DMM/CPM: Everything is NOT DMM/CPM

DMM/CPM: Everything is NOT DMM/CPM

Everything is NOT CPM/DMM, and CPM/DMM is not everything. God's glory IS everything, but NOT everything is the declaration/demonstration which brings God the most glory. Unless what we are engaged in is directly helping to catalyze a DMM/CPM, what are we really doing with Kingdom resources, time, energy as missionaries?

The UUPGs/UPGs are waiting to be found. They long to see the demonstration of God’s great invitation for mankind, as well as to hear and embrace the declaration of God’s transformational plans for them. The peoples of the earth are hard-wired to be satisfied in His voice alone. Still, they are waiting.

Reproduction is part of the DNA of this world. Reproduction is also set into the template of all that Jesus modeled, equipped his disciples in doing as they did what he did. I have heard it said by a missionary trainer that when it comes to present day, cross-cultural  missionaries:

25% are highly effective for God’s glory

50% are somewhat effective for God’s glory

25% are highly ineffective for God’s glory

The saying goes, “if you aim at nothing, you hit it every time.” Or, “if you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up somewhere else.”

When it comes to women who serve among UPGs or non-UPG focus, those who are trained/coached in the implementation of DMM/CPM, are finding highly effective pathways for God’s glory.

As Church Leaders, Missions Agencies Leaders, Missionary Leaders, there are times you know that to ask the tough, yet caring questions of your missionaries could be misunderstood or perhaps, in all honesty, not done in grace. Regretfully, that reality does occur. However, as part of the process of DMM/CPM, the concept of Unflinching-Grace-Filled (my addition)Evaluation-evaluation needs to happen. And this type of unflinching evaluation does need to be riveted with grace-filled approaches.

As missionaries, and as partners of missionaries, one needs to be willing to “count what counts.”-Warren Buffet.

There are those who will contend that all ministry is DMM/CPM, or leads to DMM/CPM. For the sake of the UUPGs/UPGs and for God’s glory, I would beg to differ.  In other words, "buyer be-ware!".

The UUPGs/UPGs are still waiting to be found. It can be said that similar movements to Christ have happened since the time of Christ. The bottom line, Christ-modeled basics of  Matthew 28:18-20, “go, therefore, and make disciples of all ethne, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit., and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age,” remains unchanged. For such a time as this, these biblical elements of the DMM/CPM approach is what God is using among the UPGs. 

These words from Christ, known as the Great Commission, have oft been the point of the greatest omission in practice from those who think that there are special "caveats" to these commands. 

Kent Parks, International Director of Act Beyond www.beyond.org, frequently communicates the following reality. In 1980, missiological researchers found that 25% of the world’s population was considered outside the reach of the gospel. Hence, the term, “unreached peoples.”  In 2015, the number of the world’s population who are presently “unreached” (having little or no access to the gospel in their own context), has grown to the sobering level of 29% of the world’s population remain Unreached. 

Unreached People Group-UPG defined-an unreached or least-reached people is a people group among which there is no indigenous community of believing Christians with adequate numbers-usually less than 1% of their population- and resources to evangelize this people group.

If we continue doing what we, as the collective global missions community, are doing in missions, we are sadly losing ground. Physical births actually outnumber spiritual births in the world today, among the unreached. Some people, with whom I concur, call this a call to the Bride to re-align our visions, our passions, our resources, our efforts, to full-throttle attack upon this Spiritual Injustice. For these, Unreached People Groups, there are few, if any indigenous followers of Christ to tell them the incredible news of Christ. They have no access to the gospel in their own tongue. They have no one to demonstrate/declare His glory to them.  

One hugely missing piece is the lack of the level of intentionality when it comes to the equipping, affirming, releasing of women to be engaged in the process of the reach of the unreached. To see women cross-cultural workers trained to search for the women in these households whom God is preparing as the Persons of Peace (Luke 10, Matthew 10) is a high priority in missions. To train these Women of Peace to become the conduits to see their families come to follow, then, we are able to see a more holistic approach to reach of the unreached. In many UPG Clusters, whether in Buddhist/Hindu/Muslim UPGs, the women are the gatekeepers of the home front as well as caretakers of the belief system vision. If they could be trained in Discovery Bible Studies/Discovery Groups (DBS/DG) in how to facilitate their male heads of households to become the facilitators, then, that is a highly strategic endeavor in this process. 

One of the key CPM reflections for our hearts as missionaries is to answer the question, “what needs to be done in order for this UPG to be reached, not what can be done?”

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