Plant Like
Jesus
And Jesus said to them, “Follow me,
and I will make you become fishers of
men.” Mark 1:17 ESV
Pragmatic Benefits Of
Planting Like Jesus
• Transferable to any culture
• Timeless
• Can be done “from scratch”
• Economically sensible
Ten Timeless Church
Planting Practices of
Jesus for Today
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and
today and forever. Heb. 13:8 ESV
1. Jesus Took Up His Cross
The cross symbolizes the
sacrificial love of God. This
love is the power that drove him
to pour out his life to plant the
church.
“It was love, not nails, that kept
Jesus on the cross.” Rick Warren
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a
grain of wheat falls into the earth and
dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it
bears much fruit. Whoever loves his
life loses it, and whoever hates his life
in this world will keep it for eternal
life. If anyone serves me, he must
follow me;”
John 12:24-26b EVS
“Even as the Son of Man came not to
be served but to serve, and to give his
life as a ransom for many.”
Matt. 20:28 ESV
Jesus intentionally, urgently, and
sacrificially focused on reaching
the unsaved.
“For the Son of Man came to seek and to
save the lost.” Luke 19:10 ESV
But the Lord said to him, "Go, for he is a
chosen instrument of mine to carry my name
before the Gentiles and kings and the children
of Israel. For I will show him how much he
must suffer for the sake of my name.” Acts
9:15-16 ESV
...for which I was appointed a preacher and
apostle and teacher, which is why I suffer as I
do.
II Tim. 1:11-12 ESV
“Share
in suffering as a good soldier of Christ
Jesus. 4 No soldier gets entangled in civilian
pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who
enlisted him.” II Tim. 2:3-4 ESV
[First followers video]
2. Jesus Typeset The Example
And he said to them, "Follow me, and
I will make you fishers of men."
Matt. 4:19
And the Word became flesh and dwelt
among us, and we have seen his glory,
glory as of the only Son from the Father,
full of grace and truth….No one has
ever seen God; the only God, who is at
the Father's side, he has made him
known. John 1:14,18 ESV
“For I have given you an example, that
you also should do just as I have done to
you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant
is not greater than his master, nor is a
messenger greater than the one who sent
him. If you know these things, blessed
are you if you do them.”
John 13:15-17 ESV
Then the Lord God formed the man of dust
from the ground and breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life, and the man became a living
creature. Gen. 2:7
The God-breathed gospels spell
out how to follow Jesus’s
missionary example.
Thirty-nine times in John’s gospel
alone, Jesus was was referred to as
a missionary sent from heaven. God
incarnated Himself in Jesus to show
us the way.
Caution: Watch The Pronouns
When Your Study The Bible
• Who is the “we” in Paul’s
letters?
• Who is the “you”?
Let The Trump All Your Bright Ideas
3. Jesus Tethered To The Father
Like a tether
ball, the more
you are hit, the
closer you get
to the Father.
And rising very early in the morning,
while it was still dark, he departed
and went out to a desolate place, and
there he prayed.
Mark 1:35 ESV
Tether For Wisdom
"Everyone then who hears these words of
mine and does them will be like a wise man
who built his house on the rock.”
Matt. 7:24 ESV
According to the grace of God which was
given to me, like a wise master builder I
laid a foundation,
I Cor. 3:10 NASB
So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to
you, the Son can do nothing of his own
accord, but only what he sees the Father
doing. For whatever the Father[ does, that
the Son does likewise.”
John 5:19 ESV
7 Pillars of Wise House Building
Proverbs 9:1-9
1.Prepare in advance, 2
2.Invite many publically, 3-4
3.Invite many personally, 4, 5
4.Preach repentance, 6,7
5.Reprove the wise, 8
6.Give instruction to the wise, 9
7.Teach the righteous, 9
Tether for Power
And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit
to Galilee… Luke 4:14 ESV
“But by the grace of God I am what I am,
and his grace toward me was not in vain.
On the contrary, I worked harder than any
of them, though it was not I, but the grace of
God that is with me.” 1 Cor. 15:10 ESV
Tethering is also key for
spiritual warfare
“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist
the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw
near to God, and he will draw near to you.”
James 4:7-8a ESV
Believe
1. You have authority
2. That the harvest fields are ripe
3. The gospel has power
4. Jesus Trekked To The Lost
He answered, "I was sent only to
the lost sheep of the house of
Israel.” Matt 15:24 ESV
Geographically
“For the Son of Man came to seek and to
save the lost.” Luke 19:10 ESV
Culturally
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been
brought up. And as was his custom, he went
to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he
stood up to read. Luke 4:16 ESV
“What man of you, having a hundred
sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not
leave the ninety-nine in the open country,
and go after the one that is lost, until he
finds it? And when he has found it, he lays
it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
And when he comes home, he calls together
his friends and his neighbors, saying to
them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found
my sheep that was lost.’”
“Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy
in heaven over one sinner who repents
than over ninety-nine righteous persons
who need no repentance.”
Luke 15:4-7 ESV
Jesus sees things we do not see
When he saw the
crowds, he had
compassion for
them, because they
were harassed and
helpless, like sheep
without a
shepherd.
Matt. 9:36 ESV
The compelling question
that drives us:
What is the very best way to
win a lost person to Jesus
Christ?
1. Send a shepherd to proclaim
the gospel to them
1. Let them experience an
imperfect local body of Christ
that sacrifices for them
Our mission is to make a
healthy, culturally relevant
church available to every
person on the planet
We are His body now!
Jesus is constantly going out to
rescue lost sheep through local
bodies of Christ.
Adult Baptisms Per Church
Church
Baptisms
Per Year
Baptism
Ratio
Cost Per
Baptism
Large
3.6
network of
churches
SVCC
61
1 to 61
$50,000
1 to 2.7
$2,700
Healthy
Plant
1 to 5
$7,000
15
Typical New Evangelistic Church
Beginners stick better to groups with
lots of beginners
Typical Plateaued Church
When a group stops growing larger and
and the core matures, it becomes harder
and harder for a new person to penetrate.
The longer it goes
the
slower it grows
This is one reason why 80% of churches
are plateaued or declining
Solution For a Plateaued
Church
Send a small team out to start a
new church in a new area and
create a fresh new crowd
The typical new church grows
at a much faster rate than the
fastest growing mega church.
If this is true, why not start lots
of new churches?
“I have made myself a servant to all, that I
might win more of them. To the Jews I
became as a Jew, in order to win Jews.”
1Cor. 9:19-20a ESV
Ways to start winning people
1. Pray for wisdom, courage, and open
doors
2. Go in search of persons of peace
3. Create bridge events
4. Organize service projects
5. Make gospel appointments
6. Offer Discovery Parties and
Seminars, Luke 5:27f
7. Use plug and play DVD groups
8. Evangelistic Bible Studies
Adjust To Eliminate Barriers
5. Jesus Tore Down Strongholds
Jesus was a heretic in the eyes of the
established religion he grew up in.
Jesus constantly challenged the
status quo of the day, and it got him
crucified.
Jesus The Revolutionary
And making a whip of cords, he drove
them all out of the temple, with the sheep
and oxen. And he poured out the coins of
the money-changers and overturned their
tables.
John 2:15 ESV
“And I tell you, you are Peter, and on
this rock I will build my church, and
the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it.
Matt. 16:18 ESV
For the weapons of our warfare are
not of the flesh but have divine power
to destroy strongholds. We destroy
arguments and every lofty opinion
raised against the knowledge of God,
and take every thought captive to
obey Christ,
2 Cor. 10:4-5 ESV
6. Jesus Touched Individual Lives
Moved with pity, he stretched out his
hand and touched him and said to him,
"I will; be clean.” Mark 1:41 ESV
Now there was a man of the Pharisees
named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
This man came to Jesus by night.
John 3:1-2a ESV
7. Jesus Taught The Many
“Again he began to teach beside the
sea. And a very large crowd gathered
about him, so that he got into a boat
and sat in it on the sea, and the whole
crowd was beside the sea on the land.”
Mark 4:1 ESV
Myth:
Some people teach that we should
replace preaching with participatory
Bible discussions.
Myth Buster:
“And every day, in the temple and from
house to house, they did not cease teaching
and preaching that the Christ is Jesus.”
Acts 5:42 ESV
Why Prioritize Preaching?
1. The Gospel is the power of God for
salvation, Rom. 1:16
2. It actually creates faith, Rom. 10:17
3. Life and death are in the power of the
tongue, Pro. 18:21
1. God’s authority backs it up
Venues For Preaching
1. Matthew’s Parties
2. Seminars, crusades, concerts
3. Peaching points, groups, courses,
classes
4.Open air preaching
Venues For Preaching
5. Previews, Grand Openings,
Greenhouse services
6.
Video venues, multi-site
7. Plug and Play small groups
New churches that use crowd
gathering services where the
gospel is preached reach the
unreached better than other
methods of evangelism.
