========================
What are we going to do?
========================
We are going to
discuss the following:
o Why are there so many revivals of the church on the
mission field?
o Revivals of the church are partially merit-based and
can be catalyzed in addition to being a sovereign act of Jesus.
o Why has there been of late no revival of the church in
o A Great Commission church in
o Obedience-based discipleship
Is not legalistic
and does not bypass grace.
Is consistent
with Jesus spec for the obedience component of the Great Commission.
Ensures that disciples
who participate in it can obey the Greatest
Commandment.
o Accountability for obedience has the following
benefit:
Preaching without
accountability for obedience is ineffective for keeping disciples from going off-track.
Disciples that
are more prone to go off-track need the accountability
for obedience, correction and restoration of the small
group most.
o Disciples in
o An assessment of the criticism of the idea of the
person of peace adopted in CPM and DMM.
========================
What are we going to do?
========================
========================
Why are there so many revivals
of the church on the mission field?
========================
A revival of the church is a sovereign
act of God. Apart from praying for it,
there is nothing mere mortals can do to deserve it or catalyze it, so it
seems. Or is there?
http://www.missionfrontiers.org/
On the front cover of every
issue of the online Mission Frontiers magazine is listed the currently known number
of CPM and DMM movements around the world.
The September/October 2022 issue carries the number 1,965.
Every movement where large numbers of disciples and
churches come into existence within a relatively short period of time is a de
facto revival of the church. One wonders
why there are currently so many revivals of the church on the mission field.
The reality is that whether
CPM or DMM, the common refrain is obedience-based discipleship with
accountability implemented for the obedience component of the Great Commission
in a small group setting. Let s
investigate.
Matthew 28:18-20 (King James Version)
18And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power
is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
19Go ye therefore, and teach
all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Ghost:
20Teaching them to observe
all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even
unto the end of the world. Amen.
Matthew 28:18-20 (New International Version)
18Then Jesus came to them and
said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
19Therefore go and make
disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20and teaching them to obey
everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with
you always, to the very end of the age.
In the Great Commission Jesus
defined the three components of making disciples as follows:
Baptizing the disciples
in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Teaching the disciples
all things whatsoever Jesus has commanded.
Ensuring that the
disciples obey all things whatsoever Jesus has commanded.
Disciples made in accordance
with Jesus spec for the Great Commission would possess the qualities that he
wants from a disciple. In giving us the
Great Commission Jesus is telling us to make disciples with the qualities that
he wants. When churches are planted with
the new disciples in them, the churches in turn would possess the qualities
that he wants from a church. Ultimately
the body of Christ that comprises all the churches in the world would possess the
qualities that he wants from the body.
The obedience component of the
Great Commission requires ensuring that disciples obey all things whatsoever Jesus
has commanded. Obedience-based
discipleship is consistent with Jesus spec for the obedience component of the
Great Commission. Furthermore
Jesus spec requires that disciples who have been taught what he has commanded
be held accountable for obedience. This
is common-sense interpretation of Jesus spec.
It is applicable to both disciples on the mission field and disciples
from missionary-sending nations because teaching the disciples to obey all
things whatsoever Jesus has commanded is applicable to all nations or
ethnicities. The Great Commission is
both a local mission project within each reached people and a remote mission
project within each unreached people. That
is the glocal view of the Great Commission. The glocal view of the
Great Commission is by interpretation of Jesus spec for the Great Commission. We are going to have a discussion of the glocal view of the Great Commission in a later section.
Let s say that a disciple is
attending seminary in preparation for becoming a pastor. He attends all the lectures but does not take
any exams, nor write any papers. Thus he has circumvented the quality control process of the seminary. Exams and papers are meant to enforce
accountability on the part of the students that they are making an adequate
effort to learn in the educational process.
Consequently he has not been able to graduate
because the seminary considers it their responsibility in their role as
teachers to assess the quality of the learning of their graduates before
declaring their graduates to have reached a certain level of competence.
Regardless the seminary
student applies to a church for a pastor s post. The church tells him pointblank that he is
not a viable candidate for the post because he only attends lectures and has
exempted himself from being held accountable for learning in seminary. But he quips back saying, Isn t the church
doing the same thing to the congregation that they listen to sermons week after
week without being held accountable for obeying what they have been taught? The training I have received is exactly what
the church needs! From the perspective
of the seminary student the church has a problem with hypocrisy. You see, if the church believes that the seminary
student has mostly failed to learn what he has been taught in seminary for lack
of accountability, the church should also believe that disciples who sit in the
pews listening to sermons week after week have mostly failed to obey what they
have been taught for lack of accountability.
