Looking in Acts - Chapter 13

I was challenged a few months back to go through Paul's missionary journeys in the book of Acts (Acts Chapters 13-21) and ask the following questions:

1. What was Paul's plan for: Entry to the area, Gospel presentation, Discipleship, Church formation, Leadership multiplication.
2. What happened that was uncontrollable?
3. What were the results?

I'm hoping that by concentrating on the spread of the early church in Acts, God will bring some key principles to life ... so here we go. It might get a little wordy, but I'm going to try to put the points that stand out to me in bold.

Acts Chapter 13

Paul's plan for entry:

In Cyprus, Paul travels around the entire island, and he goes to the Jewish synagogues. In Psidian Antioch Paul again goes to the synagogue and takes part in the services there. The other interesting thing here is that when the Jews incite persecution and trouble, Paul and Barnabas simply move on. They leave.

Paul's Gospel presentation:

Both in Cyprus and Psidian Antioch, Paul waits until asked to share the full Gospel. In Cyprus he is asked by a proconsul - and after the gospel presentation he curses a sorcerer who is then struck blind. In Psidian Antioch he is asked to come back and teach in the synagogue on the next sabbath.

In Psidian Antioch, we get a detailed version of Paul's Gospel presentation. He uses the past and culture of the people he is speaking to. He speaks very simply about the story of Jesus coming to earth. He proclaims that forgiveness of sins is possible through belief.

Paul's discipleship:

I only see one thing mentioned on this in Chapter 13. Paul moves on from the unresponsive Jews to the responsive Gentiles. He focuses on the people who are responsive.

Paul's church formation, leadership multiplication:

Nothing in here 'bout that.

What happened that was uncontrollable?

The Spirit said 'Go'. People invited him to speak. Persecution came from the sorcerer in Cyprus, and from the Jews in Psidian Antioch. Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit and performed a miracle in blinding the sorcerer. The disciples were filled with joy as they left Psidian Antioch.

What were the results?

In Cyprus, the proconsul believed. In Psidian Antioch, there was excitement in the city. The Gentiles honored the word of the Lord and all who were appointed believed. The word of the Lord spread through the whole region.

Personal Thoughts:

Two things stand out to me. First, it is shocking to me that Paul leaves when he does. What missionary in their right mind would just leave with all those new believers there. Why didn't he stay for a few months or a year to teach them? Second, it is interesting to me that in both cases Paul waits for a door to be opened before sharing the full Gospel. I pray that I would have the faith to trust God to leave when it's time to leave, and I pray that I would be entrusted with opportunities to share the forgiveness made possible through Jesus.

CPM Essentials #8 - #10 - It's all about church

OK, I admit that I'm getting a little lazy in combining all of these points, but it really does make some sense to combine them - and it's a lot faster! The three points here are really all about one central idea - the centrality and sufficiency of the local church.

The three points 1)churches planting churches, 2)rapid multiplication, and 3)healthy churches all lead to the one idea that a small house church is self-sufficient, and therefore can multiply itself without outside help. The small group of believers meeting in a home have everything they need to multiply as they reach out, and they have a vision to do it.

This whole idea of churches being central to planting new churches is what allows both rapid multiplication, and church health.

Rapid multiplication is possible because they are not dependent on raising outside resources (including a formally trained pastor) to plant a church. They don't have to check with another organization or draft a new church constitution. It might be as simple as this - a rural church reaches out to another village, shares their testimony, and some people respond with belief. The church then teaches them to 'do church' in the same manner that they were taught. That new church finds their leaders from within as the existing church teaches and watches. Then walla, you have two churches where there use to be one. And it may have happened in as little as a month. This is rapid multiplication.

Regarding church health, there are a couple points to ponder. First, I believe that just as individual believers begin to find themselves as they focus outward rather than inward (losing one's life in order to find it), so does the church. A church that is focused on spreading the Gospel with a vision of seeing new churches started will likely be more healthy than a church focusing on expanding their own kingdom (size, influence, resources,etc.).

The second point that often comes up is the idea of heresy. Isn't it dangerous to have young churches starting young churches without educated pastors? My answer is yes, just as it was dangerous in the New Testament. Have you read about those messes lately! :) We must realize (as David Watson says) that all churches start out heretical! And this is OK. Think about it. Who starts out with all the answers? We've got churches that have been around a 100 years and can't agree on certain issues (meaning one of them is wrong!), what makes us think that a new church should be perfect?! Churches grow with the Spirit of God, and we must believe that the Spirit is sufficient. If it is not, then we are all in trouble!

If all of this intrigues you and you want to know more, check out David Watson at www.cpmtr.org. He is a man who has lived all of this and seen millions changed.

CPM Essentials #5-#7 - Remove Resource Constraints

I've been away for a while. In the mean-time I had a great meeting with some of the staff at Westside and our India partners. It was a great day, and we made plans to train the key staff in India when I go in October. As it turns out, they our partners are already doing most of this. We pray God would use us to help them tweak a few things to multiply tens of thousands of believers into a million or more. Will you pray with me that God will make it happen?

The next essential elements of a CPM outlined in Garrison's book are local leadership, lay leadership, and cell churches. These logic behind these elements is easy to understand. They all remove resource constraints - constraints on money to pay leadership, constraints on money to build churches, and constraints outsiders to lead. If the goal is a multiplying movement of churches, we need to make sure that the churches can multiply themselves. Any kind of outside help, while potentially beneficial in the short-term, will destroy any potential for continual multiplication.

One speaker I was listening to, simply said "paid leadership and buildings kill CPM".

Another speaker once said, "I can get a worship band and build a building and get 1000 people to come together and listen to me speak, and every single one of them will leave thinking 'I could never do that!'".

I'm not going to list the many verses here mostly because I'm lazy and don't want to go find them, but these principles are demonstrated throughout the New Testament. House church is everywhere in there, and most leaders where unpaid - particularly the local leaders of a church.

As a side note, this also has interesting leadership development applications. In this model, paid leaders come out of lay-leadership. They reach a point of dedication and effectiveness that causes a group of people to decide to pay them and ask them to serve full-time. Imagine if our churches in the States followed this model. Instead of hiring a pastor search team to search out the seminary grads, we asked people within the church who have demonstrated leadership to step forward. The only church I know of that does it this way is Mosaic in LA. I've heard Erwin McManus (the leader there say) he tells people who are inquiring about jobs "OK, great - move here, find a job to support yourself, and then start volunteering at the church ... we'll see where it goes from there".

We must make things simple. Simple is good!