Seven Steps for Planting Churches: Field Partner Edition

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Seven Steps for Planting Churches Field Partner
Edition

• by
• Tom Cheyney

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God is looking for people through whom He can
do the impossible- what a pity that we plan only
the things we can do by ourselves-A.W. Tozer
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Introduction

• The Seven Steps Field Partner Edition addresses
  the question What is our role in creating a
  movement from God?
• Our response is missional preparedness.
• This manual is designed to be utilized by our
  field partners for developing a healthy church
  planting process.

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What Does the Church Planting Group Believe about
Partnership?

• Putting your needs above our own.
• Adding value to you and your church planting
  team.
• Tailor our resources to meet our partners needs.

• Recognizing that we serve a common goal.
• Respecting each partners uniqueness in the Body
  of Christ.
• Remembering to never take our partners for
  granted.
• Embodying excellence in everything we deliver.

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Step 1

• Develop Missional Preparedness
• The Lord said to Abram, Leave your country,
  your people and your fathers household and go to
  the land I will show you. I will make you into a
  great nation and I will bless you I will make
  your name great, and you will be a great
  blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and
  whoever cursed you I will curse and all peoples
  on earth will be blessed through you. So Abram
  left as the Lord had told him and Lot went with
  him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set
  out from Haran (Genesis 121-4).

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Abram as a Model

• Abram models for us a prepared life.
• We must be obedient so that we have the ability
  to respond to what God is doing in His world.
• The real issue is not planning, but preparedness.
• How can I posture my life in such a way that I
  can respond to what God is doing in and around me?

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What is Missional Preparedness?

• A way of preparing our lives and ministry in such
  a way that we are equipped to respond to what God
  is doing or about to do.
• Two critical components are missional thinking
  and missional planning.

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Our Missional Context

• Often involves working with a planting team.
• We work with the team through a number of
  processes designed to assist us in seeing the
  city through Gods eyes and utilizing our gifts
  and resources to respond appropriately.

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Missional Thinking Components

• Missional Exegesis
• Discovering Shared Vision
• Identifying Focused Values
• Clarifying Mission and Roles
• Prioritizing Key Result

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Missional Exegesis

• Developing a missional understanding of ones
  context in light of the Biblical mandate to make
  disciples of all nations.
• Objective is to prepare the foundation for a
  fresh leading from God.

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Discovering Shared Vision

• Foundation to this process is Proverbs 2918,
  Where there is no revelation, the people cast
  off restraint but blessed is he who keeps the
  law.
• Focuses on a process for taking an honest look at
  Gods leading.

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Identifying Focused Values

• Identify strong convictions that drive our
  passion for implementing Gods vision.
• Values become the foundation for cooperation and
  partnership.

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Clarified Mission and Role

• Describes how we are to implement a shared
  vision.
• Clarifying mission allows for solidified
  understanding and removes any mystery out of the
  individuals mission.

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Prioritizing Key Results

• Allows an organization to utilize its resources
  in key areas that leverage our effort and allows
  us to assume a posture of preparedness.
• NAMB has seven key results around which we
  organize all our activities.

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NAMBs Priorities

• Missional Preparedness
• Creating a Missional Environment
• Enlisting Missional Planters
• Enlisting Missional Churches
• Developing Missional Planters
• Developing Missional Churches
• Multiplying Missional Churches

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Missional Planning Components

• Goal Setting
• Action Planning
• Calendar Scheduling
• Budgeting

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Setting Goals

• Essential in missional planning.
• Goals should be specific, measurable, action
  oriented, and timely.

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Action Plans

• Taking strategies and goals and determining how
  to put them into action.
• Should be owned by the team you are serving with
  for implementation.

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Calendaring

• Essential to implementing an overall and
  continual state of missional preparedness.
• Mission is boss and should be reflected in our
  calendar and daily schedule.

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Budgeting

• Allows us to utilize financial resources in
  moving toward fulfillment of our vision and the
  implementation of our mission.
• Vision will always outplace readily available
  resources.

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Starting Points for Developing Preparedness

• Determine scope of missional preparedness
  process.
• Build team for missional preparedness process.
• Conduct team-building workshop.
• Gather relevant research.
• Conduct missional thinking workshop.

