Theres a Sheep in My Bathtub: Birth of a Mongolian Church Planting Movement

by Brian Hogan, George Patterson (Foreword by), Louise Hogan (Contribution by)

Overview

What happens when you drop an American family with three small children into the post-Communist chaos of Outer Mongolia? There's a Sheep in my Bathtub chronicles the adventures of the Hogan family as they try to follow God's leading into one of the world's most remote and mysterious enclaves. Brian and Louise meet during their college days at Cal Poly State University in San Luis Obispo and embark on a pursuit of a calling to the nations that propels them from the Navajo Nation’s painted desert in Arizona to the wild steppes of Central Asia. Along their way five children join the cross-cultural roller coaster. Disarmingly honest and charmingly humorous, their tale will thrill you and bring tears to your eyes. An intensely personal memoir, this book still manages to pack a powerful dose of missionary insight and Biblical principles for seeing the Church explode into life among peoples that have never even heard of Jesus. Get comfortable. You will not be able to put it down.

From the very first page this book jerks you irretrievably into the outrageous, the uproarious and the impossible to imagine. It has got to be one of the most absolutely fascinating tales to ever prove that the truth is stranger than fiction. Nevertheless, it throbs with a sobering and relentless sense of calling and purpose that is truly inspiring. --- the late Dr. Ralph D. Winter, Founder, U.S. Center for World Mission

I wept, laughed and was stirred by this book. I love a good story, and this is a really good one! You won’t be able to put it down! --- Floyd McClung., author of Living on the Devil’s Doorstep

Brian Hogan’s apostolic passion shines through with an incredible combination of raw honesty and witty humor. A gripping real-life parable unfolds that will have you laughing, weeping and rejoicing at the amazing testimony of God’s grace and power revealed through ordinary people facing extra-ordinary obstacles. I wholeheartedly recommend this book as it not only tells an amazing story, but also becomes a discipleship tool that reveals to us a whole new paradigm of church and missions. --- David Broodryk, Kingdom People Network, South Africa

If you want a radically cross-cultural journey without leaving your favorite easy chair – this book is your ticket. If you desire to plant churches that reproduce among the least reached – this is your training manual wrapped up in a most delightful, brawny and instructive story-box! I laughed – I cried – and wrestled through the realities of what it means to leave the easy chair and watch God prove Himself faithful - accomplishing His dreams for a people through one ordinary and obedient family. Brian Hogan is courageous, practical and real. Focused in the same direction for many years, he is a pioneer, church planter, mentor and model. His journey is a challenge to all those who want to be used by God. Brian’s thinking will stretch and grow you; his passion and lifestyle will confront every comfortable corner of your life. There’s a Sheep in my Bathtub will be top on the reading list for those I train. --- Carol Davis, director of LeafLine Initiatives

Brian Hogan’s Erdenet-story had been told to me a number of times as a real and astonishing exception and a true, powerful secret. I am thrilled to see it in print. Brian experienced church history in the making in 1993-1996. May his insights multiply like an epidemic and grip an entire new generation of an apostolic people, so that this planet will never remain the same. --- Wolfgang Simson, author of Houses that Change the World & The Starfish Manifesto

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780979905605
Publisher:	Asteroidea Books
Publication date:	12/03/2009
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	274
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.62(d)
Age Range:	15 Years

About the Author

BRIAN HOGAN earned his Master's in Intercultural Studies/Ministry from Hope International University (Fullerton, CA) specializing in World Christian Foundations. He is a sought after speaker, trainer and coach. Brian serves full time with Church Planting Coaches, a global ministry of Youth With A Mission. He serves YWAM on the Frontier Mission Leadership Team. He enjoys being a catalyst, hanging out, reading books, traveling and trying anything new, novel, and different.
Brian has participated in, led, and started organic expressions of Jesus' Body in the USA, Malta, and Mongolia both inside and outside the traditional wine-skin. He coaches those involved in these movements on five continents, especially focusing on where the church isn't.
Brian and his wife Louise and their backyard chickens make make their home in the northwest Arkansas Ozarks.

George Patterson is a former missionary, author and professor at Western Seminary. He labored 21 years in Central America training pastors in a way that multiplies churches
In Honduras he began by training pastors in a traditional, resident Bible Institute with poor results. With the advice of more experienced missionaries and much trial and error, he later saw churches multiply through the instrumentality of "Theological Education and Evangelism by Extension" (TEEE). This non-formal pastoral training resulted in twenty years in about 100 new churches in northern Honduras. This is as a result of the Biblical discipleship and church reproduction principles Dr. Patterson implemented. This model is now used with similar results in Asia, Africa and Latin America, as well in the United States, and is distributed as Train & Multiply TM.
George mentors workers who seriously want to follow New Testament guidelines to sustain church planting movements, many of whom have made significant breakthroughs.

Dr. Ralph Winter describes George as "one of the two or three world experts in the growth of the church," and calls his missionary career "legendary."

