Steve talks to Nathan in South Asia in the third of a series on implementing a church multiplication plan.

This podcast covers Sharing the Gospel.

Download the file or subscribe via iTunes.

These resources are relevant to the discussion:

DiscipleCycle

Four Fields Manual

“T4T: A Discipleship Re-Revolution” (Steve Smith)

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The term “red tape” refers to excessive regulation or rigid conformity to formal rules. “Red tape” first showed up in the historical record in the 16th century, when Henry VIII besieged Pope Clement VII with around eighty or so petitions for the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Each document was sealed and bound with the customary red legal tape.

Are you headed to be a movement or a monument? How much red tape do you put up with? For instance, what are you required to put on the tail end of your emails? What other non essential clutter impedes your ability to do what’s important?

That’s the test of your organisation.

Now for your test. Do you comply?

WARNING THIS MESSAGE MUST NOT BE DELETED OR ALTERED IN ANY WAY.

We took them through the first four of the Seven Stories of Hope. I shared a simple gospel outline with them and felt that both Nick and Cany were ready to receive Christ.

To my surprise, Nick pushed back. So I took a step back and gave them time. Two days later Nick was on a mercy dash after hearing that his mother was hospitalised with a life threatening illness.

He got the first flight out to see her and spent every moment praying that God would spare her life.

She pulled through. Nick returned a different man.

Two weeks later Nick and Cany put their trust in Jesus as their Saviour, and confessed him as their Lord.

When Michelle and I shared with them we included the call to baptism as part of the gospel message (Acts 2:38).

With some help from Robert Stein, here’s why.

In the New Testament, conversion has five aspects, all of which took place at the same time, usually on the same day.

The five components of conversion:
• repentance
• faith
• confession
• the giving of the Holy Spirit
• baptism

The examples below show how all five components are inseparable.

Even if one of the five is not mentioned, it is assumed. For example, in Acts 2:38 Peter does not mention the need for faith. Yet we must assume is was required for conversion.

When the early church proclaimed the gospel they spoke about sin and the need for repentance. They called people to put their faith in Jesus Christ and confess him as Lord that they might be born of the Spirit. Finally, they urged them to be baptized.

In the New Testament a person was not baptized for one of two reasons. Either they did not want to repent and put their faith in Christ, or they did repent and believe but, like the thief on the cross, were physically unable to be baptized (Luke 23:39-43).

They understood that baptism did not guarantee salvation (1 Corinthians 10:1-5) but conversion always involved baptism. People repented and were baptized. They believed and were baptized. The apostles and the disciples always linked baptism to the other elements of conversion.

To reject baptism was to reject the gospel message preached by Peter, Paul, and the early church.

Believing without baptism was not an option.

Pretty soon the doorbell with ring. We’ll sit down with Nick and Cany and hear them tell their stories. We’ll drive to the pool, and baptize them just as Jesus commanded.

Tomorrow night I’ll meet with them and go through the third of the Seven Commands of Christ. It sure beats watching TV.

How do you begin to reach an unreached neighbourhood, a city, a region, or people group?

Nathan from South Asia talks about how to implement an Entry strategy.

To listen in, download the audio files or subscribe to the Movements podcast.

I remember the day the brickies (bricklayers) turned up. I was working as a builder’s labourer so our family could eat and pay the rent while we planted our second church.

It was a lesson in cross-cultural communication. They were from a different planet. They spoke a different language. I was a private school boy with manners. They were real Aussies with pornographic tattoos long before tattoos became a fashion statement.

That’s why I find it hard not to smile when someone asks, “Will this approach to making disciples “work” in Australia?” My answer is always, “Which Australia?”

That’s the point of a postmodern view of the world. Fragmented.

I can show you ten different Australias within half an hour’s drive of my home.

Three things to remember.

1. It’s not always your fault. Sometimes we think that if only we had found the key to cross cultural communication, people would respond.

Jesus went home to his friends and family and they tried to throw him over a cliff. They ran Paul out of town, beat him and left him for dead. For many people, the message of the Cross is offensive. Keep moving and find the people who are ready to learn more.

2. Confidence in the Word and Spirit. There is something greater than the cultures and experiences that divide us. Whenever we connect with people and share the gospel, God is powerfully present.

3. Find a bridge. I have a friend who has spent the last decade sparking church planting movements in Asia. He speaks the local language fluently. He knows and loves the culture. He knows he will always be an outsider. His job is to find insiders and equip them to reach their world.

Which he does, and they do.

One of the students had some follow up questions.

Here they are with my responses.

Sandy:

Hi Steve,
Thanks heaps for coming out to talk to us on Tuesday.I really appreciated hearing what you had to say.I am excited about what God is doing and how we can be involved in it.
Question:how many people come to Christ (per week? per month?)with the disciple making movement you described..