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Step 2

• Creating Missional Church Planting Environments
• Now in the church that was at Antioch there
  were certain prophets and teachers Barnabus,
  Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene,
  Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the
  tetrarch, and Saul. As they ministered to the
  Lord and fasted, the Hoy Spirit said, Now
  separate to Me Barnabus and Saul for the work to
  which I have called them. Then having fasted and
  prayed and laid hands on them, they sent them
  away. So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they
  went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed
  to Cyprus. And when they arrived in Salamis, they
  preached the word of God in the synagogues of the
  Jews. They also had John as their assistant
  (Acts 131-5, NKJV).
• And the word of the Lord was being spread
  throughout the region (Acts 1349, NKJV).

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Key Factors Contributing to Church Multiplication
in the New Testament Period

• Spiritual gifts
• Worship
• Fasting
• Holy Spirit
• Church Planting Teams
• Calling
• Accountability

• Prayer
• Sending out
• Contextual Evangelism
• Rapid Multiplication
• Discipleship
• Kingdom of God
• Indigenous Leaders

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What Is a Missional Church Planting Environment?

• A unique time and place brought into existence by
  Gods activity in and through his people.
• North American churches must be reminded that
  only as they experience the spiritual dynamics of
  the Antioch church will they be able to
  participate in missional church planting
  environments.

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Three Distinct Environments in a Missional
Church Planting Environment

• Missional Churches
• Missional Church Planting Teams
• Unreached People Groups

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Missional Church

• Realizes that effective ministry flows out of an
  identity with Christ as His ambassador to a lost
  world.
• Hears and obeys the call of Christ to be
  missional in all contexts of lostness.

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Missional Church Planting Teams

• Consists of those who God has called.
• Focus is to evangelize unreached peoples and see
  new churches take root among them.

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Unreached People Groups

• Diversity of people in North America demands a
  go mentality rather than a come mentality for
  the local church.
• The only way to reach these groups is to send out
  church planting teams that can start entirely new
  churches among them.

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Bringing the Three Environments Together

• Research
• Resources
• Relationship
• Reliance upon God

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Research

• Conducted on unreached people groups and existing
  local churches.
• Research identifying missional churches and
  potential missional churches.

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Resources

• Missional church and missional church planting
  team resources are needed.
• Focus of these resources concerns transformation
  of members lives in order to reflect Christs
  missionary lifestyle.

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Relationship

• With State Baptist Convention, missional
  churches, and church planting teams.
• Genuine collaboration between all church
  planting partners ensures authentic, Christ-like
  relationships.

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Reliance Upon God

• Foundation for all of the other activities.
• All plans for creating missional church planting
  environments depend upon God and must be
  permeated with prayer.

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Starting Points for Developing Preparedness

• Reliance upon God through prayer
• Research people groups
• Research missional churches
• Relationship building

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Step 3

• Enlisting Missional Partners
• While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting,
  the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for me Baranabas
  and Saul for the work to which I have called
  them. So after they had fasted and prayed, they
  placed their hands on them and sent them off
  (Acts 132-3).

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Two Primary Means for Selecting Leaders

• God Himself chooses the leader.
• God uses certain spiritual leaders to identify
  those through whom He desires to work to
  accomplish His mission in the world.

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What is Leadership?

• Diversity of opinions about what makes an
  effective leader.
• Several different definitions bring a different
  perspective on the leadership function.
• One absolute, is that a church planter must first
  and foremost be a spiritual leader.

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What is Spiritual Leadership?

• Moving people on to Gods agenda.
• Contains five distinct elements that church
  planters must understand and practice if they
  want to be effective spiritual leaders.

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Five Practices of Effective Spiritual Leaders

• They move people from where they are to where God
  wants them to be.
• They depend on the Holy Spirit.
• They are accountable to God.
• They influence all people, not just Gods people.
• They work from Gods agenda.

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Four Key Elements to Effective Spiritual
Leadership

• A leaders call
• A leaders character
• A leaders competencies
• The consequences of his leadership

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Enlisting Missional Planters

• Encourage Christians to consider participation in
  church planting.
• Determination of roles.
• Everyone can be involved in church planting, but
  not everyone can plant a church.

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Two Types of Leaders in Church Planting

• Catalytic Church Planter- initiates
• multiple congregations in multiple contexts.
• Founding Pastor/Church Planter- does what is
  necessary to get a new church started, but tends
  to do best when growing the congregation.

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Why Paul was a Great Church Planter

• Convinced he had received an unmistakable call
  from God to a particular ministry.
• Paul understood the purpose for which he had been
  called.
• He combined quick strike evangelism with church
  planting.

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Pauls Character

• Character is the most important part of any
  church planter.
• Paul treated people in a way that reflected the
  character of Christ.
• As Paul obeyed God, Christs character was formed
  in him through the sufferings he endured.

