Have You Been to the Garden With Him?

Have You Been To The Garden With Him?

By Dr. Dave Johnson

Assemblies of God Missionary to the Philippines

http://www.daveanddebbiejohnson.com/

www.drdavejohnson.blogspot.com

“Did I not see you in the garden with Him?” one of the servants asked Peter in the high priest’s courtyard during the trial of Jesus (John 18:26). While most Christians have never been to the actual Garden of Gethsemane, the question can still be asked, “Have you been to the garden with Him?”

For Jesus, the garden was the crucible of his suffering. The stress was so great that he sweat blood.  It was here that Jesus, the God-Man, fully confronted his humanity. He was given the choice of two paths: his own or his Father’s. He was challenged with the ultimate moral choice to accept the Father’s will, which was the path of excruciating pain, or take the opportunity to opt out of the will of God and go his own way. The stakes could not have been higher as the eternity destiny of mankind hung in the balance. Heaven and Hell waited with bated breath, and angels and demons battled for the soul of the Savior.  Jesus made his choice in the garden, not on the cross.

Have you been to the garden with him? All of us, at one point or another in our lives, will be confronted with personal pain as part of our walk with God. Many, if not most, will face this choice more than once. For some in may be a short season, for others it will be longer. For some it will be some form of physical suffering through persecution, disability, or illness, for others the pain the pain will be emotional and mental. For me, the battle has been with depression and a deep sense of abandonment rooted in my mother’s unintended many absences from our home due to mental illness. These issues deeply impacted my relationship with Debbie, others, and how I felt about myself.

Have you been to the garden? If so, you have been presented with these two paths. Unlike Jesus, we may not have the opportunity to opt out of suffering, but we always have the chance to choose how we will respond to it. One way is to own your pain like Jesus did and say “nevertheless not my will, but Yours, be done” (Luke 22:42), knowing full well that the will of God meant the incalculable suffering. The other path is to ignore your pain, medicating it, like I did, by becoming a workaholic or, like others, through unresolved anger, bitterness, alcohol, drugs, pornography, illicit sex, and a million other false remedies that offer a temporary panacea but no ultimate healing.

Have you been to the garden with him? If so, you may understand that one may “come to the garden alone,” as the old hymn goes, but one does not have to walk alone. In our darkest hour, when Debbie and I had almost lost hope, Jesus was there. He helped us confront and work through the greatest pain we have ever known. And He didn’t do it alone. Our families, and friends too numerous to name, walked with us, loving us in a manner so seldom seen yet so desperately needed in the Body of Christ today. We would have never survived without them. Because of Jesus and others, though I am still working through some issues and must still choose which path I will follow, immeasurable healing has taken place. To the glory of God, there is a renewed freshness in my relationship with God, our marriage has been healed, and fellowship with others have been strengthened and deepened. New vistas of ministry are opening for us, and the future, though fraught with peril, is brighter than ever.

Have you been to the garden with him?

*All Scripture references are from the New King James Version unless otherwise noted.

PLEASE NOTE: Permission is hereby given to forward, print, and post this blog as long as it is done as a complete blog, and its authorship is acknowledged. Thank you for your cooperation.  For automatic notification of future blogs please visit www.drdavejohnson.blogspot.com and click on “join this site.”

Copyright 2012 Dr. Dave Johnson 

Spring 2012 Newsletter

Spring 2012 Newsletter

Strengthening Relationships for a Greater Harvest

By Debbie

      In 2007, we began a wonderful ministry of training lay workers in small schools around our Bicol district to plant house churches.  The movement has now grown to include 14 schools and 207 house churches scattered throughout the region.  Praise the Lord for His goodness and blessing.

      But now we are gearing up to add a second year of training that will help all of us to carry out the Great Commission more effectively.  One of the greatest challenges of the harvest is the quality of relationships we Christians have with one another while we reach out to those who don’t know Christ.  Sometimes we forget Jesus’ greatest commandment - to love God and love one another.  Jesus’ heart was to create a church with a culture of love. 

