Church Planting Overview for Pakistan AG

Introduction

Scott

12 years church planting in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkey

MDiv from AGTS in Springfield, MO, USA

wife, two kids

Overview

Biblical Call to Go

Biblical Patterns

Methodology

Pray

Biblical Call to Go

Matthew 28:18–20 NLT

Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Jesus has all authority.

Jesus is King

Pistos: believe, faith, allegiance

All are sent under Jesus’ authority

Make Disciples of All, Baptize

Proclamation and Acceptance

Believers are to be baptized

Teach new disciples to obey all Jesus’ commands

Promise: Jesus is with us.

Revelation 5:9 NLT

And they sang a new song with these words: “You are worthy to take the scroll and break its seals and open it. For you were slaughtered, and your blood has ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.

All peoples/nations will be represented before the throne.

People/Nations: any group in which the Gospel can spread without crossing any significant cultural or linguistic borders.

Example: Kazakh, Kyrgyz, etc.

Unreached defined: without adequate access. Lacking a significant witness of the Good News. 43% of the world’s population.

Biblical Patterns

Team

Barnabas adn Saul sent out. Acts 13:1-3

Acts 13:1–3 NLT

Among the prophets and teachers of the church at Antioch of Syria were Barnabas, Simeon (called “the black man”), Lucius (from Cyrene), Manaen (the childhood companion of King Herod Antipas), and Saul. One day as these men were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Appoint Barnabas and Saul for the special work to which I have called them.” So after more fasting and prayer, the men laid their hands on them and sent them on their way.

Barnabas and Mark - Acts 15

Timothy, Silas, and Paul - Acts 16

Paul’s epistles

Genesis and teh creation narrative

Not good that Adam was alone.

God created Eve as his helper.

Same word used for God many times in Hebrew. Help out of her strength because it isn’t good for Adam to be alone.

God’s plan from the beginning is for Christians to work together, not alone.

Application of Team

We better represent the body of Christ as a team than as individuals. Each believer has a role to play in the bodey. No one person can fully express the body of Christ.

Team provides better opportunities for growth and for continued ministry.

As we serve Jesus together, we help encourage one another to grow.

We hold each other up in prayer.

We are better able to do the ministry we are called to do.

Example of us leaving and our team continuing on.

3. Team defined: A group of people, geographically collocated, under mutual accountability, working together to achieve a common goal with shared methods.

Indigenous

Leadership was quickly turned over to locals. Often they had little training but had showed thenmselves faithful. For example, Paul was only in Philippi for about 2-3 weeks.

Story of Evan* on Med Coast

Jerusalem Council in Acts 15

Debate about if a Gentile is required to become a Jew to follow Christ.

Decision made that one can be a Gentile and a Christian. Conversion to Judaism is not required.

Application of the Jerusalem Council

We should not add requirements for someone to be a Christian beyond what is biblically required.

Our methods should not require someone to leave their people if they choose to follow Jesus. Example: M work in Africa forcing change in language, dress, etc. for acceptance to the church.

Our approaches to church planting should fit the people we are trying to reach, not just what we are most comfortable with.

worship style

dress

meeting location

language

Methodology

End Visioning

When planning a church planting strategy, begin by defining the end goal.

What do you want to accomplish?

Is the end goal a single church or a movement of churches planting other churches?

Once the end goal is established, work backwards from that goal to make the smaller, incremental goals that lead you to your final end goal.

Let the end goal drive how you make your decisions regarding methods, approaches, etc.

Choos wisely. If the end goal does not stay as the central focus, we will not reach that end goal.

Methods that Reach the End Goal

Our methods must help us reach our end goal.

Questions to Answer:

What type of church(es) are we planting? House churches? Building churches? Something else like cell churches?

Who is our target? What do we need to do to make our message understandable to them?

How will we proclaim the Gospel?

What do we expect of our new disciples?

I suggest that we teach people form teh first day that they must obey Jesus and share the Gospel.

DBS Questions

Note on contextualization.

The message of Jesus never changes but how we present it must be adapted to each situation.

Cup and Water

Movements, Peoples, etc.

Encourage to seek movements.

Movements defined. CPM.

Key factors in CPM:

lots of sharing the Gospel

lots of prayer

lots of being intentional

Peoples

Any group in which the Gospel can quickly spread.

Typically open for one generation. Example of Alevi in Turkey.

Encourage to look for unreached peoples.

Our team goes broad until we find an open window then we all jump.

Pray