Gospel Movements in the Middle East



I had the privilege of spending a week in Lebanon, March 14-20. The occasion was a Church Planting Consultation lead by Joseph N. (can't use full names). My colleague Craig Ott and I taught and facilitated discussions and worked with them on strategic place. Joseph N. and Keith Rascher who work in this context all the time led the discussions about contextualization and collaboration for missional advance. My topic was developing Acts 19 movements in this context. We had a great group from Syria, Lebanon, Sudan, and Egypt of about 25 people. About 1/3 were movement leaders from Egypt, Syria and Lebanon, 1/3 local leaders from Beirut and 1/3 missionaries from the USA serving or considering serving in this context. I enjoyed working in a team. Discussions were lively and some subjects got emotional (like Latinos). Some of the most heated subjects were the shape of the church, the degree of contextualization, and what to do about buildings. There are places (Syria and Jordan) where groups cannot meet unless they are official and to be considered official they must own a building. One leader will lose official status which the church has worked hard to earn unless he can purchase a simple building within a month. Others are forbidden to own building and must meet secretly in home (H-zbollah areas of Lebanon for example). These people are mature workers who have been through it all. It's an honor to work with them.


I arrived a day before the training started and God blessed me with a special treat. I was able to go with a group to an archeological museum and to a site called Byblos that has digs from 4 civilizations and a crusader castle. The oldest fossils go back to the stone age (6000 BC) before the Phoenicians and Canaanites. Saturday I went to Baalbek (called Hieropolis by the Greeks) and the greatest Roman center of the whole region. What a joy to see Mt Hermon covered with snow and groves of Lebanese cedars up in the mountains.

There is a great diversity of types of ministry and types of responses. However almost all agree that this is an exceptional time of response among M-slim background people. One question is "How can they work together to impact other areas?" Pray for Joseph and Keith who will be discussing plans and leading the follow-up. Joseph is a great coach and visits them at least once a year and has a contact by phone, skype or email at least monthly. Joseph came to our Church Planter training in Minneapolis last year and took the coaching clinic with me. It's a joy to see him in action. In his former profession he was in charge of the entire Middle East for a major international company. But he and his wife have no regrets. There are plans in the works to continue to expand from Mauritania in the West to Afghanistan in the East. I will work primarily with Joseph but I made friends with five leaders who speak English or French and want to keep in touch. I will never be the same after this trip. My heart has been stretched. I empathize with these men because of their courage and because I live 13 years in Morocco as a youngster.

 

Can I share a true story our brother Ibrahim just shared over lunch? It brought tears to my eyes. I asked him how he became a Christian since he grew up in a M-slim home. He said it was through the witness of his brother and a miracle. He was rooming with his brother and serving as a sheik or imam in the local mosque. His brother prayed in his presence that God would stop the call to prayer. Ibrahim washed himself to prepare to lead prayer but the call to prayer didn't come. He went to see the head imam who was supposed to do the call and he said "I looked at the time and I saw the clock said 1 hour earlier than it actually was."



His brother came back to their home village to share the gospel. Their parents said "go away." The village elders told the family to stop him. They tied him to a chair and started threatening him with knives. They ended up stabbing him in the throat and he bled to death. When that happened his mom saw Jesus in place of her son and became a believer on the spot. Two weeks later his sister believed and 2 months later his father believed. Now 18 members of the family are believers. This is one story among a dozen I have heard.


One Lebanese leader lived for 11 years in Montreal and we are becoming friends. He is in the textile business. He asks for prayer as he needs to make a decision this week about where to serve God- in Lebanon or Quebec. Next year his oldest son goes to university. He has much more potential for study and work in Canada and there are 4 others kids. Yet Wajih loves to serve God bi-vocationally in his country. His pastor has asked him to prepare to take over the pastoral role but that would mean a great sacrifice for their family. He does not have theological training, though he is a mature elder in the church and teaches at times.


Unfortunately the little Arabic I remember is significantly different from Lebanese Arabic. So I can say the basic greetings and understand bits and pieces but can't converse. The Lebanese speak French and English as well. But the Syrians and Egyptians only speak Arabic. So I have to do a lot through an interpreter. They have simultaneous translation so that helps a lot.

