From what I understand, in Jesus day, a visitor could request hospitality from a resident of a town. Perhaps it often worked the other way around. A righteous person would request that a visitor stay to his home. It seems the Lord is telling the apostles to actually request hospitality.

The pamphlet put out by the IMB of the SBC tells about some church planters in India that used the 'man of peace' strategy for planting churches. There were 26 churches, if I remember correctly, that hadn't reproduced in a quite a long time. A CP coordinator came, trained up 6 people to preach the Gospel, sent them out, and they were all martyred.

The CP strategist was shocked, of course, and came up with another method, based on the book of Luke. He helped train new church planters. Each went to a 'man of peace' in the village he was trying to reach. The 'man of peace' was not necessarily a believer.

The church planter would focus on discipling the man of peace and his family. Often, the man of peace would repent. His family would serve as a core group of Christians for the new church in the village. Often, the man of peace would become a leader in the new church later on. The household would generally repent with the head of the house, and many were baptized at the same time.

This strategy was very successful. In about a decade, the movement went from about 26 churches to 1,200 churches.

This movement outgrew the Baptist denomination. The small churches that developed weren't all in the denomination, but were united by a common faith

Think about some of the advantages of the 'man of peace' strategy.

1. The church planter has a place to stay. 2. The church planter is connected into the community.

Think about an evangelist that goes into a village that is resistant to the Gospel who knocks on doors or stands in the village and starts preaching. If he doesn't know anyone, what will happen to a group of people who decide to beat him up or hang him? If the man has no contacts in the area, and the judicial system isn't very strict in that area, maybe nothing.

But villagers might be less inclined to harm someone who is a guest in the home of another villager. An offense against a villagers guest could be taken as an offense against that villager, his family. One who harmed a guest may have to face the villager, his extended family, and his friends.

Being a guest is a friendly way of entering a village, too. The church planter can find new people to minister to through the contacts of the man of peace who hosts him. Wolfgang Simson suggests that a church planter to make it know that he will pray for the sick in the name of Jesus. When invited over, he insists that the whole family be present so that he can explain what he is going to do, so that no one thinks that he is a magician. He then explains that he will pray in the name of Jesus, and what the significance of this is. After ministering to the sick, he offers to come back and teach the family more, and waits for an invitation.

Some Comments on Hospitality

There is an underlying assumption in the Bible of hospitality as a moral duty. Abraham took hospitality seriously. When he went to fetch a 'little morsel,' he killed the fatted calf. Lot also considered it important to protect the angels under his roof. He offered to give his daughters to the crowd for their sake's.

Hospitality was important in Ancient near Eastern culture. I've read that some of the Arabs considered it their duty to give hospitality to any traveler who so much as touched the cord of their tent- even if the man were an enemy. If they refused, this was a serious moral offense.

It seems that Jesus instructed his apostles (and the 70) to go looking for a peaceful person in whose house to stay when they preached in a city or town. They were instructed to eat whatever was set before them, because the laborer is worthy of his hire. It sounds like the apostles were going out and requesting hospitality to be provided for them.

Jesus even told a tax collector, Zaccheus (sp?)that He was going to eat at his house. How would that go over today. Imagine if an evangelist said, 'Today I'm going to eat at your house.'

One of the ways that early Christian preachers were supported was through hospitality. On a trip to Jerusalem, we read about Paul stopping in certain houses along the way- Philip the evangelist's, for example. Peter stayed in the house of Simon the tanner.

Think about this. If an evangelist or an apostle wanted to go to an unreached area, he could travel from city to city. When nightfall came, he could stay in the home of a believer in each city. The next morning, that believer might provide him with whatever was needed for the next leg of his journey. He could repeat the process the next day until he came to the frontier- the edge of the area where the Gospel had been preached.

Paul wanted the Roman Christians to help him to go on further to an unreached area- Spain. He wanted to go to the edge of the area where the Gospel was preached, and let those saints help him go to the next unreached area to reach the people there as well.

Hospitality played an important role in helping ministers get to the next place to preach the Gospel. It also helped ministers of the gospel who traveled around to strengthen existing churches. A minister goes to a city, the saints receive him. He stays in the home of one believer, and ministers to saints in their homes and in their meetings. The brethren feed him. Then they send him off to the next place to minister.

In the early decades of Christianity, some of these ministers sold all they had, and depended on hospitality from Christians and whatever other means the Lord used to provide.

Now, think about the importance of hospitality in spreading the Gospel. If a minister of the Gospel comes to your area, are you willing to house him if you have the means? Hospitality helps build character. it teaches us generosity. Also, housing 'strangers' helps us learn to relate to people from different places who are different from us. An elder should be hospitable. The Bible says that believers are to be 'given to hospitality.' (Notice hospitality is not described as a gift that is only available for a few.)

Think about a CP movement in India or some other country that has a lot of unreached people. Imagine this scenario. A church planter wants to go to an unreached area a few miles away. He walks all day and stops at night at a village that has believers. They have a house church meeting that allows for mutual ministry, so he is allowed to share something. This village knows him, and are happy to receive his ministry.

