How to Start a Church Planting Movement –Focus on Getting to a Fourth Generation Church
1. Stop training churched people – Train new Christians rather than churched people. There are church people called to this work who should be trained, but every time you train a churched person who does not start a group you are reinforcing bad patterns in their life. Believe that there are people out there who don’t know Jesus but who Jesus is calling you to train. Having a ready pool of people to train who are in the church is our biggest hindrance. We will not get to multiplication until we are training those who are today in the world but whom God is calling to plant new churches.
The resources are in the harvest not in the church!!!!
2. Submit to the simple system that God has revealed – This simple five strategy system is being used by God around the world and is the system he has revealed in the Bible. I am convinced that one of the reasons that there is not a multiplication system in the U.S. is that Americans have a difficult time adopting the simple system that God has revealed. Virtually everyone I am aware of is trying to adapt this system to the U.S. I think God is calling us to simple submission to work His system. Take the first step of submission and God will guide us to any necessary changes as we see churches multiply. There is nothing that you have to write or create from scratch. Just see what God is doing around the world and join him.
Adopt don’t adapt!!!!!
3. Do your work seeing the other side – This was a word of God to us in our Mt. Bethel leaders meeting. Everything we do is done with a vision of fourth generation believers and churches and beyond. When you find the first person of peace, see in your mind the fourth generation church that will begin with this person of peace.
See the fourth generation when you see the first!!!
4. Get to multiplication quickly – The goal is a system of multiplication, therefore, your goal should be to get to the fourth generation quickly. When we find a person of peace the goal is to get to the fourth generation new believer. When you start a new church, the goal is to get to the fourth generation church plant as quickly as possible.
Rapid Kingdom Expansion is our goal!!!
Reports from the Field
Brooklyn Living Hope – Pastor Euline Jackson attended Strategy Coordinator Training last fall and went back to her church in Brooklyn and gathered a group of six people and took them through the church planter training.
While the work has been difficult, Pastor Euline reports that their work has borne fruit. After the training several of the participants have actively sought to find persons of peace. Three people have been led to Christ and they are now working to disciple the new believers and start new churches.
Pottsville River Church – Pastor Storm Hutchison has been leading people in Pottsville into this ministry of multiplication. He originally started with five trained church planters who were each working in a different community. Each of those five became physically ill and was unable to continue with the original plan.
Pastor Storm relates several lessons he has learned:
1. The ground is very hard – some people are dealing with fatigue
2. The work will not happen as quickly as he expected
3. Disciples are made in the harvest field
Pastor Storm reports that now they have reached third generation Christians and are looking to get to fourth generation believers. He also believes that two new churches will be started before the end of the year and that these churches will be multiplying churches.
Be With Him…
“God chooses people committed to His cause. Key workers need to remain intimately connected to God so that they might receive revelation, wisdom and discernment to know the heart of the Trinity in church planting matters.” Bruce Bennett
Beginning next issue – a full review of the seven values of church multiplication based on our two years of learning how to implement the system.