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"Leadership should be born out of the
understanding of the needs of those who would be affected by it." – Marian
Anderson, American contralto, (1902-1993). Read how a missionary learned
to pioneer an effective church planting movement in the north-eastern
rural part of Thailand.
"Our goal is to see a self-supporting
movement of local believers multiplying churches throughout the area [multiplication]. To train the believers, I would
take them out evangelizing in the mission pick-up. But after four years I
began to see a discouraging pattern emerging. If I didn't pick them up,
they wouldn't go out. Also, because the pick-up expense was separate from
the church budget, we didn't think much about the cost. It looked as if we
were going nowhere.
As the church met to prepare their next
budget, I discovered a solution to our problem using biotic principles.
The church wanted more money to finance their programs and more control of
the finances. I proposed that we take the transportation money used by the
pick-up and give it to the church for them to budget under two conditions
[energy transformation].
First, all church-related expenses,
including my own evangelism transportation expenses, would have to come
under the church's budget and jurisdiction. I would limit myself to what
they could duplicate -- walking, public transportation or motorcycle [multiplication].
Secondly, the money would be released
only through matching their local giving [interdependence]
and that matching percentage would decrease by five percent a year over
sixteen years, bringing them into a fully self-supported movement [multi-usage]. We started with 20 percent of the
budget coming from the locals and 80 percent from the mission.
We're now in our third year and church
planting is being done fully by the locals, whose transportation consists
of walking, motorcycles and public transportation [functionality].
With excitement the believers announce each month their giving figures to
be matched. The general giving has increased even more than their
projected budget. To support new church-directed mission projects they are
now mixing faith promises with their regular giving [symbiosis]. They are even planning to multiply
their movement into other areas."
Almost all of the biotic principles are
evident in this story. Progress is achieved when a whole church, having
caught a vision, is willing to share the responsibility for making it
happen.
For reflection/discussion: What was the most
important lesson this missionary learned?
Julie Belding is
editor of DayStar, New Zealand's Monthly Evangelical Newsmagazine |
