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.

THE ORDINARY CHRISTIAN'S GUIDE TO CHURCH PLANTING - Step 3: Develop A Church Planting Team

In the remaining blog posts we are going to deal with some very practical and necessary components that need to be in place in order for a healthy church to be started and develop.  These essential components were modeled by Jesus to his 12 disciples; put into practice by the disciples when Jesus sent them out and then multiplied when when Christ instructed and sent out the 72 into every town and village he was about to go.  These same components were implemented and practiced by the Apostle Paul during his missionary journey's.  The best and most complete and best instructions of these components were given by Jesus in Luke 10:1-16 as Jesus sends out the 72.

In verse 1 we discover the first essential component.  It says,

"After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go." Luke 10:1 (NIV)

I don't know how many times in my life I got excited about doing something and then charged forward with the attitude that I was going to accomplish this goal regardless if anybody came with me or not. To many to count. I was going to make it happen, no, I was going to force it to happen. But then, just as I got into the thick of things, when things got really tough and even dicey, I'd loose heart, get discouraged and soon drop out and quit. I'm sure I am not alone in this. I am sure that most of us can recall a time or two where that was a description of you. But isn't comforting to know that Jesus has made preparations to encourage us who are on mission with him when we go through difficult times? Isn't nice to know that Jesus' strategy included an encouragement component to keep his missionaries (us) on track?

Did you notice in that verse Jesus appointed 72 other people and placed them in teams of two?  Why? What would be the reason for sending them out two by two? If you sent them out individually you could cover twice as much territory and twice as many people could hear the message of the Kingdom of God. The only possible reason for this pairing is to provide support and encouragement for one another. Listen to what the Bible says in Ecclesiastes 4:9-12:

"Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken."

From this verse we can see Jesus' wisdom in sending the 72 out in teams. He knew that there would be far more success with teams than if they went out on their own. Teams would provide assistance, encouragement, protection and strength. None of this would be available if a person was pursuing Christ's mission alone. Knowing these benefits Jesus made teams part of his strategy. Throughout the book of Acts we see the same pattern of teams being used with the apostles. Whether it was Paul and Barnabas or Peter and John we see them doing the work together and starting churches as a team.

For those of us who are just ordinary Christians we can learn a very important lesson! As we go out to start new churches we need to make sure that we don't try to do it alone but we have surrounded ourselves with other like-mind believers who have the same passion for Christ's as our own to form a church planting team. Starting churches can be hard, difficult and many times discouraging.  But if there has been prayer and time put into building a strong team, of at least two people, the work of starting a new church will not be so overwhelming and there will be a wonderful built in support system to help ensure that what we have started (planting a new church) we do finish.  

So who are some brothers and sisters in Christ that you know who love Jesus more than anyone or anything else and unconditionally and sacrificially love others as Christ has love them?  Who are some Christians that you know that have a heart for Christ's mission?  The only three real qualifications for team members are:  1) They're A Fully Devoted Follower of Christ; 2) They've Proven Themselves To Be Faithful To Christ & Ministry; 3) They Sense God's Call To Be Part Of This New Venture.

HERE'S YOUR HOME WORK:

1.  Using the 3 qualification listed above make a list of all potential team members.

2.  Begin praying over the names and asking God whom he wants as part of the church plant team.

3.  Share the vision of the new church to those you sense God wants to be part of it.

4.  Be alert to others that God might bring your way to be part of the church planting team.

Once you have a leadership team of at least you and one other person begin meeting together for prayer, going over The Ordinary Christian's Guide To Church Planting and developing your plans to plant this new church.  

HERE IS WHERE THE FUN BEGINS! GO OUT AND FIND THOSE THAT GOD HAS PREPARED TO BE PART OF THIS NEW CHURCH!

