The
Ten Universal Elements (condensed)
Contents ©2000 by the International Mission Board
________________________________________
After surveying Church Planting Movements around
the world, we found at least 10 elements present in every one of them. While it
may be possible to have a Church Planting Movement without them, we have yet to
see this occur. Any missionary intent on seeing a Church Planting Movement
should consider these 10 elements.
1.
Prayer
Prayer has been fundamental to every Church
Planting Movement we have observed. Prayer typically provides the first pillar
in a strategy coordinator's master plan for reaching his or her people group.
However, it is the vitality of prayer in the missionary's personal life that
leads to its imitation in the life of the new church and its leaders. By
revealing from the beginning the source of his power in prayer, the missionary
effectively gives away the greatest resource he brings to the assignment. This
sharing of the power source is critical to the transfer of vision and momentum
from the missionary to the new local Christian leadership.
2.
Abundant Gospel Sowing
We have yet to see a Church Planting
Movement emerge where evangelism is rare or absent. Every Church Planting
Movement is accompanied by abundant sowing of the Gospel. The law of the
harvest applies well: "If you sow abundantly you will also reap
abundantly." In Church Planting Movements, hundreds and even thousands of
individuals are hearing the claims that Jesus Christ has on their lives. This
sowing often relies heavily upon mass media evangelism, but it always includes
personal evangelism with vivid testimonies to the life-changing power of the
Gospel.
3.
Intentional Church Planting
In every Church Planting Movement, someone
implemented a strategy of deliberate church planting before the movement got
under way. There are several instances in which all the contextual elements
were in place, but the missionaries lacked either the skill or the vision to
lead a Church Planting Movement. However, once this ingredient was added to the
mix, the results were remarkable. Churches don't just happen. There is evidence
around the world of many thousands coming to Christ through a variety of means
without the resulting development of multiple churches. In these situations, an
intentional church-planting strategy might transform these evangelistic
awakenings into full-blown Church Planting Movements.
4.
Scriptural Authority
Even among nonliterate people groups, the
Bible has been the guiding source for doctrine, church polity and life itself. Scripture provides the rudder for the
church's life, and its authority was unquestioned.
5.
Local Leadership
Missionaries involved in Church Planting
Movements often speak of the self-discipline required to mentor church planters
rather than do the job of church planting themselves. Once a missionary has
established his identity as the primary church planter or pastor, it is
difficult for him ever to assume a back-seat profile again. This is not to say
that missionaries have no role in church planting. On the contrary, local
church planters receive their best training by watching how the missionary
models participative Bible studies with non-Christian seekers. Walking
alongside local church planters is the first step in cultivating and
establishing local leadership.
6.
Lay Leadership
Church Planting Movements are driven by lay
leaders. These lay leaders are typically bivocational and come from the general
profile of the people group being reached As the movement unfolds, paid clergy often
emerge. However, the majority--and growth edge of the movement--continue to be
led by lay or bivocational leaders.
This reliance upon lay leadership ensures
the largest possible pool of potential church planters and cell church leaders.
Dependence upon seminary--trained or in nonliterate societies, even
educated--pastoral leaders means that the work will always face a leadership
deficit.
7.
Cell or House Churches
Church buildings do appear in Church
Planting Movements. However, the vast majority of the churches continue to be
small, reproducible cell churches of 10-30 members meeting in homes or
storefronts.
There is a distinction between cell
churches and house churches. Cell churches are linked to one another in some
type of structured network. Often this network is linked to a larger, single
church identity. House churches may look the same as cell churches, but they
generally are not organized under a single authority or hierarchy of
authorities. As autonomous units, house churches may lack the unifying
structure of cell churches, but they are typically more dynamic. Each has its
advantages
8.
Churches Planting Churches
In most Church Planting Movements, the
first churches were planted by missionaries or by missionary-trained church
planters. At some point, however, as the movements entered an exponential phase
of reproduction, the churches themselves began planting new churches. In order
for this to occur, church members have to believe that reproduction is natural
and that no external aids are needed to start a new church. In Church Planting
Movements, nothing deters the local believers from winning the lost and
planting new cell churches themselves.
9.
Rapid Reproduction
Some have challenged the necessity of rapid
reproduction for the life of the Church Planting Movement, but no one has
questioned its evidence in every CPM. Most church planters involved in these
movements contend that rapid reproduction is vital to the movement itself. They
report that when reproduction rates slow down, the Church Planting Movement
falters. Rapid reproduction communicates the urgency and importance of coming
to faith in Christ. When rapid reproduction is taking place, you can be assured
that the churches are unencumbered by nonessential elements and the laity are
fully empowered to participate in this work of God.
10.
Healthy Churches
Church growth experts have written
extensively in recent years about the marks of a church. Most agree that
healthy churches should carry out the following five purposes: 1) worship, 2)
evangelistic and missionary outreach, 3) education and discipleship, 4)
ministry and 5) fellowship.
POUCH churches: a method of church planting describing churches that are characterized by the following: Participative Bible study and worship groups, Obedience to God's word, development of Unpaid and multiple lay or bivocational church leaders and meeting in Cell or House churches.
No comments:
Post a Comment