Church Planting Resources
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Pioneer Church Planting Book Scores Big
Getting started as a church planter? Want to gain more insight in your existing church planting efforts? Trent and Vivian Rowland are seven years into leading a church planting team in Asia. In this handbook they articulate their experiences to help guide and inspire teams. Some items covered include: Basic requirements and practices of a team leader, screening and assessing candidates, preparing new team members, research, networking and strategies, articulating ministry philosophy, setting goals for initial years, and implications for mobilizing new workers. I've got to tell you, as I sat down and started paging through my review copy, I began seeing all *kinds* of extra training possibilities for the mission with which I personally work. I'm convinced that we will expand and *improve* our church-planter training program as a result of the changes we incorporate from the Rowlands' work in this book. I'm thankful to them ... and to Caleb Project... for unselfishly making these many tools available to our entire global family. Available at http://www.calebproject.org/books.htm.
My encouragement: Get it. You'll be glad you did. (And in case you're wondering... there's no commission coming my way. :-) My only hopeful outcome is that we all do this job more effectively. I'm persuaded that if we followed this book, it would happen.)
Church Planters Review
http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/churchplantersreview
Church Planters Review is a monthly newsletter that seeks to encourage and inspire church planters world wide in this most vital of Christian endeavours. It is moderated by Justin Kuek, the International Executive Director of New Horizons Ministries International, a missions organisation dedicated to the planting of churches amongst unreached people groups. Three issues of the newsletter have already been sent out. For a sample copy send a message to: jkuek@paradise.net.nz. To join the growing numbers of subscribers, visit the web site above.
Church-Planting Insight
Sometimes, along comes an insight which is obvious yet revolutionary. Such is the concept of Church Planting Movements as explained by the South Baptists International Mission Board. If you are a missionary, or know a missionary, or anyone involved in church-planting, this is for you. AND it's free - even multiple copies are available to give to individual mission members. Shame it is not also available as a PDF file.http://resources.imb.org/index.cfm/fa/prodlist/CatID/9/DeptID/1.htm
The Backpage: 10 Church Planting Elements
Ten Universal Elements. That's what David Garrison found while researching for his little booklet, Church Planting Movements. He found that, after surveying church planting movements (CPMs) around the world, these 10 elements seemed present in every single one of them. It probably goes without saying, then, that those who want to start a CPM would want to invest some time in figuring out how to implement these 10 practices as a matter of course:
Prayer
Abundant gospel sowing
Intentional church planting
Scriptural authority
Local leadership
Lay leadership
Cell or house churches
Churches planting churches
Rapid reproduction
Healthy churches
I suppose some of those are common sense. For example, healthy churches grow faster than unhealthy churches... "Duh!" But the truth is, we seldom think *proactively* about all 10 items comprehensively. And maybe that's part of what helps a church to grow -- thinking about doing it all right in *concert*, so all 10 cylinders hit in stride at the same time!
That's probably what it's going to take in some of our tougher fields. I suppose that's what it *might* take in yours.
(Note: See David's complete little booklet at: http://www.imb.org/CPM/default.htm What's more, at: http://www.imb.org/GlobalVision/NewDirections/new_direction_dir.htm get it as a PDF, or in Spanish as either a PDF or Word doc. To order a free copy while quantities last, see... http://resources.imb.org/index.cfm/fa/prodlist/CatID/5/DeptID/1.htm
Church Planting Movements by David Garrison
In Mission Frontiers we featured the contents of the booklet Church Planting Movements by David Garrison. David works with the Southern Baptists and presented a landmark work compiling the results of research done on Church Planting Movements all over the world to see what could be learned about what makes these Church Planting Movements work and prosper or what hinders them. This book has become a global phenominon receiving an enthusiastic reception from church and mission leaders from around the world.
I have just discovered that someone has put it on their website in Adobe PDF Format as well as in Microsoft Word. So either way you can download it and share this information with others which is what David and the Southern Baptists would like you to do. To download it into PDF or Microsoft Word go to http://www.newwway.org/cpm/
You can also download it in Spanish for all of your Latin friends by going to the same web address listed above.
If you do not have the Adobe Acrobat Reader to read PDF files, you can download it for free from the Adobe website at http//www.adobe.com. The PDF format makes it very easy to print the booklet as it originally appeared in print.
It is also available in HTML (web language) on our website at http://www.missionfrontiers.org/2000/02/200002.htm
The concepts and principles presented in this book could change the course of world evangelization. I encourage you to give it careful study and if you find it as exciting as I do, please share it with all of the people you feel could benefit from it.