      Our hearts as missionaries to the Philippines is to strengthen these relationships between believers as we work with our brothers and sisters in Christ to reach the lost.  Dave often says these days, “we need to get better before we get bigger.”  In truth, we are all broken vessels that the Lord has chosen, washed, and made fit for His use.  But we are still in process and we desperately need the love, encouragement, and safety-net of healthy, mature relationships where we can go with our fears and weaknesses and know we will be built up and prayed for without criticism.

      Because of this great challenge, our main focus will be on creating a mentoring program for strengthening relationships amongst those involved in house church planting. Eventually, we hope to make this program available to all of our pastors.  Of course we will also address the current ministry concerns of the students.

      Please pray with us that the fruit for God’s glory will be abundant both now and in the years to come.

Missionary Hats (by Dave)

    A missionary must wear many hats, often within the same day or week. Some we wear often, others are for special occasions.

    One recent week serves as an excellent example. On Monday, I wore my “host missionary hat” as two advance men came from First Assembly of God in West Monroe, LA, to get ready for a team that arrived the following Sunday. They came to do major renovations to our Bible school, Evangel Bible College. We spent several days running all over town, buying everything from paint to power saws, and working with the Bible school leadership to determine what repairs would be made and in what priority. At the time of this writing, the team is still here and doing a great job!

    In my case, hosting this team required me to master the art of driving a Filipino jeepney--a type of transportation whose hood design came from an American military jeep and has two long seats in the back where the passengers sit facing each other. My attempts at driving it with a dozen Americans inside have already driven many to prayer!

   Since many Filipinos speak English, the language is usually not a problem but sometimes different words mean different things. To a Filipino a hostess is a prostitute, not a woman who seats people in restaurants. A tomboy is a lesbian, not a girl who climbs trees and plays men's sports. The bathroom is called a comfort room, an often inaccurate description.  These things can be easily corrected, but other cultural issues are more challenging, requiring the missionary to put on the hat of "cultural mediator."

    During this week we also had an evangelistic outreach nearby, so I put on my "evangelist" hat on two evenings. Fortunately I put this one on fairly often, and God continues to bless our efforts with his presence.

    On top of this, we are also completing the translation of the study notes, articles, etc., of the Full Life Study Bible (aka Fire Bible or Life in the Spirit Study Bible), and I am the managing editor.  This project has been a partnership between Life Publishers--the publishing arm of the Assemblies of God World Missions, and the Philippine Bible Society. My major responsibility has been to keep the partnership functioning well--and it has. But this week a couple of issues came up that demanded my involvement, so I put on my "managing editors" hat.

    While this was an unusually busy week, constantly switching hats is just part of being a missionary.

Let’s Connect!

    If you like, you can call us on our toll   free Vonage line at (616) 855-1151. Even though this is a US number, it only rings at our house here in the Philippines! We’re 12 hours ahead of the East Coast.

    If you aren’t hearing from us by email and would like to do so, please write Dave at dave.johnson@agmd.org and asked to be placed on the mailing list. Also, if you want to visit our website and Dave’s Blogspot, just google “Dr Dave Johnson” and everything will come up. From our website you can connect with Dave on Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter. Most of our prayer requests and news updates are posted on the social media.

    Thanks for making it possible for us to be here. We couldn’t do it without you!  We love you and appreciate you ! 

    Please continue to pray that many souls will come into the kingdom and be built up in Christ.

