Church Planting Cross-Culturally

The rabbit church movement is the fastest multiplication/discipleship model in use across the globe, especially in areas where severe persecution is taking place. Rabbit churches are small groups of believers that multiply rapidly, planting many new churches in short periods of time. In Lebanon, we were blessed to be able to encourage and support the rabbit church movement on several levels, and we are witnessing unique growth as a result of this genuine discipleship ministry.

“Discipleship is all about living life together rather than just one structured meeting per week”
—Francis Chan, MULTIPLY: Disciples Making Disciples

This is exactly what is going on in rabbit churches in Beirut: believers are living in community, eating together, worshiping together (without music), praying together, and teaching each other through reading the scriptures. During our visits to these rabbit churches with other Fellowship pastors from Canada we felt as though we were meeting people from the early church! We noticed that their faith is all about Jesus and their convictions are built on simply believing in scripture. Our heart’s desire as we serve in the Lebanon and MENA area is to partner with and support genuine leaders who are participating in rabbit churches. Please pray for the 18 rabbit churches in Beirut, as well as for the leadership team. Also pray that we will see our Fellowship churches getting involved, partnering with, and supporting these rabbit churches in order to see an amazing church planting movement spread across the region.

— Bechara Karkafi is a Fellowship International missionary serving in Lebanon.