Check Out These Sites For Help On Church-Planting
Are you trying to launch a church-planting movement? Thanks to Jerry for keeping his word. We now have these new resources:
The Bible league: www.BibleLeague.org
YWAM Church Planting Coaches: http://cpcoaches.pngusa.net/
Train and Multiply: http://www.trainandmultiply.com
email: pwr@telus.net
"Church Growth" at Southern Nazarene University:
http://home.snu.edu/~hculbert.fs/chgrowth.htm
Christian Associates: www.christianassociates.org
World Team: http://www.churchplanting.net.
The Alliance for Saturation Church Planting offering the Omega Course
at http://www.alliancescp.org/html/omegacourse.html
"Church Planting Movements," (available on-line, produced by the
International Mission Board), www.imb.org/GlobalVision/NewDirections
Prepare: http://www.prepareint.org or write prepareint@hotmail.com
Church Planting Resources:
http://genesis.acu.edu/cplant/resources.html
http://www.fcpt.org
http://www.nextchurch.org
http://members.optushome.com.au/churchplanting
www.plantingministries.org
UIM International: www.uim.org
Antioch Network: www.antiochnetwork.org
Global Missions Fellowship: www.gmf.org
Church Planting Resources
genesis.acu.edu/cplant/resources.html
Please go to the web site above for many good links on Church planting resources.
Church-Planting Handbooks
"Getting Started - A Church Planting Handbook for Laypeople"
by Brad
Boyston. (You can also download the complete handbook in text format:
184KB) From the introduction: This handbook was written specifically for
people who are interested in or involved in helping to start Evangelical
Covenant Churches. Christians from other groups will find a lot of
transferable information but should recognize that the organizational
procedures in other denominations will be slightly different.
"Handbook for House Churches" (130KB) and "Planting House Churches in Networks - A Manual from the Perspective of a Church Planting Team" (520KB) by Dick Scoggins.
Jim Allen's Church Planting Manual. (158K) (Jim Allen is a "home missionary" of the Assemblies of God in the USA.)
Bill Easum's Church Planting Workbook
A strategic guide to churchplanting from the perspective of the church growth movememt is the Church Planters's Toolkit by Bob Logan and Steve Ogne.
E-mail networking
CHURCHPLANTERS is an e-mail conference where Church Planters build up and encourage each other through the sharing of overall vision, questions, specific problems, experiences, testimonies and practical suggestions. Other Christians who are interested in churchplanting are also welcome.
The archives of the CHURCHPLANTERS conference are a valuable resource also.
CHURCHMOTHERS is an e-mail conference for wives of church-planters.
Bill Easum runs mailing lists on the following topics:
- Denominational Officials
- Transformational Leadership
- Gen-X
- Church Planters
- Small Groups
Contemporary Worship Go to www.easum.com, then Networking, then Listserve (online forum) and subscribe
There is also an e-mail conference for bivocational pastors. Anyone who wishes to join is requested to send a subscription request together with a brief self-introduction to Philip Yang Bivopastor@aol.com
Brigada is a system of conferences and forums that allow you to network with others who share common interests in sharing God's love with previously unreached cities and peoples around the world.
The e-mail conference CHURCH-PLANTERS-DAWN of the DAWN (Discipling A Whole Nation) movement has never been very active. In the welcome message it says: "This conference is the place for news of church planting initiatives, advise and general interchange along the church planting theme. It is especially designed for e-mail users so all countries can participate." In recent months (July-December 1997) there was an avarage of less than two messages per month.
From the Baptist Church Planting e-mail conference is currently (as of February 1998) inactive while the moderator is on Sabbatical.
Further Networking Resources
- The "International Network" of the Evangelical Free Church Mission.
- The Leadership Network is a support service to pastors of large churches.
- The Smaller Churches Network is for pastors and leaders of smaller churches (average worship attendance of 100 or less).
- Churchplanting and Development Board of the Church of the Nazarene, New England District (USA).
- Church Planting Center United Brethren in Christ church planting site)
Literature
- CHURCH PLANTING BIBLIOGRAPHY from Biola University.
- North American Bibliography by P. Kent Smith.
- Ralph F. Wilson of Rocklin, California has (besides many other subjects) some articles with tips and perspectives on churchplanting in his Christian Articles Archive.
- The archives of the churchplanters conference contain many insightful discussions.
- (The beginnings of) a collection of reprints of articles that are of interest to churchplanters. Please help by suggesting further articles that should be included in this collection.
- The Missionary Training Service offers various resources on subject related to missionary work, church-planting and pastoral training.
- Resources on smaller churches
Collections of practical suggestions
- From the Baptist Church Planting page, follow the link "BCP Tips" to many useful hints which will also be useful to non-Baptist churchplanters. There is also a special e-mail conference for Baptist Church Planters.
- How to explain the need for planting new churches?
Resources related to church leadership
- Golden Gate Seminary seems to have a good Church Planting Program, as well as a CHURCH PLANTING INTERN PROGRAM. I hope this will inspire other seminaries to offer similar programs.
