Church Planting for Church Growth

The course is divided into two parts: Rural Church Planting and Urban Church Planting

Rural: It is estimated that 60% of the African population still lives in villages despite the strong migration toward the urban centers. The Church faces problems of distance, communication, finances, leadership, literature, immorality, training, and teaching. The first part of this course deals with how various denominations can renew those small, isolated congregations which struggle for survival. How can revival spread to the vast areas of hills, bush, and jungle? How can the necessary research be done to uncover the work which remains to be done? How can those numerous unreached villages be evangelized? How can lay pastors be trained and placed in those unchurched villages? The student will be challenged to find a practical answer by using the strategy of portable schools, the Heart of Man, Sowers, and Theological Education by Extension.

Urban: The second half of the course deals with the complexity of urban life, which presents the Church with enormous problems and marvelous opportunities. We will examine urban changes in social, financial, and Church life. The course proposes a strategy of Church planting which will respond to these problems. Principles of evangelism, establishment, equipping, and expanding will be applied to the urban situation with the goal of establishing a permanent, consistent, and biblical church for each citizen looking for God through Jesus Christ.

Chapter	Lesson	Assignment
1. Introduction	Program and Assignments	Each student will prepare
2. Portable School	Definition and Biblical Foundation	a feasibility study for the
3.	Strategy	planting of an urban or rural
4.	Spiritual Factors	church.
5.	Rural Decline
6.	Current Need	Each student will read
7.	Seed Sown	Thelma Braun’s book
8.	Beginning of Expansion	entitled Called to Shepherd
9.	First Zairian Strategist	God’s People.
10.	Fund Raising
11.	Program of a Portable School	Each student will take short
12.	Call of a Portable School	quizzes each day to check
13.	A Portable School for Pygmies 1	his mastery of the material.
14.	A Portable School for Pygmies 2
15.	Historical Perspective
16. Church Planting Principles	Biblical Model
17.	Preparing
18.	Planning
19.	Team
20.	Place
21.	Form
22. Urban Church Planting	Evaluation before Planting 1
23.	Evaluation before Planting 2
24.	Evaluation before Planting 3
25. Evaluation	Program and Assignments
26. Rural Project	Feasibility Study for Village Church
27. Urban Project	Analysis and Evaluation of City’s Churches

Introduction

1. The portable school is the name of a church-planting strategy responding to the rural church crisis which has existed since independence in many developing nations.

2. The population explosion in many nations has necessitated not only an evangelism explosion, but a church-planting explosion. The Church has not been quick to respond.

3. Our Bible institutes and theological seminaries have been the primary equipping agencies of the Church, but they have not been able to effectively respond to the desperate cries for church leaders coming from our villages.

4. Most of the urban-based schools have trained urban-based pastors and administrators.

5. The stationary theological school has its place, but a mobile school is also needed to respond to those called to serve, but who cannot come to the city. Since the stationary school is not training pastors fast enough to provide a church within reach of every inhabitant of the Earth, we propose a portable school which can go out and find those potential church leaders who need training.

6. More and more, we notice that Christian denominations all over the world are aware of the lack of leadership training for rural areas. Steps are being taken to correct the weakness.

7. Churches are researching, evangelizing, churching, and evaluating neglected villages.

8. In this report, we will look at what a portable school is, why it is needed, how it is implemented, who does it, and how much it costs.

I. ITS DEFINITION What is a portable school?

A. It is a school organized near villages within easy reach of its students.

B. It can be distinguished from other schools by its portability, that is, it can be easily and quickly moved.

C. Courses go on for 8 weeks, 5 days a week, 5 hours a day. It lasts 2 months.

D. There are a total of 200 lessons, the equivalent of a college semester.

E. The team consists of 3 teachers.

F. The school is often placed in an important village situated in the midst of a zone composed of forty or so newly evangelized villages.

G. Its goal is to first of all train leaders, that is, lay preachers who will be capable of training other mature Christians who will become part of the rural Church and who will make disciples for Jesus Christ.

H. Its mission will continue until all villages have at least one lay preacher and one biblical church within convenient access of all inhabitants.

I. In villages of more than a thousand people, we propose at least one biblical church for every 1000 villagers.

II. ITS BIBLICAL FOUNDATION

Mt. 28:19-20	"Make disciples of all nations ....."
Mk. 16:15-18	"Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation."
Lk. 24:45-49	"Repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations.
Jn. 20:21	"As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."
Ac. 1:8	"You will be my witness."
2 Ti. 2:2	"And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others."

