THE BIRTHING OF A NEW MISSIONARY MOVEMENT
What an exciting time to be alive! With the pace of change accelerating from one week to the next, this weary old planet of ours seems to be rounding the bend and heading into the home straight. One can almost see the finish line up ahead!
Take the growth of world population, for example. When Jesus issued the marching orders for His church nearly 2000 years ago, the number of people to be discipled totaled about 250 million. It took 15 centuries for that number to double... but only 350 more years to double again. Today, planet earth is bulging at the seams with 5.7 billion souls, a number which grows by 2.9 people every second. At this rate world population will double TWICE during an average 70 year life span! Such growth obviously cannot continue indefinitely... something has to happen, and soon!
As we helter-skelter towards the finish line, how is the church doing with its marching orders? If the early Apostles were suddenly to drop in on us they might be quite excited, at least initially, to learn that the number of "Great Commission Christians" today (i.e. true-blue disciples of Jesus) is almost three times the total world population of their day! With 735 million followers and nearly 2 billion adherents (of all stripes and colors), Christianity lays claim to being the world's largest religion, embracing a third of mankind.
The dark side of these numbers, however, is that right now 2.2 billion people, 85% of whom live in the infamous 10/40 window, are unlikely to be reached with the Gospel unless the church worldwide makes a deliberate effort to reach them. There simply aren't enough, if any, Christians living among them. This is not surprising, considering that so many of these "unreached" Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and Chinese live in grossly overcrowded and polluted cities, horribly unattractive places for most Christians to live in, and often openly hostile to Christianity. Who would willingly choose to live in such places?
It is these cities which are the greatest challenge to world evangelisation today. When the modern missionary movement began some 200 years ago with William Carey's move to India, only 5% of the world's population lived in cities. Around that time Beijing became the world's first mega-city when its population topped 1 million. From 1900 to 1996 the number of mega-cities in the world exploded from 20 to 339, so that over 43% of the world's population now live in large cities. With 75,000 poor people migrating from the countryside to the cities EVERY DAY, a staggering 80% of the world could be living in 900 mega-cities by AD2050!
"While God has brought to our attention many important evangelistic targets such as nations and people groups," observes noted missiologist and author, Peter Wagner, "none takes a higher place on my agenda than cities. I believe that in the 1990s the Spirit is telling the Church that He wants to win the world city by city." Tragically, however, only 1% of total Christian resources worldwide manpower, finance, materials, schools, etc are currently being invested to reach people living in the world's non-Christian cities.
What has all this got to do with the Cell Church movement? Very much! The only possible way for the church to adequately fulfill her marching orders in these days of exploding world population is by using a discipling mechanism which will be equally explosive. The Cell Group Church, with principles (as opposed to specific methodologies) which can be applied in virtually any culture in the world, is one such mechanism. Here is a church planting approach which gives us both the new wine (the presence and power of the Holy Spirit) and the new wineskin (a suitable multiplication system) in a form ideal for taking today's impersonal, unreached mega-cities for God.
Up until now most Cell Churches have been fully occupied with issues of transition and local growth. The time has come, however, to begin thinking seriously about the part God wants us to play in helping reach the whole world. It is no longer enough to leave the task of missions to the trickle of dedicated volunteers who labor faithfully, often with very limited resources, who are sent out by para-church Mission Agencies. More than at any other time in history, a flood of workers is needed, workers who know how to take CITIES for God. And where better to find such workers than within growing Cell Churches?!
If God has indeed raised up the Cell Church movement for such a time as this, then we need to begin mobilizing Cell Church believers to see themselves as world Christians rather than simply as local Christians. Cell Churches must begin seeing themselves as training camps for spiritual commandos ready to take on the world, rather than simply as "local churches". They must become mission SENDING agencies rather than simply mission SUPPORTING agencies.
The question is, how do we do all this, given the fact that, by and large, most Mission Agencies have not enthusiastically adopted Cell Church planting as their modus operandi ? The majority of Cell Churches, on the other hand, do not have the resources to set up foreign missions programs on their own.
God's answer to this question is as simple as it is revolutionary. Out of the womb of the Cell Church movement a whole new missionary movement is being birthed, as Cell Churches in different places, especially in Hong Kong, begin to network together for missions. An exciting turning point in the history of Cell Churches has been reached!
This new Take-The-World-For-God movement has several important characteristics. Firstly, it is made up of Cell Churches led by Pastors who have a clear vision and burning passion for that which is on God's heart, the seeking and saving of lost people both locally and globally. Such leaders see foreign missions as simply an extension of local missions, a concept someone has called "seamless mission".
When Hong Kong's Shepherd Community Grace Church (SCGC) began as a Cell Church with a couple of dozen people eight years ago, for example, Pastors Ben Wong and Tony Chan believed that their church was to be a movement, not just a local congregation. The vision statement they wrote some time later reflects their conviction that the church should impact not only the whole of Hong Kong, but the whole world. SCGC's aim is to see a cell group in every HK high rise by AD2000, with integrated ministries that touch every strata of society. The church also aims to be part of a movement placing a Take-the-City-for-God church in every city of the world, and to have directly planted or facilitated 100 such churches by AD2000!
The impact of such a vision has been nothing short of staggering! During the last 35 years fewer than 150 long-term missionaries have gone out from Hong Kong. On the eve of the 1997 handover to China, however, God seems to be preparing this city for a major new missions thrust, with Cell Churches in the vanguard! Over 90 of the 750 members currently attending cells in SCGC, for example, including half the 40 staff members, believe God wants them to become long term missionaries! 465 people went forward at a massive combined HK churches missions rally last July to indicate they believed God wanted them to serve as long term missionaries. At least 200 of them were from the 10% of HK's churches which are cell based. When church leaders keep on keeping the main thing the main thing, the result is churches which are passionately outward looking!
