2 Diseases That Kill Missional Living

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Missional Living Has No Place For Personal Favoritism!

"My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, “You sit here in a good place,” and you say to the poor man, “You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,” have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives? Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court? Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called?

      If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. For He who said, “DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY,” also said, “DO NOT COMMIT MURDER.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment." James 2:1-13

Showing Personal Favoritism In 

Christian Living Shows:

1.  You Have Evil Motives

More often than not our motivation of showing preferential treatment for one person over another person is simply for personal gain.  We exalt one person and belittle another because the one we are exalting we feel can help us in some way.  THIS IS A WRONG MOTIVE IN ALL THINGS BUT ESPECIALLY FOR MISSIONAL LIVING!

2.  You Have Dishonored The Poor Whom God Has Chosen To Bless

Did you catch this point in the Bible verse above?  God has chosen the poor, the outcast, or the lonely to bless them!  We we choose to exclude them or down play their participation we are dishonoring them and thereby dishonoring God.  

3. You Have Sinned And Broken The Law of Love

James, the writer of this book, doesn't hesitate in the least to call the attitude of personal favoritism SIN!  When you value one person above another; when you minister to one person above another IT IS A SIN!

4.  You Deserve To Be Judged Without Mercy

This Bible verse is very clear what a person who shows personal favoritism, especially in the church and in missional living deserves!  They deserved to be judged without shown mercy.

NOW THAT'S WHAT IS DESERVED BUT NOT NECESSARILY WHAT THEY'LL GET!  The Bible also says in 1 John 1:9,

"If we confess our sins He is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."  

Sincere repentance and confession from this sin of personal favoritism will bring about God's forgiveness.  

When it comes to living a powerful Missional Life there is absolutely no room for personal favoritism.  Just like the picture above says we need to be going out and sharing the Gospel with those that others have given up on!  Other people may have given up on them but God still loves them and Christ still died for them.  

One last thought to remember!  The truth is that we all were once people that have been given up on.  If it wasn't for Christ's death, burial and resurrection none of us would be saved from our sins.  But praise be to God our Father that He does love us and through Christ provided away for our sins to be removed.

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Missional Living Devotional: Calming The Storms In Your Heart Before The...

Missional Living Testimony Challenge

CAN SOCIAL MEDIA BE USED TO HELP IGNITE CHURCH PLANTING MOVEMENTS IN NORTH AMERICA?

Now that's an interesting question?

CAN SOCIAL MEDIA BE USED TO HELP IGNITE 

CHURCH PLANTING MOVEMENTS IN NORTH AMERICA?

Now I'm sure there is more than one person who's reading this post and not really appreciating it to much!  For many the whole information revolution, the digital communication and "yes" the social media invasion seems to have gotten way out hand and created a slew of problems that are haunting our American society!

And I Would Wholeheartedly Agree That There Is A 

Whole Lot Of Evil That Has Come From Social Media.

After all who really wants to hear about every little thing that is happening in a person life?  I mean do we really want to hear that a person has just stepped outside to watch the daisies grow?  Who really cares if Billy Bob has just left the office early for the third time this week with the same unknown strange woman?  So yes I would agree that Facebook, Twitter and other social medias have become the playground for voyeurs to get their jollies. And yes more than one marriage has broken up because someone has reestablished a connection with a old high school sweetheart.  But with all that being true can social media be a tool to help ignite the church planting movements we so desperately need to experience from God here in North America?

And I would have to say

"YES"

The reason why social media has the ability to be used to propigate such evil in the lives of people is because it has the power to mold, shape and influence people's thoughts, ideas and emotions.  The constant bombardment of images, quotes, values and philosophies begin to transform a persons world view.  When a persons conception about life, family or anything is challenged over and over again people begin to question if what they have always believe is true or not.  In other words social media is a tool that has been used to shape the ideas and values of large groups of people which in turn has brought about behavioral change.

NOW THAT'S POWERFUL!

And that's exactly what needs to happen among the pastors and ordinary christians of North America if Church Planting Movements  are going to ignite!  Pastors and ordinary Christians alike need to have a reshaping of the ideas and values of what church is, how churches are started and who's qualified to start churches.  For the most part both Christians and pastor conceptually think that church is a building located at a certain place, that churches are started by professional and ordained clergy and requires lots of money, staff and people to start one.  But as we look at the Church Planting Movements that are happening around the globe and the people who are being used to make them happen we see a totally different idea and values.  Where CPM's are happening around the world the pastors and christians see the church as the people - not a building; they see ordinary Christians starting the churches - not ordained paid professionals; and they see these new churches being started with very little if any money, staff or people.