THE ORDINARY CHRISTIAN'S GUIDE TO CHURCH PLANTING - Step 2: Know What's Suppose To Happen In A House Church

Now that you have rethought your image of church and hopefully realized that you do have the basic leadership skills needed for leading a house church we now, in step two, need to consider what actually happens in a house church meeting.  This is where the second wave of excuses start flooding in from ordinary Christians fearful that they can't start a church.  The excuses go something like this:

"I can't start a church because I don't have the communication skills to preach a sermon or the musical skills to play an instrument and I surely can't sing worth a darn to lead in a song!  
Those things require training that I have never received!"

But here's the question that I want to pose to you:  Are those skills and training really necessary for starting and leading a house church?  Do you really have to preach a sermon, play an instrument or sing a song in order to have a solid and effective church plant?  My answer to that would be an absolute and resounding:

NO!  

A house church should never try to recreate, on a smaller scale, what is done in a traditional brick and mortar church where PERFORMANCE through preaching and music is the key to success for two reasons:

1. A house church could never perform those activities (preaching and singing) at a level that is necessary for them to be successful.  Entertainment is the key to success with a church that emphasizes these activities.  So if you are trying to reach people who are looking to be entertained, they will always opt for the larger church that has mastered the performance and is able to deliver the entertainment they are seeking.
2. The key to success for a house church is not in its performance to entertain but in its ability to develop sincere and meaningful relationships with people and God. That's right the key for success to starting and leading a house church is your ability to guide people into meaningful and authentic relationships with God and each other.  That's what people are looking for who will come to a house church.  If the people who attend a house church want a good show, they go to the movies and if they want to hear good music they go to a concert but when they want authentic relationships with God and others they attend a church (house church) where that is the emphasis.

So what actually does happen in a house church that ordinary Christian's facilitate that will bring people into authentic and meaningful relationship with God and others?  There are many different books that are available on that subject that would be good to read and would be helpful,   but for the purposes of this blog post I want to emphasize what the first church in Jerusalem emphasized and what they were devoted to doing when they gathered together in a house church.  In Acts 2:41-42:

"So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about 3,000 souls.  They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer."  

In this verse four things stand out that should be emphasized at a house church meeting:  

• First it says they were devoted to the FELLOWSHIP:  Now from my denominational background (Southern Baptist) when I hear fellowship I automatically think FOOD, POTLUCK and OVEREATING.  And I have to tell you that people from the south sure do know how to cook the best tasting food ever.  However, that's not what the Bible means when it talks about fellowship.  In this verse when it says that the people were devoted to the fellowship they were saying that they were devoted to each other.  The fellowship consisted of the people who made up the church.  This means that they were devoted to taking care of each other, meeting each other's needs, praying for each other, and sharing with each other.  They were so devoted to making sure that each person was taken care of that fellow Christians were selling some of their possessions to raise money to meet the needs of others in their church fellowship.  They sincerely cared about each other.  They would cry with one another, celebrate with one another, serve one another, provide for one another,  and encourage one another!  This devotion to the church family was so important  that we find this evaluation of the church in Acts 4:34,

"For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales and lay them at the apostles feet, and they distributed to each as any had need." 

Now you need to understand that no one was forced or even made to feel compelled to sell anything, but because their devotion and love to each other was so strong these first house church members wanted to do whatever it took to meet each other's needs.  It is in small groups, LIKE SMALL HOUSE CHURCHES, that this kind of authentic care for one another can be nurtured and developed.  

• Next they were devoted to PRAYER:  These first Christ Followers had an insatiable appetite for prayer.  They prayed all the time and for everything.  When the Holy Spirit first came at the Day of Pentecost the apostles were involved in a prayer meeting; when people were sick they prayed for each other; when Peter was arrested and waiting to be executed we find the church praying; it was during a prayer time that an angel appeared to Cornelius and instructed him to send for Peter to come and tell him the Good News; and when the Holy Spirit set apart Paul and Barnabas for their mission work the church was praying.  Throughout the entire Book of Acts we see the church moving forward in response to the prayers of those early followers.  Jesus himself taught his disciples to go into their prayer closet and pray to our Heavenly Father for all of their needs with the expectation of all of them being met.  At the end of Jesus' ministry on earth he told his disciples to pray for anything in his name and it would be given to them.    The Apostle Paul, in Ephesians, instructs us to always be in prayer for all occasions and for all the saints.   For these early Followers of Christ and for the early church praying wasn't just a good thing but it was an essential thing.  It was as important and natural for them to pray as it was for them to breathe.  

