My mom and dad used to tell us, “There is more than one way to skin a cat.” Yet I never saw them skin one. It must have been some generational wisdom that they expected us to discern. To their point, there are also many ways to plant a new church or grow an existing one. The church, being an assembled gathering of Believers for worship by prayer, praise, adoration in song, and fellowship, could hardly find a better time to celebrate than Good Friday (according to Rome) and Easter Sunday. Especially in a region where Christianity is little known and even less understood. So I was surprised to receive this report from Pastor Shaukat Siddique, Lahore, Pakistan, entitled “Palm Sunday Service Report – Bible Believers Baptist Church.” I’ll share it with you as I received it.
“Bible Believer’s Baptist Church, Lahore, joyfully organized a special service to celebrate Palm Sunday and remember the triumphant entry of our Lord Jesus Christ into Jerusalem. It was truly a blessed and Spirit-filled day for all who attended.
The service began with a vibrant and meaningful procession. All the church members gathered and marched through the streets, holding palm branches as a symbol of honor and victory. With hearts full of joy, we praised and glorified the name of Jesus Christ, just as the people did in biblical times, shouting praises and lifting His name on high.
During our march, the atmosphere was filled with excitement and reverence. Men, women, and children participated with great enthusiasm. We sang songs of worship together, clapping our hands and rejoicing in unity. The sound of praise echoed through the streets, becoming a testimony to the surrounding community. It was not only a celebration but also a powerful witness of our faith.
As the service continued, the Word of God was preached with clarity and boldness. The message focused on the love, sacrifice, and kingship of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit moved mightily among the people, touching hearts and drawing souls toward salvation.
At the end of the service, we witnessed a great harvest. By the grace of God, 45 individuals accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. It was a moment of great joy and thanksgiving as new believers stepped forward to follow Christ.
Furthermore, many expressed their commitment to take the next step in their faith through baptism. From our newly planted churches, 20 more people joined those preparing for baptism. In total, 65 individuals received baptism, publicly declaring their faith in Jesus Christ. Hallelujah!
This Palm Sunday service was not only a celebration but also a powerful reminder of God’s ongoing work in Pakistan. We thank the Lord for His blessings, for changed lives, and for the growth of His church. We humbly request continued prayers for this fruitful ministry. Pray that God will strengthen the new believers, expand His work, and use us to reach many more souls for His Kingdom.”
The first time I met Pastor Siddique, he had started two or three churches and was working full-time as a factory manager. Soon, with the gift of several motorcycles from the Great Commission Fund, he and his helpers were expanding their outreach. Anywhere someone referred them, they would go. The last time I visited him was in 2003, I think. The number of churches under his care that he and his team had started had grown to over 250. By now, that number may have doubled.
I have visited other great ministries in Pakistan whose facilities are equal to or better than ours here in America. And that’s not a criticism. They have schools, orphanages, and a packed-out assembly every Sunday, but in more years than I have worked with Shaukat, they have started only six churches. I wondered why until they showed me the photos of the “churches.” They were all beautifully constructed, and every pastor was full-time, receiving an abundant salary that a good pastor deserves. But it was clear that their ministry was not focused on church planting but on the appearance and necessary function of Christianity they sought to display. And that is necessary, especially in regions where Christianity is hindered. I do not say this as a criticism but as an observation. Sometimes we have to put more into real estate than we want to to accomplish our goals. Shaukat, too, has a very nice, three-story concrete building that Final Frontiers and a church in North Carolina, I believe, funded.
But Shaukat is the consummate church planter. He started a Bible institute long ago to train young men and women to produce teams of church planters. I have been with him in many unevangelized villages and seen him in action. Besides the fact that, typically, nearly 100% of the adults convert and are baptized, he does not spend funds on buildings but on wells and electricity for the new converts. After all, they are accustomed to meeting under shade trees for “gatherings.”
When I first heard of him, he had about three men working with him. Now, a decade later, he has fully trained a hundred or more Pauls and is currently training more.