So what does this tell us?  What it tells me is that before North America will experience CPM's like that of the rest of the world there needs to be a reshaping of our idea's, concepts, and values in some vital components of Church Planting Movements.  Before we will see CPM's happen the ordinary christian has to believe that they can and should start rapidly reproducing churches; pastors need to see that their primary role is to raise up, train up and unleash their membership to start these rapidly reproducing churches; and denominational leaders, pastor and christian alike need to let go of the importance of having a building in order for a church to be authentic and legitimate and that a building is actually a hinderance to CPM's.

AND THAT'S WHERE THE TOOL OF SOCIAL MEDIA 

BECOMES EXTREMELY USEFUL!

Never before in the history of the world has one person (any person) had the powerful potential of impacting and reshaping the idea's and values of the entire world.  Through social media (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Blogs, Interactive Web-sites, Linkedin, Pinterest, etc...) one person can literally impact thousands if not 10's of thousands of Christians and pastors on a daily basis sharing what God is doing through Church Planting Movements and how He is doing it and thereby reshape their values and idea's so they can join God in His activity.

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Let me give you an example of what I mean by showing you what I'm doing with social media.  Understand I am not an expert on this but I truly see the value in it for CPM's igniting in N. America so I have become a learner and practitioner of it. There's a whole lot more for me to learn but here is what I'm doing thus far:

• On Facebook I have 2,506 friends who potentially can see my multiple posts each day.  I don't know personally most of these people but we have connected because of some common interest and for many it is our love for the Lord.
• On Linkedin I have 1827 connections
• On Twitter I have 479 people following me.
• I have just started on Pinterest and only have about 30 followers.
• I have a blog I post on regularly called Missional Meditations that have about 100 people who follow it in one way or another.  Many of my posts have had over 300 people read them from all over the world.
• I have created two Facebook Pages one for encouraging people to join God in his activity for a CPM in N. America and the other one to empower, encourage and equip Ordinary Christians to live an intentional missional life for Christ. One of them has 262 "LIKES" and the other one has 458 "LIKES".  You can check them out at:

THE ORDINARY CHRISTIAN

A NORTH AMERICAN CHURCH PLANTING MOVEMENT INITIATIVE

Never before in over 25 years of full time ministry have I had such influence over so many people living in so many different places as I have had since making social media a major tool in my tool box.  Since I've started using all these different social media, to one degree or another, I now have been able to help both pastors and ordinary christians, I have been able to influence people who live in countries all over the world.  Here's list of some of the countries where my message has been heard via social media:  (United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, India, Kenya, Russia, Mexico, Israel, Indonesia, Australia and Ukraine).  

So what's the point I'm trying to make through this post?  Is it to brag?  

NO! 

It Is Simply this:

If you are a person who is passionately involved in seeing CPM's ignite in N. America then as part of your work you need to develop a comprehensive social media presences where you can participate in chipping away and reshaping the idea's and beliefs of both Christians and pastors that Church Planting Movements are God's activity and will and what needs to be done in order for them to ignite.  This is a tool you cannot ignore if you are serious about wanting to reshape the values and ideas of the Christian culture of N. America.

Here's a like that might help you in the process of learning about it:  Christian Marketing Institute

If you would like to see what you can do with a blog feel free to read the one I write at:  

missional meditations

I pray that God will use you to help reshape the Christian Culture of N. America that will become fertile ground for experiencing CPM's.

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A NEW TESTAMENT STRATEGY FOR IGNITING A CHURCH PLANTING MOVEMENT: Part 2: John Wesley's Version

In my last post, A New Testament Strategy For Igniting A Church Planting Move, I shared 3 invitations that Jesus and His disciples offered to people that continually moved them into an ever increasing deeper commitment to Christ and the missional movement that He was establishing.  While these three invitations may not be able to explain in totality the strategy that Jesus used to ignite a movement I do believe they offer three important components to it and if we are going to experience church a planting movement in North America we will need to find a way to adapt them into our context.  Those three invitations were: COME AND SEE; COME AND FOLLOW; and COME AND BE WITH ME.  The Come And See was an invitation to experience the power, presence and message of Christ personally (many times in a large group setting but not always); the Come And Follow was a commitment to learn to of Christ, His way of life and His world view (this often happened in smaller groups. If they had not earlier and the come and see event they would come to personal faith in Christ.  These were called his disciples); and finally the The Come And Be With Me was an invitation to a very few of those disciples whom Christ would train to do what He did and thereby multiply the movement (this was a very small band 12 leaders in training whom he called Apostles as opposed to just disciples).

