First Five vs Second Five—What Changed?
Jared spent his first eighteen months in South Asia working hard at all the right things but seeing very little fruit. Then, alone on a 14-hour car drive, he brought his complaint to God. “What is this happening!” God’s response was, “Who are you serving? Yourself or me?” Jared surrendered and the first breakthroughs were just a couple of weeks away.
They came in the form of people, local workers he trained who were committed to action.
Jared says, looking back, in your first two or three years on the field you’re looking for the people God wants you to invest in. It takes time to find those people, but they become the key to a multiplying movement, Lord willing.
You might be sharing the gospel 30 times a month, but you want to move that to 60. How do you do it? You can squeeze out some more time in your schedule and work harder, but that’s addition and it has its limits. A better and more Biblical strategy is to train others and set them loose. Now we’re talking about leadership development.
In 2020 we shared the gospel with around 40,000 people. By 2021 it was 150,000 people. That was achieved because leaders stepped up and trained ordinary people.
A leader would show up at house church and equip in three things:
1. Identity
They’d cast vision for reaching lost people and then talk about our identity in Christ as a royal priesthood, as ambassadors.
2. Oikos map
They would take out a piece of paper and have people draw their “oikos” map asking, “Who are the people in your life that don't know God? You’re probably the only disciple they know. God has placed you in their life for a reason. You’re their hope, not an evangelist or pastor they’ve never met.”
3. Gospel outline
Then we give them a simple, reproducible and Biblical way of sharing the gospel.
What happened next was “crazy”! Everybody was sharing.
So many reports came in like: I shared with this person, and they were healed. I shared with this person, we cast out a demon and started a new house church there. God was at work through his people.
This was typical: a mom rolls out of her bed before daylight drops to her knees and prays for God to do something in her village. That night she’s out sharing with the family next door.
Now we’re taking what we’ve learned to other networks and the same thing is happening.
It’s not pragmatism. When we train in established churches we ask, “How can this church take one step forward in maturity? And how can this church take one step forward in multiplication?” Then someone goes in to equip them.
In 2020 we planted over 2,000 churches, in 2021 it was over 6,000. In 2023 it was just over 17,000.
But nothing changed. Same training, same simple methods.
Disciples are living out their identity in Christ. These principles don’t change. There’s no secret sauce.
The most important shift that has taken place between our first five years and the last five years is learning how to identify the leaders you should be spending your time with. I’m looking for people who are always taking the next step. When they hit a wall they run to the Word of God for answers. Then they take the next step. They obey what Jesus has commanded.
In the first five years, I was trying to motivate people to do stuff. Now, I've switched. Now I look for people who are already trying to do something and I help them sharpen what they're doing.
I invest time and love in those people. That means I’ve only got time for about 8-12 of them. But they all have the people they are investing in and so on. It cascades.
I’ve learned one person is never the answer to the need. Our job as leaders is to help more and more people do the right things well.
In my first few years, I had all the right training, mentoring and experience, but thought everything hinged on me. It’s too big a burden to bear. I’ve learned to risk everything on the Holy Spirit.
The more we have faded into the background, the more the movement has flourished.
The Lord wants us to care for these leaders and we do very little training of them now. It's mostly relationship and coaching and just digging into problems.
And then the majority is just loving on them and honestly, they love on us like crazy.
I went through a season of deep discouragement last year. The life that they spoke into me and the encouragement that they gave me, it was just so humbling.
And it's just a lot of fun.
Part 1: 334-The first five years.
Part 2: 335-The Last Five Years
