The Insanity of Obedience

by Nik Ripken (pseudonym)

This is the sequel to The Insanity of God  by the same author and builds upon what the first book contains. This second work is more of a practical application of the truths derived from the research among persecuted Christians done in writing the first.  I will, as usual, summarize the book using a lot of quotes while following the basic structure of the book. By the time you finish reading this summary, I believe you will agree that it is a very important book to have in your library. Note: Underlining was done by me for emphasis.

Chapter One: Our Marching Orders

Whatever else the church takes on, it is broadly understood that both “going” and “making disciples” are essential and defining tasks. The church cannot be the church unless it is going and making disciples. [1. Ripken, Nik (2013-12-09). The Insanity of Obedience: Walking with Jesus in Tough Places (p. 1). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition]

In fact, it becomes clear that an intimate relationship with Jesus necessarily leads to a life of ministry and service and mission for all believers. God is a sending God. Repeatedly, He draws people close and then He sends them out. In the Gospels, we encounter this same pattern over and over again. [2. Ibid. p. 2.]

Jesus made it clear that this impending persecution was not merely a possibility; for those who would obey Him, persecution is a certainty. [3. Ibid. p. 3.]

Judging by what eventually happened to Jesus Himself, we come to understand that persecution and suffering and sacrifice are necessary parts of His ultimate strategy, even today. [4. Ibid. p. 5.]

Chapter Two: Where’s the Parachute?

As interesting as our interviewing work has been, the ultimate goal is more than simply learning about our brothers and sisters in Christ who live in other places, often defined by persecution. Through our research, we are trying to discern some answers to key missiological and theological questions. Those are big words for “how do we get off the couch, walking and working with God, especially in the tough places?” We know that God’s purpose is to extend an invitation of grace to the entire world, but we are intrigued with the significant role believers play in that divine purpose. We are seeking to discern how exactly human beings can come along with God and partner wisely in His work. [5. Ibid., p.14.]

Chapter Three: Did I Sleep through this Class in Seminary?

It was a startling thought for me. From my perspective, persecution was something exceptional, unusual, out of the ordinary. From my perspective, persecution was a problem, and it was something to be avoided. From the perspective of my pastor friend in Russia, however, persecution was not exceptional at all. It was usual. It was ordinary. Persecution was simply to be expected for followers of Jesus. And God’s ability to intervene and use persecution for His purposes was expected as well. [6. Ibid., p.20.]

Most people simply assume that their view of the world is exactly the way the world is. Perhaps that perspective is simply part of the human condition. If, for example, we happen to live in a part of the world where overt persecution of believers is rare, then we assume persecution is rare. This assumption seems obvious and clear. Many of our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world, however, have a very different point of view. One of the great struggles for followers of Jesus is to develop and embrace a biblical worldview which, in most cases, is radically different than the worldview we already have. Nowhere is this struggle more acute than when it comes to persecution. [7. Ibid., p.21.]

According to Paul Marshall of Freedom House, 80 percent of the world’s believers who are practicing their faith live in persecution. 3 Before offering this shocking statistic, Marshall goes to great lengths to define what he means by “believers.” It turns out that he is talking about people who would not only use the word “Christian” to define themselves, but specifically about people who have a genuine relationship with Jesus. Marshall is talking about people who consider themselves to be “born again,” people for whom faith in Jesus is formative in life. Using that definition of a believer, Marshall claims that 80 percent of the world’s believers live in persecution. If his claim is even close to the truth, then we are compelled to rethink our definition of “normal.” [8. Ibid., pp.21-22.]

Generally speaking, persecution increases as people respond more and more to the activity of God, which is precisely what we find happening in the book of Acts. It is also what we find happening in many parts of the world today. Quite simply, as people come into relationship with Jesus, persecution follows. Our interviews suggest that access to the gospel, by itself, is not a direct correlate of increased persecution. The clearest predictor of persecution is response to the gospel. [9. Ibid., p.22.]

This is frightening in light of the relative absence of persecution in the United States. The author lists four responses to persecution that start at an immature level and proceed to the highest level of maturity.

