Igniting a Fire in Dark Places

My life was transformed one dark night in 1996. I heard a knock on my door and opened it to find a man with a dark beard standing there, holding a small pamphlet in his left hand. I didn’t know him at all, so after the usual greeting, I asked, “What do you want? Can I help you with anything?” 

He just stood there, looking very upset, then asked, “Is your Jesus able to cleanse the sins of the whole world?”

I didn’t expect this at all. I thought, He doesn’t know me, and I don’t know him. Where is this coming from?

I said, “Come again?” 

“Is your Jesus able to cleanse the sin of the whole world?”

I didn’t want to answer directly, as it felt like a trap–especially since he looked so angry. I said, “Come in. Let’s discuss this.”

“No. You give me an answer: yes or no.”

Because he pushed me so hard, I had to answer bluntly. I said, “Yes, Jesus can cleanse the sin of the whole world.”

He said, “You are a liar!” And as he said it, he entered the little house I was renting (three by three meters–less than 100 square feet) and sat down.

I didn’t want to argue with him about different religious doctrines, so I said, “Let me share my story with you.” I told him how Jesus came into my life. I briefly shared about the life I used to live before I met Jesus, and how Jesus had come into my life. I told him about the forgiveness I had received and how my life had changed. I told him, “That’s not just my personal experience, but…” Without mentioning names, I told him the biblical story of Saul’s conversion on the Damascus Road and other stories. I shared them in an oral storytelling way.

Suddenly, he said, “Okay, your Jesus may be able to cleanse your sins. And maybe the sins of other people you know about. But let me tell you: He will never cleanse my sins.”

I don’t know how he came across the pamphlet he was still holding in his left hand, but it apparently mentioned the verse from 1 John 2:2, which says Jesus’ blood can cleanse the sins of the whole world. I told him, “Jesus forgave me. And Jesus forgives everyone who comes and asks for forgiveness.”

He shared with me his struggles with a sin that had bothered him ever since he committed it a long time ago. He was involved in religious leadership and was an educated, well-respected person. But he said, “I can never sleep. This thing bothers me day and night.”

The Lord softened Abdu’s heart and allowed me to lead him to saving faith that night. I started discipling him day after day on many different topics. His life changed completely, and God broke many bondages in his life as he prayed through issues with me.

One day, he asked me, “What do you think about people from my religious background, especially religious leaders? Do you consider it scary to share the gospel with them?”

I said, “Yes, I think so. You came looking for me; I didn’t come looking for you.”

He said, “Even though we look scary on the outside, our inside is empty. My people need this message. But they will never come and knock on your door like I did. This was a rare opportunity. To get the good news to them, please don’t expect them to come knock on your door. Instead, go and knock on their door; they need this gospel.”

That was so challenging, I felt like a bomb had exploded in my mind. I began weeping because I had considered such people almost unreachable. His words became a wake-up call that has stayed with me every day: Go to them; they can’t come to you.

While I was God’s messenger to Abdu, he was also God’s messenger to me. My interaction with him spurred me on in my passion to reach those in people groups who have never heard the gospel.

A calling to the unreached

Early in my ministry, the Lord had put one specific people group on my heart. But I struggled a lot with that. I prayed, “God, please change that call. I’ll go anywhere, but not to those people!” During a war a few years back, some of my extended family had been killed by people from that tribe, so I grew up not loving them. They were one of the many tribes living near my family, but we intentionally didn’t have anything to do with them, even though they were close neighbors.

I thought that after fasting and praying, the Lord would change his mind about that calling. But he didn’t. I finally said, “Okay, God. I love you and I want to obey you. But if you are serious about this, give me the one thing I don’t have. I’m struggling with a heart issue. I have no love for these people. I need a deep, desperate love—a passion for reaching them with the gospel.”

Then God did it! A supernatural change took place, and he put a burden and love in my heart for the people group I had once struggled with. I focused on learning: observing, listening, praying, becoming more fluent in the language, and studying their culture. I got to know the people firsthand and developed relationships. This laid the foundation I needed to prepare for the upcoming ministry.

