Moving Toward Multiplication

One of ReachGlobal’s guiding principles in ministry is that “we do multiplication rather than addition.” In light of the fact that the task of world evangelism is huge and that missional workers and resources are limited we are committed to strategies of multiplication over addition. We are facilitators and ministry coaches who come alongside national leaders to empower and train them. One of the key areas where we are seeing this happen is in the ReachAfrica Multiplication Church Planting ministry.

Let me share one exciting story of how God is at work. Several months ago my colleague David Kiamu from Liberia went to the country of Mozambique at the request of ministry leaders there to lead a level one Multiplication Church Planting training there. In the course of a couple of weeks of intense training 150 church planters were trained. Some of those who had been trained took the materials and trained others so that by year’s end over 600 people had been through the level one Multiplication Church Planting training with over 130 churches planted in just a few months. However, it didn't stop there! Toward the end of last year one of the key leaders in Mozambique took the level one Multiplication Church Planting training to the neighboring country of Zambia and trained leaders from one of our new partners there. Just last week I heard that one of our new ministry partners in Zambia is going to be doing the level one Multiplication Church Planting training in the neighboring country of South Africa. All the way along people are coming to faith in Jesus and healthy transformational churches are being multiplied. We praise the Lord for His work in moving from addition to multiplication.

However, for this to continue to grow into the fourth and fifth generations of church planters we will need to see more “young lion” leaders like the brothers from Mozambique and Zambia raised up in every country where we have ministry partners and staff. Will you join us in thanking the Lord for what has been done and in asking Him to raise up a generation of “young lions” to lead this church planting movement?

Biblical Worldview

As I write this post I am sitting in the airport in Paris waiting for my flight to Yaounde, Cameroon.  Over the past decade I have made more trips to various parts of Africa than I can count.  Yet each time I make the journey I find myself having to make the shift from a place entrenched in the worldview of the west where I was born and raised to a place with a very different way of looking at life through the eyes of the worldview of Africa.

I have discovered that it is much easier to see the flaws and the faults of worldviews other than one's own.  I imagine this is true because we are so accustomed to our own ways of looking at and understanding life that it is hard to see the ways our culture and worldview color the way we see and respond to life each day.  However, the contrasting perspectives of other worldviews are often obvious to spot.

The easy thing for most people to do when they first experience another culture is to assume that their culture's way of seeing things is right and the new cultures' way of seeing things is wrong.  In reality neither our western materialistic worldview or an African animistic worldview are "right."  There are significant aspects of both ways of looking at life, the world and people that are in opposition to a Biblical worldview.

The following article about the ministry of one of our partners in Africa, Samaritan Strategy Africa, is a good reminder that when people live out a Biblical worldview their lives are dramatically changed. http://www.worldmag.com/articles/19860

I would encourage you to check out The Disciple Nations Alliance (http://www.disciplenations.org/) and Samaritan Strategy Africa (http://www.samaritan-strategy-africa.org/) websites for more good information in Biblical worldview training and the impact in people's lives.