Jesus' great commission and subsequently his orders were a military style commission! That he fully expected to be obeyed and implemented! This was not the "great suggestion" as many western Christians act like today!
The Good Shepherds Int is an order and army of believers who are disciplined, committed, sold out soldiers for Jesus Christ! Our purpose is to fulfill the great commission of Jesus! Jesus said go in all the world and make disciples of all nations. We plant native mission churches that disciple the nations, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, bring medical attention to the sick, start and support orphanages, drill wells in remote areas, create schools, help the homeless, and preach the good news to a lost and hurting world! When necessary we use words!
The Good Shepherds meet in local chapters in each town or city where we fellowship, learn, train, and equip Good Shepherds. The local chapter is our base of operations for that town or region.
Once in that region and we have people begin to join the good shepherds from every church, we teach them biblical Christianity and send them back into their church with fresh perspective of what Jesus actually created the church to be and the model of what the 1st century church operated like!
Most Christians would be shocked to know that Jesus used and skillfully implemented a model and strategy to launch and explode the growth and influence of his church! We call this "The Jesus Ministry Model"! Jesus incorporated the same model of growth that God had used all though creation, recreation after Noah's flood and throughout scripture! This model is strategically implemented for only one purpose: to create a viral effect!!!
The Good Shepherds use these principles from the Jesus ministry model of explosive growth and its transgenerational viral effect to create ministry resources and human resources. This allows us to build an army of committed soldiers in the west whose purpose it is to plant, help fund and facilitate churches, orphanages, feeding programs, schools, medical missions, etc. globally.
The Good Shepherd's is an army of committed soldiers in the west whose purpose is to plant, help fund and facilitate these works globally for Jesus Christ and mankind! This subsequently strategically creates a foreign army of pastors and Christians throughout the nations. We believe that true evangelism is expansion of the New Testament style empowered local church. Our order's primary mission is to plant native mission churches pastored by native mission pastors in every nook and cranny of the world! Thus saturating whole countries with native mission pastored churches and subsequently affecting their villages, society and culture.
Within a few years these native mission pastors on average have hundreds of new converts and many times have gotten almost their entire village converted!
Once we have planted a local church in a region where before we had no presence we now have the human resources and facilities to start the other necessary and important aforementioned missions and humanitarian efforts!
You will not believe how little it takes a day to sponsor and plant these native mission pastors! Many Americans were shocked at how little it took and how huge the results were! They were very excited! They have said, that nowhere else that they know about could you have so much fruit for so little?"
II Timothy 2:3-4 Endure hardness as a Good Soldier of Jesus Christ! No soldier entangles himself with the affairs of this world that he might please him who has called him to be a soldier.
2 Cor 10:4 The weapons of our warfare are mighty through God!
Ephesians 6:11-13 Put on the whole armor of God that you can stand against the military strategies of the devil! The armor included a sword, shield, breastplate, helmet, shoes, and belt. These were all offensive weapons. There was no armor for the back!
It is clear that Jesus militarized his people as soldiers of the kingdom. We see Paul later reemphasize this truth numerous times! Jesus did this so to have his people think like soldiers of the kingdom of heaven instead of civilians who just got their ticket to heaven and wouldn't do anything to affect this world. This unfortunately is the primary mood today in the western church. Jesus wanted us to understand and have the mindset that this is warfare and we have a duty to perform. He also wanted us to understand that we have powerful spiritual weapons to fight this war!
Jesus understood that soldiers and people in wartime think differently than people that are not at war! This spiritual war and warfare is a very tangible reality! Many times people can get fat, lazy, and undisciplined when we are in peace time; especially if we live in an affluent culture!
Let's not forget that Jesus left a blueprint called the "Jesus ministry model!" This model explodes virally down transgenerational lines creating an eplosion of people, funds, and ministry resources throughout the world!
The Good Shepherds incorporated these prolific principles of growth which are by and large unknown to the church today. That we know of, there are no other ministry or missions using this blueprint or strategies today!
The great commission was not "the great suggestion"! The Great Commission was a military style commission by Jesus! His orders were military style marching orders from a commander and chief! Orders he clearly expected to be carried out! Jesus was sending his armies of soldiers and ambassadors of love throughout the world and to all subsequent generations until the terminal generation!