Conclusion

· Because of the Great Commission, due to the lack of leadership training, since there is an urgent need for pastors, and acknowledging that God has blessed us with rich training and materials, we propose a method of rural evangelism, discipleship, and church planting which will equip pastors to begin new village churches.

Introduction:

· It is a strategy coordinating the work of six projects to produce a viable village Church.

I. Its strategy

A. Enquire (Use REVS questionnaire)

1. A researcher is trained in gathering statistics and compiling information vital to determining the spiritual condition of a village.

2. He plans to go for a month to do a REVS (Research-Every-Village-Survey) program.

3. This is done to find out how many villages there are in a given zone, how many have biblical churches, and how many do not have biblical churches.

4. The researcher defines a zone of approximately 40 unchurched villages, and maps out the area to which a team of evangelists will later be sent.

B. Evangelize (Use Open Air and personal evangelism)

1. Three evangelists are trained in two open air methods and two personal evangelism methods: The Heart of Man, Sowers, Four Spiritual Laws, and Evangelism Explosion.

2. They are then sent out to the zone defined by the researcher.

3. They split up and each makes contact with 14 unchurched villages within two months,

4. They present the Gospel for 3 days and invite those who understand to receive Christ.

a) They preach 5 evangelistic messages to win new believers to Christ.

b) They meet with the believers, old and new, to organize a church.

c) They communicate that the denomination recognizes the new church officially.

d) They set up a calendar of meetings together. They designate one or many leaders.

e) They name a candidate for the portable school which will come to the area later.

C. Establish (Use discipleship materials for new converts)

1. Converts meet together, and a leader reads them the Bible every morning.

2. They continue this activity until the candidate returns from the Portable School.

3. Upon his return, the lay pastor takes charge of the church, committee, and activities.

D. Equip

1. Three teachers set up a Portable School in the center of the zone defined by the researcher, with 42 villages and their leaders already named.

2. They give five hours of teaching per week for eight weeks. Each student has 200 hours of classes, the equivalent of a semester in college.

3. The academic program is divided into 4 courses of 40 hours, 2 courses of 20 hours.

4. On the weekend, the students who live near their village return home to see the family and bring back food for the next week of studies.

5. After 8 weeks, the student receives a certificate in a graduation ceremony, which qualifies him as a lay pastor authorized by the denomination to work in the village.

E. Expand

1. The graduate returns to his village equipped to begin “the work of the ministry.”

2. He is authorized by the denomination to plant a church or to restore a sick church.

F. Evaluate

1. Surprising things come out of this five-pronged strategy.

a) Where 90% of the population knows no church life, the systematic effort of evangelists to plant churches in each village, set up meetings, name lay pastors, and establish official ties with a denomination, all this stimulates the enthusiasm and participation of the villagers.

b) The inhabitants of the village see they have not been forgotten; they have a congregation.

c) The villagers communicate the details of the event to others.

d) The church draws near to neglected villages and shows that it is alive in the villages.

e) This strategy works very well in vast areas of Zaire and India.

f) Some denominations have reported that the number of baptisms has increased 300%.

g) One district increased its rate of baptism from 7% to 37%. Thanks to Portable Schools, the same district placed 100 lay pastors in an area which only had 24 the preceding year.

2. An evaluator is sent in one year after the portable school to determine if the church has been well planted and to encourage the new church in its service to God.

I. The changing of priorities

A. Missions in Zaire transferred their missionaries from the villages to the stations.

B. Funds reserved for evangelism by Zairians were cut off.

C. The implication was clear: evangelism and church planting had lost their importance; they were no longer desired.

II. The “promotion” of evangelists

A. The problem got worse when the best evangelists were transferred to administrative posts while the lay pastors were given the task of the daily teaching of the children and illiterate adults.

B. Regular public devotions and numerous meetings in the evening made evangelism of other villages impossible.

III. The forgotten lay pastor

A. The situation of the lay pastor got progressively worse over the following decades.

B. During the early missionary years, since the lay pastor was one of the few who knew how to read and write, he shared respect with the village chief and usurped that of the village witch doctor.

C. As a teacher, he was a man to be admired. But as village children received more education, they learned more than the lay pastor.

D. Since theological education expanded, and young graduates were ordained, the lay pastor’s prestige declined even more.