Steve: No way of answering this. I can tell you that over the last two months it has been around six with at least another six who are close.

But it’s not that predictable. We weren’t seeing those results last year.

There’s no guarantee they will continue.

I can say that all around Australia when people have stepped out connecting, looking for persons of peace (POP), sharing etc. it has always led to new disciples.

You can listen to Tim Scheuer’s interviews on the podcast to hear his story. 80-90 people in a tough neighbourhood over about 2-3 years.

Sandy: eg if you had a team of 20 people doing prayer walks to meet PoP and then starting the processof Connect – Share – Train – Gather – what sort of growth have you encountered?(how many come to Christ per week? per month?)

Steve: no way of saying exact numbers. It is early days and most of the reports are anecdotal.

But everyone is seeing fruit. People like me had led someone to Christ in years . . .

So we train as many people as we can knowing that God is at work.

Sandy: i imagine the growth is sort of exponential but can you give me some kind of idea?I am comparing this model with other models being used around the traps – [for numbers and quality of new disciples]

Steve: Don’t know any “models” in Australia esp emerging/missional ones that are regularly seeing new disciples made.

Let me know who they are.

What we are learning is to leave models behind and begin connecting, sharing the gospel, teaching new disciples to obey Jesus. We’ll have to fine tune it as we go.

But we’ve left behind abstract discussions on models and are focused on action.

Sandy: Another question: Did Tim Scheuer use this model with anglo aussies? or ?Has anyone used this model with anglo aussies? -

Steve: I’ve met Tim’s folk. The ministry in SW Sydney (Airds) is now led by an indigenous guy. They have Aussie Samoans, Aussie Anglos, Aussie indigenous.

Tim has just begun widening the training and is mobilising average Aussie Anglicans to do this.

Two friends, Mark and Fiona found a person of peace married to an top CEO. They formed a simple church in a wealthy suburb, but it hasn’t multiplied.

Some of Dave Lawton’s people are working in outback and rural Queensland with real “fair dinkum Aussies”

Sandy: you mentioned the dude over in Nth Carolina in the trailer park?[I imagine the model sometimes needs tweaking depending on the receptor culture? - particularly at the connect stage]

Cheers,
Sandy

Steve: Yes, the connect is sitting around playing the blues. The trailer park owner has given them a trailer to meet in.

But you could go around the corner and need a different approach to connect.

The key principle is we must connect and find POPs. How we do it will vary within cultures as well as across them.

Good questions. But I wouldn’t bother too much about them.

The key challenge is to step out and begin connecting and looking for a person of peace. You’re going to have to learn as you go.

Great news from Sandro Bier, my editor in Brazil.

Movimentos que mudam o mundo (Movements that Change the World) has taken out an ARETÉ Award for best foreign language book on Mission.

That’s Sandro in the centre of the picture receiving the away which is given by the Brazilian Christian Editors Association.

Throughout the world, 240 million people speak Portuguese. The Brazilian church is an emerging power in world missions.

Here’s the heart of it.

It focuses our attention on ourselves.

In Acts the dynamic word of God creates communities of disciples where there are none.

The word advances, we try and keep up.

In the New Testament, conversion involves five integrally related components or aspects, all of which took place at the same time, usually on the same day.

These five components are repentance, faith, and confession by the individual, regeneration, or the giving of the Holy Spirit by God, and baptism.

Robert Stein

You may be wondering why this is the third post in a row on baptism and church planting movements. Why the fuss?

Baptism is important because Christ commanded us to baptize new disciples. It is not an option extra. Movements take Christ’s commands seriously.

Some church leaders teach that Paul wasn’t fussed about who he did and didn’t baptize. In response let’s note this pattern — Jesus didn’t baptise because he trained his disciples to baptize (John 4:2); and Peter didn’t baptize Corneilus and his household because he trained his coworkers to baptize (Acts 10:48); and Paul didn’t baptize many of the Corinthians because he trained others to do them (1 Corinthians 1:14).

The possibility that one could have faith but not be baptized was not even perceived as an option by Paul.

Who can baptize? The NT is clear, the person doing the baptism must be no more and no less than a disciple. No other qualifications are laid down. Paul was baptised by Ananias described only as “a disciple.” God could have sent Peter or one of the Twelve. Instead he chose a disciple who we never hear of again. If there is a NT preference, it’s better that they are not a recognised leader like Peter or Paul.

If you turn baptism into an optional extra for mature believers, and if you only allow formally qualified leaders to baptize, you have diverged from the NT pattern, and are unlikely to see a multiplying movement.

Who gets baptized, when, and who does the baptizing, are indicators of what separates a movement from a monument.

Baptism is worth the fuss if you want to see a movement of multiplying disciples and churches.