Phases of Movement

I've been thinking a lot about the different phases of the growth of the church.  In a place like Turkey where the church is small - well less than 1% of the population are followers of Jesus - the church looks different than it looks in a place like Europe or the United States - places where the church has been established for hundreds, even thousands of years.  

When I came across the video below, I found it helpful as I struggle with some of the realities of my context in the U.S. where the church has largely been institutionalized and professionalized and is quickly moving into a post Christian reality.  It was helpful as well as I thought about the many works we are helping to support in unreached areas of our world - places like  Turkey.

There are some good lessons to be drawn from Ray Vaughn's explanation. Church historians will undoubtedly find flaws in the explanation, but I found it helpful to think about.  As we consider the different contexts where we seek to be faithful to proclaim the good news and make disciples, there are lessons that we need to learn and apply.

This teaching is 30 minutes long. It is a basic overview of what missiologists have observed in each of the phases of the growth, expansion and decline of the church throughout history and throughout the world.  It is descriptive not prescriptive, a backwards glance at what has happened, not theoretical thinking about what we should do.  I'd encourage you to find some time to watch it with a few questions in mind.
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• What can we who live in a Christian and post Christian context learn and adapt from what is happening in phases 0-2?
• What can we who are seeking to engage unreached people groups learn from this overview?
• What are some of the basic beliefs and practices in phase 0-2 that we may have inadvertently dropped as we move toward more institutional models of church?
• What are one or two lessons you can learn from this look back into the phases of a church planting movement and how could you apply them in your context?

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