ECMU's vision of Urban Church Health

The Evangelical Christian Missionary Union (ECMU) has readily accessible documents online about its ecclesiological history and stated purposes. Most of the theological documentation relates to statement of faith and ecclesiastical practice. There are some documents that relate specifically to ecclesiology employed in planting new churches and the primary teaching related to the church, especially in the area of what constitutes a healthy urban church.

            Some primary documents employed by ECMU in Russia related to the doctrine of the church are the vision and values files of the Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA) and the C&MA teachings on the local church. According to C&MA, a healthy church is defined as “a body of believers where the majority are truly living out a great commandment/great commission lifestyle, fully devoted disciples of Jesus Christ, demonstrating a lifestyle committed to the Word, Fellowship, Worship, and Prayer, and Spirit-Filled individuals demonstrating the Power of God, the Love of the Brethren, and the Evangelism of the Lost.”[1]

The ECMU seeks to ensure this church health by creating what it terms “Acts 2 fellowships.”[2] Using the Acts 2:42–47 model, these are groups that exhibit quality pastoral care, devotion to discipleship, fervent evangelism, natural church planting, entire church mobilization, and strategic international partnerships. C&MA teaches that pastors must be “passionate to win the lost for Christ [as] they guide and counsel their respective flocks to go deeper in their love for Jesus, while training them to also be faithful stewards of the good news.”[3] They teach an age-graded discipleship program based upon the four-fold gospel and focus on reaching the lost through “community outreach and short-term missions opportunities.”[4]

C&MA believes this passion for the lost and mission support is “a good litmus test for a healthy Body of believers.”[5] When a church naturally gives birth to more “like-minded fellowships,”[6] it is said to be healthy. These are the churches that mobilize their own to complete the Great Commission and establish strategic international partnerships that will do the same. In its creed ECMU defines the urban church’s purpose as

bringing glory to Almighty God in Jesus Christ and completing the work, tasked by Him, through the preaching the gospel of the grace of God for the salvation of millions of lost people, by starting new missional churches, connected in partnerships in regional sectors and with joint strategies in ECMU under the direction of the Holy Spirit.[7]

According to Simon A. Borodin, former president of ECMU and a good friend of mine, new urban Russian churches should “develop missionaries in our own congregations and support them financially ourselves.”[8] Moreover, this ecclesiological characteristic of exhibiting missional health is the basis for the Russian Baptist Union’s appointment of Borodin as Provisional Director of its own missions department in 2007.

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[1]Dale Edwardson, “Church Health: Vision and Values,” (n.d.) http://web.me.com/dalee777

/NationalChurchHealth/Vision_and_Values.html (accessed August 17, 2009).

[2] Christian and Missionary Alliance, “Local Churches,” (n.d.) http://www.cmalliance.org/ministries/local-church (accessed August 1, 2009).

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Evangelical Christian Missionary Union, “Цель ЕХМС,” (2003). http://www.exmc.ru/about/purpose (accessed August 17, 2009).

[8] William Yoder, “Moscow Headquarters More Colorful Than Ever,” The Union of Evangelical Christian-Baptists of Russia, n.p. (January 23, 2008). http://www.baptist.org.ru/news/english/807/ (accessed August 17, 2009).

Interesting Read- Latourette- Europe Part 1

The Great Century in Europe and the United States: A.D. 1800 – A.D. 1914 by Kenneth Scott Latourette is volume 4 of  The History of the Expansion of Christianity and deals with Christian history up to the end of World War II. It is a worthy read, so I'll only briefly highlight some of the content in these posts. Although the other volumes cover Christianity’s expansion in Europe, his fourth volume entails the expansion of Christianity during "the Great Century in Europe and the United States of America," as the subtitle suggests. Optimistically, he begins his survey of nineteenth century Christianity as a “burst of religious life” (4). Due to western European’s “denial and rejection of Christianity” (6), this burst was primarily in Protestantism. However, Latourette’s examination of the great century also incorporates the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodoxy.

            Latourette establishes the inquiry for his fourth volume by asking qualitative questions. He seeks to identify “what was the Christianity that was spread” and why it spread. He is interested in discovering the process by which it spread and why it failed in some places. He is also interested in establishing some key indicators that show the effect Christianity had on the secular atmosphere as well as what effect that environment had on Christianity’s development. Latourettes questions provide a good framework for studying church growth and trends in Christianity still today.

            He immediately lays the secular backdrop against which Christian expansion is highlighted. During the nineteenth century, there was an explosive growth of man’s knowledge about the physical universe. Mankind began to master his environment and took broad steps to eliminate poverty. With an increased trust in the scientific method and an emphasis on objectivity and the individual, Latourette believes there was a dulling effect on the Christian faith. The entire structure of man’s life changed as did the ideology of society as a whole. The intellectual emphasis of rationalism seemed to hurt Christianity, while Latourette believes romanticism had helped. Moreover, world peace helped missions efforts as did a greater sense of optimism that the world could actually be reached for Christ. As western & northern people groups expanded in Europe, there was a transformation of non-European cultures. Consequently, there developed a world culture with English serving as the major global language.

            These socio-economic and political/idealogical elements either worked for or against Christianity’s evangelistic thrust, but without judging them Latourette sees them as role players in the larger scene. He identifies new movements which expanded Christianity. These movements had the cumulative effect of helping nineteenth century Protestantism to become “more purely religious than ever before” (330).

            Amidst an underlying religious skepticism of the day, several new revivals or organizations were formed in the west. The Salvation Army began its work at this time. The YMCA was formed. Sunday School became a staple of church education. The individualist spirit of the west filtered through the western church and several new denominations were formed as a result. Disciples of Christ, Free Baptists, Mormons and Christian Science were among those who enjoyed this newfound religious expression, as did the Pietists and Wesleyans.

In the same way, the western church began to deal with a growing criticism from European Christian thinkers. In Germany a critical historical study of the Bible gained popularity as men like Schleiermacher and Hegel made their mark on society. And although there was a revival in the Russian Orthodox Church, the overwhelming growth in the nineteenth century in Europe was still within Protestantism and the Roman Catholic Church.

            Latourette identifies several methods of expansion. Because there was an “absence of action assistance by governments” (47), churches began to take a greater responsibility for missions. Average lay Christians saw their involvement in missions as extremely important. Women began to see their own role expand in missions. Because missionaries raised a high standard for church membership, salvation was celebrated as the result of an individual personal decision.

