God's Story - Creation to Christ

Lesson One - Creation

There is one true God and He created all that is. He lives by His Holy Spirit in the hearts of true Christians who are born again.

• God Created the Heavens and Earth ……………………………………………………………….…Genesis 1:1-24

• God Created Man and Woman ……………………………………………………………………………Genesis 1:25-28

Truths to learn and obey from these Bible verses about creation:

• God is the creator but not a spirit in the creation; He is personal and infinite

• God created man and woman for three reasons: friendship with God, to love and care for each other, and to oversee creation and preach the good news of Jesus.

Lesson Two - Rebellion

We have all sinned against God through disobedience and rebellion. The penalty of our sin is death.

• Rebellion in Heaven………………………………………………..……..Revelation 12:7-9

• Rebellion in Heaven………………………………………………………Isaiah 14:12-15

• Rebellion and Deception on Earth ………………….…………...Genesis 3:1-7

• Guilt and Shame Separates God and Adam and Eve ....Genesis 3:3-13

• Every Human Being Has Sinned, Sin is penalty of sin …Romans 3:23, 6:23

• Our sin causes great sadness to God …………………………Genesis 6:5-6

Truths to learn and obey from these Bible verses about rebellion:

• Satan is a liar and deceiver and will sometimes speak lies to people in dreams or through evil people

• Sin is rebellion/disobedience

• God gave death as the punishment for sin

Lesson Three - Sacrifice

The punishment for our sins requires a sacrifice for there to be forgiveness.

• God Uses Sacrifices as a Picture of Jesus ………………. Genesis 22:1-14

• The Sin Offering ……………………………………………………..… Leviticus 4:1-3

• Jesus Died So We Can Return to God …………….…..Luke 23:21-34

• Jesus’ Sacrifice Was Made One Time for All People ..Hebrews 10:12

Truths to learn and obey from these Bible verses about sacrifice:

• The penalty for our sin is spiritual death

• God has provided a way to escape the penalty of sin

• Jesus is God’s sacrifice for our sins

• There is no need for other sacrifices – Jesus is the sacrifice for all time for everyone

Lesson Four - Return to God

God provides a way for us to repent and return to Him

• God Asked His People to Return to Him by Repenting of Sin ..Hosea 6:1-3, Isaiah 44:22, 55:7

• The Lost Son Returns to His Father …………………………….………Luke 15:11-20

• There Are Two Things We Must Do to Return to God ………. John 1:12-13

• Our Sins Are Forgiven When We Return to God ………………...1 John 1:9

• We are Born Again and God’s Spirit Lives in Us………….…….. John 3:6, Romans 8:14

Truths to learn and obey from these Bible verses about returning to God:

• Returning to God is a way of acknowledging our need for forgiveness

• Returning to God is an act of godly sorrow for our sin

• Returning to God releases God’s forgiveness

• When we return to God we become the children of God

Lesson Five – Commission

Telling others about Jesus

• We Are Sent to Tell Others About Jesus ……………….……Acts 1:8, Matthew 28:18-20

• When We Return to God We Receive New Life …………John 3:3-7, 15-17

• God’s Gift of Life and Forgiveness is by Grace ………….Ephesians 2:1-8

• We Are Adopted As God’s Children…………………………...Romans 8:15-17

• When We Die We Will Go to Heaven by Grace …….…… Revelation 5:9-10

• We Become God’s Friends and Co-Workers on Earth..John 15:13-16

Truths to learn and obey from these Bible verses:

• We have assurance of salvation because of what Jesus has done for us

• We are sent by Jesus to tell others about Him

D-Group Companion

Here is a quick guideline on running a D-Group by using the ABC process. Use this as a “how to” guide and keep in mind as a church planter you will be training trainers to start more D-Groups that can grow into new churches. You do this not so much doing it yourself (except in your own D-group), but by coaching others.

ASK

This part of the group is about loving God (for believers) and caring for one another!

• Asking people what they are thankful for is a springboard for worship. Encourage believing groups to worship the Lord through song, reading psalms or saying a prayer. Leave worship out with pre-believing groups!

• Each one sharing one need in his life is a springboard for prayer. Prayer in the group works as follows! Remember keep the process strong! When everyone has shared their prayer request we pray for one another in the group by each praying for no more than 30 seconds and one thought only. That way everyone's need is getting prayed for in a short time. If the group is large break up into smaller groups.

• Each one reviewing the one thing they learned last week in the Bible study is a basis for Biblical accountability. D-Groups encourage obedience based on self—discovery in God’s Word.

Bible

This part of the D-Group meeting is about discovering God and His will for our lives!

• The facilitator does not teach. His/her job is to ask questions and let the group go on a discovery journey to find the answers for themselves in god’s Word.

