Conversations as you Go

This episode, we hear from our Praxeis team in Western Australia (WA). Jill, Karen and Rowan share with us what they have been up to as they strategically pray across this vast state. Learn how to take on a region in prayer where God has called you!

These guys give us some keys in how they have been not only praying across the city of Perth (WA) but the country towns of Australia’s biggest state. We hear stories of how they are engaging with people, spending time in all night prayer meetings and waking up for early morning prayer. Traveling vast distances, the team shares how they are connecting both broadly and locally as they prayer walk remote towns and pray for the schools their kids are attending. 

We learn how prayer is all about God. These guys speak of being caught up in God’s heart and vision. Prayer, Rowan says is simply how we are meant to be wired. It’s being part of God’s work not our work.

What Scripture teaches us about prayer

In view of Habakkuk 1:5, Karen shares how we shouldn’t be restricted by the confines of our own imagination and expectations. But instead its God who is doing the work in our communities and he can do anything! 

Jill casts a vision for not only WA, but God’s heart for the nations along the rim of the Indian Ocean. Reflecting on Psalm 46:10, Jill says, “God is doing stuff even though we might not see it…We just need to be still in prayer”. 

John 15:5 is a verse that often grounds Rowan. 

“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.”

(John 15:5)

He tell us how he could be going around, doing lots of things. But he is reminded by this verse that unless God’s in it, then it’s not going to bear the fruit that he wants. 

Dave shares that when Jesus was in his resurrected form, he told his followers to stay until power came on them. Then they would be his witnesses (Acts 1:4,8). We know Jesus taught us to do lots of things. But we see clearly there was one thing he wanted his disciples to do in order to seeing a movement. It was to stay and pray. The book of Acts shows us how the early church stopped and prayed. God then took over. In this story, Jesus tells his disciples to prioritise prayer more than any other activity.  

Final insights

Finally we hear the group share some final insights into praying for a region. From following relational lines to embracing stubborn perseverance. God essentially just wants us to sit in his presence and hear his voice. And then be willing to be brave and step out!

Who knows what God will do if we persevere in prayer!?

It is essential to multiply workers if we are to see disciple making movements (DMM). Jesus himself tells us to pray for workers to be sent into his harvest (Luke 10:2). 

Aung and Gabi are both multiplying workers and starting Discovery Bible Studies (DBS). They find themselves in the war torn contexts of Myanmar and Ukraine. Despite this ‘darkness’, as Aung describes it, they share some of the breakthroughs and blockages of multiplying leaders. They both tell us how intentionally training leaders in DMM is crucial.

Aung in Myanmar

Aung’s shares two stories that demonstrate the need for multiplication. The first is of a gifted yet frustrated evangelist who hasn't been able to see his many converts become disciples until he was trained by Aung. The second is how many of the larger Burmese groups around Aung only knew how to divide instead of multiply. 

But paradigm shifts are happening. Aung allows people to discover from Scripture what Jesus is inviting them to do differently. He shares how he needed to learn the importance of discovery and discipleship in smaller groups himself. The pandemic (COVID-19) helped make this shift for him and others in his network as they were forced to gather for church on a smaller scale. He also highlights how getting people to practice what they are learning is key. Aung is testing the principle of discovery with both non-Christians and Christians. The results are amazing him. The Spirit is teaching both Buddhists and church leaders much better than he ever could!

Gabi in Hungary

Gabi describes how vital it is to contextualise DMM training. She is doing this as she trains the Gypsy people around her. She's remaining flexible to the way this community can apply the training. For example, she has recently been invited to continue meeting in one of the Gypsy villages. She sees how helpful applying the training in their own location will be.

Finally, Gabi and Aung speak about the challenge of seeing paradigm shifts, especially amongst traditional church leaders. Empowering everybody to lead a DBS is a difficult concept for these leaders to grasp. Gabi’s found that repeating the principles of DMM is key. Modelling how the Spirit can bring those discovery moments within the training itself is also essential.

Gabi finishes by encourages us to be led by the Spirit in stepping out and taking risks. Not letting our own expectations to bog us down. She prays that we will all see more workers raised up in the harvest around us.

We listen to Jerry and Esther share how they are engaging in spiritual conversations. Jerry is a GP obstetrician who, together with his wife Katie and children are catalyzing disciple making movement in South Australia. Jerry shares Paul Watson’s process of engaging in casual > meaningful > spiritual > discovery conversations. He also tells us how he includes his young family who he and Katie see as a vital part of their team. 

Esther works amongst Persians and other central Asian Muslim people groups in Melbourne. She describes how she engages spiritually by sharing scriptures in the language and cultural context of those she connects with. She highlights the importance of relationship as she makes disciples amongst unreached people groups. 

Be inspired by the stories and intentionality of these practitioners as they form team, pray and are focused on connecting spiritually with the people around them.

Today we listen to Paul King from Northern England share how he is engaging his city and starting Discovery Groups. He shares with us the spiritual condition of his nation as the church is in dramatic decline.

Paul and his wife Stella are pioneering in needy places amongst some of the poorest communities in England. Even here it can seem spiritually dry. However Paul sees it as his main job to find what he calls the 1%. Those God prepared people who are only found through abundant prayer and connecting with people widely.

Paul shares what his strategy looks like as he engages Middlesbrough. He then tells us a 'live story' of what it looks like to connect spiritually with people in the city. Those in whom God is already at work. We listen to how Paul seeks to establish discipleship groups by staying with the person of peace. Bringing the church to them.

Be inspired by a disciple making practitioner who is intentionally and prayerfully engaging in a western context and seeing disciples multiply around him.

