WHAT IS THE POPULATION OF THE PHILIPPINES TODAY? HOW MANY FILIPINOS ARE TRUE CHRISTIANS?

•WHAT IS THE POPULATION OF THE PHILIPPINES TODAY?•HOW MANY FILIPINOS ARE

TRUE CHRISTIANS?

THE CHURCH IN THE PHILIPPINES

• Based on the official May 2000 census of the Philippines, the National statistics office published the Religious affiliations of the country’s population.

• According to this report, • the EVANGELICALS & other PROTESTANTS

constitute a combined TOTAL of • 6.5% only of the entire population.

NUMBER OF CHURCHES IN THE PHILIPPINES

1890 – 1975 : 5,0001976 – 2000 : 51,5752001 – 2007 : 60,000

POPULATION OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES:

• Approximately 99% of the churches average less than 300 worshippers




• From Philippine challenge - Ptr. Dave White

SIZE OF EVANGELICAL / PROTESTANT CHURCHES

CHURCHES MEMBERSHIP %

19,720 BELOW 30 38.20

11,900 31-50 23.05

7,410 51-75 14.35

5,310 76-100 10.28

6,200 101-300 12.01

595 301-500 1.15

320 501-1000 .62

120 1,001 & UP .33

TOTAL: 51,575

Source: The church in the Philippines

THE CHURCH IN THE PHILIPPINES

• PCEC STATED IN THEIR REPORT THAT IN THE PHILIPPINES THERE ARE STILL APPROXIMATELY• 26,000 BARANGAY’S (VILLAGES)

WITHOUT A SINGLE CHURCH.

OBSERVATIONS

•CHURCHES Empty on weekdays.• No church workers on regular days. • Pastor not a resident of the area.

•Members are busy with their lives.

Why are Christian churches not growing?

• What is the REAL PROBLEM besetting Christian churches?

WHY ARE CHURCHES NOT GROWING?

• Most people who are called Christians are spiritual babies.

• They can’t even feed themselves.• They have to be spoon-fed weekly by

sitting passively in a church service. • That’s why improved sermons, bigger

churches, and better trained pastors can’t help.


• Church members are PASSIVE audiences.

• Participation of the Laity is not encouraged.

• Lack of Participation hinders the expression of inspiration, affirmation, information, celebration and transformation.

• We have forgotten to practice group Bible reading & allow the HOLY SPIRIT to teach & reveal what GOD wants to reveal to the brethren.


• Humanism is more popularly preached.• Discussion Bible Study (DBS) or Participative Bible

study is seldom practiced.• Many Christians don’t have time for Bible studies.• Most Christians do not know what is in the

Bible. • They have heard and read much about the Bible,

but seldom get into the Bible itself.

SURVEY QUESTIONAIRE

1. COMPLETE NAME2. NAME OF CHURCH3. DESIGNATION/ RESPONSIBILITY

SURVEY1. WHY ARE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES

NOT GROWING? (Choose one)

A. LACK OF FUNDS / MONEY B. CHURCH DOES NOT HAVE GOOD

FACILITIESC. DON’T HAVE ENOUGH WORKERSD. OTHER REASONS : ________________

SURVEY2. WHAT IS A CHURCH? 3. DO YOU INTENTIONALY PRAY & SEEK FOR

OPPORTUNITIES TO SHARE THE GOSPEL?4. HAVE YOU EVER SET A GOAL (NUMBER OF

PEOPLE) TO SHARE THE GOSPEL? 5. WHY DO WE SHARE THE GOSPEL?

SURVEY6. WHY ARE CHRISTIANS NOT SHARING THE

GOSPEL?

A. YOU ARE SHY B. AFRAID OF REJECTIONC. DON’T KNOW HOW TO SHARE THE GOSPELD. YOU ARE BUSY & DON’T HAVE TIME

7. SALVATIONA. FAITH + GOODWORKS =

SALVATION

B. FAITH + BAPTISM = SALVATION

C. FAITH + 0 = SALVATION

D. FAITH + BAPTISM + GOODWORKS = SALVATION

THE REAL REASON WHY CHURCHES ARE NOT GROWING:

CHRISTIANS ARE

SHARING THE GOSPEL!

NOT

WHY ARE CHRISTIANS

NOT SHARING THE GOSPEL?

Result of survey / Reasons cited:

• They are shy to approach people they don’t know

• They are scared of rejection• They don’t know how to share the Gospel

• They are BUSY with work

THE REAL REASON: MANY CHRISTIANS NEVER FULLY UNDERSTOOD THE GOSPEL!

American church statistics show• Churches lose estimated 2,765,000 people

each year to nominalism and secularism. • Between 3,500 to 4,000 churches close their

doors each year in America. • Half of all churches last year did not add

one new member through "conversion growth"

• Approx. 98 million people are under the age of 25 in the United States & those between the ages of 18-25 are the least likely to attend a church.

D-GRP; G-12; CELL GRPS; CARE GROUP; etc

PROBLEM:

• Many leaders of these groups also DID NOT understand the Gospel well. They are not equipped to handle groups. At best they only have fellowship & fun.

• Many cell group leaders have NOT made a habit of reading the Bible from cover to cover.

• They are not immersed in the Word so they don’t know what to teach & how to lead their D-grp.


PROBLEM

• They DON’T spend much time in PRAYER.

• Most members are NOT committed .

• Many cell or D-grp members DON’T have a burden to serve & get involved in ministry.


PROBLEM

• They are BUSY in the world.

• They don’t have time to serve.

• Many Christians never surrendered their lives to GOD.

WORKSHOPDiscuss how to share the

GospelEach group will make a

presentation onHow to share the Gospel

THE PROBLEM?• CHRISTIANS THINK CHURCH IS A BUILDING

LOCATED IN A CERTAIN PLACE. THEY HAVE CONFUSED CHURCH WITH A BUILDING.

• THE TRUE MEANING & DEFINITION OF CHURCH HAS BEEN OBLITERATED.

• WORSHIP HAS TAKEN ON A DIFFERENT MEANING. IT IS SINGING ON A SUNDAY SERVICE.

