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Mission statesman Dale Kietzman stood before my Perspectives class in spring 1994, as chair of the missions committee of Lake Avenue Congregational Church. He shared information that his team had gathered on "Strategic Trends in Mission." Dr. Kietzman's projections for the coming century were the following: (1) The number of ethnic groups in Los Angeles County will continue to climb past its current one hundred fifty plus; (2) Initial contact with nearly all ethnic groups will be possible outside their country of origin; (3) Urban churches will make needs in their communities a priority over foreign missions. The watchword is: "The world has come to us." Indeed, the recruiting line of the mission agency Interserve, which Kietzman heads, reads: "The 10/40 Window is moving to 25/50." 25/50 is the good old, apple pie USA.
As three quarters of the world's population moves to cities by 2010, many of those moving are members of unreached people groups. John Dawson in Taking Our Cities for God writes of winning the nations for Christ by winning the cities.(1) He means nations as political entities while the Bible speaks of nations as people groups, but Dawson is still right: We can win the nations in the cities because the ethnic nations are coming to the cities. Wesley Duewel says, "God is moving people to the cities of the world to enable us to reach them more quickly."(2) He is moving peoples--members of people groups--creating clusters of subcultures and communication villages within cities worldwide.(3) Christians are called to identify the unreached people groups in the city and create an atmosphere for effective evangelism.
WHAT DOES UNREACHED MEAN IN THE CITY?
Unreached people groups as defined by the Edinburgh Conference 1980 are "those cultural and linguistic sub-groups, urban or rural, for whom there is as yet no indigenous community of believing Christians able to evangelize their own people."(4) But when they come to the city, aren't they blended in with everyone else, losing their identity? Timothy Monsma disagrees: "Increasingly, unreached ethnic groups are represented in cities . . . An urban ethnic group is a people group if one can contemplate planting a church or worshipping congregation just for them."(5) However, Viv Grigg, Coordinator of the Cities Track of the AD2000 and Beyond Movement, says the concept of unreached people groups is not applicable to the city; "too much shifting and mix occur after one comes to the city, and the immigrant begins to lose a rural identity with a people group."(6) Dr. Ralph D. Winter's response to the same query was an exasperated opposite: "The real problem with not reaching the unreached in the city is people group blindness. Open your eyes. They're all around us."(7) In fact, Grigg nearly contradicts himself in Discipling the City: "Squatter homes contain the most responsive unreached bloc of people in the world."(8)
Ray Bakke adds that "most of the world's unreached peoples are culturally rather than geographically distant from local churches; local urban churches and their pastors can be at the leading edge of cross-cultural international mission in our time, . . . [but] the majority of churches and pastors are not ready for this mission."(9)
We tend to believe everyone in America has been evangelized, but Monsma says, "there arepockets of people who are neglected because of their ethnic identity, linguistic problems, or other cultural barriers. . . . There are unreached peoples in the cities as well. Members of many isolated tribes have already made their way to the cities."(10) In urban areas these peoples fit the Edinburgh definition and are remarkably open to the gospel.
WHY IS REACHING THE UNREACHED IN THE CITY A PRIORITY?
First, Jesus commands it in the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20. The Greek word nations in verse 19 is , (peoples, ethnic groups). Apparently, reaching these groups is a major part of completing the task Jesus gave the Church. Second, these peoples are open to change. "People who have been uprooted from their old communities, who have broken old ties, and have settled in a new area often constitute a group which is most receptive to new ideas and associations."(11) Third, because of the openness to change, their acceptance can mean the foundation to win the ethnic neighborhood. The neighborhood is their web of relationships. McGavran says, "In most parts of the world, the web counts tremendously . . . let 'one of us' become Christian, and they are deeply stirred."(12) Fourth, they are the best prospects to evangelize their people at home. With all the culture, language, and custom known intimately, they are prime mission candidates. The peasant society is tied to the city for such resources as finance, goods, and new ideas. New converts become links to family members and other unsaved persons.(13) By preserving ties with kin at home, these people evangelize both the city and the countryside as public transportation takes the good news home.(14)
The Lahu people are an example. The Lahu originate from an area of "no law," according to a Burmese friend, on the borders of Myanmar and Thailand. No missionary who went to them came back alive, but when a Lahu man saw the Big Valley there on television, he decided to bring his family to America and find that valley. He found Vissalia, California. A few weeks later the local Southern Baptist associational director of missions found him and introduced his family to Jesus. Over the next ten years this man induced families of unmarried pregnant Lahu women to immigrate, since the government gave money to such women. They all learned about English and Jesus at the local Southern Baptist church, and today there is a 150-member Lahu children's choir! Today the only Lahu Christians in the world are in Vissalia, California. We serve a humorous but strategic God. If that Lahu man had arrived in Chicago or Los Angeles where no one would have noticed him or cared, would there be any Lahu Christians, especially Lahu who are currently considering mission work among their people in Thailand?(15)
AN ATMOSPHERE FOR EFFECTIVE EVANGELISM FOR URBAN UNREACHED
How do we reach these urban unreached peoples with the gospel? Is there a strategy, a method, a universal formula? Missions strategists quickly pop off about identifying, studying, researching, describing, developing for evangelization. Social types want to mobilize, incarnationalize, de-traumatize, and institutionalize their clients. Where do we start? How do we create an atmosphere for effective evangelism among an unreached people group in the city?