In fact obeying what has been taught involves
more difficulties because it requires successful learning first and then
obeying what has been learned. That is
just common-sense understanding.
The common-sense interpretation
is that there is to be quality control for every component of the Great
Commission the baptism component, the teaching component
and the obedience component. It would be
easy for a church that features regular preaching in their worship service to
assess the quality of their teaching component.
On the other hand it would be difficult for
them to assess the quality of their obedience component. Without quality control that enforces
accountability on the part of the disciples who attend the church to make an
adequate effort to obey what they have been taught, it
is highly uncertain whether they are obedient to what Jesus has commanded. It is akin to the seminary student attending
all the lectures without taking any exams or writing any papers. Consequently it is
difficult for the leadership of the church to assess how far off they are from
meeting Jesus spec for the obedience component of the Great Commission.
In order
for a church to meet the spec for the
obedience component of the Great Commission, the church needs to implement obedience-based
discipleship with accountability. Obedience-based
discipleship with accountability is indeed what has been implemented for the
obedience component of the Great Commission on mission fields that are
currently hosting ongoing movements. Disciples
on the mission field gather together in a Discovery
Bible Study (DBS) group to study a passage of the bible every time the church
meets. (DBS is an artifact of DMM and
something similar is also done in CPM.)
They would consistently apply the following three questions to the bible
passage in an attempt to interpret and apply it:
What does this bible
passage teach you about God?
What does this bible
passage teach you about people?
What would you do
in response to this bible passage?
Such a bible study falls
short of Jesus spec for the teaching component of the Great Commission because
of its minimal utility of teaching. However Jesus permits not fully meeting his spec for the
sake of meeting the pressing need of the unreached people on the mission field
as long as the new disciples are doing their best to meet the spec. Teaching them to obey all things whatsoever Jesus
has commanded is simply not an option at the early stage of their movement
because they have no understanding of the bible. Please refer to the document, 'Why Are There
So Many Disciple-Making Movements on the Mission Field But
So Few of Them in
Regardless of the minimal
utility of teaching, the teaching component of the Great Commission is there on
the mission field. Once the disciples
have been taught what Jesus has commanded in the bible passage, they would set
goals of obedience for the coming week and would hold each other accountable
for obedience the next time they meet. The
DBS group hosts the execution of the following:
The teaching
component of the Great Commission.
The obedience
component of the Great Commission.
The enforcement
of accountability for obedience.
Meeting Jesus spec for the
Great Commission is the primary task a missionary needs
to perform on the mission field because the Great Commission specifies how disciples
are to be made. It is the primary task a
missionary can perform to catalyze a movement in addition to fervent prayer. It is only when the disciples that are made possess
the qualities that Jesus wants from a disciple that he would multiply the disciples
thus resulting in a movement and therefore a revival of the church.
There are secondary tasks
that can be performed to catalyze a movement too. When Jesus is multiplying disciples,
execution of these secondary tasks can facilitate the multiplication process. Please note that execution of these secondary
tasks by themselves does not result in a movement if Jesus is not multiplying disciples. In other words
without meeting Jesus spec for the Great Commission, there is not going to be
a movement, no matter how well the secondary tasks are executed. Therefore meeting
Jesus spec for the Great Commission should be the primary focus of the
missionary if the missionary wants to see a movement.
For a discussion of
catalyzing a movement please refer to the following documents on the current
web site:
Guidelines for
the Facilitator of the CDMCPM Session .
RoadMap to Help
Others Become DM3 .
Reproducing
Discipleship, Leaders and Churches in CDMCPM .
Why Are There So
Many Disciple-Making Movements on the Mission Field But
So Few of Them in
All documents
under the section Guidelines for the Missionary .
Meeting Jesus spec for the
Great Commission along with fervent prayer is how a movement and therefore a revival
of the church comes about on the mission field.
That explains why there are currently so many revivals of the church out
there. It is an indication that Jesus
approves of the way disciples are made in these movements and so disciples are
multiplied.
========================
Why are there so many revivals
of the church on the mission field?