E. The young person that the lay pastor had led to Christ became his boss.

F. New pastors required more and more of the offering money for their salaries, for the needs of other leaders, and for costly denominational projects; in the end, there was no money for the lay pastor, only a thank you for difficult work accomplished.

IV. Population Explosion

A. The population explosion was one of the contributing factors to the crisis.

B. Thousands of villages were born because of the population explosion.

C. Each year Protestants lost more and more villages within reach.

D. While the number of Protestant villages went down from 17,000 to 10,000 between 1960 and 1985, the nation’s villages increased from 40,000 to 70,000.

V. Transformation in the economy

A. The straw that broke the camel’s back was the change in the economy.

B. A young man had to have a regular income to pay his medical costs, taxes, tithe, clothes, housing, dowry, education, and food.

C. It no longer seemed logical to leave the fields, to abandon the work, to go to a faraway Bible Institute for 2 or 3 years, and to become a poor lay pastor.

VI. Weakening of the rural church

A. These events slowed down recruiting and training for young lay pastors.

B. While the elderly lay pastors retired and died, their replacements were no longer there to fill the gap.

C. In 25 years, the Church lost 40% of the villages which had churches formerly.

Number of Zairian Villages
	Year

Table of Statistics

Year	1880	1890	1900	1910	1920	1930	1940	1950	1960	1970	1980	1990	2000
Churches	0	1000	2000	5000	8000	12000	15000	18000	20000	17000	14000	10000	40000
Villages	30000	30300	30600	31000	31300	32000	35000	38000	40000	50000	60000	70000	80000

I. Population Growth

A. The line above shows the increase in the number of villages, estimated at 40.000, from 30,000 in 1880 to 70,000 in 1990, a consequence of improvements in medial services.

B. Note the big increase in population after independence.

II. Church Decline

A. The line below shows the catastrophic decline in the number of Protestant churched villages after the 1940’s.

B. At its height, there were only 7,000 villages to evangelize, but now there are more than 38,000 to reach..

C. Note the fall in the number of Zairian churches between 1960 and 1990.

D. Note the increase in the number of churches since 1990 which is catching up to the population increase.

Questions

1. In your opinion, what explains the non-response from the Protestants when faced with the population explosion during the period from 1960 to 1990?

2. In your opinion, why has there been an increase in the number of churches since 1990?

3. What is the advantage of a portable school over a theological seminary or a Bible Institute? What is the portable school’s main disadvantage?

4. Why should each denomination adopt a strategy such as portable schools to increase the number of lay pastors trained?

I. Three types of unreached villages

A. There are villages which used to have lay pastors, but they no longer do because of the death of faithful members and the rural exodus of the young people.

B. There are villages scattered throughout the country which have never been evangelized and were forgotten by the first missionaries; they remain unreached by the Gospel.

C. There are numerous villages made up of resistant tribes which have foiled many evangelistic efforts in the past; because of the hardening of their hearts, the effort was abandoned..

II. The Sad Situation

A. The rural population in Zaire is about 23,500,000; of those, 11,500,000 live in villages without any church presence.

B. 11,500,000 of 42,000,000 Zairians inhabitants do not sing any Christian songs, do not hear any Bible readings, do not have any Christian fellowship, do not go to Sunday School, do not attend any prayer meetings, do not do any evangelism, and do not experience congregational life.

III. The Challenge

A. 50% of the Zairian villages had Protestant lay pastors in the 1950’s; the percentage could have continued to decline from 12% à 3% in the 1990’s, implying that 97% of villages would have been unchurched, but praise God that this potential decline was reversed with the addition of 22,00 trained lay pastors between 1990 and 1996.

B. But there remains much work to do. To arrest the decline, to have a church in every village, Zaire will have to train 38,000 lay pastors for the 11,500,000 spiritually wandering Zairians.

C. Among the lost, the most receptive have some notions of the Gospel, and they are waiting for the return of their church; the unevangelized remain open to a Christian presence in their village, but do not know about its spiritual value. The more resistant are closed to the idea of a lay pastor among them.

I. The first national congress on evangelism

A. During the first national congress on evangelism, held in Kinshasa in November 1985, a challenge was give to 62 member denominations of the Church of Christ in Zaire.

B. At that time, there were 60.000 Zairian villages without lay pastors, and a goal was set to place a lay pastor in each one. How could such a goal be met?

II. The founder of the movement

A. The International Center of Evangelism, represented by its director, Reverend Doctor Willys Braun, proposed the idea of portable schools.

