Malaysia is a great place to meet muslims. It’s a muslim state, and thousands of muslims from the middle east honeymoon and holiday in Malaysia every year. Abdul was one of them.

I struck up a conversation about life in Saudi Arabia, and life as a muslim. Abdul was devout, so I started asking questions about salvation, the Prophet, and Isa (Jesus).

Fortunately I had just finished reading an excellent summary of the Camel—a helpful way to sharing Jesus with muslims starting with what the Quran and bridging to the Injil (New Testament).

We talked for an hour and parted as friends. It was the best sleepless night I’ve had for a long time.

The Camel condensed

The Camel website

The book. . .

“The Camel: How Muslims Are Coming to Faith in Christ!” (Kevin Greeson)

Michelle and I have just returned from a visit to Malaysia.

After a five day road trip we met up with CRM workers from around the globe. A growing band of them are keen to fuel church planting movements.

For their benefit and yours, here’s a list of resources that will get you started in understanding the CPM paradigm.

Free
Church Planting Movements by David Garrison
Movements that Change the World – Study Guide
Four Fields by Nathan and Kari Shank

Websites and blogs
David Garrison
David Watson

Books
Church Planting Movements by David Garrison
Movements that Change the World by Steve Addison
The Camel by Kevin Greeson

Audio
Interviews with practitioners

Finally, read and re-read Luke and Acts with two questions in mind—what were the obstacles to the spread of the gospel? How were they overcome?

Unfortunately, foreign interference and funding has caused the movement to stall. Often the greatest hinderance to a church planting movement is Western funding and control.

It’s not all bad news. Here’s Dave’s interview with a Mongolian movement leader who has resisted the temptation to rely on outside support.

Count how many times you hear the phrase, “reach whole of Mongolia”.

I love this guy.

Here’s an interview with Nicky on how God’s word is changing lives in Cape Town South Africa.

Neil Cole once told me, “How you disciple the first new believer will determine whether it becomes a multiplying movement or not.”

Listen for the lessons in multiplying disciples and churches.

For the full story visit Dave Lawton’s blog.

How could such an important theme to Jesus appear to almost vanish for the early church? The answer to this question has important implications for the biblical basis of our mission.

Want to learn more? Read my notes from Chris Green’s article: The King, His Kingdom and the Gospel.

Or pick up a copy of Chris Green’s book and read the full text.

“God’s Power to Save: One Gospel for a Complex World?” (Chris Green)

Off to Malaysia tonight to meet our with our team from around the world.

Not sure how I’ll go with the blog while I’m away. Back in a couple of weeks.

Q. What’s the significance of Luke combining the story of Jesus and the story of the church in one account?
A. He’s telling us the two stories are really one.

“Luke: Historian & Theologian (Gospel Profiles, 3)” (I. Howard Marshall)

One of the indicators you’re in the middle of a church planting movement is when you typically get to four generations of new churches every time you plant a church.

Earlier in the year I spent three days in a room full of CPM practitioners from around the world. They spent a session sharing what they were learning about getting to fourth generation churches.

Here’s the summary: Getting CPMs to 4th Generation and beyond

Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.

2 Cor 4:1-2

My parents were Baptist missionaries in Papua New Guinea before returning to pastoral ministry. I grew up in Baptist churches.

I left the church in my teens and came back to faith through the influence of a Baptist youth leader. My early years of discipleship were spent in a Baptist church.

Eventually I served as an intern in that church before being sent out with my wife Michelle to plant a Baptist church in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne.

Today we serve with CRMAustralia multiplying churches. We’re back at the Baptist church I grew up in. It has adopted us as one of their missionary families and is the only Baptist church in our state intentionally planting churches.

Baptist churches were not the only influence on my development, but they have been at the centre.

Many years ago I studied Reformation history at the Baptist College. I was struck by the fluid nature of church history. Great religious movements come into being, they exist for a time and unless they are renewed by the Word and the Spirit, they decline.

My denomination is in decline and desperately needs to be renewed by the Word and the Spirit. It’s the sort of decline that cannot be fixed by missional initiatives, management consultants, or church growth principles.

The Christian movement is a missionary movement. The book of Acts tells the story of the ministry of the risen Christ as he deploys his word and the Spirit to advance the spread of the gospel through his people.

Despite insurmountable odds, the gospel advances because of Jesus Christ, the risen Saviour of the world. We are not the masters of our destinies. He is. We do not determine truth from error. He does.

The church of the prosperous West has been captured by the spirit of the age, and is paying dearly for its unfaithfulness. In the West we have the learning and the resources, but our secularized faith cannot win disciples and plant churches. Instead we empty churches, and close them down.

Meanwhile I rejoice that all over the world the gospel advances where God’s people place themselves under the authority of his Word and are empowered by the Holy Spirit. Jesus is Lord and will have the final say.

Our nature lies in movement; complete calm is death.

Blaise Pascal

I caught up with an old friend a few years ago over coffee. He confided in me that he wasn’t sure if he believed in hell any more. He was a church leader with an evangelical background. He didn’t seem concerned. After all, he told me, it could have been worse—he knew a church leader who wasn’t sure if he believed in heaven any more.

Over time, movements tend to plateau, institutionalize and decline. At the heart of their demise is often a drift to a more secular faith that is led by religious professionals.

By “secularized” I mean that this life becomes more important than the world to come. Conceptions of God become vague and distant. Moral restrictions on members are relaxed and, the exclusive claim to truth is surrendered (see Stark and Finke).

It strikes me as curious that we would take upon ourselves the right to exchange biblical beliefs that no longer suit us. As though we had the power in ourselves to determine what is true and what is right.

At a whim we abolish heaven and hell. We recast the image of God in our own likeness. We sit in judgement on scripture rather than let it judge us. We redefine sin and remove the need for the Cross.

Worst of all, is the harmony carefully preserved within Christian movements as they calmly drift from the gospel.