Church

Planting:
Assignments
 Church
Planting:
NOW!!!!!
Assignments
#8 Methods of
Planting
 Very Important:
All methods within church
planting are designed towards
one simple result:
Seeing people become disciples
of Christ.
 We have seen the big picture - the
multiplication cycle - but we need to see
that different teams use different methods
in different locations to achieve this result.
Payne helpfully quotes the experience of Jeff
who is a church planting catalyst. I’ll let the
book continue to the story,
“Jeff helps to equip and mobilize churches and
church-planting teams. Many of these teams
serve in the United States among unreached
people groups from Saudi Arabia, Yemen,
Burma, Bangladesh, Nepal and Egypt.
I asked Jeff about the methods used among
the Muslim groups. He began by summarizing
their overall approach. “We want to use simple
evangelism and church-planting methods that
are transferable to the new believers and
churches and are easily reproducible across
their social networks.”
Talking specifics, Jeff said, “We try to get to the
gospel message as soon as we can in our
interaction with others. That’s where the power
is found. We begin having many spiritual
conversations with others and then invite them
to continue our conversations through an
eleven-week discovery Bible study…
…that is customized to the person’s religious
background. For example, we use a study tool
called ‘The Prophet’ with our Muslim friends,
which begins with creation and continues to
the birth of the church. This study particularly
addresses matters related to shame and fear—
significant issues in many Muslim cultures.”
The Spirit cannot be limited to a timeline, and
not everyone’s journey to faith is the same.
Even so, Jeff mentioned that church planters
using this method are seeing Muslims come to
faith after about a three-month period and be
baptized shortly thereafter, and are reporting
new churches after two years.
Jeff stressed the importance of church planters
teaching a healthy ecclesiology to the new
believers. Shortly after people come to faith,
the team teaches them about persecution and
begins to cast a vision for them to be a local
church.
Biblical teaching on the nature and purpose of
the church follows, and the new small group
usually comes to the conclusion that the Spirit
has led them to become a local expression of
the Body of Christ.”
 Guidelines for
Church Planting
Methods
Each CP team has its own strategy for deciding
how it will reach people for Christ. This section
deals with guidelines that help you decide
which methods to use.
1. Methods
should be
Biblical
Are your methods rooted in the Bible?
Are you prepared to do anything, or do
your activities have to be in line with
what the Bible reveals?
What are the dangers of doing
“anything” as long as people are
reached?
Methods should not make the Gospel
different to what it is, change what it
means to be a disciple, or change what it
means to be part of a local church.
 2. Methods
should be
Reproducible
A good question to ask is, “Could another
person in the team, or a new disciple, do
this?”
People will reproduce what they know, and
how it has been shown to them (modelled).
If they can’t maybe it is too complex —
although at times there might be a need for
complexity.
More complex methods = more
difficult for the church to reproduce
them in disciple making and church
planting.
People will want to copy your methods
- can they simply copy them?

What is simple in your culture might be

more complex in another culture.
Explore what works.
3. Methods
should be
Ethical
Ethical = morally good or correct.

Our lives should be above reproach

- 1 Tim 3:2
We should never use methods that
compromise our integrity or honesty.