• The discovery process is easy and the pattern is essential: read, restate, reflect, then report one thing they got from the passage. The Holy Spirit is the teacher!

• Asking at random one person to tell the passage in their own words makes the group pay good attention while it's being read!

Commit

This part of the meeting is about putting into practice what has been learned. It's about obedience to the Word and sharing what we've learned with others who don't know Jesus.

• Allowing each person to share with the group the truth they have learned is practice for when they share it with friends and family who do not know Jesus

• Remember to ask “How are you going to apply this truth you have discovered in your life this week?

• Remember to ask “Who will you share it with?”

• Caring for the needs of the community around is a core part of what the group does. This gets the group caring for their community even before they become believers! (Usually persons of peace will carry the needs of the community on their hearts already)

• Once the group are believers they may also actively pray for specific people in their family to come to faith in Christ.

Becoming a D-Groups Starter!

D-groups are discipleship groups that can grow into little churches or remain small groups in a local church. The key element of D-Groups is multiplication – that is what gets people active in being a disciple and making disciples. Expect some groups to fail. Focus your energy on coaching on those that are willing to train others to lead the groups and are active in multiplying more groups.

Here are three key elements to multiplying D-Groups:

1. Stick to the ABC pattern. The process is very important and your job as a coach is to make sure the process stays on course.

2. Hand over quickly to a new facilitator(s). Use the MAWL process the following way:
   Model the ABC process 3 times, then turn it over. NOT MORE. As you model, ask your potential facilitator(s), “Did you see what I did?” “Do you think you could do it?” This allows your facilitator in training to realize you are modeling something you want them to catch!
   Assist From the 4th time the group comes together the new facilitator takes over. At this point you assist by keeping the process on track. You also meet with your facilitator to brief and debrief them on how they are doing.
   Watch You no longer have to keep the process on track because your facilitator(s) have got it! You miss some of the meetings to start more D-Groups.
   Leave The group no longer depends on you to run. You continue to mentor your facilitator(s) on a separate time.

3. Don't allow people to join the group once it's going. When new people want to join, start new groups with them!

Here is how you go about starting and coaching a new D-Gorup:

• Start by being a church with your team or co-worker – do the “ABC’s” together

• Pray a lot

• Gain access to the community – share Jesus and serve people

• Find the “Person of Peace” – See Luke 10:1-11

• Find the 'Oikos' of Peace – the person of peace’s network or family – Don’t get impressed with first friendly person you meet

• Start the Bible study in someone’s home in the community (it may be with as few as 2-4 people).

• Coach the new facilitator after the 3rd meeting, following the MAWL process

• Work towards multiplication by starting new D-Groups as people want to join the group.

D-Group “No-No’s”

• Don’t take offerings for ministries or projects

• Don’t recruit volunteers for other projects or ministries

• Don’t get into discussions about someone’s personal doctrine

• Don’t mix personal business with discipleship

• Don’t mix politics with being the D-Group facilitator or coach

• Don’t be a match maker of relationships

• Don’t turn it into personal accountability group

• Don’t spend time alone counseling or driving members of the opposite sex

• Don’t borrow or lend money

• Don’t invite guest speakers

Q & A About All Nations Cape Town

Including Our Twenty Year Dream

1. What is the overall mission and purpose of All Nations Cape Town?

We do three things in All Nations: we plant churches, train leaders, and make disciples. We do this by engaging the poor and unreached through practical programs to serve people’s needs, and by sharing the good news of Jesus. All Nations has churches and workers active in about 25 countries worldwide. Sally and I are based in Cape Town, South Africa. We work in the poorer communities of Cape Town where we reach people with the gospel and equip church planters to go to other parts of Africa and the Middle East. We are passionate about reaching the unreached people groups of Africa and the Middle East, especially Muslims. There are about 400 million people among Africa’s one billion people who have never heard the gospel one time.

2. What specific task(s) has God called you to fulfill?

As mentioned above, we have 3 tasks we focus on: disciple making, church planting and leadership training. We seek to equip local Africans to lead the way in planting 1000 churches in the next ten-twenty years amongst the least reach people groups of Africa, especially amongst Muslims.

3. How is your work being accomplished?

We form and train teams that are engaged daily in the high-crime, extreme poverty areas of Cape Town. We do projects that include sports, job creation, AIDS awareness and prevention, life skills training, art and music, abandoned baby rescue and helping children at risk (child headed households), education, and farming. We engage in all these projects with the aim of gaining access to the hearts and lives of people, then discerning who is the “person of peace” (Luke 10:5—7), then starting a Bible study with that person, and then as the Bible study grows, turning it into a new church plant. We have planted about 50 churches in the last three years following this approach in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Zambia and Mozambique. Many thousands of people have been ministered to, but more importantly, many hundreds have been and are being discipled. Scores of quality leaders are being equipped.

