What is a gospel movement?
A church planting movement (CPM) or disciple making movement (DMM) can be defined as “the multiplication of disciples making disciples and leaders developing leaders, resulting in indigenous churches planting churches which begin to spread rapidly through a people group or population segment.” Click here to read more about gospel movements.
Declare a Promise
Psalm 46:10 “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the Lebanese; I will be exalted in the earth!”
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Lord, as we pray today for a sense of urgency, we first want to pause and to be still. Indeed, You and You alone are God. You are the Lord and there is no other. In quietness and trust comes our strength (Isa 30:15). And none of our frenetic, anxious activities will yield fruit. No matter how busy we are, it matters not. What counts is to still ourselves, to quiet ourselves, to rest in You, to lean on You and depend on You for all things. We can raise the sails, but only you cause the wind to blow. Grant us this grace, Lord, as we hold it in tension with a call to action, with an invitation to urgency.
Today’s Movement Theme: URGENCY AND DESPERATION
In disciple making movements, there tends to be an emphasis on extravagant evangelism: broad seed-sowing, Kingdom conversations, prophetic declarations of truth, and questions that help the lost get in touch with–and articulate–their ‘felt needs.’ Although organic, it doesn’t happen casually; it happens on purpose, and with a sense of urgency. In one church planting movement, local practitioners share ‘Kingdom statements’ with 5 different people daily; this usually translates to finding one person of peace weekly. In another movement in a very ‘closed’ Muslim country, followers of Jesus have learned to find persons of peace by moving conversations from:
- Simple to Serious
- Serious to Spiritual
- Spiritual to Struggle
And then they ask: What would you be willing to do or to give up if it helped you meet or overcome this need?
They’re looking for people who say: I would do anything! They’re looking for desperation. When they find it, they know they can start a group around this person.
Pray the Scripture
Acts 5:41 “And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus.”
- Ask: may believers in Lebanon saturate the country with the truth that Jesus is the Christ.
- Ask: for grace to share every day and to ceaselessly preach the truth
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Luke 4:43 “But he replied, “I must preach the Good News of the Kingdom of God in other towns, too, because that is why I was sent.”
- Ask: that every home would have an opportunity to hear this truth because the apprentices of Jesus go to all neighborhoods and all places and all peoples in Lebanon.
- Ask: that students of Jesus would be willing to move on from places under the guidance of the Holy Spirit
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Acts 20:24 “But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.”
- Ask: for God to raise up apostles like Paul for Lebanon
- Ask: that believers would live with focus and urgency to finish the work assigned them
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Mark 10:47-48 “When Bartimaeus heard that Jesus of Nazareth was nearby, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Many of the people yelled at him: “Be quiet!” But he only shouted louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
- Ask: for supernatural desperation in peoples’ hearts, that they would shout and beg and ignore the crowds
- Ask: that churches in Lebanon would see the marginalized and hear their cries for healing
- Ask: that God would strip away comfort, luxury, ease, busyness, addictive escapes, ‘business as usual,’ and anything that keeps people from feeling their deep need for Him
No Place Left
Each day, we pray for various regions of Lebanon, believing in faith that a disciple making movement will touch each and every community throughout the nation.
Today, pray by name for Beirut proper and a mix of some of its neighborhoods/areas.
Hamra – Zarif – Basta – Salim Salam – Mazra – Achrafieh – Ras el Naba – Gemmayze – Mousaitbeh – Borj Abi Haidar
Prayer
Oh Jesus! Help your Lebanese apprentices be more like you, living with a sense of purpose and urgency to preach the Good News in still other places. Give us the grace to share your Gospel daily. Keep us, Lord, from being bogged down by busyness and programs that you’re not asking us to steward. Liberate our time, our attention, and our energy so that we–like you–would proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom in all communities throughout Lebanon.
Father, raise up apostolic leaders in Lebanon with a grace on their lives like that of Paul. We pray, too, for the Lydias and the Barnabuses to do your work: to demonstrate your rule and reign, your Kingdom come, your grace and glory in each community.
And lastly, Lord, we cry out. We raise our voices. We beg you: awaken desperation in our friends’ lives! Stir a holy discontent with ‘business as usual.’ Foster a longing within the Lebanese to know their true purpose. Strip everything away that the Lebanese lean on, depend on, cling to, run to, hide in…if it keeps them from needing You, Lord: remove it! In your grace, grant us this severe mercy.
Amen.