As I’ve travelled around the globe in missions the past 20 years, I’m always interested in how people are making disciples in the various contexts. Is there a pattern in those who are multiplying?

One that I noticed early on was the “APEST” model. I haven’t actually heard anyone say they’re using this, but it’s how I interpret what they’re doing.

I first noticed it a rapidly expanding ministry we were working with in Sierra Leone in 2003. Their method was:

1. Apostles send to a particular village
2. Prophets go and intercede until they get a breakthrough
3. Evangelists go lead people to Christ, until a church forms
4. Pastors/shepherds go and take over the church
5. Teachers go and equip people to be sent out (and repeat)

I’ve seen it now almost everywhere that churches are multiplying. One of my favourites was in North India, where they were doing it at a personal level, pairing up and following these steps:

1. Apostle – Fast and pray until God sends you to a group of people (“apostle” in Greek is “sent” in English)
2. Prophet – Fast and pray until you sense a spiritual breakthrough
3. Evangelist – Find the person of peace (fast and pray if it’s taking too long)
4. Pastor/shepherd – Bring the gospel into their community
5. Teacher – Teach them to repeat what you just did

But in 2016 I saw a new twist. The Burmese ministry had five steps, mostly the same, but the middle one was enduring suffering instead of evangelism. Hmm. What’s this? What I learned there got me looking at the Parable of the Sower, which has now intrigued me most weeks for the past 7 years.

1. Seed – Spread the gospel of the kingdom (similar to the apostle’s role)
2. Path – Keep the devil from snatching it away (~prophet)
3. Rocks – Endure suffering (this is the new twist)
4. Thorns – Escape the dangers of this world (shepherd’s role)
5. Good Soil – The gospel multiplies (~teach them what happened)

What’s the connection between evangelism and suffering? There are only 3 mentions of “evangelist” in the Bible: the APEST (Eph 4:11), Philip called an evangelist (Acts 21:8) and this one….

But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. – 2 Timothy 4:5

Back to that in a second. I see this pattern in many multiplying places as well. My shorter summary would be that you’d think the kingdom would be all you need to multiply, but you need to overcome the world, the flesh and the devil:

1. Seed – The Kingdom
2. Path – The Devil
3. Rocks – The Flesh
4. Thorns – The World
5. Good Soil – Multiplying

Back to evangelism and suffering. In my latest round of exploration, I’ve discovered that helping people find God in their stories is a significant key for them to receive Christ. Here are those two paradigms put together into practical activities:

1. Believe that God is with you right here, right now
2. Talk with God as if he’s with you right here, right now; listen to him; interact
3. Listen to people’s stories believing that God was with them, then, in whatever they were going through, and talk with him about it in real-time with them
4. Eat together with people in their homes, with God (the Lord’s Supper), praying, hearing God’s voice together, and listening to each other’s stories
5. Debrief what is happening through all these experiences, reflecting on the what the Bible says not just intellectually, but because you’re living it out