Jonah has just recently discovered a real need in an unreached and isolated village in South East Asia that he has been trying to reach. Locals from this village have to walk a long distance to access clean water. Jonah is working with locals to build a water channel to the village. This is also giving him access to find spiritually hungry inside leaders.
This village belongs to a particular people group who hold a core belief centred around an absolute set of determined traditions that make up their daily lives. The most important teaching in this ancient culture is the idea of ‘no change whatsoever’.
After being part of some of our training, Jonah is now committed to seeing discipling communities start. This is despite serving in the area for the last 15 years and baptising many from Muslim backgrounds. He regrets that “almost all of these new believers have since disappeared”. He recognises that this was due to him only using “one-on-one evangelism strategies”. As he focuses on providing water to this village, he is now seeking to see groups of people discipled.
Traditional evangelism strategies usually encourage new believers to go back to their old communities to find people to bring to the new community. However disciple making thinking encourages new believers to live like Christ within their existing community and share the Gospel as part of their daily life.*
Group discipleship allows people to stay in their own community but see it transformed by Jesus. Communities like the village Jonah is engaging with.
*from David and Paul Watson’s book, ’Contagious Disciple Making’