4. What are your specific goals for this coming year?

Our goals for this year:

• Develop the vocational training program to equip Africa church planters with job skills/trades to enable them to be self-supporting and self-sustaining. There are 10 of our leaders now in various stages of vocational and work skills training. Some are involved in a work/live program. Others have participated in the following training seminars in the following disciplines: computer literacy, non-tillage farming, hospitality, education, business. We plan to develop each seminar into a full-service training track in the trade school.

• Break through to 2nd, 3rd and 4th generation church plants by the initial churches we have started in the last 3 years. Approximately 35 churches have been started since October, 2006.

• Establish church planting hubs in Zambia and Zimbabwe and send full time workers to Zanzibar and Ghana.

• Send exploratory teams to research possible locations for church planting among unreached people groups in Angola, Lesotho, Sudan, Ghana and North India.

• Pay off the remaining debt on our training center of $160,000 US. This will allow us to go into phase two of developing the training center. Presently, we can house 35 students at Africa House. When the debt is retired we would like to build an additional accommodation/class room wing that will increase student housing to 60 students and allow the church planting and trade school classes to run simultaneously.

5. What are your greatest internal needs in the ministry?

• We need a full time administrator, and a operations director for the training center.

• Funds to retire $160,000 debt at Africa House so we can enter the second phase of developing the facilities, a $300,000 project.

• Greater level of prayer and fasting. Our teams and workers fast different days of the week, but the level of intensity and faith needs to go to a higher level.

• Embrace the grace of God for suffering and sacrifice that is necessary to reach the 450 million lost people of Africa. 350 million of that number are Muslims.

6. What are the greatest external threat(s) to the ministry in Africa?

• Islamic fundamentalism and it’s violent response to the progress of the gospel amongst Muslims

• Spiritual warfare against our workers as they move into unreached people groups: sickness, auto accidents, wars, corrupt government leaders, Muslim extremists who oppose our work, lack of funds for our African church planters.

• African animistic world-views, reinforced by ancestor worship and controlling family leaders to maintain tribal customs consistent with those practices and world views

• Poverty mentality among Africans that leads to passivity and hopelessness

• Violent crime

• Corruption among government leaders

• Family expectations that Christian workers should support elders and other family members financially

• Sexual promiscuity in the townships and villages of Africa

• Marriage practice of lobola (bride price)

7. What are the greatest opportunities in Africa?

• 10,000’s of Africans willing to be trained for cross-cultural church planting

• Openness amongst Africa’s 350 million Muslims to the gospel

• Governments are open: they need help in responding to needs in education, job creation, community development, AIDS, etc.

• Natural resources: Africa can feed itself

• Unemployed university students: there is a vast army of young adults waiting for a cause to give their lives for

• Education systems are open to Christian programs

• There is huge potential in Africa to mobilize thousands of workers to go to other continents and aid in the completion of the great commission

8. What is your 20 year dream?

• 100 apostolic leaders leading church planting movements in the hardest places of Africa

• 1000 churches planted that are self-sustaining and reproducing

• 5 Major training hubs in each of the major geographical regions of Africa: Southern, Northern, Western, Eastern, and Central Africa

• 10,000 workers who have been trained and are self-supporting church planters

• CPx training programs in each of Africa’s 54 countries

D-Groups Simplified

“You have heard me teach many things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Teach these great truths to trustworthy people who are able to pass them on to others” (2 Timothy 2:2 NLT).

A,B,C Format – It’s very important to follow the pattern called “ABC” (call it anything you want to call it). Divide the D-Group meeting into one-thirds and faithfully stick with the purpose of each one-third. The D-Groups help lay the foundation for very basic discipleship. The format is easy to learn and easy to follow, and it is also very transferable.

A – Ask (accountability leading to short verbal worship and praying for each other)

1. Ask, “What is one thing you are thankful for?” Then, “Let’s take time to thank God with short prayers of thanksgiving”.

2. Ask, “Do you have a need to share or a sin you want to confess?” Then, “Let’s pray short prayers for each other”.

3. Ask, “What did you learn in last weeks Bible study and how it’s going applying it to your life”.

B - Bible study – Use the discovery Bible approach

1. Read. Ask someone to read the passage of Scripture.

2. Restate. Ask someone else to restate it in their own words. Ask the rest of the group to add anything that was left out – without lots of discussion.

3. Reflect. Take 3-5 minutes to reflect in silence. No discussion first.

4. Relate. Share one thing each person has from the passage. Each one share once before anyone shares twice.

C – Commit - to pray and obey

1. Pray. “Who are three people you can share this truth with?”
   1.
   2.
   3.
   “Let’s pray for them now in groups of two”.

2. Obey. “Let’s practice how we will share with a friend or family member what we learned today”.

3. Practice – It is crucial to spend a few minutes at the end of each session practicing how the truth that was learned will be shared with the three people you are praying for.

