Project North Africa

A while back a friend of mine who pastored a good sized church in his country was speaking with me when we had only one person in our church. (We had 10 North Africans this weekend) He made this statement, “I couldn’t do what you do. I kinda like preaching every Sunday to hundreds.”

Some things that people say really stick with you and you roll them over and over in your mind. This statement, made in passing of course, caused me to think, “Should I, too, seek crowds? Can I really be content here? Should I seek a field where I’ll see bigger crowds faster?”

I have another friend who left the Assistant Pastor position in a good sized church in OH three years ago to go to Turkey where his crowd is not even comparable.

Those working in Muslim and other people groups that are resistant to the Gospel will all struggle with this thought: “I am wasting my life on these people. I’ll never impact a large number at this pace.” This thought may be just a silent, nagging ache of the heart or may actually be spoken by well-intentioned preachers in places where churches of hundreds and thousands are common (at least among charismatics if not Baptists).

So here are some things that I’d like to encourage people ministering in resistant people groups to remember:

1. Do you serve God or the crowd?

What will you do when the crowds are no longer there? What will you do when you have to compromise what you know is right to get the crowds? What will you do when God calls you to obey Him by serving in an unreached and resistant people where you know you’ll loose your crowd? Would you go? If not, you aren’t a servant of God but of a crowd. That’s a scary place to be.

2. Every people group is resistant until they hear over and over and over…

Did you know that India had no Christians when William Carry arrived? He labored preaching and translating for six years before the first convert. Today there are millions of believers in India. The same story is told of Adoniram Judson of Burma.

Places where the gospel has never been planted are hard. They must be plowed, planted, and watered over many years. The first missionaries one hundred years ago that served in the Muslim country I am in during the push of the Student Volunteer Missions Movement served for sometimes 10 to 20 years with no converts. Just fifteen years ago the number of believers here was around 100 after almost a century of sowing. Today the number is in the thousands and growing faster than anyone really knows though it’s still less than .01%.

A friend who is a missionary in China asked me the other day how long it takes for someone here to accept Christ on average after hearing the Gospel for the first time. The answer was years, not days or weeks. Actually the quickest I had known someone here to believe on Christ was after two years. The average is a lot more. That being the case, if I drop into a city where few have ever heard the Gospel and there is massive pressure against conversion, I can expect to sow more than I reap in the first few years of ministry.

So what can I do? I can sow like a wild man. I can be creative and throw the seed out in as many ways as I can imagine. I can use internet, TV, mailouts, DVDs, booklets, New Testaments, friendships, …and a hundred ideas I haven’t thought of yet.

3. Can you pray and search for 4 to 5 faithful men?

I was recently with my brother-in-law, Dave, who serves as a first Sergeant in the US military. He has 100 men under his command. However, he really only leads 5. Each one of his direct reports commands 25. But really, they each only lead five who also lead five. He told me something that we need to implement in our understanding of ministry: “One man can really only direct 4 or 5 men effectively. He can influence an unlimited number directly dependent on the ability of his direct reports. He only has enough time to keep track or what 4 or 5 are doing each day. By the time an enlisted man raises to the rank of First Sergeant (commanding 100 men) he will have been in training for that position for over 10 years.”

I’ve often hurt because we only have about 7 believers in our new work here (a little over a year and a half old). The number is growing but slowly. When Dave told me this, though, I realized that I desperately need to train 4 or 5 men who will be leading others. Those 4 or 5 need to be with me every day and be ready to lead leaders of leaders. That’s the only way we’ll grow disciples and not just believers. But Dave joined the Army who trains these men for him and organizes the whole leadership system. How long would it take Dave to train 4 or 5 himself and have them training 4 or 5 and those 4 or 5  train another 4 or 5 until they arrived to 100? A lot longer than it took him just to join the organization.

Do a mental evaluation of the pastors you know running 500 to 1,000 in church. How many of them won to Christ and trained the men serving under them as their closest assistants? Probably one in 100 or less. Why? Because the only way you can get big numbers is having faithful men shouldering the work with you. The only way you can get men to shoulder the work with you is if they were already won and discipled when you arrived or if you do it yourself, which will take many years. The chances are the young men (30-40 years old) who are pastoring large churches (or really any sized church for that matter) have assistants who were saved and discipled in another ministry. It’s not wrong, it’s just impossible with the people group you work with.

God has called you to come as an outsider to come into culture with no (or extremely few) believers and start an army. Those you are training now will be the First Sergeants (leaders of hundreds). If it takes the greatest army in the history of the world (I know, a little over-patriotic) 10 years or more to train that man to lead 100 men, how long do you think it will take you?

