What do you do when expectations about ministry don’t line up with on-the-ground results?
We moved overseas more than two decades ago to take the gospel to people who had very little access to it. When we arrived, my wife and I, along with our colleagues, devoted ourselves to learning the local language. We earnestly desired that those we lived among would understand who Christ is according to the Bible. We spent thousands of hours studying grammar, learning new vocabulary, and seeking to understand the local culture, since all this knowledge would help us faithfully transmit foundational truths that are difficult to understand and communicate to those who have never heard them before.
By the end of our first year, our language ability surpassed that of our team leaders — but not because we were any more talented in language than they were. Rather, they were operating on certain assumptions about church-planting ministry that shaped their own language learning. They believed that very soon — hopefully within two or three years — many thousands of local people would embrace the gospel and start hundreds of churches. All of us expats could then leave to start another movement of disciples and churches among another unreached people.
What Are We Doing Wrong?
What was the source of this prediction about the pace and results of our work? We were told that rapidly advancing movements are the expected result in the “new paradigm” of twenty-first-century missions. It was suggested that, by following reverse-engineered methods, hundreds of churches could be planted with tens of thousands of new Christians in as little as six months.
When the pace and fruit of our work didn’t meet expectations, we began to wonder what we were doing wrong. We had been taught that if our approach didn’t lead to a church-planting movement, then we should change what we’re doing. But maybe, we thought, some ministry locations are more difficult, some peoples more resistant, some mission fields harder than others? An influential movement leader told us from the stage at a worldwide leader’s meeting that such is not the case. “There is no hard ground,” he said. That left one other possibility: we were the problem.
One leader suggested to me in a private conversation that we should consider moving aside to let a well-known movement practitioner take the lead. Many faithful gospel workers in our country became discouraged, even wondering whether they were wasting their lives by continuing to proclaim the gospel in this place.
Modern Revivalism
Students of church history may recognize similarities between these conversations and some from the past. During the Great Awakenings in North America and Britain, many Christians wanted to see a revival in their hometown. At first, as Iain Murray notes, revivals were widely viewed as extraordinary acts of God, whereby many more souls than normal became Christians (Revival and Revivalism, 374). Revivals were unpredictable and unpromised. But by 1830, some Christian ministers were experimenting with different methods to bring revival.
Soon, “revivalists,” as they became known, believed they had figured out how to “originate and promote” revivals (375). Their ideas spread like wildfire among pastors and church members. “Follow our methods,” they promised, “and any church can see a revival.” The only thing preventing revival was the unwillingness of ministers to promote them. What was formerly unpredictable was now planned; what was unsure was promised. Ministers began to announce beforehand when revivals would take place.
Contrarily, “old guard” pastors were more convinced than ever that whatever true fruit of repentance they witnessed was the inscrutable work of God. While revivalists were tweaking their innovative methods, veteran pastors continued laboring in the ordinary means of ministry: weekly worship services, reading and preaching the Scriptures, prayer, Christian fellowship, singing hymns, and observing the ordinances. Though their methods remained stable, the fruit sometimes increased, sometimes decreased — suggesting to them that God was giving the growth however he saw fit (1 Corinthians 3:7).
Unfounded Promises
Today, many movement manuals begin with incredible “success stories.” One book tells how one man started two hundred churches within three months of beginning his ministry. Before ten years had passed, he reported 1.7 million new Christians and 158,000 new churches. To reports like these, we should all say, “Praise God — may it be so!” But the subtitle of this same book makes a disconcerting promise: “How it can happen in your community!”
Does the Bible promise that fast-growing church-planting movements will happen in your community if only you use the right methods? Be cautious of any training that assures you what God will do in the world — especially as it relates to the conversion of souls. We can only claim promises God has already made in the Bible. The great hymn writer Isaac Watts, who witnessed amazing revivals, cautioned ministers against depending upon them. Extraordinary works of God “are rare instances, and bestowed by the Spirit of God in so sovereign and arbitrary a manner, according to the secret counsels of his own wisdom, that no particular Christian hath any sure ground to expect them” (Revival and Revivalism, 385).
Only God can give new life in conversion and growth as Christ’s disciples. As the Bible teaches, we get to play an instrumental role in faithfully witnessing to the promise of redemption in Christ. We hope for and praise God whenever anyone places their faith in Christ. But we should be wary of predicting specific results or building our ministries on unfounded promises.
Unnecessary Discouragement
What about the pace of gospel expansion? The early church grew from thousands of followers in the first century to millions in just a few hundred years. Historian Rodney Stark estimates that the early church grew at a rate of about 40 percent per decade before trailing off (The Rise of Christianity, 6). Looking back now, most Christians and historians would consider this growth an extraordinary work of God, yet it is actually a much slower pace than that advocated by movement proponents today.
At 40 percent per decade, a house church of ten Christians would become eleven over three years’ time. Doing some quick math, the population of the Christian church in the last two decades where I live in central Asia has grown three times faster than the early church! Yet instead of celebrating this incredible work of God, some Christians are discouraged because they’ve heard that churches that don’t start a new church every six months are unhealthy.
Harvests follow faithful work. For example, the increase of Christians we see in Iran today was built on two hundred years of hard labor by Christians who patiently prayed, taught the Scriptures, and loved resistant people while they waited for them to come into the kingdom of God. We must not give up that groundbreaking work because we aren’t seeing the harvest others are experiencing. When God desires to have mercy on a sinful nation, he sends his people to labor, pray, and teach there persistently. Sometimes, we are those people who labor during generations of slow gospel expansion.
May we be faithful and encouraged, regardless of pace! The gates of hell cannot withstand the persistent proclamation of the gospel. If we will persevere in proclaiming Christ and praying for a people over years, decades, and even generations, then God’s Spirit is likely preparing them for something special pertaining to salvation. As we faithfully pursue biblical ministry, we can patiently celebrate what God is actually doing among us. Otherwise, we risk dissatisfaction during the day of small things.
Our Calling: Faithfulness
Ultimately, lack of response and slow growth are not our enemies. Unfaithfulness is. And when we are being faithful, the pace of growth is not our concern (John 21:22).
Lack of response should lead us to plead for God to work in our midst. But there is no biblical reason for faithful gospel workers to be discouraged by normal responses to the gospel. The same apostle who said, “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22) also emphasized that our work is to ensure generations of faithfulness (1 Timothy 2:2).
Christian friend, our faithfulness will be found as we devote ourselves to Christ — first for our own transformation and then for the teaching of Christ to others (1 Timothy 4:16). Before you commit to build a ministry that relies on quick results, ask whether Scripture commends that pursuit. Before adopting new methods in your ministry, ask whether you are committed to the ordinary methods outlined in Scripture, such as prayer, Bible study, faithful proclamation, and church membership. By these, God will build his kingdom.
So, how should we think of the pace and predictability of the spread of the gospel in missionary work today? We should strongly desire to see God work extraordinarily in the lives and hearts of those who hear the gospel from us. We should long for the same kinds of explosive increase among those we serve as we read of in the book of Acts. We should sincerely desire all people to hear the gospel and turn to Christ before it is too late (1 Timothy 2:4).
At the same time, we should give ourselves to the methods we observe in the Bible, trusting God with whatever growth he gives.