1. God, save us!
2. God, judge them!
3. God, forgive them!
4. God, glorify your name!

In sum, persecution is not necessarily good or bad; it simply is. How believers respond to persecution gives it its value, and that response also determines whether or not persecution leads to a meaningful result. One does not run away from persecution due to fear, nor does one run toward persecution due to pride or psychological imbalance. Believers also understand that persecution, when it comes, needs to come for the right reasons. By way of illustration, the Twelve in Matthew 10 were assured of persecution, but they were also assured that persecution would come because they were bearing bold witnesses to Jesus, and not because of any lesser cause. As we noted before, the easiest way to avoid persecution is to be silent with our faith, but that is not a choice that we can make without denying Jesus’ hold on our lives. So we are left with a clear choice: we can be faithful to our calling and deal with the persecution that will inevitably come or we can avoid persecution by ignoring or disobeying Jesus’ instructions to go and make disciples. Quite simply, obedience will result in persecution. Persecution can be avoided only if we are disobedient and we fail to cross the street or cross the oceans. The choice is frightening in its clarity. At the same time, the choice is one that every believer must make. The hope that we can somehow be obedient and avoid persecution is a naïve and misplaced hope. [10. Ibid., pp. 27-28.]

As we struggled to understand the persecutors and persecution, we were led to a greater comprehension of the nature of good and evil. Representing the forces of evil, Satan strives to deny entire people groups and nations access to Jesus. It became clear in our interviews that the ultimate goal of the persecutors is always to deny people access to Jesus, and our interviews indicated that persecutors would do whatever was necessary to reach that goal. Persecutors seek to deny human beings the two great spiritual opportunities: first, access to Jesus and, second, opportunity for witness. [11. Ibid., pp. 28-29.]

When we witness to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we identify with those in chains. When we refuse to witness, we identify with those who place the chains on followers of Jesus. [12. Ibid. p.29.]

Being a witness for Jesus has little to do with political freedom. On the contrary, our willingness to witness has everything to do with obedience and courage. [13. Ibid., p.30.]

The author lists five standard Western response to persecution.

1. We want persecution to stop.
2. We want to rescue the persecuted.
3. We desire for the persecutors to be punished.
4. We tend to believe that Western forms of democracy and civil rights will usher in the kingdom of God.
5. We try to raise financial support in order to rescue Christian workers from persecution.

Significantly, however, all five of these responses fail on biblical grounds. First, Jesus has clearly told us that persecution is normal and expected. The only way to stop persecution, in fact, is to be disobedient to His call. [14. Ibid., p.32.]

Persecuted believers discovered that the best way to deal with persecutors and to stop their persecution was to pray and witness so that their persecutors would become brothers and sisters in Christ! [15. Ibid., p.33.]

Chapter Four: Defining the Conversation

Most of the peoples of the earth who have little or no access to Jesus essentially live in an Old Testament environment. Because they do not currently have access to Jesus, they are already suffering! These people are already living under oppressive governments. [16. Ibid., p.37.]

This chapter defines a number of key terms used by the author and other missiologists. I will not repeat them. You should get the book and read it for yourself.

Chapter Five: The Need for Willing and Tough Workers

In response to Jesus’ command to share His grace with the whole world, many believers have obeyed His initial command to “Go.” As we will see later in our study, “going” is easier than “staying.” Often, the challenge is not merely to go, but to develop a viable long-term Christlike presence among those who have yet to hear the gospel clearly. What is required of us is not a casual or temporary response to Christ’s command, but a radical lifelong commitment. The result of that kind of commitment is the gospel taking root deeply within the host culture, wherever it may reside. [17. Ibid., pp. 47-48.]

Our task remains to provide access to Jesus to all men and women, boys and girls from every people group. This access includes the opportunity to hear the gospel, to understand, to believe, to be baptized, and to be gathered into house churches. If we expect (or even demand) a spiritual harvest, then we will be inclined to gravitate toward places where response to the gospel is more likely or to places where response is already happening. At the same time, we will likely avoid places where response to the gospel is less likely. These tendencies will clearly result in the unengaged and unreached people remaining unengaged and unreached. Astoundingly, the vast majority of overseas workers today reside in environments which are already defined as “Christian” and therefore have a significant believing witness. [18. Ibid., pp.48-49.]

