Igniting church planting movements through raising local leaders

Last week, the hub hosted an online event called Catalytic Leaders eXperience (CLx) for cross-cultural All Nations workers who are ministering in a catalytic role. This is a role that we are seeing as increasingly important for outsiders to understand as they seek to raise local leaders to ignite church planting movements.

Historically, missionaries have been sent from the minority world to the majority world. Often, Western missionaries would spend years learning language and culture, trying to move from outsiders to insiders so they could start a movement toward Jesus. The face of missions, however, is changing. Today, missionaries are being sent from everywhere to everywhere. Movements toward Jesus are being ignited by outsiders who find a local leader in whom to invest. As the movement grows, the local leads the growth while being coached and resourced by the outsider.

This changing role of the outsider is what we examined at CLx. About 20 of our missionaries throughout Africa and Asia joined this four-day event, where we heard from several speakers about the nature of catalytic work. During the event, we also spent time in breakout groups, sharing our own experiences and learning from one another about what has worked and what hasn’t. It was an incredible time for us to learn and grow together.

It’s exciting to be on the cutting edge of missions as we examine this changing role of the outsider. All Nations Cape Town members are finding key leaders in whom to invest in everywhere from the villages of Malawi to the peaks of the Himalayas. They raise them up as leaders in movements among their own people, cheering them on as they step into the leadership roles to which the Lord has called them. Pray with us for these catalytic workers as they step further into the plans God has for them!