This is a question that has been on my mind for a long time. Many missionaries talk about planting churches rapidly and in turn these new churches plant churches. I must admit that I am in awe of movements where this is taking place. Obviously there are disciples being sent out to form these new churches and the Spirit of God is working through them.
My experience has not been such. In working with new Christians and making disciples I have encountered for the most part slow mostly steady progress in making disciples. Sometimes the growth is excruciatingly slow and sometimes it is three steps forward and two steps back. I have had many experiences of new believers (and not so new) getting their feelings hurt, getting angry, pouting and basically throwing tantrums. Did I hear someone say welcome to the New Testament Church? It does cause me to think at times that our team must be doing something terribly wrong in Church Planting. Maybe part of the slowness comes from the fact that we do not try to court Christians to come and be a part of our groups. We tend to have an inordinate number of floating Christians here in the Patagonia. These are church members that for some reason or another stopped going to their church and are now "free agents". I spoke to one of these sisters recently and she told me her story which included membership in 4 different churches from three different denominations.
The disciple process is slow work. I must admit that when one of these new disciples; prays in public for the first time, gives their testimony or talks about how God has changed their lives, I shed a tear of joy. I wonder what the Master thought when He was teaching His followers? Did he wonder if they ever would "get it"? The personal touch takes time, energy and the conviction that the Lord has placed you in the right place at the right time. I know that the Lord of the harvest is bringing His people unto Himself. I have the privilege of serving Him and being amazed at what He is doing.
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1 comment:
Good post, Mike. Thanks for pointing me to your blog. This subject has been getting a lot of attention lately on the SAM region "Church Planting Forum". Many of us are sensing the things you write above, but unless we are 'making disciples' we are working in vain. Too many of us are distracted with a lot of good activity, but somehow we must get back to the basics of what Christ mandated in Matthew 28.
I am adding your blog to my side bar. Thanks for the link to mine as well.
If interested in joining the other 125 M's on the forum, send a blank email to:
churchplantingforum-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
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