Obviously, we understand that God can work in any setting, but sometimes we have trouble figuring out exactly how that can happen. Sometimes workers simply take what they know and have gathered among themselves through two thousand years of Christian history and try to superimpose those traditions into a new, host environment. That approach is typically ineffective, and it can lead to profound frustration. [19. Ibid., p.51.]

One of our professors was wise in his counsel: “Don’t be surprised when unreached people act like unreached people!” Discovering new ways, or returning to a more oral, biblical way, of “doing church” is mandatory in unreached settings, and that is something most believers and sending bodies find extremely difficult. How can we “do church” in a setting where “church” will look completely different? [20. Ibid., p.51.]

Because this struggle is so difficult, churches, workers, and agencies tend to focus on “Christian” areas and more responsive countries where security concerns are not quite as acute. [21. Ibid., p.54.]

Chapter Six: Cleaning Out the Clutter

The need for the lost to hear the good news always exceeds the needs of the witnesser. [22. Ibid., p.64.]

When the lost are the focus, those who are sent out and those who are sending live in harmony committed to the shared task. Sending bodies and agencies impact the lost by enabling, calling out, sending out, and nurturing workers. Workers enable and reinforce the sender’s ability to send as they report what God is doing at the edge of lostness. The ministry assignment shapes decisions as everyone involved strives to address the needs of the lost. The nature of the task determines the focus. [23. Ibid., p.65.]

Chapter Seven: Lies, Lies, and More Lies

In this chapter the author debunks several lies that hold people back from becoming Great Co-missionaries either at home or abroad.

Your fear is the greatest tool you will ever give to Satan. Overcoming your fear is your greatest tool against Satan. [24. Ibid., p.91.]

Believers cannot always choose safety, but they can always choose obedience. [25. Ibid., p.92.]

Chapter Eight: Staying Put

Our initial tentative conclusion has now become a rock-solid conviction: Followers of Jesus do not need to justify their presence in areas where Christ is not known. They need simply to be obedient. This chapter is a brief review of the biblical rationale for continuing to focus on people groups that are, seemingly, not responsive and for remaining in ministry environments which constitute significant risk to national and expatriate believers.[26. Ibid., p.95.]

Especially because of our propensity to count heads and record numbers, we are often prone to choose places of service that are more responsive. While this kind of choice may make good sense to our sending entities, it may not reflect biblical obedience. It is entirely possible— more than this, it is quite likely— that God would have His messengers stay among the dangerously unreached despite our struggle to justify such ineffective and unproductive commitments.[27. Ibid., p.97.]

One should always seek godly counsel. A decision about when to enter or exit a people group is a “family decision,” done within the Body of Christ. Only God could tell Paul, and those traveling with him, when to stay and when to leave. Only God can tell us the same thing today.[28. Ibid., p.100.]

Chapter Nine: The Persecutors

Historically, the most common persecutor of believers is the State. In this situation, persecution is led or sanctioned by the government. We refer to it here as top-down persecution. Persecution occurs when the State perceives the church (or individual believers) as a threat to order, control, or its own existence. When this kind of persecution is dominant, it originates from outside the family. In fact, in this scenario of persecution, the family and the community will, in many cases, provide a measure of protection for believers, especially if they are family members. The persecution comes from “the outside.” In this first category, persecution is a concern of the government, and even non-believing individuals will not generally participate in the oppression of believers.[29. Ibid., pp.105-106.]

In the 1960s, the Chinese government wrote in a secret “white paper” concerning faith in China: “The church in China has grown too large and too deep; we cannot kill it. We have determined to give the church properties, buildings, seminaries, and denominational headquarters so as to make the church rich. Once we do that, we will be more successful in controlling the church.” I saw an English translation of this white paper, given by a believer inside the government to a friend. This is a prophetic and hard word for the church in the West today! We have done to ourselves what the State would attempt to do if we were, indeed, a threat to the government. Self-persecution is normally subtler and more effective than what can be imposed from the outside![30. Ibid., pp.108-109.]

This is essentially what happened to the church in the West when Rome legalized Christianity and made it the state religion.