Specifically within the Roman Catholic Church, missionary work expanded. Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, for example, rose in the ranks of those Catholics who actively involved themselves in mission. The Society for the Propagation of the Faith and the Association of the Holy Childhood became leaders in collecting funds for Catholic missions. This led to mission stations, a prefecture apostolic, a vicariate apostolic and revamped diocese structures specifically geared toward missions. There was an unprecedented support of Roman Catholic missions.

Protestant missions took on a whole new dimension as well. The Baptist Missionary Society and individual mission leaders like William Carey, David Brainerd and Zinzendorf led in the pursuit of active missions engagement. The Religious Tract Society and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts also created new opportunities for Protestant missions. This increase in missions emphasis led to Evangelicalism as a movement where conversion of the individual, greater education of church members and healing the sick was stressed. American missionaries sought to transform society as a whole and not just convert individuals. Missionaries like Samuel Mills, Adoniram Judson and Luther Rice became heroes of the faith.

As Protestantism spread other missions organizations were founded. As mission societies multiplied, the United States emerged as a leader in protestant missions. College students and women developed their own missions organizations. Laymen like D.L. Moody raised the bar in average church members’ engaging the lost. There was an exponential rise in nondenominational societies, and universities themselves sent out missionary bands. As a result, more Christian colleges were formed, and a greater cooperation in Protestant missions efforts was forged.

In the Russian Orthodox Church, there was also an increase in missions emphasis with the main difference being the financial support of the state. The Orthodox Missionary Society began to raise additional funds for missions which led to new churches in Siberia. With the combined efforts of the Russian Orthodox Church, “the total of all the organizations, local, regional, and national, must have mounted into the thousands” (94).

In chapter five Latourette turns his attention to the people groups being reached. Protestants began to actively target Jews, the most prominent organization being the London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews. Britain accounted for ore than half of all Protestant organizations in Europe that were actively engaging Jews, and the largest number of Jewish conversions to Protestant Christianity was in the British Isles. Germany held second place, and together these two countries accounted for three out of every four Jewish baptisms for the years between 1815 and 1914. Latourette points out that nineteenth century Christianity saw the largest number of Jews converted since first century. Most Jews of the world lived in European Russia where they experienced what Latourette calls “conversion by coercion” (117). Unfortunately in Southern Europe, little headway was made to advance the gospel to Jews.

Russia had its own rich Protestant history. While German Mennonites went to southern Russia to advance the gospel among Russian peasants, Lord Radstock began to reach the upper class who consequently reached the common people of northern Russia. Shtundists and others who emphasized ecstatic manifestations of the Spirit marked a Protestant awakening in Russia. Nonetheless, “scores of zealous missionaries laboured, and yet, except in few rare cases where they took advantage of non-religious factors and in Russia, where the state gave determined support to Orthodox missions, only a relatively few thousands of converts were made" (143). Mark Edworthy, in his book The Wall that Remains: A Fascinating Account of God's Faithfulness, gives another good backdrop to the Eastern European and Russian protestant movement.

In other places in Europe, missionary evangelists like Florence Nightingale and George Mueller who emphasized the humanitarian aspect of the gospel also made headway. Consequently, social involvement of missionaries led to reform movements and the temperance movement. This in turn moved toward total abstinence in places where alcoholism was rampant.

Latourette also discusses the cultural impact of these reforms and their opponents. With the concept of revolution, Karl Marx made his mark on the world. There was a progressive Liberalism growing. Interestingly, Latourette identifies modern democracy as a direct result of Protestant Christianity. Nineteenth century culture was impacted greatly by a strong Christian influence on nationalism, architecture, art and sculpture. Writers like Tennyson, Browning, Dostoevski and Dickens included elements of Christian influence in their own writings.

I'll continue in the next post with Latourette's some specifics about the Russian Christian movement during this century.

Patterson & Scoggins on CM Discipleship

As mentioned in the last blog entry, George Patterson and Richard Scoggins present a case for church multiplication in their CM Guide. Last week, I discussed their approach to evangelism, but a look at their view of discipleship is also warranted. Patterson and Scoggins present a basic model of discipleship that consists of twenty-four lessons forming a sort of chronological Bible storying series from creation to the second coming of Christ (p. 98). They believe that discipleship is based on the highest level of Christian authority, namely the commands of Christ found in the Bible. Therefore these twenty-four lessons are obedience-based instruction to new believers to love God, love men, obey immediately, give, pray, and participate in a local church. Although traditions and church preferences play a positive role in Christian development, the Bible is nonetheless to be obeyed immediately above all else.

In terms of church planting, Patterson and Scoggins are advocates of cultural segregation. In other words, they believe that discipleship groups (even churches) should be culturally segregated to allow for more rapid integration of biblical teaching without any unnecessary cultural baggage. They believe that “when we form two cultures to mix in one church, they never integrate” (italics in original, p. 123). They do not break this down into specific categories, but they are careful to distinguish racial and economic strata in a given society. Whether this line of reasoning could be extended to even smaller subdivisions or subcultures is not explored. Nor do they address the separation of genders, as is the secular norm in some societies. Instead, in broad strokes they paint a picture of similar classes and races reaching their own peers. The question that stands in my mind is the case of the urban church with such an amalgamation of cultures that there may be no clear or dominant culture. 

Discipleship is more than a one-on-one training process in this manual. For Patterson and Scoggins, discipleship is presented as the task of the entire church and, by extension, the church church planter for an entire population. They believe that a missionary or church planter should understand his calling to “disciple a people group, no matter how long it takes or what sacrifice God requires” (p. 127). For the authors, discipleship is to “disciple the people [group]” (p. 127).

Perhaps this is why discipleship takes place on two levels. In the local church, discipleship is presented as the training of other potential church planters, whereas outside the local church it is a discovery process whereby a new local church is born. They make a clear distinction between house churches and gathering meetings. There is a difference in function between the two. Whereas the house church exists to be the local body of believers in covenanted discipleship, the gathering meeting is the evangelistic outreach of that body. Is this distinction warranted?

Their approach sends a mixed ecclesiological message about church polity. They warn that individual house churches need outside accountability, thus calling into question the concepts of local church autonomy, cooperation, and government. Without outside accountability, according to Patterson, an isolated house church will “easily develop cultic tendencies that go unchecked” (p. 170). However, Patterson and Scoggins seem to promote the immediate obedience discipleship model as the basis for dealing with potential heresy and therefore encourage house churches to be planted in networks for ongoing external accountability. Perhaps this is one of the stronger points in this model, because obedience and accountability beyond the local church can ensure self-theologizing in dialogue with the larger cross-cultural church. Is it a vague area, though, when we draw such a stark dividing line between communication and accountability. Perhaps, accountability just needs to be defined more clearly.