• In addition they were devoted to THE BREAKING OF BREAD:  Whenever the early church came together they would share together what was called a Love Feast.  A Love Feast was a common meal the church members would have together in obedience to the Lord to do the Lord's Supper in remembrance of Him.  The Lord's Supper for the early church was not a small little wafer  bread and a little cup of juice performed during some ritualistic ceremony.  The Lord's Supper was a full meal that was shared as they remembered both the sacrifice of Christ and his promise to join them in that meal when he returns.  So for those early church members church also included eating a full meal together in the expectation of Christ's return. 

• And finally they were devoted to THE APOSTLE'S TEACHINGS:  Whatever the Apostles taught in the house churches was retaught in other house churches.  This wasn't just any kind of random Bible study topic or series that the apostles decided to use because they thought it would draw a crowd.  No, the apostles had a set pattern, form or body, if you would, of teaching that they instructed to every disciple of Christ.  This body of teaching, or pattern, was taught and established in every town, village or city in which a church was started.  The teaching was both theological and practical.  It taught the truth about Christ, God and His salvation and then it taught the lifestyle that was to be lived out in every disciple of Christ.  The body of the Apostles Teaching is best found in the New Testament Books of Ephesians and Colossians and to a large degree in 1 Peter and James.

Now while there are other things that could be done in a house church meeting these are the four absolute and irreducible activities that must be done.  

SO LET ME ASK YOU A VERY IMPORTANT QUESTION!

Don't you think that if you are a fully devoted follower of Christ, and you have a vibrant and growing spiritual life that you could lead a group of 8 to 25 people to take care of each other and meet each other's needs; to pray for God's power, presence and provision to be manifested; to study and learn the Apostle's teachings on how to live the life of Christ; and to share a meal together in remembrance of Christ's death, burial and resurrection and his future return?

SERIOUSLY!  DON'T YOU THINK YOU CAN DO THAT?  Starting and leading a house church doesn't require you to be a great performer but it does require you to love people and lead them to do the four things discussed here.  

Take care of each other, pray for God's power, learn the Apostles Teaching and live it and finally share a meal together in remembrance of Christ death and future return that's all it takes to start and lead a house church that builds authentic and meaningful relationship with God and others.

HERE'S YOUR HOME WORK:

Design a house church formate that includes these four things.  What's going to happen first, second, third and fourth.

THE ORDINARY CHRISTIANS GUIDE TO CHURCH PLANTING: Step 1 Rethink Your Image Of Church

As we begin this journey of church planting together I can already hear the first excuse that many of you are throwing out on why you could never be a church planter.  The excuse goes something like this:

"I could never be a church planter because I have no training, ability or idea on how to lead or administrate such a complex organization like a church!"

And if that's your reason for not starting a church chances are you probably were raised in a church where there were lots of budgets, committees, business meetings, deacon and/or elder meetings, programs up the wazoo,  staff to manage, buildings to build and maintain and lots of conflict management with which to deal.  So if that's your idea of church you're probably right and you're  not qualified to start a church like that.  AND IF THE TRUTH BE TOLD VERY FEW PEOPLE WOULD BE QUALIFIED!  One would almost need a Masters in Business Administration to start and operate that kind of church.

But listen to me carefully for I am telling you the truth!  THE CHURCH OF THE NEW TESTAMENT DIDN'T LOOK ANYTHING LIKE THAT! 