• WORSHIP IS DONE ONLY ONCE A WEEK.

THE PROBLEM?• PASTORS FAILED TO EQUIP THEIR PEOPLE TO

ACT AS A ROYAL PRIESTHOOD.• CHRISTIANS THINK ONLY PASTORS ARE TASKED

TO PLANT CHURCHES.• CHRISTIANS THINK ONLY ORDAINED PASTORS

ARE EQUIPPED & QUALIFIED TO DO THE WORK OF A MINISTER.

THE PROBLEM?• CHRISTIANS NEVER UNDERSTOOD THE

PRIESTHOOD OF THE BELIEVER.• THEY NEVER UNDERSTOOD THEIR CALLING.

JN.15:16• THEY ARE CONTENT TO SIT IN PEWS & LISTEN TO

THE PASTOR. • CHRISTIANS HAVE BEEN UNWITTINGLY

CONDITIONED TO ACT AS SPECTATORS IN CHURCH.

THE PROBLEM?• MOST CHRISTIANS CAN BE CATEGORIZED AS

NOMINAL CHRISTIANS. • THEY ARE REPRESENTED BY THOSE WHO PAUL

WARNED TIMOTHY ABOUT • “AS HAVING A FORM OF GODLINESS, BUT

DENYING THE POWER THEREIN.” THEY SIT IN CHURCH PEWS, BUT THE IMPLICATIONS OF THE GOSPEL SIMPLY GO OVER THEIR HEADS.

THE PROBLEM?• LAYMEN HAVE NOT BEEN ENCOURAGED NOR

TAPPED TO DO THE WORK OF CHURCH PLANTING.

• CHRISTIANS HAVE CREATED THE WRONG IMPRESSION THAT TO BE CALLED A CHRISTIAN YOU NEED TO GO TO CHURCH EVERY SUNDAY.

• MANY CHRISTIANS ARE AT BEST CHURCH GOERS OR ATTENDEES.

THE PROBLEM?• PEOPLE ARE MORE PROTECTIVE OF

THEIR POSITION & POSSESSIONS THAN THEY ARE OF THE GOSPEL AND ITS SPREAD.• CHURCH HAS BECOME A LOCATION

RATHER THAN US.• MANY CHRISTIANS ARE NOT

LOOKING FOR PEOPLE TO DISCIPLE

MEGASHIFTAmazing, wonderful,

MIRACLES happening all around the World.

By: James Rutz

An Unprecedented Movement

• In China, there is an unprecedented movement that even surpasses that early growth of the church

• and this unparalleled revival is a house church movement.

• The following is taken from the Caleb Report in the 1990 Jan./Feb. issue of MINISTRIES MAGAZINE. The report is given by Loren Cunningham, founder and president of YWAM “YOUTH WITH A MISSION:”

An Unprecedented Movement• "According to the U.S. Center For World Mission,

•more than 22,000 Chinese are

coming to Christ each day. • That is the equivalent of seven days of Pentecost

every 24 hours and it is happening right now. • Most of this explosion of new belief is coming from

China’s rural communities, where 80% of the population of China lives.

An Unprecedented Movement• Jonathan Chao, founder of the Chinese Church Research

Center in Hong Kong , says the Chinese revival is being spread by young people, mostly ages

15 to 19.

• The teenagers go to villages and share the gospel where it has never been heard before.

• As converts are organized into small groups, the teens call for the ‘elders, (believers in their twenties) to come and teach the newly formed home church while the younger Christians go on to reach the next village.

CHURCH GROWTH IN CHINA• There was Tawpaun, 33, a wife and mother in

China, who planted • 233 churches in one year & baptized 12,000 • There was even a 90-year-old Chinese lady

who led 5,000 people to Christ simply by putting up a little sign at a notorious “Lovers’ Leap” saying, “Before you commit suicide, come see me at ___________ (her address).”

Lily & Zhang

From Open Doors’ Pierre Tschanz comes a charming report that will make you delighted or embarrassed or both:

One of their workers took some bibles to a house church in Central China and gave them to two new believers, Lily & Zhang, sisters who had been saved that day in the house church.

Around two years later, another member of their staff was in the same town and met Lily & Zhang. He wanted to know what they had done since becoming Christians.

Lily & ZhangAshamed, the two girls blushed & bowed their heads, as though it were

an exam.“We planted churches,” they said.“How many?” The girls looked at each other cautiously.

“Only 29.” Astonished, the representative asked how many members the church

had.“In the smallest. . .

only 300 come for prayer,” they said humbly.“And in the largest, no more than…

5,000.”

CHURCH GROWTH IN CHINA

For 21 years Mrs. Chang had lain in bed at her home in China, unable to move her arms or legs. Finally, the pain got to be too much, and she asked her eldest son to take her to the hospital, 40 miles away. The doctors there discovered that some of her organs were almost dead, so they advised her son, “Take her home so she can die with your family.”

But before she left, a Christian nurse came by her bed and slipped her a copy of the Gospel of Mark. “Read this when you get home,” she whispered.


When Mrs. Chang got home, about the first thing she did was to ask her son to read something from the booklet.

Opening it to page one, he began: “This is the good news of Jesus Christ….”

Before he could read any further, Mrs. Chang’s bones started to move.

Within moments, she sat up, completely healed! She promptly gave her life to the Lord. The next day, on her way to the village well to draw water, she was asked by everyone, “Say, aren’t you Mrs. Chang? What doctor healed you? We want to use him too!.


Mrs. Chang invited all the women to her simple home. When a large group had assembled, she stood and began speaking: “This is the good news of Jesus Christ….”

In only four (4) weeks, all 600 people of the village decided to follow Jesus! From there, the story gets even more interesting:

When the report got around, a police force arrived to stamp out this “new sect.” They beat the villagers, shot their animals, burned the crops, and left, thinking that would be the last they would ever hear about this Jesus Christ.


They were oh, so wrong: The 600 converts remained steadfast, and within four years,

70,000 turned to Christ throughout the whole region.

The star of this story? The faithful nurse.


