On Leading Well

Category: Movements

  • Movements: What’s the Secret?

    I have observed that almost any discussion on genuine spiritual movements eventually surfaces the question: “So, what’s the secret?” People lean in, notebooks shift, texting thumbs pause.

    Not that I can say with certainty, but I can offer personal observation after hundreds of conversations with leaders of a few dozen countries over the past 20 years. For example:

    • The Canadian campus ministry saw a 50% increase in staff and student interns (from 120 to 180) last year. When I asked Mike, the director, what he attributed it to, he humbly shrugged his shoulders. Later, in another conversation, he casually referred to his personal habit of praying and fasting for 40 days each year.
    • Koreans serving in East Asia consistently saw spiritual movements grow in spite of having very limited financial resources, having to learn two new languages (Chinese and English), and enjoying very limited status in their host culture. In desperation, most teams spent every day of their first semester awakening before dawn to take 2×2 prayer walks around the campus coupled with frequent periods of extended fasting.
    • In April, staff and interns at Ohio University lead a very healthy, growing student-led movement. They devote one-half day per week in praying for the campus and the world.

    These represent just a few examples. I could go on and on and on. Scripture also records that almost every great leader who left an indelible mark for God’s Kingdom spent extended time in prayer and fasting. Moses, Daniel, David, Paul, Jesus, the leaders at Antioch, and many more.

    When faced with seemingly insurmountable barriers we might consider Jesus’ advice to his men: Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not drive it [a demon] out?” And He said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you. But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting. (Matthew 17:19-21)

    Question: What role does prayer and fasting play in my movement-launching strategy?

  • Student-led Movements Everywhere

    “Be still, and know that I am God.
    I will be exalted among the nations,
    I will be exalted in the earth!” – God, Psalm 46:10

    We are currently witnessing a resurgence of spiritually motivated student activism around the world. “God will accomplish His purposes,” our former pastor used to say, “with us if He may, without us if He must.” The longer Ann and I are involved in God’s global harvest, the easier it is to believe we are on the brink of seeing His Great Commission fulfilled.

    One of my many lame excuses for few recent blog posts has been extensive travel over the past two months. From Cape Town to Cairo, from LA to Canada, and from Hungary to Thailand, dozens of conversations with field staff and student leaders confirm that God is accomplishing His work at a seemingly accelerated rate.

    • Kristoff, a German student who attended the CM2007 missions conference in Korea last July, was convicted by those students sitting in the “no photos” section because they came from countries where they faced persecution. “We’re not risking anything,” he said. He has mobilized a prayer movement, calling fellow students to believe God together for gospel-resistant German campuses.

    • I recently attended a gathering in Hungary of about 500 Christians who minister throughout 19 countries in Eastern Europe and Russia. A majority of these teams saw between 5-20 students indicate decisions to follow Jesus Christ just last semester. Several of these locations have been notoriously hard soil.

    • In “closed” East Asia, one multinational team comprised of 4 staff members and 5 volunteers has seen God open up student-led ministries on 30 campuses in 4 cities. Please read that again and let it soak in. I asked Andy, the team leader, what his secret was. “Asking students to be in a prayer group or join a Bible study is not a challenge,” he replied. “We show them God’s big heart for the nations from day 1, then invite them to change their world. We’ve discovered that this way the students don’t think ‘Hey wait, I need a staff member to help me,’ or ‘I need permission to….’ They just go for it and start leading.”

    Lesson for us: History is moving toward a very clear end which culminates in the God of the Bible being glorified in every nation. Students have always been the lever that moves the world. Let’s get everyone we can think of out of the bleachers and onto the field.

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  • What Is A Movement? Part 2

    A couple of years ago a friend of mine asked: “If I were to parachute into a city where I could observe a true movement of God on a campus, where would you drop me and what would I see?” We discussed several potential locations in East Asia, then we realized we might be overlooking an obvious one staring up at us from the pages of Scripture.

    The movement at Antioch truly changed the known world. In just 10-15 years – only half a generation – key cities among four provinces of the Roman Empire (Galatia, Macedonia, Achaia and Asia) were “turned upside down.” Several of us sat down and began a long period of group study on this radical church-planting church. The highlights can be found in the New Testament record of the book of Acts, mainly between chapters 11-15. Many of the apostle Paul’s letters also illuminate the DNA flowing from this new missions-sending base.

    We asked ourselves two simple questions:
    1. What happened at Antioch?

    2. What principles can we take away?

    I’ll fill in the specifics in a later post.

    The conversation, though, has now become global. Many people have been asking the question, and here’s what we believe the old principles and new practices indicate as a working definition.

    Definition. A Campus Movement is where God is working supernaturally through a team of like-hearted people to Win, Build and Send toward fulfillment of the Great Commission. True spiritual movements cannot be created by men, but are founded by prayerful dependence upon God.

    Measurable results. Over time God’s grace would be increasingly evident in each of these behaviors:
    1. Connecting lost students to Jesus
    2. Life-changing discipleship
    3. Multiplying student leaders (who mobilize and mentor others to lead)
    4. Generation of local resources (vision, people, money, ideas, etc).

    The first two elements describe non-negotiable personal MINISTRY components that form the foundation of any healthy movement. Points three and four reflect the difference between ministries that gather and MOVEMENTS that reproduce.

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