========================
========================
Revivals of the church are
partially merit-based and can be catalyzed in addition to being a sovereign act
of Jesus.
========================
Revivals of the church on the
mission field are therefore partially merit-based and can be catalyzed in
addition to being a sovereign act of Jesus.
This view is contrary to the traditional view that a revival of the church
is a sovereign act of God and that apart from praying for it, there is nothing
mere mortals can do to deserve it or catalyze it. But is the traditional view consistent with
what the bible says?
Acts 6:1-7
1In those days when the
number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained
against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the
daily distribution of food.
2So the Twelve gathered all
the disciples together and said, It would not be right for us to neglect the
ministry of the word of God in order to wait on
tables.
3Brothers, choose seven men
from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn
this responsibility over to them
4and will give our attention
to prayer and the ministry of the word.
5This proposal pleased the
whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor,
Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from
6They presented these men to
the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.
7So the word of God spread.
The number of disciples in
A simple division of labor
and proper caretaking of the needy helped the word of God spread, with the
outcome that the number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith. It is clear from the above passage of the
bible that the revival of the church was partially merit-based and was catalyzed
in addition to being a sovereign act of Jesus.
As noted in the document 'Why
Are There So Many Disciple-Making Movements on the Mission Field But So Few of Them in
Paul went through much
trouble and persecution in his effort to make the doctrine of justification by
faith central in the salvation of the Gentiles, fighting off attempts by the
Jews to impose requirements of the law of Moses on them. As a result the
gospel spread rapidly among the Gentiles.
The revival of the church among the Gentiles was catalyzed in addition
to being a sovereign act of Jesus.
Disciples in the past have
tried to usher in revivals of the church through various means but have failed
because they have not pursued them in accordance with Jesus spec for the Great
Commission as disciples on the mission field have. That is why they have formed the opinion that
there is nothing mere mortals can do to deserve them or catalyze them. From the
above discussion of the revival of the early church it is obvious that doing
nothing and hoping that a revival of the church would suddenly drop out of the
sky is not the right approach. It has
been corroborated by what is ongoing on the mission field.
========================
Revivals of the church are
partially merit-based and can be catalyzed in addition to being a sovereign act
of Jesus.
========================
========================
Why has there been of late no
revival of the church in
========================
What has been discussed leads
quite naturally to the question of why there has been of late no revival of the
church in
That then leads to the
question of why there were abundant revivals of the church in
But these days disciples in
North America and
========================
Why has there been of late no
revival of the church in
========================
========================
A Great Commission church in
========================
If we desire a revival of the
church in
The teaching
component of the Great Commission.
The obedience
component of the Great Commission.
The enforcement
of accountability for obedience.
Meeting Jesus spec for the teaching
component of the Great Commission, the obedience component of the Great
Commission and the enforcement of accountability for obedience are for the
purpose of making disciples with the qualities Jesus wants from a
disciple. They can be done effectively
in a small group. In practical terms it
is a small group with
A bible study
with adequate biblical content for teaching the disciples.
Voluntary setting
of goals of obedience to what has been taught.
Praying for one
another throughout the week for those who have set goals of obedience.
The mutual holding
of accountability at the next meeting for a set goal of obedience by the
disciple who needs to state that he/she has been praying for a disciple who has
set a goal.
Please refer to the document
Guidelines for the Facilitator of the CDMCPM Session for details.
Please note that we are not giving
up on preaching. Preaching continues
during the worship service just as Jesus did a lot of preaching while at the
same time spending much time with the disciples in a small group setting.
You can say that such a small
group is a Great Commission small group.
A traditional-model church with a large number of
Great Commission small groups is a Great Commission church. A Great Commission church that spends much
time in prayer has taken a major step toward catalyzing a revival of the
church.
Since North America and the
mission field possess very different contexts, we cannot directly port what
works on the mission field to
========================
A Great Commission church in
========================
========================
Obedience-based discipleship
is not legalistic and does not bypass grace.
It is consistent with Jesus spec for the obedience component of the
Great Commission. It ensures that disciples
who participate in it can obey the Greatest
Commandment.
========================
Some critics of CPM and DMM
claim that obedience-based discipleship is legalistic and bypasses grace. This criticism is mind-boggling in the
context of Jesus spec for the Great Commission. Jesus explicitly requires discipleship to be
based on obedience and yet critics could say that obedience-based discipleship
is off-track for the Great Commission.