Dave and Debbie Johnson

Spring 2012 Newsletter




Strengthening Relationships for a Greater Harvest
By Debbie



In 2007, we began a wonderful ministry of training lay workers in small schools around our Bicol district to plant house churches. The movement has now grown to include 14 schools and 207 house churches scattered throughout the region. Praise the Lord for His goodness and blessing.
But now we are gearing up to add a second year of training that will help all of us to carry out the Great Commission more effectively. One of the greatest challenges of the harvest is the quality of relationships we Christians have with one another while we reach out to those who don’t know Christ. Sometimes we forget Jesus’ greatest commandment - to love God and love one another. Jesus’ heart was to create a church with a culture of love.
Our hearts as missionaries to the Philippines is to strengthen these relationships between believers as we work with our brothers and sisters in Christ to reach the lost. Dave often says these days, “we need to get better before we get bigger.” In truth, we are all broken vessels that the Lord has chosen, washed, and made fit for His use. But we are still in process and we desperately need the love, encouragement, and safety-net of healthy, mature relationships where we can go with our fears and weaknesses and know we will be built up and prayed for without criticism.
Because of this great challenge, our main focus will be on creating a mentoring program for strengthening relationships amongst those involved in house church planting. Eventually, we hope to make this program available to all of our pastors. Of course we will also address the current ministry concerns of the students.
Please pray with us that the fruit for God’s glory will be abundant both now and in the years to come.


Missionary Hats (by Dave)

A missionary must wear many hats, often within the same day or week. Some we wear often, others are for special occasions.

One recent week serves as an excellent example. On Monday, I wore my “host missionary hat” as two advance men came from First Assembly of God in West Monroe, LA, to get ready for a team that arrived the following Sunday. They came to do major renovations to our Bible school, Evangel Bible College. We spent several days running all over town, buying everything from paint to power saws, and working with the Bible school leadership to determine what repairs would be made and in what priority. At the time of this writing, the team is still here and doing a great job!

In my case, hosting this team required me to master the art of driving a Filipino jeepney--a type of transportation whose hood design came from an American military jeep and has two long seats in the back where the passengers sit facing each other. My attempts at driving it with a dozen Americans inside have already driven many to prayer!

Since many Filipinos speak English, the language is usually not a problem but sometimes different words mean different things. To a Filipino a hostess is a prostitute, not a woman who seats people in restaurants. A tomboy is a lesbian, not a girl who climbs trees and plays men's sports. The bathroom is called a comfort room, an often inaccurate description. These things can be easily corrected, but other cultural issues are more challenging, requiring the missionary to put on the hat of "cultural mediator."

During this week we also had an evangelistic outreach nearby, so I put on my "evangelist" hat on two evenings. Fortunately I put this one on fairly often, and God continues to bless our efforts with his presence.

On top of this, we are also completing the translation of the study notes, articles, etc., of the Full Life Study Bible (aka Fire Bible or Life in the Spirit Study Bible), and I am the managing editor. This project has been a partnership between Life Publishers--the publishing arm of the Assemblies of God World Missions, and the Philippine Bible Society. My major responsibility has been to keep the partnership functioning well--and it has. But this week a couple of issues came up that demanded my involvement, so I put on my "managing editors" hat.

While this was an unusually busy week, constantly switching hats is just part of being a missionary.

Let’s Connect!

If you like, you can call us on our toll free Vonage line at (616) 855-1151. Even though this is a US number, it only rings at our house here in the Philippines! We’re 12 hours ahead of the East Coast.

If you aren’t hearing from us by email and would like to do so, please write Dave at dave.johnson@agmd.org and asked to be placed on the mailing list. Also, if you want to visit our website and Dave’s Blogspot, just google “Dr Dave Johnson” and everything will come up. From our website you can connect with Dave on Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter. Most of our prayer requests and news updates are posted on the social media.

Thanks for making it possible for us to be here. We couldn’t do it without you! We love you and appreciate you !

Please continue to pray that many souls will come into the kingdom and be built up in Christ.

Dave and Debbie Johnson

A Missionary's Many Hats

A Missionary's Many Hats
by Dr. Dave Johnson


A missionary must wear many hats, often within the same day or week. Some we wear often. Others we put on for special occasions.

This past week has been one of the special occasions in which I wore my "host missionary" hat. On Monday two advance men came from First Assembly of God in West Monroe, LA, to get ready for a team that was supposed to arrive on Saturday, but didn't arrive until Sunday, to do major, much needed renovations to our Bible school, Evangel Bible College. We spent several days running all over town, buying everything from paint to power saws, and working with the Bible school leadership to determine what repairs would be made and in what priority.