"Waste of Time": A Question about the CM approach to Evangelism

George Patterson and Richard Scoggins compiled their Church Multiplication Guide: The Miracle of Church Reproduction (Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2002) to present reproductive church planting as the normative activity of a healthy church. You can download a .pdf copy here. The way they present evangelism in that guide can help you understand a missionary method that might be typical of those who would identify with the "Church Multiplication Movement" or "Church Planting Movement". That is not to say that all CMM or CPM proponents hold to all of these tenets, but Patterson and Scoggins exhibit commonalities among most.

            At first glance it would seem that this is an instructional book about starting and maintaining a church planting movement. On a deeper level, though, Patterson and Scoggins structure their material in a two-part format that provides insights into their ecclesiological stance. The first part is a catechism for immediate obedience to Christ that includes basic discipleship and sound theological teaching. The second part presents church reproduction from the perspective of nine different key players within the church multiplication movement. The manner in which Patterson and Scoggins relate their training has some strong points as well as potential weaknesses.

            Patterson and Scoggins present an evangelism approach that is based on missiology within homogenous groups, a strong emphasis on ecclesiastical authority of the local church, a soteriology that is hallmarked by immediate baptism, and a view of predestination that leans somewhat toward hyper-Calvinism. They propose that any culture best reaches out to a congruent culture, so a church planter should be matched with a target population having cultural similarities (p. 123). According to the authors, this is not meant to be a condemnation of cross-cultural apostolic ministry, but it is a pragmatic evaluation of the ease to which homogeneous groups relate. It is a missiological approach based on responsiveness. This speaks to Patterson’s and Scoggins’ heavy reliance on numerical results as an indication of God’s blessing. The authors focus their attention specifically on neglected fields and advocate a mainline thrust into the working class segment of a people group. They believe this is best done by eliminating any incongruence between the target population and the church planter. Whereas this is supported by the authors’ appeal to numbers (see other posts on missiometrics), it could be argued that their approach has a more numerical than biblical basis and contradicts the cross-cultural thrust in the missionary journeys of the apostle Paul.  

The authors perceive evangelism as a local church activity, not a parachurch activity. Specifically, Patterson and Scoggins list evangelism as one of the primary activities of a healthy local church. They say that “evangelists working independently from the church contribute little to church planting and may cause damaging confusion in a pioneer field” (p. 110). Their adherence to the ecclesiastical authority of the local church even in evangelism is praiseworthy, but it might also be seen as restrictive and reductionistic. The local church is the initiator for evangelism, but to eliminate independent evangelists could also be nonbiblical and counterproductive to the authors’ appeal to apostolic ministry. At one point, the authors suggest that evangelism can be initiated through persons of peace who might witness to others even before they have accepted Christ themselves. In this case, there is already a disconnect between the local church and the convert, wouldn't you say?

When discussing evangelism they briefly bring an indictment against emotional pleas for individual conversion (p. 104). Although Patterson had previously employed this “decision making ritual” (p. 104) in Honduras, he now advocates a much more retentive process of baptism-based conversion. The authors reiterate their dependency on metrics when they suggest that “a harvesting method that produces 95% weed seed yields too few true converts to maintain church multiplication” (p. 104). However, this is also a controversial stance. Group or family conversion as opposed to individual intellectual assent seems to also be defined by certain cultural standards. Their objection to western overemphasis of individual decision is well noted, but here again they appear to swing the pendulum to an opposite extreme rather than a happy medium.

            Due to some of his statements in this work, Patterson appears to be a staunch Calvinist and potentially adheres to double predestination. He says, “Unfortunately some missionaries waste years on people whom God has not chosen for salvation [emphasis added], neglecting others close by whom God has prepared” (p. 125). It seems that the determining factor for knowing God’s election is the measure of immediate responsiveness. This is why Patterson and Scoggins seek out a responsive subculture within the host society. They believe that “economic differences will define this subculture as much as racial” (p. 133). If the plumb line of evangelism is simply response to the gospel, it could lead to some current sowing fields becoming the neglected fields of the future. Patterson thinks that “on most neglected fields, this means that you must carefully search for those who will respond and not waste your time with the others” (p. 125). Consequently, the authors’ exhortation to seek out immediate response is also an admonition to ignore delayed response.

Review of Frost & Hirsch The Shaping of Things to Come

Frost, Michael, and Alan Hirsch. The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the

21st-Century Church. Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 2003.

 Can be ordered from Amazon by clicking here

It is true we are living in changing times. Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch not only recognize this as a historical truth, but they offer a theological proposition for what the authors consider the impending irrelevance of the current church. Indeed quite an indictment, the theological judgment is coupled with an offer of a major shift in thinking for the Christian church of the West. This book is an Australian perspective on the current state of the Western church that both bites and instructs (or what many theologians mean by "informs").

            Frost and Hirsch build their argument by declaring their own orthodoxy, and yet the book is really written to promote “emerging missional communities” that are not particularly concerned with orthodoxy. Say Wha? The book is intended to give legitimacy to the emerging church and to justify its role in missiology by providing a vocabulary for the current praxis. The authors construct their line of reasoning by surveying what they call the Christendom church, the church as has existed from Constantine up to the present day, and then exposing the inherent weaknesses and growing irrelevance in that approach. After a quick overview of what the authors define as biblical Christianity, they promote an alternative post-Christendom church that is radically different from Constantine's baby.

            The authors unabashedly borrow terms from a wide variety of theological camps to support their proposition that Christendom-thinking has almost died, laying in the casket already and stinking. By identifying with the postmodern culture, the authors instead advocated a “wholesale change in the way Christians are doing and being the church” (ix). The book is not intended to be prescriptive, but the authors do cite many current models in their advocacy for the creativity they say is necessary to reach post-Christendom.

            To build their argument further, Frost and Hirsch define Christendom-thinking (remember Constantine?) by discussing four of its main elements. First, the traditional church has been an attractional model where lost people are asked to come to a building to find Christ. Second, there has been a dualistic framework for separating the sacred from the secular. As such, Christendom has placed a premium on sacred places for meeting. Third, the Christendom model is hierarchal with a separation of clergy and laity. Fourth, even the sacraments have become institutionalized and have lost their meaning.

