People Group Breakthrough
Through our leaders, an unreached people group heard the Gospel!
Recently, a group of young people in an Asian country were trained in a one-year ConneXions school for emerging leaders. They came from long-established but relatively ineffective home churches among a large minority people group. During their training, their spiritual lives, characters, and practical ministry capacities were molded by mature leaders who had planted hundreds of churches. Consequently, these young people knew how to pray, they knew how to endure hardship for the Gospel, and they knew how to plant churches. They may not have had formal degrees in missiology but nevertheless, they accomplished a significant missiological breakthrough.
Paul*, the young leader of the church-planting team, was born into a Christian family. Though his father was an elder in his church, Paul actually knew very little about true Christian faith until he was a teenager. Through the ministry of a visiting evangelist and a small team of co-workers, Paul came to faith in Jesus Christ and was invited to participate in the ConneXions school near his home village.
“At first I thought I would only be learning a lot of Bible knowledge. But after the school started, I realized that I needed to grow through many different learning experiences. Even resolving relational problems and conflicts were part of our training. There were so many things that I needed to learn besides just information. My experience at the school transformed me. I began to have a genuine calling from God to serve Him through leading worship and shepherding God’s people. I felt compelled to preach the Gospel to those who did not yet know God.”
Paul, along with eight other ConneXions graduates from his village, learned a number of practical ministry skills at the program. In particular, however, they focused on evangelism among remote villages in their area. As part of their training, they prepared a special program of song and dance as an evangelistic outreach.
One particular mountain village several hours away was among the first places to which God called the team. At the time, Paul did not know that this village was part of an unreached people group. He tells us why they selected this particular community:
“Just before I left for the ConneXions school, I visited this village with a friend. There I met an old lady who asked us if we were Christians. She must have heard of my home village, where the majority of us are Christians. I told her, “yes.” She then asked me to please share the Gospel with her people.
She told me that for generations, her people had been given over to alcohol and the resulting violence. Some men literally drank themselves to death. This resulted in extreme poverty for many of the families. Even worse, some of the men would abandon their families altogether, then their wives would run away. So in this small village, there were over 20 orphans left uncared for. She told me how she admired the moral standards of Christians and their more peaceful families. She pleaded for me to please come back to them.
This old woman’s sorrowful voice stayed with me during my year of training. I constantly thought of her and prayed for her people. To me, that was my “call from Macedonia.” So, after I graduated, the first thing I did was to work with my friends to prepare for open evangelizing.
I know these people have many community gatherings, so I reasoned that this would be a good opportunity for us. The Lord gave us favor, and the head of the village gave us permission for our performance.”
Immediately following their training, Paul and his team gave their first evangelistic performance program in this remote village. As a result of that performance and their preaching, many villagers became very curious about the Gospel. A “man of peace” (Luke 10:5-7), a very warm-hearted villager, opened his house and received Paul and his team members. Thus began a strong ministry with Paul and the team leading a number of villagers to the Lord and establishing a new church there.
The work was difficult; many of the locals mocked the team and some threatened violence. However, the young evangelists endured and soon, 20-40 people were participating in nightly Bible study and worship in the home. God provided many opportunities for Paul and his team to minister in very practical ways to the people in the village.
Once, a sickness was spreading through the livestock of the villagers. More and more families were suffering the loss of their oxen. The family that Paul was staying with owned two oxen and one had already died. The other was very sick. The family was afraid they would soon lose this one as well. Paul and his team were reminded of their training to always pray for the sick and ask God to heal. So, in simple faith, they knelt and asked God to heal the suffering farm animal. The Lord heard their prayer and the ox regained his strength. More than that, the sickness stopped completely in that village. Paul and his team’s faith, built through their ConneXions training, helped win the hearts and minds of the villagers and provide further openings for ministry.
Eventually, the team invited the Christians in the new church to travel to their home village to celebrate the latest graduation from the ConneXions training program. This was the first time these new believers had ever met so many Christians, and they were thrilled to be so warmly received!
One of the members of our team, Grace*, was also at the graduation celebration, and met and interviewed the new believers. As they shared their stories and some of the history of their people, she discovered something surprising: these new believers were not the same people group as that of the church-planting team, as everyone had originally thought. They were from an entirely different people group, the “X”. Upon returning home, Grace looked up the “X” people group and was stunned to read: “Today there are no known believers or churches among the “X” people. They have little access to the Gospel, and most “X” people have never yet met a Christian.”
Grace and the church-planting team continued to question the villagers about Christianity among their people. The oldest man among the “X” believers assured her that the Gospel had never been preached to his people. He said, “This is the first time we have heard the Gospel. We are the first group of believers ever from this people group!”
Young people with little formal education, who were built holistically as leaders in a ConneXions program, had planted the first church ever among this unreached people group. The young evangelists were not even aware of what they had achieved – a people group breakthrough! And they had done so while they were still in training during the final months of the ConneXions school.
The church-planting team continued to hold Bible studies in the village every evening. However, after a violent disruption of one meeting by a local man, the team had to change their strategy for security and safety reasons. They moved from large group evening meetings to more focused meetings with a core group of dedicated disciples. In order to nurture the young church in the faith, the team also employed a variety of more flexible learning environments, including one-on-one discipleship, media presentations, and group discussions.
The young church began to grow, with about 15 believers who were solid in their faith in Christ. Most of them were young ladies and middle-aged men. Within six months, seven new “X” believers were baptized and eight more had requested baptism. Persecution became less frequent and more mild. Nevertheless, opposition from family members kept some new believers from joining the church. Members of the church planting team have continued to visit the new church since this time, to encourage them in their faith and growth. Though many of the “X” believers have left the village for the prospect of higher- paying jobs in the city, one family remains in the village as leaders of the church and, along with other young believers, is firmly grounded and growing in their faith.
Recently, the husband of this family was bitten by an extremely poisonous snake. Though he was taken to a hospital, no one expected him to live. Previously, five men from the village had been bitten by the same type of snake and all of them had died. But all the Christians in the village were praying for this brother. In tears, he told everyone who came to visit him in the hospital:
“I have found Jesus in my life. No matter what happens to me, I will follow him to the end.”
Everyone who came to see him was deeply moved by the man’s faith. Not knowing if he would live or die, this man clearly testified to his complete trust in Jesus Christ. And the man did not die! He was healed and returned to his home and now continues to be a bold leader and a witness to his unbelieving neighbors.
Many of the young leaders who accomplished this people group breakthrough came from churches where evangelism had not been part of their church life. This experience with the first-ever church among the “X” people has had a significant impact, not only on the young leaders, but also in their home churches as well. Church members have joined in the evangelism efforts, and God is powerfully using the team to reach other “tribal cousins” like the “X” people group.
*All names have been changed for security purposes
