10:2b Virus Spreading to African Leaders

What's the key to CPMs (Church Planting Movements)?


Humanly, the answer is "leaders".  Effective leaders are required for healthy churches to be planted.


Where do those leaders come from?


Only one place.  They are sent out by the Lord of the harvest.


What's our part?


To do what Jesus commanded and "Beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out those leaders".


This has come to be known as "The 10:2b Prayer" and it's spreading around the world like a benevolent virus.


In this video, Hugh Brandt shares the 10:2b Prayer with leaders of Campus Crusade in Africa.

Contagion

The clip below is for a truly frightening movie starring  Gwyneth Paltrow and Matt Damon.  As you watch it, consider that epidemics or contagions can be either negative and destructive or positive and constructive.


Con-ta-gion.  From contagio (Latin) meaning to touch.  1.  the spreading of disease from one individual to another by direct or indirect contact... 5.  the spreading of an emotion, idea, custom, etc. from person to person until many are affected.





Here are two of my favorite books that bear on this topic...


Malcolm Gladwell in his book The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, develops this idea.  "Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do."


Roland Allen in The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church and the Causes Which Hinder It.  Without using "virus" or "contagion", he is saying something similar about the expansion of the early church.  


"This then is what I mean by spontaneous expansion.  I mean the expansion which follows the unexhorted and unorganized activity of individual members of the Church explaining to others the Gospel which they have found for themselves;  I mean the expansion which follows the irresistible attaction of the Christian Church for men who see its ordered life, and are drawn to it by desire to discover the secret of a life which the instinctively desire to share; I mean also the expansion of the Church by the addition of new churches.  


I know not how it may appear to others, but to me this unexhorted, unorganized, spontaneous expansion has a charm far beyond that of our modern highly organized missions."  p. 7


What Allen disliked in his day, almost a hundred years ago, is even more prevalent in the American church today.  We seek to fulfill the Great Commission through organization and exhortation.  We create programs, develop marketing plans, build buildings and organizational structures, recruit huge budgets to pay for it all.  The result?  The church in America continues to decline.  See recent research by the Barna Group.  http://www.barna.org/faith-spirituality/504-barna-examines-trends-in-14-religious-factors-over-20-years-1991-to-2011

The alternative?  We need to return to the dynamic of the New Testament Church.  A new/old paradigm.  We need to  learn to nurture that which is simple and spontaneous and organic and viral.  We need to learn to join God in what He is doing rather than trying to "make it happen" ourselves.  We need a benevolent Gospel contagion in our day.  "And, the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."  Acts 2:47


This is exactly the focus of the LK10 Community.  We are a "community of practice" that is learning together how to join Jesus in birthing churches that are both transformational and viral.  In other words, a Gospel contagion.

Join us.

John

How to start a million churches

*Every home a church. The subtitle of The LK10 Journal is "Stories from the Revolution". So, what exactly is the nature of this revolution? One critical aspect is a return to the Biblical concept that the home and not the church building is the center of spirituality.

The Chinese house church movement captured this simple but powerful concept with their three mottos...

1. Every home a church

2. Every follower of Jesus a church planter

3. Every church building a training center

So, the house church movement does not necessarily mean that traditional churches or church buildings must cease. Rather, it means that the priorities must be reversed. The large (church services, etc.) must begin to serve the small (the church in the home). The first expression of church must become the small family-like group meeting in the home. The larger gathering must become secondary and supportive.

Want to see revival in America (or, whatever country you live in)? This one revolutionary shift might just do the trick: Every Christian household begins to see themselves as a church. That home would become the center for worship, for education, for outreach. With this revolutionary concept, a million new churches could be started this week (with no building programs!)

This is the vision of the LK10 Community: fulfilling the Great Commission by seeing a vibrant family of Jesus on every block of every neighborhood of every city in every nation on earth.

What might this look like? In the video below, you will hear the story of one of the families who is beginning to live this out. Let's pray for 999,999 more like this one.

