South Asia Team Is Back!

Many of you have asked me about the the team that went to S. Asia over the break to do a CP training. I look forward to seeing them in person to hear the incredible stories of how God used them to equip the local believers there. Until then, I thoroughly enjoyed this detailed update from my friend Jon Dorris, who accompanied the team as a wonderful “Spiritual Father” & guide. I trust the testimonies will encourage you also…

REMINDER: the unique thing about this team & this trip is that God spoke directly to each person involved. They believed BIG things from the Lord, and had great faith to pursue what they sensed Him speaking to them. They arranged and organized this trip entirely on their own. (Yes, a group of twenty somethings!) From raising over $25,000, to hosting info sessions, making travel arrangements, & conducting a Church Planting Training for 41 locals they have proven that everyday believers CAN hear God’s voice, step out in faith, and see incredible Kingdom Growth as a result. We truly believe this trip has sent a message to other young people throughout the country that you don’t need a big “missions organization”, huge budget, already established presence, etc. to see unreached peoples come to Christ!

Update from Jon: (edited for the protection of the locals in the closed country)

North INDIA Mission Trip
REPORT

December 27, 2010 – January 15, 2011

Greetings Family & Friends 1-18-11,

The MISSION
For the last time, before starting the long journey back to America, I stood on the roof of the place where we had been staying, peering across the border which lay less than 10 feet in front of me. While looking into this nation that I had been praying for over the last 8 years, I was thanking God (again) for the incredible privilege that our Team had in spending the last 9 days training the 41 young leaders. They would now go back into their country, armed and envisioned with specific God-given plans to powerfully and lovingly make disciples for Jesus Christ resulting in the creation of church planting movements. Ironically, even though this nation now stood just 10 feet away, God has yet to give me permission to enter it. (To protect these 41 on fire young leaders we will leave this nation undisclosed.)
A few days earlier one of the 41 saw a vision that so appropriately describes what is going to happen (God-willing). She saw the young people bringing revival to her nation, in the form of multiplying candles on a cake spreading the fire of intimacy with God.

The TEAM
Like a proud Papa, I marveled at how well our team of 6 college students conducted this mission. They were the primary ones to lead and conduct this CPx Training (Church Planting experience). All I did was simply fill in the gaps and help them navigate their way through the vast country. They did such a wonderful job of imparting to the 41 all that they had learned and experienced in their church planting and disciple-making experiences at the University of Texas. Highlights of their impartations: The loving Father heart of God; Hearing God’s voice; Experiencing the Presence of God through creative prophetic worship; Team building; Treasure hunting – prophetic – healing Evangelism; Disciple-making, Church planting; and much more.
Our Team wonderfully maintained the John 17 love and unity, which powerfully facilitates the Presence of God. Our daily Team worship times astounded all of us. The Presence of God uniquely flowed among us each day during the Team worship times. Many times one or more members of the Team began getting various respiratory ailments, mainly due to the nasty air pollution, BUT very quickly God’s healing would usually manifest. I wish I could say it was every time, but some symptoms persisted a few days.  Once, during our Team worship times, while we were all praying for another Team member I got instantly healed of a several hour old soar throat. These healings became so common among us on a daily basis, that we lived in this awesome state of joy constantly. Laughter was commonplace. We then would take all this into the larger morning worship times with the 41 trainees. To God be all the glory. He is the Healer, not us.