During the last 2 years an informal network has sprung up which is unique in the history of Hong Kong's insular churches. The HK Cell Church Network (CCN) currently involves over 100 Cell Churches at various stages of transition and from many denominational strands. Permeated by a new spirit of commitment to each other's success, these churches are discovering that so much more can be accomplished, with more economical use of resources, when they choose to work together in unity.
Locally, such networking includes outreach activities, Pastors' gatherings, combined Celebrations, Cell Church seminars and training programs. Churches are beginning to help other churches. Leaders of various Cell Churches share the teaching of 50 or so students attending the one year full time Ministry Training College (MTC).
Networking for missions has been the natural next step. This year Shepherd Community Grace Church opened its annual short term missions program to the rest of CCN, with very exciting results (see below). In January, 1997, CCN's School of International Studies (SIS) will begin. This 5 month missionary training programme will equip and send out a new batch of long-term Cell Church missionaries from Hong Kong each half year. Once on the field oversight and further training will be given by CCN workers. The aim is to move more people out more quickly than by traditional means.
Probably the single most significant catalyst for stimulating a vision for missions in SCGC has been its annual 2 week mission trips. So important is this that every church member is encouraged to make at least one such trip; last year's teams included a blind lady and a man in his 70s!
This year networking for Cell Church missions took a quantum leap forward when 180 people from nearly 30 CCN Cell Churches went in 6 large teams to 4 different countries: Japan, Taiwan, Philippines and North India. They worked in direct evangelism with local churches which were either transitioning to cells, or interested in the concept. The impact was explosive, both on the host churches and in the lives of the participants.
In North India, for example, the 34 team members divided into 5 smaller teams for 4 solid days of evangelism in the slums of Delhi, where as many as 60% of the city's 12 million people are said to live. It was just like following Jesus around the dusty streets of Galilee! The sick were prayed for (and healed in several cases!), demons were cast out, the Gospel was preached in the streets by word, dance and drama... whatever the local Pastors asked of them, the teams did, even if they had never done such things before! "I feel like I've had 40 years of Christian experience in just a few days!" one HK sister exclaimed. God honored this all out effort, with nearly 200 conversions and many doors opened among unbelievers for the local Pastors.
More significantly, our Indian brothers, commenting on the unity and team work of these HK Christians from many different churches, asked how they could produce such keen Christians. "Please come and teach us about Cell Group Church! Please come back with short term teams every two months!" One key Pastor in Calcutta wrote after the team's visit that he now believes Cell Church principles are THE key to growth in that overwhelmingly unreached city of 20 million. A door for Cell Church missions is now wide open among North India's 600 million people, only 0.2% of whom are Christian!
The team of very "ordinary" Christians who went to the Southern Philippines were even more overwhelmed by the extraordinary response they witnessed as they worked with 8 local churches. 1200 people made commitments to Christ during the 12 days, with 52 cell groups being formed immediately! This sort of short term missions trip is worlds apart from the normal "missions awareness" trips HK believers from more traditional churches have experienced hitherto.
This year's experience highlights three simple but important principles. Firstly, because they share a common vision and strategy Cell Churches CAN work effectively together in missions. Secondly, short term mission trips CAN be successfully integrated with Cell Church planting efforts to give a powerful boost forward. Thirdly, short trips like this CAN be life changing for participants, whether or not they ever become long term missionaries... whole churches can be mobilized for missions this way!
Obviously, much more than short excursions to help existing churches are needed if any impact is to be made among the many unreached peoples in city after city of the 10/40 window. Teams composed of long-term workers sent directly from various networking Cell Churches around the world must be sent to plant new, autonomous Cell Churches which will themselves become part of the ever-expanding network.
Perched as it is on the edge of the 10/40 window, Hong Kong is strategically placed to act as an initial facilitating center for Cell Church missions into some of the most heavily populated, needy areas of Asia. Hong Kong's CCN is keen to start the ball rolling by helping place and oversee long term Cell Church planting teams made up of workers sent from various Cell Churches around the world.
The first such team under CCN's supervision, made up of workers from the USA, Holland and Hong Kong, is already in place in an Asian Restricted Access Nation. During 1997 new teams will be taking up residence in North India, with Japan and countries of SE Asia next on the list.
At the same time CCN will be significantly accelerating and expanding its Asian short term missions program during 1997. Instead of just one mid-year trip as before, four 2 week trips are planned for Feb 1-16, May 18-31, July 20-Aug 3 and Nov 16-31. Each trip will commence with a training camp in HK. And instead of being for Hong Kong Cell Churches only, each trip will be open to believers from Cell Churches anywhere in the world who want to network with us. Already people are planning to come from Taiwan, Philippines, Indonesia and Australia. Why not from your church? Those who participate will never be the same again! Your church will never be the same again!
The time has come for many more Cell Churches around the world to begin networking together to help finish off the Great Commission. To whom much has been given much will be required. In giving us Cell Church principles God has given us a way to mobilize and equip a vast army of workers to take the remaining unreached cities of this world for Jesus. The finishing line is in sight! Let's go for it!
For further information about any of the above opportunities please write to:
Neville Chamberlain
Missions Director
Shepherd Community Grace Church
P.O. Box 670, Shatin Central, Hong Kong. Fax: +852 2605 5055. Email:
nevc@hknet.com