Networking
- National Initiatives
Indonesian Update, October
1998
by Setiabudhl
The focus of the recent national consultation was on how to achieve
the goal of having at least 2 church planters working among all 125+ unreached
groups by the end of the year 2000. The priority has become the 84 groups
with no known workers. With God's guidance, the leaders are asking groups
and churches to focus in on an adoption that will also put feet to their
prayers and be part of a process that leads to a church planting movement.
12 Assessment Levels in the Adoption and Church Planting Effort among
an Unreached People Group
- Adoption to Pray: At least one or two groups/churches
have adopted the Unreached People Group (UPG) in prayer.
- Adoption to Pray: Several or a good number of churches
have adopted the UPG in prayer.
- Some individuals from the UPG become believers, but they
are few and scattered in churches consisting mainly of believers
from other ethnic groups.
- Cross-cultural evangelists are trained, sent, live among
the UPG, begin work.
- A network of evangelists develops among workers focused on
that UPG.
- A single congregation is planted in which the majority is
from the UPG.
- Several congregations emerge in which the majority is from
the UPG.
- Many congregations exist in which the majority is from the
UPG.
- Second Generation Congregations are planted: Congregations
in this UPG plant (a) "daughter" congregation(s).
- Third Generation Congregations are planted: "Daughter" congregation(s)
in this UPG plant "granddaughter" congregation(s).
- Fourth Generation Congregations are planted: "Granddaughter" congregation(s)
in this UPG plant “great-granddaughter” congregation(s).
- Cross-cultural missions: Various congregations from this UPG begin
to send cross-cultural evangelists to other ethnic groups.
Consultation Highlights
-
A key concept really taking off is the clustering of the 125+ unreached
people groups (UPGs) here into 23 "people group clusters" so that our goal
is to establish one national network and 23 cluster networks.
-
God is bringing some exciting results to the work. Here are a few numerical
indicators that offer a pale reflection of all God is doing.
+ Gospel work among 21 groups in 1997 rose to 39 groups in 1998!
+ Christians were reported among 37 people groups in 1997 - rising to 72
in 98!
+ "Facilitator Teams" to catalyze communication and cooperation were present
in ten clusters in 1997
- rising to 19 of 23 clusters in 98!
+ Last year we had about 400 people at the main national conference - this
year the total
was 364 people in spite of crippling economic difficulty which raised transportation
costs 2-4 times from a year ago.
-
The spirit of cooperation is truly growing exponentially. For instance,
64 churches and organizations were represented at the meeting and the national
facilitators team includes seven people from five organizations living
in three countries.
-
The first meeting of the three meetings was of those who are already working
as facilitators (20+ with the majority being foreigners). The vision was
to facilitate communication and cooperation to serve the larger body of
Christ around the world in the mission to see God start a church planting
movement among all 125+ UPGs. A remarkable unity and the seeds of exciting
cooperation were seen. The goal is a facilitator team, not just one facilitator.
-
The second meeting was a "vision seminar" to allow potential facilitators
(mainly national) to see the vision and see if this was their calling.
It was a very fruitful three days and lead to plans for a full scale initial
training of national and perhaps even regional (surrounding countries),
facilitators.
-
The third meeting was the national UPG conference. I am convinced the highlight
of this was the direct result of prayer. Halfway through the meeting, the
program committee was meeting to finalize plans for the next day and everybody
was very sluggish and tired. Finally, after an hour and half of getting
nowhere, God answered the prayers of those in the room, the intercessors
in a nearby room, and people around the world focused on the meeting. The
idea emerged to have a commitment service the next night, where all 86
people groups without gospel workers would be adopted by people to pray
daily, for at least one year, that God would bring laborers. During the
service we showed the names and information (with a photo if available)
and waited for people to stand in commitment for each group. Each group
had from 2-10 people make the commitment and it was a moving experience
to see each and every group receive that commitment.
-
Plans for individuals to meet with pastors in a neighboring country interested
in adopting a people group.
-
Two organizations developed opportunity for 70 individuals to work for
two years among seven of the UPGs here.
-
Plans made for five or six regional conferences next year instead of one
national conference .
-
Six or seven national mobilizers requested key information for their plans
of broader disbursement.
-
Key meetings held on the formation of a contextual evangelistic media network
and a university student network focused on the UPGs here.
-
UPG information request from leaders, for use in their strategy planning.
Report from October 1998 Consultation on Indonesian Unreached
People Groups by Setiabudhl.
WebMaster
1/21/99
