A couple sits in pews in a building in Central Asia. Many young couples in the region have not seen a healthy marriage modeled. Josh and Madison Oakes disciple couples and share what a godly marriage looks like. (IMB Photo)
By Tessa Sanchez, IMB
When Josh and Madison Oakes interviewed for service with the International Mission Board, they were told that, historically, in the region where they would be serving, it typically took 100 years of gospel proclamation before the message would take root and people would commit their lives to Christ.
The IMB needed someone to be the first 10-to-40 years of gospel presence. Josh and Madison would be tilling the ground and were told they may not live to see the fruit of their labors.
As the Oakes prepared to leave for Central Asia, they asked partnering churches to pray 1 Thessalonians 3:1, “As for other matters, brothers and sisters, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you.”
Their church excitedly came alongside them in prayer and partnership, “holding the ropes” for them as they plowed the field. The Oakes are from a small town in the Midwest. At the time, they were the first missionaries to be sent out from their church and their county in roughly 60 years.
They’ve now been serving in their country for over a decade. Nearly nine years ago, they planted a church that has 26 members with four deacons and two elders.
“We came not expecting to get to do all that we’ve enjoyed getting to do over the last few years. The Lord has really given us unexpected fruit,” Josh said.
Josh has been pouring into the existing two elders, with the hope that the Lord will prepare the heart of a third and a fourth. Once that mile marker of plurality is reached, the Oakes pray the leaders will call a pastor, and then they will step back and move on to areas the Lord is opening.
While challenges exist in first-generation church planting ministry, Josh said there are many benefits. The Oakes can shape the DNA of the church from ground zero. Since there isn’t an established church, they don’t have to undo generations of wrong thinking or bad habits.
In their Central Asian church, the Oakes and church members drafted a church covenant from scratch in the local language. The covenant holds meaning for the church members because they were a part of its creation.
Madison mentors and helps to disciple the local sisters in the church. These women are heavily invested in the church, being actively involved and taking ownership.
“One of the challenges for new believers is that they’re coming out of a majority Islamic population, and so it’s not that they’re blank slates; it’s just that they have an existing culture, an existing worldview that is Islamically informed,” Josh said.
Before meeting Josh and Madison, most of the believers had never seen a healthy marriage or parenting that didn’t involve beatings.
“Standard discipleship matters here are things that are taken for granted a lot in the established Western Church,” Josh said.
Before one couple in the church became Christians, their relationship was marked with domestic violence. When they came to faith, they found deliverance.
“One of the things that we’ve encountered with young believers is that when exiting Islam and entering into the grace they find in Christ, sometimes there’s a desire to run in that new freedom in ways that are not always helpful to the reputation of the church and the reputation of the gospel in the eyes of the local community,” Josh said.
In times of discipleship, Josh and Madison affirm that while they are no longer under the law, they live under grace and under the law of love.
“Your freedom in Christ is essentially limited by love and what are you free to do that’s not going to compromise your neighbor, your father or your uncle’s ability to hear the gospel with a clear conscience and consider the claims of Christ,” Josh tells believers.
Examples of newfound freedoms that are culturally inappropriate include eating pork and drinking alcohol.
“It’s been encouraging to see believers grow and understand what freedoms they have in Christ and a willingness to surrender it for the sake of the reputation of the church, the reputation of the gospel and their witness to their family,” Josh said.
The culture in their context highly values the “strong man,” and the tendency in churches can be for the lead pastor to become dictatorial. This is one of the reasons the Oakes are investing so heavily in embedding the philosophy of the plurality of elders.
A leader who serves with a self-sacrificial heart and puts the needs of their congregation before their own is vital for establishing a greater degree of health in the church, Josh said.
The health of the Oakes’ church has not gone unnoticed among other evangelical churches in the area. A dictatorial leader has led to failures in every other evangelical church. Leaders from struggling churches approached the Oakes as they seek to learn from them about healthy, Biblical church leadership like a plurality of elders and how that will guard them against future challenges with strong men. Leaders asked Josh for guidance and mentorship, and so he started a pastors’ fellowship to meet monthly for encouragement and prayer.
Josh sees this as an opportunity to invest and influence a larger segment of the evangelical community and encourage them to reach their city but also surrounding areas.
A city that is an hour’s drive away has villages surrounding it that have unengaged and unreached people groups.
“When we feel like we’ve gotten solid health in the local church that we’ve planted and we have a solid basis of relationship and growth among the other evangelical churches in town, the hope is that our team, along with the network of churches that are here, can make a move toward planting a church in that next city over, and eventually engage the UUPG who are on the fringes of it,” Josh said.
Over a decade after they first set foot in Central Asia, the Oakes have already surpassed the 100‑year benchmark they were warned about. Their church of 26 members already has strong leadership and a thriving women’s ministry, and the Oakes have a growing network of pastors who look to them for discipleship and leadership training.
And yet their prayer request remains largely the same: that the Word of the Lord would speed ahead and be honored in Central Asia just as it has been among Southern Baptists in the U.S.
You can partner with them as they look forward to the next phase of this accelerated timeline. Pray that the Lord continues to raise biblically‑qualified men and women, that the growing unity among the evangelical churches becomes a launchpad to planting other churches, and that the rapid growth they’ve seen will extend outward to unreached people groups.
Names changed for security reasons