- North Park Theological Seminary has a DMin in Church Planting Leadership program.
- Northern Baptist College in Manchester funds an Evangelism and Churchplanting Course which is available as a training resource to churches (of all backgrounds) in North-East England. They are also working on making the course available on the WWW at members.aol.com/dmnclayton/bci.htm. So far (Jan 7, 1998) only the first lesson is available, but the idea behind is excellent: Download the text and then work with a group in your own area. MOST LEARNING WORKS BEST IN A GROUP.
Church-growth and church-planting consultants
- Jim Allen has an article "Preparing your Church to Give Birth" and other resources at the homepage of his Church Planting Ministries.
- 21st Century Strategies is a church consulting firm which seeks to prepare church leaders in the U.S. and Canada for ministry in the next century. They say their values are: Teams, instead of committees. Accountability, instead of control. Servant-oriented, risk-taking people, instead of maintainers. Networks and alliances, instead of ecumenism. Small groups that multiply. Equal emphasis on evangelism, social justice, and Christian nurturing. li> Dynamic Church Planting International is a training, consulting and mentoring mission.
- Church Resource Ministries (CRM - e.g. Bob Logan & Steve Ogne) offers consulting, coaching, training and literature. They want to help you to achieve a clearer vision plus a workable strategy to make disciples and multiply churches.
- GrowingLeadership is a website of the International Centre for Leadership Development and Evangelism (successor to the Charles E. Fuller Institute)
- Outreach Marketing is a Christian company seeking to provide new and existing churches with graphic design and outreach tools to connect their church to their community.
- Church Planting Resources (CPR) is a new ministry that provides church growth and planting materials and consultation for pastors and churches. They also offer church-planting internships.
I just found the following on the Pulse webpage:
"Catalog of Chronological Bible Teaching Materials for Evangelism
and
Church Planting" available from:
New Tribes Mission
1000 E. First St.,
Sanford, Fla. 32771-1487
Call (407) 323-3430; fax (407) 330-0376.
E-mail: ntm@ntm.org; Web: www.ntm.org
WEB-TRAINING FOR CHURCH-PLANTERS -- I love it when trainers make their stuff available on the Net. Church Planting Coaches, a ministry of Youth With A Mission, has launched a website designed to equip frontier mission church planters and those who mentor them. Packed with links, articles, tools, and downloadable resources, this site is a Must-Visit! www.byhisgrace.com/cpcoaches
CALLING ALL 10/40 WINDOW AND CREATIVE ACCESS BRIGADIERS!
For years now, missiologists have argued over the effectiveness of various evangelistic and church planting strategies among the unreached. For example; Is tentmaking more effective than a historical approach? Are micro-enterprises more effective in reaching people than schools or hospitals? Is learning more than the trade language necessary? Though each person has an opinion and personal data to support their opinions, yet the truth is these opinions are very subjective. Thus, a survey has been put together by the TMQ Research under Don Hamilton, at the U.S. Center for World Mission.
The purpose of the survey is to gather data from those serving in creative access nations and study what if any objective lessons can learned about training, life, work, ministry among the unreached. If you are living in the 10/40 Window, please participate in this survey. If you have expatriate friends who live in the 10/40 Window, please share this opportunity with them. Participants do not need to give their name, location, or organization/mission/company. Surveys should be submitted by June 1. This allows time for surveys to be carried in and out of restricted places.
The more input the more objective the results will be.
Results will be published in early 2001 and made available to anyone. To down load the survey, you may obtain the passwords from <tmq@antioch.com.sg>. To learn more about the survey please go to TMQ's website at http://tmq.antioch.com.sg
CHURCH PLANTING MOVEMENTS
As well as profiling the involvement of African Americans in missions the latest issue of Mission Frontiers magazine (April 2000) also profiles what is being referred to as the Church Planting Movement in missions. The material is drawn from a new booklet put together by David Garrison (author of MARC World Vision's "Nonresidential Missionary" book). A number of the Church Planting Movement articles in this issue have been made available as text files (Church Planting Movements - An Overview, What Is A Church Planting Movement? The Ten Universal Elements and The Ten Common Factors).
If you would like copies of any or all of this material, let me know <BobHall@cmd.org.nz>.
