There are No Shortcuts with God
by Ben & Marianne Janssen
Whatever we do or whatever path we take as we follow the guidance of our Lord, there are no easy, fast-track results. First of all, we are living in a quickly changing and very volatile world, racing to the coming of the Lord. All our plans in the kingdom of God are against a backdrop of uncertainty and chaos, which can envelope us at any moment anywhere in the world.
Secondly, because of these uncertain circumstances, we need to spend more and more time on getting to know our Father and growing closer to our Lord and Savior. This takes discipline and more than a tithe of our time. Day by day, we need to learn more of the character of God and judge our circumstances according to the things learned from Him. This dedication to come to know Him better and to glorify Him will also give us the stability to continue His work in a very depressing, ungodly world. We need this focus to be able to finish the Great Commission. When everything around us crumbles, we need to keep our eyes glued on the end goal… seeing all nations glorify God!
Since the Fall of 2013, the Lord has given us a tool in our hands that greatly simplifies the enormous job that is still ahead of us. This step-by-step church planting workshop has helped us tremendously to train others to start churches in a logical, precise way. Yes, there is still the hard, self-denying labor involved in planting churches, but now the multitude of questions on how to do this are answered.
Anyone who is willing to follow God in His desire to see the nations worshipping Him, now has the opportunity to plant a church, which we have seen as the fastest method of evangelism. During those three years since we started this training on three continents, we have seen 28 churches planted by our students. The last one was a village church in the mountains of Lesotho, faithfully planted by our student, Joseph. It involved a huge sacrifice of his time and finances, but with the help of six elders, a faithful wife and a little daughter, he saw over 60 people come to the Lord. There is no short cut in starting a church, but the church planting workshop is certainly the answer to avoiding many mistakes made in the past, even by seasoned church planters.
