NUUSBRIEF

Judea Harvest's NEW STRATEGY

The Best Pulpit in the World is a Coffee Table

The John Journey
We have seen wonderful successes and we are very grateful for what God has done by means of tents in the past 12 years.  However In the past 2 years we have been given a vision to reach 4 million homes for Jesus.  He has already provided us with 4 million copies of the Gospel of John and we plan to use them for evangelism, discipleship and church planting.  That is why we call it the John Journey. 

Africa has seen remarkable evangelism efforts in the past 100 years.  But of the 87% who say they are Christians, only 5% regularly attend a church service in their own community.   For this reason Judea Harvest is rethinking the way evangelism, discipleship and church planting should work. 

Of the 6.3 billion people in the world, 90% are not saved and the job of the church to evangelize and disciple people is bigger than it has ever been.  In Africa alone, there are 900 million people.  The church is facing the biggest challenge in its history today.

A new radical evangelism strategy is needed. God is commanding us to go to the people.  We intend taking the good news of Jesus into every home, into every family, whether the home is an expensive brick home, or a mud hut, a squatter hut or an RDP house.

Jesus gave two key verbs in His great commandment, “go make disciples” and “go and teach people”.  We can teach people from pulpits and that is right.  But we cannot disciple from the pulpit.  The Lord told me the best pulpit in the world is the coffee table in the house of an unbeliever and that is where we need to go.  Judea Harvest has developed a wonderful new strategy that stands on three legs.

1) Coffee with John.  -     An evangelism effort.
2) Growing with John. -   Our discipleship drive. 
3) Planting with John.  -  Our church planting program.

We want to mobilize the 6 500 churches working with us to take the gospel to the people.  We are asking all their members to go to houses and to share the gospel. 

Coffee with John is based on the strategy that Jesus gave us in Luke 10 where he sent out 72 of his disciples and told them to search for a man of peace or an open house. He said they should enter that house and connect with those people on a real lifestyle level. 

We want people who will go into our communities, into our streets, into our townships and connect with people that are openhearted to the things of the gospel.  They are to enter that house and share the peace of God with them.  Jesus said we should fellowship with them, eat with them, and drink with them and not jump from house to house but stay in the house that has been opened for you. 

Then Jesus told us to bless those people, pray for the sick, pray for their needs, take them food, take them medicine, and help in whatever they need.   Trust God to do miracles for that family.  Then tell them that the kingdom of God has come, and lead them in a lifetime commitment to follow and to serve Jesus Christ.  This is the way that Christ sent out his disciples.

But we have turned things upside down and we think real evangelism is talking to strangers in the street and confronting them. This is the opposite of what Jesus commanded us.  Jesus told us first to connect, to fellowship, to bless and then to share the gospel.   We are not to share the gospel first and then, if they have responded, to bless and to fellowship with them as they become members of our churches.  That is the wrong way around.   

Christ commanded us to:

• First, pray for people, bless people, break the strongholds over their lives, and then to 

• Do friendship evangelism, connecting and blessing and caring for people and then,

• Do power evangelism, trusting in God to do miracles in their lives, heal the sick, drive out demons, and demonstrate the supernatural power of God to care and to bless people.

Judea Harvest has developed the Coffee with John training package for these evangelism strategies and we are very keen to roll this out in the this country. 

Every house evangelist who has been trained and has evangelized through the strategy explained above is then asked to start a new discipleship study group. Jesus told us to make disciples and not only converts.  For this reason Judea Harvest is placing a strong emphasis on Growing with John.  We again use the Gospel of John to disciple new believers and to teach them to obey Christ’s commands.  We use the cross to symbolize the four parts to this journey.

• Relationship with God - Fasting, Prayer, Holiness, Bible

• Relationship with Unbelievers - Share, Care, Go, Pray

• Relationship with believers - Care, Share, Give, Love

• Victory over evil - Witchcraft, Disease, Death, Sexual immorality

In this John Journey program every new believer goes through the Gospel of John four times studying the principles of living with Christ.  Every new believer is taught to live in these four dimensions for the rest of his life, connecting with his fellow believers in his John Journey group. 

Judea Harvest is thinking in a new and fresh way about the church.   Where would we ever find enough money if we were to build or rent buildings or put up tents in order to house this great harvest that God is about to give us?  

Dream with us that God can help us reach millions and millions of people in their houses and teach them in John Journey groups to be disciples of Jesus.  How these house churches will work together with the local church will depend on the circumstances in that area and must be figured out by every pastor. 

We are keen to gather a bigger harvest for God than ever - and it will be done with less money and less resources   We already have 4 million John Gospels available.  Judea Harvest is embarking on a program to win 4 million houses, 12 million people for Jesus in South Africa.

John Journey Cost