Church planting

Church planting is a process that results in a new (local) Christian church being established. It should be distinguished from church development, where a new service, new worship centre or fresh expression is created that is integrated into an already established congregation. For a local church to be planted, it must eventually have a separate life of its own and be able to function without its parent body, even if it continues to stay in relationship denominationally or through being part of a network.

History of church planting

Anglican missionary efforts called church planting in British colonies coincided with British colonialism.^[1] Church planting also describes the missionary model of Baptist missionaries, for instance, in mid-twentieth century Brazil. For Southern Baptists, church planting, with its focus on establishing new and independent congregations, is a logical outcome of their theology: "Southern Baptist mission work was driven by church planting. Based on a voluntaristic faith, the work defined individual salvation as the cornerstone of religious life; and religious life took place within local, autonomous congregations."^[2]

Models of church planting

These are some models for church planting. In the "parachute drop method, a church planter and family move into a new location to start a church from scratch. Or, an existing church or church planting organization (mother) provides the initial leadership and resources (money and/or people) to get a new church (daughter) started. Alternately, small groups form and multiply via a network of people meeting in homes (see house church); in some cases, the individual cells are connected in a larger network that meets together periodically in a large group setting. An existing church may also split. Finally, the expansion of a Multi-site church may result in new churches (rather than annexes of the larger church) being established.

Advocates

Leading church growth writer C. Peter Wagner says Church Planting is the most effective evangelistic strategy under heaven,^[3] and for its advocates this remains church planting's greatest rationale. Recent practitioners have developed theologies of church, place, and community, to answer the criticism of earlier models.

Practical objections

For Anglicans and Catholics, "church-planting" can be very problematic because of the territorial nature of a diocese. For both the Catholic and Anglican churches, this practice may be viewed as an abrogation of the rights of a local bishop. This is because the bishop of the diocese has the right to decide where churches will be planted, and the phenomenon of church planting sometimes ignores both courtesy and obedience to the local bishop. This issue is particularly sensitive in regard to the Anglican diocese of Sydney in Australia, from which many Evangelical churches are "planted" in non-evangelical dioceses.^{[citation needed]}

The Church of England has begun its Fresh Expressions initiative, which is seeking to encourage the development of new congregations even when they are across parish boundaries, for the sake of mission, under the bishop's permission. The recent Anglican conference GAFCON contained a broad hint that it would consider offering oversight to churches that have been planted without authorization from the local bishops.^[4]

Church Planting Movement

In a missiological context, church planting may be defined as "initiating reproductive fellowships who reflect the kingdom of God in the world."^[5] When this happens with rapid growth, it is generally known as a Church Planting Movement. In a CPM, indigenous churches plant more churches within a people group or geographic area. A church will sponsor formation of multiple spinoff churches that will themselves very quickly reproduce new churches, generally with common teachings and doctrine. It is different from traditional missions in that the new churches are generally started by a lay leader from the sponsoring church and not an outside missionary. A key characteristic of an authentic church planting movement is the rapidity with which a new congregation itself starts another similar church.^[6][7]

History of CPMs

The modern Church Planting Movement can trace its roots to the mid-nineteenth century when Henry Venn and Rufus Anderson developed the three-self formula of an indigenous missions policy: "they believed that young churches should be self-propagating, self-supporting, and self-governing from their inception."^[8] Donald McGavran, a missionary in India who "coined the concept of 'people movements' to Christ," is credited as an early proponent of the kind of missionary work that underlies the Church Planting Movement, by focusing his missionary work on converting groups of people ("groups, tribes, villages, ethnic groups") rather than individuals.^[9]

According to ONE Magazine, the official organ of the National Association of Free Will Baptists, such tactics were used successfully in Cuba in the 1940s by Tom and Mabel Willey; in the 1950s in North India Carlisle and Marie Hanna; and in the 1960s in Ivory Coast by LaVerne Miley.^[6] Christianity Today also claims success in Cuba for the "Western Baptists, historically linked to the Southern Baptist Convention."^[10]

Essentials of CPMs

There are three key characteristics of a Church Planting Movement: it reproduces rapidly, multiplying churches, and that the churches are indigenous.^[11]