We know what an unreached people group is; defining the other words is appropriate now. Atmosphere refers to conditions in the heavenly or spiritual realm. Effective evangelism occurs when a person has been regenerated and incorporated into responsible church membership.(16)
The goal . . . is the winning and discipling of urban ethnics, building churches within each linguistic, cultural, and ethnic community, helping young Christians mature in the faith, and raising the masses out of poverty, isolation, and marginal positions to active Christian roles in society and increased contribution to the welfare of the city.(17)
John Robb of the Unreached Peoples Track of AD2000 and Beyond says we can reach the unreached only through spiritual approaches.(18) Hesselgrave agrees stating that the whole enterprise must be "bathed in prayer" because "we are, in a real sense, walking on Satan's ground."(19) Greenway says "the first step toward implementing this goal is prayer,"(20) but Wagner punches harder: "All the evangelistic technology in the world will have only a minimal effect unless the spiritual battle is won."(21) Dawson goes further: "We need to overcome the enemy before we employ other methods of ministry among people."(22)
Ed Silvoso of Harvest Evangelism has developed a strategy of prayer evangelism published in August 1994,(23) and touted by Peter Wagner as the most sophisticated city-taking strategy yet, but it falls short for unreached peoples because the strategy presupposes the existence of the church. The Scriptures provide a plan for the unreached, however. Two verses in the Revelation hold the key for favorable conditions in the heavenly realm for effective evangelism:
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: "Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death." --Revelation 12:10-11 NIV
If we drop for a moment all our post-millenial, pre-tribulational, pre-wrath pandemonium and come to the face-value text, the entire passage clearly deals with spiritual warfare in the heavenlies (Revelation 12:7). We know the winners and the losers (12:7-9), and believers are mentioned in this heavenly crossfire.
The tenses of the main verbs with their modifiers are important: "Now have come" (:10), "have been hurled down" (:10), "overcame" (:11), "did not love" (:11). In Greek, the perfect tense is characterized by a present condition dependent upon a past action. That is important here. If there is a present condition, then what is the causing past action? The (perfect tense) present condition: "Now have come" because the accuser "has been cast out." He "has been cast out . . . because they overcame." Here is the causing past action we need. Some overcomers had an effect in heaven. Jesus in Matthew 16:18-19 says something that sounds similar:
" . . . I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."
Jesus says frankly that he will move offensively against the enemy, and our use of authority (keys) determines the state of things in heaven. Our intercession is a key to the kingdom.
1. REVELATION 12:11 IS ABOUT INTERCESSION.
They overcame by Jesus' blood and the word of their testimony. Not even the enemy debates the Blood's power to change history; therefore, we will move to the second word. The word testimony here is (martyrdom, witness). These intercessors were committed to the territory they wanted to take. They overcame by the statement of their martyrdom. The interpretation of this verse has traditionally been about those physically dying for the faith, and Wagner points here for evidence that physical martyrdom defeats the enemy. Calvary is the best example, and with 163,000 martyrs expected in 1994, the enemy stands a big defeat.(24)
Is physical martyrdom necessary? The Greek form of wrestling was to the physical death (Ephesians 6:12),(25) but Jesus calls us to a different kind of death every day to defeat the enemy--the cross. Andrew Murray says: "Prayer is one form of crucifixion, of our fellowship with Christ's Cross, of our giving up our flesh to the death."(26) Intercession is choosing to lay one's life down for others in prayer.
What is the secret behind effective prayer? It is the use of the authority entrusted to the believer (Luke 10:19). We have lowered the level of the word of our testimony "merely [to] witnessing to other human beings, [but] Biblically-speaking, the scope of our testimony . . . reaches all the way into the heavenly places" (Ephesians 3:10).(27) Watchman Nee adds, "The principal work of overcomers is to bring the authority of the heavenly throne to earth."(28) Intercession, then, makes the atmosphere ready for the next phase of the plan. Intercession is overcoming.