THE NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH HAD A SIMPLE STRUCTURE THAT ANYONE COULD MANAGE

 In the New Testament the church was so simply structured that any Follower of Christ could start one.  While there are some character issues the Bible says need to be considered for the selection of a church elder the only leadership/management skill qualification is found in 1 Timothy 3:4,5.  It says,

"He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, 

how will he take care of the church of God?"

When it comes to LEADERSHIP ABILITY and the evaluation on whether a person is capable to start new church the only question needed to be asked is:

 "How well do they lead their family?"

If a person can lead their family well the Bible says they have the leadership skills necessary to start and lead a New Testament Church.  But how is that possible when the churches of North America are organized more like businesses and requires a person to have leadership skills far above that which is needed to run a household well?

The answer to that question is that we as North American Christians will need to change our conception of church from being some major corporation that requires a CEO to run it, to a church more closely akin to a FAMILY UNIT with spiritual parents guiding others to maturity.  We are going to need to move from a 21 Century image of the church to a 1st Century image of church.  

In other words we will need to develop a more 
Biblical image of what the church looks like! 

That's right I did say that!  "A More Biblical Image".  The church image that characterizes the North American landscape resembles very little to what the New Testament church looked like.  For starters the  Early Church for the first 300 years of its existence never owned any property and never had any buildings used exclusively for religious services.  The Apostle Paul in Acts 20:20 reminds the church in Ephesus that he did not shrink from declaring to them anything but taught them publicly and from house to house.  In the New Testament there was public teaching in large groups which usually happened at an outdoor public location or in a building that the apostle was able to use but its main use was something other than for Christian worship.  However, even with the use of large locations or facility the main teaching and instruction for the Christian faith took place in homes that met throughout the week in different locations.  An interesting note to consider is that once the church started experiencing persecution public teaching became less freqeuant and the small house church became even more prominant.  So let me share with you what  I believe is the best Biblical image of the church:

The New Testament Church was a group of 15 to 30  Christ Followers meeting in a home at least weekly but very possibly more often,  for worship, teaching, prayer and observing the Lord's Supper and then occasionally, when it was safe and as the need arose, gather in some public arena with other house churches for a larger expression of their faith.

A HOUSE CHURCH MEETING IN TUCSON, AZ

So now let me ask you!

• Don't you think, as a Fully Devoted Follower of Christ, that you can gather 15 to 30 people in a home to help them grow in their faith, meet each others needs, pray for God to provide His  power, presence and provision, and worship Him? 
• Don't you think that you can love and help spiritually grow 15 to 30 people?
• If there were no budgets, no committees, no staff, no salaries but just you and another leader with a dozen people living out your faith together as the Family of God, don't you think that's something you could do?

CAN'T YOU SEE YOURSELF DOING THAT?

All over the world this is happening!  All over the world God is raising up, training up and unleashing ordinary christians, just like you, to start these rapidly reproducing house churches for His glory and to fulfill his mission.  This same kind of movement God is bringing to North America but it's time for the People of God to get prepared to plant these kinds of churches.

In the blogs that follow we will be discussing exactly how to gather a house full of people and actually takes place in a house church.  But for now just start by rethinking what the church looks like and the way God first developed.  

HERE'S YOUR HOMEWORK:   Read through the entire Book of Acts two to three times.  As you read take mental notes each time that the church is meeting in a house or how people along with their entire household comes to faith in a home.  READ IT BY VIEWING THE CHURCH AS A HOUSE CHURCH!

THE ORDINARY CHRISTIANS' GUIDE TO CHURCH PLANTING Part 1: INTRODUCTION

LET ME JUST STATE VERY CLEARLY FROM THE BEGINNING!  

It is my firm conviction that the best people to start churches are ordinary Christians, with no special religious training, who are bold in their witness, indigenous to their target group

 and spends a lot time with Jesus! 

THEY ARE THE ONES WHO CAN BEST REFLECT THE GLORY OF GOD TO A LOST AND 
DYING COMMUNITY.