            The authors counter this irrelevant model with a post-Christendom church model. Instead of being attractional, Frost and Hirsch advocate a missional approach with the church going to the lost instead of asking them to come to church. They also advocate neutral space where lost people can be met in a nonthreatening environment. They say that average Christians should lead the ministry of the church instead of relying on a hierarchal system of authority. And they promote a messianic or Hebraic renewal of Christianity’s initial roots to discover the deeper meaning behind the sacraments.

            Part of what the authors promote is valid. The traditional church has indeed lost its understanding of meaning behind the tradition. But to advocate a radical overhaul of the church might be considered reckless, rebellious, and redundant (that would preach if I had a poem to close with). Frost’s and Hirsch’s argument is paradoxical at worst and a wake up call for the church at best.

Some of what the authors promote is reckless. To abandon the entire historical church model on the whims of one emerging culture might not be warranted. Granted the church should adapt the medium to reach the current generation, but the authors philosophically identify the medium as the message, so I think there is perhaps some confusion as to what defines the church at its core, the true biblical functions of the church and the reality of the gospel message.

The authors could also be accused of rebellion. Rebellion can be revolutionary (see Lenin). Rebellion  could also be mutinous (see Bligh). Rebellion can also be foundational for a new identity (see Tea Party). I simply wonder if the  great majority of Christian history needs corrective action versus switching sides.

Much of what the authors promote is redundant. Although the book is sprinkled with various diagrams and charts to identify the church and culture, it seems that most of the information presented is simply an integration of ideas from current social sciences. Their vocabulary is definitely fresh, but it seems that nothing the authors endorse is new to a healthy historical and biblical church model. The church has never previously used the term “not yet Christians,” for example, but they have used the term prospects. Even their APEPT five-fold ministry formula is in reality an adaptation of the Pauline teaching method in Ephesians.

It is true that an unhealthy imbalance has been generated as the church has historically ignored apostolic and prophetic leadership, but to say that it has been nonexistent is to be naive to Christian history. Therefore, the authors’ arguments should not fall upon deaf ears in the West, but it should be read within a larger historical perspective. For this reason the book has some valid missiological implications for planting churches cross-culturally.

However, perhaps the greatest fault of the book is the potential to fall into the same snare for which it denounces the traditional church. Christendom established a certain mode of doing church. The authors identify both a new model and new mode for doing church, and almost in an either-or approach, they say the West should jump off the old wagon and onto the new. Even if the main points of the argument are valid, Frost and Hirsch would do well to balance their new vision with a broader historical perspective. 

Review of David Garrison's Church Planting Movements

Garrison, David. Church Planting Movements: How God is Redeeming a Lost World. Richmond,

Va.: WigTake Resources, 2003.

Can be ordered through Amazon.com here

David Garrison takes a descriptive approach in his book to define the phenomenon called church planting movements whereby churches reproduce rapidly. In his book he outlines a brief history of his personal involvement with the study as well as an overview of the general parameters that define a church planting movement or CPM. A scientific study by no means, Garrison’s book is based on observations and reports from International Mission Board field personnel, national conventions and other protestant sources. Throughout these narrative descriptions, he sprinkles CPM teaching points such as the POUCH method typical in CPM churches.

            In part 2, he tells the geographic story of how church planting movements are breaking out all over the world. In Asia he begins the story with India’s billion-strong population as he describes a CPM incidence across several geographic points resulting in 4000 new churches planted within a 7 year period. He then moves to China to describe how a CPM there has resulted in a rate of 30,000 baptisms per day and thousands of house churches being planted each year. He describes other cases of CPM in Southeast Asia and especially highlights the Singapore home-cell mega church movement that has led to the forty-fold explosion of evangelical Christian adherents.

            Africa is also emphasized for its CPMs among the Muhaber in Ethiopia, the Maasai in Tanzania and the Teso people of Uganda. He then turns his attention to the Islamic world where some CPMs are breaking out in undisclosed locations. Latin America has also experienced CPMs among the Kekchi people of Guatemala. Interestingly, Europe seems to be the least frequent in the CPM phenomena, but there are emerging movements among refugees and gypsies there.

            In North America, Garrison points back to the nineteenth century for one example of a church planting movement, a phenomenon considered a revival at the time. Other examples of protestant CPM-like phenomena include a cell church model in Pennsylvania and explosive church growth at Saddleback, Willow Creek, and the Bethany World Prayer Center.

            In part 3, he outlines 10 universal elements present in observed CPMs. Then he lists 10 characteristics of most CPMs. Finally, he lists observed barriers to CPM that must be removed because they are the seven deadly sins against God’s movement.

In chapter 12, Garrison appears to deal with the theology of a church planting movement by describing the biblical basis for CPM characteristics. Only at the end of the book does he deal with practical or logistical issues like the definition of church, how volunteers can be used even though outsiders must keep a low profile, the role of foreign funding and formal theological education in a CPM environment.

Chapter 16 is a practical workbook for identifying and managing the universal elements, characteristics and obstacles.

Although he did a good job in describing CPMs occurring throughout the world, there are a few areas where Garrison falls short. He somewhat fails to communicate that these observations are from a descriptive rather than prescriptive approach. In fact the entire book format lends itself to being a self-help document for churches wishing to start their own CPM. Because he is not explicit about these matters, the tone of the book is more of a how-to manual rather than a celebratory documentation. He even includes a whole section entitled “Launch Pad” as a diagnostic workbook for individual churches to discover their CPM readiness. In an evangelical world full of quick fixes for church growth, this propensity toward prescription weakens the book’s overall effect. 

Review of Wade Akins' Pioneer Evangelism

Thomas Wade Akins, Pioneer Evangelism: Growing Churches and Planting New Ones That are Self-Supporting Using New Testament Methods (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Junta de Missoes Nacionais, 1999)

You can download a free PDF copy in multiple languages here

Having served in Vietnam and Brazil, Wade Akins is now a retired missionary from the International Mission Board. Using the materials he formulated on the field, he now trains church planters in Tennessee. His Pioneer Evangelism training was effective in raising the level of church planting substantially in Brazil.

Pioneer Evangelism is a program that Wade Akins implemented after returning to Brazil from his first stateside assignment as an International Mission Board missionary. During his first term, he had been personally involved in starting twelve new churches in Minas Gerais, Brazil, but he thought this was not rapid enough. So in his second term he implemented training materials largely influenced and borrowed from Charles Brock and Curtis Sergeant. As he shifted his focus from hands-on church planting to training nationals, he saw sixty-three new congregations started within two years. This book is a compilation of the training materials that were used to train these nationals.