TESTIMONIES from the 41
1. One of the 41, which we will call “The great Dancer”, during a corporate worship time started crying after a sister laid hands on him and prayed, resulting in him experiencing the Presence of God for the first time in his life. He then went into a vision (for the 1st time) and saw a Light, then saw Jesus with His outstretched arms beckoning him to come to Him (Jesus). He then felt Jesus hug him.
2. One of the 41 laid his hand on his tumor on his chest during a corporate creative worship time, and felt the tumor continue to shrink during the entire worship time. This radically revolutionized his relationship with Jesus Christ.
(After forming the 41 into small home church groups for the training, ironically one day we forgot to assign one of them to lead worship like we normally did. That day spontaneous creative and prophetic worship broke out among us, with no one leading it (except for the Holy Spirit). It turned out to be the most powerful worship time of the training. During those 2 hours many of the 41 and us experienced God’s loving ministry in wonderful and powerful transforming ways.)
3. At least 3 testified that they came with bitterness in their heart which was blocking them from receiving from God, until the Holy Spirit sovereignly melted it away during corporate worship times. They stayed free and flowing with God from that time on.
4. The great Dancer saw another vision. During worship he watched Jesus’ entire crucifixion detail by detail unfold from start to finish in his vision.
5. During another worship time the love of God fell strongly on Y____, one of our translators, and she began to minister God’s love to several of the 41, who later testified that they came away profoundly transformed from those wonderful times of experiencing God’s love.
6. After I encouraged the 41 to ask God to interpret their visions and dreams, one girl, the previous day, saw a vision of a small seed fall from heaven, then a person (in the vision) next to her said “plant the seed”. She did and saw it grow into a tree with lots of fruit. Then saw many birds coming and eating the fruit and taking the seeds to many other people. This girl did not know what it meant. But then she asked God what it meant. He quickly revealed to her that He wanted her to share certain Biblical truths with an unbelieving friend of hers. She felt like God was saying that friend would get saved and lead many other people to Jesus.
7. Somehow a girl got invited to come to this training but was not yet a follower of Jesus. You could tell it by looking at her countenance. She testified that after watching our Team’s love for God and one another, she knew God was real and invited Jesus to come into her heart and be the Lord of her life, which He wonderfully did. Her smile was beaming the rest of the time. We think this same thing happened to a young man whom his sister invited to come. (He was one of the few survivors of a tragic bus accident which killed their mother and another relative and several friends just 2 weeks before the training. Early on in the training I spent some time talking with this young man as he processed this unfortunate event. Later we began to see him enthusiastically participate in worship and prayer times.)
8. Several times we sent the 41 out in small groups to practice treasure hunting / evangelism in the town where we were. One group met a man who fled from them. Later God led them to a house. They knocked on the door and this same man lived there. They spent the next 2 hours witnessing to the man and his wife. Long story made short, both the man and wife renounced Hinduism and invited Jesus to be their Lord. They came to our compound the next day and wanted to get water baptized.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
Twice we had the 41 meet in smaller teams (according to their local regions) and ask God for and develop specific plans of how He wanted them to go back into their country and implement these things they experienced in our training. As we listened to each group testify to the God-given detailed plans and their passionate commitment to one another to carry them out, we were overjoyed knowing this nation was getting ready to see an explosion of the spread of the Kingdom of God among their people (almost all of which are unreached people groups). A couple that helped translate for us will be periodically going back into this nation and encouraging these new evangelistic and disciple-making groups.

PRAYER POINTS
PLEASE PRAY with us for these 41 precious, passionate and dedicated (even in the face of persecution that they know will come) fellow Believers. Pray for the increase in their fiery passion (never a decrease). Pray that they will regularly fellowship and pray with each other. Pray for unstoppable disciple-making and church planting movements to sweep through their nation and on into surrounding nations. Pray for their favor among their lost friends and family and for a great harvest of souls to come into the Kingdom of God. Pray for their protection and provision to do God’s will. Pray for our Team to hear clearly about how we are to follow up with these 41 fellow Gospel laborers (whom we are maintaining ongoing contact via email and hopefully a return trip). Pray there would be no demonic backlash on our Team. We were and are praying for all of you who gave financially and prayed for our mission. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT. THIS IS AS MUCH YOUR FRUIT AS IS OURS. ALL OF US CAN GIVE THIS FRUIT TO JESUS AS A REWARD FOR HIS SUFFERING FOR US!!!

For more information about this trip, or the work being done overseas please send an email to info@intentionalgatherings.com

Movement “Nuggets”…

There’s a lot of talk about “movements” these days. Whether it’s  “Church Planting Movements“, or a youtube video that goes “viral”, there’s no question there are some “Kingdom principles” to glean from current happenings. There are many faith based organizations pursuing and contending for a “Gospel movement” that surpasses anything we can make happen through our own man-made efforts. These movement characteristics often cannot be explained outside of being described as “miraculous moves of the Holy Spirit”. Many missional strategists have gotten together years AFTER a movement has begun to study the various steps that were taken leading up to the movement.

I have been fascinated by these studies for several years now, and have made it a personal/organization goal to pursue practices that have “movement principles” within their DNA. I certainly do not have anything “figured out”, and there is definitely NOT a formula one might “plug in” to produce a “movement”. However, I can’t help but think that some of the things we are beginning to see happen here in the states as a result of our various organizational practices contain some powerful movement “nuggets”. Lots of people are labeling what they are doing a “movement”…I can’t say that we are “there” yet, or ever will be. (Or, for that matter, that we would ever be a self-described movement, but rather allow outsiders who look in to describe what they see as “that”) What I do feel confident about is that these things we are seeing happen are heading in the right direction, and are rooted in the multiplication of individual disciples in the context of new Spiritual Families being birthed. What you will see in the below video is something we have the pleasure of seeing take place on a regular basis all over the country…Praise Jesus.

