Sometimes we can look at the church here in the west and wonder if we, as followers of Jesus, are impacting people at all. Is the leaven of our lives working its way into the lump of worldly dough that we are surrounded by? Of course, such a pessimistic view is not warranted. Each of us, as salt and light, is always making a difference in the lives of those around us and we are finding wonderful ways to be used by God wherever we live and serve. God is surely at work and He will continue to use us to bring his kingdom to those who are ready.
But it is also good to step back and look at the global picture and realize that amazing things from a worldwide perspective have been happening, are happening, and will continue to take place.
Progress!
Wolfgang Simson reports:
Our own continuous research has shown that the single largest apostolic initiative in the last 20 years is the house church movement. It has now crossed a historic threshold and milestone of 10 million new house churches planted globally since 1998 and has added at least 100 million new souls to the Body of Christ. This is why it is crucial that this momentum continues until it reaches what we call the “Starfish goal” of 200 million house churches/Kingdom communities (see: The Starfish Vision).
He also reports on this development in his own country of Germany:
Only recently (2018) one house church network, Hope Germany, has grown to more than 1,000 newly planted house churches, and there are about 40 other networks in Europe with typically between 50‐100 house churches.
Our own work, that takes us to many continents, allows us to see beyond our western world and remember that our own home-country is not the only consideration in God’s global plans. As such, clear progress abounds much of which is coming through movements of disciples making disciples resulting in hundreds and thousands of simple/house church gatherings starting in many parts of the world.
This article reports on the impact taking place by “movement ekklesia” which are disciples, as in the first century, multiplying rapidly without the need for dedicated buildings:
- Recently Credible organizations and networks reported approximately 2,500 movement engagements, including nearly 500 movements that had produced millions of new disciples. As 2017 ended, the count was nearly 650 movements with 50 million disciples!
- New disciples in ‘multiplying movements’ among the unreached are ‘increasing many times faster than any other large population on the planet.’
This report concludes that ‘thousands more movements are still needed, yet there are many reasons to hope expectantly for their continued multiplication.’
So, are you and I part of kingdom progress that is exciting, clear, and on the increase? Most definitely.