"It is not a church’s job to spiritually develop your children. Scripturally, it is the job of the parents. The church body is supposed to support parents in raising children, not replace them." -George Barna

"Write these commandments that I've given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night." Dt. 6:6-7 (The Message)

“The household (in the New Testament) was more than a model; it was the matrix of the new congregation.” Gehring, House Church and Mission, P. 193, footnote quoting Campbell.

Let's return to the New Testament model!

John

SASHET is viral

Neil Cole made this important observation: "Only that which is simple can multiply rapidly." 

 And, that's exactly what we have seen with using SASHET to "check in" with each other. This powerful community building tool is so simple that, if a person experiences it once, they often begin teaching it to others right away. In the video below, you will hear how the CO2 (church of two) which uses SASHET, has spread rapidly to the third and fourth generations. SASHET helps create an environment where a viral church planting movement can occur.

In the video below, Walt Hastings explains how this is happening in Kenya.

John

CO2 changing African families

The CO2 (church of two) concept is changing family culture in Africa. In this video, Hugh Brandt (who was a missionary for many years in Africa) and Walt Hastings (who is coaching the Apprenticeship in Kenya) talk about family culture in Africa.

CO2s multiplying in Africa

The interview below is with Walt Hastings who is coaching our African Cohort. Here are three things that encourage me from the interview...

1. CO2s are transforming marriages.

2. CO2s are multiplying rapidly. Probably more than 50 now in Kenya.

3. CO2s are culturally transferable.

And, all of this is happening in a country where there are tremendous technological obstacles. Only a couple of people have their own computers - everyone else has to go to an Internet cafe. Often the connection is only dial-up, so they can't access our eWorkbook. (Walt puts the Learning Assignments in a simple word doc.) Electricity is only available occasionally. Etc.

John

The 10:2b Prayer in Belfast in 1932

When I was a student at Fuller Seminary in the early 1970s, I had the privilege of taking a class on the history of revivals from Dr. J. Edwin Orr. At the time, Dr. Orr was well into his 70s and certainly knew more than any man alive about what the Spirit of God had done in periods of revival throughout history.

What I didn't know until a few days ago was how instrumental he was in a revival that occurred 40 years before in Belfast, Ireland in 1934. This grew out of Orr and one other man praying what we would now call the 10:2b Prayer (ie, they were praying for "laborers"). Take a look at the video below and notice the very specific requests (which grew out of listening to God) that these two men (a CO2?) were making.

What city are you praying for? Who is your 10:2b prayer partner? What specific requests has God put on your heart?

John

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=33195118922

10:2b in Australia

As we continue to "beseech the Lord of the Harvest", He continues to answer that prayer and connect us with apostolic people (both men and women) around the world who resonate with the vision of LK10.

Below is an email (shared with permission) from Margie James who lives with her husband near Perth, Australia and who has recently joined the Luke Ten Community. See http://lk10.com What I love about it is that the Lord is so clearly arranging all of this. He is the one who has placed the same things in our hearts and in Margie and David's hearts.

Welcome Margie and David! We join with you today in asking the Harvest Master to thrust out both apostolic church planters and people of peace in your part of western Australia. Arrange divine connections for Margie and David with these people towards the end of a vibrant family of Jesus within easy reach of every person in Perth.

John

Hi John,

I would love to connect with Maree, can you connect us? (Margie had just watched the three part interview with Maree Watson here http://storiesfromtherevolution.blogspot.com/2010/09/co2-in-australia-1.html )

...David and I are eager to find others who can co2 with us, we have a few church friends but on the whole here in the west things move rather slow. We are praying the Luke 10:2 prayer and seeing a great result with other christians but we have not known them too long and we are getting opportunities to share the organic concept with them...there is a reluctance here in WA that if you have no 'covering', you have little to offer! (it would seem that 20+yrs is not valid christian practice?!) :)

So we are back to building on the foundations and relationships are growing, I discern some great things ahead with a few of the couples seeking to build a deeper walk together with us, so we are humbly looking to The Lord and waiting for His instructions. We are confident that the days ahead will be filled with more of Him and less of us!

I have a desire to go knocking on doors, the unction is so that I can hardly contain it, I have heard others say likewise...not sure what the outcome could be here, but excited nonetheless?