Cameron is a student who went through SCPx in Austin this past summer. He lives in DFW and is back there living out the training he received at SCPx. Cameron is one of MANY students who are being equipped and RELEASED to live out their faith in “movement” ways.

Student CPx Austin 2010…

“We had our first Baptism last night. He was a gang member and has been hanging out with me and my friends”, was the text message I received from Cameron, an 18 year-old student from SCPx Austin 2010 a few days after he got home. This is one of many stories that we get to hear all throughout the year as ordinary followers of Jesus step out in faith to live out the teachings of scripture. Yes, we are training EVERY believer to Baptize new believers. Yes, we are equipping EVERY believer to make disciples, and start NEW CHURCHES. (Yes, “real” churches. YES, it is their “HOME church”-meaning they don’t ALSO go to another one. =)

There was a lot of freedom being experienced in Austin during Student CPx. Many people were, for the first time, experiencing the love of the Father, and uncovering their true identity as children of God. As this reality hit home they began realizing the most basic commands of Jesus found in scripture. When all the “extra stuff” that has been added to “being a Christian” is removed, and students begin walking in confidence in who they are in Jesus the sense of freedom becomes tangible. You can see it on their faces…

After our session on Baptism and Communion several students decided to get Baptized! So, we did what anyone would do…we went down to the river and had one of their friends Baptize them! Check it out…

Thanks Caryn Werner for taking some LEGIT pics for us!

We spent lots of time in the prayer room worshiping and praying. We encountered the Spirit in fresh new ways all week! The Holy Spirit ISN’T the “black sheep” of the trinity anymore! It’s so cool that we get to “soak” in His presence.

Part of the DNA of SCPx is creating a culture of honor everywhere we are, and everywhere we send students. One of the ways we start creating that culture during SCPx is to pray and impart blessings/prophetic words over each guest who comes to pour into us. This is the students praying over Neil who joined us from Long Beach to teach us about Church Planting Movements and Multiplying Disciples.

We met for dinner one evening at Jon & Cherie Werner’s house where we got a real taste of what “house church” might look/feel like. We worshiped, prayed, & talked about sabbath rest & communion as we celebrated the Baptisms from that day.

Overall, this is definitely a group of world changers. I am super excited to see how God uses them in their individual contexts this next semester, and for the rest of their lives. Stay tuned for more on what God is doing directly in the city of Austin as a result of SCPx. Also, feel free to watch the short slide show of pictures from Student CPx below…if you are inspired by what you see here, and want to sow into what God is doing through Intentional Gatherings and Student CPx then CLICK HERE to give.

Student Church Planting Manual…

This is an incredible resource for anyone who has a desire to make disciples, and allow for new churches to birth from the harvest on their campus. It’s also great for those who have a desire to mobilize others, lead, and resource them to do so in their context. We use much of this stuff in our Student CPx Training (Of course, nothing beats the real-deal experiences from actually being a part of one of these hands on trainings) and know of others all over the world who have gotten a hold of it, applied many of the principles, and seen some incredible things happen for the kingdom.

It is a bit long, but feel free to download, save, print, copy, distribute, etc. as much as you like. Our heart is to see this information get into the hands of anyone and everyone who has a heart to see ordinary followers of Christ released to live out the teachings of the Scriptures. Enjoy!

Click Below to download, or go to the box.net widget to the right to download from there…

StudentChurchPlanterKit

Healing Story & Baptism Video!

A lot took place at Student CPx in Pittsburgh earlier this month…here’s some more “whole grains of the kingdom” for ya…

For various technical reasons we could not get these videos to post directly into the site. So, you can CLICK HERE for the healing testimony and CLICK HERE for the short BAPTISM video!
Enjoy!

Student CPx in San Diego…

We are ultra excited about Student CPx on the West Coast. We are working with our close friend Brian Orme to host SCPx in San Diego in a few weeks! If you are on the West Coast, know anyone in that area, or just cannot make it to one of the other SCPx locations this summer then make sure you GET REGISTERED for SCPx in San Diego by July 9th! Check out a quick promo video for San Diego…

Summer Is Here!

…And you know what that means…things start to get a little crazy around here for us, and our partnering organizations as we come together to put on Student CPx trainings in 4 cities! That’s right, we have SCPx opportunities this summer in San Diego, CA. Austin, Tx. Phoenix, AZ. & Pittsburgh, PA. Intentional Gatherings is responsible for hosting two of these four (San Diego, and Austin). If you, or anyone you know is interested in some incredible cross cultural disciple making/church planting training then SCPx is a MUST!

