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If we are serious about fulfilling the Great Commission, we must focus our efforts and resources on areas with the greatest need.

The red dots on the map (below) represent people groups that have not yet heard the Gospel message. Where is the greatest concentration of unreached people groups in the world? India.



North India is home to the single largest concentration of
unreached people groups in the world.

Only 0.14% of the 800 million people in North India claim to be Christians (including nominal Christians).

As a church planting movement, Empart is passionate about reaching and restoring the lives of those who have never heard about the love of Jesus.

India, and surrounding nations including Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan, are hungry for salvation. They are waiting to hear the good news of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

How will they hear if we do not take the effort to reach them and tell them?

No one person can do this alone.

However, when we partner together, we can see eternal transformation as a result.

Find out more about how you can get involved!

 

Someone recently askedJossy: Why is Empart's goal set for 100,000 churches?

Great question! Let us give you a few of the thoughts and background information about why we believe the Lord gave us the goal of planting 100,000 churches in Asia:

1. Firstly, as a business person, I believe that a vision without specific goals can never be measured or be accountable.

We may or may not reach this huge goal of 100,000 transformed communities BUT we DO know where we are going and how far we have to go! Although the goal of 100,000 churches by 2030 may seem like an impossible goal, we believe we will reach this because Jesus said, “I will build my Church” – it is through Him that we will achieve this, not because of Jossy, any individual or Empart.

2. Yes it is a huge goal – I believe in setting God-sized goals that force us to be dependent on Him, rather than setting goals that we can only achieve in the natural sense.

We are very aware that if God is not part of the plan, we will never achieve anything! This makes us more dependent on Him. Every time I read and speak, I am amazed by what the Lord has done and it draws me closer to Him. It keeps us humble – because I know I can’t do it without Him.

When I was seeking the Lord about what I was supposed to do – sitting on the roof top in India with Stephane (Empart Switzerland Director) - I had a unique experience. We were praying and asking the Lord to show us what we should do, when I looked up into the sky and I felt someone say to me, “As you see the stars in the sky, I want to see churches on earth.” I immediately shared this conversation with Stephane and both of us knew that we needed to be part of a great church planting movement.

3. When I was researching about the unreached people of the world, I discovered that there were about 500,000 villages in North India with no church.

I felt that if we were able to plant one church for every 5 villages, at least everyone in that area could have an opportunity to hear the Gospel.

4. A big goal like this keeps all of us eternally focused, rather than becoming internally focused.

Over time, God has raised up many great leaders within Empart who understand what it means to work in God's strength. Two of our leaders have committed to reaching a staggering 25,000 people in their region, one to reaching 15,000, another two to reaching 10,000 and many others are believing that God will help them to transform hundreds of lives. The fact now is that we have leaders serving with Empart who collectively have a goal to see more than 170,000 churches planted!! So it is no longer just my dream or goal. Effectively, we have become a movement with multiple movements inside of it.

5. I now have come to believe that God has not asked us to plant churches but rather to make disciples. Church planting is a result of effective discipleship.

To reach this goal of 100,000, we only need to train and develop 45,000 disciples! We currently have 25 Transformation Centres throughout India and Nepal but to achieve 100,000 churches, we need to aim higher. We have set a plan of having 100 Transformation Centres each training 25 Church Planters and Key Women each year.

The good news is that through an exceptional growth formula we are on target! The challenge for us is to resource the growth at its peak – in this, the next 10 years is the most critical.

Jossy Chacko, Empart Founder and President

 

The 10/40 Window is a rectangular window that stretches from 10 degrees to 40 degrees north of the equator; starting from West Africa and ending in East Asia.

Also known as ‘The Resistant Belt’, the 10/40 Window is home to the most unreached people in the world.

Although many of the people groups here are classified as unreached, they are not unreachable. Ironically, Coca-Cola, as an example, has been more successful in ‘reaching their unreached’ with their product in 100 years than missionaries with the Gospel in 2,000 years.

In Romans 15:20, Paul says that his priority has always been to bring the message of the Gospel to those places where Jesus was not yet known and worshipped. At Empart we are driven by this same priority - so our vision and focus is fixed within the 10/40 Window. Empart’s primary field operation is North India, which lies at the heart of the 10/40 Window and contains the single largest concentration of unreached people in the world today.