Louise was born and raised in the Mohave Desert on a Naval base. Her father was a Cold War rocket scientist. She competed nationally and set records in swimming and graduated in Physical Education from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in California. Louise and Brian married a week after graduation in 1984. She has borne five children naturally and mostly at home. Louise has moved thirty times in thirty years of marriage. She is an talented artist, seamstress, and midwife. Louise has a calling to train traditional birth attendants in African villages in ways that encourage multiplication and discourage dependency. This book is as much her story as it is the author's.

Table of Contents

Foreword by George Patterson 1. Iron Gates 2. Jump Start 3. Vision Quest 4. Getting a Little Perspective 5. "It'd take a Miracle" 6. Home for the Holidays 7. Among the Horde for the Lord 8. Shop 'til You Drop 9. A Day in the Life 10. Left Bank Theatre of the Absurd 11. Vacation of Ill Repute 12. Language Acquisition Made Pitiful 13. The "Mother of All Moves" 14. Power Encounter 15. April Showers 16. Downpour 17. Alone at the Helm 18. Battle with the God of Hell 19. Gossiping the Gospel 20. Erdenet's First Foreign Birth 21. Shock and Awe 22. The Letter 23. The Worst Christmas Ever 24. Hope Can't Freeze 25. Something Breaks 26. Faces of Grief 184 27. Flexible is Too Rigid 28. You Deserve a Break 29. Back to our Little House on the Steppes 30. Mongols Follow the Khan of Khans 31. Heading into the Home Stretch 32. A Brand New Thing 33. Working Ourselves Out 34. Passing the Baton 35. The Road Goes Ever On and On Epilogue: Grieving with Hope Appendix: Two Obstacles

Editorial Reviews

It is my delight to endorse my dear brother Brian Hogan's book. I have known Brian and his family for a long time. Without pioneer missionaries like Brian and Louise Hogan, the great awakening Mongolia experienced would have been impossible. With great sacrifice they laid down everything for God's Kingdom in Mongolia, but their sacrifice wasn't in vain. Erdenet Assembly, which their team established, has been a model to young Mongolian churches, and a great encouragement to indigenous believers to step up and take on leadership within their churches and in their communities and country as well. Brian has a heart for Mongolians. His great skill, biblical knowledge, respect toward Mongolian tradition, culture and history, and his sense of humor were easily embraced by the locals. His actions were louder than his words, for which he was loved not only by local Christians, but by non-Christians as well. No one can tell the story of Mongolian church birth, growth, and struggles better than Brian Hogan. His first hand experience is helpful to not only missionaries who are about to start their journeys, but also to local believers who are writing the history of Mongolian Christianity. That's why I am offering my support and if he wants to publish his book in Mongolian, I am honored to ask him to finish this task. --- Baika Puntsag, pastor, Amazing Grace Mongolian Church, Denver, 1st Mongolian church in USA. A great read. I was drawn in by the struggles and victories experienced by the Hogan family as they dreamed the impossible: to see a church planting movement established in Mongolia. This book is stuffed with powerful New Testament Apostolic church planting principles-something woefully absent in today's missionary literature. Brian writes from "hands on" practical experience and not theory. Excellent!! I highly recommend There's a Sheep in my Bathtub to anyone who dreams of the impossible. A must-read for any future church planter on all continents! --- the late Jeff Gilbertson, church planter to the Tajiks Brian keeps the story rolling. You won't put this book down easily. But while you're having fun turning the pages, you'll find yourself amazed at the God who puts the move in Christ-following movements. You'll find yourself coached without realizing it, learning all kinds of wisdom about how to over-achieve in seemingly impossible things. Mongolia may be one of the best laboratories to learn about how Christ becomes famous and followed throughout an entire people. And this could be one of the best bundle of lessons learned. Brian is transparent about his misgivings and mistakes, and at the same time he is disarmingly clear about the principles that he was proving true. It's hard not come away feeling that you are ready to attempt something great yourself. --- Steve Hawthorne, editor of Perspectives on the World Christian Movement I've known Brian and Louise for many years, and have been deeply impressed with their extraordinary commitment to the Lord and to His eternal purpose of spreading His love, mercy, tenderness, compassion and forgiveness to the ends of the Earth. Their lives truly demonstrate the Lord's Father Heart made flesh in a winsomely genuine way that is incredibly attractive and deeply compelling. I was unable to put this book down. This masterful and engaging story of their joys and sorrows, overwhelming challenges, perseverance in tribulation and astounding successes in Mongolia is a testimony to both their undaunted spirit and the unwavering faithfulness of God to accomplish His word with great power through normal people just like you and me. The timeless spiritual principles embedded in these pages will both inspire and instruct those who want to know and understand the Lord and His vision for the world in a deeper and clearer way. I can't recommend it to you highly enough! --- Fred Markert, Center for Strategic Initiatives

From the Publisher