We are excited about Luk10 and Co2, and I have just watched your video with Kent, re MRT http://regionalrevolutionaries.blogspot.com/2010_01_01_archive.html

...and this is exactly what Father is placing in my spirit. Such practical listening and apostolic collaboration with an authentic heart's desire to know what Jesus wants us to do. Asking Father, 'what is your Will for us today' is such a great Kingdom life relationship and one that we put into practice several years ago,so we are excited about this relational aspect of Kingdom Building and Communication.

I want to say I am greatly encouraged John, thankyou!

Margie James

How to plant a biker church

How would you start a church with people who are culturally different from you?

I'm an old (63 last month), white, middle class American. How would I help start a church with goths or hispanics or Russians or bikers?

I can think of two ways.

One way would be to begin to study the cultural group that I'm praying for. What is their language, their dress, their values, etc.? This is sometimes called "exegeting their culture". Then, I could attempt to adapt to that culture. Learn their language. Begin to dress and act like them. Sometimes God calls people to minister cross culturally like this.

The second way is what we see in Acts 10. Peter had been instructed by Jesus to "make disciples of all ethne (people groups)". One of those "people groups" that was culturally distant from Peter, a Galilean Jew, was Roman soldiers. In this case, Peter didn't begin to study Roman military culture and attempt to enlist in the army. He didn't start wearing a helmet and carrying a sword.

Rather, the Lord of the harvest (think Peter was praying Lk 10:2b?) provides Cornelius, a Roman officer, who completely understood the culture of that people group, as the "man of peace". No doubt, Cornelius became the spiritual father of a church birthed in his home. And, no doubt, many Roman soldiers came to Christ through him and became part of his house church.

So, how would you plant a biker church? You might study biker culture and begin wearing leathers and driving a big Harley. Or, you might beseech the Lord of the harvest to provide a "Cornelius" from the biker world. This is exactly what we see in Wade Adam's video interview with Ronnie Hurta (Taylor, TX) below.

What are you learning about praying 10:2b for the various ethne in your city or region?

John

CO2 and 10 2b - Going Viral

At the National House Church Conference, I had the opportunity to interview Tony Dale who is one of the founders and leaders of House2House Ministries. Tony and his wife, Felicity, had just returned from a trip to the Philippines and to Australia. Tony had remarked to me that he was hearing talk of CO2s and of the 10:2b Prayer in both places. See the video below for his comments.

Malcolm Gladwell in The Tipping Point explains that some ideas, if they are "sticky" enough, can spread like viruses. These ideas are said to be "sneeze-able". They spread easily and rapidly from one person to the next. I believe that this is part of the explanation for the rapid spread of the Gospel in the first few centuries. And, I believe that this is at the heart of the current house church movement. It's not about huge organizations and massive marketing campaigns. Rather, God is using simple but powerful ideas spreading from person to person to bring deep and lasting impact.

Praying for the spontaneous and viral spread of vibrant families of Jesus,

John

CO2 "virus" spreads to South Asia

We continue to see the amazing capacity of CO2s to spread in a viral manner. Recently, a Campus Crusade Regional Director from South Asia (name and location withheld for security) spent a week here in Denver with one of my CO2 partners, Hugh Brandt.

Here's Hugh's report...

"We introduced our friend to many Christians here in Denver and visited several house churches where he was impressed with the level of honesty and depth. We also introduced him to the "church of two" concept. He said that this was perfect timing because he had recently realized that the once-a-week meetings with the students they were disciplining was not adequate. He saw immediately that daily CO2s were the answer for effective disciplemaking. As a result, he decided that he would teach this to his staff so that they could then teach it to the students. As a first step, he and I have begun doing a CO2 via Skype. God is at work - between Denver and South Asia!"

Hugh's story highlights one of the important lessons we've learned so far. That is, that actually doing a CO2 with someone (even for just a week) is more effective than just giving them the CO2 Flyer to read. Hugh - we're looking forward to hearing what you are learning as you do a CO2 via Skype with someone on the other side of the world!

Your comments?

John