cpm in central asia
Steve Hill has been involved out in Central Asia helping to start a church planting movement. Here's some of their story.

A/ History!
We started in ------ five years ago with a simple vision of relational disciple making and with one couple committed to carrying that vision. We are now a movement in at least 50 locations with about 3,000 disciples most of which are from mu--im background.

B/ The Story We Told!
You can enter the Kingdom of God through Jesus. You do not need to go through "the church" as we know it. If you have a vision of Jesus, you know that He is your Lord, Savior, Covering, Shepherd, Counsellor, King, Head and with that revelation you know that He can direct you to be community, to be His body and to express His life in the earth.

We told the story from Luke 10 and told them that Jesus was not a westerner! He was an easterner and understood eastern family values. We told them that the goal was not to get the disciple to "come to your church" but to teach them to be the pastor, leader, disciple maker in their home and then move on to the next home and create a community of disciples there.

We contrasted oak trees and strawberry plants, elephants and rabbits. We emphasized that strawberry plants multiply and cover the ground by sending out shoots to start the next plant but that each plant must seek its own sustenance from its own roots and must seek its own energy from the sun! Each community of disciples must be grounded in and seek the King for themselves! We told them that no one strawberry plant ruled over the others but were relationally linked! And that once the ground is covered with strawberry plants, you cannot tell which was the first one!

The story we told was one of functional leadership, foundational leadership rather than positional which left Jesus alone as the King and head of every man and the builder of His body. We told this story so often that I am called "Apostle Strawberry". This was the "sticky" concept that helped solidify what we were teaching and doing and placed a new paradigm in their minds.

The danger is that we talk new and act old! The old hierarchical picture is welded in people's thinking. We need to dismantle it and the Holy Spirit needs to burn a new, true picture of the Kingdom of God into their minds!

The Gospel of the Kingdom is good news since God Himself will be your God and will rule over you! There is no mediator between God and you except the man Christ Jesus! This is a completely counter culture movement!

C/ The Practice we Practiced!
Our leadership has remained hidden, servant and never based in permission giving. They have done things with which we did not necessarily agree. Our counsel has always been wise or foolish never permission based. They are always left free to decide even if we do not feel such a decision is best. Most often time has proven them to have understood the Master in their situation better than we did. However, they have also had to face the consequences of not accepting our wisdom. We then work through the consequences together.

We taught this from I Corinthians 3 where Paul speaks of laying the foundation of Christ and then stepping back and allowing each man to build upon it. He does not step in with mother love to make sure they do not make mistakes! He steps back in true father love and hands them full responsibility to succeed or fail in their building! The example we used was how Paul left them to work out the two issues of the day- eating meat and which day to gather as given in Romans 14. They will never learn to trust the foundation of Christ in their lives unless the one who laid those foundations does so! We step back and trust the foundation of Christ in their lives!

We continue to learn and continue to see that this message is absolutely primary! Not only in the Mu--im world do they wish to come into the Kingdom of God without going through the kingdom of the church as we know it but also in the West!

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The Catalyst Gathering
Last month a bunch of people from around South Wales, and possibly further, who are involved with simple/organic forms of church came together for a day of encouragement.

Here's a report of their time. If anyone else who was there would like to add some thoughts just use the comment facility.

The purpose of the day was to encourage those already involved in simple/organic church settings, by sharing stories about what God has been doing amongst us, praying together, networking and chatting through issues that effect us in our varying situations. We began the day with time to share our stories with one another. This proved to be a really good opportunity to hear that others had been on similar journeys.

One of the biggest facets that struck me through this time was that everyone knew the people they were working with, their backgrounds, life stories, the good bad and ugly parts of their lives. This only comes through the development of real relationships. Although no-one opened up someone else’s life for all to see, it was obvious that depth of relationship was there. This reinforced the fact that God cares about all the little details of our lives, and is unwilling to just rest at a superficial level regarding relationship with His people and the inter-relationship between His people.
We prayed together through the day and finished with a question and answer session, where questions were posted onto a board and anyone there could comment on, or try to answer the question from their own experience.

From this session and through the questions asked, the sense of being kingdom people came through strongly. We are called to be carriers of the kingdom into every facet of our lives, and also to respect others in God’s kingdom even if their style of church does not sit well with us. Many have gone before us and suffered so that we could have church of any shape today. God has blessed and worked with varying styles of church in the past and still does, so although we may be involved with organic/simple styles of church it is so important to still see ourselves as a part of a far bigger picture, and an important part of His kingdom.

It would be difficult to pick out one story from the day, but as an overall viewpoint of the stories shared, it would be fair to say that God’s kingdom is advancing into new areas, touching new people and manifesting with people gathering in a variety of places, and there is more to come.
Mark Cutliffe

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