Missional clarity is helping us make practical decisions

Missional clarity is important. It takes time and must come from the Lord. Sometimes it is precipitated by practical realities. For example, the opportunities to train and coach church planters are outpacing the resources. We need to be wise stewards. We believe God is answering and we want to put the focus on three priorities:

• Indigenous movement leaders over US staff
• Multiplication (church planting movements) over addition (isolated church plants) 
• Working with and through partners rather than going it alone 

God is helping us with focus.

Vision: A transformational church planting movement in every region we serve.

Mission: To develop church planting leaders and support systems* for the multiplication of kingdom communities globally.

That means we need to develop, empower and release those who lead movements of healthy, indigenous and reproducing churches. Sometimes a story is worh 1,000 words. I hope you will enjoy the parable of two trees and the examples of multiplication in Germany, Brazil and Liberia in this 4 minute video.

http://www.youtube.com/efcavideos

We need wisdom to help national leaders contextualize the church planting efforts and training. Please pray for the upcoming opportunities to train movement leaders and church planting in Church Multiplication.

Mar 14-20 Middle Eastern movement leaders in Beirut, Lebanon
April 9-15 Vietnamese church planting trainers in DaNang, Vietnam
June 7-15 Eastern European church planters in Prague, Czech Republic

Thank you for standing with us in this challenging and exciting time.

Gene and Linda

* Just as a healthy ecosystem supports plant life and healthy body systems support human life, ongoing training and coaching support healthy movements of reproducing churches.

Church Planting Movement in Liberia, West Africa




Liberia is on the West Coast of Africa. The North is predominantly Muslim and the South has a Christian majority, but most of those are nominal Christians. Christianity came with the freed slaved who established a Republic here. Later Liberia expanded to include animistic tribal groups so there is a real mix of religions, cultures and world views. My purpose for going was to come alongside a church planting movement there, evaluate their training, preach at their conference and spend time with Dave and other leaders. Please read the God-sightings after the pictures. God is so gracious.  

God provided a powerful generator so we could cpontinue after dark. It lit the whole compound and allowed us to use the sound system for worship.

The girls aged 7 to 13 had the job of getting water from the well. Some of them pushed huge containers in wheelbarrows. Others carried buckets on their heads.

The children and classes in the morning and played together afterwards. No organized child care but everyone looked out for the kids (collectivitic society).


The EFC of West Africa compound is just a mile from the ocean in Monrovia. The countryside is lush and beautiful.

David Kiamu with two co-founders of the EFCWA.

The trainees honored me with a surpise gift! - and african shirt that is worn by elders. They bought it themselves.

Childrens' classes

Children worker training, women's classes and discipleship training took place at the same time we were working with church planters.


The leaders met for their annual conference.

A nurse offered a free health clinic in the afternoon. The common problem was malaria.

I enjoyed preaching to such a great group. It grew from about 150 the first night to twice that during the commissioning service for the Kiamu family on Sunday.

R to L - David and Lucy Kiamu with their three girls. Their three boys were standing on the other side of Dave.

I made several new friends. This young man, Rufus, is an assistant poastor and Bible school student who has a vision of decentralized pastoral training centers all over Liberia.

The Red Light District of Monrovia


 

Church planting team leaders for Liberia

From Jan 10-16 Gene had the privilege of joining one of the members of his global church planting team, Dave Kiamu on the occasion of the annual conference of the Evangelical Free Church of West Africa. Dave and I had a couple days of coaching and learning. Five movements are working together in church planting unreached people groups. We met as a team before the conference started.

Dave and Lucy invited me to come and participate in their commissionning as Church Planting Director for ReachAfrica. I had been wanting to see first hand the church polanting movement and get to know Dave and his family better. I find that coaching is much more effective when you understand a person's context of ministry. No better way to do that than to spend time there and share in the ministry!

David Kiamu led four days of training for church planters. It is called Multiplication Church Planter training because the DNA of the churches planted and the planting process are simple and reproducible. I participated as coach and helped with questions. Dave has put together a facilitation team of 5 who took turns presenting.