One wonders who has been given all authority in heaven and on earth. If Jesus has been given the authority, then
we should follow Jesus spec for the Great Commission.
The fact of the matter is
that we all fail to fully obey all things whatsoever Jesus has commanded. When disciples in obedience-based
discipleship have failed to obey a specific command from Jesus, they would ask
him for his grace of forgiveness and help for obedience. Obedience-based discipleship does not create a
dichotomy of choosing between obedience and grace and is therefore not
legalism.
Furthermore obeying Jesus commands is the only way we can love Jesus.
The church in
John 14:21
21Whoever has my commands and
keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.
The above verse of the bible
means that obeying Jesus commands is the sufficient condition for loving Jesus.
John 14:23
23Jesus replied, Anyone who
loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to
them and make our home with them."
The above verse of the bible
means that loving Jesus is the sufficient condition for obeying Jesus commands. Conversely we can
say that obeying Jesus commands is the necessary condition for loving Jesus.
The above two verses of the
bible taken together mean the following:
Obeying Jesus
commands is the sufficient condition for loving Jesus.
Obeying Jesus
commands is the necessary condition for loving Jesus.
The above two verses of the
bible taken together further mean the following:
Obeying
Jesus commands is the one and only way one can love Jesus.
Loving
Jesus is the one and only way one can obey Jesus commands.
Mark 12:28-31
28One of the teachers of the
law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good
answer, he asked him, Of all the commandments, which is the most important?
29 The most important one,
answered Jesus, is this: Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
30Love the Lord your God with
all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your
strength.
31The second is this: Love
your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.
Since obeying
Jesus commands is the one and only way one can love Jesus, obeying Jesus
commands is the one and only foundation upon which one can strive throughout
life to obey the Greatest Commandment, which requires one s entire being in
addition to simply being obedient.
Therefore obedience-based
discipleship is not only consistent with Jesus spec for the obedience
component of the Great Commission, it also ensures
that disciples who participate in it can love Jesus and obey the Greatest Commandment.
Those who claim that
obedience-based discipleship is legalistic and bypasses grace need to
understand it better in the context of the bible. Such a claim is indicative of the huge
problem the church in
Church in
Some of the critics of CPM
and DMM don t understand CPM and DMM very well yet
they do not hesitate to criticize them.
The APPENDIX provides a discussion of another example of the criticism
of CPM and DMM that is not warranted.
========================
Obedience-based discipleship
is not legalistic and does not bypass grace.
It is consistent with Jesus spec for the obedience component of the
Great Commission. It ensures that disciples
who participate in it can obey the Greatest
Commandment.
========================
========================
Preaching without accountability
for obedience is ineffective for keeping disciples from going off-track. Disciples that are more prone to go off-track
need the accountability for obedience, correction and restoration of the small group most.
========================
Acts 19:8-10
8Paul entered the synagogue
and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the
9But some of them became
obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. So Paul left them. He took the disciples with him and had
discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.
10This went on for two years,
so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of
Paul was in
Regardless of Paul s heavy
investment in the disciples in
Revelation 2:1-7
1 To the angel of the church
in
These are the words of him
who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden
lampstands.
2I know your deeds, your hard
work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot
tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but
are not, and have found them false.
3You have persevered and have
endured hardships for my name, and have not grown
weary.
4Yet I hold this against you:
You have forsaken the love you had at first.
5Consider how far you have
fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will
come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
6But you have this in your
favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
7Whoever has ears, let them
hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will
give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
The disciples in
Acts 20:16-38
16Paul had decided to sail
past
17From
18When they arrived, he said
to them: You know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first
day I came into the province of
19I served the Lord with
great humility and with tears and in the midst of
severe testing by the plots of my Jewish opponents.
20You know that I have not
hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you
publicly and from house to house.
21I have declared to both
Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our
Lord Jesus.
22 And now, compelled by the
Spirit, I am going to
23I only know that in every
city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me.
24However, I consider my life
worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task
the Lord Jesus has given me the task of testifying to the good news of God s
grace.
25 Now I know that none of
you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again.
26Therefore, I declare to you
today that I am innocent of the blood of any of you.
27For I have not hesitated to
proclaim to you the whole will of God.