B. The Center was ready to help the denominations who would participate in such a strategy.

C. Many denominations received funds from the I.C.E. for their projects in portable schools.

III. An unpleasant discovery

A. in the 30 years which preceded the development of portable schools, Protestants lost 40% of their villages while the population explosion added ten of thousands of new villages to the country.

B. If the annual rate of loss had continued another 30 years, every village would have lost its church.

C. It is in the light of the grave rural crisis that the spectacular and unexpected advance of the last ten years must be evaluated.

D. To continue the comparison, there remained about 10,000 Protestant villages in 1987, after 109 years of evangelism. That means that on the average, we had won 92 villages per year.

E. From 1878 to 1945, the average was 255 villages per year. During that time, there was a close collaboration between the mission and the national Church in their evangelistic effort.

F. Together they won heroic victories and established lay pastors in almost half of the country’s villages.

G. But after independence, lay pastors were found in less than 30% of Zairian villages, and the rate of decline had increased to 350 per year.

IV. A reversal of the situation

A. Thanks to God’s blessing on this strategy, churches have been planted within this great rural population at incredible speed.

B. In 1987 and 1988, more than 4,000 villages were churched with this strategy.

C. In 1989, the figure rose to 6,000 churches.

D. In 1990, more than 10,000 villages were churched.

E. In 1995, this figure rose to more than 20.000 new rural churches.

V. The need for catalysts

A. If you knew of a strategy for planting rural churches which contributed to the planting 20,000 churches from 1987 to 1995, and if someone told you there would be a real possibility that 10,000 more churches would be established among the 38,000 unreached villages in the next five years, that would be important news for the Church, wouldn’t it?

B. It is our conviction that everywhere in the developing world, there are vast areas where the rural decline, like that of Zaire, has created a serious problem for the Church.

C. It is for such areas that we proclaim our good news, with the assurance that Zaire’s God is also that of the other nations.

D. We will not keep silent because of those who ardently desire to see a new awakening from God in their rural populations.

I. Recognition of the problem

A. Recognition of the problem was the first step toward change.

B. Heads of missions and the church had lost contact with the isolated villages.

C. From year to year, they had attended assembly meetings and met with hundreds, even thousands, of happy, faithful members.

D. They had the impression that their villages were full of beaming Christians and that all their districts were completely evangelized..

E. No one suspected there was a serious decline in the number of rural churches before the National Congress on Evangelism held in Kinshasa, Zaïre in 1985.

F. The challenge to the delegates was to count the unchurched villages in their denominational work area, then to plant churches where there were none.

II. Goals Set

A. The Congress committee proposed a movement of evangelism for the next five years.

B. Each of the 62 denominations were encouraged to begin a department of evangelism, to name a coordinator, and to provide the necessary funding to plant a church in each village and neighborhood of the country.

III. A Department of Evangelism Set Up

A. Some denominations began departments of evangelism.

B. They also sent mature candidates to the International School of Evangelism to learn methods of evangelism, principles of Church Growth, and strategies for Church Planting.

C. It is these graduates who currently lead their denominations in the effort to evangelize the unreached villages of Zaire.

D. Students from 20 other African nations have also studied at the school in Kinshasa.

IV. The Beginning of Research

A. The International Center of Evangelism offered funding to support the evangelists of four denominations in the province of Lower Zaire (Bas-Zaïre).

B. One by one, they began the five-pronged strategy which has been so successful.

C. Some denominations counted the unchurched villages in their work area and reported that there were hundreds of them.

D. They began to understand the huge task before them and the need for a solution.

V. The First Fruits

A. From 1986 to 1989 20 denominations in nine provinces actively participated in this program.

B. The CEAZ was among the first to commit themselves to this project.

C. The CEZ of Luozi set a goal of 600 new lay pastors before 1990.

D. The CBZO of Bas-Zaïre and Bandundu organized 18 portable schools to train 700 lay pastors in 1989.

E. In 8 provinces, Methodists, Presbyterians, Pentecostals, Baptists, CMA, Covenant, and Mennonite churches launched out in this ministry; many other evangelical and independent churches also participated.

F. Every denomination currently has evangelists and teachers; the villages are open and receptive. There is no reason to wait any longer.

I. A Living Example

A. To begin to understand the reviving impact of this evangelism, training program, and church planting, we should study some examples from history.

