The Forgotten Manifesto of Jesus - 2 

From a book by Phil Moore

Part 1 of this blog is here.

Phil Moore is a former megachurch pastor in London who went through a major shift during the pandemic. Phil started asking some hard questions such as "Is what we're doing really working?", "Is this the way Jesus wants us to make disciples?"

What Phil discovered by connecting with disciple-making movements in places like Iran and India completely upended his approach. He realized the key to mature disciples of Jesus isn't about gathering big crowds, but about empowering everyday believers to make disciples who make disciples. The focus is on making disciples not just converts. It's a radically decentralized, reproducible model that has resulted in millions becoming disciples of Jesus.

In his latest book, "The Forgotten Manifesto of Jesus", Phil shows how the simple, revolutionary teachings of Jesus in Matthew 10 and Luke 10, has the power to transform not just our churches, but the very way we think about the Great Commission.

Let us remind ourselves of just Luke 10v1-9 NLT:

"The Lord now chose seventy-two other disciples and sent them ahead in pairs to all the towns and places he planned to visit. These were his instructions to them: “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields. Now go, and remember that I am sending you out as lambs among wolves. Don’t take any money with you, nor a traveller’s bag, nor an extra pair of sandals. And don’t stop to greet anyone on the road. Whenever you enter someone’s home, first say, ‘May God’s peace be on this house.’ If those who live there are peaceful, the blessing will stand; if they are not, the blessing will return to you. Don’t move around from home to home. Stay in one place, eating and drinking what they provide. Don’t hesitate to accept hospitality, because those who work deserve their pay. If you enter a town and it welcomes you, eat whatever is set before you. Heal the sick, and tell them, ‘The Kingdom of God is near you now.’"". 

Very different from an invitational approach. One based on going, praying, depending on people you meet, finding people of peace, getting to know them, helping them in their struggles and sharing about the Kingdom. Then they become disciples who do the same thing. 

In the book, Phil goes through Luke 10 v1-24 verse by verse and demonstrates, with lots of personal stories, how this approach to kingdom advance is so relevant today. Here is a summary:

1. Multiply 
Luke 10v1 "The Lord now chose seventy-two other disciples and sent them ahead in pairs to all the towns and places he planned to visit." Notice the word, 'other'. These were not the original 12 in Matthew 10 sent out again. The 12 were added to by the 72 and these would eventually become thousands after the day of Pentecost. Multiplication echoes the command in Genesis 1v28, "Be fruitful and increase in number...". God has placed multiplication of disciples in the DNA of Christians. How much does it distress you that the majority of Western Christians fail to produce any spiritual offspring and church attendance is declining?

2. On Your Knees
Luke 10v2  “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields." How can you reach 60M people in the UK? The problem isn't with the harvest field, it's that the workers are few. You have to find out where God is at work in the hearts of non-believers and mobilise these as co-workers. In Luke 10v6, these are described as People of Peace. Our task is to pray that we might find them. Disciple-making movements are all about partnering with God's Spirit, so they always begin with prayer.

3. Weakness is our superweapon
Luke 10v3 "I am sending you out as lambs among wolves." Jesus started his Church through 'little people' - weak and ordinary men and women. They were dismissed as 'sinners', 'unschooled', 'Galileans'. He taught them how to make disciples. Iranian believers who lead churches are former drug-dealers, prostitutes, etc. People from the bottom of society whose lives have been transformed by the power of God and cannot keep the good news to themselves. Jesus is such a strong Shepherd that he can partner with the weakest sheep and the more vulnerable we feel, the more glory goes to him. 

4. Stripped down to size and laser focus
Luke 10v4 "Don’t take any money with you, nor a traveller’s bag, nor an extra pair of sandals. And don’t stop to greet anyone on the road." Do we believe we are too weak for God to use us? The story of Gideon shows otherwise. It is only by stripping Gideon down to size that the Lord uses him. Are you willing to be stripped down to size? Finding People of Peace is impossible without God and we need heavenly resources rather than relying on earthly resources. To teach ourselves to rely on the Lord, we need to go to places which are uncomfortable to meet the outcasts, the marginalised. We need to avoid setting up projects - casting ourselves in the role of helper and pushing away People of Peace. Think of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well.