“Student CPx will be a potent force on the university campus. This endeavor merits our prayers and support!”

– George Patterson, PhD, author of Church Multiplication Guide

“The hottest mission field in the Western world right now is the college campus. If this is an indication of what is to come, we will see another Great Awakening. Everyone should be praying for this emerging movement to spill over into all the domains of society. Come join the party.”

– Neil Cole, Church starter, author of Organic Church

To find out more information about a particular city, click the city’s link above. To register for Student CPx Click Here!

A Moment To Breath…

…Is what I would like, but not something that seems like it will happen-for a few more weeks at least. We have gotten somewhat settled in Austin, but have been going non-stop the entire time. I have wanted to blog so much, but just have not had time. I leave tomorrow morning for SoCal, then return to leave for DFW the next day, home for a week for “Verge” (In Austin), then off to Orlando, FL. (See what I mean?) I did want to post an update about some exciting things coming up:

“iSCPx” (Intro to Student Church Planting Experience) will be held in about 13 cities all over the country between now and March 2010. Brad McKoy from the Student Church National Elder team as well as myself will be in San Diego and Los Angeles this weekend to host the first “iSCPx’s” on the USCD & UCLA campuses. I am also responsible for Orlando, FL. (along with our local contact and friends, Thomas & Lian Day), and Austin, Tx. Here’s some more info. about “iSCPx”:

Imagine a geographic area so strategic, in one square mile you can influence the nations.  Imagine a place where the future leaders of the world live together in temporary communities, open to new spiritual realities and worldviews.  It’s a reality – the university campus.

Now imagine 2,600 university campuses across the U.S.

Now imagine millions of students gathered on universities across the world.

If we reach the campus, we will change the world.

How can we reach these strategic training centers of the world with limited staff and budgets, not to mention declining overall Christian population from year to year on most college campuses?

What if students could do all the works of ministry? What if, — instead of planning a weekly meeting – campus ministry staff could mobilize and mentor students to start 25-50 simple churches across their campus?

A shift has begun across several campuses in the last few years. Churches and ministries have begun sending out students to make disciples on their campus. The result has been a growing movement of student-led churches.

Students preach the gospel and make disciples. They hold 24-hour prayer vigils for the nations. They baptize other students. They pray for the sick. They branch out to unreached people groups and start simple, reproducible churches in dorms, apartments, and fraternities – any area students do life together.

We see college campuses as small nations, composed of multiple unreached people groups. Together with mission agencies and a growing network of friends across the world, we are working to mobilize a student led church planting movement that will influence every university in the world to reach the nations for Christ.

iSCPx is a four hour seminar that will introduce you to the movement.

You’ll be invited to help mobilize student churches on your campus this year.

Does your heart beat for the nations, yet you feel called to the college campus? You are not alone!

Learn the History.

Catch the Vision.

Join the Movement.

To register in a city near you go to http://studentcpx.org

Another Point of View…

From Lauren, the student in Austin who desired to see a SCPx take place:

“I must say Student CPx Austin far surpassed my expectations. I always
hear people say, “If you’re vision seems possible to accomplish, then
you’re not dreaming big enough.” Real visions should be so extreme, so
ridiculous, so unlikely, that only God could do it. What happened at
CPx was so extreme, so ridiculous, and so unlikely, that looking back
I know it was all God who did it. I’m like, God I couldn’t even dream
that up if I tried.

So this is how I measure fruit- not by how powerful the worship was,
not by a number count of how many people came to Christ, nor by how
many people came to the training…. real fruit = personal
transformation. And that’s exactly what we saw.

Short memories pass through my mind of moments that are hard to think
about without crying. The tears that came from a simple prayer
breaking off generational curses. The intense freedom and joy that
released God’s children into dancing as two students got baptized, not
as a ceremony like the first time, but as a celebration. Guys, yes
guys, weeping at the effects of the church coming together in genuine
care, relationship, and fellowship; the profound contrast between
being used in order to advance someone’s ministry… and being
loved… in order to be loved. I remember Jesus baptizing some
students in ways that we couldn’t… with the Holy Spirit and with
fire. And the grateful response to being healed… by the One who’s
favorite activity is to heal every type of sickness and disease.
Students leaving with new outlooks on life, with testimonies bound to
be repeated, with a vision that chills the flesh, and a hunger that
cannot be satisfied. Three teams forming, one that will shake and
transform Joplin, Missouri, one that will fill TCU with God’s glory,
and one that will usher in the long-due revival at UT. And we will
never forget that night of prayer when we lingered in the presence of
Jesus together till our bodies demanded sleep. “His presence is life.
His absence is death.” We heard it from Brian, but we learned it from
experience.