The second type of persecution once again involves the State. In this case, however, an “ideological partner” joins the State. Often, surprisingly, this ideological partner is a religious institution that cooperates with the government. This ideological partner can be a mosque, temple, synagogue or, sadly, a historical “Christian” church. One of the tragedies of Christian history is that Christian institutions are significant persecutors of believers. Historically, the church is the fourth largest persecutor of the church![31. Ibid., p.109.]

The third type of persecutor involves both the State and an ideological partner. In this case, however, a third human entity is the primary persecutor: the extended family and the basic structures of society.[32. Ibid., p.110.]

In top-down persecution, there might be decades to hear, to understand, to believe, and to be baptized in Jesus. But in this third kind of persecution, that length of time will not be possible. In fact, family members and neighbors will harm their own children and blood relatives while reporting believers to the authorities immediately. They often lead the persecution themselves. We call this kind of persecution bottom-up persecution. This is the most effective and devastating of all the forms of persecution.[33. Ibid., p.111.]

We are inclined to look at oppressive situations and conclude believers in those settings are simply not free to share their faith. But believers in persecution around the world have a different view of things. They believe they are always free to share, even if the consequences are devastating. The persecutors will, in fact, determine the negative consequences of witness, but the persecutors never determine the believers’ freedom to share nor the harvest which will follow. Believers will simply not give their persecutors that power![34. Ibid., p.114.]

Chapter Ten: God’s Spirit in Present Active Tense Today

It can be argued that all events in the Bible, from Genesis 1 through Acts 1 are located in history as taken place before Pentecost and the birth of scores of house churches. Therefore all of this biblical history was pre-Pentecost, before the coming of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2. Pre-Pentecost is the norm for millions of lost souls today. They have never heard of the first Pentecost in Acts 2 and they certainly have never experienced such an outpouring of God’s Spirit themselves.[35. Ibid., p.118.]

The theological emphasis in this pre-Pentecost environment will invariably focus on the first coming of Jesus. At this point especially, it is essential for a new believer to understand both why Jesus came and what He came to accomplish.[36. Ibid., pp.122-123.]

Since we in the West are moving more and more toward a post-Christian environment, we cannot assume our new converts know much at all about the Bible; so, we will need to treat things as a pre-Pentecost environment, too.

Within church planting movements, it is impossible to wait for formal, literate training to happen; leaders simply rise from within the gathered community. These leaders receive their training as they serve or they receive their training when they are arrested and imprisoned for the sharing of their faith. They are trained! Yet they are trained inside the local church and for the movements of God.[36. Ibid., p.125.]

Furthermore, buildings are not necessary; in fact, usually buildings are seen as a hindrance. Constructing buildings requires too much time and money. Buildings are dangerous because they allow the persecutors to locate most of the believers at a set place and at a set time. In a sense, buildings become a kind of “one-stop shopping” for those opposed to Jesus, His gospel, and His followers.[37. Ibid., p.125.]

For that reason, these church planting movements are usually “house movements.” In many places the size of the house determines the size of the church. Or the level of persecution determines the size of the house church.[38. Ibid., p.126.]

Today, at least in the West, our world might be described as a post-Pentecost world. What does the church look like more than two thousand years after the Pentecost event described in Acts 2? Perhaps the following description is overstated, but the overstatement might be necessary to get our attention. While the gathered group in the days of Pentecost emphasized the telling of the story, the church in our post-Pentecost world focuses on maintaining the organization.[39. p.127]

Buildings, staff, and denominational identity are extremely important in much of the post-Pentecost world, and significant resources are committed to building new buildings, maintaining those buildings, and servicing debt required to build those buildings. The majority of a church’s funds are spent on the ninety-nine sheep already found, while much less is spent in an effort to reach that one lost sheep. Training is often based on the transfer of information and may have little to do with character formation.[40. p.127]

In our experience, moving from a post-Pentecost to a pre-Pentecost world felt like getting on an airplane in a New Testament world and landing in an Old Testament world! Little in the post-Pentecost world prepares us to go to pre-Pentecost.[41. p.129]

What is most needed in a pre-Pentecost world is an incarnational witness. What these new believers need to know is what the Bible says and who Jesus is. They need a model that is willing to say, “Watch my life and I will show you how a follower of Jesus lives and how a follower of Jesus dies.”