Forget results: We must maintain high, godly

standards at all times.
 4. Methods
should avoid
paternalism
Paternalism is the belief that the team
knows what is best for the people.
Much missionary activity from the West
was based upon a belief that other
cultures were ignorant and uncivilised.
Teams work to reproduce what church
etc. was like in the West.
New believers would not have the
education of the missionaries and so
were thought to be incapable to doing
what the missionaries did. The result is
people who were made to depend
upon the missionaries - they always
needed outsiders to help.
Experience and wisdom are valuable and
important.
But CP teams should not teach / act so that
local people can’t work without them.
We should be looking to use methods
that equip and release local people to
do the work of ministry.
Helps them to work in a way that is right for
their culture and location.
You wouldn't put a size 12 show on a child
who takes size 3.
Don’t create structures or use methods that
don’t work for the culture you are in.
Try to develop an approach that depends
on the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, other
believers and pastoral oversight.
restart
5. Methods should
show Christ
sustained abilities
From the starting a new church needs to have
certain qualities.
What do you think they might be?
To make sure people don’t think of these as
being ungodly or found in ourself Charles
Brock calls these “Christ sustained abilities”.
Self-identifying.
They call themselves a local expression of
the Body of Christ, a church.
Self-supporting.
They should have the financial and human
resources required to function as a local
church.
Self-governing.
With elders, Holy Spirit filled believers, and
the Word of God they should be able to
make their own decisions about life and
ministry.
Self-propagating.
Led by the HS they should fulfil the Gt.
Comm. locally and worldwide.
Self-expressing.
Expressing their worship in ways that are
appropriate to their own context and culture.
Self-teaching.
They should be able to exhort, rebuke,
encourage and instruct one another
according to the WOG in the guidance of the
HS.
Self-theologising.
Relying on WOG and HS for accountability
and discernment, they should be able to
apply biblical truth within their context.
Question: How does a church show these
qualities soon after it has been birthed?
Answer:
We should be relying on the Holy Spirit
What we will be in 5 years is different to what
we are now
The church will develop these abilities more as
time goes on, but it should (because of the
WOG and HS) show them in some way from
day one.
Examples
Self supporting - might mean a large
budget supporting staff and buildings.
It might also mean having enough
money to make photocopies.
Self-theologising could mean the ability to
write a book on systematic theology but could
also mean being able to answer the question,
“How do we apply this biblical truth in our
context?”
Imagine: during the evangelism stage an
unbeliever asks, “Where should we meet to
study about Jesus?”
What would your response be?
One possibility here is to say, “Where would
you like to meet?”
Why is this a good response?
This gives them some power even before
they get born again and can lead to a greater
willingness to be self governing later on
With believers you ask, “What should we do
next week?”
What would be a good answer?
Look for appropriate answers from the
believers - answers that reflect a desire to learn
and an understanding of where they are in
growth and understanding.
What would you think
if they stand and look
at each other whilst
saying nothing?
Imagine… your do a study on the subject of
praise and worship using some Psalms as
examples.
How do you conclude, what do you say?
1. As we have seen in the Bible, music,
singing, raising hands are an important part
of worshipping God. How do you think we
should apply (use) this truth in our weekly
gathering?
2. You tell the new believers: “The church is a
worshipping community with psalms, hymns
and spiritual songs, so next week we’ll bring
along a guitar and some songs to sing.”
3. Someone in the group might say, “We
should have some music and sing to God. But
none of us can play, would one of you please
play for us?”
3 Answer. Two possible answers, “Yes” or “If
there is no one to play an instrument we can
always sing without music”
The team must resist the temptation to make
decisions and plans, to provide the musicians,
handle money etc.
The CP team should only do the things that
they alone can do.
Remember: Methods Matter — your
Don’t lead them to think how amazing, how
methods will make people stand
gifted, how special the CP team are, don’t let
them think that they can’t do it as well as the
without you, or make them rely on
CP team.
you. Which do you want?
Remember 1 Cor 11:1,
Be imitators of me, as
I am of Christ.
2 Tim 3:10, Heb 13:7 You, however, have
followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in
life, my faith, my patience, my love, my
steadfastness, 11 my persecutions and
sufferings…
…Remember your leaders, those who spoke to
you the word of God. Consider the outcome of
their way of life, and imitate their faith.
Summary
Ask yourself and the CP team the following
questions:

◆ How will your team connect with

people?
◆ How will your team share the gospel as
widely and soon as possible?
How will your team begin to teach new
believers in community?
1. To be disciples of Jesus
2. To share the Word with others
 3. To practice biblical community
4. To share and teach the Word with one
another
5. To serve the world locally and
globally
◆ How will your team incorporate culturally
relevant practices into gatherings, in a way
that helps them to identify as a truly local
church?
1. Will you lead them to have a meal
together?
 2. Will you lead them to incorporate
music in a time of praise?
3. Will you have corporate sharing and
prayer times?
4. Will you allow (literate) them to read
the Word publicly?
 5. Will you encourage them to give
public testimonies of God’s grace?
6. Will you encourage them to collect
offerings for ministry and mission to the
poor, orphans, widows, church planting
etc.?
 ◆ What other questions might your team
consider?
The End