This article was shared during Transformation Connection Indonesia,
which was held in Surabaya, Indonesia on 28 October - 1 November 2008
Recorded by Dr. Sharon Ayabe from Kauai
Shirley Brownhill - Megacities Jakarta 2008 - I
29 October 2008 – TCI Surabaya
I lead a ministry called Megacities. And Megacities target the largest cities around the world to work with the whole body of Christ in that city to strengthen the work that is happening and also to assist with the engagement of local communities in the city. God wants to transform our cities. Our cities are the gateway into our nations. If we can take our cities, we can take the nation.
There were two cities we were praying about. One was Mexico City and the other was Jakarta. “Shirley, I want you to go to Jakarta first. I want you to share the vision with the city leaders.”
We want to know if God is saying that to them, also. So, I came, I shared the vision and asked them to pray. They prayed. And, they said, “Come back.” And, we’re very grateful.
God spoke to me from the book of Acts as I was praying about what to share. I’m not going to read a particular scripture but I am going to say something. I’m sure many of us have read the book of Acts many times. I looked at the book of Acts to see why the church multiplied so quickly. That first church had the DNA of God and the Holy Spirit of God upon it. The Holy Spirit had become its leader. So what they did is a mandate for you and I and for the church of the world.
I’ve been in many prayer meetings in many nations where we’ve prayed, “Lord could you make us like an Acts church. And we pray and pray and pray. And live in hope. But God wants to make us into an Acts 2 church. He wants us to be a church that has favor with God and man. And if we read the Books of Acts we see a church that is growing in favor in its community. And the Bible says that numbers were being added to the Kingdom of God on a daily basis.
As I looked at the books of Acts, the thing I discovered is that I think they grew in favor in their community because they lived the gospel in community.
The key is living the gospel in community. And when you observe the transformational movement worldwide, a foundation of that movement has been prayer. And so, we see worldwide prayer taking place all over the world.
I am absolutely convinced that nothing happens unless it happens in prayer first. When we pray, we deal with the powers of darkness. But we can’t just pray. We must go.
You know the church is the only organization on earth that exists for its non-members. If the church is the only organization on earth that exists for its nonmembers, then how much time are we spending with our nonmembers? Do we know anything about our nonmembers? Do we know how God feels? Do we know the burden God carries?
John 14:1 – Jesus came and He made His home among us. Jesus was seen and was known and Jesus made a major contribution to His communities that lived here. He lived out everything He proclaimed, everything He trained others in. He was a living teaching model. And I think that sometimes, our activities with our church members take so much of our time that we lose the meaning of what God’s called us to.
Certainly, we admire those that are going out to minister in their communities but many times we can offer ourselves excuses for why we are not supplying leadership to reach our communities.
Just recently in S. Jakarta, in the biggest slum in the south, there was a pastor who with his church adopted a slum. But the reason I want to share this particular story is that he actually moved and lived within that slum. Pastor M is his name. And he moved in May 2008. Initially, he had quite a bit of opposition and experienced threats as he established his ministry there. But look at some of the simple things his ministry includes—collecting clothes from his church to hand out in the area, distributing food, hosting a cell group in his home because he leads men to the Lord. So he’s discipling new believers. He’s working on a flood prevention project in the area. His youth group is participating in food distribution, haircuts, pedicures, and they painted 2 beautiful murals in the slum to improve the quality of life and to create something beautiful.
He hasn’t only adopted this particular slum. But God has brought so much into the heart of this leader that he and his church have adopted many slums. They are being faithful in the little things. They are being obedient to His commands. They are not a rich church but they are a valuable church and they are determined in their heart to see the Kingdom of God come to these areas of their city. Now moving in to a slum is not for all of us, but certainly God would challenge us with our own communities.
If we believe that God wants to bring transformation to our cities, then we’ve got to be the people that will do it. When we do the little, God comes in power and does the miracles and He does the signs. He feeds the 5000. God can do that and God does that.
