Church Planting
Movement
A rapid and multiplicative increase of
indigenous churches planting churches within a
given people group or population segment
Church Planting Movements – Garrison and IMB
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David Watson’s 18 Critical Elements:
1. Prayer: Prayer is the starting point for all ministry –
know the mind of god and join Him in His work.
2. Scripture: The prime authority and source of teaching
3. Households/“families” : Focus on
households/families, not on individuals
4. Disciples: Make disciples, not converts.
5. Teach Obedience: Every encounter is a challenge to
obey the Word at some point, no doctrine.
Church Planting Movements – Garrison and
IMB
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David Watson’s 18 Critical Elements:
5. Access Ministries: Access Ministries open the door
for Church Planting and lead to community
transformation
6. Plan/ Be Intentional: Plan your work and work
your plan – Be intentional in Access Ministry, Prayer,
Scripture, Evangelism and Church planting.
7. Man of Peace/Discovery Bible Study: Start with
the Man of Peace or an existing relationship that will
permit a Discovery Bible Study or witness
8. Community of Believers (church): Form new
believers into minimum Biblical practice groups that
become Communities of Believers (churches) who
transform communities.
Church Planting Movements – Garrison and
IMB
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David Watson’s 18 Critical Elements:
10. Reaching Out (missions): Reaching out to “all”
segments of society becomes a part of the group
DNA as a result of obedience to the Great
Commission (missions)
11. Reproducing: Reproducing disciples, leaders,
groups and churches becomes a part of the group
DNA.
12. Inside Leaders: Keep all thing reproducible by
Inside Leaders.
13. Authority and Holy Spirit: Authority of Scripture
and the Holy Spirit are all that is needed to start.
14. Persecution: Persecution is a part of being a
Christian
Church Planting Movements – Garrison and
IMB
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David Watson’s 18 Critical Elements:
15. Education/Training/Equipping/Mentoring: Discipleship
and Leadership Education and Training are “on the job,”
continuous and primarily through mentoring. This builds
communities that hold each other accountable for obedience
to the Word of God.
16. Outside Leaders: Outside leaders Model, Equip, Watch and
Leave.
17. Self-Supporting: Self-supporting local leaders start and
sustain all work – including groups, fellowships, and churches.
18. Redeem Local Culture (Embrace the Local Culture): Do
not import external culture, but redeem local culture by
embracing all you biblically can in a culture and transforming
the rest.
Church Planting Movements – Garrison and
IMB
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Ten Common Factors
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Worship in the heart language – Trade languages limit
potential in prayer, songs, illustrations and applications
Evangelism has communal implications – rely on family
webs and social connections
Rapid incorporation of new converts into the life and
ministry of the church – baptism is closely tied to conversion
and new believers are expected to become witnesses and often
encouraged to join another new group
Passion and fearlessness – which attests to the importance
of salvation and necessity of conversion – a spirit of timidity
or fear quenches CPM
A price to pay to become a Christian – CPMs planted
where Christ is not popular or socially advantageous –
insincere and folks with personal agenda don’t make it.
Church Planting Movements – Garrison and
IMB
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Ten Common Factors
6.
Perceived leadership crisis or spiritual vacuum in society
– Societal disintegration from war, disaster or displacement is
good environment for CPM – eternity is very close.
7. On-the-job Training for Church Leadership – Churchbased training is essential – cannot leave the church for
training (short-term training modules in Bible, doctrine and
Leadership)
8. Leadership Authority is Decentralized – hierarchy of
authority and bureaucratic decision-making kill CPM
9. Outsiders Keep a Low Profile – Must minimize dependency,
foreignness, and intimidation-factor to encourage indignity
(draw new believers into leadership through participative Bible
Studies and mentoring house-church pastors privately)
10. Missionaries Suffer – Oddly the history of this movement
shows calamity often falls on the initiator
Church Planting Movements – Garrison and
IMB
7
Ten Practical Handles
1.
Pursue a CPM orientation from the beginning – “endvision” is being lived out from start modeling evangelism,
discipleship and multiplication training within cell-group
Develop and Implement Comprehensive Strategies –
2.
•
•
3.
4.
5.
4 areas: (1) Prayer, (2) God’s Word, (3) Evangelism (4) Church planting
Matrix of ministries for human needs ministries, communication
strategies, mobilization, etc.
