Lausanne World Pulse – Themed Articles – Evangelism and Church Planting: Implementing the Ministry Multiplication Cycle
By Peter Law
New believers are given an opportunity to participate in a Christian Leadership Training Institute consisting of eight weeks of intensive Bible courses spread over two years, now taught mainly by Moldovan teachers. Graduating students become actively involved in their local churches and are equipped to offer ministry leadership, and in some cases, to eventually serve as teachers in the institute. Some of those graduating are selected through a series of interviews conducted by the Moldovan Church leadership to be trained further as church planters. Once appointed, these church planters are trained for an additional period of time in the Church Planter’s Training Institute, then placed and mentored on a regular basis by Moldovan mentors, and helped in the establishment of a new church entrusted to their pastoral care.
More recently, Moldovan church planters have begun training to go cross-culturally into Russia and Central Asia. Some of these cross-cultural missionaries will join Russian church planters in Siberia who have been trained by the Moldovan leadership. Moldovan Church leaders are investigating new territory, identifying and screening potential church planters and providing both training and mentoring. This is done through the Missionary Training Institute courses taught by an international team of teachers, including some from Moldova. The cycle is complete. From evangelism to extension, the Church of Moldova is implementing the Ministry Multiplication Cycle and God’s Church is being built.
An Encouragement and a Challenge
A resurgence of robust enthusiasm for missions is surfacing across the vast continents in a generation of young people ready to take this message of hope to their dying post-modern, post-Christian world. Hudson Taylor’s single-minded passion to see the Kingdom of God ushered in is being witnessed again in the hearts and mission aspirations of young men and women from China and throughout Asia, Australia, Africa, and Latin America.
The zeal of early pioneers like C.T. Studd and William Carey continues to manifest in a new generation of enthusiasts for the kingdom, evident across the United States, the United Kingdom, and parts of Europe. Young people who have experienced the impact of this message in their own lives stand ready to step beyond all zones of safety out into their beckoning world for the sake of the kingdom.
However, one obstacle remains in the way of accomplishing the task set before us. Over seventy percent of all missionaries sent out into the world today are going to Christian cultures where the gospel has been faithfully preached for generations. We need to go where no one else is going—to where the people have not heard and have no means of hearing. A confused world longs for the truth.
Our calling is to take it to them. “Go therefore into all the world” Jesus commanded us, placing his commission solidly in our court of stewardship and responsibility. Knowing his promise to never desert us in this task, we go in obedience to the unreached—here at home and abroad—to the millions who agonize through daily rituals bent on appeasing those gods that keep them in constant fear: in the West, where “sophisticated” deities hold sway over the hearts and minds of men and women controlled by fluctuations in the stock market, an insatiable desire for success, or the pursuit of an elusive happiness; and in the East, where flamboyant deities demand servile obedience from intimidated worshippers, threatening reprisals against acts of non-compliance with the will of the gods.6
Nomadic herders surviving on the edge of snow-smothered Siberian hillsides and postmodern traffic-plagued city dwellers en route to the office share in a common plight: each lives in desperate need of God’s transforming gospel of grace.7 Animistic peoples in remote regions of the world live in ignorance of the truth that can set them free. All they need is for someone to go who is willing, able, and equipped with the message.
You have that truth. Are you willing to be that someone?
Endnotes
1. The Ministry Multiplication Cycle has been developed by Crossover Communications International as a way to describe their 4-step approach to planting churches in Eastern Europe, involving “intentional intervention through evangelism, establishing, equipping, and extending to see the kingdom expanded” (Crossover Communications Communiqué, Spring 2007 edition MMVII Vol.1, p. 6).
2. See John Piper. 2007. The Future of Justification. Wheaton, Illinois, USA: Crossway, p 25 for further discussion on this topic.
3. 2004. Church Planting Movements: How God Is Redeeming a Lost World. Midlothian, Virginia, USA: Wigtake Resources, 22-23.
4. Ibid, 22.
5. Sweeting, George. 1985. More than 2000 Great Quotes and Illustrations. Texas, USA: Word Publishing, 184, quoted by Paul Hattaway’s 2003 book, Back to Jerusalem. Carlisle, U.K.: Authentic Media, 6.
6. Law, Peter. 2008. “Doing Missions in a Post-modern, Post-Christian World.” Communique. Crossover Communications International, Summer.
7. Law, Peter. 2008. “The Central Message of Missions.” Communique. Crossover Communications International, Winter.
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Dr. Peter Law is president of Crossover-Australia and vice-president of Crossover-USA, overseeing international ministries. When not leading short-term mission teams, he speaks at churches, colleges, schools, and mission conferences, sharing his vision for building God’s kingdom worldwide. |