Come Join Us For Ten Days in Cape Town!

Hello,

This is your invite to spend ten days with us in Cape Town! Ten days for Jesus! I'll be teaching almost every day on Making the Basics Beautiful!

If your between 18 and 30 years, want to do something special this holiday season, and are hungry to grow in your faith - apply now!

Yours,

Floyd

What is Ten Days for Jesus?

It’s an annual event hosted by All Nations in and around Noordhoek near Cape Town, South Africa.

It’s your opportunity to be involved in reaching people in some of the local townships around the Cape Peninsula and showing them how much Jesus loves them.

We set aside ten whole days where we give our time and ourselves to love and serve others as a birthday gift to our King.

What better gift to give Him than our lives in serving the poor and those who don’t know him?

“ ... It is more blessed to give than to receive…” (Acts 20:35).

Join with us and many other enthusiastic followers of Jesus for this exciting short outreach, reaching out to people with God’s heart and love!

When Is Ten Days for Jesus 2009?

The outreach will run from the afternoon of Thursday 10th December through Sunday 20th December, 2009.

Cost of Ten Days for Jesus 2009?

It will cost R1,700 for the ten day period.

This will cover your accommodation, 3 meals a day and transport once you arrive at Africa House. Transportation from the airport or bus station is R100 extra.

Ten Days For Jesus 2009 Program

Our theme for 2009 is ‘Back to Basics’. We want to go back to the basics and remind ourselves of how Jesus shared the gospel by serving people with love.

We are excited about what God is going to be doing!

Ten Days has always been a blast and this year will be no exception. Join us !

What Should I Do Now?

We only have room for a limited number of people so if you want to join us, apply now.

We look forward to hearing from you shortly!

The Ten Days for Jesus Team

Bo-Kapp Outreaches

Bo-Kaap reaches out to and impacts foreigners who have been coming to Cape Town, especially those from Muslim backgrounds, networking with local Christians and churches.

The ministry grew out of our ministry to Cape Muslims in 2006. A vision was followed up to reach out to and impact foreigners who have been coming to Cape Town, especially those from Muslim backgrounds, networking with local Christians and churches.

Target Audience:

• Foreigners, especially Muslims among them.

Key Activities:

• Prayer walks, friendship evangelism.

• Workshops.

• Seminars, English teaching, research.

Desired Results:

• Home churches: Bo-Kaap, Mowbray.

• Pinelands, Parow.

Opportunities for Involvement:

• Join us in prayer walks.

• Be involved as we develop relationships from which will flow our friendship evangelism.

• Come and pray with us in our prayer groups.

• Help with English teaching.

• Assist in guiding a home church.

Masiphumelele Outreach

Our team is working with disciples to raise up indigenous leaders, starting in Masiphumelele, spreading across South Africa up into Africa and beyond.

We received a specific word from the Lord to move to Cape Town, to serve the poor by sharing the good news of Jesus. Our vision is to share with the poor and oppressed so the Spirit of God might move across Masiphumelele.

In over a year we’ve seen numerous house churches started, and a variety of ministries begun to serve different needy people groups.

We desire to have a simple house church of committed believers on every block in Masi, looking after its own in the neighbourhood. Providing a place of safety, a group of believers for prayer, a stop for rest, an intimidating light against the power of darkness. A place where Jesus dwells in the midst and reaches out to the needy.

Why Church Planting Movements Don't Happen in Christianized Lands - So Far

Hello,

There are massive movements taking place all over the wold right now. North Africa. Iran. India. China. Africa. Millions of new believers are coming to Jesus. Five million among the Bojpuri in India is just one example. Believers are suffering for their faith and the church is being born in unimaginable sacrifice.

Why aren’t we seeing the same results in the Christianized West? Three reasons:

1. Lack of obedience to the word: One example: followers of Jesus don't pursue finding the person of peace, finding one who's oikos is open, then making disciples among them, as Jesus instructed in Luke 10

2. Traditional ways of doing church encourage a "watch the main man on sunday" mentality instead of every believer getting out and making disciples through a lifestyle of obedience.

3. A lack of willingness to suffer and sacrifice. It takes sacrifice to plant churches and Western believers don't believe in sacrifice.

Recently, I wrote to a young church planter in the making in the United States. He was worried about finding a church or a team to work with. Here is the advise I gave him:

"i would love to stay connected to you guys. It is going to take some pioneering and persevering for you to start simple churches with others there where you are. Best bet is go door to door in a poor neighborhood until you find a person of peace and then if their family or network is open, start a Jesus bible study with them. Don't call it church, just study the world. Two qualifications: the person of peace has to be open and their network (oikos) has to be open to doing regualr bibles studies. Get them to the word, teach them simple bible study and watch God speak to them!!!