But was this missional movement (Church Planting Movement) reproducible?  Could it be transferred from culture to culture and from one point in history to a different time in history? Were these principles  (3 invitations) at play in different movements of God in history?  Now please understand it is not my intent to do an exhaustive historical or cultural research to answer these questions! This will only be a very general and surface observation to see if there are indications that this strategy has been at work in different movement of God.  I will leave the more exhaustive research of this subject to those who are both more qualified and enjoy that kind of intellectual rigor.  So in this post we are going to look at the missional movement of the Methodist and see if these 3 INVITATIONS were at play with what God did through John Wesley.


When I look at the early Methodist's and the strategy that John Wesley implemented three important activities stand out that enabled a strong ministry to be turned it into a powerful movement that swept England and America.  These three activities were:

• OPEN AIR PREACHING:  At first John Wesley didn't like the idea open air preaching where one shared the gospel outside of a church building where ordinary people gathered.  But it was his friend George Whitfield that helped him not only overcome this conception but also help see the value in it so that he could wholeheartedly embrace it.  It is said that John had rode over 250,000 miles on horseback to preach at these open air meetings, preached over 40,000 sermons and it is estimated that tens of thousands of people would show up to a single meeting.  His primary style of preaching at these open air meetings was evangelistic where he would introduce the ordinary person to the power and presence of Christ that could save their soul.  But these, many times,  large evangelistic meetings was only the starting point of his strategy.  Wesley felt that leaving a newly converted person to their own devices without training them in righteous living was an ungodly thing to do.  This conviction was what led him to the second activity that characterized his strategy.
• CLASS MEETINGS:  When people made a decision at the open air preaching he would then quickly gather them into small groups called CLASS MEETINGS.  These groups were to help people grow in their spiritual faith through discipleship and accountability.  They met at least weekly; started the meeting with singing and praying; a time of confession of sin to one another would follow; then they would examine each other through probing questions of their spiritual condition.  They would also, as part of their regular meetins, review study material that John Wesley had written to help them grow in their knowledge and understanding of God, scripture and spiritual growth.  As vital and important that these first two activities were it wasn't until Wesley initiated the third activity that his powerful ministry became an explosive movement of God that would spread through England and North America.
• ITINERANT HORSEBACK PREACHERS:  Because of the vastness of the needed work yet to be done and because of the reluctance of the theologically trained pastors and preachers John began to develop and train scores of lay preachers to go preach the gospel to those who would never enter a church building.  They would follow his example of preaching at open air meetings and riding on horseback.  John Wesley became the standard and model for all of the new open air preachers to follow.   Most of the men selected to be the  preachers were ordinary men with no special theological training, much like the description of the Apostle Peter and John when standing before the Jewish Rulers in the book of Acts.  The selection of the preachers was based more on grace than education.  Grace being that they had a powerful story (testimony) to share with the crowd of people who would gather.  These itinerant preachers were sent all over England and especially into the expanding westward America.  Like Wesley these lay preachers would form the new converts into CLASS MEETINGS that would allow for their spiritual formation to develop.  They would continue the practice passing out religious material that was produced by the Wesley's to help them grow during the weeks that the circuit rider was in other area's.  And it was out of these Class Meetings that new potential lay pastors/circuit riders were identified, trained and mentored by a more experienced circuit rider and eventually unleashed to go into his own new and expanding territory.  And thus the movement continued to expand and explode.  

These 3 activities that John Wesley created were his version of the New Testament Strategy For Igniting a Church Planting Movement.  The Open Air Preaching was his adaptation of a 

COME AND SEE EVENT; the Class Meetings was his style of the 

COME AND FOLLOW GROUPS; and his Circuit Riders were his version of 

COME AND BE WITH ME LEADERSHIP.  

Just like Jesus in his New Testament Strategy John Wesley used the same approached of sifting through the masses of people and inviting them into a deeper commitment to Christ and spiritual growth culminating with the raising up, training up and unleashing of new apostolic itinerant preachers who would take the message and the strategy to new area's that still needed to be reached or revived and thus exploding it into a movement

So again I ask: What would a 21st Century North American Adaptation of the New Testament strategy for igniting a church planting movement look like?  What would the Come And See Events look like where the gospel can be presented to a group (large or small) to interested seekers?  What would a Come and Follow Group look like where accountability and spiritual disciplines are being instilled in the lives of the new believers?  And what would the training of new apostolic leadership of ordinary Christians that form the Come and Be With Me look like in a North American context?

