In many parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, it's easy enough to get people to agree to follow Jesus and to plant churches. Shoot, several years ago, during a brief few weeks, US volunteers reported 80,000 professions of faith along the coast of Kenya, from Mombasa to Malindi — that's an area where Islam is prevalent. The difficulty is planting churches that make a difference.
Steve Sjogren, who blogs at ChurchPlanting.com, put up a post yesterday with some suggestions on how to plant churches that make a real difference in an urban area: How to Plant Churches That Change Cities. It's an interesting article. Here are his four main points:
Layer your city with acts of love
Preach the gospel with great love once they arrive
Take a vow of stability
Spin off daughter churches
He's writing from the perspective of a church planter in the U.S. and the methodology to which he alludes seems to be traditional church planting rather that one that is based around gathering small groups and using oral-preference methods like S-T4T. Still, the principles are valid.
How would you implement these principles in an African context?
Have you used any or all of these principles in your own church planting? What were the results?
Ed Stetzer is the Vice President for Research at LifeWay Christian Resources in Nashville, Tenn (USA). Recently, he wrote a blog post for Pastor.com entitled,"Don't Plant or Pastor a Church in Your Head." Here are a few excerpts from the post:
When we formulate our mission and ministry strategies, it's important we do so for our own community, not someone else's. It's so easy to hear an incredible speaker at a conference and say, "I'm going to be just like that pastor!" But that is not what God is calling you to be. Too often, we get so excited by someone else's church that we get a vision for their church before we get a vision for our people.
My challenge is don't plant or pastor a church in your head. Plant or pastor a church in your community. That's where the Gospel transforms real people who are living real lives. Know and live in your culture, not someone else's. Don't just bring a model, bring the Gospel. Lead a church; don't lead a plan.
There are marks of a biblical church that should and must be present in every culture, but biblically faithful church looks different from culture-to-culture. A biblically faithful church in Singapore, Senegal, and Seattle share the same gospel, worship the same God, and teach the same scriptures, but they should (even must) look different.
Do you plant replications of churches in your home culture (whether that's an African culture or a non-African culture)?
Or, do you consider the people among whom you hope to plant that church?
It's been a busy 2 months since I last posted. Ed Stetzer is the head of Lifeway Research in Nashville, TN (USA). He's a prolific writer, tweeter, and speaker. Over the last few weeks and months, he's written several blog posts about contextualization. Yesterday, he posted a 5th installment of that series: Calling for Contextualization, Part 5: Indigenization. It's worth reading whether you plant churches in North America or in an international setting.
A key statement from the post: ...we must remove all the cultural barriers that we can so that men and women can be honestly confronted with the stark reality of a bloody cross and an empty tomb. There will always be the stumbling block of the cross (and we should never seek to remove that), but indigenous churches seek to remove unnecessary barriers along the way.
What cultural elements from your own home culture have you had to remove from your own thoughts and methods in order to remove unnecessary barriers to the gospel among the people you are trying to reach with the good news of the gospel of Christ?
In the last week, I've come across some interesting web sites that relate to missions. They're not really connected in any way; they don't directly relate to missions in Sub-Saharan Africa; they're a mixed bag -- but I thought they might be stimulating and might give someone some ideas. The format below is my comments first, then information about the site or blog, then the links:
Not an advertisement, but several years ago we were looking for flights to Kenya for our children for Christmas. When we and some other travel agents had looked, we could only find seats at something like $3,000.00 each. The folks at Ministry Travel were able to secure seats for us for about $1300.00 each. I was impressed. I just found out that they do a blog designed to help those who are taking short term mission trips. These three posts, especially the third one, seemed especially helpful:
MINISTRY TRAVEL - Our mission is to provide the best service and prices to our missionary and ministry clients.
Loosen your tie and your belt, lean back in your office chair (or your recliner), and suspend your critical judgement -- humour ahead -- prepare to laugh. Jon Acuff writes religious satire and there's very little that's out-of-bounds for him. Jon wants to get us to examine what we do and sometimes what we believe so that we can get back to true Christianity. This post made me wonder what people really think about all the stuff that we, as long term missionaries, gift them with.
STUFF CHRISTIANS LIKE - Stuff Christians Like is a blog about the funny things we Christians do. And what they just might reveal about our faith...Does the stuff we like, ever get in the way of the God we love? Satire in the tradition of The Wittenburg Door
What a great way to state this concept: The Church is God's mission strategy. That's why the organization under which I work has such a strong focus on church planting. In this interview conducted by Ed Stetzer (Research, Lifeway Christian Resources), Steve Timmis presents an interesting possibility for church planting in a post-Christian society -- intentionally planting a group of believers in the midst of communities of non-believers to live out church among them. What would happen if, for instance, a group of Christian Kenyan families were to decide to resettle in the Kibera slum?
