Church Planting Movements: Cultivation of Catastrophizing

Cultivation of Catastrophizing

The process of equipping the indigenous leader follows this simple pattern as illustrated below:

Facilitator CPM       POP/Natural Facilitator of Oikos         DBS Oikos/Household/Affinity 
Finds POP                                                                                                            Group

Equipping the Indigenous Leaders

As you and I trust God to launch a Church Planting Movement (CPM) among a given UPG or even among reached peoples in home sending countries, the tendency to catastrophize at times runs rampant.

The book of Numbers is replete with examples of catastrophizing rather than anticipating what God promises to be and to do for His people and through His people among the ethne.

Here is a sample of present day paraphrasing of the followers of God fresh from miraculous deliverance in the book of Numbers.

This could never happen here…sure, God ripped the heavens open and came down to get us out of Egypt but not here, not now…we will be left to die here…who died and made Moses leader?…why do we have to?...we need…we should have…we have not…we deserve better than this…we have the right to…we know what is best for ourselves, not God…kill the beast, burn their bones, and let’s control our own destiny…

The process of the development of indigenous leaders, especially those, along with their oikos, whom have yet to place their trust in Christ, can feel like a slippery slope. Admittedly there is a tension here. The tension is felt palpably between the command to honor and handle accurately the inerrant Word of God and the reality that those whom we facilitate in CPM, initially, are non-believers handling the Word while we rely upon the Holy Spirit to lead them.

Sacred Cows Long to Be Fed

Along these lines, during CPM trainings of foreign as well as national partners, one of the best fed of sacred cows always raises its foreleg for a common question. “How does one equip a non-Christian in their facilitation of a Discovery Bible Study (DBS/DG) when that POP is not yet committed to God, His Word, nor dependent upon empowering of the Holy Spirit? Great question.

With vision—is a good answer. Our role as facilitators/catalyst of CPM is to cast vision in all aspects of the CPM process—which needs to infect every bit of how we equip the indigenous leaders of their respective households (oikos). This answer in no way is meant to skirt the use of healthy and accurate handling of the inerrant Word of God.

What We Have Seen and Heard

A summary of a recent gathering of those among UPGs who have seen and are seeing CPMs to 4^th generation multiplication and beyond addressed this area. Though the topic is Vision and how to inject God’s Vision for His glory into the DNA of these CPMs, the truths are relevant to how we see the training and equipping of the indigenous leaders.

1.Vision casting from the very beginning


2.Vision to reach everybody – every man, woman, child


3.Movements include great vision by inside leaders [like Knox: "Give me Scotland or I die”]
(All CPMs included near-culture or same-culture “drivers” of vision: They led a host of true insiders who owned and were able to implement the vision)


4.Memorable and recitable vision (goal is for everybody to have this vision)


Vision is cast each meeting and the goals the participants set through prayer are challenging

Another colleague recently mentioned how her leadership  cast the following vision in terms of raising up their next generation of leaders. “Our vision is to make our ceiling of faith the floor of faith for the next generation of leaders.”

In similar ways, one of the most rugged of crossroads terrain to traverse as a catalyst for CPM/DMM is to assume that God’s Word and the Holy Spirit are the keys to transforming the hearts of men.

John 6:44-45, “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 will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me.”

If you desire to plant obedient pregnant house fellowships which are then able to reproduce, you and I must firmly believe in the Kingdom reality of the above truths. The organic/natural state of all living organisms is coded in their DNA to reproduce. In John 6:44-45 we see the Father teaches others. The ownness is upon each of us to train these oikos’s, through their POPs and/or natural facilitators (leaders) to rely upon the Holy Spirit and God’s Word to teach them.  Our role is to always guide them back to Scripture and the leading of the Holy Spirit as healthy parameters in the pursuit of honoring the integrity and purity of the Word of God.

A practical tool you can use in equipping the facilitator of the DBS is when they come upon a question;  “I don’t know” is a discovery type response of the CPM catalyst. The overall response of those who have seen CPMs is that they direct the indigenous leader to a general section of Scripture while withholding of the tendency to proof text. The CPM catalyst instructs the indigenous leader to pray, seek the Lord, read the Word and ask the Father. Again, this is obedience based discipleship we are desiring to DNA into the fabric of these DBS streams. As these DBSs are transformed into desired healthy pregnant house fellowships which multiply as the norm, the concept of being a true worshiper is to both love and obey God. 

RA