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Church Planting An Enigma
By Tony Thompson
Luton, UK
 For the vast majority of my early years as a Christian, church planting was an enigma. I heard a little about it and it sounded really interesting and exciting, something I felt I would love to be involved in. But how do you do it? How to get started?
Whenever I met someone who had planted a church I extracted as much information from them as I could, but I still couldn't work out how to do it and, more importantly, how I could get involved.
Since then I have planted some churches, helped others plant churches and learnt a few things on the way. I want to share some of the insights I have gained. I must admit church planting is still something of an enigma but less so than it used to be! There will always be a level of mystery involved because it is God who plants His church; we just help Him.
Like a marathon
Since I recently completed the London marathon, I can't help thinking about the similarities between marathon running and planting churches. Preparation is key - if you don't do the training you can't expect to do well. Even with the best preparation so much depends on what happens on the day; you can't predict how it will go. Every race is different, especially the last, painful six miles! Similarly, preparation and training are vital in church planting but every plant is different and you just can't predict how a particular plant will go.
Different types of church plant
Scripture and experience indicate that there are three basic types of church plant. There is the pioneering church plant where leadership is ‘parachuted' into an area to establish a church. This was a common method employed by Paul. A good example was when he planted into Ephesus. Without having anything on the ground in Ephesus, or even close by, Paul turns up with his team, builds relationships with others in the city, gathers local people to him and plants a church. Numbers of Newfrontiers churches have been planted this way.
Then there is the mother church birthing others. The initial plant in Ephesus resulted in many other churches being planted in the province of Asia, as Luke tells us in Acts 19:10. The churches mentioned at the beginning of the book of Revelation are among those planted out from Ephesus. In many ways this is an easier way to plant a church, coming out of an existing church.
The church in Antioch is an example of the third type of plant, the ‘unplanned pregnancy'. In Antioch a group of Christians gathered because of persecution, ‘the Lord's hand was on them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord' (Acts 11:21). Apostolic ministry was sent from Jerusalem to serve this spontaneous new church. In Newfrontiers churches we too have experienced this type of, where God just breaks out and causes a church to be planted. Apostolic ministry then responds to what God has already done. The apostolic role is present but different in each case.
Leadership, location, vision and strategy
At its most basic, a church plant requires three elements - leadership, location and vision/ strategy. This is true for each type of plant described above. It is occasionally possible to gather a small number of people when only two elements are present, but all three are needed to plant a church.
Sometimes, once a location and a vision are identified a leader is sought for that context. Alternatively, you can have a leader with a vision to plant a certain type of church and a suitable location is then sought. Even having a leader and a location requires vision of what sort of church is going to be planted, and a basic strategy of how this is to be achieved prior to gathering people intentionally. From my experience, there is no ideal order for the three elements to come together, but church planting only really starts when all three are in place. Let's look at these three elements and see how apostolic ministry gets involved.
Leadership
The bottleneck in many parts of the world is leadership. If we had more leaders we could plant more churches. A key role of apostolic and prophetic ministry is to identify church planters. This appears to be a God-given ability. Put an apostle in a group of leaders and he seems to be able to pick out those gifted and called as pioneering church planters in no time! Many church planters have been identified and released by apostolic ministry in this way.
Prophetic ministry also has a role in releasing church planters. I vividly remember sitting in a room minding my own business when Colin Baron prophesied over me that I needed to move from where I was and get involved in a pioneering church plant. Over a short period of time others prophesied similar things, confirming my call to move to Luton to plant the church there. Many have been released into church planting through the prophetic. I do not believe a prophetic word is essential before you can plant, but having one does help!
Once church planters are identified, they must be suitably trained and developed. Across the Newfrontiers world there are different types of training available. We find that those with previous eldership experience in a local church are more effective church planters than those without it. Whilst not essential, eldership experience is excellent preparation. If we want to increase the rate of church planting we need to identify and develop more leaders.
Location?
A key decision is where to plant the church. Sometimes God clearly speaks about a specific location, an example being: ‘Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, "Come over to Macedonia and help us"' (Acts 16:9). Not surprisingly, Paul went to Philippi, a leading city in Macedonia, and planted a church. Paul was also encouraged to stay in Corinth because the Lord told him that He had many people in that city.
However, it's not always so clear. The Holy Spirit told the church in Antioch to ‘set apart for me Barnabas and Saul to the work which I have called them.' It was clear to them that this work was to plant churches but no specific instructions were given as to where to go. They themselves chose to go to Cyprus. The reason would appear to be that Barnabas, the leader of the team, was originally from Cyprus (Acts 4:36). It is always easier to establish a new church where there are already existing relationships.
The policy of Paul and Barnabas, as outlined in Acts, was to use ‘common sense' to identify the next place to plant, fully offering this to God then expecting Him to redirect if necessary. This seems to be a healthy model for us to follow when considering where to plant.
Apostolic and prophetic ministry can both, therefore, be involved in identifying strategic locations. I believe they also have a key role in helping match leadership with location.
Vision and strategy
Having a leader and a location doesn't mean we are ready to plant a church. There is the need for vision (what sort of church is to be planted) and strategy (how it is to be planted).
Too often there is not enough clarity regarding the style or ‘flavour' of the church that is to be planted. Some churches are planted with a view to reaching a particular neighbourhood, others to reach a whole city, yet others to a whole area. This is obviously true for urban settings but can be equally valid in more rural contexts, where churches are planted to reach a village or an area of villages.
In many geographical contexts there may be several different people groups. In Luton we have people from many different nations as well as a university. We had to be clear about our vision: were we wanting to reach people of all backgrounds to demonstrate our being one new man in Christ, or were we seeking initially to reach one particular group?
I believe that apostolic ministry has a role in helping churches in identifying appropriate vision and strategy for their context.
Conclusion
There is something special about church planting! It continues to be God's chosen method of establishing His kingdom on earth. There is much to learn from both Scripture and experience but nothing beats rolling up your sleeves and getting involved in making history by planting a church! |
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