I am always amazed when we begin to leave a newly evangelized village. Shaukat introduces me to one or two young men or ladies who had accepted Christ that day and want to return with his team to study for a year at his Bible Institute. They grab any extra change of clothes they may have and their toothbrush (sometimes only a stick chewed at one end for scraping teeth) and journey back with us. They woke that morning as idol worshippers and left that evening as babes in Christ, choosing to follow their Lord. They say goodbye to their families and villages to go with strangers, their new brothers and sisters, who promise to feed, care for, and teach them, and to send them forth as sheep to the wolves, to plant more house and village churches just like theirs. It is incredible.
One of those young men, aged seventeen, went back and won his father to Christ. The two of them, in nine months, planted seven churches that Shaukat sent Timothys to mature.
In America and other lands long immersed in Christianity, it seems the Holy Spirit is absent from our worship and service. We barely pray, and when we do, we don’t praise; instead, we ask our Father above to give us more when we have given so little to Him. We praise His Son for His Redemption, but seldom take thought to ask His Holy Spirit to take over our service and guide us into the Truths of His Word. Even in my own life and ministry, I wonder why that is. We, as preachers, seek God’s power in our sermons but don’t acknowledge the Power-Giver who resides in us. We preach by candlelight, believing we have enlightened the audience. At the same time, if we would surrender our candle to Him, the sermon and the speaker, He could light us ablaze in our adoration and service, just as He did with Paul and others. (Please pray for me to that end.)
And yet, in other lands, the Spirit of God is being heard as a rushing wind that fills the sails of the HMS (His Majesty’s Ship) Pentecost, as nations and tribes and languages where Christ is unnamed and unknown finally, for the first time since Babel, hear His Majestic name and of His Marvelous Works. It is incredible. (Read Acts 2 again with that understanding.)
Come with me if you want to these lands, but if you do, I will expect you to come home and help me send disciples to every tribe and tongue on the planet. If you are not willing to be a part of the Great Commission, I don’t have time to be your tour guide. My time is limited, and it belongs to The King and His Kingdom.
Some wonder whether we are genuinely successful compared to the struggles of others. And if we really are, then how and why? Believe me, it is not us, it is Him, All and Only. One difference I see is that we are not looking for numbers. We report so you will know what we are trying to help these national men do, but our purpose is different. We teach a Biblical pattern as seen in the New Testament, not just in doctrine but in methodology.
When we enter a village, through our teaching and preaching that may last for hours or days, our purpose is not to have sinners say a prayer, but to understand to Whom they are praying, and to be both honored and terrified that He sent us there with a message for them. When they finally understand the almost hopeless mess they are in and the effort the only Loving and Living God provided for their redemption, they realize that salvation comes only by embracing the sacrifice of Jesus, God in the flesh, for their sins, by trusting the Father to raise them to eternal life, and by trusting the Spirit of God to seal them, to teach and guide them in their further search for truth.
You can see it on their faces when curiosity about the messenger becomes curiosity about the message. That curiosity turns to concern, and concern to conviction, and that conviction brings them to conversion. They understand this means publicly denouncing their gods of wood and stone, burning them and breaking them, as the new converts did in Ephesus, not for salvation but because they have been set free from the bondage of sin and Satan. They understand that it is not Jesus plus their other gods, but Jesus only. They know their former gods were made by their own hands from clay, straw, and wood, or chiseled from stone; it was their imaginations and creations that they worshipped and prayed to. But now they know that Jesus is the image of the only true, living, invisible God.
At the end of this beginning, a new church is planted, a nursery filled with hungry infants, whether they number ten or fifty or a hundred and fifty. Young student preachers, Timothys, if you will, are appointed to shepherd them and teach them the Word of God, to lead them from milk, to manna, to meat. What these men and ladies have learned in their institute classes on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, they preach and teach to their congregations on Saturday and Sunday. Then Monday and Friday are used as travel days from the Bible Institute to and from their churches, which may be twelve hours away. That’s why we are always trying to purchase more and more motorcycles for them ($1,350 each). Each team of four to eight is mentored by one or more faithful, experienced Pauls, who will train them on site and teach them to be men and women of God. In less than a year, they will be discipling their own converts as Timothies.