We have been learning how to do that with "discovery" bible study approach in cape town... very simple. Based on belief that God is drawing people to Jesus by the spirit, that He will teach people through the word if they study it together, and group discovery is much more powerful than individual study because you are imparting the DNA of a future simple church while it is still a study. For example, everyone participates. The bible is the focus. There is accountability to each other to obey what they are reading. It is focused on non-believers studying the word together.

There are three steps to doing the discovery bible study method:

1. choose a passage that is short about obedience, hearing holy spirit, Jesus, etc. ask people to write it down from their translation.

2. ask them to write it down in their own words

3. ask them to read it and write down things they hear God saying to them that apply to their lives that they should do in the next week

Lead the bible study 2 times. Then turn it over to someone in the group to lead. You model it first two times, then in the following bibles studies you sit on the outside of the bible study circle and watch as new leader leads the same process of discovery. Doesn't have to be a christian to lead it, preferably not in fact.

This is the MAWL method of caoching: model, assist, watch, leave

You are a commando bro. You are an army guy. You can do this! It will take pioneering leg work, sweat, tears, loneliness and lots and lots of prayer, then more prayer, but practice luke 10. Go to the poor and the overlooked and you will find them!! Look for the person of peace, the person is open and has a network of friends he or she can gather.

About wanting a team to work with you: don't look for them among the sheep but among the wolves (luke 10:3). This is why Jesus said to His disciples to pray for laborers from the harvest. He didn't want the new believers to be tainted by religious people. Find your team amongst the unsaved. Maybe go door to door and say you want to start a bible study for people who are not church attenders but who want to look at Jesus again. Shake the dust off your feet from those who are not HUNGRY! Do bible study in their home, with non-believers. It must be open seekers, not cynical or highly christianized (they have too many non-biblical preconceptions)."

I am passionate about seeing disciples made who gather and reproduce themselves in others. May God empower us to see massive numbers of new believers, but much more important, to see transformed individuals, families and communities.

May God empower believers in Christianized lands to find new wineskins to hold the wine of millions of new believers.

Floyd

Belonging Happens Before Believing Happens Before Behaving

• We ask people to believe in something before they belong to it. Jesus asked his followers to belong to his movement before he asked them to believe. He understood that belief is not a set of propositions to give ascent to, but a person to know, love and then obey. Jesus approached building his community the opposite way that most of us do today. He invited people to join him before they understood his mission or who he was. He was inviting them into intimacy, into friendship with him. They were part of a community.

• This truth reminds us that people buy into the leader or the community before they buy into the vision or beliefs of the leader or community. Belonging precedes believing precedes behaving. Being loved and accepted comes before changing our behavior.

• If leaders lead a life of love and integrity and the community exudes love that is genuine, people will go on the journey, they will walk a pathway with the community that leads to change in their lives.

• The movement Jesus started was radically different from the religious legalism and control of his day. Religion has a nasty way of messing up relationship.

Church Is Gospel Is Community

Acts 2:42-47, 4:23-37, Romans 12:1-21, Luke 6:12-37, 46-49

The community of disciples Jesus gathered was the re-birthing of an ancient dream in the heart of the Father. God created Adam and Eve and Israel and the church and you and me to have a people for himself, to be his image in the world, to share in his passion and purposes. To have such a community lies at the very center of the eternal purpose of God. The church is not plan B, some kind of divine afterthought. The church was not an accident. The church that Jesus was gathering and building was the rebirthing of God’s purpose.

Extreme Intense Severe Radical Relentless Unyielding Focus

Hello,

I am burdened for those people in the world who have never heard the name of Jesus one time. They are gathered around the globe in their own language/cultural groups… what we call tribes or peoples.

An unreached people group is different than an unevangelized people group in that:

- an unreached people group does not have a sufficient number of churches and believers to evangelize the remainder of their own people group; they lack the strength of numbers or resources to be able to share Jesus with all the other members of their people group. Often it is because of persecution, fear, lack of discipleship and terrain (mountains or jungles or deserts separate them from others of their group).

- an unevangelized PG is one where no one among the people group who speaks their language has heard the gospel. a least evangelized PG means very few individual people have heard the gospel in that people group, usually less than 1%.

In light of the above, imagine this: more than 90% of the churches resources world-wide goes to work with the already reached and already evangelized people groups of the world. That means we are pouring huge amounts of money and effort and people into helping those who have already heard the gospel. We are giving time and energy to help people learn about such good things as inner healing, how to do inductive bible study, good parenting skills, Sunday school, men's ministries, etc., etc., while over one third of the global family, approximately 3.3 billion people, have never heard the name of Jesus one time in their life, and never will unless someone learns their language, and then braces extreme weather and living conditions to go to them with the good news of Jesus.