ARE YOU INTERESTED IN BEING PART OF GOD'S ACTIVITY IN BRING A CHURCH PLANTING MOVEMENT TO NORTH AMERICA?  Then I invite to join in with the discussion and preparation by become a fan of the Facebook Page A North American Church Planting Movement Initiative.  We need to pray, seek God's wisdom and experiment.  Join the fun.

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A NEW TESTAMENT STRATEGY FOR IGNITING A CHURCH PLANTING MOVEMENT

I have been kicking around this idea about a strategy for igniting a Church Planting Movements/Disciple Making Movements. It's not new to me and others have discussed it in terms of how Christ made disciples. I'm just applying it to CPM's/DMM's. I would love to hear your thoughts on it.

In the 4 Gospels we see three different invitations that Christ and his disciples extended to people depending upon their level of commitment.

The First Invitation: COME & SEE: This was an invitation for people to come see and experience the power, presence and message of Christ. Sometime these turned out to be a large gathering of people but only lasted a day or two. As ordinary people came they got to meet Jesus, hear his teaching on the Kingdom of God, experience his power when he performed miracles and healings and they would receive an invitation to join him in a deeper committed which was the second Invitation.  The goal of this event was to discover the Person of Peace who would open their home that would form the beach head for the new movement and to find those who were prepared to follow Jesus and become His disciples.

The Second Invitation: COME & FOLLOW: These were people who were willing to leave everything to come and follow Christ. They considered the cost of discipleship and made a decision to be Christ's disciples. As they did Jesus taught them how to become spiritually mature through laying a strong foundation of himself/Christ and his teaching, about living in the Spirit, how to relate to one another, spiritual warfare and pursuing His mission. As he watched and prayed he then would extend a third invitation to some of those the Father identified.  The goal of this following was to establish his follower to be strong in their faith and to identify those who would form the apostolic leadership from which the movement would gain momentum.  

The Third Invitation: COME & BE WITH ME. The few that Jesus identified through prayer He made them to be His apostles. He would teach them to do what he did and implement the same pattern (come and see, come and follow and come and be with me). They would watch Jesus do it, they would practice it under His supervision and he would them unleash them to go do it themselves in teams. As they did the work they then would gather those who were identified from the Come and Be With Me to be the second generation of apostolic leadership and then repeat the process. This time not with just twelve but with seventy-two.  It is here with this third group THE COME & BE WITH ME that we see the rapidly reproduction begin to happen. They were the apostolic leadership that would leave to go to other unreached groups to share the gospel. 

As the process was repeated over and over again more disciples increased and more apostolic leadership were developed thereby increasing the momentum of the movement. It is important to note that this strategy was used to raise up, train up and unleash ordinary christians, people, to create this church planting movement.  The church planting was done by ordinary christians who had no special training.  These regular guys were used by God to do some pretty extraordinary and amazing things. These ordinary christians or regular guys were the one's that God used to be His missionaries!

So here are some question for us to consider:

• What if we were to follow the same pattern? 
• What would it look like in N. America? 
• What would COME & SEE EVENT look like? 
• What would a COME & FOLLOW GROUP look like? And what would a COME & BE WITH ME TRAINING look like? 

Share your thoughts in the comments space Let's brainstorm and begin to experiment and see what God does.

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THE ORDINARY CHRISTIAN'S GUIDE TO CHURCH PLANTING: Step 5 - Develop A Prospect List

Hopefully by this time you have developed a comprehensive prayer strategy that will empower the work of starting a new church with the power and presence of God himself.  I cannot overstate the importance of step 4.  If you do not develop and implement a strategic prayer ministry, nothing from that point forward will be of any use.  Church planting is not a human endeavor. Jesus said, after Peter's great confession, that He (Jesus) would build his church and the gates of hell would not overpower it.  From that statement we see that church planting is Christ's work and he is the one who accomplishes it.  Therefore, it is vital that we understand that church planting is not something we do for God but it is something that God is going to do through us.  W,ith that being the truth then the dependence on God through prayer is essential and cannot be removed from the equation.  So if you have not started to implement a comprehensive prayer strategy STOP reading this post and go back to step 4 and do that first.