Since many Filipinos speak English the language is usally not a problem but sometimes different words mean different things. To a Filipino a hostess is a prostitute, not a woman who seats people in resturants. A tomboy is a lesbian, not a girl who climbs trees and plays men's sports. The bathroom is called a comfort room, which is often not an accurate description.  On the other hand, the upraised middle finger is only significant to those Filipinos who have watched too many American movies. But while these things can be easily corrected, other cultural issues are more challenging, requiring the missionary to put on the hat of "cultural mediator." In the middle can be an uncomfortable place to be.

In my case, hosting this team required me to master the art of driving a Filipino jeepney--a type of transportation whose hood design came from an American military jeep and has two long seats in the back where the passengers sit facing each other. My attempts at driving one have already driven many to prayer!

During this week we also had an evangelistic outreach nearby, so I put on my "evangelist" hat on two evenings. Fortunately I put this one on fairly often, and God continues to bless our efforts with his presence.

We are also completing the translation of the study notes, articles, etc., of the Full Life Study Bible (aka Fire Bible or Life in the Spirit Study Bible), and I am the managing editor.  This project has been a partnership between Life Publishers--the publishing arm of the Assemblies of God World Missions, and the Philippine Bible Society. My major responsibility has been to keep the partnership functioning well--and it has. But this week a couple of issues came up that demanded my involvement, so I put on my "managing editor's" hat, a role with which I am familiar.

This is all part of the job, but it does make for a long week--one in which I wore many hats.

 *All Scripture references are from the New King James Version unless otherwise noted.

PLEASE NOTE: Permission is hereby given to forward, print, and post this blog as long as it is done as a complete blog, and its authorship is acknowledged. Thank you for your cooperation.  For automatic notification of future blogs please visit www.drdavejohnson.blogspot.com and click on “join this site.”

Copyright 2012 Dr. Dave Johnson 

The Missionary Nature of God

God is a missionary God.  We could not know God unless God chose to reveal himself to us.  That we have a Bible in our hands and that the Bible is God’s revelation of himself clearly indicates that God desires to be known.  The question, then, is not “What is the Biblical basis of missions,” but “What is the missionary basis for the Bible?”

            The idea, then, of evangelism and missions—telling people who God is flows from the very nature of God himself.  Also, from Genesis To Revelation, God always reveals himself as the God of all nations, not simply the God of Israel. 

            Throughout the Scriptures, God reveals himself and his will to people. 

I.                    Adam and Eve (Gen. 3:8)

(In the Garden of Eden)

II.                 Abraham (Gen 12:1-3)

A.              The aftermath of Babel (Gen. 11:1-6)

1.            They had refused God’s command to disburse over the earth and were united in rebellion against God.

2.            God dealt with the rebellion by dividing them into various people groups (or ethnic groups) in order to reconcile them to himself.

B.  The Abrahamic Covenant (Gen. 12:1-3)

1.            The posterity

2.            The land

3.            The seed (cf. Gal. 3:16)

C.  The Covenant is Reiterated to Both Isaac and Jacob

III.               The Nation of Israel (Ex. 19:6)

A.              The Psalms

1.            Ps 2:8 I will give you the nations as your inheritance

2.            Ps 46:10 “I will be exalted among the nations.

3.            Ps 67-Nine references to “the peoples, nations, the ends of the earth.”

B.              The prophets

1.            Is 45:22 “Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth…”

2.            Hab. 2:14 The whole earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord.

3.            Joel 2:28-3:12 The Spirit of God will be poured out on all flesh, and God will judge all nations.

4.            Micah 4:1-4 Prophesies the day when all nations will come to worship God.

IV.              Jesus Christ

A.  The Incarnation (Jn 1:1, 14) (Gal. 4:14)

1.            The Word was God

2.            The Word Became Flesh

C.              The Cross

1.            2 Cor. 5:18 God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself.

2.            2 Cor. 5:21 “God made him who….”

V.                 The Church

A.              The Great Commission

1.            Matthew 28:18020

2.            Mark 16:15-20

3.            Luke 24:47

4.            John 20:21

5.            Acts 1:8

B.              The Book of Acts

The Role of the Holy Spirit in Missions

The Role of the Holy Spirit in Missions

Scripture Text: Acts 1:8;2:1-37

            Over the last century, there has been a renewed emphasis on the Holy Spirit in the Body of Christ, especially through the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements.  This includes the area of evangelism and missions.  Here, the role of the Holy Spirit is expressed in several ways, first in the lives of unbelievers, and then in the lives of followers of Christ.