CHURCH PLANTING:
Baptist Church Planting
members.aol.com/baptistcp/index.html
www.bbfi.org/states/MA/JUN96/online.html
Biblical Guidance: Characteristics of a church organization
www.churchsurf.com/host/world/chg/bibguid.htm
(Int'l) Centre for Leadership Development and Evangelism
www.GrowingLeadership.com
Church Multiplication Training Center
www.cmtcmultiply.org/
Church Mktg and Outreach Newsletter -
www.outreachmarketing.com
CHURCH PLANTING LINKS - cust.iamerica.net/jimallen/
Churchplanter's Email List homepage - genesis.acu.edu/cplant/
CHURCH PLANTERS IN CHRISTIANITY
pobox.com/~nb
www.easum.com -
www.churchsmart.com/churchsmart/products/cp_toolkit.html
members.aol.com/dmnclayton/handbook.htm
CHURCH PLANTING MANUAL - cust.iamerica.net/jimallen
Church Planting Ministries at <cust.iamerica.net/jimallen/>
CHURCH PLANTING RESOURCES!!
www.btinternet.com/~ajg/mtshome.htm
genesis.acu.edu/cplant/resources.html
www.thinkcoach.com/examples/churchplanting/
DARE TO BELIEVE: www.indwes.edu/courses/rel468/chris_w.htm.
Missionary Methods of Apostle Paul
www.rts.edu/Paul'sMethods.html
Other church planting links:
www.acu.edu/missions/nthambib.htm
www.efcm.org/inet.html
www.leadnet.org/
www.wesley.nnc.edu
www.churchsmart.com/
www.gospelcom.net/growingleadership/Shocked/index.html
www.thinkcoach.com/examples/churchplanting/
www.HFE.org
www.infobrasil.org
www.perceptnet.com/
pcsadvt.com/churchplanter/index.htm
www.rareyroth.com/cggc/ministry/minplant.htm
www.dcpi.org/
www.imb.org/learn/tc/priority.htm
Stats: www.ReligionNewsToday.net/CurrentNewsSummary/#story9
The Church Planters Multiplication Cycle
www.friendschurchsw.org/multicy.html
CHURCH PLANTING AND EVANGELISM
www.wheaton.edu/Missions/Mislinks/Chures/chplant.htm
It's amazing what you can find on the web. Graeme Howarth <graeme@free.net.nz> stumbled into the "Welcome to the Toward 2015 Listserv" and picked up a reference to a web site that may be of interest (see above). The web page was put together by students of A. Scott Moreau of Wheaton College who does a regular web column for Evangelical Missions Quarterly. It relates to a course Moreau taught this spring, (Evangelism / Church Planting). The web page is a long list of web links to resources for church planting and evangelism. If you go to the bottom of the page and click on "Intr. 546.....", you will find Moreau's entire course, texts, bibliography, assignments, class notes, et al. on line.
TRENDS IN ADVOCACY MEDIA RESEARCH REPORT -- newWway.org is a surprisingly simple free resource for communication strategy planning in media saturated environments. Recently, newWway.org conducted Internet research that has revealed some important trends in advocacy media among missionary teams. Log on to their site at www.newWway.org and save the "Internet Research Survey" to share with your team. This month you'll also find an article about the "New Communication Environment" of media saturated fields and an interesting article by Professional Trend Tracker Cassidy Dale on the "Postmodern Mindset". MediaNet has posted a new article "Media Accelerating Church Planting Movements." You can also learn how to adopt the "Strategic Communicator's Mentality".
BOOK: The Power of Partnership
From: O'Connell, Brian [mailto:BrianOconnell@XC.Org]
The primer on partnership development, this 35-page booklet written by Interdev and endorsed by AD 2000 and Beyond Movement, World Evangelical Fellowship, and the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization, outlines the key success factors, principles and practice of multi-agency, evangelism / church planting partnerships. Available from Interdev, $3, includes postage to US addresses. For international mailing costs and multi-copy discounts, contact Interdev at: <Interdev-US@xc.org>; or call Paula Best in the USA at (800) 775-8330.
ONLINE CHURCH-PLANTING RESOURCES
www.gmi.org/mislinks In the latest issue of Evangelical Missions Quarterly (see below), A. Scott Moreau and Mike O’Rear provide an overview of church-planting resources available on the web (“More than a Virtual Church”). The text of their article is based around a description of the Church-planting links available on the Mislinks web site (see above). From the main site click on Church Planting in the Church/Ministry Resources section. This is a major resource well worth a visit - and a bookmark (Gateways, Articles, Magazines and Reports, Demographics and Statistics, Parachurch Organisations, Denominational Organisations, Educational, Training and Consulting Sites).
GET THIS FREE RESOURCE IF YOU WANT TO PLANT CHURCHES -- Funny how I had just told our Personnel guy at the Team Expansion office, "We've *got* to find some more training materials for teaching our new missionaries to plant churches." The next thing you know, I learn about this 892K Word file, accompanied by a 2.38 Meg PowerPoint teaching presentation that goes with the booklet, *and* a 318K *bonus* Powerpoint on "POUCH churches". So now, tomorrow morning, I'll say to our Personnel guy, "Chris, thanks to the unselfishness of Avery Willis and David Garrison, we're ready to rumble! Find them all at: http://www.newwway.org/cpm.htm
