Piper is a scholar and a pastor with a huge heart for the nations. This is an excellent theological overview.
Through Gates of Splendor
The story of the five missionaries in Ecuador. Whereas Shadow of the Almighty focuses on Jim Elliot, this book talks about all five. Excellent.
The Cambridge Seven By John Pollock
The Cambridge Seven is a brief book giving the fascinating story of seven Cambridge graduates who went to China to live out their lives as missionaries in 1885. All seven were from wealthy, aristocratic backgrounds in an aristocratic age. Two of them were well-known athletes, C.T. Studd being regarded as the finest all-round cricket player in England. In various ways they all felt called to the mission field in China and they ended up going together to China in 1885. They went with the China Inland Mission, founded and led by Hudson Taylor. One of the seven, D.E. Hoste, would eventually become Hudson Taylor’s successor as the general director of the China Inland Mission. Most of the seven spent their entire adult lives in China, serving Christ. And all seven finished strong for the Lord and strong for the gospel wherever they were. These men are heroes.
T4T: A Discipleship ReRevolution
Ying Kai and his wife led the largest church planting movement in history to this point. This is the story and the
principles behind it. Written with Steve Smith, who also has led a church planting movement in East Asia. Widely influential book.
This book chronicles the extraordinary tale of a Church Plant Movement (CPM) in Southeast Asia that saw over 150,000 churches planted and 1.7 million baptisms in the 10-‐year period between 2000 and 2010. Ying Kai and his wife Grace realized the challenge of reaching 20 million people in their area with the gospel. This challenge drove them to their knees and to God’s Word. Simultaneous to this movement, Steve and Laura Smith were using these principles among the Ina people, who are also in Southeast Asia. This book is full of exciting vignettes and biblical principles.
They focused on three foundational commands that come from the great commission. They are:
- Go, not come
- Share with everyone, not some
- Make disciples, not church members, or decisions
They saw everyone as either saved or lost. If they were lost, then they would share their faith with them. If they were saved, then they would train them to witness to others. They realized that the DNA they instilled in the new believers was the same DNA that would be passed on to other generations of believers. This prompted them to adopt principles such as baptize new believers right away, start witnessing right after you come to Christ, learn to study the Bible and obey the Bible for yourself.
Everything that Ying and Grace Kai did with new believers, they in turn expected them to do with others. So they were reaching not just converts, but disciples, multiplying disciples. He prefers the term trainers because it implies action and not just knowledge. The key concept laced through all of CPM including the T4T approach to CPM is obedience based discipleship as opposed to knowledge based discipleship.
Both Steve Smith and Ying Kai found that as a result of all the ministry about 20% of new converts would actually start groups and then train people in their groups to start other groups. This statistic is reflective of the parable of the four soils. A typical group meeting or church meeting includes three parts:
- Look back, which included pastoral care, worship, accountability and vision casting
- Look up, which includes a new study in the Bible
- Look ahead, which includes practicing the lesson, setting goals for outreach and praying for the lost
Smith and Kai underscore that you cannot omit any of the seven elements of these three parts, because we invariably will omit the elements involved with outreach and the group simply degenerates into a typical inwardly focused home group.
T4T should not be considered a recipe. Rather, it is the lifestyle of the fully-‐devoted follower of Jesus Christ. It is infused with biblical principles from God’s Word. It has had incredible results around the world. It is based on extraordinary prayer. And its potential for kingdom impact is unlimited.
The Heavenly Man
This is the story of Brother Yun, a young man from a desperately poor family in China. It begins with God speaking to his mother in a dream and the miraculously healing his dying father. The book continues to describe what God did in the life of Yun, and what God did in the house churches of China.
The story reads like the Book of Acts. It is the story of conversions and revival, dreams and visions, miracles and healings, intense persecution and all-out commitment to Christ.
I do not know that I have ever read a book quite like this one. You will be moved and encouraged by what God is doing in China, and if you are like me, you will also be disturbed and challenged to be all that God wants you to be.
Don’t miss this incredible tale of what God is doing today.