On top of that, those who are unreached and unevangelized are the poorest of the poor. They die because of lack of water or water borne diseases. In some people groups over 65% of the children die before the age of 5.

So, in my mind their is a place for local churches and ministries and organizations and networks to declare that we must all work energetically to change that 90% to 50% of how our resources are spent. It will take a massive mind-set change, and a new level of courage and suffering. There there are reasons why the unreached are unreached and the poorest of the poor are poor: they are in the hard places. All the easy places have been taken.

There are about 5875 distinct unreached and totally unevangelized tribes and peoples in the world. We know where they are, who they are and what languages they speak; so it is a matter of focus and dedication, not ignorance, to reach them. It will mean tremendous focus, shall I say, passionate focus, or, extreme focus. While local churches continue to be preoccupied with self-preservation and church growth where they are, running bigger and better programs to attract more and more already evangelized people, we will never reach the unreached and respond to the poor of the earth.

Some people want to argue about the best way to do church, the right form of church government, how to run the programs of the church, etc. I have no interest in such discussions. Maybe I did when I was young and argumentative. No more. I want to see one thing while I still have breath: people who have never heard His name hear their is a God who made them and has not forgotten them.

it will take extreme intense severe radical relentless unyielding fierce FOCUS to share the love of Jesus with people who have never heard his name. My plea is for those people.

With gratitude to Jesus,

Floyd

Too Much Form and Too Much Freedom

People all over the world are getting liberated to be faithful members of the body of Christ and yet not be bound by institutional forms of church. There is a difference between the wine, the church, and the forms church takes, the wine skins. Jesus gave his disciples, and us as his disciples, the wine skin analogy so we would be free from religion and controlling religious leaders, yet know we must have some structure (the wine skin). Minimal biblical structure includes gathering in community, communion/worship, mission, elders/apostolic input, and giving and receiving. Wonderfully, we are given freedom by our Father to follow the leading of Holy Spirit to create and discover new wine skins.

There are two extremes when it comes to wine skins: rigid self-righteousness - "we know how church should be done and if it is not done the way we do it, you are wrong", and formless freedom. The challenge is to find a balance between enough form to build a healthy community, and sufficient freedom for people to re-discover and re-imagine the wonder of being the friends of God who live lives of devotion to Jesus and his purposes in the earth.

Welcome to CPx

Hi,

The letter below is from one of our team leaders here in Cape Town, South Africa. He is writing to welcome new students for our leadership training program called CPx. I thought you would find his letter insightful about what happens in a CPx.

Blessings,

Floyd
____________

Hey everyone!

My name is Gawie Malherbe. I'm part of the All Nations family here in Cape Town and the CPX planning team.

The date for CPX is coming closer and we are so excited about all of you arriving here soon! We are so excited about this year's CPX and we've been talking and planning for months about all we would like to see happen in CPX 2009.

I'm a part of the Red Hill team here in Cape Town and as you might have read in some of the stories, God has done amazing things in this community! We are so excited this year to see God take everything He has done to a new level as we believe him for leaders to be raised up within this community. We believe that we can see our 'little churches' lead by the people in Red Hill. That is the heart of what we are doing. We don't want to catch fish only, we want to see God raise up fishers of men that will impact Africa!

So what do you expect God to do in your life during CPX? I know for me it has been an incredible journey of understanding His heart more. I attended one of the first CPX's in Kansas City in 2002 and it's been an incredible journey ever since. Understanding the part God would like us to play in seeing His glory touch lives, families and nations... Redefining 'church' and coming to a fresh and Biblical understanding of what church is all about... Coming into a new boldness in sharing Jesus with people and seeing God touch and change lives before my eyes...

In All Nations we focus on three core values:
Love God
Love each other
Love those who don't know Jesus

In my own life I have realized that living in the Spirit and making these values a part of every day life leads to incredible adventure!
Are you ready for it?

I just want to close with an encourage from Paul's letter to Philemon. I think the translators battle a little with the translation of this passage because it sounds a little different in different translations, but I just love how the NLT puts it:

Philemon 1:4-7
”I always thank my God when I pray for you, Philemon, because I keep hearing about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all of God's people. And I am praying that you will put into action the generosity that comes from your faith as you understand and experience all the good things we have in Christ. Your love has given me much joy and comfort, my brother, for your kindness has often refreshed the hearts of God's people.”

That is my prayer for you for your time in CPX. That you will learn more about all the good things you have in Jesus and that you will learn how to put into action the love that He has placed inside your heart for Him and His people.

Yours,

Gawie

You See Bones - I See an Army

Floyd's new book, ‘You See Bones - I See an Army’ can be ordered directly from the publisher. The "Bones book", as Floyd calls it, is a best seller in Holland, South Africa and other countries and has recently been released in the United States.

