Mike’s team recently conducted an assessment of the effectiveness of our church planting efforts by Cru staff and volunteers in the Middle East. A total of 148 people were interviewed from the following categories: new and existing church leaders, church planters (those who have been trained for church planting by Cru staff), church members (a mixture of believers who accepted Christ in the past couple of years and those who have been believers longer) and Cru staff. It was interesting to note that of those interviewed 62% were in their 20’s and 30’s, and 70% had at least a university-level education. There is an intentional effort to reach this demographic.
We noted the following common practices that are helping to establish multiplying house churches (discipleship groups):
- The usefulness and appreciation of Cru materials to communicate a Win, Build, Send vision
- Prayer walking for new places
- Showing care and Christian love for people
- Use of social media for evangelism
- Intentional leadership development
There is much to celebrate as believers are taking steps previously not taken and more people are hearing the gospel in unreached places. Testimonies reflected how Jesus is bringing dramatic life change through stories of healings, miracles and demonic deliverance.