‘An apple tree’s purpose is NOT producing apples … but reproducing other apple trees’.

This Bob Logan metaphor has informed UNOH from our beginnings. We never wanted to build a mega UNOH institution as a vehicle for our own benefit. Rather we have sought to raise up teams of Christian workers able to go and pioneer, reproduce and multiply strategic and prophetic neighbourhood mission among the urban poor. In fact one of our core convictions as a community is ‘organic growth’ which we define as ‘using reproducible models of nurturing, training and raising-up of new teams and leaders as the means of growing UNOH workers and local Jesus-centred movements.’

Enabling each part of UNOH to grow and multiply organically has proven a real challenge, but is also one of our most important organizing convictions. This is because organic growth is about our health and maturity as a missional community. If an apple tree is unable to produce fruit for new trees it is a clear sign of unhealthiness. So too an important sign of health for UNOH is our investment in the growth and release of new workers for other places. This requires UNOH workers to constantly be in pioneering, momentum-building or releasing mode. For example, rather than stock-piling more and more full-time UNOH workers to build a large, complex UNOH institution in a neighbourhood, we require small, adaptable teams, who need to raise-up and support new volunteer local leaders to see transformation through Christ happen. UNOH workers then can be like scaffolding able to help build local Jesus movements, but then be released to help build again. This process can take years, but the key is we aim to stay until we can multiply ourselves, local movements and disciples of Christ. We do this not simply because there are so many urgent needs in urban neighbourhoods across Asian-Pacific cities, but also because of the inbuilt health and maturity benefits it provides for us as a community and as workers.

In practice ‘organic growth’ actually slows down UNOH’s ability to expand quickly, but it makes our growth more sustainable. If, for example, somebody comes to UNOH with a heart to urgently go and do something great for Christ somewhere, it’s tempting to just say ‘go for it’ and stick a UNOH logo on them. But this is short-sighted and the loss of so many well intentioned workers with high potential is far too common in missions. In contrast organic growth requires UNOH to be more like a tribe than a franchise or to use our opening metaphor; only apple trees can reproduce other apple trees. New workers need to grow up, be known and to catch our DNA with experienced UNOH workers before going on to multiply and adapt as authentic expression of UNOH. This investment in others growth is significant, sharing life on life, but it’s also the investment all UNOH workers have received. Maturity requires us to freely give back in return. Organic growth then forces us to slow our growth down in the face of overwhelming and urgent opportunities, but we hope that UNOH can have an integrity, closeness and sustainability as a community in the long run as a result.

In this edition of FL we are excited to announce that two new chapters of UNOH are to be launched into some of the toughest neighbourhoods in Auckland and Mae Sot (Thai/Burma border). Experienced UNOH workers currently in Melbourne and Bangkok chapters have been in a community discernment process and are ready to be released to start these. As you reflect on their updates inside this edition you can see that there are lots of serious barriers to overcome for these initiatives to become realities and transformative. Yet, the risks are worth it. Not just for those workers stepping out in faith, or even the new neighbourhoods who will receive them, but also the existing UNOH chapters who step up to rework their current ministries with local leaders. Please do all you can to join us as our adventure keeps growing.

Ash Barker, UNOH Director.

The May 2010 edition of Finding Life is available in PDF in the right hand column of this blog.

Or this link

http://unoh.org/urban-hope/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/FL_MAY2010.pdf