What can you do? A Sergeant who has a Private Second Class as his direct report will be that much less effective in leading. He has a leach sucking his time who won’t be ready to lead others for years. Make sure that those men you are spending your time with are learning to lead others. If they aren’t capable or willing to lead others then you need to stop spending your time with them and look for another. If I only can effectively guide the daily activities of 4 or 5 I want them to be the best men possible who will be capable of training others.

It is better to be pouring your life into 4 or 5 young men while pastoring 20 than to be pastoring 500 and be training none. The success of our ministries is wholly resting on our successors.

Sequel coming tomorrow…Click here to read “To those ministering to resistant peoples continued…”

I recently saw an alarming video that I imagine you have seen as well about how Islam is taking over Europe. The video sites the reason mainly as being that Muslims have more babies that their European counterparts. My family and I have recently returned from a trip to France where I was stunned by what I saw in the behavior of the Muslim immigrants in Europe. So to calm your fears of Europe turning into an Islamic state by 2020 as some have purported let me give you three reasons I don’t think that is happening:

1. Muslims are still a small minority making up less than 8 percent of Europe’s population. Granted they are a vocal 8 percent but their still only eight percent. Their numbers are three times the strength of the American Muslims so we should watch what happens in Europe to prepare for what will happen in our country in following years. I had heard so much about Muslims in Europe from the news and friends I was expecting to see Muslims everywhere… but I didn’t.

2. The falling Muslim birth rate in Europe. When a Muslim moves to Europe they don’t “Muslim-ize” the Europeans but are “European-ized” themselves. Consider a recent study:

“In Austria, for example, Muslim women had a total fertility rate (an estimate of lifetime births per woman) of 3.1 children per woman in 1981, well above the 1.7 average for the majority Roman Catholic women. By 2001, the rate for Catholics had fallen to 1.3, but the Muslim rate had fallen to 2.3—leaving a difference of just one child per woman between Muslims and non-Muslims.

The gap narrowed even further in the former West Germany, where the authors relied on data by mother’s nationality rather than religion. West Germany recruited a large number of workers from Turkey beginning in the 1960s, giving Germany one of Western Europe’s largest Muslim populations. In 1970, Turkish women living in West Germany had more than two more children than German women. By 1996, the difference between these two groups had fallen to one child.”

Not only in Europe is this the case but another study suggests that Muslim birthrates, though still higher than Christian, are actually decline faster using this graph as a guide:

According to these two studies and my own experience with Muslim families in Europe have two kids, I don’t believe that Muslims will take over in population.

3. The secularization of European Muslims. Going into our hotel in France for the three nights we stayed there we observed on the streets many prostitutes. I know this isn’t a statistic but all the prostitutes that we, my wife and I, saw were North African Muslims dressed like anything but a Muslim.

Though the percentage of Muslims in Europe is gradually growing (not rapidly) they are growing only in name. Many, if not most, Muslims mirror the decadent, secular, and materialistic culture around them. The last thing they would want to see is the Islamic culture of their homelands brought to their new country.

In the end, sin usually attracts many more adherents than self righteousness when given a fair shake though both are condemning.

I had a roller-coaster conversation with my surgeon in Madrid today. He called me to confirm our appointment for tomorrow. He had previously told me to prepare for a 200 euro fee but on the phone he told me that it would be more. Specifically it would be 1,500 euro! Wow. As soon as he told me that he offered to do it at the free hospital. So we went from $300 to $2,250 to free! I was thanking him for the outcome but it left me thinking about the roller-coaster of emotions he had put me through.

We often see our lives as mountaintops and valleys. Just like that phone call in miniature our days, months, and years are like that call…only longer. At one moment we feel like it couldn’t get any worse (huge medical bills, car breaks down and no money to fix it, interpersonal problems, etc) and only a few weeks or months later we feel on top of the world (bills paid off, new car, a lost person comes to Jesus). With each valley come anger, depression, or fear and with each mountaintop comes joy and excitement. Why do we experience these roller-coaster of emotions? Because don’t have God’s perspective on time.

Reading Ps. 90 yesterday I was reminded that 1,000 years is to God as yesterday. Interesting that the Bible says yesterday. Not only is 1,000 years as one day but it is more specifically as YESTERday to God. Or the day that is already passed.

While an ant sees a huge mountain, I plains. Why? My perspective.

I am in a bit of a difficult time right now but do you think that God is experiencing the low emotions that I do? No. Because he knows the solution is only seconds away though for me it is months or years away. I feel HUGE setbacks while God feels nothings. While I am hyperventilating, God’s doesn’t even see a problem.

Why don’t we ask God to help us deal with our valleys and mountains from His perspective?