By S. Kent Parks, Ph.D.

Our organization (originally called Mission to Unreached Peoples), founded in 1981, used a mission approach typical of many at that time. Ministry activities included helping refugees, providing literacy training, teaching in colleges, ministry to those in prostitution, etc. Success was defined by the number of missionaries sent rather than by what those missionaries produced.

In 2007, the Board of Directors and field leaders felt led to become more strategic and to seek someone to lead that change. The main change process took five years – and is ongoing. In 2010, our agency formally accepted God’s call to become an organization focused on equipping people (both in Beyond and globally) to catalyze movements. We invited everyone in the organization to become part of a movement catalyst team but did not require everyone to change – and all new personnel would join under the new pattern. After a 10-year transition, everyone in the organization is now to be a part of a Church Planting Movement (CPM) catalyst team. Our complete focus is on catalyzing movements which result in large numbers of reproducing disciples and reproducing churches, and in transformation of whole groups and societies.

Change is difficult, no matter how well done and no matter how fully all personnel participate in the change process. For us, the participation included several meetings where global inequities, biblical patterns, and information from modern movements were presented. In each of these meetings, field personnel decided that focusing on movements was the way forward. Yet many struggled when actual implementation of such an approach became evident. Many were unwilling to lay aside good yet traditional approaches which did not multiply disciples. Many had not anticipated what changes would be needed. In the first seven to eight years, we lost two thirds of our missionaries – some to normal missionary attrition causes but many who would not accept the new approach even though they still had the option to continue in whatever traditional mission effort they chose.

Amazingly, even with reduced numbers we became exponentially more effective. In six years of implementation (2013-2018), God used Beyond to partner with many local teams in launching over 57,000 new churches and seeing about 500,000 new disciples baptized! We did so by a determined focus on our new goals, an unswerving commitment to change anything which kept us from achieving those goals, and a strong commitment to mutual accountability. Those who remained became equipped to make disciples who reproduce, churches who reproduce, and leaders who reproduce.

Changing from routine missions to focusing on multiplying disciples, leaders, churches and movements requires great determination, hard work, and willingness to pay the price. Yet unless change occurs, the global body of Christ will continue to fall short in obeying Jesus’ command to make disciples among all ethnē.

Key Steps in Our Process Included:

Facing Reality: Leaders are responsible to help their organizations face reality. The difficult reality we faced was that traditional mission efforts are losing ground globally in spite of several decades of emphasis on reaching Unreached Peoples. In the early 1980s, about 1.1 billion people had no access to hear or see Jesus’ Good News in their own setting. By 2007, that number had grown to about 1.8 billion people.

Our Board of Directors and field leaders were shocked when they heard stark information about the inadequacy of traditional mission approaches. They were stunned that only a miniscule percentage of global missionaries and mission funding was focused on reaching the 30+% of the world which had no access to the Gospel. In fact, the vast majority of Christian mission funding and personnel were focused on “Christianized” people groups which had significant percentages of believers and many Christian resources. We became willing to examine what changes were needed to address these huge inequities and to give all our focus to reaching those who have never heard the good news of Jesus.

Aligning All Toward the End-Vision: Our end-vision must be a vision which truly impacts global realities. Matthew 24:14, Matthew 28:16-20, Revelation 5:9 and Revelation 7:9 clearly illustrate Jesus’ end-vision. Any mission efforts which do not substantively contribute to making disciples of all ethnē (not just some) should be discarded. Every effort should be effective and aligned to move toward the end vision. As one of the leaders of Ethnē (a global UPG-focused network) has said, we must recognize that Church Planting Movements among the lost are not just one more strategy. Rather we must consider how various mission specialties --- translation, ethno-arts, youth, sports, business, prayer, etc. --- can each contribute to movements among the unreached.

Defining Mission Strategy to Achieve the End-Vision: We became willing to re-examine our definition of mission in light of the stark injustice of people never having their first chance to hear of Jesus. The old definition was an assorted mix of activities defined as mission. Like many organizations, this agency had mainly measured activity (e.g. number of missionaries sent, kinds of ministries started, money donated, etc.) rather than results. In fact, some of the leaders felt that we should not try to measure results. They believed: “We should just be faithful and leave the results to God” — despite the fact that the book of Acts often describes measured results.

Our Board of Directors and field leaders studied Jesus’ mission model (as seen especially in Luke 8, 9 and 10). Jesus commanded his followers to make disciples of all ethnē. Jesus promised that this good news of the Kingdom would be heralded in all the world as a sacrificial testimony to all ethnē and only then would the end come. Jesus promised he would build his ekklēsia (church). His ekklēsia would do many things, including feeding the poor, helping widows and orphans, healing the sick in Jesus’ name, and making disciples who also reproduce.

Our collective leadership realized Jesus’ model was reproducible, scalable and multiplicative. It could exceed population growth. It could give birth to tens of thousands of believers in thousands of churches which would meet millions of needs. Our leadership agreed to change.

Agreeing and Committing to a New Vision and Mission: In light of this decision to focus on end-vision results, the Board of Directors and field leaders were now ready to define our God-given Vision and Mission. Our Vision Statement became to “see all unreached peoples group reached” and “Jesus’ command to make disciples of all ethnē fulfilled.” His Mission Statement for us became to catalyze “Church Planting Movements to transform unreached people groups.”