Wondering how to start a Discovery Group? Listen to three fruitful practitioners in Mel, Steve (from North Queensland and PNG) and Mike (from Hong Kong). You'll be practically equipped in learning how to start discipleship groups with lost people around you.

Here's some keys these guys are learning as they see dozens of groups multiplying in various contexts around them:

Start and sustain it all with personal and multiplying prayer

Observe the culture

Find connection points through 'two way hospitality'

Find and focus only on 'People of Peace' (those who are teachable, desperate to know God and share what they learn with others)

Connect relationally

Start 'proto discovery bible studies' through meaningful and spiritual conversations that lead to discovery.

Enjoy being trained by these catalysts who have seen movement take off from prayer meetings that have gone out of control!

We listen in to what God is up to through a fruitful church planter, Ben Taylor in England. You’ll be inspired by how God is multiplying disciples and churches through the powerful stories Ben shares. 

Ben encourages us to keep the gift of faith we have alive since this is what God wants to grow in us the most. 

As he sees demons cast out and brand new churches being started around him recently in Somerset, Ben reminds us that God’s vision is in fact a promise to us. 

Finally, Ben finishes by giving us some practical steps we can take to keep our faith fresh as we pray and fast during our 40 days of prayer and fasting as a Praxeis community.

In this episode, one of our leaders, Gabi from Hungary shares about how she is multiplying leaders in Eastern Europe. Focusing on the Roma Gypsy people, Gabi and her team are being swept up in God moving powerfully amongst these people. And all in the midst of the Ukrainian war.

Since being invited to help see newly baptised gypsies discipled from Carpathia (in Ukraine), Gabi shares some of the keys and tools she's been learning to see movement go viral and take off.

Some of the keys have been:

Training leaders to have paradigm shifts

Seeing the 'person of peace' as a sign from God that says "you've arrived"

Joining where God is already at work (in the community around the person of peace)

Gabi highlights how simplifying and contextualising the Praxeis My World* training has helped leaders shift their mindsets. The Discovery Bible Study method has also been taken and modified to fit the Roma Gypsy context.

As we listen to Gabi, we hear how a leader knows how to use and contextualise tools to help resource a movement.

Gabi ends the podcast by encourages us and praying for us. She reminds us how Jesus is the Lord of the harvest. Movement is his vision. Therefore we can be confident in him. He will show us the next steps to take. We must follow him on his terms and in his time.

* to find out more about the Praxeis My World training, contact Vicki at [email protected]

In this podcast we talk to Lynda Wilson who leads us in a discussion about multiplying harvest prayer. She briefly talks about her rich history in church and prayer. Then leading us through an overview of scripture Lynda shares her journey of understanding this from a scriptural point of view. Some key pickups are

Prayer is part of the going

You multiply the harvest, you will multiply the prayer

You can't do it alone

Prayer helped the early church with opposition and trials

Prayer isn't seperate from discipling people

And a bunch more practical insights!

So what do we actually do once we find a person of peace? In this, our last episode of David Watson’s training, we are walked through some of the coaching and mentoring questions we can use when starting a movement. David emphasises how important it is to focus in on coaching the right people who are starting to facilitate Discovery Bible Studies (DBS). 

David calls the facilitator of a group the first level of leadership in movement. He describes how all the steps of the DBS are vital to form healthy churches. It is the coaches job to develop the facilitator in the skills to form these groups through debriefing how the DBS went.

But debriefing is so much more than just coaching. Mentoring is also involved where character development takes place. David takes us through six key questions a mentor can ask. These are: 

What are you doing to improve your relationship with God? 

What are you doing to improve your relationship with your family? 

What are you doing to improve your relationships with your community including your church? 

What are you doing to understand and improve your reason that God put you here? 

What are you doing to be a better employee or team member? 

What are you doing to improve yourself physically, emotionally, mentally, intellectually? 

Also, any problem areas? 

Finally, David encourages us to give this a go. Coaching a person of peace to facilitate a DBS instead of leading a group ourselves is a big paradigm shift for many of us. We need to be willing to fail and learn from our mistakes when seeking to reach all sorts of lost people. But we need to take the first step and coach someone to start a DBS. 

Resources:

David shares with us a number of counter intuitive or paradoxical statements his church planters have developed when it comes to seeing movement. These include: 

Go slow to go fast 

Focus on the few (or one) to win the many

Share only when and where people are ready to hear

A new / inexperienced insider is more effective than a highly trained, mature outsider

Start with creation not Christ

Its about discovery, not preaching or teaching

People learn best what they discover

Obedience is more important than knowledge

Let the lost facilitate the Discovery Bible Study

Disciple to conversion, not convert to make disciples

Prepare to spend a long time but anticipate miracle accelerations

Buildings kill church planting

Paid local leaders kill church planting

No personal evangelism so that the masses will hear

No mass evangelism so that the masses will hear

Expect the hardest places to yield the greatest results

David tells us the importance of moving on when people are not responding, remembering its not our job to convince people. He shares how Christ is the end, not the start story, highlighting how we don’t usually fall in love with a stranger. 

He describes how discovery is key since people can only own what they discover. David also speaks about how all four parts of the Great Commission are necessary for replication: 

Going

Making Disciples 

Baptising people in churches 

Teaching them to obey 

Finally, David finishes this episode by challenges us to stop sinning by missing the target. We need to be aiming for God to show up and show his glory even in the hardest of places. Its often here that we will yield the greatest results! 

Resource: 

Engage Africa - Paradigm Shifts