IN A RESTRICTED AREA, A GROUP OF BELIEVERS STARTED PROCLAIMING THE GOSPEL IN NOV.2000. BY SEPT.2004 THEY :

• PLANTED 44,086 CHURCHES• WON 483,635 NEW BELIEVERS• TO DATE THEY ESTIMATE THEY COULD WELL

BE OVER A MILLION CHRISTIANS NOW


• A 30 YEAR OLD FARMER NAMED NOAH WAS INTERVIEWED BY AN AMERICAN VISITOR IN 2004. THE INTERVIEWER NOTICED THAT MRS. NOAH WAS SUNBURNED BECAUSE SHE HAD PUT IN LONG HOURS IN THE FIELDS THAT DAY. A TYPICAL HARD-WORKING FARM FAMILY…

• OVER DINNER WITH OTHER GUEATS, THE VISITOR ASKED NOAH, IN HIS BEGINNER’S CHINESE,


• “HOW MANY CHRISTIAN WORKERS DO YOU HAVE?”

• HE GOT AN ANSWER THAT SOUNDED TO HIM LIKE THIRTY THOUSAND.

• “NO,” HE OBJECTED. “I SAID, ‘HOW MANY FULL-TIME MISSIONARIES DO YOU HAVE IN YOUR CHURCH NETWORK?”

• HE GOT THE SAME ANSWER


• SO HE WAVED AT HIS INTERPRETER.• “HEY, I’M TRYING TO ASK THIS GUY NOAH

HOW MANY CHURCH PLANTERS HE’S RESPONSIBLE FOR.”

• THE INTERPRETER QUERRIED NOAH, THEN REPLIED, “HE SAYS ..

• THIRTY THOUSAND – IN A RADIUS OF 500 KILOMETERS.”


• THE AMERICAN COULD’NT QUITE HANDLE THAT . SO HE ASKED,

• “WELL – HOW MANY TOTAL MEMBERS DOES THAT MAKE IN HIS WHOLE NETWORK?”

• THE ANSWER WAS: EIGHT MILLION!

CHURCH GROWTH IN CHINA• THE AMERICAN SUDDENLY FELT EXTREMELY

HUMBLE TO BE SITTING WITH A YOUNG FARMER WHO LOOKS AFTER THE WELFARE OF

8,000,000 PEOPLE !• LATER IN THE SAME TRIP, HE WAS SMACKED

BY AN EVEN LARGER WAVE OF HUMILITY WHEN HE MET ANOTHER LEADER

• RESPONSIBLE FOR TEN MILLION!


• AFTER THAT, HE MET “BIG JOHN,” A THIRTY- SOMETHING MAN MUCH RESPECTED ACROSS CHINA WHO LEADS

• TWELVE MILLION!• AT THAT POINT THIS AMERICAN SAID HE FELT

EXTREMELY TINY.• HE PROBABLY WOULD HAVE FELT

DOWNRIGHT INVISIBLE IF HE HAD MET “THE HEAVENLY MAN”


• THAT’S THE PET NAME OF BROTHER YUN, A MUCH LOVED GENTLEMAN WHO PROVIDES LEADERSHIP FOR CHINA’S LARGEST NETWORK OF HOUSE CHURCHES, TOTALING

•60,000,000 PEOPLE• HIS MOVEMENT IS PLANNING ON • WINNING 45 MILLION MORE TO CHRIST

THIS YEAR!

Who really plants churches!

• Churches plant churches! •People plant churches! •CHURCH IS PEOPLE!• God has used anyone willing

to be faithful towards the carrying out of the Great Commission.

Church Growth in India

• As of 1995, India was probably seeing only a few hundred new churches planted per year (all traditional and institutional).

• Then they adopted the house church model, where even the dalits (“untouchables”) could go out and plant ever-expanding networks of lay-led, home based congregation.

• With no need to finance buildings or pastors, growth exploded to 20,000 new house churches in 2002

• In 2005, they planted 50,000 new house churches

• Probably over 2 million Indians became Christians just in 2005, and the numbers are growing fast.

Church Growth in India

“The most dramatic church growth in history, both in ancient times and in modern times

occurred where there were

no church buildings.”

Dramatic Church Growth

Hundreds of

ResurrectionsFrom the book MEGA SHIFT

BY:James rutz

Meanwhile, in MexicoIn the small Southern Mexico village of Chiconamiel,

an epidemic of black measles swept through in 1998 and quickly killed about forty people.

Two of the victims were teenage girls, daughters of a widow who was a fairly new Christian. By the time the girls died, there was no one left in town healthy enough to carry the girl’s bodies to the graveyard. So the poor woman had to drag both bodies there herself.

Meanwhile, in Mexico• Because of the plague, there were only two young

men strong enough to dig graves, so there was a line of 21 corpses waiting to be buried. The woman tenderly laid the bodies at the end of the line, and since it was hot, sprinkled a lot of white lime powder over the bodies as disinfectant. Then she set off walking down the mountain.

• The next morning, after eight hours of walking, she reached the town where her Christian contacts lived.

Meanwhile, in Mexico• But since the men were in the midst of a heavy

prayer and fasting meeting, she had to wait two hours more to see them.

• By that time, they didn’t think they could climb back up the hill to Chiconamiel before nightfall, so they waited till the next morning.

• When they finished the uphill trek, it was evening again, and the girls’ bodies were only three or four away from being buried.

Meanwhile, in MexicoThe men gathered around the bodies in a circle,

as the disciples did for Paul when he had been stoned and left for dead in Acts 14:19.

They prayed in the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, and they called the girls by name.

Both of the girls sat up! The young men then had a good laugh as they watched the girls trying to spit the lime out of their mouths.

Meanwhile, in MexicoThis is but one of the many highly varied

occurrences in Sothern Mexico (plus the highlands of Guatemala) that have sprung from the work of the Freedom Ministries staff.

(They’ve stopped counting.) This is the world’s major epicenter of resurrections.

Hundreds of ResurrectionsJames Rutz says: If you need anything else to persuade you to rethink

your life, this is it:

GOD is once again in the business of raising people from the dead. I’m talking about many hundreds since the mid 80’s, perhaps over a thousand by now. There’s a blizzard of reports. And I’m not referring to “near-death experiences” (NDEs), the common phantasm with a tunnel and a light at the end, where Buddhists meet Buddha, Catholics meet Mary, etc. I’m talking about people who were stone dead for up to three days.

