Extraordinary Prayer and Abundant Evangelism - Universal in Every Church Planting Movement

Les Puryear, a North Carolina Mission Planter in his blog "Joining God in His Work" reports that David Garrison who has spent years researching church planting movements in third world countries found that there are 2 universal elements to any church planting movement

The first is extraordinary prayer - not just the kinds that says "God bless our church planting efforts" but rather prayer to open the hearts of pastors, people and churches to have a passionate desire to share the Good News of Jesus with others and to plant new churches to evangelize and disciple those people.

The second is abundant evangelism. If prayer links a Church Planting Movement to God, then evangelism is its connection with the people.

"Essential to every movement is the principle of over-sowing. Just as nature requires a tree to drop thousands of seeds to produce a single sapling, or a human body to generate hundreds of eggs to yield a single baby, so it is with evangelism. In Church Planting Movements we find hundreds and thousands of people hearing the gospel every day and out of this abundant sowing, a growing harvest begins to take place."


"Conventional wisdom in the West has often taught a reasonable yet much less effective pattern of gospel transmission. "You must first earn the right to share your faith," goes the traditional model. "Once you have developed a friendship and demonstrated that you are really different, your lost friend will ask you what is special about your life. Then, you can tell them about Jesus."

I have taught this very concept myself. Garrison says this is a very western concept and not true. It certainly makes me sit up and take notice. I am still thinking about this. A passionate purveyor of Church Planting Movements denounced this Western model. "We teach that it's not about you or your earning the right to share your faith. Jesus earned that right when He died on the cross for us. Then He commanded us to tell others!"

That makes sense! It's Biblical. I still believe that I can be a more effective witness if I am willing to invest in the person as I begin to witness. That way I can share God's Word in ways that meet that person where he or she is. Also, the stronger the relationship I have with those who need to hear the Good News, the more urgent my witness becomes...because I want them to share heaven with me!

"If nature's principle of sowing abundantly to reap abundantly is true, then so is its opposite: if you sow sparingly, you will reap sparingly. ( 2 Cor. 9:6) This simple truth is so powerful and yet many well-intentioned missionaries accomplish every lofty ideal except this one. To remind them of the importance of abundant gospel sowing, many successful church planters have prominently displayed a one-page sign at their workstation which reads: "How many of my people will hear the gospel today?" If there's going to be a movement, then the answer must be in the thousands."

This means that attractional programs, outstanding worship, servant events in the community, etc. can only be that which supports the personal witness of church planting pastors, launch teams and members of new missions. It also must be a core value and behavior that is not allowed to fade when the church reaches a comfortable size. What do you think?

How Big Must Your Church Be to Plant a Church?

Phil Stevenson, Author of The Ripple Church, a book we have been giving to any church in the Texas District willing to explore the possibility of planting a church wrote the following in an article in 'The Pastor's Coach' available at www.INJOY.com several years ago:

"I want to address a myth about church parenting: the myth of attendance. It is the idea that only churches of certain sizes are able to parent churches. All churches need to be open to the opportunities to parent. It is not so much the size of the church as it is the size of the church’s heart. It is more about health than size. In fact, healthy churches naturally reproduce. Christian Schwartz in his book, Natural Church Development, states, "Hardly anything demonstrates the health of a congregation as much as the willingness--and ability--to give birth to new congregations."

Check your health, not your attendance sheet. Check your heart, not your numbers. Nothing can grow indefinitely. An elephant gets to a certain size and stops. A mouse grows and it stops. They are not the same size, but they are healthy. The only hope for the continuation of a species is not for a few to grow large, but for all to multiply. The same is true of churches. A few growing larger will not meet the need, but all multiplying can help sustain the species."

I am positive that Phil Stevenson is right! In Lutheran Churches in particular, there is this notion that big churches should plant churches. The truth is not many of them do either. I am thankful though, that more and more of churches, both large and small, in the Texas District, Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod are praying and pondering about when God might lead them to plant or partner to plant one or more new churches. Healthy organisms reproduce! The norm for Christ-centered, healthy churches is also to reproduce.