Megacities targets a city for 12 months. We only do it for 12 months because we believe that the body of Christ in that city can reach the city. We want to be a catalyst for change. So Jakarta, was divided into 5 regions--government regions that already existed--North, South, East, West, and Central. And coordinating teams of local pastors and leaders would set up in those areas, men of peace who had a heart to make a difference.
And, then, Megacities invites international teams to come in. We believe that every city has diverse needs so we want to invite the church world-wide to come and assist in meeting those needs. Over the last 9 months we’ve seen 843 people visit Jakarta who have been hosted by these regions and servant-leaders. You might wonder what 843 foreigners do in a city like this. God uses anyone. God can use foreigners. And as we partner together with the local body of Christ, as we go into places where some of the churches we are going with have never gone before, God not only changes the communities we reach but God begins to get the hearts of the local church and they become mobilized for his kingdom.
These 84 teams have been walking the streets of that great city and have been praying and have been asking God what they should do in the city. Do you know that that those teams alone have been doing over 29,000 hours of prayer as they’ve walked the street and sought God’s heart over your communities? Many have gone with them and God has brought much revelation. And that’s just the intercession that’s been done.
They’ve also been praying for people individually. They’ve been praying for over 150,000 people. People who do not know the Lord, do not know Jesus, who are hurting, who have names, and welcome prayer and respond in faith. There have been hundreds of healings. Crippled have walked, many people have been healed. And when one community hears about the prayers in another, they want them to come. (These are only what the Megacities teams have done, but many, many more have been prayed for by the churches in Jakarta.)
Hundreds of people have come to the Lord. Thousands have been given healthcare by many church people who have never done healthcare. What are they doing? I believe they are doing what Jesus would be doing. He prayed, He asked the Father for help, He shared with people, and many responded. Jesus was also an incredible comforter. He just came alongside and loved people. And Jesus also met needs.
Every church in this nation is also asked to pray, share, comfort, proclaim the gospel, and meet needs. We are called to do the ministry of Jesus. Jesus spent a lot of time teaching. One of the things that Megacities does is bring teachers and trainers from all around the world that have had success. So, we’ve had many specialized teachers that have come to travel around the city to equip the local church. As soon as people are trained they are going right out into the communities to do it. There’s a very quick turnaround.
There’s also a lot of local training since the city of Jakarta is very large. God is looking at the whole city and every community. He looks at all the felt needs of every community. And, in whatever community, the nearby churches are being challenged to seek God and to do what they can to meet the needs. And, God is speaking to them about the most amazing things to do. There has been much disciple training of new converts, a lot of youth mobilization, a lot of going aside and equipping people to overcome their fears.
Because you know the enemy is really a roaring lion but he has no teeth. But he roars at the nations, and he roars at the body of Christ in the nations and he tells them to stay out of the streets. Or he fills their hearts with fear and tells them if you go there this is what will happen to you.
But Jesus obeyed His Father. He did go to places and bad things were done to Him. Eventually He went to the cross and paid the greatest price, so in the end we would follow Him and pay the greatest price for Him. God loves the cities, the nation, every man, woman and child in this country and it is not His desire that any would perish or be denied the full rights to the Kingdom of God.
Adopt-a-Slum Program. Not a program of Megacities of every city because we pray for specifics in every city. But God spoke to us and said, “Shirley, my dream is that every church in Jakarta would adopt a slum. That is my dream. And if every church in Jakarta adopts a slum, then Jakarta would then be mobilized to reach the world. Because you will have a transformed city, you will have a city that can be mobilized to do the same in other cities and nations.”
And we need Indonesians in the nations. We need you to come. My nation needs you. We have a hard heart and a materialistic society. We need a people that makes sacrifices and knows how to suffer to call us back to Christ.
If every church adopts a slum then we’re going to see a city transformed. And who did God use? The Body of Christ. They can do it.