Five years ago, I was amazed to hear of resurrection reports from eight countries.

Now it exploded to 52.

Buddhist MonkAthet Pyan Shintaw Paulu was born in 1958 in

the town of Bogale on the Irrawaddy Delta in Southern Burma (now Myanmar).

He became a zealous Buddhist monk and died in 1998, remaining dead for three days.

Then at the end of his funeral, just moments before his coffin was to be shut and cremated, he sat up in front of the hundreds of people, shouting:

Buddhist Monk“It’s all a lie! I saw our ancestors burning and

being tortured in some kind of fire. I also saw Buddha and many other Buddhist holy men. They were all in a sea of fire!...

We must listen to the Christians. They are the only ones who know the

truth!”

The Most Important Resurrection Since Christ

• One of the seven leaders of China’s Church Planting Movement is Wang Xin Cai, a tough-as-nails, highly outspoken man about 5’3”.

• Wang spent 13 years in prison loading rocks onto trucks by hand. His daily quota was a staggering 20 tons.

• By 1996, his health was broken, and he was near death. The government didn’t want the embarrassment of top religious leader dying in prison, so they sent him home to die with his family.


• Surprise!• God healed him!• The next year, he and his wife had a second

child, another girl. The first was three years old at his arrest. He returned to find she was a

• 16-year-old traveling evangelist.


• Though things were going well for him, Wang was quite distressed by a major problem: At that time, there were just four major strands of the Chinese church that had ever cooperated with one another, and even they had unraveled from each other because of some minor differences. Suspicion and condemnation reigned all across the land.

• He saw this as a major threat to the future of the church in China, so in December he called for a summit meeting in his city in Henan province.


• On the morning the other three leaders were arriving, Wang’s daughter was hanging out clothes on a clothesline attached to their fourth-floor apartment. She had the baby in a baby pack, but as she leaned out,

• the baby twisted unexpectedly and fell out, plunging three floors to instant death, her head split wide open.

• In a state of shock, Wang gathered up the remains, put the body on a blanket, and laid it on a couch in his living room.


• Then he prayed loudly, “Lord, if this unity meeting is of You, then You have to heal my daughter. If you don’t, I’m finished serving you because I just can’t take it anymore. And I’ll know that this unity vision is not of You.”

• He then left his heart behind and staggered off to the meeting-to struggle earnestly for unity in the church.


• After a hard day of prayer and negotiation, Wang returned home and looked at the couch. The baby was still dead, but amazingly, her head was together again, in one piece! In faith, Wang gave thanks.

• The next morning, there was no change, but instead of staying to pray, he left for another day of conference. That evening, he returned home to find the baby breathing! But she was in a deep coma. Again he gave thanks.


• The third morning, he put his feelings behind him as best he could and went to the meeting again.

• That was a day of salvation for the church in China.

• In a breakthrough of immense importance, the four brothers resolved their differences and found ways to work together as body of Christ. The largest church on earth was saved from perhaps decades of fragmentation and destructive conflict.


• Returning home that evening, Wang Xin Cai found his daughter awake, alert, eating happily, and perfectly whole in every way.

• Today she is a bouncy seven-year-old who reflects the joy of the Father when He sees His children living in unity.

The Only Known Cure for AIDS

If you have AIDS or are HIV positive, your best bet is a quick trip to Africa, where people are being cured in churches.

For instance, the Synagogue Church of all Nations was founded 7 years ago with only 8 people. Now this church in Lagos, Nigeria, has 250,000, give or take. Their pastor, T. B. Joshua, can’t pray for everyone who attends, but he prays for quite a few.


So far, over 10,000 have been cured of AIDS, each attested by two medical certificates (before and after).

In fact, to belong to their “AIDS Congregation,” you must present three certificates, the third one dated three months after your healing. (Caution: Opinions about Joshua are divided, A number of local leaders claim he is involved with the occult; others defend him in great detail.)


John K. Nduati meets with universal approval.

He is currently seeing about 1,000 victims a week healed at his church in Nairobi.

In Uzbekistan• In June, 1999, two Korean women came to pray for a village in

Uzbekistan. Although they spoke only Korean, they were invited (by gestures) to enter a home and pray for an old man, who was unable to move.

• One of the ladies, Kim, said later, “The lame man begin to wriggle, and then stood up as though someone has just cut his chains. He was healed”.

• But as he got to his feet, the Koreans suddenly realized that the impressed bystanders had no idea why the man was healed. So in desperation, Kim began explaining the gospel in Korean, hoping they would understand a word or two and catch the drift.

In Uzbekistan• To their amazement, the people listened in rapt

attention for the next 20 minutes-because they were all hearing her in their own language! More than 40 people became followers of Christ that day!

• “And they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another… How can this be? We hear them speaking the languages of the lands where we were born.” Acts 2:7-8

IN ARGENTINA

• Two years later and a half a world away, a 12-year-old gypsy girl died in Argentina. She had been a Christian for some months, but her attempts to be witness to the tightly knit gypsy community had been rejected.

• In the wee hours of the morning, in the middle of her funeral wake,

• she suddenly sat up in her casket, causing the people in attendance to jump up, rejoice and dance, and start dismantling the funeral setup.

IN ARGENTINA• “Don’t take anything down!” the girl warned.• “Jesus told me to return just to tell you that He

loves you and that you have to accept Him if you want to be saved.

• That’s the only reason why I’m here. At ten o’clock, Jesus will come back for me, so leave everything like it is.”

• At 10A.M., her Lord Jesus came back and took her home.

• Her gypsy friends swarmed into the kingdom.

A Most Intricate Miracle

• Wolf Simson, editor of the Friday Fax , read by seven million readers, is at the vortex of information on church growth.

• In 1998 he began to feel God wanted him to leave India and move to a more strategic location. He asked a number of his Christian friends to seek God for guidance on his behalf.

• It wasn’t long in coming.

