MentorNet #64 – Seven Essential Activities That Foster Church Multiplication
Copyright © 2009 by Galen Currah, George Patterson, and Edward Aw
This document may be freely copied, translated, distributed, given and sold
Since the late twentieth century, several researchers have written in English on various “universal” factors, functions or traits that cause or abet church-planting movements. We owe a great debt to such specialists as Donald McGavran, David Garrison, and Mikel Neumann, for the risk they ran in publishing their findings. This paper, seeking to remain within the glow of their light, signals seven general activity areas that normally improve church reproduction where implemented in a coordinated fashion over time. We offer these, not as promises or as magic tricks, but as widely-proven activities that you can implement, control, adjust, test and improve.
1. Spread the Good News about Jesus within existing social networks. The out-dated “homogeneous unit principle” was neither an authoritative rule nor always a reliable guideline; rather it grew out of observations made across many movements, mostly in what was then called the developing world. The principle stated that the gospel tends to flow within ethnic and linguistic communities, and that forced integration of communities tended to thwart the gospel. Today, there is better reason to identify the natural gospel bridges as existing communication links between individuals and between social groups. Economic classes may prove more influential than ethnicity or nationality. The gospel tends to flow through existing relationships. So let it do so by your use of methods and materials that enhance inter-personal communication and interaction within groups.
2. Teach obedience to Jesus’ commands above all else. After devoting most of our lives to teaching classical theology, strengthening organizations, following fads, publishing materials, and avoiding extremes, we are left bewildered by our colossal blunders and sterile churches. Where the gospel has progressed, where willing workers have volunteered, where churches have reproduced and where believers were filled with the Spirit and joy, we had practiced a few, basic commands of Jesus and empowered others to do the same. Filter all church and mission rules and activities through the New Testament. Retain all that Jesus and his apostles commanded, and eliminate every rule and practice that hinders believers’ and workers’ loving obedience to him. Consider: “If you love me, you will obey my commands.” “If you obey me, I will send you the Helper.” “He gives the Spirit to those who obey him.” “We seek your complete obedience.” “Teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.”
3. Maintain interactive worship that includes the Lord’s Table. Inspiring, decently-ordered worship depends less on authoritative, theologically-astute leaders, than it does on their consciously allowing every worshipper to participate actively in church gatherings. The New Testament instructs churches to practice more than twenty mutual, “one-another” church activities that cannot happen amongst passive listeners. Big congregations will have to provide some kind of opportunity for believers to gather in small groups, part of the time. Small congregations or cell groups should develop interactive cooperation between flocks as well as within them, providing time during worship to plan specific activities that all can participate in during the week. All believers, especially new ones, benefit spiritually from frequent participation in the Lord’s Table by acknowledging their sins, by experiencing mystical “communion” with Christ, and by announcing the Lord’s death until he come. Teach family heads and small-group shepherds how to serve the Table and authorize them to do so. Participatory churches keep believers thrilled with Jesus and see many guests become believers.
4. Train leaders in ways that meet needs of new churches and cells. Without eliminating formal education for mature church leaders, you must ensure some kind of training for new leaders that allows more experienced church workers to guide the less experienced. Whether you call the process training, mentoring or guidance, it must focus more on the trainees’ churches and cells than on the trainees themselves. Ensure that you or your appointed trainers spend significant time with small numbers of new leaders, listening to them report on their flocks’ current opportunities, needs and weaknesses. Next, help them to plan what they and their sheep will do during the coming few days to meet those needs and challenges. Every new and old church has many problems, some of which remain irresolvable. Keep on edifying every flock and never spend more than half of your training time on trying to deal with exasperating problems. Pray with faith for the Lord to keep the flocks growing and multiplying.
5. Empower workers to start new churches and cells. No church ever has enough highly-skilled, educated, willing workers. Most new churches, cells and home groups are started and led by unqualified individuals who will prove willing only if you provide them with guidelines, authorization and timely advice, like Jesus and the apostles did. Round the globe, those denominations, churches and agencies that plant the most new, thriving churches are precisely those who authorize their membership to start new churches and cells as soon as the Lord will allow them to do so. Your fears about false doctrine, disunity, low quality, inadequate finances and persecution in new, little flocks can best be dealt with by your mentoring of a few new leaders who will do the same with others, it turn. Most of those whom you authorize and mentor will remain faithful to you. Most church splits occur where pastors refuse to authorize the starting of new churches and distrust potential leaders.
