5x5x5 IMB Strategy Goals

tagged: Featured, IMB, Missions, Strider

5x5x5 IMB Strategy Goals

As I set my goals for 2011 I am keeping the 5x5x5 principle in mind for the work that God has called our team to here in Middle Earth. The three fives stand for the following:

5 lost people

5 national believers

5 unengaged unreached people groups

The first 5 is an obvious one. We should be praying for the lost and striving to find ways to engaged them with the Gospel. I have been praying for ‘my 5′ for several years now. The number 5 is a bit artificial but it is a good number to shoot for. Obviously, we want to see many more than just five people come to faith this year, but these five are the guys that I am close to and have regular opportunities to share with.

The second 5 is one that I am most passionate about. We are to be praying for five fruitful believers. These are men and women who have ministries that are bearing fruit in their community. I am firmly convinced that this is an area we all need to do better in. Every time a team member comes to me with a job request my first response is, ‘Is there anyway that this position could be taken by a trained national?’ I believe that my main job is to empower nationals to do the work that God has called them to so that their people will be reached with the Gospel. I have said it before and I will say it again, I love John 4:1-2 where it says that Jesus was baptizing people by the Jordan but in verse two it says, ‘although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples.’ That is so fantastic! This was the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry and his disciples knew next to nothing but Jesus began his training of them by having them ‘do’ ministry. This concept has had a huge impact on my ministry. I remember when I was a pastor back in the West that a young man came to me for help. He had a porn addiction problem and he wanted free of it. I counseled with him a little and prayed with him and told him I would see him on Wednesday night. He thanked me and said, ‘ok, but what I really needed from you was something to do at 2:30 in the afternoon when I get off work!’ I am sure he never got free when I was there. I hope he found someone who knew better later. If I had it to do again…. man, don’t we say that too often! I would have grabbed that guy and taken him visiting in hospitals and nursing homes and found ministry for him to do to fill up those few empty hours between the time when he got off work and his wife came home. Now, I know better. I pray for my 5 and I empower them to do the ministry God has called them to. I make sure they get to the people they are supposed to reach and I make sure they know what they are supposed to do when they get there. It is hands down the funnest and most rewarding part of my job.

It sounds kinda funny to say but I am equally excited about finding and engaging unengaged unreached people groups (UUPGs is the new term in missiology). If that phrase is new to you what it means is a people group who are not only ‘unreached’( there are thousands of these) but an unreached people for whom there is no one even making plans to reach. It is one thing to be lost, it is another thing for no one to be looking for you! And you and I both know that the Good Shepherd is looking for them so we must be about his business. So I am praying for the five largest UUPGs in Middle Earth and guess what? Already we have the possibility of engaging one this year. I will be hosting a volunteer team of nationals from a country to the north of us to go and see about reaching one of these groups where there are no churches and no known believers. We also have a new long term person who has come to reach a small UUPG in the mountains above our city here in Gondor. Two down maybe but still way too many to go. God is on the move though and we are striving to keep up with him here in Middle Earth.

There are truckloads of issues in the IMB today. We still don’t have a president. We have an administrative reorganization that has been an unmitigated disaster. We are way short of funds still even though we have cut personnel by the hundreds from the totals two years ago. But I am not going to focus on any of that. It’s not my job. The thing that God has called me to are the things I just outlined and I am sticking with that. What about you? What are you focusing on as you go into 2011?

By the way, the guy praying over the mountains of Middle Earth is not me but a good national friend of mine.

E. Goodman says:

January 24, 2011 at 5:25 pm

Strider,
You know I’m not a fan of the UPG designation, much less UUPG. But that’s not what my comment is about.

Thanks for sharing your goals for the year. I always like when workers outline what they do— so few people in churches seem to know what missionaries actually do.

My question has to do with finding UUPGs. How does one go about that? What your method? Would these groups be living among other groups, or are we talking about exploring new areas?

Thanks.

Strider says:

January 25, 2011 at 4:44 am

Thanks for asking Ernest. I know we don’t agree about UPG’s but in this case I think I can demonstrate that my goals here are driven by passion for lost people that I have actually met and not by ideology that may or may not be flawed.
The major UUPG is a UPG that has a country to the north of us. There are about half a million of these people, speaking their own language and having a unique culture and community here in Gondor. Coincidentally, they were identified by our Affinity UUPG strategist as one of the top five UUPG groups needing engagement right at the same time that I was approached by a group from that country to help them engage. Funny how God works. These people live in towns and villages in a couple of areas of our country and I have visited them many times.
The second group is very remote. When we first came to Gondor we were told by locals that there were 7 eastern peoples who were Ismail i Muslims, in contrast to the majority Sunni population. There is a lot of prejudice here about that and we knew that to reach these people we would need a separate team with a separate strategy. In 2001 one of our original couples left to go out to those mountains and do just that. They are still there. We know- through extensive travel during our disaster response projects- that there are several other people groups in our mountains with their own language and culture.
You will like this part. So, this last year a large church in the US adopted a small people group in our northern mountains. They have sent many short term teams and last year they sent a single career lady with the IMB to come and join us in trying to reach them. She is now learning their language, we have gotten an SIL team here to also translate materials into their language and now there are two believers among this people. This summer we hope to see that grow and become a church. So, here is an example of a local church in the US learning about what God is doing in the world, targeting a people group and reaching it using the IMB resources to boot.

January 27, 2011 at 9:02 pm

Strider,
Thanks. I’m proud of you for your obedience and I want everyone to know what a strategic plan like yours looks like.

You know I love to hear about churches getting directly involved. I hope to see that trend continue.

Mike Morris says:

January 30, 2011 at 12:57 am

Interesting article on the IMB and speed in missiology:

http://www.texanonline.net/default.asp?action=article&aid=7193&issue=1/25/2011

January 30, 2011 at 9:01 am

Thanks for that link Mike. I largely agree with the article. On our team we have grown to really distrust anything titled, ‘rapid, easy, or extreme’. I am a big fan of the Matt 24:14 verse but I see that verse as descriptive not proscriptive so that while I see God’s plan as reaching all the peoples of the earth I do not presume to think that I can ‘hurry’ that plan up. I can only be obedient to it.

Andrew Wencl says:

January 31, 2011 at 1:31 am

Strider,

Have you read Sills’ book? I’m thinking about picking it up sometime in the near future.

January 31, 2011 at 2:12 am

I require my Intro. to Missiology students to read Dr. Sills’ book.

Stuart says:

January 31, 2011 at 3:48 pm

I would add my voice to those who are very grateful for Sills’ book. I particularly appreciate that even in his critique of certain methodolgies and strategies, he holds fast to the importance of critical contextualization and 2 Tim. 2:2 strategies.

He never calls us to return to building cinder-block chapels, forming national churches into ‘western’ models, raising up full-time vocational’ national pators, etc.

Sills very simply and clearly reminds us that the because the Great Commission is to ‘make disciples’ (going, baptizing, and teaching) it won’t be ‘complete’ the minute the first person in the last known UPG accepts Christ.

It remains to be seen whether or not his thesis will get a wide and fair reading by those who’ve sold themselves out to one particular methodology (whether pre or post 1997), but for my dollar, it’s one of the best missions books that’s been published in the last few years.

January 31, 2011 at 3:54 pm

I should clarify that I require my Intro. to Miss. students to read Dr. Sills’ book on the missionary call, not his book “Reaching and Teaching: A Call to Great Commission Obedience.”