). Maranatha!
Helpful references:
Allen, Roland. Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or Ours? Eerdmans, 1962.
________. The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church. Eerdmans, 1962.
Banks, Robert & Julia. The Church Comes Home. Albatross Books, 1989.
Barret, Lois. Building the House Church. Herald Press, 1986.
Coleman, Robert. The Master Plan of Evangelism. Revell, 1964.
Dawn Report, Issue no.49 (December 2002).
Eims, Leroy. The Lost Art of Disciple Making. NavPress, 1981.
Garrison, David. Church Planting Movements. International Mission Board of Southern
Baptist Convention, 1999.
Lim, David. The Servant Nature of the Church in the Pauline Corpus. Ph.D. Diss., Fuller
Theological Seminary, 1987.
Montgomery, Jim. I’m Gonna Let It Shine! Carey Library, 2001.
Neighbor, Ralph, Jr. Where Do We Go from Here? Touch Publications, 1990.
Ogden, Greg. The New Reformation. Zondervan, 1990.
Petersen, Jim. Church Without Walls. NavPress, 1992.
Ringma, Charles. Catch the Wind. OMF Literature, 1994.
Simson, Wolfgang. Houses That Change the World. Paternoster, 2001.
Snyder, Howard. The Problem of Wineskins. IVP, 1975.
Tillapaugh, Frank. Unleashing the Church. Regal Books, 1992.
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