What ideas do you have for how this new surge in church planting energy might become a church planting movement in the Texas District? Please share any thoughts, no matter how random with us!

Taking off "four months more" lenses in church planting

Today, Reggie McNeil spoke about living missionally at the Texas District LCMS Professional Church worker's conference in Austin. Reggie talked about John 4:35 where Jesus tells his disciples "Do you not say, 'Four months more and then the harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest." (NIV) The disciples were used to thinking of fixed and unchangeable times between sowing and reaping, so it was normal for them to look out at the fields and say "four months from now, the harvest will be ready." But Jesus is trying to get them to open their eyes to see that God's mission doesn't have a fixed, unchangeable mechanistic pattern of sowing and harvesting. He is telling them to see that the time to live missionally is right now because the fields are ripe for harvest.

Reggie said the "four months more" becomes code for not living missionally. It also seems to be code for why many churches never get around to church planting. The "four months more" lens causes churches to say things like We'll get around to planting a church when we

• get our new sanctuary built
• get a little larger
• complete the staff additions we have been planning for
• get our finances and stewardship in order
• have more spiritually mature members
• get past a few conflicts we are dealing with
• fill in the blank_____________

To those churches I think Jesus would also say "I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest." The truth is that Satan does not want to see new churches planted. He hopes leaders keep wearing those "four months more" lenses. Those lenses always lead folks to conclude that church planting is something which should come later...or even never for some churches. Those lenses have got to come off!

How can we start seeing mission opportunities through "ripe for harvest" lenses? What do you think?



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Lizards not Frogs...Rabbits not Elephants in Church Planting

Plant "Lizard" Churches and not "Frogs"
These metaphors come out of David Garrison's study of Church Planting Movements. They reflect what he has discovered about church planting movements throughout the world.

the problem with Frogs...Frog churches perceive themselves as ends in themselves, sitting fat and complacent on a lily pad (or main street), expecting the lost to come to them in search of salvation. Frog churches hold meetings in places where they feel comfortable and require the lost to adapt to their froggy world.

Lizard churches...Lizard churches are always pursuing the lost. Adaptable and ready for action, they move quickly into the world through cracks and crevices seeking the lost. Lizard churches penetrate their communities. They decipher the "missional code" of their community and people groups. They are willing to expend enormous energy, even lose their tails if necessary in order to bring the lost into the family of God.

Plant "Rabbit" churches and not "Elephants"
the problem with Elephants... An elephant reaches its full size in 3 years, however it does not mature sexually until 18 years of age and is not ready to reproduce until then (the male is not ready to sire until approximately 30 years old!) Once an elephant is pregnant it takes a full 22 months for gestation and has the capacity to bear just one elephant. It is another 5 years before the female is ready to give birth again and might bear 7 calves in her lifetime. Elephant churches always have a reason (building program, staff needs, internal growth, etc) for not reproducing a new church and once they do decide to reproduce (if ever), the gestation period is painfully long. After that they may not want to reproduce again for many years.

Rabbit churches... Rabbits are ready for reproduction at 6 to 9 months. They are continuously fertile. The gestation period is 31 days and they ordinarily give birth to 7 babies. During this time the adult rabbit is also growing and reaches its maximum size in 3 years (just like the elephant) In its lifetime, one reproducing pair, through its offspring, has the capacity of reproducing 476 million rabbits! Within the first three years, rabbit churches are thinking about when they might reproduce. They plant new churches as a regular part of their desire to carry out "the Great Commission" and they also build into the DNA of each of their "daughter" churches this culture of church planting reproduction.

Don't get me wrong -- God loves frog churches, lizard churches, elephant churches and rabbit churches all the same. But -- church planting movements that reach growing numbers of people from every culture, language and people group happen when churches function more like lizards and rabbits. What other metaphors help you consider healthy church planting movements?