Editor’s Note: Last week, we published “Infidels in Iran and Apostates in America.” It was the first in a two-part series based on a conversation I had with our Iranian brother M., whom you met in Sheep Among Wolves, Vol. II (released last year and available for free in the FAI App and on YouTube). M.’s article last week has (very appropriately) become our most-read article of all time, and this second part is a worthy follow-up. The Lord is doing something in and through 2020, and our family in Iran have so much wisdom and prophetic insight as to how we can walk well into His fullness for us, our nations, and our neighborhoods.
Before you receive this important word, I want to make a very clear invitation: The church in Iran is the fastest-growing church in the world right now. And praise God for that! It is led by a courageous and sacrificial team of servants who pursue disciple-making full-time—so while it is true to say “the largest church in the world owns no property or buildings,” there are still mounting financial needs as the lead team gives their time to teach new disciples how to obey Jesus on the narrow road. You can support these leaders directly here.
The ability to stand alone. Highly reproducible. Highly obedient to Christ.
These attributes are how my lead team and I discern the move of the Gospel as it apprehends lives and souls in our city, and in our country. We’ve never had the luxury of public meetings, so we’ve never been able to measure growth by the number of bodies in a room. We’ve never been able to follow conventional “strategies” for church planting. Consequently, we’ve had to get creative, and get deep into Scripture to study how Jesus made disciples—and more than that, how He made disciples who make disciples.
I’ve spent so many days and nights this year on Zoom with pastors and leaders in America, who are all (understandably) caught off-guard by the gathering restrictions imposed as governments have grappled with how to respond to COVID-19. Why? Because their models and strategies rely entirely on Sunday morning services. So what do you do when you lose your main and plain? And could it be that God has a purpose for pushing everyone out of the building for a year? Everyone knows old wine is better wine—but you can’t use an old model for a new thing. You can’t pour new wine into an old wineskin. You’ll break the carrier and spill the wine everywhere.[1] But if you can prepare a vessel to hold the new wine, you can let it age. You can let it grow up. You give it time to mature.
COVID-19 is forcing us to put old wineskins on the shelf. It’s forcing us to fashion new wineskins so we have somewhere to hold the “new thing”[2] God is doing. He’s pouring new wine. We need new wineskins, new glasses, to hold and offer it to our families and communities. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to walk into 2021 trying to drink from an empty glass.
When communities of disciples first began to form, we saw the Body gather and function in two expressions: corporate, public meetings and small house fellowships. Both. “Every day, in the temple and house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching.”[3] It happened in Jerusalem. It happened in Ephesus. It happened throughout the Roman Empire as Paul traveled to preach the Gospel and make disciples. No one had to choose between the two; it was never one or the other—at least, it never needed to be. I know we saw some expressions of house churches that made many of us uncomfortable 10-20 years ago, but it is possible to pursue a network of house fellowships while remaining doctrinally faithful. And I would even say it is necessary—because you know what isn’t highly reproducible? Massive buildings with sky-high overhead costs and property fees. And what if God wants to bring so many Americans into the Kingdom, we literally don’t have space for them in our buildings? What if you need to craft infrastructure to hold that kind of holy movement?
We all want revival. But let me ask you this: What would you do if revival hit your town tonight? Does your church know how to respond to 3,000 messy, snot-nosed, newborn disciples all at once?[4] Or 500 new believers? Do you know how to handle that kind of intake?
Let’s be honest for the sake of moving forward well: you probably don’t.
Neither did the disciples. But they spent a few years following Jesus around, watching His strategies, watching how He responded to people suddenly confronted with or in awe of the beauty of His name. They watched how heavily He relied on His Father. They saw when He made counter-intuitive decisions that violated convention. And they learned how to discern where the wind was blowing[5] and respond accordingly—and immediately. The disciples themselves are proof that Jesus served and led them to be able to stand alone, to reproduce, and be highly obedient to Christ.
These are not ordinary days. God is doing a new thing, and we need to respond well. He will not wait for us at the platform while we deliberate whether or not we will get on the train. Life will not return to business as usual in 2021. Pastor, if you try to cling to your Sunday morning model, your ministry might collapse. You have to figure out how to serve the generation you’re assigned to with a strategic witness of Jesus, and the days and years we’re heading into now demand both corporate and house fellowship expressions. Gather with your leaders. Fast and pray. Don’t try to figure this out in the flesh. Don’t white-knuckle your old wineskins just because you like them and you’re uncomfortable with new ones. The Sunday morning model is dead. Make disciples who make disciples on a Thursday night. A Monday afternoon. Saturday morning.
People set free by the power of the Holy Spirit through the death and resurrection of Jesus are the freest people alive today.[6] We are the freest people alive today. If anyone can adjust and adapt to a generational shift, it’s the people indwelt by the spirit of prophecy. Ministry and making disciples led by the spirit of freedom is incredibly simple, and it’s marked by these three characteristics:
It can stand alone. It’s highly reproducible. And it’s highly—highly—obedient to Christ. No excuses. No reserves. No retreats. No regrets.
I believe God is preparing the earth for the return of Jesus, and I am convinced the American church has a critical role to play in it. You lead the nations. Let go of the old wine. Let Him pour the new stuff out—because the faster you receive it, the sooner you can pass it around the table to the rest of us.
Lean in. We love you. We’re cheering you on.
Maranatha.
Brother X. is the Director of Global Catalytic Ministries. He lives and serves in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Meet X. and his ministry family in Sheep Among Wolves Vol. II. Support the leaders of the Iranian disciple-making movement here. Sign up for resources on how to make disciples who make disciples here.
[1] Mark 2:21-22
[2] Isaiah 43:19
[3] Acts 5:42; See also Acts 2:41-47; 3:11-12; Romans 16:5; 1 Corinthians 16:19; Colossians 4:15; Philemon 1:2
[4] Acts 2:41
[5] John 3:8
[6] Galatians 5:1
