We continue our vision casting for our city . . .
We trust that as you collect these issues of the LPN Newsletter, compile them and read them as a whole, from time to time, that the complete picture of what the LPN is setting out to do in the next five years will become clear to you.
Ralph Winter, who has just recently gone home to the Lord, in an article for PERSPECTIVES On The World Christian Movement titled “Three Mission Eras – And the Loss and Recovery of Kingdom Mission 1800-2000,” writes:
“In order to describe these eras, and for the purpose of this chapter, I employ two phrases: 1. Church Mission, which I define as the winning of people into the Church wherever in the world, and thus extending the membership of the Church, and 2. Kingdom Mission, which we define as the work of the church beyond itself, going beyond Church Mission to see that His will is done on earth outside of the Church. This is the extension of the Kingdom of God. Church Mission is basic and essential but must not become merely a goal in itself. It must be seen also as a means of relentlessly pressing for God’s will to be done on earth, thus to declare His glory among all peoples.”
Let’s look at the two phrases he employs and relate it to the LPN Vision.
1. CHURCH MISSION . . .
The LPN 5 Year Plan (2009-2013) states that all LPN churches are to work towards incorporating (i) an intentional evangelism structure and (ii) an intentional discipleship structure within their churches as part of the strategy to add to the numbers of World Christians in our churches and thus in Penang.
What we envisage for the future is that the seven LPN churches will not just accept as norm ad hoc evangelism by some members of the church only. On the contrary, we will work to make personal/small group evangelism a part of the LPN churches’ culture. To apply the strategy of small group evangelism church-wide through a process of training and re-training our small groups until they use the tools provided e.g. ALPHA cells, seeker groups etc effectively, thus reaching out intentionally.
At the same time, we are working towards becoming intentional disciple making churches where all members added to the body will immediately be discipled via well laid out discipleship processes established to produce disciples who are disciple makers themselves! These disciples will then fit well into the next part of our strategy which is the Kingdom Mission.
2. KINGDOM MISSION . . .
The LPN 5 Year Plan (2009-2013) also states that by 2013 we should have an integrated network of LPN Cells drawn from Christians in Penang (whether in LPN churches or other local churches in the city) that will engage in discipling our city in 7 Spheres of Influence:
- Family (Clan, Tribe, People Group),
- Church (Local Church/Mission Church)
- Education (All levels from pre-school to Univeristy)
- Celebration (Arts, Entertainment, Sports)
- Media (Electronic, Printed)
- Economics (Business, Science & Technology, Research & Development, Sales, Service)
- Government (Executive, Judicial, Legislative)
(From “The New Testament Basis for the Discipling of Nations by David Joel, Hamilton in the book “His Kingdom Come – An Integrated Approach to Discipling the Nations and fulfilling the Great Commissions)
Due to lack of space, we will elaborate on this in the next issue of the LPN E-Newsletter. In the meanwhile, visit the LPN Discipling the City blog at http://thelpn.blogspot.com/ for more articles and give us your comments.
Pastor Albert
LPN Facilitator for City Transformation
Email: albertan98@gmail.com