The task in step 5 is the development of a prospect list! This list will determine the ground for planting the gospel seed from which the harvest will come. In other words from this list will potentially come the people who will become the members of the new church.  The development of this list is a vital BEST PRACTICE for any church planting endeavor.  What do I mean by "BEST PRACTICE"?  Simply this:

IT IS ONE OF THE BEST AND ESSENTIAL ACTIVITIES

You cannot start a new church unless you know who you are going to invite to be part of it.  Now please understand developing a prospect list doesn't mean that they all will come and be part of the new church. 

A LARGE PORTION OF THEM WON'T!  

Developing a prospect list provides you with a starting point - not a finish line.  Developing a large prospect list provides you a tool to begin sorting through a large group of people whom Jesus is going to use to build His church.  At this point in the church planting process no one has an idea who God is going to use.  Right now your only job as the church planter is to beging sifting through the potential people and weed out those whom God is not going to use and begin to disciple those he does intend to use.

WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE SHOULD BE INCLUDED IN 

YOUR PROSPECT LIST?

First, let me start off by saying who you should not consider!  Since you have already enlisted and formed your church planting team which consists of at least two Christians (you and one other Christian) your prospect list shouldn't include any other Christian that is growing in the Lord and active in a church.  Leave them alone!  Now I know that probably sounds very strange and counter intuitive but believe me this is important.  Why?  Because we are not trying to start a new church that robs  growing Christians from other churches! We are wanting to start a church that focuses on fulfilling the Great Commission of making new disciples.   In starting a church and especially a house church you don't need a lot of strong growing Christians to form a solid foundation.  In a house church two strong growing Christians is plenty.    When you place your focus on developing a prospect list and reaching Christians who are already growing in the Lord you run the risk of forming what I like to call
-

"SPIRITUAL NAVEL-GAZERS" 

Spiritual navel-gazers are Christians who like to get into small groups and focus on themselves by encouraging each other and praying for one another.  While there is nothing wrong in and of itself in singing praises to God, praying with each other and and encouraging one another they should not be an end unto themselves.  Our mission and our goal is to fulfill the Great Commission by MAKING DISCIPLES.

But as Followers of Christ and as a church planter our call is to shine the LIGHT OF CHRIST in this spiritually dark world.

Second you need to know that there are two groups of people you want to use to form this prospect list:

• The Totally Unsaved:  These are people who have never committed their hearts to the Lord Jesus Christ and if they were to die today would surely go straight to hell.  
• The Far Away Brethren:  These are people who are Christians, or at least profess a faith in Christ, but have for one reason or another fallen away from Christ and the church.  

Identify people from both of these groups and you will have a very productive prospect list from which to plant the gospel seed and see whom God raises up to form and grow his new church.

WHERE DO YOU FIND THESE PEOPLE?  

You find these people from within your own sphere of influence.  You find them from those people you already know and have a relationship with.  This is another BEST PRACTICE.  Finding prospects from within your own sphere of influence is not only a proven contemporary strategy but more importantly is also a profound Biblical strategy.

When Jesus talked to the woman at the well in Samaria and shared with her everything she had ever done and revealed to her that He was indeed the Messiah she immediately ran back into the town and told everyone what had happen and invited them to come and see for themselves.  When Jesus healed the Demoniac of a Legion of Demons the man asked Jesus if he could go with him when he left and Jesus told the man "No" and instructed him to go back to the towns in that region declaring the great things that God had done for him.  The man obeyed and later when Jesus came back to that area the people were completely ready to receive Jesus and his ministry.  Why? Because they had heard and believed the testimony of the man who had been healed.

So in developing a strong prospect list you need to think of all your family, friends, fellow workers, neighbors and people you may know from your social groups who are either not Christians or they are backslidden Christians and add make them part of your list.  In putting this list together let me give you a couple of suggestions:

1. Pray Before You Start:  Prayer is always the best way to start any activity.  You can never go wrong by praying.  Ask God to reveal to you and bring to your memory all those people that He wants included on the list.  You might be surprised whom God brings to mind.  I know of people who have been in earnest prayer in developing their prospect list and have had people come to mind that they haven't seen or heard from in years. God knows who he's working with and you need God to reveal His list to you.  I guess in reality we are seeking to understand who is on God's list.  That's why prayer is so important.  
2. Don't Prequalify Them:  What do I mean about that?  Simply this: Don't try to play God and decide if a person will or will not come to Christ or attend your church.  Only God knows the heart of a person and we can only guess.  Larry Munguia is now a very good friend of mine and fellow pastor but before Larry came to faith in Christ no one ever thought he would do it.  Everyone was concerned for his wife, Bobbi, and they prayed for her consistently. But interestingly enough Larry came came to faith in Christ before his wife and it was his changed life that convinced Bobbi that Christ was real.  Larry is now the Senior Pastor of a church he started called The Sober Project.  My point is this, we don't know whom God has chosen and prepared for this new life and new church.
3. Include All Vital Information: As you form this list make sure that you have each person's name, address, phone number, email address and Facebook account.  Why? Because you will want to stay in consistent contact with them sharing about activities, ministries and any other offers the church may want to make.  A church planter should maintain a  prospect list twice as large as the average attendance of the church.  Building a robust prospect list at the very beginning of a new church will only enhance the work later and having all this information will insure the ability to stay in contact.

Between you and your church planting team you should easily be able to form a list between 50 - 100 people.  This is more than enough to form and establish a new house church.

Now that you have built your list you work your list the way you started it - through prayer!  That's right start praying for your prospects.  Ask God the Father to begin drawing them to Jesus.  Ask the Holy Spirit to begin convicting them of their sin and need for a Savior.  Pray that God will bring circumstances and situations in their lives that will make them hunger and thirst for Christ and his righteousness.  Pray that these people become dissatisfied with this life of sin and become desperate for the life that only Christ can give. Send the names of your prospect list to the PRAYER WARRIORS you have already enlisted and get them to start praying over them.  Pray as a church planting team over the prospects.

 PRAY - PRAY - PRAY

AND NEVER STOP PRAYING!

Home Work:  

You and your church planting team get together and begin develop a prospect list of 50 to 100 people.

THE ORDINARY CHRISTIAN'S GUIDE TO CHURCH PLANTING - Step 4: Develop A Prayer Strategy

Now that you have formed a church planting team of at least two people to start this new church what do you do next?  Do you immediately go out to the mall with your huge family Bible in tow screaming to those passing by,  "Turn or burn"?  (Please know I mean that only tongue in cheek).  But really!  What do you do?  Where do you start?  How do you go from forming a leadership team to having a vibrant and growing church family?  The answer might surprise you, might even seem somewhat passive and to some unproductive.  But let me assure you this next step is definitely not passive nor unproductive and if left undone or poorly implemented will be a surefire way to failure.  I CANNOT OVER EMPHASIZE THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS NEXT STEP so please pay close attention and heed my words.  This next step is not just a good thing to do but when it comes to starting a new church it is an absolutely essential thing.  Success without fully implementing this next step is impossible.

So what is it?  When Jesus sent the twelve out two by two and then later when he sent out the 70 he taught them the importance of this next essential step.  Read what God's word has to say:

"Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.  Then He said to His disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.  Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest ... Jesus summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness ... These twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them: 'Do not go in the way of the Gentile, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  And as you go, preach, saying 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand."  Matthew 9:36-10:1; 10:5-7 (NAS)

"Now after this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He himself was going to come.  And He was saying to them, 'The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest." Luke  10:1-2 (NAS)

In both of these scriptures we see Jesus getting ready to send out teams of people to spread the Kingdom of God to those towns and villages where he was about to go and in both instances Jesus emphasizes the importance of PRAYER.   In both verses Jesus first shares the observation that the spiritual harvest fields were ripe and ready to be picked but there was not enough workers to gather the harvest.  Then Jesus gives them the same solution.  The solution wasn't for the teams to just work harder or for the teams to just do their best.  No, the solution that Jesus gave them was to PRAY!  Pray to the Lord of the Harvest (God our Father) to send out more laborers into the field.  The fourth step in starting a healthy and reproducing church is for you and your team to:

DEVELOP A POWERFUL AND COMPREHENSIVE PRAYER STRATEGY

The importance of prayer in the church planter's personal life  and in the vitality and strength of the church itself cannot be over emphasized.  As a matter of fact I am not sure if we can emphasize it enough.  Prayer is the spiritual conduit from which the power and provision of God flows from His throne into our lives.  It is the means by which his children receive all they need! It is impossible to live the Christian life apart from the daily communion with God through prayer

WHAT DOES AN EFFECTIVE 
PRAYER STRATEGY CONSIST OF?