A Most Intricate Miracle

• One of them (Bernard Ankoma of Ghana) said, “You’re going to go back to the homeland of your mother.”

• Another said, “Borders. I see a place surrounded by national borders.”

• Another said, “I see a nice, clean river. Your place is near a bend in the river.”

• Yes, its hilly country, “ someone else chimed in, ”and I have the name of that river. It’s the Rhine.”

A Most Intricate Miracle• A YWAM staff member added, “Your home is the middle

unit in a triplex. Its got green doors, green window frames, and there’s a chimney on one end.”

• “And don’t worry about money,” one declared. “I know you don’t have any, but God’s got it for you.”

• In all, ten friends responded to Wolfgang’s request for help. On that basis, he and his wife, Mercy, packed up and went to his mother’s homeland, Germany. Arriving there, they went to a town near the Rhine and soon found the triplex with the green windows and doors and the chimney.

A Most Intricate Miracle• (In July 2000, James Rutz, author of MegaShift, stayed with the

Simsons, and he said their home was indeed in a little finger of German territory that juts out into Switzerland near Zurich; there are Swiss borders on three sides within 700 meters)

• The unit was for sale, and he found the owner and introduced himself, “Hello, I’m Wolfgang Simson.”

• “Oh, yeah, ”he replied, “ the guy who’s going to buy my house. God told me someone named Simson was going to buy it. You must be a Christian, too, so here’s the keys. Don’t worry about money, we’ll do the paperwork later. Just give me a down payment when you get it.”

A Most Intricate Miracle• After they got most of their things moved in,

Wolfgang decided to clean out the mailbox, as the unit had been vacant for a while. One envelope in the pile was from Switzerland.

• It was addressed only to the street number. Inside was a letter from a man he’d never heard of, saying,

• “The Lord has given us this address & impressed upon us that we are to send you fifty thousand Swiss francs. Please send your name and account information so we can wire the money.”

GOD INTERVENES• A lot of today’s miracles cannot be traced to any

human efforts-not our faith or obedience or evangelism or sensitive response to the voice of God.

• They just happen because God saw a need and decided to handle it Himself.

• On Christmas Eve, 1998, a young Hindu named Mohan Kanojia rounded up 25 of his friends to form a hit squad and kill a church planter, a 55-year-old Mannu Lal. After a few drinks and sacrifices to evil spirits, they set out on their mission of murder.

GOD INTERVENES

• They never got close to Lal. On the road, Jesus himself suddenly appeared in great authority, booming out one nerve-shattering command:

ENOUGH!! • The shaken assassin repented and today is

planting churches alongside Lal among leather workers in Madhya Pradesh state, India.

It’s Not About You • Sometimes God does a miracle unrelated to your

needs, mostly to show us how wonderful He is.• On several occasions, He has brought someone back

to life for a few set hours or days-for a specific mission usually evangelistic.

• In the state of Bihar, India, there is a notoriously anti-Christian tribe called the Malto. When a crew with Campus Crusade’s Jesus film attempted to schedule a showing there in 1998, they were strongly rebuffed.

It’s Not About You • A few days later, a 16-year-old Malto girl died.

But that evening, just as her parents were about to bury her, she came back to life.

• As an awed crowd gathered around her, she told them that the God of the film crew has sent her back for seven days “to tell as many people as I can that He is real.”

It’s Not About You • The girl and her mother went searching, and the

next day, they found the crew in a nearby village and invited them back for a showing. For seven days she told her story in every village they could get to, drawing large crowds for the film.

• Hundreds of people became Christians and started churches.

• After seven days the girl still looked fine, but she collapsed and died once again

WHAT IS CHURCH?

The word "CHURCH"

simply means “a called out assembly”

What is Church?

• “The Greek word for church, ekklesia, is composed of two words: “ek” meaning “out of,” and “kalleo,” meaning “I call.”

• The full and simple meaning of “church” according to the original word is, “I call out from.”

• When Jesus said, “I will build my church,” He was saying, “I will call My people out of the world, and they will assemble in My name, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against them.”

What is Church?

• Actually, ekklesia carries two concepts: being called out and being assembled together.

• We cannot experience church until we come together. Robert Fitts

What is Church? • Jesus said, “Where two or three gather in my name

there I am in the midst of them” Matthew 18:20

• The smallest unit of a church is 2 or 3 believers gathering together under the Lordship of Jesus

Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus commissioned us to go to all nations and do what?

Jesus said…a. Make disciplesb. Baptize themc. Teach them to obey all that I have commanded

The church is A PEOPLE and not a building…

• and not an organization• not a business• nor an institution

•We are the people of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ who died on the cross to pay for our sins.

• We seek to relate to the whole body of Christ within our locality and not just to those who attend our fellowship.

What is Church? • John Eldredge reminds us:• Church is not a building. Church is not an event

that takes place on Sundays. • 'I go to First Baptist.' 'We are members of St.

Luke's.' 'Is it time to go to church?‘ That is not how the Bible uses the term.

• Church is God's people—those who are choosing to live life with Jesus… 24/7. That is it. Nothing more.

What is Church? • My Filipino friend, Molong Nacua, wrote an

excellent article entitled "Being Church" that reminds us of the true meaning of "church:"

• Church is where Christ lives, not the place where we meet.

• It is Christ-empowered people • a kingdom of priests for the purpose of winning

against the works of the devil and establishing God's Kingdom (1 Cor. 3:17; Matt. 18:19; Ex. 19:6)

What is Church? • Christianity is not about doing church, but being the

church.• Church is not some place to go to participate in, but it

is about being who you are in Christ and thus experiencing His real life in you.

• Your Christianity was never defined by attending a particular church. It is defined by Christ in you.

