The most important thing to do to reach the world’s unevangelized and neglected peoples is to plant small, simple, easily reproducible churches. It is estimated that over ninety percent of the churches being planted in the world today are small, house-type churches that are led by non-professional leaders. They are easily reproducible because they are not dependent on buildings or programs to spread the gospel. Seminary trained leaders are not required to proclaim the gospel in the villages and slums of the world. In fact, Western models of church do not work in most of Africa, India, China, and the Muslim worlds.
Disciple making is the heart of planting church planting churches and preaching the kingdom of God. Making disciples gets at the heart of being and doing church. There is no short cut and no substitute. There is no program or school that can disciple people. People make disciples, one person at a time.
There is a kingdom that is above all other kingdoms, a government that rules all other governments, and that is the Kingdom of God. God is the king over all kings. It says in Daniel 2, “God changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings.” (Daniel 2:21)
The apostolic foundation in the church is the ambition God places in the hearts of His people to make disciples and plant churches where Christ has not been proclaimed. When this ambition spreads in a community of believers, a culture takes hold that empowers a church community to have radical faith for the impossible. Apostolic passion enables a church to live boldly for the purposes of God. This is important because apostolic ambition originates in the heart of God: He longs for His Son to be worshiped by the nations and peoples who have never heard about Jesus.
Every church planting movement should be focused on encouraging people to express their love for God in their heart language and culture style. Churches that are racially or linguistically mixed are important for demonstrating reconciliation, but may make it impossible for most people to feel at home in the church.
Babies do not grow just by being babies. They have to be fed, to be loved, to obey their parents as they grow older. Simply being church does not mean we grow spiritually. A baby is fully human when it is born, but it needs to be fed, loved, guided in life by caring parents, and taught important truths. The same is true for a community of Jesus followers. When two or three people gather in His name, they are church. To grow up spiritually they need to express commitment to one another, to study and apply God’s word in an accountable fashion to their lives, to reach out to others, to worship together, to give of their resources, to pray, and to commit themselves to obey the great commission and submit to their spiritual leaders. Acts 2:42-47 shows this happening in the church. You can break the growth essentials they practiced into four elements of healthy church life:
The key to how we do church is discovered in how we define church. We can define church many ways. We can define it by what we want to get by going to church. We can define it by how we have always done church. And we can define it by how it is done in our culture. But there is one a problem with defining church in any or all of these ways: it may not be how God wants us to be and do church.
Keys unlock what is hidden from plain sight. Keys also open up treasures that are stored for safe-keeping. Jesus said to His disciples that He would give them the keys to the kingdom of God. The seven keys to building church planting movements are not secrets for the elite or for those who have special knowledge, but they do unlock principles that seem to be hidden to most people.