PERSONAL PRAYER LIFE. As a church planter your personal prayer life is of first importance.  It is naive to think that a person can start a healthy and reproducing church without their own personal prayer life being up to par.  Church planting is a highly volatile enterprise to undertake spiritually.  When a person decides that they are going to be obedient to Christ and start a church where people will come to faith in Christ, grow spiritually stronger and actively engage in the mission that Christ has set for us they have in essence put a bulls eye target on their chest offering a challenge to Satan to take his best shot.  And I guarantee you that Satan will take that challenge.  Just like he did with Peter and Job Satan will be demanding of God the opportunity to sift you like wheat and the interesting part is that there will be times that God will grant Satan permission.  There will be times that God will allow Satan the opportunity to attack you spiritually and press you to your limits.  As hard as that might be to understand it is absolutely true.   Thankfully, though, God also determines the limits of what Satan can and cannot do.  Do you really think that a person who is not daily close to God through prayer will be able to stand up under the pressure of the trials and tribulations that Satan will bring upon him?  It is for this very reason that Jesus, on the night he was arrested took Peter, James and John further into the Garden of Gethsemane and asked them to join him in prayer.  Jesus was about to go through the biggest spiritual battle of his mortal life and he knew he needed to be prayed up to go through it.  But not just Jesus!  Jesus knew that Peter was about ready to experience a huge spiritual battle as well.  That's the reason why Jesus came back and said to Peter who was sleeping,  "Keep watching and praying that you may not fall into temptation the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak."  Here we have two perfect examples in contrast.  Jesus understanding the seriousness of the moment sought strength from God his Father while Peter who had failed to take Jesus' admonition seriously slept when he should have been praying and as a result was spiritually unable to meet Satan's challenge and failed miserably.  

Around the world where we find God's activity through church planting movements we see the "ordinary" Christian church planters getting up each day early in the morning to spend an hour or two in prayer.  This is their normal daily prayer routine.  Compare that to the North American Christian who spends less that 15 minutes a day in a time of consecrated prayer.  The "ordinary" Christian church planters around the world understand that prayer isn't something you can hurry through.  They understand their spiritual health, vitality and protection is directly dependent upon the amount of time and quality of time they spend with God through prayer.  When they pray they're praying for themselves, their family, their lost family, friends and co-workers and the salvation of people. When they pray they're asking for God's power, presence, protection and provision.  They are praising God for all the great things they have witnessed him doing.  They are confessing their sins and forgiving those who have sinned against them. They are praying on the spiritual armor of God so they will be fully prepared to face the enemy when, and not if, he attacks.  

So with this in mind you need to ask yourself how much time do you spend in consecrated prayer.  That means a specific time set aside for you to meet up with God. I'm not talking about offering up prayers throughout the day (which is needful) but I'm talking about a specific time set aside for you to meet with God daily.

How much time, like that, do you spend with God daily?  If it is anything under an hour you need to improve.  An hour should be the minimal amount of time you spend in prayer with God each day.  Why?  Because Jesus when talking with Peter in the garden asked him, "Couldn't you keep watch with me for one hour?" as if one hour was no big deal.  Jesus knew that Peter was about to have the biggest spiritual fight of his life and in essence was telling him that he was going to need an hour at least to get through it.  We should take heed of Jesus' advice as well.  

CHURCH PLANTING TEAM PRAYER MEETINGS.  In addition to having your own personal daily and powerful prayer life the church planting team needs to spend time together at least weekly praying for God's power and wisdom in developing this new church.  Remember we talked about having a church planting team of at least two people for the purpose of encouragement and greater effectiveness.  Prayer needs to be one of the regular activities that the team does together.  Praying together will bring the team under the Lordship of Christ; create unity of heart, mind and spirit; and enable them to experience the power of God in a unified way.  If it's not happening yet your church planting team should IMMEDIATELY start meeting weekly.  START PRAYING TOGETHER WEEKLY AS A TEAM!

PRAYER WARRIOR GROUP.  A prayer warrior group is a group of people committed to helping you start this new church through daily prayer.  These are people who love to pray and love you.  These are people who will pray for your needs, the needs of the new church, the needs of people who you are reaching, for your spiritual protection and for God's favor in this church planting venture.  

In the area of spiritual warfare the prayers of these warriors are like shooting off spiritual tactical missiles into the enemy's territory which create the SHOCK AND AWE EFFECT that will send Satan and his crew retreating.  Every church planter needs this kind of prayer support.  Even the Apostle Paul thanked and praised different churches who ministered to him not only physically while on his missionary journeys but also spiritually through prayer.  There is something very comforting and reassuring knowing that there are people who are lifting you and your new church up before the throne of God.