Those basic needs dictate the role of the worker. It is this simple. A worker in pre-Pentecost may be more defined by what they leave behind in post-Pentecost than by what they take with them to pre-Pentecost. In pre-Pentecost, entry strategies are of vast importance as we decide where to go next.[42. pp.129-130]

I, Pete, believe that this is the kind of witness we need in the West today. The author next discusses the impact of persecution in the pre- and post-Pentecostal worlds. He concludes:

In every movement of the story and in every part of this analogy, whether we find ourselves in a pre-Pentecost, Pentecost, or post-Pentecost setting, the needs of the lost carry more weight than the needs of the witnesser. This selfless approach to ministry is not our normal way of living or serving.[43. pp.133-134]

We never want to cheat new believers out of Pentecost, moving them directly from pre-Pentecost to post-Pentecost and taking them directly to the slice of religious history in which Westerners are most familiar and most comfortable.[44. p.135]

Chapter Eleven: Supernatural Conversions through Western Eyes

In talking with more than 250 MBBs [Muslim Background Believers – See note below.], we discovered that fewer than 10 percent of them had ever met a Western worker or “outside” believer before coming to faith in Jesus. To put it another way, more than 90 percent of these followers of Jesus had come to faith without the help of an outsider or a believer from another culture. Our earlier assumptions had elevated the role of the Western worker; our interviews humbled us in suggesting how small the worker’s role actually was.[45. p.138]

Note: Muslim Background Believers are followers of Jesus who live in (or who have come out of) a predominantly Muslim context.[46. p.45]

Encountering the same pattern so often, we were driven to find some meaningful explanations. Several key insights quickly came to the surface. First, we realized (and we were compelled to admit) that believers in the West typically fear persecution; even more, they tend to avoid persecution at any cost. It dawned on us that God might be hesitant to put Western believers in the lives of new believers who would, in all likelihood, live with severe persecution daily. Perhaps believers from the West are not especially well suited to help believers deal with life in settings where persecution would be common. It would be likely that Western believers would instill fear in new believers in pre-Pentecost settings. Second, we realized the rather obvious truth that God is not waiting on Western workers to reach the peoples of the world![47. p.138]

The author asks the relevant question as to just how are Muslims coming to Christ, if it is almost always without the aid of Western workers. His research teaches that they come through the following.

1. Dreams and Visions. Seekers usually turn to the mosque after having dreams and visions that are leading to Christ, but when no satisfactory explanation is given, they seldom go back, turning to other sources of information, such as other Christians when they can find them.
2. Encounters with the Bible. The author gives numerous examples of different ways Muslims have come into possession of Bibles. Typically they read it through several times before ever coming to faith in Christ, making them very biblically literate at conversion. Sadly, women are left in the dark quite often, since most of them are illiterate and have no one to share the Gospel with them after receiving dreams and visions. This is something that needs to be addressed.
3. Encounters with “In-culture” or “Near-culture” Believers. These are Spirit orchestrated encounters with believers who are able to guide them to receiving the gospel.

The author next shows how different the Spirit of God reaches Hindu Background Believers, highlighting the principle that what works in one culture may not have any success in another. HBBs are usually won through demonstration of miracles and healings that accompany gospel presentations, resulting in new believers who have little or no knowledge of the Scriptures.

Chapter Twelve: Working Smarter, Not Harder

Most Americans do not know what it means to truly belong to community. We are typically individualistic in our worldview. In order to emphasize the point, let me offer an observation: Communal peoples, which include most of the peoples of the earth, would rather go to hell with their families than go to heaven by themselves![48. p.160]

Although salvations often happen by a direct intervention of God’s Spirit, churches are never planted without the input of existing Christians.

Stated boldly, we find no evidence of churches being planted without human believers working in direct partnership with God. As believers, we are to be partners with God in church planting. That is God’s choice. As believers, our choice is in determining whether we will partner with God wisely or unwisely. In thinking about this divine-human partnership, we have identified some significant barriers and challenges. In our interviews, four main barriers came to the surface.[49. pp.161-162]

1. An Addiction to Literacy. Since many women (sisters, wives, mothers, and daughters) are illiterate, often male family members do not even bother to share the Gospel with them! If we only communicate the Gospel through written means, vast groups of people will be left out.
2. Specific Issues Related to Males. An example is when a man waits for his father to die before declaring his faith in Christ.
3. Specific Issues Related to Females. Male MBBs must learn how to share their faith with their wives instead of simply declaring that they are now believers, if the wives’ faith is to be real.
4. The Presence of Old Line Churches in Muslim Areas. Often these churches predate the arrival of Muslims, but they exist as an ineffective minority. They often persecute new MBBs in order to protest their safety as a minority.