• In other words, you are a Christian 24/7, not because you participate in a two-hour worship service, but

• because Christ lives in you every minute of every day. Molong Nacua

What is Church? • Wolfgang Simson describes his vision of what the church,

unhindered, is becoming:• [I dream of a] church, which does not need huge amounts of

money, or rhetoric, control and manipulation• which can do without powerful and charismatic heroes• which is non-religious at heart• which can thrill people to the core, make them lose their

tongues out of sheer joy and astonishment• and simply teach us the Way to live. • A church which not only has a message, but is the message.• Something which spreads like an unstoppable virus, infects

whatever it touches, and ultimately covers the earth with the glory and knowledge of God

What is Church?Before Jesus was born, where would we have to

go to be in the presence of God? The holy of holies in the Temple in Jerusalem

While Jesus was walking this planet, where would we have to go to be in God’s presence? Wherever Jesus was.

After the death, burial, resurrection, ascension and Pentecost, where do we need to go to be in the presence of God? Wherever God’s people are together (Matt. 18:20).

5 things we need to understand about church

1. Church is not a building.2. The preacher is not a performer3. The congregation is not an audience4. We are called to make disciples5. WE ARE NOT CALLED TO GO TO

CHURCH, WE ARE CALLED TO BE THE CHURCH

HOW DO YOU MEASURE THE SUCCESS OF A

CHURCH?

FULL SEATING CAPACITY?

or

FULL SENDING CAPACITY

The New Testament

church

24/7 lifestyle

• The house church community is not about houses.

• Church is a 24/7 lifestyle • Surrounded and supported by close, loyal

friends—brothers and sisters who are committed to protecting you and helping you along in your walk with God.

WHAT IS A HOUSE CHURCH?

• A house church is a simple church! • No frills. No ceremony. No rituals. No

symbolism. • It is simply a time for the people of God to

come together with Jesus in the midst.


• A house church is New Testament practice.

•The dynamic power of the early church was just that!

• They were not trying to follow a "pattern" that they read about somewhere.

• They were following the leading of the Holy Spirit on a day to day basis.

• Success followed.


• Every house church will have its own personality.

• No two meetings will be alike. • It is the Spirit of Jesus who guides us in all our

gatherings.

• He brings all the excitement of his presence into each meeting by using anyone he chooses to minister.

What is a house church?

• A house church is a church that meets in a house.

• Church is in session when two or three followers of JESUS come together.

• JESUS promises to be present every time that happens

WHAT IS A HOUSE CHURCH?They talk. They share what God is doing in

their lives. They sing. They intercede for people and for

all kinds of needs all over the world.

They pray. They minister one to another through the gifts God has given each one.

They eat a meal together. They love one another

They take the holy communion together

They seek to encourage one another

They study the Bible. They build each other up in their faith.

House Church BasedChurch Planting

The House Church is a way of living the Christian life and fulfilling the Great commission.

It is a way people follow Jesus Christ in life.

House churches are a communal expression that seek to draw the un-churched into community.

It is a body of Christ meeting in a local home and functioning as a spiritual family with traits or characteristics of a New Testament Church..

Though it is a RELATIVELY NEW MODEL it is a viable option for young churches that have limited resources for land and buildings.

"Jesus didn't leave us with a system he left us with his

Spirit. He gave us his Spirit as a guide instead of a map." Wayne Jacobsen

The Church comes

HOME

HOUSE CHURCHES ARE EASY TO START

• To plant a house church you do not need to buy property or build a building.

• You won’t need a pulpit or pews or hymnbooks or a piano.

• You can do without a baptistery, a Sunday School and a youth pastor.


• You won’t have to belong to a denomination or be incorporated or meet on Sundays or have a church bulletin or meet in the same place every week.

• You won’t have to have a sign with the name of your church on it.

• It won’t need a name.


• In fact, you don’t even have to call it a "church" as long as you know that it is "the church, which is His Body".

• None of the above is bad or wrong, but neither are they essential.

• The apostle Paul used none of the above in his church-planting ministry.


• We have left the simplicity of the New Testament and added so many extras, which are really not essential, that it has become more and more difficult to start a new church.

• A HOUSE CHURCH IS RELAXED & INFORMAL• We make it too complex.

• God is calling us back to simplicity and ease of multiplication.

START bringing the church

to the people

What does this tell you?

• It tells you that “EMPOWERMENT of what used to be called “the laity” is the greatest paradigm-shattering event since the rise of the priesthood class in the second century.


• What we are seeing today is the greatest mega-shift in the history of the church:

• a transfer of momentum from the steady hands of the leaders to the fleet feet of the followers.

• Which is to say, we amateurs are finally starting to take the ball and run with it.


• Empowerment of non-professional Christians is behind most of the miracles we see today.

• Paid leaders are realizing (with great relief) that their job is not to do all the ministry work, but to equip others to do it

• (which is exactly what Ephesians 4:12 says).


• In total contrast, a poll of several traditional U.S. churches asked members about the direction in which empowerment flows:

• In your expression of the body of Christ, is it your experience that the resources are expected to flow…

A. From you to the leaders, so that they might fulfill their ministries and visions.

B. From them to you, so that you might fulfill yours.• Answer A was nearly unanimous.

Small House Churches

Multiply fast!That is why so many churches are

switching to team Christianity

The Holy Spirit is rapidly revising Christianity

He is putting at the core of his new church small groups that are:

• Interactive• Informal• Exciting and • Geared to rapid multiplication

This is the beginning of the end for Spectator Christianity

• Suddenly, • it’s out of style to be a spectator,

doing little for the kingdom except sitting in a row on Sundays, sometimes listening to the preacher & looking at the back of someone’s head, and wondering if your team will win in the afternoon game on TV.

This is the beginning of the end for Spectator Christianity

• For centuries, the main way to express your Christian identity has been by “going to church”

• There, a lone, overworked pastor exhorted you to be holy, love your neighbor, be salt and light, and do great stuff for God.

The 100x Church Hits the Field Running

• The church’s “fighting force” is thus being multiplied-up to 100 times

• as God redeploys large, passive audiences into small, power-filled teams where every person has an important function-plus a chance to widen his or her ministry by reaching out to help more and more people while pursuing the higher gifts.

The 100x Church Hits the Field Running

• Instead of one pastor doing the heavy lifting while 100 players watch (and often criticize), you may have 100 “team Christians” sharing the work of ministry while various people with pastoral gifts coach and equip from the sidelines.

• This megashift to EMPOWERMENT is at the

core of the NEW CHRISTIANITY.