These are the kind of men that Jesus chose to be His disciples and to become His apostles.  These are the kind of people that God has used throughout the centuries to spread the Kingdom of God.  These are the individuals that God used in Southern Baptist life to start churches that caused them to become the largest protestant denomination in North America.  These are the kind of men that God used in the 70's during the Jesus Movement  to start some of the largest churches we have today in North America.  And this is the kind of person that God is still choosing to use that will ignite a new church planting movement throughout North America at this very hour!

ORDINARY PEOPLE USED BY AN  EXTRAORDINARY GOD 

TO START AMAZING CHURCHES!

In cooperation with what I see God doing I write this blog series.  This is a blog NOT for:

• the trained professional ministers who have spent countless hours in study and preparation to do the work of ministry from some seminary or Bible college, 
• or the Christian who is looking for some nice devotional material on missions to meditate upon,
• or the academic theologian who wishes to debate the theological implications of church planting!

No!  This is for those ordinary Follower of Christ who is sensing God's leadership to become actively involved in His mission by starting a new church.  This series of blogs is intended to encourage the People of God  to have the faith that God can do anything, through anybody, including them, and even if that means starting a new church.  I am writing this blog to take away the mystery and mystic surrounding church planting.

 THIS BLOG SERIES IS FOR YOU 
THE ORDINARY CHRISTIAN!

It is my prayer that two things will develop as a result of these blogs:

1. First that you the ordinary Follower of Christ and others just like you all over North America will begin to sense God's leadership in starting a new church and that an army of  ordinary church planters will be raised up, trained up and unleashed into the church planting fields of North America.
2. Second, that this army of ordinary christian church planters will ignite Church Planting Movements throughout the urban centers of North America unlike the world has ever seen before.

So before I get started in writing the other blogs, that actually give more of the "how to's" of church planting, I need to share what I mean by a church planter.  I do not believe that the term Church Planter is necessarily synonymous with Pastor or Elder.  There have been many people who have started churches that were not pastors nor every became a pastor.  A church planter is one who knows how to reach people for Christ and gather them together to form a body of believers under the Lordship of Christ.  That doesn't mean they are the one who will sit down and deliver a sermon or teach a Bible lesson.  So regardless of your personal theological position of women pastors or women in ministry a woman could be a church planter.  There have been many great churches started by some amazing and ordinary pioneer women who never preached a single sermon from a pulpit or a taught Bible lesson to a man.  These churches later would called a pastor to come shepherd them.  I personally am very conservative in my theological view points in this matter but I have no problem whatsoever when it comes to women starting/planting churches.  So quite literally this blog series is for all people who claim to have faith in Jesus Christ and a growing, vibrant relationship with Him.

So let's see if you could be part of this new breed of church planters that God is raising up in North America.  Answer yourself the following questions:

1. Have you personally, by faith, repented from your sins, believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins, raised back to life three days later and confess Jesus to be the Lord of your life?
2. Do you have a vibrant and growing relationship with Jesus where Christ is living His life through you and you are resting in His completed work in you?
3. Do you believe that God can do anything, through anybody, including you?
4. Are you passionate about actively participating in Christ's mission of discipling the nations (every ethnic group)?
5. Are you willing to go whereever Christ leads and to whomever He leads even if they are pretty undesirable people?
6. Are you willing to gather these people into your home for Bible Study, worship and prayer?
7. And finally, are you teachable, faithful and humble?

If you can answer "YES" to these questions congratulations!

YOU CAN BE A CHURCH PLANTER

If you are willing to come with me on this journey in starting a new church I would ask you to commit to a few things:

• First at the end of this initial blog leave a comment that says, "I'M IN!" With your name and place where you live.  I ask this because I wanting to pray for you along with my DREAM TEAM/PRAYER WARRIORS as you plant this new church.  Having people committed to praying for you in this spiritual endeavor is absolutely essential.  I have over 300 people who are committed to praying for me as I start a new church in Tucson, AZ called The Fellowship Of The Cross and for Church Planting Movements throughout North America.  So please leave that information.

