Pastors of growing churches know all too well the old adage of there being two sides to every coin. The excitement and energy of a growing congregation brings with it new needs and a constant demand of more people to help carry out the ministry.
When the numbers are lacking, the pressure increases on the pastor and staff to solve every problem, run every small group, set-up every service, and clean every toilet. The stress can become so heavy that the growth feels more like a crisis than a blessing.
Church Planting Movements are acts of God, but it’s amazing how much mankind is capable of interfering with them. As with most of God's works among us, He allows us to actively cooperate with Him or become obstacles—consciously or unconsciously—to His desired purposes. Missionaries involved in Church Planting Movements have identified several very human courses of action that tend to obstruct, slow or otherwise hinder CPMs.
What is a Church Planting Movement and what does one look like? David Garrison investigated this question by studying church planting movements around the world. His approach was to observe what God was doing and then to describe what he saw.
In his pioneering book, “Church Planting Movements,” he defined a Church Planting Movement as follows: “A Church Planting Movement is a [1] rapid multiplication [2] of indigenous churches [3] planting churches [4] that sweeps through a people group or population segment.”
We were not saved for isolation. We were saved into community. Through the cross of Christ, God made us family not only with himself, but also with everyone who trusts in Christ alone for eternal life. God has gathered under his roof an enormous crew of former rebels, and he has turned us into family.
While we look forward to worshiping Jesus as a family forever in his castle, our King and heavenly Father tells us not to wait until heaven to pursue each other. He tells us that now is the time to live in community together for the glory of his name, for the joy of our own souls, and for bringing more people into his kingdom (Heb. 10:24–25).
Last month Deborah and I were in Indonesia, Singapore, and Taiwan teaching Asian pastors, church-planters, and missionaries about discipleship and leadership. Same ole boring strokes, again. After our Sunday night session a young Indonesian leader asked, “how do you define discipleship?” Good question. Here’s my answer, and more.
