This is part two of a series exploring the partnership between prayer and Disciple Making Movements (DMM) or Church Planting Movements (CPM).
People who practice Disciple Making Movements (DMM) principles are looking for someone who is very open to spiritual discussion and also willing to open their family or circle of influence (the Biblical word is oikos) to an outsider relatively quickly. We call them people of peace or PoPs (from ‘man of peace’ in Luke 10:6 NIV). We believe that there are a number of biblical characters that fit the description: Cornelius, Lydia and the Philipian jailer being strong examples.
John 6:44-45 says “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: ‘they’ll all be taught by God.’ everyone who has heard the father and learned from him comes to me.
For a long time I felt the pressure that I needed to draw people to Jesus. And once they were drawn to him it was my job to teach them. These verses give us a very different perspective don’t they?
In a North African country a short termer sat down in a taxi and immediately struck up a conversation with the male driver. The driver said something unusual and out of her ignorance she asked if he was a Christian or a Muslim. He responded by saying “right now I don’t know.” She connected him with friends who were trying DMM principles and they started studying the scriptures with him. Within a few weeks other groups were forming through his network and now many have come to faith. The long termers had been praying desperate prayers and were trying to meet people but it was the ignorance of this short termer that exposed this driver, that God had been drawing, to the gospel.
People who follow DMM principles believe that the harvesters are in the harvest. They believe that even the newest believer is a fellow priest, a fellow labourer. Once the worker finds a PoP they are encouraged, within the first few meetings, to ask if they want to read the Scriptures together with their family or friends. At this point the worker is praying that the person will open their oikos and open the PoPs heart to the scripture.
How often do we pray that we (or others) will be lead to the harvest as we go out? How often do we feel the responsibility of drawing others to Jesus? Could you place that yoke back on His shoulders right now?
1. Please join us and start praying that workers across North Africa will find People of Peace.
2. If you want to pray very specifically, why not pray that the People of Peace will be met within in the next 3-6 months!
3. Pray that workers will be able to quickly discern if someone they meet is a person of peace.
4. Pray for groups to start emerging who will study God’s word together all across North Africa.
5. Ask God that workers will be able to set aside more time to pray for this harvest, as prayer is key to the success of church planting movements.
*CPM – a church planing movement
** PoP – Person of Peace
***DMM – for the sake of these articles I have used the term DMM – Disciple Making Movement – as a methodology that ideally produces a CPM as the end goal but these terms are often used interchangeably.
We recommend reading a book called Miraculous Movements by Jerry Trousedale. It will build your faith and give you more ideas for how you can specifically pray for church planting movements to begin all over North Africa.
Part 3 of this series of web posts will be posted next week.