Chapter Thirteen: More Barriers

In simplest form, the question that we are asking is this: How can we, in environments defined by persecution, get to multigenerational, reproducing house churches?[50. p.175]

The author calls such a situation a church planting movement or a CPM. The author list quite a number of barriers to producing a CPM and gives some possible solutions. There are too many to list here.

Chapter Fourteen: An Historical Case Study – Persecution and Its Aftermath

This is one of the most interesting chapters which delineates the differences in how persecution affected  the church in the former Soviet Union and Communist China. It gives reasons why the church declined in the USSR but is growing exponentially in China. The insights may surprise you. They certainly encouraged me that we at Life Community Network are on the right track when persecution hits America.

Chapter Fifteen: How to Deal with Judas

The author makes several points about betrayal.

1. Judas will be found in the inner circle of the church.
2. Judas will grow up within the movement and not be imported from outside.
3. God can help us deal with Judas ourselves and not send him to someone else.
4. We can learn to recognize Judas quickly.
5. We can be aware that Judas often has money issues.
6. Christ will be revealed if we deal properly with Judas.

Chapter Sixteen: Bring on the Water

This chapter discusses in detail the importance of water baptism without having any particular doctrinal axe to grind. It is very good.

What matters most for our present discussion is to realize how new believers in contexts of persecution experience and understand baptism.[51. p.205]

Several salient points are mentioned, and I list two of them below which seem relevant to churches that practice the priesthood of the believer.

…When Western workers or outsiders are involved in baptisms, persecution tends to increase dramatically. The best model is for baptism to happen within an in-culture community with as little outside involvement as possible. …baptism is at its biblical best when an in-culture or near-culture believer baptizes another believer. Again, minimal involvement of Western workers or other outsiders is ideal.[52. p.208]

What matters most is the deeper meaning of what is happening. This new believer will understand that he or she is being baptized into Christ, and being baptized into a new Body of believers. Baptism is a profound expression of belonging, and it is a clear picture of a new family. Especially within contexts of persecution and suffering, it is simply impossible to overstate the power of this image and the meaning that it conveys… Whatever we might take baptism to mean, believers in contexts of persecution and suffering see it primarily as a radical identification with Jesus and a profoundly important identification with the community of faith.[53. pp.208-209]

Chapter Seventeen: “I Have Come Home!”

Simply stated, Islam generally equates baptism with conversion. From the perspective of Islam, to be baptized is to be saved. A repeated emphasis throughout our interviews with MBBs was the intensification of persecution immediately following the believer’s baptism. Up to that point, it was not unusual for a “seeker” to be allowed to study the Bible, listen to Christian radio programming, attend a CBB church (if welcomed), and even to meet regularly and openly with Western workers. All of these behaviors can be explained as a desire to understand Christianity for debating purposes… For Islam, baptism is the point of no return. Though Western believers might be repelled by such an image, it seems that Islam (perhaps more than the Western church itself) has truly grasped the weight and significance of baptism![54. p.214]

Several great points are made in this chapter about the proper way to baptize in terms of its being secret or not or done at the hands of a Westerner or not. I will leave it to you to read this section for yourself. Here is one last quote on the subject.

Baptism is at the heart of church planting in environments framed by violence and persecution, especially in places where faith is emerging. At its heart, baptism is the midwife to the emerging church. What we suggest here is a revealing and wonderful insight: when baptism is truly New Testament and culturally sensitive, it will always leave a church behind.[55. pp.226-227]

Chapter Eighteen: Wise Servants, Tough Places

Relationship Building Is Paramount

This first point applies directly to being effective in here in the United States.