The order of the Good Shepherds is set up like a professional representative force, a transgenerational ministry program - a religious order and has a military motif. We have borrowed principle from first and foremost the bible, the military, the Salvation Army, evangelism, explosion, professional marketing, networking companies and organizations that incorporate chapters into their structure!
The early church had a solder hood and ambassador mentality and functioned very much like an army would function!
Historically, one man who understood these principles well was General William Booth who created the wonderful organization called "The Salvation Army." His autobiography titled "The Life of General William Booth" is required reading by every Good Shepherd. We frequently show our people copies of his "Articles of war", their book "called to be a soldier", and his newspaper called The war cry! Much inspiration came from William Booth. We have adopted this army model as it is scriptural and it works. It reintroduces people to a very necessary soldier hood mentality! Our organization functions similarly with some decidedly important differences!
True evangelism is expansion of the New Testament, Holy Spirit empowered local church! The Good Shepherds is first and foremost an apostolic ministry.
That means that our organization's primary function is to plant native mission churches pastored by native mission pastors and then subsequently the other very needed mission and humanitarian ministries in every nook and cranny of the world!
Many people in the west today no longer like or appreciate the local church. Many times the western churches don't have anywhere near the same substance or authenticity of the early church. But let us not forget and lose perspective. Jesus came to start, teach and empower his church on earth! The bible teaches that his church is his bride. God has voluntarily limited himself to do nothing on earth around his people and church! It is true that many western churches have grown cold and powerless. However these churches are alive, powerful and very evangelistic. Many times they take their entire villages for Jesus!
Large crusades have proven to have little lasting effect. Of those who have given their life to Jesus during these crusades, only a small percentage remained committed to their decision after the departure of the crusade! This is because there was no one left there to disciple them after the crusade! This is a clear violation of an order and the instructions of Jesus who said Go! Make disciples! Jesus modeled this very principle of discipleship as he spent 3 1/2 years training his own disciples! He then instructed them to follow the same model. (Maybe this was an important clue!)
Conversion without discipleship brings disaster! This is why our model starts with the expansion of the local church and the discipleship process! Our motto is that "True Evangelism is the expansion of the Local Church!" It's all about long term consistent discipleship! This unfortunately is not the current western model in the churches. Consequently we have a growing number of people in the west called the de-churched! They went to church for a while but weren't really discipled. They quit going to church with a bad taste in their mouths.
Timothy 2: 2-4:
And the things that you have heard of me, among
many witnesses, the same commit to faithful men who will be
able to teach others also. Therefore endure hardship as a good
soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that wars entangles himiself with
the affairs of this life that he may please him who have chosen
him to be a soldier.
These native missioned pastored churches grow prolifically. These pastors bring many people to Jesus and then disciple the new converts in a disciplined manner. Consequently there is very little attrition in these churches.
By planting these local churches, we now have a base of operations and human resources in that region where before we had no prior presence! This now allows us, after the church plant, to subsequently facilitate the other much needed missions operations such as orphanages, feeding programs, medical missions, clothing ministries, evangelism, schools, ect in that town or region!
It takes surprisingly little to support these native mission pastor and churches! Most Americans are shocked how much fruit they can have as a family for so little! These Christian families can have and plant their own church in a foreign land for $5 to $10 a day, or the price of a latte or hamburger! They can fund their own orphanage of 40 children for $10 to $20 a day! A startling statistic is that these pastors have an average of a hundred brand new converts at the end of a year's time! In many cases, they will take their entire village for Jesus! All because American Christian families gave up a latte that day to support their church and that pastor's family!
This contrasted to that fact that it takes $40,000 to $80,000 a year on average to support an American mission family overseas. There are many wonderful American missionaries but statistics show that an average American missionary has very few converts, as few as only one convert at the end of a year's time!
We can send Native mission pastors out and plant 30-40 churches for the cost of supporting one American missionary family and church! This and the native mission pastor has exponentially better results!
This is because of the difference in scales of economics, the fact that the native mission pastors and his family will live with the people they are pastoring, and they are willing to get by with much less! Because of these factors and the American family's excitement, we literally can, and have in the past saturated countries with native mission pastored churches! (This is not pie in the sky!)
The other reason is the extraordinary commitment level of these native mission pastors. One of our pastors rides his bicycle four hours each way to his church every day! We've had pastors that would swim across crocodile-infested rivers to get to villages on the other side of the river! Their commitment level far exceeds most of their western Christian counterparts!
With all these factors considered, it seems the most reasonable approach most of the time would be to support native mission pastored church plants!