RESURGENCE - a reformed, complementarian, missional movement that trains missional leaders to serve the Church to transform cultures for Christ. What should Americans learn from the post-Christian culture of western Europe? In this short interview, Steve Timmis talks about how the church is God's mission strategy and why Americans should learn from Europe.
The last post is a blog about the potential for technology to separate us from the people we're called and sent to serve. While this is written from the perspective of short term mission teams, I think the danger is at least as great for long term personnel. It's easy to spend so much time on the computer (writing, planning, surfing, Skyping, Tweeting, Facebooking, etc.) that we don't ever disconnect from our home culture and bond with our adopted culture -- we're here but not really.
A VOICE IN ASIA'S HIGHLANDS - Brother Eugene apparently works with Adventures in Missions, though I couldn't find an "About" page or profile on his blog.
Dr. Thom Rainer is the President and CEO of Lifeway Christian Resources. He also writes a blog, Thom S. Rainer, in which he posts about various issues facing believers, churches, church leaders, and the Southern Baptist Convention. On 29 March 2010, he wrote about the Seven Characteristics of Highly Evangelistic Christians. One of the universal elements observed in all identified church planting movements* is widespread seed-sowing -- in other words, an abundance of sharing the gospel with people. Since that is so critical to the missionary purpose, I asked Dr. Rainer for permission to repost his blog article. He graciously agreed.
For over twenty years I have been researching and studying churches, primarily those in North America. I had the joy of serving as senior pastor in four churches where God blessed with evangelistic growth. I have written over twenty books about the church in America.
I am not giving you my credentials to impress you, but simply to share that my life’s passion has been leading and learning about evangelistic churches. At this point in my life and ministry, however, I realize that I have not given sufficient attention to one of the primary characteristics of evangelistic churches.
The Great Omission
It is so obvious. Indeed it is so clear that I am surprised at my neglect of this factor. Stated simply, the evangelistic churches that I have researched for the past twenty years have one or more highly evangelistic Christians.
I know. The previous statement is no great revelation. It is almost stating the obvious. But, if it is reality, why are we not hearing more about these Christians who seem to have a passion for evangelism? Why are we not doing a better job of telling their stories?
In this short article I hope to address this great omission.
Seven Characteristics
It is inevitable that, when we do research on evangelistic churches, we learn about one or more members in the church who, to use the book title by Charles H. Spurgeon, embody the traits of "The Soul Winner." Oftentimes one of those members is the pastor. But we have also seen many laypersons who are themselves soul winners.
In our interviews with these people, or with those who tell us about the soul winners, we began to discern some clear patterns. We called those patterns “the seven characteristics of highly evangelistic Christians.”
They are people of prayer. They realize that only God can convict and convert, and they are totally dependent upon Him in prayer. Most of the highly evangelistic Christians spend at least an hour in prayer each day.
They have a theology that compels them to evangelize. They believe in the urgency of the gospel message. They believe that Christ is the only way of salvation. They believe that anyone without Christ is doomed for a literal hell.
They are people who spend time in the Word. The more time they spend in the Bible, the more likely they are to see the lostness of humanity and the love of God in Christ to save those who are lost.
They are compassionate people. Their hearts break for those who don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. They have learned to love the world by becoming more like Christ who has the greatest love for the world.
They love the communities where God has placed them. They are immersed in the culture because they desire for the light of Christ to shine through them in their communities.
They are intentional about evangelism. They pray for opportunities to share the gospel. They look for those opportunities. And they see many so-called casual encounters as appointments set by God.
They are accountable to someone for their evangelistic activities. They know that many good activities can replace Great Commission activities if they are not careful. Good can replace the best. So they make certain that someone holds them accountable each week, either formally or informally, for their evangelistic efforts.
The “Secret” of Evangelistic Churches
The secret is really no secret at all. Ultimately, evangelistic churches see more persons become Christians through the passionate efforts of highly evangelistic Christians. More than any programs. More than any church events. More than anything else, we are the instruments God has chosen to use.
Sometimes we ask the question "What is my church doing to become more evangelistic?" But the better question is "What am I doing to become more evangelistic?"
Charles H. Spurgeon was right. We need more soul winners.
We need more highly evangelistic Christians.