I realized I had been wrong in my prejudice toward them—that they all had hard hearts. I thank God for the unique privilege of being one of the very first Christians from my country to serve cross-culturally among that tribe. I began reaching out to them and started two house churches among them. I also trained and coached many others, including workers with other groups. As a result, churches began to be planted among them, both in the capital and in the eastern part of our country, and leaders began to emerge. Even now, the number of believers among that group is not large, but many who have come to faith are the fruit of the ministry we started at that time. After six years of personal ministry among that group, I began equipping other leaders coming into our region. I started to intentionally lead cross-cultural internships. After another six years of focusing on that group and equipping others in cross-cultural ministry, the Lord spoke to me. “I want you reaching more than just that people group. You need to see the bigger picture of all the Unreached People Groups in your region, encompassing many nations.” I realized we needed to make significant changes to pursue completing the Great Commission among all these people groups. We noted that the local churches didn’t give any attention or priority to reaching the UPGs from a different religion. In fact, many considered them too aggressive and unreachable.

The Lord gave us a burden to plant 10,000 churches within 10 years. That seemed like a huge task, but we saw it as God’s way to reach that region. For three years, from 2003 to 2005, we planted churches using traditional methods: winning one person, then moving on to another, conducting open-air evangelism, and distributing tracts. I wouldn’t say those methods are wrong, but they didn’t produce much fruit.

Shifting to a more effective approach 

I got my first real exposure to Disciple Making Movements (DMM) at a training in late 2005. At first, I resisted all that was being presented. But the Lord convicted me that I should listen and consider the simple principles I was hearing. These included immediate radical obedience, finding a person of peace, the discovery process, focusing on families rather than individuals, and multiplication like we see in the book of Acts. After that training, I felt eager to go back and share these things with my partners and the network I represent.

In 2006, we revised our mission and vision statements, very intentionally choosing to implement a movement strategy. What happened next amazed us. In the previous three years, from 2002 to 2005, we and our partners had planted only 220 churches. After this training and reshaping our strategy, we and our 15 partners planted well over 300 new churches in just the first year. I personally went to check some of the places because I had a hard time believing the reports. (Any time we suspect inflated numbers, we go to visit and check.)

Then, in 2007, more than 900 churches were planted. The Lord gave us a multiplication of disciples and churches being planted every day. We now have well over 100 partners planting churches. God is doing amazing things here. I’m very grateful for this—not because some superhero or big man has come to make it happen, but because ordinary disciples in their natural networks are obeying the simple command of Jesus, “Go and share what you have experienced.” Disciples are making disciples who can make more disciples. We see individuals, families, and communities coming to the Lord and being transformed—falling in love with Jesus and his word. God is showing his greatness through dreams, miracles, and wonders as he expands his kingdom.

At present, we have a ministry among around 40 different UPGs. About 50% of those groups profess a different faith, and about 40% of the fruit we’ve seen so far has come from that background. Roughly 25% of the groups we serve have a background in tribal religion, and another 25% are nominally Christian.

We have identified 22 factors the Lord has used to ignite, accelerate, and sustain Disciple Making Movements among these diverse groups. While a few of those factors are unique to our African context, at least 15 of them could be applied by any believer, in any social or religious context. I’ll briefly describe just two of them.

Factors in fruitfulness

Healthy dissatisfaction opens our hearts to pursue God for greater things than whatever ministry fruit we have experienced so far. In 2005, I had already been doing contextual ministry among unreached peoples and planting churches among them. But I didn’t feel satisfied with the results I saw, because God had given me a passion for something much greater. 

I saw in Luke 15 that God takes attendance by who is missing. The shepherd in the parable has 99 sheep safe and sound, together with him. Ninety-nine percent of his flock is doing very well. But he’s not at all satisfied with that. He leaves the 99 to go look for the one lost sheep. When we begin to see the world from God’s perspective, it breaks our hearts and stirs a longing to see more lost people come to know the Heavenly Father. If we compare the need with what we’re currently accomplishing, we have to ask, “Are we in line with what must happen to fulfill the Lord’s command?”

Showing Jesus’ radical love has opened countless doors for bringing the gospel to the unreached. When persecution or hardship comes, we receive these as special opportunities to show Jesus’ love, often in ways that surprise others. This paves the way for sharing the gospel verbally, after we’ve already demonstrated it through our Christlike response to mistreatment.

These are just two of the factors God has used in our ministry. Both these factors, and over a dozen others, could be fruitfully applied by any person or ministry that wants to see God do great things among the unreached. In Living Fire, we describe and illustrate in detail each of the factors God is using to ignite, accelerate, and sustain Disciple Making Movements among unreached peoples in our region. We’re thrilled to invite all God’s people to join together in bringing good news to peoples and places where the gospel has not yet reached, for the glory of his name.