One of the things we run is a Global Youth Outreach. There were a lot of young people who came and were very inspired by God. Part of the Global Youth Outreach is we actually take the young people into their city. It’s called Days of Compassion.
There are some young leaders in S. Jakarta who got so inspired by God that they have a regular ministry called Days of Compassion. And they are focusing on two slums in C. Jakarta. They meet every Saturday morning with youth from several churches. And they follow-up those that have been led to the Lord. They pray for people. And they’ve seen God’s power work through their lives.
And they want to do more. They want to help the poor. They have begun to look for job opportunities for the unemployed. And they’re helping people have access to free medicine. This represents 4 - 5 churches partnering together. And it started with about 17 young people. That’s what a slum adoption can look like. God is using them.
Another thing that is happening in the city is a lot of prayer walking. Prayer walking is I’m walking my streets, asking God to show me His heart in the community, and, “Lord, show me what to do.” So, there’s a lot of prayer walking.
Prayer walking is focused on getting God’s heart and not our good ideas. “Lord, what is happening? What still needs to happen? How can I get involved?”
Here’s another story. It was in the west. And God led them to a prostitution area that is also a slum area. And, there are many churches that have adopted many slums in this area. There was a group of local young people who were walking. And they were praying and asking God, “What do you want us to do?”
“I want you to go into the area and pray for people.”
But they were obedient and they went in. And they began to meet various people that were working in that area and they started to share the gospel with these prostitutes and they prayed for them and they are regularly seeing people saved. And, now Kings Kids has now started a school in the area to begin to minister to the children.
Do you think that represents God’s heart? Does that sound like something Jesus would do?
You know what God is looking for is greater participation. God is looking for churches that will measure their effectiveness not by their size but on how great is their impact. Please understand I’m not speaking against large churches. But what I’m saying is that Jesus really cares about our impact in our communities. How effective are we in our communities? Would our community notice if we left? Would they weep? Beloved we need to measure our impact.
We need to work out ways for every member of our churches to be involved in our communities. 2 Corinthians 5:20 says we are God’s representatives, but it doesn’t mean we are just keeping ourselves right with God but that we are going to be God’s hands and feet.
I believe when our churches are involved in our communities we will have a greater and healthier church. When every member is participating in a strategy for their community we will see the Kingdom of God. That means we’re going to get along, it means we’re going to mobilize everyone. Because our church members grow through their involvement in the Kingdom of God.
It’s not enough for us to just talk about it but our nation will observe the Kingdom of God. Because I believe that if they see Him they will love Him and will ask, “What can I do to be saved?” I came from a completely un-churched background, but when I heard Him, when I saw Him, He had my heart.
When our cities see Him. You see they don’t understand what we do in church. But they will understand what we do in their community. So, the Christian leaders in this nation offer more ideas, provide leadership, get every member involved. You have a vast army in this nation of people who love God with all their heart. It is an honor and privilege to work with the leaders I know here. But unless we provide strategies for reaching our cities, it will never happen. It’s not just up to mission organization and relief and development agencies, it’s up to all of us.
The last thing I want to share about today is the young people in your nation. They are your future leaders and they are remarkable. These young people in your nation are going to inherit all of your efforts. If they are going to kill some giants themselves, they need to be encouraged to reach cities and reach this nation. There is a lot of strategy happening in Indonesia along those lines.
The thing about young people is they are very spontaneous and don’t know what they are doing. And sometimes it can turn out really well and perhaps sometimes it will turn out very bad. But they are your future, they are your leaders, and they need more than a Sunday School experience. They need to see God in action they need to see God use them, they need to experience it and confront their fears. They’ve lived with many people saying they can’t do it, but they need to hear the “Yes’ as well. And, senior leaders need to go with them.
And senior leaders need to merge back into the background a little more and whisper in their ears, “You can do this.”
I just want to encourage you to release your young people, go with them and let’s see transformation.
Let Indonesia be the first to tell the true transformation stories. I believe it’s going to be the case.