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Jesus Movements: The Way People Groups Come to Jesus
In most of the remaining Frontier People Groups, people believe following Jesus means betraying their family to join a different “Christian” people group, so often early believers have left their people group. But in God’s Word we see Jesus pours out love on His followers everywhere, sending them back into their Samaritan or Gentile communities, to bring blessings and peace to those there (John 4; Mark 5:1-20).
In the book of Acts, we see the Spirit of God spread the Good News of Jesus’s resurrection and forgiveness of sins rapidly from household to household—even without printed Scriptures, church buildings or salaried preachers: (Acts 6:7; Acts 9:31; Acts 12:24; Acts 16:5)
Movements in Acts were the way that faith in Jesus grew faster than the population, in both the Jewish context, as well as among the Samaritans and the different Gentile peoples. When God’s Spirit sparks movements to Jesus, they transform existing communities and people groups by bringing God’s blessings into families.
Why movements are necessary:
No people group in history has ever become identified with Jesus without an indigenous movement to Him taking place. The believers in Jesus in each generation die out if there is no movement to faith. Frontier People Groups are those who have never had a growing indigenous movement to the Lord, even if they have had many witnesses come to tell them about Jesus for centuries.
In some places, like China, over 100 years of witness happened before the people realized that the Creator God was their God too, and that Jesus also freed them from sin and death. Believing widows in China and Korea spread the Good News quickly from town to town. Now over 10% of the Chinese people, and 30% of the Koreans, are committed to Jesus.
Frontier People Groups tend to believe that Jesus is only for foreign Christians and drive away those who follow Jesus, until they see whole households among them become believers. As these households of faith tell of healing and blessing coming to them through Jesus, the people group begins to understand Jesus is the Savior of the whole world, including their own people (John 4:42).
We long for God’s Kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven! So let us pray persistently for rapidly spreading Jesus movements to bring God’s promised blessing to the families of the earth. Pray especially for those people groups who have not yet had any movement to Jesus—the Frontier People Groups.
Sources on discipling through movements:
https://obedience.life/resources
Video example of how Jesus Movements can work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-IUraCyByU&t=285s