Excuse me, Dr. Rainer, please get off my toes. (grin)
OK, is this an appropriate emphasis for missions in Africa?
What part does widespread seed sowing play in your missions strategy?
For the Kingdom,
Bob A
*For more information on Church Planting Movements, you can download a basic primer here. The 10 Universal Elements are discussed in Chapter 3 of the booklet. The web site, Church Planting Movements, also summarizes the 10 universal elements and adds a tongue-in-cheek guide on Church Planting Movements – How to Avoid Them!
In an article for CatalystSpace, Perry Noble writes about the five tests that he says every church planter and every pastor will face -- Five Tests a Church Planter Will Face. I believe these tests will be experienced by both the expatriate or national missionary and by the national pastor. In this post, I've taken Noble's tests and applied them to a missionary context.
#1 Financial Test: The danger is that strategy is built on the assumption that the largest financial contributor or contributors will continue to provide financial support. Inevitably, dependence on financial support from humans will lead to disappointment. Noble rightly affirms that EVERY church planter/pastor need to understand that GOD IS THE BIGGEST GIVER IN YOUR CHURCH! (Emphasis is Noble's)
A principle of church planting movements is that God has placed the resources in the harvest. Keeping that principle in mind helps the church planter to develop strategies are sound:
avoiding dependence on outside funds that may dry up and that redirect loyalty and accountability to an outside group or individual rather than to the Lord and to the congregation. (A good resource for material on dependency is the World Mission Associate's website listing articles by Glenn Schwartz.)
helping to ensure methods that are sustainable by the church being started.
developing strategies that are reproducible by the local congregation -- implanting a DNA that leads the new church to accept its responsibility to reproduce.
#2 The Critics Test: Eventually, the dreams, visions, and methods of the church planter are going to be questionned and critiqued by someone. It might be individuals in the target PG; it might be members or leaders of other churches; it might be fellow workers. Nehemiah face criticism and opposition; Paul faced criticism and opposition; a church planter in the 21st century will not be immune.
#3 The Faith Test: The temptation for the church planter is to limit his dreams to only what he can see and what he can do. The challenge for the church planter is to operate in the realm of faith and to attempt God-sized tasks -- tasks that can only succeed if God intervenes. (Hebrews 11:1 and Hebrews 11:6) A second challenge is for the church planter to be sure that his God-sized dreams and tasks are also God-initiated and not just his own desires.
#4 The Commitment Test: Every church planter and every pastor will likely come to a point where there are two groups in the new church -- those who like the church and those who are committed to the church. According to Noble, you cannot be afraid to ask for commitment. God intends for the church members to do the work of ministry -- the task of the pastor and other leaders is to equip, train, enable, and challenge members to actually commit to the work of ministry (Ephesians 4:11 and Ephesians 4:12).
#5 The Focus Test: In his booklet on Church Planting Movements (International Mission Board, SBC, @1997), David Garrison says:
Church Planting Movements are sovereign acts of God, but in His sovereign grace and mercy He has chosen to partner with us. There are some practical things that missionaries can do to help initiate or nurture a Church Planting Movement...the effective strategy coordinator is ruthless in evaluating all he or she does in light of the end-vision -- a Church Planting Movement -- discarding those things that do not or will not lead to it.
The same principle applies in the planting of an individual church -- experiment but evaluate everything and discard those things that do not lead to the fulfillment of the God-initiated vision for that congregation. Not everything that is a good thing to do is the best thing to do.
Which of these tests have you faced as either a cross-cultural missionary or as a national pastor?
How did you handle the test?
What would your advice be to a new missionary or young pastor in regards to facing these tests?
What kind of church are we planting in Africa?New Testament churches would be a simple, accurate answer but we could talk all day about what that means and, perhaps, never come to agreement.
I am proposing that one characteristic of an effective, New Testament church in Africa is that it is a missional church - a church that is focused on being the church in it's community and in the world (Matthew 28:19-20 [28:19, 28:20]) rather than one that is focused solely or even primarily on bringing people to a particular location. I am not advocating that the church not gather; neither am I advocating that the church not invite people to gather. (Hebrews 10:25) Gathering together is important for corporate worship, mutual encouragement and admonition, equipping for being the church. Gathering in is important so that those who are not followers of Jesus can experience the love of Christ. A missional church, though, does more than that.
To illustrate, here is a simple video that explains the basic concept of a missional church:
Whether you are an expatriate worker or a national believer, is this the kind of church you are planting in Africa? What are you doing to develop missional churches where you are?