If we are to make a difference in the 10/40 Window we must:

•     Put God’s love for the lost first (John 3.16; 2 Peter 3.9)
•     Believe that no race or country deserves God’s best more than any other (Rev 7: 9-10)
•     Live in light of the fact that over 60,000 people die each day, without ever hearing the gospel once (Rom 15:20)
•     Be convicted and convinced that everyone is lost without Christ (John 3.17; 14.6)
•     Be convinced that there is no other name under heaven for people to be saved, except the name of Jesus (Acts 4.12)
•     Always focus on our primary task, to make disciples of all nations (Matt 28.18-19)
•     Believe that all things are possible in God (Phil 4.13; Mark 10. 27)
•     Understand our role in quickening His coming again (Matt 24:14)
•     Understand that following Christ means death to self and submission to Him (Luke 9.23- 25; John 3.30)
•     Understand that while salvation is free, it costs everything to be His disciple (Eph 2.8-9; Gal 2.20; 5.24-25; 6.14)

Did you know?

• Two thirds of the world’s population live in this window, totalling more than 3.2 billion souls
• More than 95% of people living here have yet to hear the Gospel for the first time
• Half of the world’s least evangelised cities are found in the 10/40 window
• 1.2 billion Muslims live here
• 1 billion Hindus reside in the 10/40 window
• 237 million Buddhists do too
• 85% of the world’s poorest dwell here.

Despite these facts:

• Only 27% of the total missionaries in the world focus on this region
• 97% of Christians around the world have no connection or contact with this region
• Only 1% of the total global mission fund is spent within the 10/40 window.

 

Missionary! The very word strikes awe into the hearts of many Christians. Awe and respect for the men and women that God has called to go and be missionaries in pagan nations. Sometimes the awe is tinged with quiet gratefulness that God didn’t call ME to go. And maybe a little bit of guilt too, that I’m not prepared to make the same sacrifice that these missionaries make. But, I console myself, God hasn’t called me to be a missionary, so I say a prayer for them and put a few dollars in the mission offering.

But for many of us there remains a nagging sense that maybe there is more to it than this! Is there? To answer, let’s take a fresh look at the Great Commission.Most of us have been taught that the Great Commission has one central command, one imperative: GO! And we see missionaries as those Christians who are called to fulfil the Great Commission. But what happens if that is not what the Great Commission actually says?

The Great Commission does have one imperative – but in the original Greek it is much clearer to see that the one command is actually: MAKE DISCIPLES! A more correct translation would be, “As you are going, MAKE DISCIPLES of all nations!” In other words, as you are doing life, give priority to making disciples. So the Great Commission is not just for missionaries, it is for ALL believers. It is a non-negotiable part of being a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Therefore, if you are a believer, you are also a Great Commissionary, someone who is committed to fulfilling the Great Commission, giving constant priority to making disciples.

In the traditional sending model of missions it was easy to recognise a missionary – the one who was GOING. But in the partnering model of missions the focus is no longer on going, rather on fulfilling the Great Commission, on making disciples. So how do we recognise a Great Commissionary?

A Great Commissionary cannot be recognised by a specific activity. Some may go, others will focus on prayer or giving financially. Still others might give of their time and skills. A Great Commissionary is not recognisable by “what” he or she is doing; it is about the “why”.

A business person who makes a lot of money and prioritises giving to help make disciples is a Great Commissionary. So is the grandmother who prays daily for unreached people around the world. And the administrator who uses his skill to work with a Great Commission organisation. And the national Church Planter working in a remote village where people have never heard the name of Jesus. What all Great Commissionaries share is a priority to see the Great Commission fulfilled, regardless of where they live and what they do.

Friend, the unreached people of the world need you to embrace your role as a Great Commissionary. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, decide today that fulfilling the Great Commission will always be your first priority.

 

Empart exists to ignite church planting movements among unreached people. Sounds good, but what is a ‘Church Planting Movement’ (CPM)?

A CPM can be defined as “a rapid and multiplicative increase of indigenous churches planting churches within a given people group or population segment.” Dr David Garrison.

As this definition indicates, a CPM is always about indigenous, or national, churches. Once the Gospel enters a people group the national people quickly own it so that the initiative and drive of the movement comes from within the people group rather than from outsiders.

A CPM also occurs with rapid increases in new church plants. The growth is exponential, characterized by each part multiplying itself. Exponential growth is only possible when more new churches are being planted by the new churches themselves.