            The first role of the Holy Spirit is that He brings conviction of sin (Acts 2:26-37).  Under the power of the Spirit, those who listened to Peter were convicted of their sin.  Since sin separates us from God, sin must be dealt with in order to come to Christ.  The Holy Spirit, then, is the midwife of the new birth (cf. John 3:3-8), and is also the one who goes before the evangelist or missionary, preparing the hearts of the people to receive God’s Word.

            Second, the Holy Spirit commissions and empowers believers for service (Acts 1:8).  Spirit empowered people can overcome their natural insecurities and fears about witnessing.  Peter, for example, vacillated regarding his faith, confessing Christ as Lord on the one hand (Matthew 16:18-20), and denying he ever knew him on the other (cf. Luke 22:54-62).  On the Day of Pentecost, however, Peter was a transformed man, preaching both with confidence in his message and under the power of the Holy Spirit.

            Third, the Holy Spirit endorses testimony, whether it is preaching as Peter did in Acts 2, or ministering one on one as Philip did with the eunuch (Acts 8:26-40), that points people to Jesus Christ.  Peter preached Christ and three thousand people were added to the Kingdom of God.  The same Spirit was also at work with Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch when Philip shared Christ with him.

            Fourth, the Holy Spirit sends people to the ends of the earth to proclaim the Gospel.  Acts 1:8 reveals the geographical and cultural progression of the Church.  In Jerusalem, the disciples were familiar with the language and culture of the people.  In Samaria, the language is the same but the culture was somewhat different.  There was also deep racial hatred between Jews and Samaritans, posing a barrier to the Gospel that could only be overcome by work of the Spirit.  As the Church expanded and became more Gentile in nature, important cultural issues such as circumcision needed to be faced and overcome. While the original apostles may or may not have had to grapple with learning new languages, modern missionaries must successfully cross this barrier, which is possible through the aid of the Holy Spirit.

Application and Prayer:  Let us seek to be sensitive to the moving of the Holy Spirit in our own lives and in the corporate life of the Church.

The Fire Bible and The Fishing Net

The First Bible and The Fishing Net

By Dr. Dave Johnson

Assemblies of God Missionary to the Philippines

http://www.daveanddebbiejohnson.com/

www.drdavejohnson.blogspot.com

More than twenty years ago Donald Stamps, an Assemblies of God missionary to Brazil, had a vision to create a study Bible that would provide Brazilian pastors, most of whom did not have the financial resources to invest in a personal library, with a one volume theological goldmine of biblical truth. Shortly after completing the notes, he went to be with the Lord. But the vision lived on. Not only was his work, at first known as the Full Life Study Bible, known better today as the Fire Bible or, in English, the Life in the Spirit Study Bible, translated into Portuguese, the language of Brazil, it has also been translated into thirty-seven other languages, including Tagalog, the national language of the Philippines, where Debbie and I live and serve. In just a few months, the Fire Bible will be rolling off the presses in Cebuano, another major language of the Philippines. As with Tagalog, I am the managing editor of the Cebuano edition.

These Bibles don’t just appear overnight. A lot of work must be done both in the States and on the field.  In the States, funds must be raised. When the Tagalog edition came out in 2004, the price tag was about $162,000.  The Cebuano edition, at the time of this writing, will cost about $318,000, most of which has still not been raised (if you would like to help, please visit http://www.lifepublishers.org/). On the field, a managing editor, normally an AGWM missionary must be chosen and contracts must be signed with the local Bible Society for rights to their Bible translations. Then translators and editors must be selected and trained. In time, secretaries, copy editors, readers, and other people need to be added.  This phase of the project alone normally takes about two and one half years.

