I have always been interested in proverbs. Proverbs reveal cultural treasures that go beyond language and customs. While I was in Ghana some years ago, one of the CPM participants told me this proverb: “Grandchildren are more important than children.” I admit, this proverb surprised me. Did it mean one should focus on grandchildren and skuttle their children? At that time, I was both a parent of four children and had many grandchildren. This proverb was confusing.
I asked my friend to help me understand the meaning behind the proverb. He stated that if we interact, discipline, teach, or train children to help them with skills “for the moment,” this was short sighted. But if one interacts, disciplines, teaches, or trains children with an eye that these skills would be replicated into their children, we will think less about the near goal of behavior and would think more long-term regarding “pass on-able” lessons.
In the earlier blog post we discussed the 2 ½% principle of finding people who are open for religious change. As we interact with these seekers, there can be a tendency to become fixated on conversion and maybe discipleship issues. But we need to view each person as having “grandchildren.” My friend Stan once pointed this out as being the prayer lesson Jesus gave in in Luke 10:2: “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field” Jesus’ commission to the 72 goes beyond preparing the way for Jesus’ arrival, but to look for persons who could open communities for Jesus’ visitation. Our 2 ½% are only a one step in a chain of a church planting process.
In one country where I work, there is an island that has three states in it: East Island, Central Island and West Island. Our media campaigns cover all three states with the same media products refreshed with new content on a weekly basis, year after year. The East Island and the West Island have about the same population but different UPGs. On the West Island, we historically have under 20% conversion rate of respondents, and on the East Island they have over 50% conversion rate. Though there is a difference in the UPGs between the East Island and the West Island, the products are in the national language, so a slight variance could be accounted for, but not at a 30-point variance. Another puzzling observation is that on the West Island the converts have no observable generational growth. No observed group discovery Bible studies are started by converts, and rarely does the convert lead someone else to faith. There may be some of these variables, but we cannot document them. On the East Island, we have more than 50 individuals who responded to media, came to faith, and who have started generational growth. At the time of this writing these 50 individuals have started 221 churches, 1022 Discovery Bible Studies occurring over six generations of growth, and record conversions of 5056 Muslims of which 3306 were baptized. Currently these 50 are helping develop 984 leaders “from the harvest.” Data from both the East Island and the West Island were captured over a two-year period.
As I did interviews and dug down into the question of “why the variance” the African proverb that I shared earlier came to my mind. On the West Island, the church planters generally approached media respondents with the perspective that they have a need for conversion and that discipleship would follow. However, on the East Island, church planters treated media contacts as harvesters in the harvest. In addition to addressing the need for conversation and discipleship the church planter shares the gospel with the encouragement for the seeker to share with others. The study groups that emerged would then follow a discovery study process that is both simple and reproducible.
Oversimplification is always fraught with concerns, but observing at a high level can be useful. A lesson here is thinking “grandchildren” changes how church planters interact with their 2 ½% seekers. Treating seekers and new converts as harvesters impacts first conversations and follow up.