            At the beginning of the manual, Akins outlines the differences between traditional models of church planting and what he calls the Pioneer Evangelism model. To make his point, he defines the leadership roles of bishops, deacons and elders within the framework of what is understood as the functions of the church. Akins correlates the leadership offices of apostle, prophet, evangelist and teacher to the functions of church. In doing so, he places the office or gift of evangelist within the reach of any person in the congregation. “These are the people we are calling ‘pioneers’ in the Pioneer Evangelism ministry” (22). His main point is that anyone can be an evangelist if they would only commit themselves.

            After a brief survey of definitions involved in the manual, Akins presents his training material in four parts. The first part, which he labels the principles, involves his ecclesiological philosophy behind this shift in his missiological thinking. He then presents the practicality of his manual, a basic guide for implementing Charles Brock’s materials in the Pioneer Evangelism model. There is also a planning section in which he utilizes Curtis Sergeant’s methodology for breaking the process down into manageable cycles. Finally, he includes appendices of Charles Brock’s, Waylon Moore’s and Christy Akins Brawner’s training materials. The appendices make up over half of the entire book.

            Akins’ basic methodology is to recruit lay persons to become appointed evangelists for an existing church. These evangelists find lost persons of peace in a targeted area and begin inductive bible studies in their homes or in another neutral location. Utilizing this person’s circle of influence, more people are attracted to form an evangelistic bible study through which people can hear the gospel and be saved. Those who are saved are then trained for further expansion into yet other groups using the same materials. Once several groups have been formed, they are intentionally combined for worship services and formed into a local church. Newly formed local churches then seek to reproduce the same process for starting new groups.

            In short, Akin’s book is a one-stop guide for starting bible studies with nationals. His approach is that of a trainer for trainers. The materials he presents show how to form a group, present the gospel, disciple the converts, train them to reproduce the teaching and multiply into further groups. As such, Akin compiles some simple training that church planting practitioners have used with success and presents it with relative brevity and candor. 

Akins states that his purpose for writing the Pioneer Evangelism program was “to bring every person to know Jesus Christ as the first priority in life” (3). This is a lofty goal for missions let alone for a training manual. His unstated purpose, though, is to provide a training manual for missionary practitioners that compiles proven programs and presents them in a straightforward format. Because of his emphasis on training lay persons in evangelism, the manual is to be training for trainers.

            Akins accomplishes his goal for presenting a program for training national lay people. According to his personal testimony of its success in Brazil, the program is valid for use in cross-cultural situations. However, it is in essence one program among many that exist. Whereas Akins’ slant is on equipping the lay person to do evangelism, other programs take different approaches. The success of Akins’ presentation is in its minimalism in relation to evangelism training. Not much is needed to begin this program, and any materials involved accompany the manual in an appendix. This is a positive facet to being so straightforward, but it might present a too simplistic approach for some. 

Positive Aspects of the Book

Effective Church Planting Model

The church planting model that Akins presents really does work in some contexts. Akins presents a plan that he personally has proven. The introductory testimony of Brazil’s rapid growth is reflective of an emerging church planting movement. Many books have been written from a theoretical perspective, but Akins brings practical experience into play. As such, Akins argument for using the Pioneer Evangelism method is only strengthened. The model of starting new groups is basic and simple to implement.    

Empowering the Laity

Akins takes a biblical approach to his church planting process. As Akins shows from his survey of Scripture regarding the role of pastor, the average church member should be equipped to do ministry. Each church member should be expected to be involved in the evangelistic outreach of the church. Akins capitalizes on this biblical principle. Perhaps this is one of the most positive elements of the Pioneer Evangelism program.

Evangelistic Emphasis

Akins’ program expresses the heart of the gospel. Akins believes that various evangelism methods like “personal testimony, sharing the plan of salvation directly, Bible studies without studies, Bible studies using indirect methods [and] storying” (48) can be used successfully to reach people for Christ. Although he claims that the Pioneer Evangelism method is not a program that can be canned and presented, he does a great job in compiling the best of many evangelism programs to create a toolbox of potential evangelistic instruments.

Negative Aspects of the Book

Clergy/Laity Confusion

There is some confusion as to what Akins defines as pioneers. At first, he says that evangelists are “those that proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ with the purpose of winning souls,” and that “these are the people we are calling ‘pioneers’ in the Pioneer Evangelism ministry” (22). Later, he says a team of disciples in a church “is what we call the Pioneers in this training manual” (25). He insists that the trainers in this program must be the pastors, but he then explains that the lay pioneers are paid or supported by the churches as well. Each pioneer must become a PEL, or pioneer evangelism leader, but he later equates the PEL to a pastor’s role while the saints are the lay people. In the beginning, the pioneer is an evangelist. He wins souls and afterwards teaches these new believers the basic doctrines of the faith. However, the next step is to raise up local leaders, leaving he work in their hands, in order for him to start new work in a new neighborhood or city (44). This confusion in roles could be diminished or greatly reduced without such a sharp distinction between clergy and laity, but Akins cannot get away from the two traditional categories.

Complex Reproduction

Although Akins’ model is straightforward at the beginning stage of starting a new group, it

involves a complexity at the reproductive level that unnecessarily burdens the process. Perhaps

this is due to the inability to see each group as a church, Akins waits until several groups are formed to combine their strength into one congregation. This is perhaps practical in areas where groups are formed at a rapid rate, but in areas where groups are separated by large distances or even subcultures, the complexity of combining groups lends itself to a cumbersome structure. It would be much simpler to allow the individual groups to exist as separate churches. Related to the complex burden of starting multiple groups before a worship service can be created is the issue of sequentialism. It seems that Akins’ model is rather linear in thought, something that might not work well in an eastern environment where step-by-step progression is not valued.

House Church with Traditional Baggage

There are several points throughout his book where Akins seems to deal with his own internal ecclesiological conflict. At one point, Akins talks about training new leaders in democratic principles for church polity and the need for strong leadership to govern the group (40). At other times, although he cites Paul’s examples of house church as the biblical model, he speaks of training pioneers in sermon preparation, something that is typically more associated with traditional church models. Moreover, he insists that several good news groups must be combined to make a worship service. The more traditional elements of the western church seem to direct his end vision of what a church must look like. Akins insists that laymen must become officers of the church by fulfilling the evangelism role. If lay people are to have an official position, there is no distinction between laity and clergy; however, this confusion is more reflective of traditional church models than simple house churches.  