B. Lets look at the example of Reverend Mabiala Mavungu.

II. The District of Kami Lelo

A. The district of Kami Lelo, under the CEAZ, sister church of the "Christian and Missionary Alliance," covers an area of 3000 square kilometers.

B. The Church had good pastoral leadership from 1950 to 1960, and 10% of the population were members of congregations in the district.

C. In 1987, less than 1% of the population were members of the CEAZ.

D. Out of 332 villages, only 24 had lay pastors; 308 villages did not have any.

E. The members who remained in the church were very old, a fact proven by the high death rate which was three times the denominational average.

F. In short, the district of Kami Lelo was dying.

III. Hard Work in Fertile Ground

A. A graduate of the International School of Evangelism in Kinshasa, Reverend Mabiala Mavungu, 56 years old, was named by the CEAZ to the district of Kami Lelo.

B. He began the ministry of portable schools as he had been taught.

C. He appointed 4 young preachers to evangelize 308 unchurched villages.

D. Because of the youth of the evangelists, young families came to listen to them, and more than 200 people were converted and baptized, not counting those who were already Christians.

E. Experienced Christians were approached and asked to attend portable schools and to serve as lay pastors in their villages.

F. More than 100 new lay pastors were trained in a year and currently have ministries in each zone of the district of Kami Lelo.

G. In the first six months of 1989, 80 more lay pastors were trained in portable schools of Kami Lelo.

H. In 18 months, this district which had almost died increased from 6% to 54% in the number of lay pastors for its 332 villages.

I. The Church is now young and dynamic with young leaders.

J. Revival came through Kami Lelo, beyond all expectations.

IV. The Lord’s Promotion

A. In July 1988, the CEAZ voted in its general assembly that Reverend Mabiala should serve as the denominational coordinator of portable schools.

B. He began his work in eleven other districts which were in decline like Kami Lelo had been for decades.

C. In 1989 he supervised the training of 800 new lay pastors.

D. This increase represented a growth of more than 100% in the number of lay pastors for the denomination for the year.

E. Mabiala expected to train 1500 lay pastors before the end of 1990, and he reached his goal before his death in 1991.

I. Collaboration between the national and missionary

A. There is not enough available money for each national denomination to begin an intensive program of this magnitude.

B. The National Committee of Evangelism in Zaire has expressed the desire to see more collaboration between missions and their sister churches to accomplish the huge task of planting new churches and training more lay pastors.

C. It is too early to evaluate the response of missions to this call for collaboration, but in those cases where they have participated in this ministry, they have added enthusiasm, encouragement, funds, all of which have accelerated the rate of growth of rural churches.

II. Economic Difficulty

A. Zairian denominations participating in this movement of evangelism have sacrificed to contribute to portable schools in their areas, but an obstacle to the movement is the small income of Zairians..

B. Members have sacrificed to give offerings to the construction of hundreds of churches, pastors’ salaries, projects, and denominational institutions.

C. They have also done their best to provide evangelists and teachers with food and transportation expenses, but experience shows us they cannot bear the burden alone.

III. Outside Help

A. National churches need outside help to cover the deficit.

B. A sister church needs about 10 US dollars per village beyond what it already gives.

C. In the final analysis, 14,000 US dollars are needed to evangelize 1400 villages under the supervision of national churches.

D. With such an investment in the kingdom, almost 500,000 Zairians who currently live in unchurched villages would regularly hear the Word of Life for the rest of their lives.

E. It is estimated that 48,000 people of this total would become baptized church members.

F. A mission which has a budget 60 times that sum has currently been experiencing a decline in the number of churched villages in its area of work.

G. If a denomination budgeted 7000 US dollars per year for two years of village church planting, there would be revival and Church Growth long considered impossible.

H. Of the 5000 aforementioned villages evangelized by about 30 denominations in Zaire, a part of the funding came from the International Center of Evangelism (Evangelism Resources) with the goal of encouraging each denomination to evangelize its rural population and show its churches and mission what is possible if there is close collaboration between the two.

Introduction: Some Advice

1. Hire at least three teaches for a variety of presentations.

2. Don’t offer weekend courses, but allow the students to go home for the weekend.

3. Use the book written by Thelma Braun, entitled Called to Shepherd God’s Flock, published by the International Center of Evangelism, to train teachers and offer them lesson plans.

4. Offer five courses, each one an hour a day, for two months.

5. The International Center of Evangelism provides “mini-libraries” for each of the graduates upon request.

6. Do not introduce any courses into the program which are not directly related to the goal of training a village lay preacher.