6. Provide coordination that sustains multiplication of flocks. Where you authorize workers to start new churches and cells, existing churches and cells normally will reproduce. However, those workers must, in turn, both authorize and train new leaders as these emerge. To keep churches and cells reproducing, you must coordinate the continual extension of “mentoring chains,” that is, existing workers authorizing and training new workers. An essential part of that extension includes identifying receptive pockets in the population, drawing maps that project new church plants, laying of plans to make contacts, entering homes and other social networks, enrolling willing workers in some kind of mentored training. This is the kind of work that Paul sent Titus to do in Crete and Timothy to ensure in Ephesus.
7. Authorize and enable leaders to integrate all of the above. If you are a senior pastor or a mission field leader, then it falls to you to ensure that all the above activities become normal operating procedures within your ministry’s area of responsibility. Whatever stress may be added to your work load will be attenuated by the joy of seeing your co-workers become more fruitful, of your churches’ faith strengthened, of your population visited by the Spirit of the Living God, and of the Word of God proving, again, to be the power of God unto salvation of all who believe.
Pastors and missionaries would be wise to implament these principles without hesitation. May His Kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven, may God’s people respond to Jesus with obedience and love–as living sacrifices, and may the Lord of the harvest raise up more workers who are not ashamed of the full gospel.
Dear Currah, George and Ed
I agree that the above seven are wonderful steps and essentials for planting of new Churches, growth of existing ones and multiplication of churches
Desta
Hi!
Great as these steps are, they only work within Christianity… What about those in Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism? We say that there is a need to reach out to these people, but our methods and thinking do not show that we are really serious in doing so…
Do we expect Muslims to come to church? Do we start churches in Islam? Do they need to become Christians to be saved? OR should we be spreading seed INSTEAD of Planting Churches? From all that I have read in the NT, seed planting has always been Jesus’ approach!
Some food for thought!
Blessings,
JUSTIN
Hi, Justin,
Thanks for your reply and your query.
Currently, in many lands, it is precisely where ” Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism” dominate that “church planting” is happening fastest. Those communities require tens of 1000s of new, little churches, not the institutional kind of church that those in the West “go attend” to listen to musical performers and ill-prepared sermonizers.
The most effective way on earth to evangelize nonchristian communities remains the planting of new churches, lots of them, little ones in which participants experience the very presence of Christ, see prayers answered in Jesus’ name, get healed of spiritual, emotional and physical ailments, watch each other operate by gifts of the Holy Spirit, see guests fall under conviction of their need of Christ and get saved.
No, not even Christians need to go to church. Their need is to be a church, at home, or in Muslims’ homes. Here is a web link that explains better how you yourself could evangelize nonchristians by starting a church: http://www.StartaChurchNow.com
Galen
Hi All,
Great interaction.
Justin, the article was written precisely for the reaching the people you mention – Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus.
The term “church” is merely used as a commonly understood word. Technically, it is ekklesia – gathering. Where the gathering is… Well, I would have tea in a tea shop eating a biscuit with my Indian brother, in India and we would be a Church celebrating the Lord’s supper.
We use this simple definition for church or gather or whatever other term that you might be comfortable with. “Where two or more are gathered in the name of Jesus to obey all of his commands in love.” References – Matt 16:18-20, Matt 18:18-20, Matt. 28:18-20, John 14:15, John 15:14
These steps, work all over the world. Not just from us thinking they will, but from us directly implementing them (or others we know personally) in various contexts – Hundu, Buddhist, Muslim, etc.
We are very serious in reaching the world and seriously look at what the Lord shows us and what the apostles implemented.
Planting seeds in not all there is to it. Jesus required to make disciples. Seed planting is more akin to evangelism. Evangelism is only a subset of making disciples. Christ also did not leave individuals. He left a body, an ekklesia. He sent disciples out two my two not one by one. He called for community.
Great discuss. Keep being a berean!
Blessings,
Ed
Hi Guys – WOW, quick and great replies!
Firstly, before anyone thinks I am a “nut-case” let me say I am no stranger to church planting… In our work, we got the same sort of results that the SBC go in Kampuchea (which led to the CPM thinking). So, I am not speaking from a lack of experience… we were doing church planting for about 23 years in Asia and Africa…
Now some Questions:
1. Ed, how did Ekklesia become “Gathering”? Ekklesia is “people” and they DO gather, but that is not the chief marker.
2. Are we called to “Make Disciples” or “to Disciple”? This may sound like splitting hairs, but it is a HUGE difference!
3. Where is the command for us to start churches?
4. Where is the scriptural backing for Muslims to become Christians in order to be considered to be part of God’s Kingdom?
