EMQ » January–March 2020 » Volume 56 Issue 1
By Jeff Neely
In 2002, a global gathering of mission practitioners took place which focused on church planting among unreached people groups. At this gathering, a break-out group for participants working in the Muslim world met to discuss their unique task. We determined not to ask ourselves, “What can we do to reach the Muslim world for Christ?” but instead to ask, “What must be done to reach the Muslim world for Christ?”
That question then led to another fundamental question: “What can we do better together than we can do alone?” While answering it, these practitioners realised two needs: to better understand the state of the Gospel among Muslims, and to identify the best practices for church planting among Muslims.
A Comprehensive Network for Muslim World Church Planting
This dialogue launched the network that became Vision 5:9. Two different task forces which focused on these two distinct needs came under Vision 5:9. The Global Trends task force has put much of its energy into identifying Muslim people groups where there is no known intentional effort to plant churches. The Fruitful Practices task force researches and identifies field practices that are producing fruit in the form of discipleship movements and multiplying churches. Both of these initiatives are successful because of the commitment to share between different member organizations, which provides broader insight than can be gained within any single organization.
Since then, Vision 5:9 has become a comprehensive network for those called to church planting in the Muslim world. It now includes over two hundred member organizations with a healthy cross-section of global, national, denominational, and local ministries. Vision 5:9 is a place for practitioners to meet, learn, and partner together to see churches planted among Muslims in their local context.
Vision 5:9 has three primary mandates. Mobilising the church to engage every Muslim people group effectively. Discerning fruitful practices for church planting among Muslim peoples and to share these practices with others. And lastly, measuring and assessing our efforts, to understand trends impacting these efforts and hold one another accountable to our commitment to reach all Muslim peoples.
As a network, we purposefully partner with national movements focused on church planting among Muslims in their nations. We also realize the importance of working with other like-minded networks – those focused on church planting among unreached peoples. To do this well, we intentionally partner with global networks such as Ethne (ethne.net), GCPN (gcpn.info), 24:14 (2414now.net), and GACX (gacx.io).
Network members express that the most challenging part of participating in our network is prioritizing time spent on network development with the expectations of their individual organizations. Finding the right balance for each member is difficult when organizational priorities may be more immediately demanding.
Increasing Diversity
Vision 5:9 derives its name from Revelation 5:9, which is a beautiful picture of people from every tribe, tongue, and nation gathered before the Lamb of God, singing a new song. We believe our network must reflect that same picture, and we have been very intentional about pursuing the involvement of a diverse representation of ministries in all levels of network participation. In 2007 when we hosted the Global Trends – Fruitful Practices event, we had 500 participants who were mostly practitioners from the Western world.
However, at the similarly purposed Abide Bear Fruit event in 2017, we had 1,000 participants, of which 25% were Muslim background believers (MBBs), 25% were women, and 50% were from the global south. All who attended felt the benefits of such a diverse gathering, but our Muslim background brothers and sisters were the most deeply moved. It gave them the opportunity to fellowship and collaborate with so many others who shared their experience. As one MBB brother observed, “I had no idea there were so many of us!”
Towards that end, Vision 5:9 intentionally directs resources towards the inclusion of groups that would otherwise be unable to participate in our network. In addition to funding the leaders from less-resourced areas to participate in our network meetings, we have continued to resource and facilitate regional gatherings for MBB practitioners.
Regional expressions of our network allow more grassroots collaboration and partnership to take place. They also enable participants to share experiences and strategies that enhance their own effective ministry as well as informing the wider Body of Christ.
Our current regions include the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe, North America, and Latin America. We are developing regions in East and West Africa. Together with our regional expressions, we are also exploring how to most effectively address the global trends of the Muslim diaspora, refugees, and immigrant populations. We don’t want to leave any Muslim people behind.
Developing and Sharing Resources
Since our aim is not research for its own sake but to enable more effective ministry efforts, Vision 5:9 has developed the outcomes of the Global Trends and Fruitful Practices task forces into resources, which can be used by all practitioners. These resources help them to see more fruit in church planting efforts among Muslim people. Some of these resources include:
- A regularly updated list of Muslim people groups that identify those who are unengaged.
- “From Seed to Fruit” published in 2008 following our first global consultation.
- “Where There Was No Church” and “Where There is Now a Church” narrative stories of fruitful practices.
- “Fruit to Harvest” published in 2019 following our second global consultation.
- “A Practitioner’s Guide to Fruitful Practices” (currently in production).
The success of Vision 5:9 in using the task force model to collaborate for effective ministry in the Muslim world has led to several other initiatives aimed at achieving our vision. These initiatives include a number of task forces. They create platforms to facilitate the sharing of relevant resources and create a learning environment to help us do our part in reaching the Muslim world.
A Prayer Task Force encourages strategic prayer as the foundation of our efforts. The 10/10 prayer initiative (https://1010prayerandfasting.wordpress.com) has successfully drawn our members together for focused prayer on the Muslim world. A Family Task Force emphasizes the need to reach the family with the gospel and provide resources specific to this strategy. A Mobilisation and Training Task Force uses the resources of the network to mobilize the whole church to reach the Muslim world. And a Multi-media Resources Task Forceuses communications technology to facilitate evangelism and discipleship for the purpose of planting churches.
Relationships are Key to Success
The key to the success of Vision 5:9 is relationships – deep, intentional, trusting relationships among members of individual organizations who understand that we can do far more together. Relationships inspired the creation of Vision 5:9. Relationships caused the network to grow and become diverse. Relationships gave the network a unique understanding of the needs in the Muslim world and what bears fruit for the Kingdom.
Sharing ministry insights and strategies happens because of our relationships. Because of our relationships, trust is established with one another to share failures that help us learn. Accountability and the pursuit of long-lasting fruit occurs because of relationships. And we celebrate the harvest with our brothers and sisters because we know that in pursuing what must be done to see more fruit in the Muslim world, we must do it together.
For more information on Vision 5:9 please email: info@vision59.com.
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Jeff Neely is one of the founding members and the current director of operations for the Vision 5:9 network. He has been with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) for thirty years, working with a focus on Muslim ministry for most of that time.