As the various notes and articles are completed, they are sent, normally over the Internet, to LIFE Publishers, the publishing arm of the Assemblies of God World Missions, who oversees the projects. Thanks to modern technology, their superb staff does the layout in languages they cannot even read.  As the layout is completed, the files are sent back to the field for further proofreading and correction. When the translation phase is finished, LIFE Publishers outsources the printing and binding all over the world, always looking for the best quality at a reasonable price.  For example, the Tagalog edition was printed in Japan and bound in Indonesia before being sent back to the Philippines. The Cebuano edition will be printed and bound in Belarus (White Russia) and will then sent to the Philippines for marketing and distribution in about August or September of this year. Needless to say, we are excited about its arrival!

But what does all this have to do with a fishing net?

The answer is, well, rather simple. Several years ago God gave my wife a prophetic word that he was going to send an unprecedented revival to the Philippines, a land that has seen wonderful seasons of refreshing in the past. God also commanded us to “get ready, get ready, get ready.” How does one prepare for revival? By making a fishing net.  Not the kind that comes from a pole with a short scoop on the end but the kind that is staked out in the ocean at night, tied to huge hawser ropes at least two hundred feet in length, and takes entire fishing village to haul in to shore in the morning. Like any good fishing net there are many interlocking strands that must be woven in for the net to be strong.

The fishing net is a metaphor for training workers in accordance with 2 Timothy 2:2 where Paul instructed young Timothy “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others” (NIV 1984). In order for the harvest to be conserved, thousands of trained workers, both clergy and especially laypeople, are needed. In our part of the Philippines, our vision is to plant a church within walking distance of every Filipino, meaning we need an unbelievable number of trained workers to do the job in just our part of the land.

In our part of the Philippines, the major strands of our net are three fold. The first is to train them through Evangel Bible College, our local Bible school. Although our school is small, we have consistently graduated young men and women who have become fine pastors and lay leaders. But not all are called to be church planters. Second, seeing the need for more churches and believing the prophetic word from God included mobilizing and training laypeople, my wife began a program in 2007 that called for training ordinary church members to plant house churches in their communities. These churches, in turn, are being challenged to plant more house churches. We began with three church planting schools strategically placed throughout our district and have since expanded to fourteen. To date, 184 people have graduated from this program, with more than a hundred more slated to graduate next month. So far, at least 207 house churches have been planted, and more are on the way to meet the staggering need for bringing the gospel to the Filipinos in our region. The third strand is a leadership enhancement program, which I have been asked to create, and is currently under development. This program will seek to develop and strengthen those already in ministry and will most likely include an ongoing personal mentoring program.  

These three strands neatly intersect with other inner strands that are designed to strengthen our fishing net. The Fire Bible is one of those inner strands. For several years in a row, we were able to give a copy of the Fire Bible to each graduate from the Bible School—helping them to both study and teach sound, Pentecostal doctrine in their churches. We have also placed copies of the Fire Bible in the school’s library for the use of the students and faculty. Nationwide, many other pastors purchased a Fire Bible in book stores. In total, more than 8,000 copies have been sold, including several dozen by pastors in our region through a payment installment program that we offered for a time. We have almost exhausted the 10,000 copies printed for us by LIFE Publishers and are looking at reprinting in the next year. If you can help us with the costs of reprinting, please visit http://www.lifepublishers.org/.

To date, the house church planting program has used other inner strands by employing materials, partially financed through the American Assemblies of God’s Boys and Girls Missionary Challenge (BGMC) fund, which were created specifically for planting house churches. As the number of churches expands, hopefully exponentially, house church leaders are calling for additional training.  In the coming months, we will be taking a look at the Fire Bible, as well as other materials, to see how it might be used in this program. The same will be true for the leadership enhancement program currently under development. Like a good fishing net, we need a variety of strands for catching and keeping the “fish.”

To reach the lost and gather the harvest, a large, strong, fishing net must be constructed and maintained in order to bring in the harvest that God is sending and, we believe, will be sending in ever increasing number.  The fishing net is comprised of trained laborers, using the Fire Bible and other tools, to plant and grow more churches. May God help us to make the net strong!