5. Is the Kingdom of God only to be found within Christianity? If so, where is your scriptural proof? If not, what are the implications to what we do?
Blessings,
JUSTIN
Hi Justing,
Why would I ever call you a “nut case” unless you actually have nuts in a case. In that case, if they are macadamia, I would ask for some!
As I said in my other reply, I have a major project I am working so a lengthy reply will have to wait.
The one thing right now. I never said following Christ was limited to Christianity. In India, I call myself a Jesu Bakh. If asked if I am a Christian, I confidently say “no”. For those who throw stones at me, I brush it off. Christ never called us to be called Chrsitians. He called us to be disciples, followers. I don’t think he cared. The key was obedience in love.
The key here is obedience to Christ in love. If someone says they are still Hindu but follow Christ, I would evaluate their life based on their loving obedience to Christ. If they still follow Hindu gods, then I have a point of sanctification to work with them
If a westerner says they are a Christian then I would evaluate their life based on their loving obedience to Christ. If they still treat money, comfort, instant gratification as gods, then I have a point of sanctification to work with them.
Same loving obedience, different context.
If the Hindu or Christian says it’s just me and God and no one else….. I have a point of sanctification to deal with them…
Blessings Brother,
Ed
Although I early came to many of the same understandings as your “mentoring letters” indicate, I seemed so completely alone in my conclusions. With the result that I have found great difficulty in implementing them. Thanks for your continued ministry in all of this. One of the big problems that many of us have is the problem of vocabulary. “Christians” often speak what I have called “fundamentalese” I dialect which hardly anyone else in the world understands. I have found real fellowship with (for instance) Roman Catholic people who truly worship and follow Christ. That doesn’t make their churches doctrine right, or them unworthy of the fellowship of believers. I am sure that the same holds true for some who call themselves Hindu, or Muslim. In my “sheltered” life (missionary to Mexican Indian people) I have had less contact with Hindus and Muslims, but talking about principles here.
Hey Galen, ….. love your look………
:) :)
Good talk here… I’d have no problem teaching
ecclesia as ‘gathering.’ If this seems unacceptable,
Justin, maybe you can give us your perspective.
I’d also be interested in the distinction you’d
make between discipling and making disciples.
While there is NT no command to plant churches,
if our disciples are obeying the commands of
Jesus and the Apostles, they will certainly be
gathering together to hear the words
of Life, and pray, and minister to each other.
The more disciples you have, in more places,
the more gatherings you need for this to happen.
It seems to me that this is a lot of what is involved
in church planting. Just some thoughts…
Bruce
Hi David,
You are on the right track… yes it is about principles… and we really need to learn AND apply the truth that God’s Kingdom is far bigger than Religions, and that Jesus was NOT a Christian, Never set up the religion and Never asked anyone to become one! We seem to be so caught up with belief, while Jesus is only interested in people who KNOW and FOLLOW Him!
David, here are my answers to your questions… I will keep them short to allow you to ask/challenge more.
1. Ekklesia as the “Called ones of God” is a much bigger idea than a “Gathering”. It implies something we ARE, not just something that we DO… Seeing the church as a gathering is problematic because of the end focus… The resulting effect of that focus is invariably, a majority of consumer christians who do this: On a Holy day, they go to a Holy Place to hear a Holy man speak! This makes for a very weak church!
2. Discipling and Making Disciples. Let me give you a hint… Whose disciples are we making, and when have we made a disciple? This is HUGE… One implies that the responsibility of Discipling is OURs, the other states that it is God’s responsibility… It is like day and night!
3. Whatever the disciples end up doing (how theY meet etc), we must ensure that we are actually following Jesus with NEW WINESKINS… What are these wineskins? The Apostles made so many mistakes in bringing Old Testament principles into the New! For example the way they found God’s will was to cast lots…. and they refused to GO when Jesus clearly told them to…
4. The model that we follow in our local churches is found in what the Apostles said, “”It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables…” The question I have for you is this… Did they do the right thing, and if so, where is the NT scriptural background for that? IF they were MISTAKEN, then our whole basis for the local church is also wrong!
Lots of food for thought no doubt!
Blessings,
JUSTIN
I am looking for the 7 Commands of Christ article. Can you post a link to it?
Thanks!
-Aaron
Seems to me that while there are many who would like to show how much of the bible they apparently know, along with the correct application of that knowledge, there is much time and effort wasted for doing other things that the angels of heaven can rejoice over!?
Just an observation!