What God Can Do!

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John Chen grew up to be a pastor like his father. And, like his father, John planted a new church and led 50 to 60 people to Christ every year. In 2000, after two decades of pastoring and church planting in Taiwan, John and his wife, Hope, answered God's call to become strategy coordinators in an urban center on the mainland. The district we‘ll call Nandong was a greater challenge than the Chens ever imagined. The city teamed with millions of men, women and children. Factories without number were choked with workers; every day thousands more poured in looking for jobs. Overwhelmed, John and Hope entered strategy coordinator training. There, they learned three principles that changed their lives, their ministry—and the country where they moved. First, they realized that they could not do the job alone. Second, they learned that training others to plant churches was better than planting a church. Third, they learned that it is better still to train trainers to train church planters to plant even more churches. John knew that not everyone is suited to be a church planter. At the same time, he knew that God could use anyone. But how could John tell who would or would not make an effective church planter? Simple. Train everybody. Those who do, are. Those who do not, are not. At first, John found only three towns in Nandong with any churches. And these churches had a total membership of 250 people.

John set an ambitious goal of planting a church in every town in the district 200 new churches!

Not surprisingly, when John shared his goal with a local pastor, the man shook his head and suggested that John go back home. But John persisted, and the pastor allowed him to teach a church-planting class to anyone in his congregation that was interested. Most were farmers, so classes were held at night. Thirty showed up the first week. John quickly discovered two obstacles that prevented these men from being effective evangelists. They didn‘t know what to say or who to tell.

So John had them make a list of all the lost people they knew and pick the five that God wanted them to share with first. Then he taught that each of them had a unique, three-part story to tell: 1) What they were like before Jesus, 2) How they met Jesus, and 3) What their life has been like since meeting Jesus. We don‘t even call it a testimony, John explained, A testimony is for Christians. Non-Christians don‘t know what a testimony is, so we call it our story. And he had each trainee write his story on a single sheet of paper. They were a little nervous at first, so John had them read it out loud five times, then share with one another. And soon the trainees were excited and confident.

In the weeks that followed, John taught them how to establish new converts in the fundamentals of the faith. Then it was time to send them out. Go this week and share your story with the five people at the top of your list. If you can‘t, go to the next five! When you return next week, we‘ll see what God has done. Only 17 did the assignment. But one farmer had shared with 11 people. As each trainee told the group about their experiences, they drew insights and encouragement from one another. After class, John said, If you choose not to share with anyone this week, you should not come to the class next week. This added accountability and focused the trainees on doing and not just hearing. The results surprised even the Chens.

After just two months, they had started 20 small groups that were becoming churches. Seven months later, there were 327 small groups, 4,000 newly-baptized believers, and churches in 17 towns. The first year ended with 908 house churches and more than 12,000 new Christians. Like Jesus‘ disciples, the trainees found that in every village God had prepared a person of peace. One was an old farmer who had never before planted a church. Within two months, he started a dozen house churches—110 in a year. His lifestyle was the key to his effectiveness. Every morning from 5 to 7, he prayed and read his Bible. Then he worked in the fields until 5 p.m., when he went home for dinner and family time. At 7 p.m., he went back out and worked in God‘s fields until midnight. That lifestyle is common in what has become the largest church planting movement in history.

In another town, one year after a 67-year-old woman became a Christian, she had led more than 60 families to Christ. I asked her to take me out and show me how she does it, John said. She tells people that she was weak and then Jesus saved her. Then she invites them to a Bible study at her house.

―We teach all the new believers how to have a Bible study and a daily quiet time, he explained, so they can do this forever. Then we teach them what a church is about and how to organize into a church so that they can grow together in Christ.

―Once, we lost track of a Christian factory worker we had trained. After six months, we found that he had been transferred to another large factory with 10,000 workers. During that time, he had started 70 small groups and had seen 10 generations of reproduction (churches planting churches).

If you ask John the secret of this powerful movement, he will pull up his pant legs and show you the calluses on his knees. He teaches trainees to pray for the Holy Spirit‘s anointing, to pray for the lost all around them, to pray as they go into each witnessing situation, and to pray for the blood of Jesus to protect them from everything Satan will throw against them.

Every morning after two hours of prayer, John goes into the harvest fields. Everyday he tells his simple story, looks for those God has called out, and trains others to do the same. You never know who God is going to use, he says with a smile, so we keep training everybody! Today, the movement is spreading across several districts and shows no sign of slowing.

After 2 months: 20 small groups were started

After 6 months: 327 house churches, with 4,000 baptized

After one year: 908 house churches, with 12,000 baptized

The following year: 3,535 new churches, with more than 53,430 baptisms

First six months of the third year: 9,320 new churches and 104,542 baptisms

End of 3rd year: 15,000 new churches and more than 160,000 baptized believers

The secret is not found in techniques or a new curriculum. It is hidden in the vision, training, passion, co-laborers and accountability. Vision prevents confusion. Training yields confidence. Passion drives momentum. A steady supply of trained co-laborers enables your team to freely embrace every new opportunity. And accountability produces consistent results.

This true story is adapted from David Garrison‘s book Church Planting Movements. You can buy a copy of this book online at www.churchplantingmovements.com.

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