8. Jesus Trained A Few Apostles
“And when day came, he called his
disciples and chose from them twelve, whom
he named apostles:” Luke 6:13 ESV
Jesus Focused On The Top An
Bottom Of The Funnel
Apprenticeship: The Master’s
Method Of Training
“A disciple is not above his teacher, but
everyone when he is fully trained will be
like his teacher.” Luke 6:40 ESV
“And he appointed twelve (whom he also
named apostles) so that they might be with
him and he might send them out to preach
and have authority to cast out demons.”
Mark 3:14, 15 ESV
How to Discover Apostles?
1. Look among those committed to
learning and following, John 1
2. Assess them at work, Luke 5
3. Look among those who want to
fish for men, Matt. 4:19
4. Pray for wisdom- most important
decision, Luke 6:12,13
How to Develop Apostles?
Give them a new name and vision
How to Develop Apostles?
1. Give them a new name and vision
2. Let them be “with” you as you
plant, they like to be trained on the
go
3. Teach, rebuke, correct and training
in real life situations
How to Deploy Apostles?
Give them an impossible mission
How to Deploy Apostles?
1. Give them an impossible mission
2. Assure them that they have the
authority needed
3. Assure them that God will be with
them
4. Warn them of the risks involved
5. Give them specific but limited
instructions
6. Appropriately honor them
The 12 Progressed Through At Least
Three Levels Apprenticeship
1. General following, John 1:43
2. Full-time apprenticeship Luke 5:11
3. Apostolic apprenticeship, Luke
6:12,13
Why Did Jesus Focus On
Apprenticing Apostles?
1. He was an apostle, Heb. 3:1
1. He was modeling something
important
1. Apostles were the point men for
His plan for world evangelization
“Leadership discovery and
development is at the heart of
everything we do in church….Our
mini-church discipleship chain
produces nearly all our staff members.
Each year it also produces one or two
pastors capable of planting a church.”
Ralph Moore, How to Multiply Your
Church
“Make room in your system for church
planters who have been trained on the
job in a local church… Not all our
pastors go to seminary. However, all
do learn the ministry on the job,
through disciplemaking in relationship
with someone more mature and
experienced.”
Ralph Moore, How to Multiply Your
Church
Principles for Training
1. Primarily church-based
1. Very relational
1. “On the Job”
2. While on Mission
3. Learning under authority
Principles for Training
6. Imitation precedes innovation
7. Prayerfully selective training
8. Principles plus practices
9. Corrective coaching
6.
From commitment
“One secret of New Testament church
growth was that leaders were trained in
and by the church in action. It trained as
it went forward. This remains the secret
of church growth today. Trainees who
come out of victorious churches, and who
have been trained by men who are
themselves multipliers of churches, are
generally effective.”
Donald McGavran
9. Jesus Tied Systems Together
For there were about five thousand men.
And he said to his disciples, “Have them
sit down in groups of about fifty
each.”...Then he broke the loaves and
gave them to the disciples to set before
the crowd. And they all ate and were
satisfied. And what was left over was
picked up, twelve baskets of broken
pieces. Luke 9:14-17 ESV
Set Up Systems According To
Eph. 4
...that he might fill all things.) And he
gave the apostles, the prophets, the
evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,
to equip the saints for the work of
ministry, for building up the body of
Christ,
Eph. 4:9c-12 ESV
Everything rises and falls on
leadership, especially new
churches
Leaders for Systems
1. Apostles- possess land & lay
foundations for future systems
1. Prophets- bring King’s messages
1. Evangelists- build bridges to outsiders
1. Pastors/teachers- raise up &
apprentice citizens and soldiers
Jesus The Apostolic Builder
“Consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest
of our confession.... For Jesus has been
counted worthy of more glory than Moses—
as much more glory as the builder of a house
has more honor than the house itself.”
Heb. 3:1, 3 ESV
Apostles Are Sent to Build
Jesus
Apostles
possess
territory, lay
foundations
for the basic
ministries
systems
Apostles Build for Prophets
Jesus
Worshippers
Build
platforms for
preaching
Apostles Build for Evangelists
Jesus
Members
Build
Evangelism
&
Assimilation
Systems
Apostles Build for Shepherds
Maturing
Disciples
Jesus
Build
Small Group
Systems
Apostles Build for Trainers
Build
Equipping
Systems
Workers
Jesus
Apostles Connect Together
Maturing
Disciples
Workers
Jesus
Worshippers
Members
Apostles
connect
members
with
Jesus and
each other
Apostles Leave or Change Roles
Maturing
Disciples
Workers
Jesus
Worshippers
Members
Planter is
sent to next
field or
changes his
role in the
church
10. Jesus Transitioned To New
Territory
And he said to them, "Let us go on to the
next towns, that I may preach there also,
for that is why I came out.”