• You will have ASSIGNMENTS to complete.  Each new blog will build off the previous blog so it is essential that you complete each assignment.  Please don't try to skip an assignment and just move on.  To do so is a plan to fail.  You will be asked to share what you did in your assignment as a "COMMENT" at the end of each post.

• Daily pray for all those who say, "I'M IN" because we are going to become a FELLOWSHIP OF CHURCH PLANTERS storming the gates of hell and we will need the encouragement that each of us can provide.

So here it goes, that competitive part of my nature is coming out in me! 
How many of you will accept the challenge of starting a new church this next year?  

I DARE YOU!  I DOUBLE DARE!  

If you accept the challenge you will be utterly amazed what God will do through you!!  Here we go!  The journey has now begun!

SO WHO'S IN?

THE NEW BREED OF CHURCH PLANTERS: Part 5: They're Indigenous

My first four posts on this blog series were about the New Breed Of Church Planters that God is raising up in North America and dealt specifically with the characteristics that were identified with Peter and John as they stood before the Jewish council giving an account for their witness and preaching of Jesus' resurrection.  They were found to be bold, ordinary, uneducated men who had spent time with Jesus.  I think that no one would disagree that these two apostles were pretty effective in their endeavors as church planters.  But in this final post and as I talk about the fifth characteristic of the New Breed of
Church Planters I draw my conclusions from my own personal observations of being a church planter and mentoring church planters.

When wanting to start a new church in a particular area it has been a common practice among many denominations and in particular my denomination (Southern Baptist) to look far and wide to find that perfect church planter.  Many times these church planters are brought in from states different from the place where the new church is being planted.  The group that is calling this new church planter then spends money relocating them, getting them set up, and providing start up equipment and this is in addition to the time and money that has already been spent searching for this new church planter.

In other words a huge financial expense has been invested and the expectations for success are enormous.  Sadly to say, a large percentage of these church planters just don't pan out.  They're on the field for a few years, three to five, and then they are heading back home, wherever that might be.

There are two major reasons why these relocated church planters have not panned out.  The first is due to their outside financial support running out and the new church is not yet strong enough financially to support themselves.  When starting a new church denominational leaders have an expectation that over a  period of a few years the new church will be able to be financially self-supporting. This time period, ironically, is the same time period in which church planters usually leave to go back home, it is a three to five year period.  What happens is that the church planter and his family are then faced with the decision to either look for another job in addition to pastoring the church or take the experience gained from starting the new church and going back home to pastor a more established church that is able to support them.

The second reason is more sociological than financial.  There are many cultural differences throughout the North American landscape and taking a person/family from one culture and placing them in a different culture and still expecting them to thrive can be a tall order if they have not been adequately trained.  What happens over time when the newness and romance of the new location and church wears off, is that the internal calling of "HOME" keeps getting louder and louder.  Memories of family and cultural traditions keep tugging at the heart.  Over time this tugging keeps getting stronger and stronger. Sometimes it's not even an internal calling but a real and physical calling of family members back home asking if they are planning to come home soon.  Some people will say that the solution is to do an even better job of interviewing or to do a better job of preparing the church planting family for cross cultural ministry.

QUITE FRANKLY THE PROBLEM IS THAT THIS STRATEGY IS  DESIGNED TO FAIL!

Most people are not spiritually gifted for cross-cultural ministry.  Moving a church planter from one part of the United States to another, regardless if he is reaching out to people who are of the same ethnic group, he will encounter a huge cultural divide.  The solution is not to tweak this ineffective strategy - the solution is to scrap it and establish a more effective and, I believe, Biblical one.

THE SOLUTION IS TO LOOK FOR THE PERFECT CHURCH PLANTERS

FROM WITHIN THE HARVEST!  

A church planting professor of mine always said, "The resources are in the harvest!"  Whether it be financial resources or ministry personnel, resources can always be found in the harvest of new souls being reached for Christ.  I most certainly believe that is also true when it comes to finding the perfect church planters to start the large number of new churches that we need in North America.