I can’t handle the history. I just freak out. Two students named
Joshua and Caleb begin to pray and preach, longing for a move of God
they never saw with their eyes… but something was shifting the
spiritual realm. Simultaneously Lee Myers begins to bring the kingdom
of God to earth, walking in faith and healing the sick… before
disease attacks back and takes his life. God marks the students. And
then He calls forth fathers and mothers. They all begin to see the
vision that was in His eyes… all at the same time… and by destiny
they find each other and start the first Student CPx. One year later,
there are three Student CPx’s. And two of those who attended were the
first fruits of the first CPx. The story continues. The weave of divine
appointments continues to tangle, and the tree that started as a tiny
seed continues to grow, until soon all the birds of the air will find
shelter there. Sam Lee said at the first CPx, “If we were to witness
the glory of God’s plan, we would die.” Just a glance into a fragment
of it, and I’m feeling sick. All I can say is, prepare the way of the
Lord.

There is nobody who can do what our Jesus just did. I can hear Kirk
Franklin calling…”Can I get a witness in the house?!”

Freedom & Release.

During Student CPx we focus very heavily on the Great Commission, and the importance of EVERY BELIEVER realizing those last words of Jesus before he went to heaven are for them, TOO. Part of the GC teaches every believer to Baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. We teach that these Baptisms can be fuel for the movement of the Gospel, but it’s very important to ask a few questions about Baptism:

1) Who is DOING the Baptizing?

2) When is the Baptizing taking place after a decision is made?

3) Where is the Baptizing taking place?

We always teach that the DISCIPLER should, if possible, also BE THE BAPTIZER. It should, if possible, be done as soon as possible after someone makes a public profession of faith. We hope and pray that unbelievers would be present to watch the Baptism, & do our best to be strategic about where/when in order to make that possible. We have found that it will almost never occur in a traditional Baptismal, but a fountain, pool, stream, creek, lake, bathtub, or whatever happens to be available.

After teaching through this section at SCPx we watched as students began to realize that they had been believers for a long time, but never Baptized anyone. They weren’t upset, though. They became excited to see it begin to happen in their lives. One of the students began to weep as she shared about her Baptism experience, which occurred at a young age. She described a very impersonal, mundane Baptism by a guy she never knew. Sound familiar? We encouraged her that her Baptism was completely “legitimate”, & that the Lord was pleased with her heart. She knew that, and was not doubting her faith/salvation. She communicated that she had a desire to be Baptized in a very powerful, and celebratory way among a spiritual family whom she had grown to trust and love. Another girl spoke up and said she had a similar experience…

The students started discussing things like, “are we allowed to be Baptized twice?”, and “If we do it this time does that mean the first time didn’t count?”, etc. – (please know that this did not result in anyone doubting their salvation in Christ & eternity in heaven with Him)

I shared with the students that I would hope we would all “pray the prayer” EVERY SINGLE day, committing our lives to Christ, repenting of our sins, claiming Jesus as Lord, etc. I also posed the question: What would be wrong with “BEING BAPTIZED” every single day!? (Declaring the death of ourselves, and new life we have in Christ, that we are washed clean of our sin, etc.) Someone yelled, “we could just Baptize ourselves in the shower every day!” I am not submitting that we should or must all get Baptized everyday, or Baptize ourselves every day. I am simply saying that someone who has been Baptized at a young age in a very impersonal way should be free to declare that new life in a celebratory way to those they are walking in Spiritual Family with. I cannot think of a reason why it would be a bad thing to declare that symbolic, life transformational act on a regular basis…

We walked down to the creek that runs through the middle of UT’s campus. It was dark, and the water was about knee deep. Two girls waded through the water, and were Baptized by two other girls. It was powerful, and all four girls were deeply impacted for life. A group of UT students with head lamps on came our way wading through the creek-they were hunting water snakes in the creek for a class assignment. They said studies showed that there were an average of 1 snake every 8 meters in this creek. Snakes! Mixed with Baptisms! What incredible symbolism. The two doing the Baptizing felt the freedom to start doing this new act, which they had never done before, many more times. The two who got Baptized were released to go and do the same. It was a powerful experience for everyone involved.

Courtney Baptizing Jessie (on left) Sarah Baptizing Sabrina (on right)