Evaluate Everything to Achieve the End-Vision – What do
you say “no” to is key – does it help or hinder the CPM
Employ Precision Harvesting – rather than random sowing
by using “response filtering” to find individuals already
inclined, then focus discipleship and CP with them
Prepare New Believers for Persecution – A call to Christ is
a call to a Cross! Harassment, persecution should not be a
surprise – it is part of the evangelism process – taught to
expect hardships (Mark 8:34)
Church Planting Movements – Garrison and
IMB
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Ten Practical Handles
6.
Gather Them, then Win Them – start evangelistic
worship and Bible study groups – they are not won
outside such a group
7. Try a POUCH methodology:
Participative Bible study and worship
Obedience to Bible as sole measure of success
Unpaid and un-hierarchical leadership
Cell group or
House churches
Church Planting Movements – Garrison and
IMB
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Ten Practical Handles
8.
Develop Multiple Leaders within each Cell Church – this
avoids the trap of inadequate leadership, but authority and
ministry must be tied together.
Use on-the-job Training – teaching while doing
9.
•
•
•
One month training- two months pastoral work
Eight sessions of training for two weeks at a time over two years (once
a quarter)
Higher education may be necessary eventually, but will quench CPM in
early stages
10. Model, Assist, Watch & Leave (MAWL)
•
•
•
•
Problem for missionary is he enjoys pastoring and is often doubtful of
new leader’s capabilities
Can be minimized if sharing responsibilities from beginning with those
he is leading.
A pattern of modeling new church planting and worship, then assisting
the church members to do the same in their homes (2 Tim 2:2)
Only when the missionary steps away is the cycle of MAWL completed
Church Planting Movements – Garrison and
IMB
10
Obstacles to CPMs
1.
Imposing extra-biblical requirements for being a church –
land, bldg, seminary-trained salaried leader
Loss of a valued cultural identity – can’t be foreign
Overcoming bad examples of Christianity – if they know of
older churches who don’t reproduce or have had scandals.
Non-reproducible church models – electronics, sound
systems, projection techniques, etc.
Subsidies creating dependency – once started it will always
be required – stifles initiatives, builds false expectations
2.
3.
4.
5.
•
•
Outside funds might be useful in printing literature, radio programming
and broadcast, Jesus film, translation, CD/DVD/cassette production
Financing a few subsidized pastors will limit growth unless all are paid as
well.
Church Planting Movements – Garrison and
IMB
11
Obstacles to CPMs
6.
Extra-biblical leadership requirements (Christ’s selection
of the 12 in Matt 4:18-22 and Paul’s criteria in 1 Tim 3) Note:
no technical training required
Linear, sequential thought, steps and practice – it isn’t
one step then another, its all together – discipling unsaved into
conversion, then immediately involved
Planting “frog” rather than “lizard” churches:
7.
8.
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•
9.
Frog churches see themselves as end in themselves, sitting fat and
complacent on a hill or lily pad (main street) expecting the lost to come
to them
Lizard church are always pursuing the lost, adaptable and ready for
action, often a hostile environment. Go to homes with evangelistic
Bible studies, willing to change colors, expend energy or lose their tails
if necessary
Prescriptive strategies – There is no prefabricated method
that works – each is creative. It is not a know-nothing
approach, but a multiple arsenal approach.
Church Planting Movements – Garrison and
IMB
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Paradoxes of CPM
1.
2.
3.
4.
Go slow to go fast
Focus on few to win many
Share only where people are ready to hear
New insider is more effective than highly
trained, mature outsider
5. Start with creation, not Christ
6. Let the lost lead the Bible studies
7. Disciple to conversion
Church Planting Movements – Garrison and
IMB
13
Paradoxes of CPM
8. Prepare to spend a long time, but anticipate miracle
accelerations
9. It’s about discovering, not teaching
10. The best time for a church to plant a new church is
when it is new
11. Do personal evangelism, so that masses will hear
12. Focus on ordinary people, not professional Christians
13. Expect the hardest places to yield the greatest fruit
14. Small for-profit projects often yield much higher longterm access and goodwill than charity or free services.
Church Planting Movements – Garrison and
IMB
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