THE BEST POTENTIAL CHURCH PLANTERS ARE THOSE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE THAT ARE REACHED FROM WITHIN THE NEW TARGET AREA OR PEOPLE GROUP.

The rising new breed of church planters are those people who have been born and raised in, and are part of the targeted community.  They are truly the absolute best candidates for being successful as a church planter.  This is true for a few reasons:

• Indigenous Church Planters Don't Have To Exegete the Community They Are The Community. Indigenous church planters instinctively know what will work and what will fail.  This hasn't been learned by books or studies.  They understand it because they understand the values of the community intrinsically.  

• Indigenous Church Planters Won't Get Homesick Because They Are Already Home.  Indigenous church planters already have a network of family, friends and business associates well established. Family members won't be pulling on the emotional heartstrings because the family members only live a few miles away.

• Indigenous Church Planters Don't Need Financial Support Because God Has Already Provided That Support Within The Community.  This rising new breed of church planters, for the most part, already have the financial support they need.  For many, their spouses are the primary bread winners, or the church planter has another source of income, and some are able to work a full time job as well as start a church.

THIS IS NOT ONLY TRUE SOCIOLOGICALLY BUT IT IS ALSO TRUE BIBLICALLY!

In Luke 10:1-24 Jesus is sending out the 72 into every town and village he is about to go.  After appointing the 72 Jesus said this to them:

"The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.  Therefore, pray earnestly to the 

Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."  (v. 2)

Then Jesus teamed them up two by two and gave them some very specific instructions. Part of those instructions were:

"Whatever house you enter, first say, "Peace be to this house!' And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him.  But if not, it will return to you.  And remain  in the same house, 

eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go 

from house to house." (v. 5-7)

It is my personal belief that the finding of this "Person Of Peace" is the answer to the prayer that Jesus instructed the 72 to pray in regards to finding more laborers in His fields.  Truly this is finding the church planter resource from within the harvest.

So let me offer this suggestion to denominations on a new strategic direction for 

church planting in North America:

1. Hire a few people with the spiritual giftedness for cross-cultural ministry to be, not church planters, but to be what the International Mission Board calls Strategy Coordinators.  The Strategy Coordinators job would be to develop a strategy for raising up indigenous and ordinary Christians as church planters in their particular people group or geographical area.
2. Create a discipleship/mentoring process for training these indigenous church planters.
3. Unleash these church planters and try not to control them.  Don't bottleneck the movement of God with a bunch unnecessary rules and regulations.
4. Don't pay these indigenous church planters a salary.  Since they are indigenous they have already established their financial resources.
5. Do provide resources for culturally relevant evangelism/outreach and discipleship events and materials.

God is raising up a new breed of church planters.  Some may feel a sense of excitement and anticipation with their arrival.  Others may hate it and wish it wasn't so.  Whether you like it or hate it God is bringing it about.  You can either hop on the train and join it or move out of the way and get left behind but one thing is for sure you won't stop it.  I for one am only filled with gratitude and thankfulness for this new fresh wind and this new breed of church planters.  

THANK YOU GOD FOR THIS FRESH BREATH OF AIR!

THE RISING BREED OF CHURCH PLANTERS: Part 4 They're Peculiarly Odd

For church planters to be effective there needs to be something about them that is radically different from the rest of the world.  Their values, ambitions, and goals need to be peculiarly odd to the rest of the world.  This kind of difference only comes from the time spent hanging out with one who embodies those particular peculiarities.  Values are more caught than taught!  People become like the people they spend the bulk of their time with.  If you hangout with people who value money more than anything else you are more likely to become a person who values money more than anything else.  If the majority of your time is spent with people who are bigots and prejudice then there is a pretty good chance that you will become a prejudiced bigot.  So for a church planter to be spiritually peculiarly odd to the world around them they need to have spent a significant amount of time hanging out with someone who is spiritually peculiarly odd!  So where does a church planter find such an association?  We find the answer again with the Apostle Peter and John as they are standing in front of the Jewish leaders being ordered not preach or teach in the name of Jesus.

