How2: Swarmishly transform a country

I have written of the need for 50,000 teams by 2050. This is based on the idea that each team (1 to 3 cross cultural pioneer workers) would raise up 100 local ministries, each of which would seek to evangelize 1,000 people. Thus, one cross-cultural team would lead to 100,000 being reached, and 50,000 teams would lead to 5 billion people being reached—e.g. the whole of the non-Christian world. This allows for significant team overlap, the obvious problems of attrition, some teams that won’t successfully mobilize 100 ministries, etc.

One initial feedback I received suggested more than 3 people would be needed to plant a church. I agree. Thus this short article was born, to better clarify some ideas I have about how this would work. My model is certainly flawed in many ways: which is why I am seeking case studies and feedback! Yet I offer it as something that can be critiqued and improved and eventually, perhaps, prove valuable to the missions community. For this model, I am primarily thinking of a swarmish, decentralized methodology.

Step 1: Segment the Country

We all know most cross-cultural pioneer workers cannot take on an entire country or even an entire people group (except perhaps those that are under 100,000 in population). So, the first step is to figure out what “part” of the country to take on, and how it might help make it easier to take on the rest of the country. You want to engage a part of the country that it’s realistic for you to make progress in, while also choosing a part that is strategic as a “gateway” to other parts—so others can build on the foundation you lay.

In the past I have experimented with segmenting countries by a cross between the Joshua Project list and YWAM’s Omega Zone project (see http://www.ywam4k.org). The Omega Zones are geographic zones with populations in the 3 million, 6 million, and 9 million range, divided up by the World A/B/C trichotomy, which for obvious reasons works for me. However, for our model of engaging a segment that is 100,000 in size, you need something smaller than an Omega Zone. Within each “Omega Zone” there could be 30, 60 or 90 subsets—I don’t have a nice snappy name for these right off the tip of my tongue, so we’ll just call them “Omega Segments” for the balance of this article.

How to decide “which” segment is the “right” segment is not particularly clear to me at the moment, and likely the “how” will vary by country. I’m guessing that, for less-reached countries, you’ll have to start in a more urban area with easy transportation and communication access—a hub you can settle in, since your first goal is not to plant a church but to begin building local ministries. In a more-reached country, you want to find a city “on the edge”—a kind of bridge between a more-reached area and a less-reached area. This is one of those topics that could use feedback. If you have ideas, why don’t you post them in the comments area or send them in an email to us?

Step 2: Inculturate

The kind of process I am talking about is not something that can be done—I think!—through a short-term trip or a short-term commitment. The purpose of the pioneer team is to find the evangelists, and finding them is going to take a while. You’ll have to learn the culture, you’ll have to learn the language, you’ll have to figure out who’s who. You will likely have to recruit workers and help mentor them. You’ll have to build relationships with whatever local churches are nearby. There’s a lot to be done. So, step 2 is to get yourself hooked up with an agency and 2 or 3 other people to create a team (perhaps more people if necessary), and get settled into the area.

Let me also mention at this point that members of a swarm need connectivity with others. Yes, you’re probably going to be with an agency, and hopefully the agency will provide you with plenty of resources, money and member care. I can hear the grim laughter now. More likely, you’ll have to do a lot of resource-raising and money-raising on your own, and you might as well begin building relationships with other field workers with other agencies who you might be able to share resources with. They’ll be able to commiserate with you, too, when the member care is a little low. (I’m just telling it like it is.)

Step 3: Raise up local ministries

No matter how much you inculturate, you—as an outsider—will never reach as many people as insiders will, as fast as they will. This is a simple fact of life. No matter how much we think the insiders just aren’t ready for the job, just don’t know enough, just can’t make the decisions—the simple fact is that they are just as able, have just as much of God’s grace, and have just as good an understanding of the people around them as you do. (Perhaps more, in some cases.) So it’s better, in my view, to go with a strategy of raising up locals than with a strategy where you do it all yourself.