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Selection Interviewing for Church Planters

• Developed by Charles Ridley
• Assessment is a four-hour interview with
  potential church planter and his spouse.
• Selection process involves four main components.

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Selection Process Main Components

• Discovery Tools
• Pre-assessment interview with state convention
  partner
• Assessment with state convention leaders
• Final interview

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Categories of Questions Asked in Potential Church
Planters Interview

• Visioning capacity
• Intrinsic motivation
• Creates ownership
• Relation to lost
• Spousal cooperation
• Effectively builds relationships
• Financial responsibility

• Commitment to church growth
• Responsiveness to community
• Utilizes giftedness of others
• Flexible and adaptable
• Builds group cohesiveness
• Resilience

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Why is the Church Planter Assessment Valuable?

• Shown to be highly accurate.
• Results have shown that the 13 factors involved
  in the assessment are critical to a church
  planters success.
• Assessors are trained extensively.

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Starting Points for Enlisting Missional Planters

• Discovery Tools self-assessment
• Pre-assessment by state partner
• The Church Planter Assessment
• Final interview

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Step 4

• Enlisting Missional Churches
• For our Gospel did not come to you in word only,
  but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and in
  much assurance, as you know what kind of men we
  were among you for your sake. And you became
  followers of us and of the Lord, having received
  the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy
  Spirit, so that you became examples to all in
  Macedonia and Achaia who believe.
• (1 Thessalonians 15-7)

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Missional Church

• The people of God in faithful obedience to the
  Great Commission expanding the kingdom of God
  through the power of the Holy Spirit.
• Missional churches know that church
  multiplication is more likely to be caught than
  taught.
• Activity of the Holy Spirit is the key factor in
  becoming a missional church.

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Enlisting Missional Churches

• The engaging of pastors and their churches for
  the purpose of casting the vision of being a
  missional church.
• Providing appropriate resources to facilitate
  being a missional church.
• Process of enlisting missional churches consists
  of three distinct stages of activities.

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Stage One- Preparation

• Begin with prayer.
• Evaluate existing churches in your area.
• Identify existing missional churches.
• Gather accurate research for church planting
  needs.
• Prioritize church planting opportunities.

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Stage Two- Enlisting

• Lead the pastor to commit to the concept of being
  a missional church.
• Have pastor identify which of the four church
  types his church most resembles. (using
  Assessment Tool)
• Lead the church body to commit to the concept of
  being a missional church.

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The Four Types of Churches

• Complacent Church
• Informed Church
• Engaged Church
• Missional Church

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Stage Three-Partnering with the Enlisted Church
for Church Multiplication

• Assist the church in developing a missions
  strategy addressing the how, when, and where of
  new ministries being started.
• Connect the church with resources, other
  churches, and field experts.

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Developing the Missions Strategy

• Select team
• Define purpose of the team
• Analyze the existing ministries of the church
• Identify missional ministry opportunities
• Educate members about Gods missional purposes

• Mobilize the church for missional ministries
• Provide necessary training for members
• Partner with other churches
• Start new churches
• Develop new leaders

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Starting Points for Enlisting Missional Churches

• Stage 1 Preparation for enlisting missional
  churches
• Stage 2 Enlisting the church
• Stage 3 Partnering with the enlisted church for
  church multiplication

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Step 5

• Developing Missional Planters
• As you sent me into the world, I have sent them
  into the world
• John 1718

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Sending out Missional Planters

• God sends out ordinary people to accomplish His
  mission in the world.
• Churches, leaders, missionaries, and mentors must
  continue to send out missional planters and
  members of church planting teams that are
  faithful to Jesus, empowered by the Holy Spirit,
  and are prepared.

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Developing Missional Planters

• Developed missional planter- one that is faithful
  and obedient to Jesus Christ and the Great
  Commission, empowered by the Holy Spirit, and
  prepared and equipped for the mission of planting
  healthy reproduction churches.

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Questions Developing Missional Planters Should
Ask Themselves

• What is my spiritual giftedness and passion?
• What are my strengths that would support
  activities in church planting?
• What are my cross-cultural skills?
• Do I know my need for a mentor?
• What are my strengths and weaknesses in terms of
  leadership competencies?

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Questions Developing Missional Planters Should
Ask Themselves

• What is my role on the church planting team?
• What is my strategy for the planting of the new
  church?
• What is my need for ongoing development?
• What is my role in church multiplication?

