Thrive — Spring/Summer 2022

Spring/Summer 2022
THE GLOBAL CHURCH
PLANTING STORY by Richard Flemming
THE LAST WORD
was first introduced to these extraordinary
movements of God in
I
2013. I learned that they had begun
to surface in the 1990s and that it
was the director of the International
Mission Board of the Southern
Baptist Convention, David Garrison,
who first coined the term “church
planting movements”. Today, “disciple-making
movements” is another term used to describe
them. These movements have been defined as “a process of
disciples making disciples, forming multiplying churches
to at least the fourth generation”. Often they are characterized
as fast-growing, indigenous (to the local culture), multiplying
groups/churches, and producing obedient followers
of Jesus (i.e. disciples). In essence these movements refer
to the rapid multiplication of Christ followers, who form
churches that in turn multiply rapidly, often in areas of the
world where traditionally the work has been slow. David
Watson, one of the early practitioners of these movements,
wrote that in 2014 there were 68 known movements
around the world. Last year, the number was 1,371! Each
of these represent a multiplication of churches to at least
the fourth generation, and each movement averages 57,000
believers 1 . Some believe these movements represent the
single most significant shift in global missionary strategy
in the past century. They contend that the data points to a
change in missions 2 . Fellowship International agrees and,
like so many others, is seeking to join God in these movements
that He is generating so powerfully among the nations
today.
Consequently, last
fall our Fellowship
International
Director Ben Porter
called me to ask if I
would be interested
in participating in
a Zoom call with
Ying Kai. “Are you
serious?” was my
response. Ben knew
that I had been teaching many of the Biblical principles
that Ying and his wife Grace had implemented in their
ground-breaking movement work in China beginning in
2001. In a span of some 12 years they saw 150,000 churches
planted and baptized over two million people. “Yes”, I replied.
“I most definitely want to be part of that Zoom call!”
We are trusting that in the fall of 2022 we’ll be able to host
(in Ontario) a two-day training that Ying and Grace Kai will
give in person. After all, why not here in Canada?
1
14, 24: “24:14 Movement Data Dashboard - 2414now.NET.” 24:14, Multiplying Movements Together, 24:14, Nov. 2020,
https://2414now.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/2414_Movement_Data_Dashboard_11-10-20.pdf.
2
Sergeant, Dr. Curtis, et al. “Can Kingdom Movement Strategies Work in North America?” Mission Frontiers. 1 Jan. 2021.
https://www.missionfrontiers.org/issue/article/can-kingdom-movement-strategies-work-in-north-america.
ZOOM CALL WITH RICHARD
FLEMMING (TOP LEFT), BEN PORTER
(TOP RIGHT), AND YING KAI (BOTTOM).