Don’t Be A Baby

• traditional churches tend to produce spiritual babies,

• small simple house churches tend to produce maturity

• BABIES is an acronym for:

Born Again But Is Enjoying S iesta

In India• A band of rabbit teams plant about

fifty house churches a year. • These home churches are smaller than

traditional congregations • about 6-20 instead of 75 or so

Rabbit Teams• When a team enters a village, they ask God to

show them the house of a “MAN OF PEACE” (That’s a person of either sex who is hospitable, modestly influential, and open to the gospel.

• In Luke 10, Jesus ordered His disciples to build their work in each town on such people rather than going door to door.)

Rabbit Teams• In every village, as they pray, the Holy Spirit

points out to them a certain house - and reveals unknowable things about the occupants, such as hidden sins, special needs, or the presence of occult objects.

• They just knock on the door. Most of the people are so touched that they quickly accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and become the hub of a new house church.

The advantage of smallness• The potential of locking two elephants-or

two rabbits-in a closet for three years. • Ignoring all practical problems and calculating

the mere mathematics of gestation periods, litter size, etc.

• You would have 476 million rabbits. • MORAL:

• To think really big, think small.

An Example of the Group-by Group Approach

• A Vietnamese pastor named Ai was in jail for being a Christian. There he met a young man I’ll call Duc from the “Tai Dang” tribe and led him to Christ.

• After their releases, Ai started Duc in a Bible training course for remote church planters. It’s a four-level course.

• In the first level, the student has one month to lead five others to the Lord.

An Example of the Group-by Group Approach

• After that month, Ai was surprised to get a phone call from Duc, asking if he would journey to the Tai Dang area to baptize his converts. His answer in brief was,

• “Why should I travel all that way just to baptize five people?” (I would have added, “Baptize your own converts!”)

• Duc replied, “I haven’t won five people, but five villages. It’s 753 people.”

Bigger example ofGroup-by Group

• In 1999, a Chinese man led an underground six-day Evangelism Explosion seminar in China. Near the end, he gave his students a vague assignment.

• “For the next sixteen weeks, do just what you’ve been doing here for the last six days.”

• One of his students took him literally. For sixteen weeks, he trained his church in Evangelism Explosion techniques seven days a week. As a result of this error,

• over 30,000 people heard the gospel, and about 20,000 of them decided to become Christians!


• In Goiania, Brazil (pop. 1,2000,000), the busy capital of Goias state.

• Back in 1989, a housewife and mother named Elizabeth Cornelio became concerned about Goiania because it was a major center for prayer with four women from other churches.


• Then in 1993, she invited Christians all over the city to unite and pray.

• When 850 showed up, her pastor kicked her out of the church, saying, “Members of other churches are not spiritual brothers and sisters; they are at most spiritual cousins.”

• (A good example of the thinking you won’t find in today’s open fellowships.)


• Currently, almost 200,000 women pray for the city everyday, linked by her radio program.

• When the program had to go off the air from March through May of 1999, the crime rate quickly

ballooned by 50%. • The city sent a delegation including the mayor and

police chief, beseeching her to get back on the air. • (She did and the crime rate sank.)


Goiania does have rabbit teams, which on a typical weekend will start one new church (altogether). But every believer in town gets into the act in his or her own way:

• Christian midwives anoint newborns with oil, dedicating them to Jesus

• Christians walk the aisles in the supermarkets, praying for people

• a few preach in bars, to great effect and • some even get up at 4:00 a.m. to walk through the empty

streetcars, praying that God will bless each rider that day.


• The result? • In seven years, evangelicals in Goiania went

from 7% of the population to

45%

With Facts Like These, Who Needs Theories?

• Kazakhstan went from 100 evangelicals in 1990 to 6,000 in 2000.

• Between 1990 and 2004, Christians in Cambodia grew from 200 to 400,000.

• Until about 1990, the death rate from unnatural causes in Colombia’s Bellavista Prison was 600 a year ---all murders! It quickly sank to one a year when prisoners began receiving Christ in large numbers. The atmosphere of violence has been erased.


• Guatemala is now 44% born-again Christians.

Neighboring El Salvador is at 53.6%.• In 1981 Rio de Janeiro had 30 spiritist center for

each evangelical church. By 1996, that had flip-

flopped to 40 evangelical churches for each spiritist center.

• About 25,000 house churches were started in India in 2002.The more well-informed networks are growing at over 100% a year.


• In beleaguered Kurdistan, there were no believers in 1992. Today, there are churches in every major city.

• “In Mongolia the 500 believers have suddenly jumped to

50,000.”• A confidential survey in India (about 1995) showed that

25% of the people would like to become Christians if they could stay in their family groupings! (House Church)

• In the Fugou area of china’s Henan province, over 90% of the people are Christians now.


• Swedish radio mission IBRA estimates, “In the Middle East, there are perhaps millions of isolated ‘radio Christians’ who have become Christians through hearing evangelistic transmissions…”

• More Muslims have turned to Christ in the last ten years than in the previous 1,000 years.

• Nagaland and Mizoram states in India now claim to be 100% Christians.


More than 100,000 members of the Hmong tribe in northern Vietnam have turned to the Lord after listening to Christians radio programs.

No missionaries involved. This was discovered by accident because none of them were literate enough to write the station and report their massive response.

How Is Satan Going to Stop 707,000,000 Missionaries?

Very short story: An elderly man in India got saved, then started 42 churches-in his first year.

• The moral of the story:1. It’s never too late to start planting churches.2. You can move real fast if you don’t have to build

buildings.3. You can move even faster if you don’t have to hire

pastors to do all the work (Just let the people do the work. What a concept!)


4. You don’t need an M.Div. (master of divinity), special ordination, or even a year of Bible study to start telling people about the new life in Christ. Its basically simple. A famous German theologian was once asked if he could summarize his theology briefly. He replied with the classic children’s songs:Jesus loves me, this I know,For the Bible tells me so.


