Strike the Match with J. D. Payne

One reason churches do not participate in church planting is because they believe it is beyond their abilities. And I would agree that church planting is beyond most churches as long as we use the typical western definition of church planting. 

When we turn to the Scriptures, we do not see church planting as something complex requiring high-capacity charismatic leaders, great children’s programs, amazing praise music, and enough money to start a small business. When we turn to the Scriptures, we come to see church planting as evangelism that results in disciples made that results in those disciples self-identifying as local churches.

In this episode, I address the simple nature of church planting and cast a vision of the possible for your church.

Other resources to assist you:

Here is an article I wrote on casting a vision for church multiplication.

Here is my free ebook on leading your church in church planting.

Order a copy of Apostolic Church Planting.

There is much in the Bible that addresses the topic of shame (referenced more than twice as often as the notion of guilt). This is good news as we labor among the 4 billion! For most of the world is not as individualistically-oriented as we in the West. Matters such as honor and shame affect daily life much more in the Majority World than here.

As we share the gospel, we often emphasize biblical passages related to guilt while overlooking those passages addressing honor and shame. And with the 4 billion primarily living in honor-shame societies, this means we have something to work on in our preaching.

Werner Mischke, Executive Vice President of Mission ONE, and I recently spoke about his new book on this topic: The Global Gospel: Achieving Missional Impact in our Multicultural World. Listen to our conversation.

The Global Gospel is a reminder that we in the West have much to learn about honor and shame which the New Testament world—and Majority World today—lived with on a daily basis. This book has influenced my understanding of the gospel and missions. I want to encourage you to get this book, read it, and make application to your life and ministry.

You may find Werner at his blog or at Mission One.

Dean Merrill, collaborating with Patrick Johnstone, recently published Serving God in Today’s Cities: Facing the Challenge of Urbanization. This book is a great introduction to our urban world and ministry today.

Three percent of the world’s population lived in cities in 1800. By 2100, 90% of the global population will live in cities. Most of this growth is happening in the Majority World.

And Dean Merrill notes that we are living in the first urban century with over 50% of the world’s population in the urban context.

In this episode of Strike the Match, Dean and I talk about this book and the urban world in which we live. Check out our conversation and share it with others.

A stewardship of innovation exists within the Kingdom. We often do not think in such terms or recognize this responsibility we have received.

If Jesus is building His Church and we are filled with a dynamic Spirit, then change should be expected. We do not innovate for the sake of innovation. We innovate as the Spirit leads us into a world filled with numerous pressures and opportunities for the gospel. With four billion people in the world without Him, how dare we waste His time doing the same things over and over, getting the same results, expecting things to change, and refusing change ourselves. Doing more of what we know is not wise stewardship.

When He acts, we move, adjust, and rejoice.

We change. He expects it.

In this episode of Strike the Match, I talk about these matters and innovation in the Kingdom.

We have better information on unreached people groups living in the most remote places of the world than we do of those same groups living in the United States and Canada.

We know the world; we do not know our neighborhood.

I recently spoke with Dr. Bryan Galloway, Senior Research Analyst with the International Mission Board, about a research initiative underway to study the people groups in the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the United States and the 5 largest metropolitan areas in Canada.

The North American Mission Board and the International Mission Board have been collaborating to discover and engage the unreached peoples in North America. This is extremely important. As such knowledge increases, churches become more strategic and better stewards with their disciple making and church multiplication strategies and resources. As they reach the unreached here, opportunities develop for the gospel to spread in other areas of the world.

Check out our conversation in this episode of Strike the Match. Bryan and I discuss present realities in North America, practical ways to identify the peoples in our communities, and some of the challenges of this research initiative. He also shares a personal story of how reaching an unreached people group in Texas opened doors for disciples to be made in a restricted access country.

For more information on discovering and engaging unreached peoples in North America, this research initiative, or how to contact Dr. Galloway, check out peoplegroups.info.

If the first century disciples approached disciple making and church planting with the complexity we have in the West, the gospel would have never left the Middle East.

We want reach the world with the extraordinary working through complexity. But what if the way to reach the nations is not through such means? What if in our Father’s economy the primary way to accomplish the extraordinary is through the simple and ordinary?

In this episode of Strike the Match, I talk about these matters and that the complexity in the Kingdom is found in the King, not His commands. The extraordinary is found in the King, not His followers’ intellect, leadership capacity, experience, degrees, or charisma.