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Starting Points for Developing Missional Planters

• Complete Discovery Tools.
• Contact their state convention for assistance .
• Register at ww.ChurchPlantingVillage.net/equip

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Step 6

• Developing Missional Churches
• While they were still worshiping the Lord and
  fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for me
  Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have
  called them. So after they had fasted and
  prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent
  them off (Acts 132-3)

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Developing a Passion for Missional Churches

• How can you make a significant impact on the
  million-plus people in this county by simply
  growing one church?
• Church growth through mere addition is not
  enough.
• God wants us to shift from a church growth
  mindset to a Kingdom growth perspective.

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The Desperate Need

• Is significant impact for Christ being made in
  North America?

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Alarming Observations

• The combined membership of all Protestant
  denominations in the last ten years has declined
  by 9.5 while the national population has
  increased by 11.4.
• North American is the only continent where
  Christianity is NOT growing.
• It is estimated that there may be up to 250
  million people in the United States who are
  totally secular or have only a nostalgic memory
  of a religious past.

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The Available Power

• Any effective plan for missional church ministry
  must flow out of a genuine love for Jesus Christ.
• This love will create a strong desire to obey His
  Word.
• One we appropriate the power of the Spirit, we
  are to be witnesses of Christ.

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The Lords Strategy

• Where are we to lead our missional churches to
  witness?
• The challenge from Christ should be seen in at
  least two ways- geographically and ethnically.
• We are to witness in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria,
  and to the ends of the earth!

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Missional Churchs Priorities

• Focusing prayer
• Committing to missions involvement
• Growing in mission education
• Increasing mission giving

• Developing an On-Mission leadership team
• Involving members
• Adopting people groups
• Partnering in planting new congregations

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Some Starting Points for Developing Missional
Churches

• Develop a prayer strategy.
• Lead the church in commitment to Acts 18.
• Enlist and train leaders.
• Launch the education process.
• Help the church understand the need for funding
  for mission involvement.

• Formulate a ministry description for a minister
  of missions.
• Call a volunteer or paid minister of missions.
• Discover where God is at work and join Him in
  planting new churches.

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Step 7

• Multiplying Missional Churches
• And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this
  rock I will build my church , and gates of Hades
  will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of
  the kingdom of heaven whatever you bind on earth
  will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose
  on earth will be loosed in heaven (Matthew
  1618-19).

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How to Multiply Missional Churches?

• Missional Church The people of God in faithful
  obedience to the great commission expanding the
  kingdom of God through the power of the Holy
  Spirit.
• Members use their gifts and abilities to
  accomplish Gods plan of bringing a lost world to
  Himself through Jesus Christ.

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Questions That Must be Answered

• Does the churchs vision include multiplication?
• Has the church considered how the Holy Spirit has
  worked?
• Is the church regularly involved in church
  planting, mission projects, and evangelism?

• Does the church empower and equip its members to
  be on mission?
• Does the church have strategy for becoming a
  multiplying missional church?
• Does the church have an on-mission team?
• Has the church designated a specific person to be
  the catalyst on missions, evangelism, and church
  planting efforts?

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The Multiplication Mindset

• Mission Partners can lead the church in the
  process of understanding of the biblical mandate
  to multiply.
• State conventions and associations can encourage
  churches to start new Bible studies in their
  communities.
• Look for opportunities to see where God is
  working.

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Ten Common Factors in Rapid Church Multiplication

• Worship in the heart language
• Evangelism with communal implications
• Rapid incorporation of new convents into life and
  ministry of church
• Passion and fearlessness
• A price to pay for becoming a Christian

• Perceived leadership crisis or spiritual vacuum
  in society
• On-the-job training for church leadership
• Decentralized leadership authority
• Outsiders keep a low profile
• Missionaries suffer

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Ten Foundational Elements of a Church Planting
Movement Environment

• Prayer
• Abundant Gospel sowing
• Intentional church planting
• Scriptural authority
• Local leadership

• Cell or house churches
• Church planting churches
• Rapid multiplication
• Healthy churches

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Prayer Strategy of a Church Planting Movement

• Developing a deep awareness on the part of
  believers that people are lost without Christ.
• Encouraging the church to pray for the Holy
  Spirit to move in a dynamic way.
• Enabling multiplying missional churches to be a
  part of seeing new believers make a faith
  commitment and come into a new church.

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Starting Points to Consider in Multiplying
Missional Churches

• Create awareness of church planting needs in your
  region.
• Determine the target audience.
• Set and date and site for training.
• Invite the participants.
• Conduct the training.
• Offer opportunities for implementation.
• Select a church planter/church planting team.
• Evaluate training session and practical
  application.