To love and obey Jesus was never designed as a fail-safe
endeavor. However, in Jesus, through the empowering and filling of the Holy
Spirit, it is always safe to fail.
The same can be said for those of us who feel called to
trust God for the launch of Disciple-Making Movements.
One of the most crucial of pieces in this process is to
cultivate a lifestyle of listening to the heart of the Father, as He continues
to reveal the End Vision of His desire to be fulfilled among the Unreached People Groups (or
otherwise) of His leading.
End Vision (GPS-God’s Heart Positioning for Spiritual
Movements locator-What you carry with you everywhere you go)
God-sized vision sounds great but in reality so few choose
to embrace the Kingdom centric possibilities. C.S. Lewis reflects upon the general condition
of the Bride of Christ in his day, "It would seem that Our Lord finds
our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling
about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an
ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot
imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too
easily pleased." C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory.
God beckons. He calls to every heart, of whom He has brought
into being the followers of Christ we were created to be. As such, we are
called to live out of the overflow of that relationship, which He initiated
with us, drew us into, as followers. We are His, He owns us, bought and sealed
with the precious blood sacrifice price of redemption, made possible through
Christ alone.
Not many would dare consider a journey without
first considering the end desired destination. The more clearly we take the
time to listen to the Father, the greater clarity on His desired End Vision.
In Disciple Making Movements (DMM)/Church Planting Movements
(CPM), one crucial commonality of what could help launch cascading movements to
Christ among a given people group is the crafting of an End Vision.
Warren Buffet has been known to say, "You count what counts." In terms of hearing and obeying God's heart for the launch of reproducing disciples, who reproduce leaders, who reproduce house churches, it is also crucial to embrace that which God counts as of highest import to His heartbeat. To craft an End Vision is one metric which narrows the field and aligns us with His heart.
Warren Buffet has been known to say, "You count what counts." In terms of hearing and obeying God's heart for the launch of reproducing disciples, who reproduce leaders, who reproduce house churches, it is also crucial to embrace that which God counts as of highest import to His heartbeat. To craft an End Vision is one metric which narrows the field and aligns us with His heart.
On considering what it is to craft an End Vision, S.P.
writes:
"Vision: Our goal
is to see God glorified in our life and among those whom we serve.
In our ministry,
we need to first hear from God – what is HIS Vision for our people? We then
look for others with a similar vision or for those who will catch the vision.
Significantly, the
movement catalysts God uses seem to be people who are willing to receive a
God-sized impossible vision to see a whole city, nation, ethne, language
reached."
Consider Paul
and the End Vision for how God wired him:
Romans
15:16-23…”to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a
priest the gospel of God, that my offering of the Gentiles might become
acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit… And that’s why it has taken me so
long to finally get around to coming to you. But now that there is no more
pioneering work to be done in these parts,…”
Paul was clear in his End Vision.
The saying goes, if you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time.
As one considers what it is to
seek the Lord, hear His voice, and invite His Spirit to lay out the End Vision,
I typically coach others to consider four components:
·
Be God’s glory centric
·
Be Audaciously Specific
·
Be CPM/DMM Essentials Focused
·
Be Time Bound, By Faith
a.
To facilitating church planting movements so
that all 300,000 N people are within walking distance of a reproducing house
church that is taking the Gospel to the N, Asia, and the world. There will need
to be at least one church in every village (16,000).
b.
To glorify God through multiple church planting
movements among the two million Muslims of S Town so that there is a
reproducing house church in every Muslim neighborhood so that every Muslim can
understand the Gospel and participate in a house church. There will need to be
20,000 house churches proportionately distributed through every Muslim sect and
ethnic group in the city.
c.
Our vision is for XF district is to have an
indigenous CPM that is led by lay, unpaid, local Christians. Thus allowing all
in XF district to hear the gospel, and have a chance to receive Christ. The DNA
of this movement should be evangelism resulting in new churches from the
beginning. Our end vision is to have 200,000 new believers worshiping together
and training in 13,000 new house churches by 2015.
d.
Every Y in every village (~45,000 villages) in
every dialect in Y State coming to know or at least hear about Jesus Christ.
Radical Transformation of Y State (is the most corrupt, most poor state in
country) from a place of darkness to a place of light. The Y are the key to
this transformation. The Y people would cross people group lines and ultimately
spread the Gospel to all Y State, then to all of North India, and then to the
East to Thailand, China, Japan, etc and to the West to Pakistan and the Middle
East.
For God’s glory, we are trusting the Holy Spirit
to launch a reproducing disciple-making movement, by establishing an
indigenously-led house fellowship to the fourth generation in each of the 995 villages in eight
regencies across _____________, by 2022, among SaSumBi Muslim People Groups.
As you consider crafting an End Vision, also consider that reality of how God desires His children to simply follow Christ' model in all.
Meditate upon the following passages in order to get started in crafting the End Vision of the Father's will. Review the DMM/CPM Critical Elements list in order to align your pursuits.
Revelation 5:9-14
Revelation 7:9-17
Genesis 12:1-3
Romans 15:16-23
Matthew 28:16-20
Galatians 4:4
Ephesians 2
Acts 1:8
Psalm 67
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