Applications to Church Planting

Function of Church

Akins defines church functions as the roles that are given in Ephesians 4:11–12. Although others tie the function of the church to passages like Acts 2:42–47, Akins outlines four functions that each church must fulfill (22). The sending role, the preaching role, the evangelizing role and the training role make up Akins’ ecclesiastical utility. Although there is some confusion as to the difference between pastor as trainer and evangelist who later becomes a trainer, Akins believes these elements should exist in healthy churches.

The problem then arises when a new church plant is seeking its identity as a growing church. If a church plant does not ever have a member who becomes pastor but only a trainer who is an evangelist, it might never see itself as a church. In his training manual, Akins offers no instruction for the place of fellowship and ministry as a function of the church. Because his coaching leans so heavily to the evangelistic side, there are potential problems with helping a maturing body to function more healthily.    

Western Emphasis on Intellectual Decisions

Akins’ teaching is a reflection upon western Christianity’s emphasis on making decisions for Christ. Akins does not approach the elements of pre-discipleship or household conversion as is so often prevalent in church planting movements. Moreover, Akins’ approach is that of a classroom discussion where a lecturer passes information on to her students. Granted he admonishes an inductive approach to bible study, but his training methods are more of direct instruction rather than allowance for self-theologizing.

            In some locations throughout the world, missionaries must train by hands-on example instead of classroom instruction. Although Brazil is open to this type of traditional western style, some countries like Russia and some people groups like the Udmurt and Chuvash find it difficult to understand linear instruction. They instead must see the work being done.

Church Planting Funding

Another issue at stake in the pioneering church planting model is that of funding. Although Akins does not address the issue of funding in his training material, church planters worldwide have to deal with the issue of who will pay for the ongoing training. If training is linked to materials that must be reproduced or neutral places to rent, at some point money has to be discussed. Akins readily accepts the idea of a self-supporting church, but he does not address the funding of pioneer work where there are no churches or where an existing church has no means to produce photocopies of training materials. This will be an ongoing discussion as missionaries try to find more reproducible ways at lower costs to spread the gospel.

            Akins’ book is a step toward more rapid reproductive evangelism, but it is still not church planting movement methodology. Therefore, what Akins offers is an invaluable tool in the church planting toolbox. However, it is only one tool and must be used with other tools to see its potential for greater reproducibility.

Positive Examples of the Use of Statistics in Missiology

The church has a plethora of examples where men have been moved by God’s Spirit to make seemingly illogical moves. “For many, however, God uses statistics to reveal the presence or lack of presence of the Holy Spirit around the world.”[1] It is commonly accepted that “Ralph Winter, Luis Bush, Patrick Johnstone, and many other mission leaders who have helped awaken the church to places no one was working have all used statistics extensively.”[2] But other missions leaders like Jerome and William Carey also made use of statistic analysis. These positive instances are noteworthy, as they shed light on the affirmative influence statistics have had on missiology.

Jerome, one of the early church fathers, could hardly be described as a missiologist. Yet amidst the doctrinal conflict that raged between the Donatists and Catholics, Jerome was revolutionary in his statistical review of the missionary progress of the church. David Barrett claims that Jerome used primitive statistical analysis as he “surveyed the rapid advance of the schismatic Donatist Church among the North African Berber and Punic populations.”[3] This slight but significant exercise in statistics reveals just how early statistics had already begun to interact with missiology.

William Carey has been hailed as the father of the modern missions movement. In Section III of his classic Enquiry[4] there are 23 graphic missiological surveys outlining geography, land mass, demographics and religion. The statistical information contained in these surveys lead Carey to conclude that there is a loud call “to Christians, and especially to ministers, to exert themselves to the utmost in their several spheres of action, and to try to enlarge them as much as possible.”[5] It could be contended that Carey’s use of statistics to base his missiological strategy was what established missiology as a science.

In association with the former Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, David Barrett was a modern missiologist who made no apology for his far-reaching exploitation of statistics in missions. His scientific method during the latter part of the twentieth century was based largely upon the social “science of ethnographic research: participant observation, informal interviews, and formal interviews.”[6] But his applications of those data were probably more comprehensive than earlier missiologists. Dayton and Frazer seem to indicate the Lausanne Committee adoption of sociological terminology like people groups grew out of a focus on mission strategies similar to Barrett’s scientific methodology.

The reason we identify them and group them together is because of the task of sharing Christ with them. Because they form a long network of social relationships and share a common set of values and attitudes, they respond in similar ways. This is true of how they respond to Christ as presented by particular evangelists. When they are responsive, the growth of the church follows the natural lines of social relationships that bind the group together. When they are resistant to the gospel, most of the people in the same social network will resist it.[7]

While Barrett’s statistical analyses have led to current missiological terms like evangelized and unreached, his engagement in scenario planning and futurist narratives was unprecedented and to some unacceptable. Barrett’s study of people movements led him to make predictions:

What we are here primarily concerned to investigate is the one problem: to what extent, if at all, are these movements basically similar in origin and in expansion, wherein does this similarity lie, and what overall explanation does it imply? Or, shifting the focus of the problem slightly: what are the conditions necessary for independency to emerge in a given tribe or region? Or, the practical application: to what extent can future outbreaks be predicted, and where will they take place?[8]

And although these guesses created a division between missiologists who could accept them and those that could not, there was still a base commonality that Barrett proposed. “For our purposes the number of nations with a minimum gospel witness, the number of people or people groups without any witness is important only if we identify where they are and set about to reach them one by one.”[9] According to Barrett good statistics could lead to more lost people being identified, and therefore statistics validated missiology’s purposes.

After a restructuring and renaming of the Southern Baptist International Mission Board, David Garrison’s statistical study on the emergence of church planting movements led to a discontinuous change in strategy. In his book Garrison tells the demographic story of how rapidly reproducing churches are breaking out all over the world. He relates how India’s billion-strong population is experiencing a statistically curious phenomenon that has resulted in over four thousand new churches within a seven year period. In China there are now more than 30,000 baptisms every day and thousands of house churches being planted each year. A Singapore example highlights a home-cell mega church phenomenon that has led to the forty-fold explosion of evangelical Christian adherents. Garrison systematically analyzed these observations, and his resulting categories of characteristics, universal elements and common barriers led the International Mission Board to place a heavier emphasis on reproductive church planting for more than a decade.