7. Always give priority to the candidates who come from unchurched villages.

8. Here are some ideas for your study program.

I. A Survey of the Bible

A. The Old Testament

B. The New Testament

C. Main points of the Bible

II. Doctrine

A. The Answer to Problems

B. Key Verses (to learn by heart)

III. Worship

A. Liturgy

B. Music

C. Offering

D. Preaching

E. Altar Call

IV. Life of a Lay Pastor

A. His holiness: his inner responsibilities

B. His ministry: his outer responsibilities

V. Life of the Church

A. Responsibilities of the members

B. Spiritual Gifts of the members

C. Training of the members

D. Ministries of the members: prayer, worship, evangelism, establishment, equipping, expanding

VI. Information on the denomination

A. History

B. Organization

C. Relationship with the denomination

D. Evangelistic works

E. Social works

I. A call to share the burden

A. When the Church forgets its villages, the devil takes them back and leaves the Church isolated in the urban centers.

B. The Zairian Church was abandoned and sent millions of its young people to the cities without first giving them spiritual and moral training.

C. The Zairian Church is beginning to recognize its neglect, and large-scale evangelism is now taking place throughout Zaire.

II. A call to work

A. We ask you: “Is there a greater need than that of the great numbers of unchurched villages within your country?”

B. It is our conviction that you cannot do better than to give to your country and to your denomination the vision of what is possible, to show them how to thoroughly evangelize your villages without churches.

III. A call to unity

A. We pray that all missions encourage their sister church in the developing world to count their unchurched villages, then to consider adopting a strategy to plant churches in those villages.

B. Each mission could put a certain sum of money at the disposition of the sister church to meet their needs.

C. The prosperous nations would not need financial aid, but collaboration in the planning of their strategy could be useful.

IV. A call to organization

A. We call upon you to research the number of unchurched villages under your responsibility and to compare the Zairian situation to yours.

B. If you conclude that your denomination could benefit from such a program, we advise you to prepare a detailed project for your mission, one which asks for its collaboration in an effort to reach all the unchurched villages in a period of one to five years.

C. Inform the mission of how many villages need to be evangelized and how you will do it. Invite the missionaries to a conference on rural evangelism.

D. Work on the overall plan so that the mission realizes from the very beginning its vital role in the vision.

V. A call to communication

A. The International Center of Evangelism will willingly answer questions from any nation which desires more information on the contents of this document.

B. We encourage you to write to us: we would like to know of your evangelism projects. In certain exceptional cases, experienced leaders could be sent to meet with denominational heads who intent to evangelize their unchurched villages, but who lack specific details on how to do it.

C. May the Holy Spirit engrave this vision and this passion in your spirit and heart do that in a few years millions of people who live in darkness in your unchurched villages can henceforth live in the wonderful light of their Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Report / March 1990 - March 1991 / Stephen Liversedge

In 1989 evangelism teams returned to the International Center of Evangelism to say that they had contacted Pygmies who were interested in the Gospel. Other denominations across the country also reported the same openness among a people long considered resistant. It was at that time that the International Center of Evangelism began to ask some basic questions such as: Where are the Pygmies? How many are there? Do they know how to read? Are they still nomadic? Preparations were made for research to be done after the Third National Congress on Evangelism which took place in April 1990 in Kinshasa. At that time, Mr. Marvin Bowers brought a map of Zaire which showed in detail places where Pygmies lived. The map had been done in the 1950’s by the Soviet Union, and we were not sure if it was still accurate. But since it was all that we had at that time, we used it in the Congress. We marked down the cities and main rivers around the Pgymy encampments to help the participants in the Congress respond to questions concerning their knowledge of Pygmies. There was good participation, and we discovered that the Soviet map was still accurate. We made up a questionnaire based on the information given with the goal of sending the information to the denominations working in those areas, which would give us an idea of the current situation of Pygmies so that we could evangelize them better.

At the same time, the International Protestant Church of Kinshasa prepared its missionary conference. The Committee of Twelve formed a sub-committee on missions, made up of five people. The sub-committee submitted to the Committee of Twelve on proposals for missionary projects. Independently, one by one, the five members decided to propose the evangelism of Pygmies as one of its projects. The Church offered a generous gift for 1990 with the goal of evangelizing each group of Pygmies throughout Zaire.