Many prayed and God worked in powerful ways:

• One trainee said to the others (in Africa they usually give certificates of training completion but there were none prepared): "You would like a certificate but we haven't done anything yet. We were chosen especially to receive this training so that we will plant a new reproducing church and train others. Let's do that and then maybe we deserve a certificate."
• My luggage didn't make it through. But earlier, when I confirmed my flight, an agent suggested I take 2 extra sets of clothes and my essentials on my carry-on bag. It turned out the next flight was 2 days later so I was forewarned and made out OK.
• The heat was 90-95 degrees F and the days long, but the Lord gave strength to preach every night, coach church planters, and participate in the training. I didn't even get one headache or stomach ache!!!
• I had to scramble to adapt my messages to an oral-culture audience made up primarily of youth. I felt the Lord telling me to use a narrative style and a strong call to discipleship and missions. God gave unusual freedom and supernatural strength in preaching.
• The church planters had a wonderful sacrificial and pioneering spirit. Most have other jobs to support themselves and many have to leave their families for months to plant a church in an unreached area. Several shared how they had suffered during the war but the Lord had preserved them and they promised to serve him.
• The five movements divided up the counties of Liberia and each chose key cities to plant church planting training centers.  One of the conference resolutions was for each existing church to plant a daughter church in an unreached area every year. It doesn't seem like a realistic goal... but I love their passion for reaching the lost!
• Their track record backs up their kingdom ambition. We were celebrating the 10 anniversary of the movement. In 11 years, 17 liberian churches have been planted and a missionary sent to Sierra Leone. That missionatry was present and he shared how three churches have been planted in Muslim communities in Sierra Leone. Amazing!
• I made some wonderful new friends who are "young African lions" for God.

When less is more and down is the best way up

Grace and peace in the Lord!

Last week my sister wrote "We haven't heard from you for a while, is everything O.K.?" She is used to getting regular email updates. Usually I send them out before a ministry trip to ask for specific prayer. Even though my bags aren't packed for another trip, we still need your focused prayer. First let me share some of the things that have been happening in our lives.

July was a difficult month because of a health problem that grounded us and brought us to our knees. I won't go into any details about the health issues. I had to postpone a trip to Haiti. Our ministry leaders counseled us to slow down for a while. God is blessing us through this time. We are spending a lot more time together as a couple, and that is so good for us. Our walk with Him is being refreshed and we are learning so much. Healing is taking place and our energy is being restored.

In August we went up to Hershey, PA and the church there provided a missionary home for a couple weeks. From there we visited some family and friends. We participated in grand-daughter Rachel's baby dedication (picture). Gene spoke with some mission pastors and shared in one of our new supporting churches in New York.  

In September, some strategic advances were made. Some of you may remember that Stephen Covey speaks of "Quadrant Four" activities: those that are important- but not urgent- so you never put the time into them. It's a gift to devote time to them. Gene finished the final review of a Baker Church Planting book he is co-authoring with Dr. Craig Ott that will come out in January. Working with our team, we have launched a Web Resource Bank for church planters globally and completed 101-level church planter training.

Another blessing is the perspective you gain when you slow down. God has been speaking about our ministry flowing from who we are in Christ. It's not the amount we accomplish that counts but loving Him with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. The strength of our ministry flows from a heart that loves God and listens to him. God has given us clearer priorities that will guide our travel and ministry. We will be focusing on regional efforts that develop, empower, and release national workers for church multiplication.

There are exciting things ahead of us this year. Lord willing, Gene will be helping regional church planting leaders in Central Europe, West Africa and Myanmar launch reproducible church planting training, and Linda will be accompanying him to Prague and Germany. But we are still recovering and have to take one step at a time. In October we will be visiting some churches and sharing with pastors in Florida. The next international trip will be to Port-au-Prince, Haiti in November to help with plans for a truly global church planting team. We are expecting church planters from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Brazil, and the USA to come together in a long-term church planting effort that will complement relief efforts already underway.

Would you please bring the following Praise and Prayer items before the Lord?

Praise:

1. God's grace and healing.
   

2.   Great opportunities to launch church planter training in places where none is available.

1. Our kids and grand-daughters are doing well. New ministry for Jarrett and Michelle.
   

 

Prayer:

1. Full recovery of strength and God's continued spiritual formation in our lives.
   
2. God's provision for our ministry ($750/month needed) and guidance as we share with others what God is doing.
   
3. Wisdom in planning training trips and church planting initiatives.
   
4. Church Planting Summit in Port-au-Prince Haiti Nov 8.
   

 

Our central ministry focus

Gene & Linda Wilson
Serving as Church Planting Director with ReachGlobal, the international Mission of the Evangelical Free Church of America



Our Central Ministry Focus: developing, empowering and releasing healthy workers to plant healthy, reproducing, indigenous churches.