We believe God has provided several major models of disciple-making movement processes which all have resulted in Church Planting Movements.  We as an organization are committed to using these various models and blending the best aspects of each model. Our personnel have the freedom to examine and adapt from these various approaches, including but not limited to T4T (Training for Trainers), Disciple Making Movements (known for the Discovery Bible Study process), 4Fields, etc.

Aligning Every Part of the Organization to the Vision and Mission: The new Vision and Mission required major changes within the organization. Old patterns, which had been built to fulfill the old organizational purposes, were changed, updated or removed. Some major changes required included:

The Board of Directors moved from being a Managing Board (making many day-to-day decisions) to being a Governing Board. They now set the direction and hold the CEO (and the global leadership team) accountable to fulfill the new mission. This change allowed the CEO, the other executive leaders, and the field leaders to move more quickly and effectively in making many other changes.

We realigned field structures and teams. Our vision was to disciple all ethnē and their sub-segments. So we moved away from country structures to build Affinity Bloc teams which focused on all the families of people groups in an Affinity Bloc, no matter in which country they lived. With this structure, field leadership could focus on strategy rather than routine management of field personnel.

We committed to the radical balance of being a “vision-led” rather than a “field-driven” or “centrally driven” organization. A field-driven organization (led primarily by field leaders) can lose sight of the global picture and major changes needed. A centrally driven organization may be unable to move quickly and innovate effectively because key decision makers serve too far from the point of action. A vision-led organization seeks to balance major initiatives required by a global strategy with flexibility to innovate well and quickly by teams closest to each situation.

Our commitment to shared leadership is strong. We seek to measure all we do by whether it aligns with the Vision and Mission. Different decisions are given to or shared by different leaders. All are mutually accountable for the decisions for which they are responsible.

The field personnel were re-equipped. Our home team and field teams were reorganized to align with the new vision. Our global leaders and our field leaders then spent several months praying and meeting to define together our Core Values (our organizational culture) to fulfill this calling. After that, God gave our organization a new identity.

In other words, God first led us to allow him to totally change the main concept or “engine” of the organization. He then led us to a new name which would emphasize his new calling for us. Through various verses, including Ephesians 3:20, God promised to do far beyond all we can ask or imagine. Thus, the new identity of Beyond emerged.

We rebuilt every process to align with and serve the Vision and Mission. Equipping efforts were designed to be simple, deep and immediately reproducible for additional missionaries and new disciples. We developed a proactive member health model to replace the more passive member care model which had required experts to provide most of the care. The member health efforts focused on equipping workers to be healthy and reproduce health in themselves and in their teams.

We have redesigned all equipping processes to be obedience-based. All new missionaries are required to fulfill Phase 1 requirements. Phase 1 equipping involves learning to make reproducing disciples in their home setting prior to acceptance to the organization. In Phase 2, they are mentored by a CPM-experienced field leader or team while learning to make reproducing disciples in a cross-cultural setting.

All field personnel in the organization are a part of a movement catalyst team. This emphasis incorporates many spiritual giftings into an “apostolic band” of workers who together will launch the church planting movements.

We also prioritize helping any non-Beyond team, church or organization in the world who wants help becoming a movement catalyst. This commitment to global collaboration comes from our core belief that God has called his Body to fulfill the Great Commission together. Thus we are committed to share any resources possible to help God’s people fulfill this calling. The emergence of the global 2414 Initiative, in which we eagerly participate, accelerated our timeframe due to the urgency of the God-given 2025 goal.

Some of What Our Organization Learned About a Change Process Included:

Doing the hard work of change can bring exponential results. From 2013 (when implementation began) to 2018, over 57,000 churches have been launched, a similar number of leaders equipped, and about 500,000 new baptized disciples (who are also making new disciples) have joined the Body of Christ.

Change is hard, no matter how well the processes are implemented. While mistakes were made, much of the process we followed was very sound.

Casting aside mission patterns and traditions is very hard, even when Jesus’ model is proven more effective and is visible in current movements. We were surprised that many missionaries would not even consider this paradigm which would make them more effective.

We needed to make the hard choices of changing leaders (both field leaders and home staff leaders) sooner rather than later if those leaders were unwilling or unable to help lead change. Prolonging the change only extends difficulty for the team and for that leader.

All key leadership must be united, totally focused, and undeterred in efforts to reach the ultimate goal, for changes to move forward well.

Launching movements, especially among Unreached People Groups, will require everyone in the organization to be willing to suffer for Jesus’ sake. Jesus, the apostles, and the early church suffered to advance God’s kingdom. We must not allow forward motion to be hindered by fear, hesitation, or settling for the lowest common denominator.

Any suffering is worth it to see reproducing groups of “obeyers” (“disciples”) learn to love and obey Jesus and his Word. They become a true ekklesia which feeds the poor in their neighborhood, frees women from sexual oppression, helps widows, and loves their enemies. They become the local embodiment of Christ’s kingdom within their culture. They join in making reproducing disciples who help complete the Great Commission.

Why change? To obey Jesus more completely. To bear fruit, more fruit and much fruit (cf. John 15). To see lives and whole societies changed.

Change is hard. But it’s worth the effort to see movements to Christ emerge among all peoples and places. We have joined in the global 2414 Initiative to do all we are called to do to see this happen by 2025, God willing.

‍