The next night, he sleeps under a tree, and the next day leaves again. He ends up in a villages where there are believers. But these saints don't know him. Fortunately, someone in his home church knew how to write and wrote a letter of recommendation for him. A brother in this church can read. The brethren receive him. They are careful because a false teacher came through earlier, teaching some sort of syncretized message.

On and on this church planter goes, receiving hospitality and ministering. One church lends him a bike. He finally gets to an unreached area, where he stays with an unbeliever who is a cousin of a friend in his village. He ministers to this 'man of peace.' After a week or so, the man repents, and so does his family. They are all baptized. The church planter continues to disciple them, and shows them how to have church meetings as a family.

As the church planter ministers to friends and relatives of those who have repented, the church grows. Eventually, some of the new believers the church planter is discipling start doing ministry on their own.

The church planter sends one of them back to his home village to ask that another brother, who is a gifted teacher, come and help out. Before the other brother arrives, the church planter goes out, with a new believer from the new church who is evangelistically gifted who wants to learn to minister as a type of 'apprentice.' The church planter sees a call on this man life, which has been confirmed through prophecy. With a lot of prayer, they both leave for the next unreached village, to visit the 'apprentices' brother.

Imagine if new church plants started through this process send out their own church planters.

Think about finances too. How much more would it cost to send a team of foreign missionaries and a translator into these villages to do the same work? How much would it cost to set up a tent crusade? A church planter who knows how to talk loud can preach publicly without a stage or a microphone.

If the church planter teaches the saints to meet in homes, there is no financial burden on them to build church buildings. If the church planter trains up and educates believers in the churches, then there may be no need for Bible colleges. Low-budget church planting.

I believe missionaries can help in a lot of areas where these types of CP movements are taking place. In the real life case in India I mentioned above, missionaries helped by producing scripture on tape and doing translations. A lot of the new believers were illiterate.

Education is an area where many new churches in areas like this need help. A traditional strategy is to open a Bible college so that the leaders will be educated. But a Bible college in a frontier like this has a serious disadvantage- If the leaders of the churches go away to Bible college, it's rough on the congregation while he's gone. He also misses the practical on-the-job training in his own congregation. Bible college is also expensive.

We don't see Bible colleges in the Bible. Paul spent time with the elders of the church of Ephesus, teaching them, and warning them with tears. Timothy was to teach what he had learned to faithful men, that they might be able to teach others also. This is the Biblical means for educating new leaders- let them receive teaching in their own church community, or from traveling ministers. One generation of church should teach the next.

Also, the apostles appointed elders from within the churches. They didn't import Bible college trained ministers from the outside. Bible colleges often promote the false idea that being a preacher is a matter of education or profession, rather than gifting and calling. Many think that one needs a Bible college degree to be an overseer in the church, and actually ignore the other requirements in scripture. We end up with young people who don't' meet all the requirements (yet) ruling over their spiritual seniors. Why? Because these young people have the degree. Bible colleges are also expensive. Who will pay for the tuition?

Giving an entire church a sound education in the scriptures is better. If one pastor has a degree, and the rest are uneducated, if that pastor goes off track, he can take many with him.

If all the believers are educated in the church and there is community involvement and plural leadership, many of these problems can be avoided.

Education is an area where missionaries can help a CPM. Native traveling Bible teachers can also be a great asset in a movement like this.

Think of Barnabas. Before going out on an apostolic mission with Paul, he was sent on a teaching mission to Antioch. There were many new believers in Antioch who needed teaching. The Jerusalem church sent Barnabas to help, and he found Paul to join him.

We also see that, as the number of 'apprentices' around Paul grew in his later days, that he would often send them around to strengthen new churches. We also see that one church sent Apollos to Corinth. He helped strengthen that new church. Paul said that he had planted, and that Apollos had watered. There is a great need for waterers. They free up planters to go into new areas.

Just think of the needs of a new HC in a CPM. A church planter comes by, preaches the Gospel and leaves. The new believers could use someone to teach them how to read, how to understand the Bible, the cultural background of the Bible, how to handle church finances, and various other things.

A church planter might leave a church without elders early on in it's growth. Paul and Barnabas did that repeatedly. During this time when there are no appointed elders, and even after, a church can benefit from traveling teachers, and from other brethren from churches that are already more mature.

Imagine the ministries that traveling brethren can bring. One could travel from church to church in India, teaching people how to read. He could encourage those who are good at reading to read the scriptures in meetings.

A Bible teacher can teach the commands of Christ as a foundation. They he can read through the whole Bible with a new church. He can teach them simple methods for reading through the whole Bible as a group. As he ministers, he can find potential leaders and spend a lot of time mentoring them to be teachers for the future.

When a church is mature and has elders and various ministering saints, they should be careful to provide a good, solid Christian education to all the young people and other believers among them. One of the reasons for opening schools in New England during the colonial days was so that all the children could learn to read the Bible. Every church could teach it's own children how to read. The next generation would be more educated, and would know how to read the Bible. Sunday school was started, I've read, during the industrial revolution to teach young factory workers how to read.

There are a lot of things that can be done to help church planters set up a favorable situation for a CPM, and to encourage it's growth.