28Keep watch over yourselves
and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds
of the
29I know that after I leave,
savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock.
30Even from your own number
men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw
away disciples after them.
31So be on your guard! Remember
that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with
tears.
32 Now I commit you to God
and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an
inheritance among all those who are sanctified.
33I have not coveted anyone s
silver or gold or clothing.
34You yourselves know that
these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions.
35In everything I did, I
showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering
the words the Lord Jesus himself said: It is more blessed to give than to
receive.
36When Paul had finished
speaking, he knelt down with all of them and prayed.
37They all wept as they
embraced him and kissed him.
38What grieved them most was
his statement that they would never see his face again. Then they accompanied
him to the ship.
Had he instituted a practice
for the elders of the church in
Paul s extensive teaching and
preaching in
Verses 28 and 30 shed light on Paul s problems along the same line. In verse 28 he urged the elders to keep watch
over themselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit had made them
overseers. Apparently
these elders were overseers of the network of churches in
What was even more
problematic was what he said in verse 30 that from their own number men would
arise and distort the truth in order to draw away
disciples after them. What he meant was
that such men would arise from among the elders. With such advanced knowledge about the elders,
why didn t he institute a practice for the elders to mutually hold each other
accountable? With the system of mutual accountability
in place, early intervention would be possible, problematic elders could more
readily be identified and the problem could be nipped in the bud before it got
bigger and caused more damage. With
early intervention problematic elders could be restored too before the matter
became irreversible.
Failing to implement a system
of accountability was a major problem in Paul s ministry.
But what about Jesus and the
disciples?
When he had indeed disowned Jesus
three times as Jesus predicted, Peter realized that Jesus had known from the
beginning that he would disown him, but he picked him to be his disciple, lived
with him in close quarters for more than three years and elevated him above the
other disciples anyway. Had Jesus
interaction with the disciples been simply preaching to them in a crowd, their development
would have been rather limited and they would have
fared no better than the crowd. In fact they would be just part of the crowd.
But it was a totally different
story when the disciples interacted with Jesus in a small group being held
accountable for obedience to what they had been taught. In the small group setting they had to conduct
themselves in accordance with Jesus teaching or else they would hear and face
correction from him, quite unlike the sterile comfort of being in a crowd far
removed from Jesus. Obeying Jesus teaching
was not just about behavior modification; it was also about adopting Jesus
attitude and mindset too. Obedience-based
discipleship with accountability was what transformed the disciples and
conformed them to the image of the Son of God.
Peter was just the guinea pig
in the small group that Jesus picked on and that represented the other disciples. The majority of the
group accepted the accountability for obedience, correction and restoration but
some were beyond accountability, correction and restoration. It was in the small group setting with accountability
for obedience that each would have to show his true color without the crowd to
hide behind. Both Peter and Judas in the
crowd listening to Jesus preaching week after week
would not have revealed what they really were on the inside. Bur we observe a
divergence of revealing conduct among them in the small group.
It is disciples like Peter that
are more prone to go off-track and more prone to error and more prone to
failure and more prone to distraction that need the accountability for
obedience, correction and restoration of the small group
most. Disciples who have gone through the accountability, correction and restoration will move on
to be leaders of the church who will hold accountable, correct
and restore others in the small group. Without
that small group of thirteen who stuck with each other for more than three
years there would not have been Christianity; there would only be a sterile
religion with its peculiar philosophy adored by the crowd at a comfortable
distance.
The small group of thirteen
is the progenitor Great Commission small
group and the early church is the progenitor
Great Commission church.
========================
Preaching without accountability
for obedience is ineffective for keeping disciples from going off-track. Disciples that are more prone to go off-track
need the accountability for obedience, correction and restoration of the small group most.
========================
========================
Disciples in
========================
Because the Great Commission needs to be executed both locally within
each reached people and remotely within each unreached people, we need to adopt
a glocal view of the Great Commission. Both the local
and remote execution of the Great
Commission is one and the same pursuit with the same requirement spec from Jesus
applicable to both. Completion of the
Great Commission encompasses completion of the local
execution and completion of the remote execution. Incomplete local execution or incomplete remote
execution will leave execution of the Great
Commission incomplete.