CPS/leadership---looking for ways to integrate the Fire Bible

  

To multiply the number of churches we will be adding another level of training that calls for more closely mentoring those involved in house church planting. 

PLEASE NOTE: Permission is hereby given to forward, print, and post this blog as long as it is done as a complete blog, and its authorship is acknowledged. Thank you for your cooperation.  For automatic notification of future blogs please visit www.drdavejohnson.blogspot.com and click on “join this site.”

Copyright 2012 Dr. Dave Johnson 

Church Planting in the Bicol Region of the Philippines

Stimulating and Nurturing a Church Planting Movement in the Bicol Region of the Philippines Part II

By Dr. Dave Johnson

Assemblies of God Missionary to the Philippines

http://www.daveanddebbiejohnson.com/

www.drdavejohnson.blogspot.com

In the first blog I asked the following questions: What is a Church Planting Movement (CPM)? Do we have one in the Assemblies of God in the Bicol region of the Philippines? If not, how to we start one? If so, how do we nurture it? These questions came to me as I studied the book entitled Stimulating and Nurturing Church Planting Movements (2001), published by the International Missions Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. This book to the subject of a CPM, and its contents form the outline of these two blogs. I use this as a framework of discussion as to whether we have, at least in my opinion, a CPM among the Assemblies of God churches in the Bicol Region of the Philippines where Debbie and I serve.

The authors define a CPM as “a rapid and exponential increase of indigenous churches planting churches with a given people group or population segment.” They then list ten essential elements that they feel are critical to experiencing a CPM anywhere in the world.  To begin to answer the questions I posed, I reflected on the first six elements in part one of this article, which can be read and downloaded from www.drdavejohnson.blogspot.com. Let’s move on to number seven.

7. Cell or House Churches

In 2007, after much prayer and reading, the Holy Spirit led my wife to launch a house church planting program. She wrote out a basic plan, which we shared with the district leadership, who had a passion for church planting, but the lacked the manpower and financial resources to accomplish their vision. Debbie’s plan directly addressed those two issues by issuing a challenge to mobilize and train laymen to plant churches in homes in their communities. These churches, like the cells in a human body, would then reproduce themselves.

The plan was to open church planting schools strategically located throughout the region so that no one would have to travel far to attend. The training would be held two days a month for ten months. The focus of the house churches would not be on traditional preaching, but on interactive inductive Bible studies that the trained leader would facilitate. We started with three schools and twenty four students. Since then we have grown to fourteen schools with dozens of graduates and 143 students currently enrolled.  We have planted 207 house churches in just four years to go with the 208 traditional churches we already have. We define traditional church as one that has a pastor, program, and meeting place, most of the laymen who have planted a house church have come out of our traditional churches. Many, if not most, of the house churches are connected to a traditional church for relational oversight, but those who attend the house churches, in most cases from what we can tell, do not attend the traditional church.  

We thank God for what he has done, but we also acknowledge that there are some staggering challenges. First, the unfinished task. Only 2-3 percent of the 5,000,000 people in our region are born again and most of them are either unwilling or unable to travel far to go to church. Our vision is to plant a house or traditional church within walking distance of every person in our region. Ten or twelve members is about the best size for a house churches.  The simple math, then, reveals a need to plant more than 416,000 churches! To date, we have only 415 in the Assemblies of God. Obviously, we need a sustained, Spirit empowered CPM!!

Second, our research on the house church planting program revealed that we have not given sufficient oversight to the workers.  One of the signs of this is that only about 25% of the house churches planted have reproduced another house church and the number that have planted a third, fourth, or fifth generation house church is even less, meaning that if the training schools stopped today, the movement would eventually come to a half.

Third, our research revealed that many house church workers feel the need for further training.  Since most have jobs and families to support, enrolling in our Bible school is out of the question for most. The district leadership is currently taking some positive steps to address these issues, and I believe that the future of house church planting is bright indeed!

8. Churches Planting Churches

The mother-daughter church planting method has been, by far, the most fruitful method used over the years by our churches in Bicol. Also, as far as I can tell, nearly all of the house church planters, to date, have come out of the traditional churches and remain a part of them as well as the house churches they oversee, meaning that there is a link between the traditional and many, though certainly not all, of our house churches. In my assessment we have done well with the concept of churches planting churches.