2. REVELATION 12:10 IS ABOUT POWER MINISTRY.
"At present in the missions world we are undergoing a rediscovery that the issue in reaching the unreached is spiritual power," writes John Robb.(29) Spiritual power is a kingdom key for demonstrating the kingdom's presence for unreached peoples in the city. The words used in verse 10 describing what "has come" show clearly in their Greek meanings a demonstrated power ministry. Let's look at them.
1. ("salvation") "denote[s] deliverance in almost any sense the word can have . . . [from] plagues, dissensions, enemies, or the state of the world under Satan's rule."(30) Walvoord says "the salvation mentioned [here] refers not to salvation from the guilt of sin but to salvation in the sense of deliverance (Deuteronomy 28:1-14)."(31)
2. ("power") describes might, strength, force, miracles, mighty works (Matthew 11:21-23), the power of the Holy Spirit with the Gospel (1 Corinthians 2:4; 1 Thessalonians 1:5; Revelation 11:17).(32)
3. ("kingdom") a comprehensive term for all of Jesus' teaching, usually coupled with power in Jesus' ministry (Matthew 4:23;9:35; Luke 9:2).(33)
4. ("authority") is authority to execute judgement, religious authority of Christ's teaching and works (Matthew 28:18; Ephesians 1:21; Colossians 2:10; 1 Peter 3:22; 1 Corinthians 15:24; Revelation 12:10).(34)
5. ("hurled down") indicates "to throw" with degrees of violence or force. "'Cast down' in 2 Corinthians 4:9 AV is used in a military sense of one prostrated, but not killed in battle."(35)
Intercession and power ministry, then, are keys to reach the unreached peoples. Power evangelism is simply the explanation of the gospel. John Wimber calls power evangelism "the clear proclamation of the finished work of Christ on the cross--[coming] with a demonstration of God's power through signs and wonders."(36) Someone who has never heard of Jesus or the Bible does not care who he is or what authority the Bible has. Most peoples (like Kraft's Nigerians in Christianity with Power) are interested in power. Demonstrating the power of Jesus in love will give unreached peoples in the city pause to consider the Bible and Jesus. Wimber adds,
Demonstration of God's power through signs and wonders . . . frequently results in groups of people being saved. . . . Resistance to the gospel is overcome by the demonstration of God's power, and receptivity to Christ's claims is usually very high.(37)
Based on this whole discussion and Revelation 12:10-11, I propose a plan to reach an Unreached People Group in the City. The unreachedness of the group is primary, and these principles admittedly apply outside the city. The urban environment is merely an advantage since it has pre-conditioned the people group for change. These principles describe what needs to be done; the way to do it is intercession, ie., overcoming by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.
THE PLAN
1. Proclaim Deliverance from the Evil One. (-"salvation"). George Otis speaks of the new spiritual difficulties of mass migrations worldwide into cities as Satan ties the planet tight by stretching spiritual powerlines around the globe. He encourages understanding these territorial spirits as a strategy.(38) J. Christy Wilson asserts that 25% of Jesus' ministry was deliverance.(39) This arena is that of personal deliverance and destruction of idols, amulets, and fetishes.
2. Demonstrate the Power of the Message. (-"power"). A student from an unreached group attending Pasadena City College recently wrote for her English class:
I didn't think I could change my mind about my dad. My parents were divorced when I was young. My dad now lives in Thailand and has a new wife. My mom has been here for five years, but I just came from Thailand seven months ago. I felt very sad because I couldn't understand why he had a new wife while my mom still loved him. I used to hate my dad. However, five months ago I changed my mind. After I met my friend who is Christian, she told me about the love of God. In Thailand I was Buddhist, so I thought my friend was crazy. At first, I didn't believe what she said. She challenged me to pray to God and then God answered my prayer. I was surprised, and decided to become a Christian. Because of the love of God, I don't hate my dad anymore. God taught me to love others. And I thank God for my experience. And I thank God for the privilege He gave me. I love God.(40)
That is power evangelism. This student had an encounter that was a "visible, practical demonstration that Jesus Christ is more powerful than the spirits, powers, or false gods worshipped or feared by the members of [her] people group."(41) Demonstrating power is done because you want to demonstrate love. The greatest demonstration of love and power was Calvary and the Resurrection. This student has experienced both love and power. The power "surprised" her, and she "decided to become a Christian." Kraft says that for Jesus, spiritual power was always a means, never an end.(42) Greenway adds that Jesus' healing ministry was a bridge to his preaching ministry.(43) Grigg concludes that Jesus preached, taught, healed, and delivered. Proclamation occurs "in the midst of miraculous deeds that demonstrate the power of God over the common factors of life. . . . Dramatic healings often occur at this stage."(44)
3. Proclaim Jesus' Teaching and Gather the People of Peace. (-"kingdom"). In this power context, the church may grow rapidly before one can get to the last two principles. Then the missionary has more praying Christians with which to overcome the enemies of Christ! Watchman Nee says that God's purpose for the church "is to allow His will to be done on earth."(45) Grigg cautions that "economic projects . . . do not facilitate church planting or growth. . . . New churches among the poor are established as a result of the preached Word."(46) From these prayer cell-churches of converts won through proclamation, power, and deliverance, the missionary can begin to make disciples of these future leaders.