CPMs are more than evangelism that results in churches, more than a revival of pre-existing churches. CPMs are a move of God, with a supernatural force and power all of their own. While there are strategies and structures in place these are only used to facilitate the growth, not to contain the movement. When these structures are re-positioned to contain, manage or control the momentum, the movement stops and starts to become a monument.

CPMs are about seeing the book of Acts repeated all over again. As such, in Empart we experience:

•     churches and disciples multiplying daily
•     no one able to predict where the next church is going to pop up
•     “unusual” and “unexplainable” things expected and happening as norm
•     believers’ whose passion for the Lord and the lost is greater than anything else
•     an understanding that to give your life away for the Gospel is not a cost – it is considered a privilege,
•     new believers making more disciples very soon after coming to Christ
•     young believers choosing to become Church Planters so they can start the next church as soon as possible
•     ... and the process continues till the whole region is reached with the gospel.

If you are serious about people hearing the saving message of Jesus, decide today to become part of a CPM. Your prayer and giving will enable a national Church Planter to preach the Gospel where it is not yet known.

 

The name Empart is an amalgamation of two words - Empowering and Partnering.

Empowering
One of Empart's distinctives is that our entire model of ministry is about empowering local believers, as opposed to controlling. Our task is to transform communities by training local people to plant local churches in the local community. Local Church Planters are committed to reaching the unreached people, restoring and resourcing them, then releasing them to fulfil the Great Commission.

Partnering
The only way that we are able to achieve the work of planting 100,000 churches is to make sure we are all using our gifts to their maximum. Our Asian Church Planters know the language, culture, and are immediately effective in reaching their own people. Our strength in Western countries is in our access to resources and ability to pray. By combining the efforts of our Asian Church Planters and our supporting countries, we have a very strong partnership!

 

The Caste System has been operating in India for thousands of years. This system favours particular groups of people and discriminates against others, based purely on the caste one is born in to. How is this system still operating in our world today? Because from the moment a child is born, they are taught that they are only worth as much as their caste.

If a child is born into a wealthy Brahman caste, they are given status and great respect from everyone in their community. They are taught that they are more worthy than anyone else. However, if a child is born into a low level caste such as a Sweeper or Potter caste, they are brought up believing that they are worth less than the rats they share their tiny one room home with.

Millions of people suffer from a form of discrimination because they were born into a marginalized caste.

The Hindu holy book, Rig Veda, suggests that all people originated and gained their social standing from their position in the body of Brahma. The lowest caste groups are often referred to as the “Untouchables” because they are believed to have originated from the very bottom level of Brahma’s body, his feet, and are seen as inferior to the other castes.

Who are the "Untouchables"?

The “Untouchables” are the people in the lowest level of the Caste System in India and make up the majority of the Indian population. There are three major segments within the “Untouchables” castes. The OBC, or Other Backward Class, includes almost 50% of the Indian population. Dalits comprise around 15% and the tribal groups include 12% of the Indian population.

Nearly 80% of the Indian population belong to a caste that is degraded and mistreated. They are given less dignity, value and worth than animals. As a result of their appalling treatment, the “Untouchables” grow up believing that they have no value. It doesn’t have to be like this. They need to know about the God who created them in His image. They need to know that they are treasured in His eyes. Their lives have meaning and purpose too.

Love in action: the Caste Reconciliation Movement

Empart has a vision to change the awful treatment of the “Untouchables”. The Caste Reconciliation Movement is the first step towards helping people understand that they are created by God as equals and we are all brothers and sisters. Our objective is simply to work towards uplifting its underprivileged groups.

Rallies are being organised throughout India where entire communities and castes have the opportunity to be united. Political leaders, Westerners, High Caste Brahmans and religious leaders are invited to come and apologise to the mistreated castes.

Reconciliation Ceremonies include:

• Apologising for the way the low castes have been treated
• Asking for forgiveness
• Telling them they are created in the image of God
• Affirming them of their value
• Foot washing

Jossy Chacko, Empart Founder and International Director, and Empart’s Indian leaders pioneered the Caste Reconciliation Movement. Jossy has been encouraged by the lasting impact the rallies have had on people from low castes. “It is amazing to see these men, women and children weeping as they come to realise, not just in words but also in action, how worthy they really are.”