 

Help ReachGlobal staff research and implement best practices for church planting and multiplication.

   Form a global church planting team and regional church planting networks.

   Coach church planting leaders, trainers & coaches.

Work with churches in the USA and overseas to launch 100 places where church planters are trained and churches are multiplied (Acts 19 effort). Three partners are needed:

   National churches overseas work together to select, train and deploy church planters and teams.

   ReachGlobal staff comes alongside them with training tools and coaching.

   North American churches partner with resources, short-term teams, encouragement and teaching.

Prioritize church planting projects of strategic importance for major prayer and coordinated support:

   Pray for the Lord to raise up a new army of church planters worldwide according to Matthew 9:38.

   Partner with national churches to penetrate unreached people groups and strategic urban centers.

 

Pastoral Training in Venezuela May 18-24

Left: Mario and Madilva Lopez /Right: Break out session

I met Mario Lopez in 2003 when he took the first offering of the Pro-Meta Church Planting Course (Latin America Training Network). Now he is serving as head of the Ministerial Association. His heart is for pastors and their preparation for ministry. When our team of trainers (church planting, church development and pastor training) offered to come he was excited. Twice we spoke on skype to prepare the event. He involved his entire team and did an excellent job preparing it. He said that last year they didn't have enough response to gather the pastors. This year they hoped for 25 and had 38 participate. The purposes were to encourage, equip, and build a long-term relationship. Here is the schedule in a nutshell:

• Weds May 19- Total Mobilization – Seven Steps toward Church Multiplication – Mike Gunderson and Gene Wilson
  
• Thurs May 20- Foundations of Church Health and Development – Part I – Mark Wold
  
• Friday May 21– Pastoral Training: A Biblical World view including a Biblical Understanding of Unity and Suffering – Al Lewis.
  
• Meeting with Association board. Report on the state of the churches, evaluation of training and plans for the future.
  
• Saturday – Visited Cata Bay and fellowshipped with Mario Lopez, his wife and Alexander Mora. Debriefing with Mario Lopez.
  
• Sunday – We preached and ministered in Valencia churches
  

During our debriefing he shared this evaluation:

• The training was on target and on level.
  
• Several pastors came who hadn't participated in any event for years. There was a hunger for this kind of training.
  
• It was timely. God has been stirring a growing interest for cooperation in church planting and leader/pastor training.
  
• In Maracay the pastors had not gathered for quite a while. They met recently and say "Perhaps we should plant a new church together." They took the training as a confirmation and decided to cooperate to start a new church in an unchurched region.
  
• In the Caracas region they decided to start a church in Los Teques, State of Miranda. It is the state next to Caracas. Mario said: "I had been praying for a while that God would lead someone to start a church there since we have none. When they announced that I said 'Praise the Lord' in my heart."
  

Saturday night it poured down rain and the Lopez home was flooded. It is the fourth time this has happened. The first time the water was 5 feet high and they lost everything. They had some work done to protect their home so this time the water only rose a couple feet. They have a terrazzo floor so no damage was done to wall or flooring but it will take time to get things back in order. And since the water is infected with garbage they have to disinfect everything. Their son Timothy (about 8 yrs old) who is experiencing some trauma every time there is a storm is calming down and people from the church helped them clean up. Life is returning to normal. Praise the Lord for Mario and his family.

Thank you for praying:

1) Praise God for the work of the medical team in Milot. Here they are headed to the base for refugees needing medical attention. Some returned on Sunday; others are staying longer. Please pray for them and for a vascular surgeon joining them this week.

2) Pray for Henoc Lucien and his family. Two orphanages collapsed and they have taken in many of the children. They have a good sized home to accomodate teams that come in but no permanent staff so Guerline Lucien and her volunteer helpers have to do most of the cooking and hospitality as well as care for the kids.

3) Pray for Mark and Kevin, the leaders of TouchGlobal Crisis Response as they plan the follow-up and put together new medical teams.

4) The biggest needs right now are cash donations and medical supplies. People have been generous. I called a pharmacy and a hospital and both agreed to donate supplies. Pray that this generosity would continue.

5) Pray for hurting people to humbly call on God and turn to him in spite of their hurt and questions. The seminary in Port-au-Prince has been turned into a refugee center. A friend reported that people were turning to God there and giving their lives to him during Sunday services there. Others may not be exposed to the love of God and Word of God.