Floyd's book answers questions about new expressions of church on campuses and in the market place, the difference between "horizontal and vertical" leadership, and repenting from church as religion.

Click here to buy it from the publisher!

How an Eight Year Old Boy Started a House Church

Matt is my son, a quiet, mild-natured 8 yr old who wouldn't easily be classified as the next 'Billy Graham' evangelist. But last year he became really friendly with a kid in his school and as they chatted about being a christian one day, Matt asked him if he'd given his heart to the Lord, "because just saying you are a Christian isn't enough". Jamie said no, and that he wanted to do that. Mandi, my wife, who'd overheard the conversation as she drove them back from school that day, felt it wise to consult with Jamie's mom and indicate that Jamie was "interested in spiritual things". Also that if they wanted us to meet with them to talk we'd be happy to do that. No one in the family served the Lord but there seemed to be some hunger to learn more and Mandi chatted about starting a spiritual group in their home. To our delight she agreed and said she'd invite some friends.

That was 6 months ago and now God has birthed a thriving house church where several people have been saved, both kids and adults. Tonight as we meet there will be about 30 people who'll be there, hungry to learn more about Jesus. Probably the most rewarding thing of all for us is to watch Jamie and his mom, dad and sister, delighting in the life that Jesus has brought into their home as they now all serve Him. Last night Jamie's dad smsed me saying he'd read somewhere the words of a song that said: "'I have decided to follow Jesus. Though none go with me, still I will follow." How powerful and beautiful a message is that? A changed life is such a powerful expression of Christianity, but a completely changed family is the truest expression of the gospel message. Through them many people have and will still come to know Jesus!

By Neil Hart

God Loves Muslims!

How would Jesus respond to Muslims? We know how. He would treat them like he treated the Samaritan woman at the well, the Roman centurion who came to Him for help, and the tax collectors and prostitutes. Jesus would treat Muslims like he treated Simon the Zealot – the Zealots were urban terrorists of the day – he would invite him to follow Him! Jesus would treat Muslims like he treats you and me. With love, respect, and huge compassion and amazing grace.

One of the greatest challenges we face as followers of Jesus in today’s world is how to respond to Muslims and violence in the Middle East. Some believers are fearful that Muslims are our enemy and are “out to destroy our way of life.”

Should we circle the wagons in alarm and fear? Should we warn everyone how bad Muslims are and alert people of their plots to “destroy our nation,” as one American believer said to me?

No fear! No hatred! No, none for us who follow Jesus. We have a calling from God to love Muslims. They are not our enemy. The real enemy wants us to see people as our enemy. We should respond in the following ways:

1. Pray with love – ask God for that love if you don’t have it

2. Believe God with faith – believe God to reveal Jesus to every sincere seeker and to those who don’t seek!

3. Give sacrificially – give your life to go and give your finances to help others go

Let’s up the ante, shall we? Let’s call the enemies bluff. He has not power except that which people give him. Let’s meet fear with faith, hatred with love, and cowardice with compassion. Let’s be like Jesus!

A close friend, Carl Medearis, has written one of the best books you will ever read about Islam. It is titled Muslims, Christians, and Jesus: Gaining Understanding and Building Relationships

A Woman Who Would Not Give Up

Hey,

A few things from my heart to yours about the training center we are trusting the Lord to buy. The Lord spoke to me this morning through Luke 18:1-8. It's the parable of the Woman Who Would Not Give Up. She was unrelenting in her pursuit of an answer to her plea. God spoke to me to adopt the same attitude of faith. I want to be known as a man of faith who will not give up.

Jesus asks his disciples, "When I come, will I find faith in the earth?" As I meditated on this verse two things spoke to me:

"Will I find faith?" Jesus asked His disciples, "When I come...will I find faith?" When we have asked for something over and over again, and there is no answer, we are tempted to give up, to give in to unbelief. Jesus, knowing the weakness of His disciples both then and now, taught this parable about faith through unrelenting, persevering prayer. A widow who would not give up. She persisted, she would not give up. With that in mind, I encouraged my own heart this morning to lay hold of faith by faith.

"When I come..." We don't know when Jesus will come to visit us with answer to our prayers, but when He comes I want to have faith in my heart. By His grace, I will have faith.

The most recent news about the training center:

- About R200,000 has been given toward the property in the last couple weeks - we now have R2.2 million toward purchase (the Rand is going up and down a lot right now but that is about US $230,000). We need another R1.65 million (about $170,000).

- We have been given an extension in the purchase contract until January 7th to raise the money.

Next CPx leadership school:

- Our next leadership school (CPx) begins February 6th. Of the 45 students coming, more than half of them are young leaders from around Africa. We are coming down to the wire for housing and classroom space for the six month CPx. We have considered every other option for housing for the students coming for the school - so we are motivated to pray hard for the property.  Please join us!