Stateside we function as a well-disciplined, well trained army and representative force! Good Shepherds present this wonder opportunity to family, friends, coworkers, and fellow church members, ect. We then connect these American Christian families to a native mission pastor and his family, or orphanage, feed program, school, ect if they desire!
American families love it when they find out that by giving up a hamburger or latte a day, their family can have their own church, orphanage or school in a foreign land! They love the fact that they will be responsible for hundreds, even whole villages coming to Jesus! They've always wanted to do what Jesus said, fulfill the great commission and help hurting people but they just didn't know where to do it! One person recently said "nowhere else will you be able to produce so much fruit for so little!"
We have found that today in the west, many Christians are tired of supporting large American ministries that require large sums of money to operate but produce minimal results!
If needed, we show these families how to save or create an additional 5-10 dollars a day for their church! The whole family gets involved and it is actually simple and fun and God blesses it! You should hear some of the stories! They are surprised that is it much easier than they initially thought! They are also surprised how very rewarding and beneficial it is for the whole family, including the children!
Most Christians would be shocked to know that Jesus used and skillfully implemented a model and strategy to launch and explode the growth and influence of his church! We call this "The Jesus Ministry Model"! Jesus incorporated the same model of growth that God had used all though creation, recreation after Noah's flood and throughout scripture!
This model is strategically implemented for only one purpose: to create a viral effect!!!
The Good Shepherd army uses the principles and model of explosive exponential growth that God used in everything he ever created! This superior model incorporates a transgenerational explosion of people, material and monetary resources into the world at rates hitherto unknown to modern ministry and missions!
In doing research we have found a spirit of discontent among genuine American Christians!
People are tired of playing church! They say they are tired of going to a show, seeing a good band, putting money in the plate and just going home! They say that there is no community, substance or a culture of meaningful relationships in their churches!
The sermons are now being customized to be inclusive, not to ever offend anyone and are not affecting culture or the world!
People today want something substantive, life and culture changing!
They know what Jesus said to do! They want to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, support orphanages, help the homeless, and spread the gospel. Christians today want to help the homeless but in today's culture, you can't just take them home. People feel helpless! No one says charge! We are going this way!
Many Christians today do want to be soldiers for Jesus, totally committed sold out! They just don't know how or where to go to fulfill that role!
Christians are telling us today that they are tired of huge American ministries that require great sums of money to operate but produce minimal results! They are looking for a rubber meets the road ministry that puts tennis shoes to the gospel. They want an authentic NT style ministry that does a great deal with very little! Many Christian families that have been introduced to the Good Shepherds have said that they have never found any other place where they can have so much fruit for so little.
For those who want to be fully commissioned Good shepherd soldiers, even officers, they can attend our local chapter meeting in their area! We will have chapters throughout the U.S! The chapter is the center of everything that we do in the Good Shepherds! In these chapter, we train and educate people to become soldiers for Jesus, whose purpose is to disciple all nations and fulfill Jesus great commission! By having Good Shepherd soldiers and chapters throughout the U.S. we can help be a significant force helping bring the western church back to biblical Christianity and American back to God!
In much of the western church, we have lost sight of much of the mission fervor, and substance of our first century fathers. In trying to be tolerant and inclusive and not to offend anyone, we have resorted to a buffet style of Christianity. I'll take a little of this and a little of that. In the process much of contemporary western church no longer resembles biblical Christianity! It no longer teaches or resembles the things that Jesus taught!
The Good Shepherds never pull people out of their churches! We actually train them to be the best servants, church members and helpers to the pastor and churches! We teach them and reinculate them with biblical Christianity and send them back into their churches as missionaries with a fresh, new enthusiasm, vision, and understanding of how awesome God, his word, and his church actually are!
They begin to see that the church when functioning like Jesus set it up to function as a community, hospital, and army is refreshing, alive, powerful and inspirational! That kind of local church changes the community and culture around it which is its primary mission!
Do you want to become a part of an elite army of believers, soldiers and ambassadors for Jesus? An army that is disciplined, committed, strong, full of love for a lost and hurting world! Together we can fulfill the great commission! Feed the hungry, plant orphanages, medical missions, clothe the naked, and plant native mission churches in every nook and cranny of the world!
But please understand this, The Good Shepherds is not looking for everyone! We are only looking for the few, the committed, God's marines! Serving everyday with eternity in mind!
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