Previously we were not
concerned about the fact that we need to meet Jesus spec for the Great
Commission locally; we thought meeting Jesus spec for the Great Commission is
what missionaries need to worry about remotely out on the mission field. It is when we have adopted the glocal view of the Great Commission that we begin to see that
we are responsible for executing the Great
Commission locally. And we begin to see
the root cause of the problem with the church in North America - the church in
When we consider the Great
Commission merely a collection of remote projects among unreached peoples to be
executed by missionaries, we are oblivious to our ongoing failure. We are also oblivious to the fact that
disciples on mission fields that currently host ongoing movements are actually
doing better than we are in terms of executing the Great Commission they have
met Jesus spec for the Great Commission sufficiently enough that Jesus have
granted them revivals of the church but we haven t. These disciples are more obedient to what Jesus
has commanded than we are even while we think that we are better off than they
are for having sent missionaries among them.
We are in a delusion about ourselves and disciples on the mission field
when we have not adopted the glocal view of the Great
Commission.
The glocal
view of the Great Commission behooves disciples in North America to learn from disciples
on the mission field and adopt the obedience-based discipleship with accountability
they are practicing in order to meet Jesus spec for the
obedience component of the Great Commission.
How well the church in
On the other hand we do need to recognize that disciples on mission fields that currently host ongoing movements are also
facing a looming crisis of their own. They
have the advantage of meeting Jesus spec for the obedience component of the
Great Commission through obedience-based discipleship with accountability but the
disadvantage of not fully meeting Jesus spec for the teaching component. This is in contrast to
our advantage of meeting Jesus spec for the teaching component through
preaching but the disadvantage of not meeting Jesus spec for the obedience component.
Some maturing movements on
the mission field that have used the Discovery Bible Study group for meeting Jesus
spec for the teaching component and the obedience component right from the
beginning of their movements are now resorting to preaching to meet the spec
for the teaching component. Apparently Jesus no longer exempts them from the teaching disciples
in these movements are now capable of. Please
refer to the document, 'Why Are There So Many Disciple-Making Movements on the
Mission Field But So Few of Them in
The glocal
view of the Great Commission behooves disciples in
The vast reserve of biblical
expertise of disciples in
So while we need to learn from disciples on the mission
field and adopt the obedience-based discipleship with accountability they are
practicing, we also need to help them. That
is the true meaning of the glocal view of the Great
Commission. It affirms a mutually-beneficial peer relationship for all parties
involved and does away with the patronizing hierarchical relationship we used
to hold that we have with disciples on the mission field.
========================
Disciples in
========================
========================
APPENDIX An
assessment of the criticism of the idea of the person of peace adopted in CPM
and DMM.
========================
Some of the critics of CPM
and DMM have come up with a critique of the adoption of the idea of the person
of peace in CPM and DMM that is presented in the following article:
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/looking-persons-peace/
The Samaritan woman Jesus met
at the well is an example of a person of peace.
Had he walked into a Samaritan town without the introduction of an
insider, Jesus would have been rejected outright. With the help of the
Samaritan woman who came to recognize Jesus as the Messiah, Samaritans came out
of their town to where he was to meet with him.
Through the Samaritan woman Jesus gained the audience of the Samaritan
community. The Samaritan woman thus
played the role of the person of peace.
Mark 5:18-20
18As Jesus was getting into
the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him.
19Jesus did not let him, but
said, Go home (G3624) to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has
done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.
20So the man went away and
began to tell in the
As Jesus was getting into the
boat, the demoniac in the region of the Gerasenes who
just had the Legion cast out of him begged to go with
him. In the previous chapter of the
gospel of Mark Jesus taught the disciples the parable of the sower. In the
current chapter Jesus did a demonstration for the disciples of going out to sow
the word. He just finished using the
entire process of casting out the Legion to help the former demoniac craft a
breath-taking personal testimony of what Jesus had done for him. When the former demoniac begged to go with
him, Jesus instead told him to go home (G3624) to his own people and tell them
how much Jesus had done for him, and how he had had mercy on him. The word that is translated home and that
has the Strong's Concordance number G3624 is the Greek word oikos . For missionaries on the mission field the
person of peace is the gateway to the oikos that is his/her relational network where
the gospel can spread. The strategy of the
person of peace is central to the execution of CPM and DMM.