In this model, you go with an eye to identifying 100 local ministries that will each evangelize 1,000 people. You’re not looking for the next Billy Graham (though if you find him, count yourself blessed). You’re looking for simple, earnest, committed, enduring men and women who wish to be obedient to the command of God and reach out with the Good News through word and deed to those around them.

How do you find them? You live in the area, learn the language, learn the culture, become friends with the people, find the believers, and find believers who are willing to reach out to others. In some places where there are no believers, you’ll have to do the initial evangelization and church planting, and there are plenty of other models out there for doing that (I have a personal preference for the Luke 10 method, which this is an extension of).
“Raising them up” does not mean that you are in charge of them, or that you are the one doing the raising. It’s just a “buzzphrase,” a slogan, a symbol for your role as one who challenges, recruits, encourages, facilitates training, helps find resources, etc. In other words, your job is to hang in the background and make sure the 100 people all have whatever they need (intellectual training, spiritual accountability, psychological encouragement, etc) to reach out to others.

You’ll also be the one encouraging connections between the 100. They shouldn’t be working in isolation. A band of 10 might group together, each with their own particular mode of ministry outreach, and between them plant several churches. They, in turn, will likely need to raise up other leaders—so it’s best if you are modeling the “raising up” process for them. In missionary lingo, this is Model-Assist-Watch-Leave—although I have a bit of a problem with the “Leave” idea, which I will talk about next.

Step 4: Step further back.

When I hear the phrase “Model-Assist-Watch-Leave,” I always have the mental picture of a missionary who comes in, trains locals, and then goes home, perhaps not interacting with the people any more. Personally, I don’t like this picture. I think missionaries need to commit to a particular segment, inculturate into it, and remain tied to it for a very long time—years, probably. However, I do think that a missionary’s role can (and should!) change in a much shorter period of time, and this is the best idea of “Leave.” The word “Leave” might be better stated “Step back.”

Once the 100 are reaching out to 100,000, you can become more of an informational hub. You connect these 100 to other 100s in the area, in the country. You can facilitate conferences. You can be a kind of “glue” that keeps things together. I was struck by the story I once heard of the founder of Kinko’s, a chain of photocopy shops. He was not a corporate type. Here is how he described what he did: “I go from store to store and find out what new ideas they have, and then I tell all the other stores I go to about the ideas.” In swarm terminology he was a “cross-pollinator,” taking a little bit from here and there and moving it on.

You can also take on the role of researcher. As the 100 people you’ve encouraged begin to saturate the area they are in, you can start looking for areas on the “fringes” that are equally unreached. Then, you can begin helping your 100 to start identifying people from within their own culture who can be cross-cultural pioneers to other areas—just as you were when you first came to this Segment. You may even get involved with those pioneers, helping to mentor them in the role. Thus it becomes a very cyclical movement. At this point, the movement has “broken out” and will begin spreading into other areas, perhaps throughout the people group and into other people groups (and maybe even into other countries).

Conclusion

So, that’s the basic idea behind a swarmish model on the ground. It doesn’t take a huge amount of resources, since it is more relational. By raising up 100 local ministries, you are encouraging them to reach out to those around them using local methods and local funds, in a way that is sustainable without outside money. The best thing (once again, I think!) would be to keep the outside money confined to your work and capitalizing training and recruiting events for the 100.

Now, here’s the interactivity part. If you’re doing this, or something like it, or you know where this model breaks down, why don’t you write us? We’re looking right now for case studies! We particularly want case studies either of “hubs” (the initial cross-cultural pioneering team) and evangelists (who reach out to 1,000 people). If you like, you can send a short article (just like this was short)—1 or 2 pages in Microsoft Word, perhaps—and we’ll see about publishing it. Or, just send us an email about a case you know, and we can do the legwork researching it and writing it up. Write to us via email to justinlong@gmail.com.

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