The first observation we would make is that it is not enough for lost people to be the focus of Western workers. As good as that sounds, it is essential to go beyond that. Lost people must not be merely the focus of Western workers; instead, lost people must become their family.[56. pp.231-232]

Keep Evangelism Central

Often, Western workers will evangelize just long enough (often until ten or fifteen believers emerge) until they have a small group to “pastor.” Once enough believers emerge to constitute a flock to pastor, the overseas worker ceases to keep evangelism central.[57. p.235]

Isn’t this how we work here in the United States? Evangelism is replaced by church management, and we train the flock to ignore the lost.

Chapter Nineteen: Our Faces Before God

It is axiomatic to point out that we cannot bring into existence what we do not already know and do ourselves. It is simply not possible to model what we have not yet experienced.[58. p.239]

If we want to see people coming to Christ in our churches, leaders must model this ministry to the flock. Most of this chapter is devoted to principles for building healthy ministry teams.

Chapter Twenty: Jesus and Money

This chapter has some good guidelines for keeping a kingdom focus and using good money management principles.

The goal is to always seek to help local believers to be financially independent from outsiders.[59. p. 247]

One of the most lasting ideas that I personally derived from this chapter is how one missionary grew to be very loved because he refused to be independent from the people he served. When he needed money to fly home for a funeral, he asked the people of his community for a loan instead of applying to his sending agency. They loved him for it and said, “He needs us!” This is a word to the wise: do not operate as if the people you serve cannot play a huge role in the work of the ministry. You will unwittingly alienate them. This happens all the time in our consumer culture where we expect paid professionals to do the work, while the rest of us spectate.

Chapter Twenty-One: Being Midwife to the Body of Christ

This is a great chapter on how to model our faith to unbelievers outside of a typical church setting. It is about being incarnational in our communities.

Chapter Twenty-Two: Recognizing and Equipping Local Leaders

Candidly, this chapter will suggest that those who hope to see a movement of God among an unreached people group will intentionally choose who to evangelize and who to disciple. In fact, intentionality must be central in both evangelism and discipleship.[60. p.264]

Since we in the West are not currently enduring persecution, I suggest we apply the following principles to growing the Body of Christ in our own context, especially our neighborhoods, which is the focus of Life Community Network.

First, believing leaders in persecution will want to understand that evangelism is their most effective survival tool.[61. p.264]

Second, the goal of life together in a believing community is just that: life together. As important as the conversion of the individual is (we have already noted the norm in persecution is to be a midwife to families embracing Jesus altogether), the ultimate goal is community.[62. p.265]

Third, betrayal will come. Fourth, discipleship requires large investments of time to help shape others in their devotion to Christ and his mission.

How many people do you want to lead to Christ if they all come and live with you in your personal space? Yet this kind of intimate and close relationship is what we see as Jesus walked with and worked with His followers. Most Western-based discipleship programs are essentially information transfer. Increasingly, we think we can disciple someone through the Internet. Discipleship in settings of persecution is based on relationship. New believers are asked how they are treating their wife and their children. New believers are asked if they are sharing their faith. New believers are asked about their use of money and about their time on the Internet. In the Western world, a believer can go to a denominational college and get multiple degrees from a seminary and never be asked these kinds of questions! Discipleship is about building character, not simply transferring information.[63. p.267]

The fifth point is that we must multiply our ministries by multiplying leaders. The remainder of the chapter contains a great deal of important and useful information.

Chapter Twenty-Three: If the Resurrection Is True, This Changes Everything

We traveled the world to figure out if God really is God. We wanted to discern for ourselves if Jesus really is who He says He is. We wanted to know if the stories of the Bible were simply old stories or if those stories described the living, active, and ongoing activity of God. We wanted to know for ourselves if this life with Christ is real.[64. p.278]

Looking back now, I understand that one of the most accurate ways to detect and measure the activity of God is to note the amount of opposition that is present. The stronger the persecution, the more significant the spiritual vitality of the believers.[65. p. 280]

This chapter is packed with true stories of victorious living in the midst of persecution and gives many principles that the author derived from his years of research among persecuted peoples.

Chapter Twenty-Four: Our Marching Orders

The short chapter recaps the book. I hope this summary is helpful and inspires you to read the book for yourself. It is both challenging and hopeful. It gives us a reason to be excited about whatever awaits us in the West. No matter what, Jesus is Lord and his people will shine.