Will CPM work in the United States?
I think that the most frequently asked question I have had as I share about the Honduras project and CPM is "Will CPM work in the United States?"
Here are some thoughts on that subject.
1. My first answer is yes. Someone might say, why are we not seeing cpm here yet then? My response is that we need a bit of historical perspective on this. Let me put it this way: 50 years ago, there was not cpm anywhere on the planet earth. I am not saying God was not working. There are always places of kingdom advance and revival and great harvests. 50 years ago we were talking about "Revival" and "Church Growth" and "People Movements", but not "Church Planting Movements".
According to David Garrison's intitial books, a Church Planting Movement is:
a rapid and multiplicative increase of indigenous churches
planting churches within a given people group or population segment.
Using this as a very general definition (one that is currently being revisited and will be refined as time goes by) what we are calling CPM or things very close to them were not being seen anywhere until 40-50 years ago.
Then with the emergence of the Chinese House Church Movement, things very near to this definition began to happen. However, because of the special circumstances of the Chinese movements (communism, persecution etc.) these were not particularly seen as instructive for strategy, but more of a special move of God in some very unique circumstances.
It was not until the 1990s when the CPM occurred in India and some other places and were reported by Garrison's booklet and the term Church Planting Movements was coined, that these principles began to be viewed in a strategic way. Remember that book was published in 1999, and the more thourough study was not released until 2004.
Then beginning in 2005, a focused intentional attempt began in Africa to introduce these principles, with the result that over 10,000 churches have been planted there within the last 5 years.
Looking at it this way we might extrapolate:
Pre 1970: No CPM
1970-1990: CPM in the form of the Chinese House Church Movements
1990-2000: CPM in Asia primarily (mostly India)
2000-2010: CPM explodes in Africa
Might we suggest that the future might include:
2010-2020: CPM emerges in the Western Hemisphere (South, Central, and yes, North America).
My point is that it is way too early to determine what will or will not work in the US in terms of CPM.
2. My second response to the question is basically to question the question. Is this the right question to be asking? I think it is basically a typically American question (What Works? rather than What is Right?)
We must remember that the CPMs that happened in Asia in the 90s and the principles that emerged from these movements did not happen because the leaders were following a "model" that promised "CPM" or anything else! In fact I don't think that CPM is a "model" of mission. It emerged as certain leaders gave radical committment to the Bible as the Word of God and decided to "Obey" it. Radically.
The people who were involved the beginning of those CPMs did not envision CPM when they began. They were trying to start 1 church! They were trying to simplify the process of discipling people to remove all Christian cultural baggage and only teach obedience to the Word. When Western and Christian Cultural contexts were removed and simple obedience to the authority of the Bible was introduced, what we have been calling CPM began to happen....spontaneously. It is only now, in hindsight 20 years later, that we look at the "results" of Biblical Obedience and ask if it will "Work" here.
I am going to go out on a limb here and say we should do it whether it "Works" or not. We should return to Biblical Obedience and the Functional Authority of Scripture and we should Make Disciples and Teach them to Obey all things Christ Commanded. We should engage in Radical Biblical Obedience with the intention to disciple people.
After all, American Church leaders have been searching for what "works" for decades and trying all kinds of approaches and spending Billions of dollars doing it. The result: Check out this report that came out this week from George Barna.
http://www.barna.org/culture-articles/462-six-megathemes-emerge-from-2010
He lists 6 Megathemes that are emerging as the state of religious faith in the US at the present time:
1. The Christian Church is becoming less theologically literate
2. Christians are becoming more ingrown and less outreach-oriented
3. Growing numbers of people are less interested in spiritual principles and more desirous of learning pragmatic solutions for life
4. Among Christians, interest in participating in community action is escalating.
5. The postmodern insistence on tolerance is winning over the Christian Church.
6. The influence of Christianity on culture and individual lives is largely invisible.
This is the result of the American Church quest for What Works of the last 40 years.
I would propose that we stop our quest for the latest widget, and get back to radical Biblical Authority and Obedience. Regardless of the results, they can't be worse than the results we are getting right now!
3. The truth is that the beginnings of CPMs may be at the seed stage in the US already. I am aware of some work in certain areas, especially in California, that while perhaps not CPM yet, may be moving in that direction. Neil Cole's books and network may be moving in that direction as well.
So my answer is : Yes, I think it will Work in the US. But we must be driven, not by theories and models. We need to focus on what an Obedience based discipling process will look like in the "cultures" in the US and then leave the results to God.