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[1] Dave Williams, “Redirecting Members of Short-Term Mission to Unreached People Groups,” Global Missiology 3 (April 2008): 14. Cited 19 February 2009. Online: http://www.globalmissiology.org/english/docs_pdf/williams_short-term_unreached_peoples_4_2008.pdf.

[2] Dave Williams, “Redirecting,” 14.

[3] David B. Barrett, Schism and Renewal in Africa: An Analysis of Six Thousand Contemporary Religious Movements (Ely House London W.I.: Oxford University Press, 1968),  3. 

[4] The complete title of William Carey’s work is An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens. In Which the Religious State of the Different Nations of the World, the Success of Former Undertakings, and the Practicability of Further Undertakings, Are Considered. Cited on 19 February 2009. Online: http://www.wmcarey.edu/carey/enquiry/anenquiry.pdf.

[5] William Carey, Enquiry, 66.

[6] Roger S. Greenway and Timothy M. Monsma, Cities: Missions’ New Frontier (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2000),  134. 

[7]  Edward R. Dayton and David A. Frazer Planning Strategies for World Evangelization (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990),  29.

[8] Barrett, Schism and Renewal, 5.

[9] Dayton and Frazer, Planning Strategies, 30-31. 

Year-Round Church Farming

It’s raining today in Moscow, and I really wanted to go for a nice long run. It sort of reminds me of a conversation I had a few years back with some strategy coordinators in Russia about “seasonal” church planting; I even wrote this up as one of my teaching lessons at Bryansk Bible Institute.  Growing up on a farm, I learned early in life that planting is not a year-round activity but farming is. Maybe we should reconsider the name of our present ministry; instead of church-planting, it might be more accurate to call it church-farming.

Indigenous church planters in Bryansk, Russia, often reported that one of the most frustrating things is the frequency of time periods when nothing they did seemed to produce fruit.  It was as if almost every season of the year had its own unique difficulties. During the winter time, people were rarely on the streets; it was so cold that folks did not want to stop long to talk about Christ. The springtime brought some interaction with lots of national holidays, but people were still not going to spend lots of time on cold, wet, and dirty streets as the snow melted off. During the summertime, the exact opposite was true; there was a more relaxed atmosphere on the warmer streets, but few people stayed in the city. In Russia, the summer time is the best time to get out to the dachas (summer houses) where gardens were quickly planted for short crops before the autumn cold settled in. The autumn was the time when people came back to the city to start back to school or work. It was a time of reorganizing life and beginning another year’s journey.  

Back home in Georgia, the humid southern weather allowed us to plant seeds in the late spring. We spent a lot of time, energy, and sometimes money to make sure those seeds received plenty of water. Rural southern boys even made fun of each other if they came to school tired because they had spent the previous evenings “toting irrigation pipes.” ( I guess it’s a Southern rural thing; the humor isn’t necessarily transferable).  But this extra work made for a long summer of watering, spraying for bugs, deweeding, etc., and it finally culminated in a mid-summer to early fall crop of peanuts, corn, peas, watermelon, and squash. Early fall might allow for a crop of wheat or barley, some root plants or pumpkins, but by late fall the planting had long been done in Georgia, and fields were turned into firing ranges for whatever birds were in season and for the wide variety of creative deer stands (sigh… but I am digressing.) As for farming, the fall was a time for storing and selling grains. It was a time for parking the combines and securing the best conditions for the land. The winter was a time for organizing barns and attending farming equipment auctions. For those who adhere to the notion of prescribed burning, it wouldn’t be rare to see their acreage of pine trees on fire in a controlled burn to reduce the insect population. And if we ever saw snow, those days represented a time to burn logs on the fire and sharpen up the equipment for the next planting season. These were the planning days for farming the next crops.

Taking the south Georgia farming schedule as an example, I organized our church planting efforts in Bryansk in a similar fashion. Due to the aforementioned sociological difficulties, our church planting team there decided to map out our missions year accordingly: Plan-Pray-Plant-Pull. During the Winter when few people on the street wanted to interact, we met with any existing groups and bible studies meeting in homes or church buildings and took them through a vision casting period. We asked them to dream big for the next year about what God might want to do through them. These plans were written down and used as a guide for the rest of the year. During the Spring, we taught these groups how to prayerwalk. We prayerwalked those areas where we were asking God for new groups. We set prayer goals for enlisting prayer supporters; we put up a website to communicate prayer needs; we constructed volunteer requests for churches in the US to come help with specific needs and asked them to begin praying about these plans. During the Summer when most folks went outside but few stayed in the city, we began to plant spiritual seeds. We started meeting with city administration and businesses in those geographic areas to enlist their support for our community development plans. As we continued to prayer walk in the areas where we wanted to start a new group, we began going to every home at least a couple of days per week and giving them free bibles, gospel tracts, or invitations to a late summer/early fall concert, Jesus Film showing , a Fall Bible Study, or an outdoor children’s VBS in a neutral location. Some of these contacts produced great connections and some conversions. But Autumn typically brought the harvest as we gathered people. As people came back to the city and back to school, we would advertise free bibles or films and a free bible study with tea and cookies. By the end of the fall, we often had at least a couple of new groups going, and the momentum continued. This would rotate back into a time of planning again as the winter once again rolled around.

I’m not saying that starting new groups cannot or even should not take place year round. In fact, we did have some new groups start in the spring or summer instead of the fall. But I’m just saying that this rotational system helped us to keep our focus, to stay in prayer, to sharpen our tools, and to plant and harvest at natural times. As I close these lines, I am reminded of the fact that we should be ready both in season and out of season. In fact, I just had to get the door for my wife who is going for a run right now in the rain. I said, “But Leslie, it’s raining outside.” And she answered, “Yeah, and I’ve still got to run.” May the Lord make us instant in season and out of season, in springtime or harvest, in sunshine or in the rain.

Selling Diamonds and Church Planting

There’s a lot of psychology behind sales. Entire library shelves and book stores are filled with books related to the psychology of selling, marketing, and conversational transaction. This is in no way meant to be an essay on psychology, but there are some insights that can be gleaned from selling and applied to church planting. Because of the world’s history of charlatans selling magic snake oil in county fairs, door-to-door manipulators of weaker wills, and television evangelists who promise God’s blessing at a premium price, many people are wary of sales in general and especially of talking about sales’ relationship with church planting. If taken out of context, it would seem that I am about to advocate manipulative maneuvers to generate a new church start, but I assure you that this is far from my intention. Actually, what I intend to share in this post is what I’ve personally discovered in my sales experience that relates to the psychological state of the church planter himself. So, with that disclaimer, allow me to share some insights.