The ordinary once turned the world upside down (Acts 17:6). The ordinary was responsible for the Word of the Lord going forth everywhere (1 Thes 1:8). Maybe we need to consider revising our understanding of what is necessary for the multiplication of healthy disciples, leaders, and churches. Check out this episode and let me know what you think.

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We are living in a time when the greatest number of Muslims are coming to faith. Last year, David Garrison noted this reality in his book A Wind in the House of Islam: How God is Drawing Muslims around the World to Faith in Jesus Christ.

David traveled over 250,000 miles into every area of the Muslim world and collected interviews from 1,000 former Muslims to understand how they came to faith. We recently spoke about his work and these unprecedented movements across the Muslim world.

Check out our conversation. You will be encouraged to hear of the work of the Spirit across the Muslim world.

Here are the web sites David mentioned in the recording:

30 Days of Prayer

Wind in the House.org

A Wind in the House of Islam on Facebook

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This is episode 6 of Strike the Match. And I want to thank you listeners for these past six weeks and your encouraging words! I am very excited at the number of you who are listening to this resource! Lord willing, there is much more to come in future episodes. Please keep listening and sharing this resource with others you know. Also, ratings and comments are always very helpful. Please consider leaving them at iTunes and elsewhere. Appreciate you all!

I greatly appreciate the work of the Pew Research Center. They recently released a very important study: “The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050.” This work is filled with a great deal of information. For example, by 2050, the global Muslim population will nearly equal the global Christian population and the global religiously unaffiliated will decline in number. The Hindu population in the United States is expected to double and the European Christian population is expected to decline by 100 million people. I recently had a conversation with one of the primary researchers on this project and wanted to share this discussion with you.

Phillip Connor, Ph.D., is the missions pastor at Great Commission Community Church in Arlington, Virginia and formerly worked as a researcher with Pew.  In addition to several research projects, he contributed to this recent study. He is the author of Immigrant Faith: Patterns of Immigrant Religion in the United States, Canada, and Western Europe and co-author (with Kandace Connor) of Who is My Neighbor? Reaching Internationals in North America.

Phillip and I discuss some of the demographic matters related to this project and the missiological implications for the Church today.

This report calls church leaders from around the globe to a sobering present reality and possible future. This is a podcast you should not miss as you lead your church, mission agency, seminary, or denomination into the days to come. All Kingdom citizens need to be aware of these trends as we pray, go, give, re-structure, re-organize, and cooperate for gospel advancement among the unreached peoples of the world.

I fear that many evangelicals will listen and will continue with business as usual. May it not be so! We stand at a strategic moment in history. Will we be wise stewards with what we have in view of this possible future?

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In light of this report, David Garrison, Ph.D., will be my next guest on Strike the Match. We will be discussing his latest book A Wind in the House of Islam: How God is Drawing Muslims around the World to Faith in Jesus Christ. David has some encouraging things to share with us. Subscribe to this podcast so you will not miss any future episode–RSS or iTunes.

Christian holidays often provide many excellent opportunities to share our faith with others. With Easter around the corner, I want share with you a conversation I had with Jonathan Dodson, pastor of City Life Church (Austin, Texas). In 2014, he published two books–one for unbelievers, the other for believers. In this episode, we discuss these writings.

You will want to get a copy of Raised? Finding Jesus by Doubting the Resurrection (at the time of this post it was out-of-stock at Amazon, try HERE). This brief (100 pages) work is an excellent gift for unbelieving friends or family members. It is written with with them in mind and will open additional doors for your future conversations.

You will also want to get a copy of The Unbelievable Gospel: Say Something Worth Believing. In this book, Jonathan challenges the church to consider how she shares the never changing message in ever changing contexts.

You may find Jonathan on Twitter, his blog, or City Life Church.

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I recently spoke with Dr. David Platt about his transition to the role of the president of the International Mission Board (IMB). David stopped by the office to record this conversation for Strike the Match.

In this episode, we talk about family, restructuring and future of the IMB, diaspora missiology, meaningful collaboration between the IMB and the North American Mission Board, and his latest book Counter Culture.

If you are interested in dropping in on our conversation, check out this podcast. You can find David on Twitter, at Radical, or at the IMB.

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