Sending the first questionnaire helped us to determine the current relationship between the Bantu villages and the Pygmies who come to their village to trade what they found in the forest for the village’s goods. Once these villages were known, we tried to find out if there was a church in each Bantu village. If not, we would send an team to evangelize every unchurched village in the area. With a core of converts, we would plant a church. A Christian was then appointed to become the lay pastor of the village. He would be chosen and sent to a centrally located village in an area of forty villages, where a portable school would take place. The candidate would be trained for two months (200 course hours). It would be these very lay pastors who would establish churches which would become centers of evangelism to win other Pygmies. They would make contact with their neighboring Pygmies, have evangelistic campaigns, and win some to the Lord. Among the converts, there would be some who would attend portable school. After being trained, they would return to their tribes, to a life they knew, but with an important difference: their new life in Christ. And they would become God’s messengers to their people.

Through our research, we discovered that many Pygmy groups live in permanent village. In certain cases, as with the CBB denomination, we discovered a congregation of 200 Pygmies with their own pastor. In such cases, the strategy is the same, except we go right in to Pygmy villages to evangelize and establish a lay pastor in each unchurched village. In some cases, our evangelistic efforts focus on Bantu villages near Pygmy villages. In the area of Bisenge-Batua in North Bandundu, where we have found the CBB Church among Pygmies, we gave salaries to three Pygmy evangelists who reached 14 villages in two months, a total of 5000 Pygmies. That work was done during December-January, and we are still waiting for the report and the list of candidates for their portable school.

We found Pygmy villages to the North and West of Lake Mai Ndombe, but there were no Pygmy churches or pastor. We sent a team of evangelists to reach the Bantu and Pygmy villages for a period of three months. Evangelist Motambayi and his son preached 70 times, and about 2000 people were saved. From that group, 21 Bantus and 17 Pygmies enrolled in a portable school the first day, which took place at Isongo under the leadership of the CBFZ. After the first day, 11 Pygmies quit for many reasons, but we want to focus on one: the Pygmy students were not as well dressed as their Bantu colleague. Because of this problem, we sought to have portable schools exclusively for Pygmies. In spite of that loss, two Pygmies completed their studies successfully, and they were given the responsibility of two permanent Pygmy villages. At the end of their training, each graduate received a Bible, a mini-library of five books on sermon preparation, discipleship of new converts, and the holy life of the lay pastor in the village.

In a zone to the south of the Zaire River, on the border between Equator and Haut-Zaire, we made contact with a Pygmy group which had never heard the Gospel before the month of December 1990-. The Reverend Pastor Bonganga and Missionary Gordon Christianson of CEUM went on an evangelism trip to Iwe, where they had a good response to the Gospel. Almost half of the inhabitants made a decision to follow the Lord after having seen the film, Jesus. A regional Church leader made a commitment to visit the village once a month for the next five months to disciple the new converts. We hope to reach four neighboring villages which the Pygmies spoke of. We are now planning a portable school after the rainy season. Reverend Pastor Bonganga is currently a student at the International School of Evangelism where he has been receiving training in the planning of portable schools. He will lead the effort. We hope to sent Missionary Keith Gustafson with the regional leader when he visits Iwe so that the latter can encourage the tribe, take some photographs, and even do a video.

Such a situation exists to the South of Mbandaka where Reverend Boetsa of the CDZA has organized two portable schools where 15 of 92 candidates were Pygmies. They just finished an evangelism trip near Ingende, and they are planning a portable school at Ilong'Ambelo, about 235 kms from Mbandaka.

We have personnel on the field for such efforts in many provinces of the country. We are currently evangelizing a group of Pygmy villages near Bongandanga, to the south of Lisala, in Equator province. We want to organize a portable school in June of this year. Four denominations (CAZ, CAFEZA, CPZa, and CMUNS) from Haut-Zaïre, Kasaï- Occidental, and Shaba are ready to begin evangelistic campaigns which will result in portable schools.

Trips to do preliminary research have been made: Pastor Kalele of the CPZa in Kasaï-Oriental, Pastor Tsulo of CAFEZA in Haut-Zaïre, Pastor Atido of CECA in Kivu, Pastor Kitambila of CUEBZA in Bandundu, et Pastor Boetsa of CDZA in Equator.

Trips to directly evangelize Pygmies have been made in hard-to-access places: CEKA in Kasai Oriental, CBFZ and CBB in Bandundu, CEUM in Haut-Zaïre, CDCZ et CBFZ in Equator.