Here are some thoughts on that subject.
1. My first answer is yes. Someone might say, why are we not seeing cpm here yet then? My response is that we need a bit of historical perspective on this. Let me put it this way: 50 years ago, there was not cpm anywhere on the planet earth. I am not saying God was not working. There are always places of kingdom advance and revival and great harvests. 50 years ago we were talking about "Revival" and "Church Growth" and "People Movements", but not "Church Planting Movements".
According to David Garrison's intitial books, a Church Planting Movement is:
a rapid and multiplicative increase of indigenous churches
planting churches within a given people group or population segment.
Using this as a very general definition (one that is currently being revisited and will be refined as time goes by) what we are calling CPM or things very close to them were not being seen anywhere until 40-50 years ago.
Then with the emergence of the Chinese House Church Movement, things very near to this definition began to happen. However, because of the special circumstances of the Chinese movements (communism, persecution etc.) these were not particularly seen as instructive for strategy, but more of a special move of God in some very unique circumstances.
It was not until the 1990s when the CPM occurred in India and some other places and were reported by Garrison's booklet and the term Church Planting Movements was coined, that these principles began to be viewed in a strategic way. Remember that book was published in 1999, and the more thourough study was not released until 2004.
Then beginning in 2005, a focused intentional attempt began in Africa to introduce these principles, with the result that over 10,000 churches have been planted there within the last 5 years.
Looking at it this way we might extrapolate:
Pre 1970: No CPM
1970-1990: CPM in the form of the Chinese House Church Movements
1990-2000: CPM in Asia primarily (mostly India)
2000-2010: CPM explodes in Africa
Might we suggest that the future might include:
2010-2020: CPM emerges in the Western Hemisphere (South, Central, and yes, North America).
My point is that it is way too early to determine what will or will not work in the US in terms of CPM.
2. My second response to the question is basically to question the question. Is this the right question to be asking? I think it is basically a typically American question (What Works? rather than What is Right?)
We must remember that the CPMs that happened in Asia in the 90s and the principles that emerged from these movements did not happen because the leaders were following a "model" that promised "CPM" or anything else! In fact I don't think that CPM is a "model" of mission. It emerged as certain leaders gave radical committment to the Bible as the Word of God and decided to "Obey" it. Radically.
The people who were involved the beginning of those CPMs did not envision CPM when they began. They were trying to start 1 church! They were trying to simplify the process of discipling people to remove all Christian cultural baggage and only teach obedience to the Word. When Western and Christian Cultural contexts were removed and simple obedience to the authority of the Bible was introduced, what we have been calling CPM began to happen....spontaneously. It is only now, in hindsight 20 years later, that we look at the "results" of Biblical Obedience and ask if it will "Work" here.
I am going to go out on a limb here and say we should do it whether it "Works" or not. We should return to Biblical Obedience and the Functional Authority of Scripture and we should Make Disciples and Teach them to Obey all things Christ Commanded. We should engage in Radical Biblical Obedience with the intention to disciple people.
After all, American Church leaders have been searching for what "works" for decades and trying all kinds of approaches and spending Billions of dollars doing it. The result: Check out this report that came out this week from George Barna.
http://www.barna.org/culture-articles/462-six-megathemes-emerge-from-2010
He lists 6 Megathemes that are emerging as the state of religious faith in the US at the present time:
1. The Christian Church is becoming less theologically literate
2. Christians are becoming more ingrown and less outreach-oriented
3. Growing numbers of people are less interested in spiritual principles and more desirous of learning pragmatic solutions for life
4. Among Christians, interest in participating in community action is escalating.
5. The postmodern insistence on tolerance is winning over the Christian Church.
6. The influence of Christianity on culture and individual lives is largely invisible.
This is the result of the American Church quest for What Works of the last 40 years.
I would propose that we stop our quest for the latest widget, and get back to radical Biblical Authority and Obedience. Regardless of the results, they can't be worse than the results we are getting right now!
3. The truth is that the beginnings of CPMs may be at the seed stage in the US already. I am aware of some work in certain areas, especially in California, that while perhaps not CPM yet, may be moving in that direction. Neil Cole's books and network may be moving in that direction as well.
So my answer is : Yes, I think it will Work in the US. But we must be driven, not by theories and models. We need to focus on what an Obedience based discipling process will look like in the "cultures" in the US and then leave the results to God.
Comments