Red Hill Baptism:

We baptized three young men from Red Hill last Sunday. One of the guys was Sibu. Sibu came to Christ a few months ago, then joined one of the simple churches in Red Hill, and within a short time gathered some of his friends and started another little church to study the Bible and pray. He will be attending CPx for further training.

Blessings,

Floyd

Reasons to Believe - Reasons Not to Believe

Every morning when I open my emails and read letters with news of people's prayers and gifts, I am deeply moved and encouraged. It builds my faith.

I confess it is quite easy for me to experience unbelief. I don't seem to have to work at it…when I think about the economic mess we experience right now in the world, and when I look at the faith steps we are taking, unbelief tends to creep in.

But when I pray, and when I reflect on the promises of God, and when I remember it is for Africa that we are interceding, then faith stirs in my heart. A friend once said to me, "If you intercede to God for people, then you have authority to intercede to people for people."

It is for Africa that I intercede right now. Not for us, or for a property, but for Africa. So I boldly ask you, would you prayerfully consider a year-end gift for Africa?

If you did not read my last letter, we are trusting God for a leadership training center. We have signed a purchase agreement to buy a property with wonderful facilities. We will use it for leadership training, to house students and emerging leaders, to host outreach teams, and to run a trade school.

There are two ways you can help us:

1. One is to pray. I really mean that – I believe there is power in prayer.

2. The other is to give a gift. I have asked people to consider a gift of $1000 (R10,000), but no gift is too small.

I asked last week for 200 people to give a gift. Quite a few people have responded. Thank you!

Yours for Africa,

Floyd

It's Signed! Help Us Ride the Big Wave

Hello,

Every year they have a "big wave" surfing contest here in Cape Town. It's hard to imagine surfing in Africa, but there are some huge waves that come crashing on the shores of the Cape of "Good Hope." The largest wave ever ridden in Africa, and maybe the world, was surfed by a guy earlier this year very close to where we live. It was over 75 feet tall on the face of the wave! It was scary to look at, believe me!

For Sally and me and the rest of our team it feels like we're riding the biggest wave of our lives as well. We just signed a purchase offer to buy a property that will serve as a leadership-training base and trade school for All Nations in Africa. The offer was accepted and signed yesterday by the owner.

We have to have the finances to complete the purchase by December 15th. That means we need over $200,000 (R2Million) in ten days time. We believe God wants us to be debt free on this property. That will allow us to give scholarships to many African leaders who are coming in February for the next CPx leaders school.

Already over $200,000 has come in for the property. That's a little more than two million South African Rand!! Several large gifts were given in South Africa. I am asking you to join your faith and sacrifice with Sally and me and our team, and with those who have already given, to help us complete the purchase debt free.

Help us ride this "big wave" would you?

If you break it down, that is only 200 people giving US $1000 each, or the equivalent in Rand or Euros (R10, 000 or Euros 900). In the next ten days.

But most of the money is going to come through those who gift $1000 dollar or R10, 000 size gifts. Would you pray about being one of those people? I believe God for one person to give $50,000 (R500,000) and a few others to give large gifts as well.

Just to be clear about the vision, this money is for a training center for equipping African leaders. We're launching a thousand African leaders into Africa in the next ten years. The focus is training leaders with job skills and Godly character to reach the poor and the unreached of this continent. It is a sustainable model of leaders discipling leaders while serving as tent-makers, working like the Apostle Paul did, to bring in their income.

The outcome of this vision is a goal to start discipleship based church planting movements among the 300 million unreached peoples of Africa who have never heard the name of Jesus – that includes 270 million Muslims.

We are not interested in a model of ministry dependent on buildings. The churches we start meet in homes and in the open fields and in offices and schools. We call it simple church – simple because it is a discipleship model based on training potential leaders in small, simple, easily reproducible churches of 10-20 people. All Nations has started hundreds of these simple churches already in Africa and different parts of the world.

We are committed to sustainability – that is, training leaders to support themselves with job skills while we equip them to be servant leaders. It is incredible to see the response of those we have already trained. I sat with a small group of Zimbabwean young men in a simple church last week, led by Munyaradzi, one of the African leaders who graduated from our leadership school. We trained Munyaradzi and he is now training others.

What will transform Africa? A grassroots, simple church movement of leaders discipling leaders in small groups, who in turn raise-up more leaders. In the market-place, in schools, in shops, in shacks, everywhere. The movement has already begun.

What will transform Africa is godly leaders who don't come with their hand out for money, who have learned to support themselves through trade skills, and who move into Africa making disciples, transforming one life and one family and one village at a time.

Please help us, would you? Help us train and send this kind of leader. Help us change Africa one leader and one life at a time. Please send your gift of R10,000 or Euro900 or $1,000. We need your help to ride this big wave!

Thank you,

Floyd and Sally