4. Declare the Authority of Christ to the Principalities. (-"authority"). Ephesians 3:10 says, "His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms" (NIV). Ed Silvoso comments, "The Church makes [this wisdom] known both by its example and through the word of its testimony spoken into the spirit world, declaring to the powers their defeat by Christ and our authority in his name to claim lost souls for the kingdom of God."(47) Because Jesus Christ himself resides in a believer, one can declare to the principalities their usurpation and the Rightful Owner of souls and territory. Dawson says we "exercise the authority of Jesus in order to thwart satanic activity."(48)
5. Cast Out the Enemy. (-"hurled down") According to Matthew 12:29, the strong man must be bound before his house can be robbed. In Adrogue, an upper middle-class suburb of Buenos Aires, Pastor Ed Lorenzo prayed with his thousand-member church, declared Christ's authority over their area, and told the spirit Howling to leave. Church members audibly heard something break in the spiritual realm. After that event, their membership from inside the suburb of Adrogue went from 2% to 40% of the church roll in a few years. Recently I sat in this church's congregation as thirty-three people came forward to receive Christ at a regular Sunday night service. No one considered it unusual. Duewel writes: "At the cross, Jesus drove out Satan, the prince of this world (John 12:31-33). . . . The cross doomed Satan to ultimate expulsion from our world."(49) While Ed Silvoso does not provide a set of principles for the unreached peoples in our cities, he does address the topic: "When the Church moves into an area for the first time, it must attack rather than defend. The target area is under Satan's domain, and he must be evicted."(50)
SUMMARY
In the city with many ethnic groups in just one neighborhood, a cross-cultural missionary may have to take his or her ministry area for Christ like the Allies did Paris: house by house, apartment by apartment, room by room, ridding God's peoples of the enemy's oppression. It happens by intercession and power ministry. "It always takes a power encounter of some sort to establish the Church for the first time, because the Church has to displace the existing satanic structure."(51) Jesus commanded us to make disciples of the , and the are coming to the cities. God is gathering them from the four winds, bringing them to us for intercessory and power evangelism. He is tired of waiting for us to go to them. He is ready to finish this job and bring His Bride home.
Duewel, Wesley L. Touch the World Through Prayer. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1986.
Greenway, Roger S., ed. Discipling the City. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1992.
Greenway, Roger S., and Monsma, Timothy M. Cities: Missions' New Frontier. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1989.
Grigg, Viv. Informal Interview. July 23, 1994.
Hawthorne, Steven C. Perspectives on the World Christian Movement: A Study Guide. Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 1992.
Hesselgrave, David J. Planting Churches Cross-Culturally: A Guide for Home and Foreign Missions. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1980.
Jacobs, Cindy. Possessing the Gates of the Enemy. Grand Rapids, MI: Chosen Books, 1991.
Kietzman, Dale. Oral Presentation. MI501 "Perspectives on the World Christian Movement." April 5, 1994.
Kraft, Charles. Christianity with Power. Ann Arbor, MI: Vine Books, 1989.
McGavran, Donald. Understanding Church Growth. Third Edition. Revised by C. Peter Wagner. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1990.
Murray, Andrew. The Ministry of Intercession. Uhrichsville, OH: Barbour and Co., Inc., 1992.
Nee, Watchman. The Prayer Ministry of the Church. New York: Christian Fellowship Publishers, Inc., 1973.
Orr, James, ed., The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1956.
Otis, George Jr. Informal Interview. July 13, 1994.
Robb, John. Oral Presentation. MC552: "Spiritual Approaches for World Evangelization." July 14, 1994.
Robb, John. "Prayer as a Strategic Weapon in Frontier Missions." International Journal of Frontier Missions. Vol. 8:1, January 1991.
