#10 STRATEGY

DEVELOPMENT
 STRATEGY
1 A PLAN OF ACTION
DESIGNED TO ACHIEVE A
LONG-TERM OR OVERALL AIM
 2 THE ART OF PLANNING AND
DIRECTING OVERALL MILITARY
OPERATIONS AND MOVEMENTS
IN A WAR OR BATTLE
“You’ve just got to be faithful to
the Lord. When we get to the
field, we’ll just be faithful and the
Lord will plant his church.”
This is an extremely important
statement for any missionary team.
Do you agree?
“You’ve just got to be faithful to
the Lord. When we get to the
field, we’ll just be faithful and the
Lord will plant his church.”
Without faithfulness to the Lord all is
pointless—after all apart from him we
can do nothing, Jn 15:5.
But, is there a danger of saying we shall
be faithful and using that as an excuse
for not making any plans?
God wants faithfulness—but he also
wants wisdom, discernment and
knowledge (gained over the centuries)
to be used in planting new churches.

JD Payne says this:

“To enter the field without
a strategy is to plan for
failure.
And of course, if there is no plan, there is no
accountability: if things do not work out on
the field, we can just tell ourselves that God
must not have wanted to work among these
people at this time—after all, we were
faithful.
Faithfulness without a
strategy is foolishness."
Whenever we plan to go on a journey
we have a plan so that we might get to
our destination.
A strategy for a CP team takes them
through the steps we outlined earlier:
1. Sharing the Gospel
2. Making Disciples
3. Establishing a small group
4. Planting a Church
5. Appointing Elders
 IT IS GOOD STEWARDSHIP OF
PEOPLE AND RESOURCES TO
MAKE A STRATEGY. IT HELPS
US TO KNOW WHAT SHOULD BE
DONE IN THE WORK.
Payne and Terry say this about the
strategy;
“It is a prayerfully discerned, Spirit-guided
process of preparation, development…
…implementation and evaluation of the
necessary steps involved for church planting.
It describes what the team believes the Lord
would have them accomplish.”
RESTART
1. PRAYERFULLY DISCERNED
Prayer is the vital part of every stage of
church planting—and even more
important in developing a strategy.
Consider, Isa 55:8,9,
 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares
the LORD.
9  For as the heavens are higher
than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Prov 16:9, 26:12,
The heart of man plans his way,
but the LORD establishes his steps.
…Do you see a man who is wise in his
own eyes?
There is more hope for a fool than for him.
Any CP team needs to walk closely
with the Lord and seek his vision and
his way to accomplish it.
Fasting and prayer should be a regular
part of the CP team routine.
2. SPIRIT GUIDED
He reveals the mind of God, 1 Cor
2:11…
For who knows a person’s thoughts except the
spirit of that person, which is in him? So also
no one comprehends the thoughts of God
except the Spirit of God.
1 Cor 6:19, Our body is meant to be
continually led by the Holy Spirit…
Or do you not know that your body is a
temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom
you have from God?
With Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch
and Paul and Silas going to Philippi,
neither were part of their original
strategy, but the Spirit of God opened
up the way,
Acts 8:29, 16:6-10
And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and
join this chariot.”
And they went through the region of
Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden
by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.
7 And when they had come up to Mysia, they
attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit
of Jesus did not allow them.
8 So, passing by Mysia, they went down to
Troas. 9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the
night: a man of Macedonia was standing
there, urging him and saying, “Come over to
Macedonia and help us.” 10 And when Paul
had seen the vision, immediately we sought to
go on into Macedonia, concluding that God
had called us to preach the gospel to them.
STRATEGY IS ABOUT KEEPING
IN STEP WITH THE HOLY
SPIRIT.
Be careful to make sure your
relationship with Holy Spirit,
individually and as a CP team, is good.
Ephesians 4:30, 1 Thess 5:19,
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by
whom you were sealed for the day of
redemption…Do not quench the Spirit.
 STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT
AND IMPLEMENTATION IS A
VERY SPIRITUAL WORK.
3. PROCESS
Payne uses a church Multiplication
Cycle to describe the full process of
Church Planting:
 The process
involves a number
of phases:
 ◆ Preparation
Prepare as a team: do we know each
other, do we know the people group we
are going to work amongst, (geography,
demographics, culture, history, politics,
languages)?
 ◆ Preparation
demographics |
Prepare as a team: do we know each
statistical datatherelating
other, do we know to the
people group we
arepopulation
going to work amongst, (geography,
and particular
demographics, culture, history,
groups within it: politics,
languages)?
 ◆ Preparation
Prepare as a team: do we know each
other, do we know the people group we
are going to work amongst, (geography,
demographics, culture, history, politics,
languages)?
 ◆ Development
What are the steps that will need to be
taken to go through each stage of
development? Some will be small, some
large.
 ◆ Implementation
A strategy has to be lived out in the
field. It will be revised as time goes on
and experience and insight is gained. A
slight change in the way things are
done can produce large results.
 ◆ Implementation
A strategy has to be lived
implementation | out in the
field. It will be revised as time goes on
the process of putting a
and experience and insight is gained. A
decision or plan into effect;
slight change in the way things are
done can produce large results.
 ◆ Implementation
A strategy has to be lived out in the
field. It will be revised as time goes on
and experience and insight is gained. A
slight change in the way things are
done can produce large results.
 ◆ Re-evaluation
From the start to the end the team
must regularly look at their strategy
and look to see what adjustments need
to be made.
Ask:
How are we progressing as a CP
team?
Are we using the resources well?
Is the strategy helping us to
accomplish the vision we have?
You need to:
- Ask good questions
- Respond in a positive way (not
defensively)
- Apply wise application steps
Payne offers these questions to help in
evaluating your strategy development:
◆ What is the vision of the CP
team?
◆ What are the strengths and
limitations of the CP team?
 ◆ Is the team working with the
vision, or have you lost track of it?
 ◆What are your goals?
Divide them up into short term (<1
year), medium term (1-3 years) and long
term (3+ years), and see how you are
accomplishing them.
What goals (in each section) do you
need to accomplish before your vision is
achieved?
 ◆ What methods are you using to
get to your goal, are they biblically
appropriate? Could future generations
repeat them?
◆ Are you prepared to make changes
so that the vision can be achieved?
 ◆ How are you going to re-evaluate
your strategy? Will you do this regularly
and aggressively?
◆ How is the CP team held
accountable to the “sending”
organisation?
SUMMARY
A good strategy is vital if we want to be
good stewards.
A strategy might be developed before
arrival but we must be willing to change
it when we are in the church planting
location.
The Philippian church shows Paul
changing strategy twice, Acts 16:5-16:
- At first he planned to go to Asia but
HS said no 16:6
- Then he planned to go to Bithynia but
HS did not allow that, 16:7
- Paul had a vision of a man of
Macedonia calling to them and
concluded God was sending them there
16:9-10.
- The team started looking around the
city and found a place of prayer where
they shared the Gospel with some
women 16: 13-14
- Note that the first believer was a
woman, not the man Paul had seen in
his dream .
 STRATEGY IS IMPORTANT—
HOLD YOUR STRATEGY
LOOSELY—RE-EVALUATE AND
ADJUST REGULARLY…
 —BE PREPARED FOR THINGS
NOT TO GO AS YOU PLANNED
—BE READY TO FOLLOW NEW
LEADING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
THE END