DMM/CPM: Cascading Movements

Cascading Movements: Who Will Go?  

"The islands will look to You, O Lord."

The year was 1866. Four young Dutch missionaries were sailing through the Straits of Malacca. The intended port for these glory bearers was present day Papua, Indonesia.

Enroute to Papua they met a Christian man named Moli. He appealed to the four missionaries to begin mission work in the Maluku islands. They heard a “Macedonian Call” much like the one described in Acts 16:6-12. Three of them, Hendrik van Dijken, T. F. Klaassen, and A. De Bode, answered that call, changed their plans, and began a work in this area. The work was slow and painstaking. The first baptisms took place in 1874 when they dedicated the first church.

The growth of the church came after 1900 when a perceived “new” missionary method was applied. People were baptized in groups (households). This rapid growth began in Tobelo in 1898 and developed quickly throughout the islands from 1900.

“Perintis Injil” (pioneer of the gospel) reads the inscription at the base of the present-day bronze statue that memorializes Van Djiken’s obedience to Christ. Several mango trees from that time period shade the land where Van Djiken and his colleagues planted the gospel in the Maluku area of Halmahera.

Pray for today’s believers to hear and respond to God when He calls them to re-direct their efforts. Pray for entire households of unreached people groups to embrace Isa Al Masih (Jesus, the Messiah).

Fast Forward to Today

Only a short walk from the present day tribute to the faithfulness of these three missionaries lies a sharply contrasting memorial to a more recent story. From 1999 to 2002 one of the largest jihad efforts to eradicate the few Christians in this eastern area of Indonesia was launched.

This second and more recent memorial stands less than 100 meters from the bronzed likeness of the first bearer of the gospel; two divergent kingdoms are represented therein. The moss covered remains of a bombed out church building chronicles the stark contrast between the transformational power of the gospel and the cruelty and fallen-ness of man. A mass grave reflects a small representation of those who were killed at that time in the conflict. This mass grave tells the tale of those who were eviscerated, bludgeoned, decapitated, maimed, and hunted down by Laskar Jihad and other Muslim terrorist groups. Many of their children were stolen and shipped back to Java to be raised in Islamic boarding schools and madrasas. This has resulted in a generation of stolen children and many eradicated families who dared to say the name of Jesus. The challenge is to finish what Hendrik Van Djiken and others began by faith.

The L Riots of the year 2000, which targeted the few Christians in this area, were incited by the violence unleashed in the Ambon, Maluku, and Poso areas of Indonesia. Islamic solidarity and prowess expressed a higher stakes commitment from that day forward.

Pray for Muslim Indonesians to understand God’s perspective on these two “monuments” offering such contrasting spirituality.

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?”

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