5. It’s easy to start a family-like church that meets in a house. That elderly Indian was sharp, but not a world-beater. He wasn’t very far ahead of the pack. For example, in 2001 JAMES RUTZ gave the contents of the book MEGA SHIFT as a 2-day seminar in India, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, and one country where he had to go undercover. Total attendance was about 2,000 (90% laymen!).At the end, he polled them, asking, “How many open churches/house churches do you now expect to plant in the next three years?” They promised 35,000. And that wasn’t hot air; they are already doing it.


• Eight out of ten humans now have access to the entire Bible in their own language.

• As of 1970, Nepal had 5,200 Christians. As of 2000, it’s 543,340.

• In Hainan province, China, a revival sparked in part by an American grew from zero to 255,000 new converts in eight years. During the annual “month of evangelism” there, they now expect each believer to try to bring at least one other person to faith in Christ.

WORKSHOP:Who will you send to start House churchDiscuss how to organize a house churchBible Study outline for House churches

PARADIGM SHIFT

Traditional vs. SimpleInstitutional Approach Simple Approach

Seating: Rows only Circle(s)Environment: Anonymous Intimate

Leader Source: From institutions of higher learning From the harvestGrowth: Addition where it can be found Multiplication at every levelResults: An audience is attracted An army is raised upMinistry

PractitionersThe Ordained The Ordinary

Resources Imported to the harvest Discovered in the harvest Primary Leadership: Pastoral/Teacher Apostolic Team

Traditional vs. SimpleInstitutional Approach Simple Approach

Learning Lab: Classroom-based education Trench-based educationCost: Expensive Inexpensive

Ministry Location: The Meeting Place The MarketplaceGoal: Deeper Knowledge Deeper Relationships

Success: Full seating capacity Full sending capacityChurch Posture: Passive: Y’all Come! Active: We all Go!

Attraction: Felt Need Programming Obvious Life Transformation Expectations: Conversions are surprising Conversions are expected

PARADIGM SHIFT

The Priesthood of the Believer• But you are not like that, for you are a chosen

people. You are a kingdom of PRIESTS, GOD’S holy nation, HIS very own possession. This is so you can show others the goodness of GOD, for HE called you out of the darkness into HIS wonderful light. 1Peter 2:9

PARADIGM SHIFT

The Priesthood of the Believer• We are a "ROYAL PRIESTHOOD"

and are not dependent upon a "special" priesthood to understand the Bible.

• Every Believer is a PRIEST!

PARADIGM SHIFT

THE BIBLE WAS WRITTEN FOR THE COMMON MAN

• "I have become the servant (of the church) by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness, the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now

disclosed to the saints. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery…" (Colossians 1:25-27)

PARADIGM SHIFT

THE BIBLE WAS WRITTEN FOR THE COMMON MAN

• The following words of the apostle, Paul, show that the New Testament was written for the

common, ordinary Christian.

PARADIGM SHIFT

• Our goal is not just to start a church.

• Our goal is to start a church planting movement.

• We believe this can best be done by focusing on the simplest and most reproducible form of church planting.

• The house church meets that need.

PARADIGM SHIFT

• We believe the house church concept is the best way to train pastors and leaders.

• The simplicity of small congregations makes it easy to multiply congregations.

PARADIGM SHIFT

• In most countries today it is the only way to get a church planting movement going.

• We cannot possibly do saturation church planting if we are thinking in terms of traditional church.

• God is calling his people to break with traditionalism and professionalism and get back to simplicity.

PARADIGM SHIFT

• We are not in competition with

other churches. • We are working together with them to help

fulfill the Great Commission.

PARADIGM SHIFT

• We are committed to bless and to assist all the churches in every city, large or small, denominational, non-denominational, or inter-denominational.

• We are simply presenting a valid expression of church that is based on the Word of God and that has proven effective both in the primitive church and in modern times.

PARADIGM SHIFT

Church needs to be much simpler &

easier to multiply than what we know.

PARADIGM SHIFT

• A house church is a church in itself and functions as a church, doing all the things that churches do, including:• baptizing • serving communion• marrying• burying

PARADIGM SHIFT

• Each church will seek the Lord as to how to meet the needs of those who attend.• We are held together by the bonds of

relationship and not by the meeting place so it is safe to move about.

PARADIGM SHIFT• God is calling us to take a further step and

recognize that we can actually have a church, in the fullest sense of the word, in a house.

• God is stirring and shaking our present church structures and bringing us back to basics. Much of what we now have come to think of as essential is not really essential at all when we look at the simplicity of the New Testament church.

IMPORTANT POINTS!• TRAIN EVERY BELIEVER TO SHARE THE

GOSPEL & TO MAKE DISCIPLES!• EQUIP & EMPOWER EVERY CHURCH MEMBER

TO BE A MINISTER!• REMIND EVERY BELIEVER OF THE “ROYAL

PRIESTHOOD” & “THE GREAT COMMISION” WE ALL NEED TO FULFILL

• A TRUE DISCIPLE OF JESUS MUST ALSO BE A DISCIPLER.

I believe that the next breed of Believers will not be called by their denominational names but by His Name: Followers of Jesus Christ. They will not be merely called 'Christians,' but 'priests of God' whose commission is to go &make disciples; they will be the 'church going,' not church-goers. Molong Nacua

OUR GOAL•OUR JOB IS TO

MAKE DISCIPLES•OUR GOAL IS TO FULLFILL

THE GREAT COMMISSION

OUR GOAL•TO PLANT CHURCH PLANTING CHURCHES•TO RAISE AN ARMY OF CHURCH PLANTERS

OUR GOALTO PLANT CHURCHES IN: MALLS, OFFICES, HOSPITALS, JAILS, PARKS, PARLORS, SHOPS, BARS, GYMS, STORES, SCHOOLS, SHEDS, CAMPUSES, FARMS, UNDER THE TREES, OPEN FIELDS WHEREVER PEOPLE GATHER!

OUR GOALTO ATTAIN

FULL SENDING CAPACITY!

COMMITMENT

HOW MANY CHURCHES WILL YOU COMMIT TO

PLANT NEXT YEAR?

WHAT IS THE POPULATION OF THE PHILIPPINES TODAY? HOW MANY FILIPINOS ARE TRUE CHRISTIANS?

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