With the advent of social media like Facebook the creating of this kind of Prayer Warrior Group has become easy with the ability to gather several hundred people to pray very quickly.  A church planter that I am mentoring right now, Tracy Odom, has created a prayer group that has over 240 people in it in less than two weeks.  He is now able to at least weekly, if not daily, update his prayer warriors on new things to be praying about and how God has answered old prayer requests.  Quite literally you could have people all over North America, if not around the world, praying for you.  It is my suggestion that you should strive to form a group of 200 to 300 people who will truly pray for you.  You should update them at least weekly with both new requests and updates on old requests.  Send them pictures of the people you are witnessing to and the new converts you are praying for.  When you do events or activities take pictures and send them to your prayer warriors so they can rejoice with you and offer up heartfelt thanks to God.  Let this group pray about EVERYTHING concerning the new church.

CATEGORIES TO PRAY OVER

• CHURCH PLANTERS NEEDS: Every church planter/team will have personal needs that they will need for God to provide.  God has promised that if we are seeking His kingdom and His righteousness that all the things that we need, not necessarily the things we want, will be provided for us.  In the book of James we are told that we do not have what we need from God because we don't ask God to meet that need.  It also tells us that the times we do ask but don't receive is because we are asking with the wrong motives of gratifying our sinful flesh or we ask with a lack of faith.  

• WORKERS: In the verses we cited earlier from the books of Matthew and Luke we see that the solution to the lack of workers in the field is to pray for God to raise them up and send them out into the field.  Therefore, it is vital that prayers be lifted up to provide more workers for the church. 

• SPIRITUAL SIGHT TO SEE WHERE GOD IS AT WORK: Jesus shared his strategy for knowing what to do.  He said that he did nothing on his own initiative but only what he saw the Father doing and whatever he saw the Father do he joined him in that work.  That should be our strategy as well but in order to do that we need to have spiritual eyes that God has opened to see where He is working.  This spiritual sight can only happen when God reveals to us what he is doing.  As a church planter our daily prayer should be for God to open our eyes to see where he is at work that day and to give us the faith to join him.

• SPIRITUAL PROTECTION:  As I shared earlier there will be times when Satan is going to ask God's permission to sift you like wheat and God is going to grant him that permission.  We call this spiritual warfare.  Satan's intent is to destroy your faith but God's plan is to use it to strengthen your faith.  James 1:1 says, "Consider it all joy when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result that you may be perfect, complete, lacking in nothing."  We need prayers lifted up on our behalf asking God to strengthen and encourage us during those times of testing.  AND ORDINARY CHRISTIAN YOU ARE GOING TO BE TESTED!

• NAMES OF THE SPIRITUAL LOST:  Our mission is to Make Disciples of Christ. That means we are to seek out, in this dark world, people who don't know Jesus, befriend them and share the good news of Jesus with them.  Those people need to be prayed for by name.  Prayer is our way of preparing the spiritual ground of lost people's lives to be ready to receive the seed of the gospel.  Preparing the hearts of the lost is a work that only God can do.  God the Father is the gardener who prepares the ground.  The Bible says that no one comes to Jesus unless the Father first draws him.  Our prayers, therefore, are to intercede on behalf of the lost people we have met, pleading with God to work in their lives and draw them to Jesus.

• NEW DISCIPLES SPIRITUAL GROWTH:  As people come to faith in Christ and experience the new birth they need to grow up and learn to obey all that Christ has commanded.  As we all know that growth is not always an easy road to travel.  These newborn children need the prayers of their spiritual family interceding before God on their behalf.  

HOMEWORK:

1. Pick a time and place where you will meet God daily for at least one hour for a personal time of prayer.
2. Start meeting weekly together with your church planting team for prayer and planning.  Pick a day and time for that weekly prayer/planning meeting.
3. In some way form a Prayer Warriors Group using social media or some other way and start sending weekly prayer requests and updates.  Make it your goal to recruit 200 to 300 strong prayer warriors.
4. Start a Prayer Journal listing the prayer needs from the four categories (Church Planter Needs, Workers, Spiritual Sight, Spiritual Protection, Names of Lost People, and Names of New Disciples).  Start praying over them personally, in your leadership team meeting and share them with your prayer warriors.  
5. Keep a record of how God has answered your prayers.