Mark 1:38 ESV
And he went about among the villages
teaching. And he called the twelve and
began to send them out two by two...
Mark 6:6-7 ESV
Followers Funnel
• Some stayed in the village or were
sent home
• Some came to periodic meetings
• Some followed regularly and
supported
• A few were called into full-time
“fishers of men” training
• Even fewer were named
apostles
Three Phases of a Church Plant’s
Life
Sent
Planitng
Crew
Tent
Church
3D Church
NEW GROWTH CHURCH
And when they had appointed elders for
them in every church, with prayer and
fasting they committed them to the Lord in
whom they had believed. Acts 14:23 ESV
Three Phases of a Church Plant’s
Life
Sent Team
(Migrant)
New
Growth
3D Church
FIVE STAGES OF
PLANTING A HEALTHY
REPRODUCING
CHURCH
PREPARATION STAGE
Foolish Motivations to Plant
PERSONAL PREPARATION
MISSIONAL VIEW OF THE
CHURCH
Motive
Ministry
Mission
FIND YOUR SWEET SPOT
Local
Predicament
Collective
Potential
Your SHAPE
PRIORITIES FOR USE OF MONEY
1. Communicating your launch
events
–Direct mail
–Internet
–Banners
–Newspaper ads
PRIORITIES FOR USE OF MONEY
2. Providing quality Sunday
services
– Meeting space - rent
– Children’s ministry equipment
– Equipment, signs, chairs
– Printed material
– Refreshments
– Music
PRIORITIES FOR USE OF MONEY
3. Freeing up the time of the lead
planter
–Office equipment
–Office help
–Planter’s salary
–Interns, apprentices to help
4. Staff (part-time before fulltime)
OTHER FINANCIAL TIPS
1. Make good use of free space
2. Cast vision for volunteer work
10 volunteers at 6 hours a week
equals one full-time staff
member!
OTHER FINANCIAL TIPS
5. Stay above reproach in the
financial area
6. Be missionally generous
PRE-LAUNCH STAGE
PRE-LAUNCH GOALS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Settle into the community
Win early spiritual victories
Break the missional code
Win people to Christ
Assemble and disciple
converts
6. Recruit & equip your launch
team
We are to discover,
develop, and
deploy
a multiplying
number of troops,
as rapidly
as possible,
in order
to set the captives
free.
Don’t serve boiled sheep ears
LAUNCH STAGE
Big Idea of Launch Stage
Build a greenhouse service and
gather a crowd for gospel
communication
How To Do Small Church Well
1. Exceptionally warm & hospitable
1. Name tags
2. Refreshments
3. 5 Minute Rule
1. Personal connection with planter
How To Do Small Church Well
6.
Room set up wisely
7.
Tailor messages to the group
8.
Easy to get involved
6.
Family celebrations
7.
Minimize singing
CROWD TO COMMISSIONED
STAGE
Big Idea
Crowd-to-Commissioned Stage
Build a disciple-making system that
turns consumers into commissioned
co-workers
Jesus apprenticed His followers to be
like Him by creating mini-steps of
commitment.
“Come and see” to “go and die”
Disciple-making Flow Chart
1. The almost ripe come to the service
1. They ripen in the service by
•
Experiencing grace
•
Hearing truth
•
Making friends
1. Start helping out
Disciple-making Flow Chart
• Attend a Discovery Party
• Go To A Pastors Open House & 101
• Come to Christ
• Join a 3D Group
• Fulfill your mission in the world
Discover, develop, and deploy
workers and leaders to do all the
purposes of the church
REPRODUCTIVE STAGE
The typical new church grows
at a much faster rate than the
fastest growing mega church.
If this is true, why not start lots
of new churches?
Leader Readiness
“Reproducing is not about size; it’s
about leader readiness... If you
can find the right leader, then the
right people and the right number
of people will follow.”
Dave Ferguson
SUCCESS RATE OR SUCCESSES
We want high success rates of plants,
but the bottom line issue is the
number of successes, not the
success rate.
Of course we want both!
God created both mammals and
reptiles, and all kinds of plants to
illustrate reproductive strategies.
Phil Herrington, Pathways, Santee, CA
Mission Trails Church
7 San Diego (Stonelake)
Mission Trails Church East
Three New University Ministries
Growth In 3 Years
Pathways Church: 800 to 1200
Pathways Plants: 0 to 700+
Pathways Orchard: 800 to 1900
Net Kingdom Gain=1100
Church Planter Apprentices