CPM/DMM: They Want to Be Found

Persons of Peace: They Want to Be Found

Pitch and roll, not today. The waves kindly obliged our passage from one island to the next in our focus area. While enroute to a CPM Training/Coaching weekend, gentle ocean waters carried us forward. My husband and I take these opportunities to ask the Lord to lead us to POPs. S walked through the passenger ferry in one direction, while I felt led to check out the front area. A SaSumBi Muslim woman sat alone on the crew’s access ladder. "As-salam-wa-lai-kum (peace unto you)," I offered.

After a bit of introductory conversation, I identified myself as a follower of Isa Al Masih, the straight and true way. Then, I asked my new aquaintence, Fatima, if she wanted to pass the time in sharing what we were each thankful for? Then, what are our unique challenges in life at present? 

She jumped at this opportunity. After an hour or so of sharing about her life, her unique challenges, I asked her if I could pray in the name of Isa for her? She immediately indicated that she desired this…at this point, the Holy Spirit led the prayer time so powerfully. Fatima sobbed uncontrollably. I asked her if I could hold her. As I closed in the time of prayer over her, I asked her where Allah was touching her heart so clearly? To which she replied, “Since my childhood days, I have not had a mother, nor another woman to listen to my story, nor hold me with the tender care you showed. Why would you do such a thing?” 

I shared with her that the source of this type of tenderness, greater than what man could ever offer, is Allah himself, made known through Isa Al Masih. Venturing further, "Would you like to get together with someone whom I know in your hometown who would talk with you about Allah’s heart to heal and restore all areas of our lives?" After this comment, I shared with her that it is important to know the heart of Allah; the reading of the books of Moses, the Psalms, and the gospels is where one needs to start. Would she like to have this contact? As she wiped the tears away, she said yes. 

Pray for Fatima and her boyfriend to desire to meet in a Discovery Bible Study DBS, as I contact a gal I am coaching in DMM who lives in her same city for follow up. 

POPs... they want to be found.

CPM/DMM; God's Glory Attention Deficit Disorder (GGADD)

CPM/DMM: God's Glory Attention Deficit Disorder (GGADD)

Pay Attention to What God is Doing in the World Today

“The work God is doing today among Muslims is so historic and unprecedented that I wonder if any

of us can truly comprehend it. Never before in the 1,400 years since the death of Muhammad have we seen so many Muslims coming to faith in Jesus as their Savior and Lord. And these are not just isolated individuals but whole families and communities. In our lead article for this issue, Dr. David Garrison reports on an unprecedented number of movements to Christ developing among Muslim communities all over the world (see page 6). As Garrison reports, in the first 1,300 years since Muhammad, there was only one voluntary movement to Christ among Muslims of 1,000 or more believers. In the last 20 years of the 20th Century, there were eight. In just the first 12 years of the 21st Century there have been 64. That is not a misprint. As of 2012 there were at least 64 documented movements to Christ taking place among Muslims, each with over 1,000 baptized believers and 100 worshiping fellowships. And the number of these movements is growing.” (Rick Wood, Mission Frontier Journal, July-August 2013, p 4)

Pay Attention to the Need for Clarity 

The following article by Graeme Wood in The Atlantic’s March 2015 edition is a necessary and valuable piece to pay attention to on Islam.  A couple of quotes are listed below the link.

http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2015/02/what-isis-really-wants/384980/

“The reality is that the Islamic State is Islamic. Very Islamic. Yes, it has attracted psychopaths and adventure seekers, drawn largely from the disaffected populations of the Middle East and Europe. But the religion preached by its most ardent followers derives from coherent and even learned interpretations of Islam. Virtually every major decision and law promulgated by the Islamic State adheres to what it calls, in its press and pronouncements, and on its billboards, license plates, stationery, and coins, ‘the Prophetic methodology,’ which means following the prophecy and example of Muhammad, in punctilious detail. Muslims can reject the Islamic State; nearly all do. But pretending that it isn’t actually a religious, millenarian group, with theology that must be understood to be combatted, has already led the United States to underestimate it and back foolish schemes to counter it. We’ll need to get acquainted with the Islamic State’s intellectual genealogy if we are to react in a way that will not strengthen it, but instead help it self-immolate in its own excessive zeal.”

