Alligning ourselves for Gospel Movements
and Gospel Multiplication.
Jesus Launches a Movement of Redemption.
When Jesus commissioned his followers to "go and make disciples of all nations" (Mt. 28:18-20), he launched a movement that rocked the world. After the Holy Spirit fell on the day of Pentecost, the disciples took to the streets, sharing the good news and more than 3,000 people responded to God's message of reconciliation on the first day (Acts 2:1-41).
Our mission is to boldly join in the work and fulfilment of the task Jesus gave us.
We believe that if we can posture ourselves towards the dynamics found in a gospel movements, applying the wisdom that can be found from the movements of times gone by (both biblical and historical), then we can be a landing strip for the extraordinary, multiplicative work of God.
What is a Gospel Movement?
A movement is a sociological phenomenon where a group of people work together to passionately advance their shared commitments.
The specific movements to which we are committed happen when the good news of Jesus spreads contagiously through a network of social relationships whereby many people become committed followers of Jesus and groups of these disciples multiply to at least the 4th generation and beyond. Such movements have the potential to radically impact whole towns, cities, and nations.
In our lifetime God is moving and the gospel is spreading in unprecedented ways all around the world. A rapid multiplication of new disciples, new leaders, and new churches is saturating entire regions, many of which were previously unreached with the good news of Jesus. There are areas of India and Africa where millions of people are becoming new followers of Jesus and starting tens of thousands of new churches. When we see this type of church growth happening in an area, we call it a 'gospel movement'. Similar numbers have been recorded in China over the last few decades. At its height, this movement produced 10,000 new disciples daily. The underground Church in the Middle East has not only seen similar results, but it’s the place where gospel movements are growing the fastest. In fact, every region of the Muslim world is experiencing a rapid multiplication of new disciples and churches. Entire regions are being transformed by the good news of Jesus.
We also see significant similarities and shared core values and practices present in every gospel movement. These characteristics tend to fly in the face of traditional western ministry assumptions and practices. However, each one is deeply rooted in the examples of Jesus, the early Church, and gospel movements throughout history.
The 5 Components of a Gospel Movement.
ACTIVATING PRAYER
Activating prayer is a specific type of prayer that is movemental in nature. It operates comfortably in the supernatural, expecting signs and wonders, dealing with the demonic, and knowing how to appropriate the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit. It includes spiritual mapping, prayer walking and strategic prayer, and harnesses the spiritual authority God has delegated to us and exercises the power of blessing. Such prayer changes the spiritual atmosphere within people, groups, cultures and lands. It creates the necessary conditions for the expansion of God’s kingdom in our ministry contexts.
ENGAGING CULTURE
Engaging culture means wisely undertaking an array of cultivating activities and actions—all of intrinsic Kingdom value in and of themselves—which serve as powerful “bridges of God” into the cultural context for the good news of Jesus to take root and spread. Such engagement means meeting the felt needs of people in the name and power of Jesus. It may include redemptive initiatives to bring transformational impact to areas of brokenness and need, discerning where the Spirit of God is uniquely active, and partnering with Him in response. For movements to occur, cultural engagement (the gospel in deed) must be fully integrated with the gospel in power through activating prayer, and must lead to and connect with the gospel in word as people become fully committed and obedient disciples of Jesus. In cultural engagement the gospel of the Kingdom is both embodied and proclaimed.
MAKING DISCIPLES
Every gospel movement has, at its core, effective tools and processes to help people far from God become committed followers of Jesus and then make disciples of others. Such multiplication is at the heart of our understanding of discipleship and spiritual growth. While the history of the Church contains many evangelism and discipleship models, we favor a highly effective “discovery process” which does not rely on experts, is organic, and is easily reproduced regardless of setting or culture.
GROWING LEADERS
Unless leaders are developed intentionally, from within a gospel movement itself, the movement will inevitably collapse under the weight of its own success. Such movement leaders will exhibit a wide array of gifting, all of which are necessary to guide and build ministry momentum that will go far beyond themselves. It is imperative that these leaders know how to identify new leaders and how to appropriately coach, mentor and launch them into ministry
FORMING CHURCHES
Movements include healthy local church expressions that emerge and multiply to steward the fruit of the movement. In the disciple-making processes used by Novo this last year, the functions of a healthy church are coded into the values and structures of new churches that are formed. Novo also implements a range of helpful processes, tools and structures to help new or established church expressions thrive missionally.