Below is a message from Floyd McClung, written on May 8, 2009. East West Generation recommends the vision he puts forth. We know him personally as a friend, and support his apostolic ministry. Our approach to doing question-oriented Bible study is through the Bible Fondues.

Hello,

There are massive movements taking place all over the wold right now. North Africa. Iran. India. China. Africa. Millions of new believers are coming to Jesus. Five million among the Bojpuri in India is just one example. Believers are suffering for their faith and the church is being born in unimaginable sacrifice.

Why are we seeing the same results in the Christianized West? Three reasons: 

1. Lack of obedience to the word: One example: followers of Jesus don't pursue finding the person of peace, finding one who's oikos (network) is open, then making disciples among them, as Jesus instructed in Luke 10.
2. Traditional ways of doing church encourage a "watch the main man on Sunday" mentality instead of every believer getting out and making disciples through a lifestyle of obedience.
3. A lack of willingness to suffer and sacrifice. It takes sacrifice to plant churches and Western believers don't believe in sacrifice.

Recently, I wrote to a young church planter in the making in the United States. He was worried about finding a church or a team to work with. Here is the advise I gave him:

I would love to stay connected to you guys. It is going to take some pioneering and persevering for you to start simple churches with others there where you are. Best bet is go door to door in a poor neighborhood until you find a person of peace and then if their family or network is open, start a Jesus Bible study with them. Don't call it church, just study the Word. Two qualifications: the person of peace has to be open and their network (oikos) has to be open to doing regular Bible studies. Get them to the Word, teach them simple Bible studies and watch God speak to them!!!

We have been learning how to do that with the "discovery" Bible study approach in Cape Town... very simple, based on belief that God is drawing people to Jesus by the Spirit, that He will teach people through the Word if they study it together, and group discovery is much more powerful than individual study because you are imparting the DNA of a future simple church while it is still a study. For example, everyone participates. The Bible is the focus. There is accountability to each other to obey what they are reading. It is focused on non-believers studying the Word together.

There are three steps to doing the discovery Bible study method:

1. Choose a passage that is short about topics such as obedience, hearing the Holy Spirit, Jesus, etc. Ask people to write it down from their translation.
2. Ask them to write it down in their own words.
3. Ask them to read it and write down things they hear God saying to them that apply to their lives and that they should do in the next week.

Lead the Bible study two times. then turn it over to someone in the group to lead. You model it the first two times, then in the following Bible studies you sit on the outside of the Bible study circle and watch as a new leader leads the same process of discovery. He or she doesn't have to be a Christian to lead it, preferably not in fact.

This is the MAWL method of coaching: model, assist, watch, leave.

You are a commando, bro! You are an army, guy. You can do this! It is will take pioneering leg work, sweat, tears, loneliness and lots and lots of prayer, then more prayer, but you practice Luke 10; go to the poor and the overlooked and you will find them! Look for the person of peace; the person is open and has a network of friends he or she can gather.

About wanting a team to work with you: don't look for them among the sheep but among the wolves (Luke 10:3). This is why Jesus said to his disciples to pray for laborers from the harvest. He didn't want the new believers to be tainted by religious people. Find your team amongst the unsaved. Maybe go door to door and say you want to start a Bible study for people who are not church attenders but who want to look at Jesus again. Shake the dust off your feet from those who are not HUNGRY! Do Bible study in the home of non-believers. They must be open seekers, not cynical or highly Christianized (as they have too many non-Biblical preconceptions).

I am passionate about seeing disciples made who gather and reproduce themselves in others. May God empower us to see massive numbers of new believers, but much more important, to see transformed individuals, families and communities.

May God empower believers in Christianized lands to find new wineskins to hold the wine of millions of new believers.

Floyd McClung
All Nations
Cape Town
http://www.floydandsally.org/all-nations/