Do not greet anyone on the road is not an instruction to be rude to people but for us to be laser focused about our mission. Distracted by old ways of doing things, spending too much time mentoring existing Christians, wasting time with people who don't really want to change, cherry picking parts of Luke 10. It is far easier to train up a few hungry non-believers than to reinvigorate a large group of half-hearted believers. Everything needs to be highly replicable, highly autonomous and highly obedient to Jesus as Lord.

5. People of Peace and go slow to go fast
Luke 10v5-6 "Whenever you enter someone’s home, first say, ‘May God’s peace be on this house.’ If those who live there are peaceful, the blessing will stand; if they are not, the blessing will return to you." The Hebrew meaning is a 'close friend' or 'key ally'. It describes the new workers that God will motivate to join us in the harvest. The disciples are not to hang out at synagogues. They are to hang out in the town making it clear that they are visitors who cannot afford to stay in an inn. Honest vulnerability draws the right people to us.

The disciples are not to rush to share the gospel with those that welcome them. A Person of Peace is non-believer who is willing to gather a group of non-believers to go on a journey of discovery with them. They are open about their struggles, hungry for change and quick to share what they have learned. With the Samaritan woman at the well and the demoniac at Decapolis, Jesus showed how one Person of Peace is able to open up a whole community to the gospel. Peter visited the house of Cornelius and the result was that the whole household wanted to go on a journey of discovery. Paul reached the whole of Philippi through three People of Peace - Lydia, the slave girl and the jailer. Insiders spread the gospel rapidly, more clearly as affinity groups see the change and distribute the workload more evenly. 

We must resist coming on too strong with people about the gospel. We need to learn to go slow to go fast. People need to process what we share and we may find ourselves running ahead of what God is doing in their hearts. We start simple and be friendly. As we listen to people, we can get more serious and find out about their lives and be open about our struggles. We can then ask deeper questions about life and faith, avoiding religious jargon and trigger words and see if they are open about their struggles, be they emotional, relational, mental, physical, spiritual. A Person of Peace is open about their struggles, hungry for change, quick to share. If they are not open then they are not ready to be that Person of Peace yet. Their struggle is a springboard into a journey of discovery and appropriate stories can be offered and through those a supernatural encounter with God.

6. Discovery groups and multiplying house churches
Luke 10v7 "Don’t move around from home to home. Stay in one place, eating and drinking what they provide. Don’t hesitate to accept hospitality, because those who work deserve their pay." Investing time to train people in what it means to follow Jesus. This means to reach a nation, we must narrow our attention to discipling a handful of people. Jesus spent time in people's homes and lives were changed - think Zacchaeus and Emmaus. The experience of the discipleship movement is to help People of Peace start 'Discovery Groups' in their homes or local cafés so that they can invite others to come on the journey. A key is time spent hanging out with each other, sharing thankfulness, struggles, actions, a Bible story, discussing the story, changes experienced and who else to share with.

Jesus doesn't tell the seventy-two to create a network of synagogue buildings. This would cost money, time and distract from focus on the harvest fields.  The goal is to help each Discovery Group to become a Multiplying House Church - a miniature mission station. The House Church should be self-governing, self-funding, self-correcting and self-replicating.

I hope this has given you some cause to think and act as a taster. Further verses are expounded and personal stories told - you will need to get the book to find out more. 

Phil comments in an interview with TWR, "It's no secret that the church in the UK is declining. It's not just that we're not reaching non-believers. We're not reaching our own children. So the church is getting older in the UK. We're struggling to make connections. 

"Britain is becoming so much more diverse. I was in a housing estate on the doorstep of a person from Pakistan. If my message to him is, 'Would you want to come to church with me on Sunday?' There's no way he's going to say yes. But actually, he made me a coffee. He wanted to talk. We were able to begin a dialog about what it really means for us to serve God. I was able to talk to him about the story of Adam and Eve and how that shows a different way. He now wants to go through some Bible stories with me and his family and talk about what they mean. 

"If we're waiting for them to come to us, they're never coming. But we can learn from the underground church how they are taking the gospel to people where they are unable to invite people to church. There is so much we can learn from them, and I'm slowly beginning to see it make an impact here in the UK."
 
See also:
Empty-handed ministers - 1
Contrasting 'Church as we know it' and 'Disciple-multiplying movements' - 1
Becoming the Church that Jesus comes back for - part 1
Tradition - ballast for the voyage or an anchor?
15 observations in disciple making movements in urban locations - 1
Sheep Among Wolves
4 million micro churches planted in less than 30 years