Silvoso, Ed. That None Should Perish. Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1994.
Srirochanakul, Nic. "Budding Writers Spring 1994." unpublished.
Wagner, C. Peter. Foundations of Church Growth MC520 Course Outline. Pasadena, CA: Fuller Theological Seminary, 1994.
Wagner, C. Peter. Spiritual Approaches for World Evangelization MC552 Course Outline. Pasadena, CA: Fuller Theological Seminary, 1994.
Wagner, C. Peter. Warfare Prayer. Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1992.
Walvoord, John. The Revelation of Jesus Christ. Chicago: Moody Press, 1966.
Wilson, J. Christy. Oral Presentation. MI501 "Perspectives on the World Christian Movement." February 1, 1994.
Wimber, John, and Springer, Kevin. Power Evangelism. San Francisco: HarperCollins Publishers, 1992.
Winter, Ralph D. Informal Interview. August 2, 1994.
1. John Dawson, Taking Our Cities For God, (Lake Mary, FL: Creation House, 1989), p. 36.
2. Wesley L. Duewel, Touch the World Through Prayer, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1986), p. 16.
4. Steven C. Hawthorne, Perspectives on the World Christian Movement: A Study Guide, (Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 1992), p. 8-2.
5. Roger S. Greenway and Timothy M. Monsma, Cities: Missions' New Frontier, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1989), p. 115.
6. Viv Grigg, Informal interview, July 23, 1994.
7. Ralph D. Winter, Informal interview, August 2, 1994.
8. Viv Grigg, "Church of the Poor," Roger S. Greenway, ed., Discipling the City, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1992), p. 160.
9. Raymond J. Bakke, "Profiles of Effective Urban Pastors," Greenway, ed. Discipling the City, p. 126.
11. David J. Hesselgrave, Planting Churches Cross-Culturally: A Guide for Home and Foreign Missions, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1980), p. 178.
12. Donald McGavran, Understanding Church Growth, third edition, revised by C. Peter Wagner, (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1990), pp. 243-244.
13. Hesselgrave, pp. 98-100, 184.
15. Dr. Edna Ellison, director of Women's Ministries, California State Baptist Convention, Fresno, CA.
16. C. Peter Wagner, Foundations of Church Growth MC520 Course Outline, (Pasadena, CA: Fuller Theological Seminary, 1994), Part II, p. 3.
17. Greenway, Cities, pp. 80-81.
18. John Robb, Presentation July 14, 1994, in MC552, "Spiritual Approaches for World Evangelization."
21. C. Peter Wagner, Warfare Prayer, (Ventura, CA:Regal Books, 1992), p. 38.
23. See Ed Silvoso, That None Should Perish, (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1994), pp. 205-294.
24. C. Peter Wagner, Spiritual Approaches for World Evangelization MC552 Course Outline, (Pasadena, CA: Fuller Theological Seminary, 1994), p. 2.
25. Cindy Jacobs, Possessing the Gates of the Enemy, (Grand Rapids, MI: Chosen Books, 1991), p. 64.
26. Andrew Murray, The Ministry of Intercession, (Uhrichsville, OH: Barbour and Co, Inc., 1992), p. 29.
28. Watchman Nee, The Prayer Ministry of the Church, (New York: Christian Fellowship Publishers, Inc., 1973), p. 99.
29. John Robb, "Prayer as a Strategic Weapon in Frontier Missions," International Journal of Frontier Missions, Vol. 8:1 January 1991, pp. 23-31.
30. James Orr, ed., The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1956), IV, 2665-2671.
31. John F. Walvoord, The Revelation of Jesus Christ, (Chicago: Moody Press, 1966), p. 193.
36. John Wimber and Kevin Springer, Power Evangelism, (San Francisco: HarperCollins Publishers, 1992), p. 78.
38. George Otis Jr., Informal Interview, July 13, 1994.
39. J. Christy Wilson, Presentation in "Perspectives on the World Christian Movement," February 1, 1994.
40. Nic Srirochanakul in unpublished class collection "Budding Writers Spring 1994."
41. Wagner, Church Growth Course Outline, V, 17.
42. Charles H. Kraft, Christianity with Power, (Ann Arbor, MI: Vine Books, 1989), p. 123.
44. Viv Grigg, "Church of the Poor," Greenway, ed., Discipling the City, pp. 162-163.
45. Nee, Prayer Ministry, p. 23.
46. Grigg, "Church of the Poor," Greenway, ed., Discipling, p. 162-163.
51. Ibid., p. 128.