Almost everywhere there are Pygmies, we are finding receptivity, even enthusiasm, to hear the Gospel. Each time we discover a Pygmy village, we discover four or five others, thanks to that contact. The task of reaching Pygmies is even greater than we originally thought, but their thirst and love for the Word equal or surpass what we were told in the reports of our team members. How can we neglect this work now when the harvest is so ripe? We have the workers. We have the funds. We have the wisdom, prayer, and perseverance to the task.

Mission Aviation Fellowship has made a huge contribution. The have collaborated with us with reduced ticket prices so that the trips could be made by plane. This spirit has made contact with Pygmy groups possible.

We have recorded Pgymies singing hymns in Lingala. The work of editing the songs and reproducing them for evangelism remains to be done; this will be used to evangelize Pygmies on the Western side of Zaire. We still have much work to do.

Summary by Stephen Liversedge

In 1984 I took a trip by boat to Mushie, with our evangelists Motambai, Wayi, and Luzolo. It took three and a half days to reach it. It was the middle of April, it was very hot, and the trip was difficult. We visited all the churches from Mushie to Kenia along the road to Nyoke. During those visits we discovered a church with all the formalities and rituals of Christianity, but without spiritual power. Each night, sometimes until 1:00 in the morning, we counseled members of the church. When we asked them questions, we discovered that many of them had already consulted with witch doctors to help them. Many were still experiencing problems because they had not yet given up their fetishes. Can light fellowship with darkness? I wondered, “How can we help men and women be faithful to God?” How can we lead them to spiritual maturity?”

When I returned to Kinshasa and the Center of Evangelism, and after having given my report to director Willys Braun, began to hear him talk about portable schools for the first time. In the following years, especially in his course, “Evaluation for Church Growth,” the strategy for portable schools emerged. At that time, Dr. Braun calculated there were 70,000 villages in Zaire, and 60,000 of them without churches! Whether the figures were accurate was not so important. What was important was to begin a work that had been neglected. That is what we have been doing since 198s6-87.

The first step of our strategy is to discover, through active denominations, the unevangelized villages in their work area. There could also be villages which had been evangelized by the church in the past, but which have now been forsaken. We classify neglected villages into two types: unreached and formerly reached.

The next step is to send a team of evangelists to win those villages for Christ; this takes a period of two months. During that time, the new believers are asked to choose a candidate to come and study in a portable school.

After having evangelizing an area of about 40 villages, we choose a centrally located village for a portable school. Three teachers, one who has studied at the International School of Evangelism and has become the director for portable schools in his denomination, offer 200 hours of courses for five hours a day, eight weeks at a time. In the end, the students who have successfully completed the courses receive a certificate from their denomination attesting to their qualifications as a lay pastor for the denomination.

Portable Schools are not in competition with T.E.E., Bible Schools, or seminaries. Portable Schools represent an effort to fill a vacuum as quickly as possible. Two months are not enough to effectively train a man, but it is a beginning which can be followed up by a more comprehensive training, lie T.E.E. We ask that each coordinator of portable schools be a graduate of our school or a teacher who fully understands the strategy before beginning it.

In the last nine years, a total of 21,813 lay pastors have been trained. About 38,000 unchurched villages remain. If we continue at this rate, we will need 16 years to complete the work, which means that we will reach our goal by the year 2011. Can we complete the task between now and the year 2000? Currently, we train 2,424 lay pastors per year. If we want to finish the task by the year 2000, we need to add to that total another 9,546, an increase of 300% over the current rate. Instead of training 659 lay pastors per month, we must train 795 lay pastors per month, which means we need to have 19 portable schools per month.

There are more than 100 Protestant denominations in Zaire, 62 are officially recognized by the State. The Center collaborates with 28 of these denominations, an increase of 6 denominations since last year. About ten of these have organized more than 10 Portable Schools. With about 33% participation from the Church of Christ in Zaire (ECZ), we have trained 3,332 lay pastors. If we mobilized all the denominations in the ECZ, it would be possible to train 9,996 lay pastors, even more if the independent churches got involved. The International School of Evangelism has already trained pastors from 48 denominations in the ECZ and various independent denominations. If each denomination organized 3 or 4 Portable Schools per year, we could finish the task by the year 2000.

We need to work hard to overcome these obstacles. We need to target unreached peoples and gather information at our disposal. We need to train new lay pastors, not just recycle the old ones.

Go to the unreached areas where there are no lay pastors. Evangelize. Organize a Portable School. Continue until there is a lay pastor for every village.