"When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.


One of the characteristics of Peter and John that caught the eye and attention of the Jewish leaders was that they had spent time with Jesus.  Now the most probable interpretation of this passage was that they recognized them as ones who had been with Jesus because they had seen them with Jesus teaching at the Temple or at one of the many parties that they had attended with Jesus.  It's probably not the best interpretation to say that this passage is referring to some lifestyle that the disciples were exhibiting that was intrinsically Christ-like that caught the attention of the Jewish leaders though that was probably true about them.  Instead, it is more accurate to say that the Jewish leaders were amazed that these disciples were not trying to hide themselves or deny the fact that they were followers of Christ.  Their conduct and speech were blatantly unapologetic that they were Christ's followers inspite of the fact that Jesus not much earlier had been executed.  The question that these Jewish leaders must have been asking themselves was, "Why would anyone wish to be associated with a convicted and executed criminal?"  Peter and John made no attempt to hide their association with Christ. It was an easy conclusion for the Jewish leaders to arrive at.  Anyone listening to them teach would quickly recognize that association.

The church planters that God is raising up today make no apologies for the fact that they are fully devoted followers of Jesus.  It's not hard for the people who come into contact with them to quickly discover that they are Christians and that they follow the way of Jesus.  It's not because these church planters dress differently from other people or that they speak with some special vocabulary that reveals it.  No, the fact is that most of these new church planters look very much like everyone else and their vocabulary is pretty ordinary as well.  It's not the choice of words that makes the distinction but it's content of their message.  The message of these new church planters is strictly Christ centered.  These church planters make no attempts to hide the fact that they follow Jesus.  It is clear to all who get to know them that Jesus Christ is their highest value.

These new church planters aren't trying to sneak in the name of Jesus or covertly  attract the unchurched by promising them special worldly things.  That might work well for a marketing campaign for secular businesses but that is not the message from this new breed of church planters.  No, these church planters understand that their mission is not to build a crowd but to make disciples of Jesus and how one chooses to pursue that mission will greatly affect the outcome.  These church planters understand that just because you can build a crowd doesn't mean you have made disciples who love Jesus more than anyone or anything else.  They know that just because you have people flocking to your church facility doesn't mean that these people are willing to sacrifice their lives in obedient service to Christ.  So instead of thinking up gimmicks that will attract a larger crowd or even satisfy the insatiable carnal appetite for a religious high this new breed of church planter preaches Jesus Christ crucified, raised from the dead and coming again to judge both the living and the dead.  They preach that the way to find your life is to first lose your life for Christ.  They are teaching that in order to experience true freedom from sin you must first offer yourself as a slave to Christ.  When this new breed of church planters speak there is no doubt that they have been with Christ, they love Christ and they have forsaken everything to follow Christ!  And because of this clear and close association with Christ the world looks at them as being peculiarly odd.

But it is the peculiar oddness that seems to be attractive to some who wish to know the truth.  It is both the sense of these church planters being in the world but yet in many ways not of the world that intrigue many lost people.  It is the fact that these church planters might look like everyone else, sound like everyone else and in many ways enjoy the same things as everyone else but yet have a totally different value system that causes the unchurched to stand up and take notice.  The world looks at the church planters sees the difference and also clearly, powerfully and unapologetically hears that the difference is JESUS. For many this verbal and lifestyle message of Jesus is like honey to a bee.  For this rising breed of new church planters making sure the message of Jesus Christ is clearly heard in all that is said and done is of paramount importance. This new breed of church planter instinctively knows that the world will have nothing to do with the church if the church is no different from the world.  These church planters also know that the world's first contact with Christ quite possibly is  through them. 

SO I SAY,
" LET'S BE PECULIARLY ODD FOR JESUS!"