Strategy Reminder
With so much going on among the Mahafaly people...I thought I would give a quick reminder of what our overall strategy is (up to this point!). Hope this helps for some of you who have joined us recently!
Step One: Relationship Building
After finding a person of peace in a village, we begin developing a deep relationship of trust and friendship. We learn the language, culture, and struggles of that specific village. We make it clear from the beginning our intention of sharing the Good News with them. (This has been taking about one year)
Step Two: Evangelism Event
We gather the whole village together and share about 20 stories from the Bible in their local language. These stories begin with creation and go all the way through Christ's death and resurrection. This story set gives the people an opportunity to see God's ultimate plan of salvation, and at the end they are invited to accept Him as savior. (This usually takes about one week)
Step Three: Follow-up Series
We study through 7 stories, that follow-up on their decision to make Christ Lord of their life. We talk about everything from assurance of salvation to evangelism. (These stories usually take about one month)
Step Four: Baptism
After going through the follow-up series, which also includes teaching on Baptism, we have a baptism service. Believers desiring to make their profession of faith through Baptism are required to give their testimony and explain their understanding of salvation and baptism (as baptism is often confused with salvation in this culture).
Step Five: Discipleship - Evangelism Story Set
New believers will meet regularly for prayer, fellowship, and Bible study. They will slowly go through the whole evangelism story set they heard during the evangelism event. From the stories, they will learn who God is and how how their lives should be affected by Him. They will memorize the stories and begin praying for a specific village that they can take the stories to.
Step Six: Discipleship - Church Formation Set
After studying the initial 20 stories from God's Word, the believers will take the story set to a nearby village and reproduce the evangelism event. If people accept Christ, they will begin repeating the above steps with the new believers.
During their meeting time, they will begin learning stories from God's Word from the book of Acts. These stories will help them look at their group in light of the early church. From these stories, they will begin applying church formation principles to their group.
Step One: Relationship Building
After finding a person of peace in a village, we begin developing a deep relationship of trust and friendship. We learn the language, culture, and struggles of that specific village. We make it clear from the beginning our intention of sharing the Good News with them. (This has been taking about one year)
Step Two: Evangelism Event
We gather the whole village together and share about 20 stories from the Bible in their local language. These stories begin with creation and go all the way through Christ's death and resurrection. This story set gives the people an opportunity to see God's ultimate plan of salvation, and at the end they are invited to accept Him as savior. (This usually takes about one week)
Step Three: Follow-up Series
We study through 7 stories, that follow-up on their decision to make Christ Lord of their life. We talk about everything from assurance of salvation to evangelism. (These stories usually take about one month)
Step Four: Baptism
After going through the follow-up series, which also includes teaching on Baptism, we have a baptism service. Believers desiring to make their profession of faith through Baptism are required to give their testimony and explain their understanding of salvation and baptism (as baptism is often confused with salvation in this culture).
Step Five: Discipleship - Evangelism Story Set
New believers will meet regularly for prayer, fellowship, and Bible study. They will slowly go through the whole evangelism story set they heard during the evangelism event. From the stories, they will learn who God is and how how their lives should be affected by Him. They will memorize the stories and begin praying for a specific village that they can take the stories to.
Step Six: Discipleship - Church Formation Set
After studying the initial 20 stories from God's Word, the believers will take the story set to a nearby village and reproduce the evangelism event. If people accept Christ, they will begin repeating the above steps with the new believers.
During their meeting time, they will begin learning stories from God's Word from the book of Acts. These stories will help them look at their group in light of the early church. From these stories, they will begin applying church formation principles to their group.
Comments