Missionaries on the mission field
particularly those who work among an unreached people in a rural setting have seen
the gospel spreading like wild fire on relational
networks. Relational networks in a rural
setting are permanent and have long and dense lines that can greatly facilitate
the spreading of the gospel and they do in known movements. On the other hand
missionaries have also observed that the gospel has difficulties spreading
among an unreached people in an urban setting where relational networks are
transient and have short and sparse lines.
Both observations serve as double confirmation of the usefulness of the
right kind of relational network for spreading the gospel and thus reinforce
one another while either one alone would not furnish as strong a proof.
The article claims that the
apostles did not adopt the strategy of the person of peace for spreading the
gospel. Let s first take
a look at Peter.
Acts 10:23-33
23Then Peter invited the men
into the house to be his guests. The next day Peter started out with them, and
some of the believers from Joppa went along.
24The following day he
arrived in
25As Peter entered the house,
Cornelius met him and fell at his feet in reverence.
26But Peter made him get up.
Stand up, he said, I am only a man myself.
27While talking with him,
Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people.
28He said to them: You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to
associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call
anyone impure or unclean.
29So when I was sent for, I
came without raising any objection. May I ask why you sent for me?
30Cornelius answered: Three
days ago I was in my house praying at this hour, at three in the afternoon.
Suddenly a man in shining clothes stood before me
31and said, Cornelius, God
has heard your prayer and remembered your gifts to the poor.
32Send to Joppa for Simon who
is called Peter. He is a guest in the home of Simon the tanner, who lives by
the sea.
33So I sent for you
immediately, and it was good of you to come. Now we are all here in the
presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us.
Peter was not interested at
all in spreading the gospel among the Gentiles and so did not try to look the
person of peace up. But Jesus was and
prompted Cornelius who was the overly cooperative person of peace to look Peter
the unwilling missionary up instead because the person of peace was crucial for
the gospel to spread across cultures and ethnicities. Cornelius had called together a large
gathering of his relatives and close friends waiting for Peter the unwilling missionary
to evangelize them. So
it was Jesus who insisted that the unwilling missionary worked with the person
of peace as the gateway to other members in the household. From there the person of peace progressed
into the household of peace. Cornelius is
like the best person of peace in the whole world; you cannot find a more
cooperative person of peace than he. The
story could be materials for a comedy skit on missions. It would be fun.
Let s turn our attention to Paul next.
Acts 16:12-15
12From there we traveled to
13On the Sabbath we went
outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of
prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there.
14One of those listening was
a woman from the city of
15When she and the members of
her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. If you consider me a
believer in the Lord, she said, come and stay at my house. And she persuaded
us.
Judging from her stature,
Acts 16:27-33
27The jailer woke up, and
when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill
himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped.
28But Paul shouted, Don t
harm yourself! We are all here!
29The jailer called for
lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and
Silas.
30He then brought them out
and asked, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
31They replied, Believe in
the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved you and your household.
32Then they spoke the word of
the Lord to him and to all the others in his house.
33At that hour of the night
the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his
household were baptized.
When the jailer asked them
what he must do to be saved, Paul and Silas steered him to involve his household. They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to
all the others in his house. Immediately
he and all his household were baptized.
From there the person of peace progressed into the household of peace.
So from Jesus to Peter and Paul, they all adopted the
strategy of the person of peace, well unwittingly for Peter.
The authors of the article
wrote on something they have not expended enough effort in trying to understand
in the context of the mission field and in the context of the bible. It only serves to amplify the distance
between CPM and DMM practitioners on the one hand and their critics on the
other thus hindering the prospect of productive dialog.
Missionaries on the mission
field pay attention to practical aspects of missions and worry about what works
and what does not work on the field.
They do not necessarily spend much time and effort dwelling on theories
and academic discourse. So the presentation of their practice can at times look
crude in the critical eyes of academics.
Unless they also have discerning eyes, academics would miss the treasure
that is buried under. It is only with
discerning eyes that academics can help uncover the real treasure in CPM and
DMM and provide constructive criticism that would help smooth their rough edges
and make them more useful tools for the global execution of the Great
Commission.
The discussion of the person
of peace in the article is an example of those who have developed critical but
not discerning eyes. It does not
contribute to the betterment of the global execution of the Great
Commission. We need to learn to work
constructively together for the betterment of the global execution of the Great
Commission.
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APPENDIX An
assessment of the criticism of the idea of the person of peace adopted in CPM
and DMM.
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