• Within a very short time, newly planted churches are already starting new churches that follow the same pattern of rapid reproduction. Though the rate varies from place to place, Church Planting Movements always outstrip the population growth rate as they race toward reaching the entire people group. Where with other methods of church planting it may take five years to plant a church, with CPM multiple generations of churches may be planted within five months.^[11]
• "Church Planting Movements do not simply add new churches. Instead, they multiply."^[12] Most churches in the middle of a Movement will start as many churches as they can, with a goal of filling the area with new churches.^[11]
• Church Planting Movements are indigenous. It may start with the training from a non-native missionary or church member, but will very quickly form new congregations that are all within a single ethnic people group. Leaders are self-identified by their willingness to do what the trainer asks them, and then are given additional instruction on how to reproduce new churches.^[11]
• Church Planting Movements train leaders. ^[13][14]

Methods in Church Planting Movements

There is not a solitary method used to spark a Church Planting Movement. The Training for Trainers (T4T) method has been successful in China.^[15] It differs from the Insider Movement in that leaders do not seek to act like indigenous persons, but simply train locals who train others within their (or closely related) people group. ^[16]

References

1. ^ Wright, Marcia (2003). "Rev. of The Church Mission Society and World Christianity, 1799-1999 by Kevin Ward". Church History 72 (3): 679–80. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4146297. 
2. ^ Cavalcanti, H.B. (2001). "Human Agency in Mission Work: Missionary Styles and Their Political Consequences". Sociology of Religion 66 (4): 381–98. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3712387. 
3. ^ 1991 Church Planting for Greater Harvest. Glendale, California: Regal
4. ^ Global Anglican Future – Holy Land 2008 – GAFCON Final Statement
5. ^ Planting New Churches
6. ^ ^{a b} Forlines, James (n.d.). "Our Goal: Church Planting Movements". ONE Magazine (National Association of Free Will Baptists). http://www.onemag.org/church_planting2.htm. Retrieved 27 October 2011. 
7. ^ "Church Planting Movements". International Mission Board. 2002. http://www.imb.org/cpm/chapter1.htm. Retrieved 27 October 2011. 
8. ^ Fanning, Don (1 January 2009). "Church Planting Movements". The Center for Global Ministries. http://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1005&context=cgm_missions. Retrieved 27 October 2011. 
9. ^ Kooistra, Paul (n.d.). "Toward a Definition of Church-Planting Movements". Mission to the World. Presbyterian Church in America. http://www2.mtw.org/home/site/content/documents/ChurchToChurch/Toward%20a%20Definition%20of%20Church-Planting%20Movements.pdf. Retrieved 27 October 2011. 
10. ^ Weber, Jeremy (9 July 2009). "Cuba for Christ—Ahora!". Christianity Today. http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/july/22.20.html. Retrieved 27 October 2011. "The Communist island's improbable revival is 15 years old and growing stronger." 
11. ^ ^{a b c d} Haney, Jim (1 March 2011). "Assessing Church Planting Movements". Misson Frontiers. U.S. Center for World Mission. http://www.missionfrontiers.org/issue/article/assessing-church-planting-movements. Retrieved 27 October 2011. 
12. ^ Garrison, David (1 May 2010). "What Are Church Planting Movements?". Church Planting Movements. http://www.churchplantingmovements.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=54:what-are-church-planting-movements&catid=36:the-big-picture&Itemid=78. Retrieved 27 October 2011. 
13. ^ Anatomy of a Church Planting Movement [1] quote: The movement does not need a board; it needs a group of leaders of leaders to form an "apostolic team." This is the team that becomes the leaders of leaders. Instead of the movement depending on the passion of a leader of leaders, a core group of passionate vision casters of the movement's DNA are scattered about so that every plant is visited annually. This is the primary way to deal with the loss of the movement's founder.
14. ^ Butler, Robby. Church Planting Movements from One Indian Perspective [2]
15. ^ Smith, Steve and Kai, Ying. "T4T: A Discipleship ReRevolution" (Monument, CO: WIGTake Resources, 2011) p36
16. ^ Garrison, David Church Planting Movements vs Insider Movements: Missiological Realities vs Mythiological Speculations in Procedings of the ISFM 2004 Meeting: Insider Movements [3]

External links

• Acts 29 Network
• Church Planting at the Open Directory Project
• Association of Related Churches
• NewThing Network