“Properly contained, the Islamic State is likely to be its own undoing. No country is its ally, and its ideology ensures that this will remain the case. The land it controls, while expansive, is mostly uninhabited and poor. As it stagnates or slowly shrinks, its claim that it is the engine of God’s will and the agent of apocalypse will weaken, and fewer believers will arrive. And as more reports of misery within it leak out, radical Islamist movements elsewhere will be discredited: No one has tried harder to implement strict Sharia by violence. This is what it looks like. Even so, the death of the Islamic State is unlikely to be quick, and things could still go badly wrong”

Wood writes from a secular American perspective. As believers in Christ who seek to see the launch of cascading movements to Christ among Muslims, there is benefit from the insights in this very thorough article.

Pay Attention to What Stills Needs to Be Done

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.

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.

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

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?”

n

S

S

DMM/CPM: Finding Els; Even in the Admin

Finding Els; Even in the Admin

DMM is not everything, everything is not DMM. God’s glory IS everything, but not in everything does God get the glory.

If spiritual gifts were to be a periodic cattle call to be assigned, I am pretty sure that I would not have raised my hand when the Lord was passing out the spiritual gift of admin. Thankfully, as in accordance to how He plans to use each of us, I have increased in my deep admiration of those who are highly gifted in this area.

The recent Women2Women (W2W) DMM Training Level 1, held in ME region of world, found me in that familiar territory of need to increase my abilities in the area of admin. Gratefully, I saw how beautifully the Lord walked through that one of many pieces of the process of what it is to lead these trainings. The part I loved was the privilege of designing the week, facilitating lessons, and helping others to coach/and/or facilitate lessons more effectively. The coaching team was fantastic. The trainees were “all-in”. The implementation of the DMM training is the key. The training bit is easy to walk through. It is in the actual trust in the Lord to do what He promises in our respective UPGs in the launch of cascading movements that will matter.

After the time of pre-training coaching meetings, I was to meet with the tour company’s representative on site, Els. She was there to help with the hotel logistics. We enjoyed a breakfast time together.  Knowing that she is a ME Muslim, I had asked the HS to move in her heart ahead of time. After three hours of sweet time together, we had discussed the areas of “shame” and what Allah has planned for those whom He created. We discussed the straight and true way which Allah has given in Isa Al Masih. She was intrigued. We also did a shortened version of the first prophet story from the Old Testament DBS/DG (Discovery Bible Study/Discovery Group) together, in oral format. I invited her to meet with another friend of mine who could walk her and her husband and other family members through another story. She indicated that she desired to talk more about Allah’s ways in Isa.

I have handed over her contact to a colleague from that city area.

Els is just one of those “admin” category necessary meetings which need to reflect a desire to see the HS move, even in these potentially “draining” handling of the details of what we are called to.

Els wants to be found. POPs want to be found. Lifestyle searching for POPs, empowered by the Holy Spirit is essential.

CPM: Whatever It Takes, For However Long it Takes

'Til They Know True Worship

Whatever It Takes, For However Long It Takes
by RA-Act Beyond www.beyond.org 

In the CPM approach we like to ask the tough questions, "Whatever it takes to see this UPG come to Christ, are we willing to be and do?" It is in our experience that far more panoramic in the process of trusting God to see Him launch a CPM is the need to also consider the question, " are we willing to be and do whatever it takes, for however long it takes?"

During our time among the SaSumBi, we have seen 80 expat Missionaries, as well as 20 local missionaries, who have come and gone over a span of 25 years among these UPGs. There have been divisions (6+ team breakups), 3 deaths while serving here, marriage issues, sexual purity issues, selfish ambition issues, fear issues, to name a few of the reasons for their departures. However, it is in the evaluation of these departures where we submit all to the Sovereign hand of God. Some left for seemingly preventable reasons while others left because of their obedience to do so as the Father led them to depart to other foci. Some just flat out gave way to not taking care to guard their own hearts as Joshua was commanded by the Father to instruct the Israelites as they prepped to take Jericho, "But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will give you trouble in the land where you will live".-Number 33:55

In our observation, this instruction is relevant as we consider longevity among the UUPGs/UPGs in the process of trusting God to see the launch of CPMs. If we take care to understand what the bondage areas of captivity are for the UPGs we focus upon then we can garner strengthening to our own hearts to be honest as regard to our own vulnerabilities to the same. 

We have seen a strong spirit of divisiveness, a spirit of fear, oppressive behaviors, hostility, selfish ambition, bullying be the norm in these UPGs. Among the Missionaries who have come and gone, these tendencies have occurred, in not all, but in several cases. 

This caution for longevity is the difference between being a cautionary tale or being an example to emulate. 

RA-Act Beyond