9. Rapid Reproduction (of Churches)

As stated above, the authors believe that a rapid reproduction of churches is necessary to have a CPM. My first reaction to the idea of rapid and exponential was that it seemed a bit forced, as if we were telling the Lord of the Harvest how he should conduct his affairs. Apparently I am not alone in raising this question because the authors note that others have raised similar objections. On further reflection, however, I have changed my mind. One, I am convinced that a rapid reproduction is in fact the will of God for every nation! Second, rapidity is necessary, as the authors contend, to maintain the momentum of a CPM. Whether we have one or not in Bicol, in my opinion, will be dealt with below.

10. Healthy Churches

It should saying that healthy churches are needed to have a CPM. The authors contend that a healthy church is one that has the following five components: worship, missionary and evangelistic outreach, education and discipleship, and fellowship. I agree with their contention that if these are actively functioning in a church, growth will be automatic and natural.

Whether the Assemblies of God churches in Bicol are healthy is a fair and open question.  The average traditional church here has about 30-50 adult attendees, most of who are members, on any given Sunday. We have also shared in the pain of churches that have suffered splits—we’ve probably planted more churches in this way that we would care to admit! We have also watched some pastors deal with personal issues in an unhealthy manner and take their churches out of the Assemblies of God as a result. Most churches also struggle financially in a perpetually economically distressed part of the country.

On these bases alone, it is tempting to think that most of our churches are weak but, to me anyway, the issue is not that simple for the following reasons:

1. No formal assessment of the health of our churches have ever been ever been conducted to the best of my knowledge. The researcher and missiologist in me leads me to the conviction that, for this reason, making a summary judgment is inappropriate.

2. Most of our churches in Bicol are in smaller, rural communities, where the population base is not large, so one should not necessarily expect to find a large church.

3. Many of our churches have given birth to daughter traditional churches or house churches at some point in their history, which is a sign of health and vitality.

4. I do not know what the attrition rate is of churches that die or leave the Assemblies of God.

My answer to the question as to whether our churches are healthy is that I simply do not know. I believe that this question can only be fairly answered when a comprehensive, formal assessment has been done of the majority of our churches, including answering the question as to why some close or leave the denomination.

Answering the Questions

We have now come full circle and can answer the questions posed at the beginning. Do we have a CPM in the Bicol region? The first traditional church was planted here around 1960, and we currently have 208, meaning that our average growth rate is about four per year. If this were the only measurement, we would have to admit that we do not have a CPM. However, the fact that we have started 207 house churches in only five years may lead to a different conclusion. However, the multiplication rate of house churches planting house churches is far below the average needed to maintain the rapid growth. If this is not successfully addressed, the house church movement will not fulfill its immense potential.  So my answer to the question as to whether we have a CPM is “maybe,” or, to put it more positively, we are at the beginning of one, and I am certainly optimistic about the future.

The second question, “if not, how do we start one,” should be recast as “how do we start one among traditional churches.” I am not a house church purist. I believe that we need different kinds of churches in different situations, and I am firmly committed to continuing to plant and nurture traditional churches.  How, then, do we start a CPM among our traditional churches? Setting aside the fact that that our traditional churches have given birth to the house church movement and, thus, are participating in it, I believe that a thorough assessment, using any number of the tools already available, must be undertaken to determine the current health of our traditional churches. We should then respond according to the needs revealed in the research with the conviction that healthy churches will naturally grow and reproduce new, healthy churches.  The third question, “how do we nurture a CPM,” has already partially been answered. Nurturing takes place when actual needs are met.  One solution not yet mentioned is that we need (and are in the beginning stages of creating) a leadership development program designed to meet the needs of our existing pastors and lay church planters. Whatever we may do, the CPM must be nurtured with prayer, fasting, and seeking the Lord of the Harvest for continued revival and renewal. Maranatha!  

Copyright 2012 Dr. Dave Johnson 

*All Scripture references are from the New King James Version unless otherwise noted.

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