During my seminary years back in the early 90s, I was like most of my fellow students: poor. Even though my wife and I both had degrees in education and I had already had experience in teaching high school, the schedule of classes and work load for seminary required that both of us find flexible jobs. I had also pastored for several years, but in a seminary town it seemed even the most tenured of students had church positions at least a two-hour drive from school. Seminary wasn’t cheap (and we were hungry), so after a couple of months’ prayer the Lord opened up part-time (around 30 hours per week) jobs at the Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh. Leslie worked at Sears selling computers to an emerging techno market (this was back when IBM’s PS/2 had just been released with a whole 40 MB harddrive and a 14.4K modem!), and I landed a job in the mall selling diamond rings to potential couples in the research triangle. I enjoyed learning about the products, the customers, and the process, and I became salesman of the month for several months of my 2 years there; but what I learned from this experience was all the more priceless as I applied the lessons to planting churches in Russia.

The Start of the Conversation. We had many people who came through the store from morning til night. Many of them were “browsers,” and they let you know quickly by telling you “just looking” as soon as you said hello. Some were annoying “browsers” who were just killing time at the mall; you could tell them by the large slurpee in their hands (or the oversized chocolate chip cookie, the steamy soft pretzel, or the aromatic cup of java). Most of our sales guys would simply ignore these folks, but a couple of us made a game at seeing how many “just looking”s we could turn into actual sales by offering to clean their rings or by asking if they had seen the very latest piece we had. Some were “potentials;” these were the folks who stopped to look at something very specific. These were the folks you wanted to spend time with, and in a competitive market, these were the ones that sales guys “claimed” if they came in for a second look.

Regardless of the status of the customer, the two most difficult points in the sales experience was the start of the conversation and the close. To know how to start up a conversation without sounding hokey or tin was a challenge, but once you got beyond the initial words, things seemed to flow naturally. I found I could just say, “Hi, welcome to Gordon’s, I’m glad you came in (insert smile).” To preclude the “just looking” comment, I would often quickly add, “Please, have a look around and let me know if I can show you something.” Sometimes the very fact that I had just offered to ignore the customer would prompt a startled reaction like, “oh…can I see your diamonds?”

You see, I knew the fact that some of the folks came into the store meant that they were seeking something; they just didn’t want to be bullied. Church planting is like that. I’ve had the opportunity to work with Russian guys to start new groups in Bryansk and St. Petersburg. Almost every time, the initial start-up is one of the most difficult moments. But once you’re able to “begin the conversation” (by forming a bible study group with a family or friends in a home, by inviting the public to a free Bible distribution, by starting an English class, or by hosting a VBS or film showing), the second and subsequent meetings seem to flow more naturally. Jesus started several conversations with one-liners like “give me a drink of water” (John 4:7) and “get out of that tree” (Luke 19:5), but the fact is that he began the conversation!

The Deal. When I sold jewelry, I saw each interaction with the customer as a time of relationship building. I really wanted to know why they were buying a piece, and often the dialogue intrigued me. One of the most touching times was when a woman came in to buy a pretty large and expensive sapphire ring. As we talked and laughed about jewelry and life, I asked her about the significance of her purchase. She shocked me when she said that her husband of 30 years had just died. She started to cry and said, “He’s gone. He left me with a pile of insurance money and no one to share it with. I’m just buying stuff to try to help me quit hurting so badly.” I don’t cry, but at that point, I almost lost it. I found that really listening to the customer was crucial. I had the opportunity to share how the love of Christ can fill a void that material things cannot. I knew I could have lost the sale with that conversation, but she not only appreciated my candor, she indeed became a repeat customer.

Church planting requires really listening. It is a time of relationship building. Too often church planters view the church planting process as a simple function: plant & reap. But the growth needed between the start and finish of a church plant requires a lot of listening, a lot of care, a lot of pastoring. If you’re planting a church and don’t feel that you are gifted as a pastor yourself, look for that spiritual giftedness within the group. A group will only realize itself under the leadership of a listener. Even though the apostle Paul started churches in record time (sometimes within a day; other times within a couple of weeks), he did so by spending massive amounts of time in talking and listening and crying (Acts 20:31).

Closing the deal. If starting the conversation is difficult, closing the deal is intricate. I made a lot of mistakes in selling jewelry by attempting to close the deal too early. No customer wants to feel rushed. Sometimes I dragged out the conversation for too long. One time, a young business woman buying a diamond tennis bracelet finally blurted out to me, “Ok, reel me in and close the deal.” How you close the deal can determine whether your sale will be a later return. You really want to close well.

I’ve seen some of my colleagues struggle with how to get the bible study to finally make that step into becoming a new church plant. They agonize over whether the group is ready. They wrestle with whether the group is fulfilling all of the five functions of a church and whether the group truly understands the ordinances. But what I’ve noticed most is that the church planter is usually more uptight about this final step than the new church is. Maybe its because of an overprotective mothering instinct within the planter, a fear of potential failure in a false start, or some deeper issue the planter has with the demands and standards of his organization; but often times it’s the planter and not the people who tend to mess up the close. After teaching what it means to be a church and seeing people get saved and baptized, I have discovered it’s best to let the group “say yes to the dress.” There are ways in which a church planter can help or hinder that step, but a group knows when it is approaching that invisible line of becoming a church.

Follow-up. At Gordon’s, I kept a journal of everyone I sold jewelry to. When I made a sale, I asked them to write for me their birthday and anniversary. Most of them did, so a week prior to those dates and on special events like Christmas, I would send a card with a personal note that thanked them for their business and wished them the best on their birthday, etc. Interestingly, this not only proved successful in providing repeat customers, I actually became friends with some of them.

When a church is planted, the planter needs to follow up with ongoing contact. Paul did that for his churches (each of the epistles is a letter to a church he’d had influence). There is a point of diminishing leadership, because the regular steps of Model, Assist, Watch, and Leave (MAWL) are valid. But there is also a friendship that must be valued in the process. One of the greatest joys I had a couple of years ago was to return to the church plant on Vasili’s Island in St. Petersburg and spend time with the pastor and members with whom we partnered to plant this church. Still going strong and healthy, it was a joy to hear that they had also taken the initiative to start new groups and support their own missionaries. I was glad that we followed up with them.

Of course, there are more lessons than these that come from my sales experience, as I’m sure that you have some wonderful insights from the experiences God has given you. Hit reply and share those!