leader> magazine ISSUE 03 | OC TOBER 2011
in this issuE ... 1 | What sort of church-planting? Guest editor Ngwiza Mnkandla asks what kind of churches we need to plant 2 | Global trends 4-5 | 8 reasons to church plant 6-9 | How to church plant Two equipping articles by international team leader Steve Thomas 6-7 | How?: Preparing 8-9 | How?: Supporting 10-12 | News from the nations We’re part of a glorious and diverse global family. These pages give you snapsnot of some of the church-planting going on across that family.
“We are pleased to publish leader magazine to serve our Salt & Light international family of churches. Through it we aim to build family, spread news, sow vision and learn from each other! We would welcome your ideas, suggested articles or comments – please contact the editorial team.” Steve Thomas International Team leader Steve blogs at www.saltlight.org and on Facebook.
published by Salt & Light Ministries an international family of churches together on mission Editorial team Steve Thomas (UK), John Isaacs (USA/Canada), Stanley Mehta (India), Ngwiza Mnkandla (Africa) Editor Andy O’Connell andyo@saltlight.org Editorial assistant Oliver Russell oliverr@saltlight.org www.saltlight.org international@saltlight.org +44 (0)1865 297440
what sort of church planting?
This edition of leader focuses on church-planting, a key aspect of our vision and one that the international team have explored together at their meetings in recent years. This edition draws from those discussions, with the help of guest editor Ngwiza Nnkandla, a significant leader in the global church-planting movement. “In 2005 I moved to Florida to work with the DAWN movement. One of our first tasks on arrival in Orlando was to find a spiritual home. We were in a hurry to do the rounds so we could settle down quickly. We visited many churches, sometimes several on any given Sunday. For the first time, we experienced what it was like to be on the receiving end as visitors and had a taste of what we had perhaps
inadvertently delivered to others over the years. Coming from Africa, three things immediately stood out to us. First, we felt that the church was highly institutionalized. In many cases it functioned like clockwork. The whole service felt so organized that even the Holy Spirit did not have a chance to interrupt. Packaged like a franchise, you knew precisely what to expect and when. continued overleaf
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International
Leaders Conference
Finding Our Voice Friday 17 to Sunday 19 February 2012 Oxford, UK
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TOP TEN GLOBAL TRENDS
1. Fueling the Future: We are running out of energy. At current production/ consumption trends, we are going to run out of existing energy by 2040. 2. The Innovation Economy: The transformation of the global economy based on the convergence of free trade, technology, democracy, driving new jobs, new markets, globalization, competition, peace and security. 3. The Next Workforce: What will be the global ripple effects of changes in the workforce in the West? 4. Longevity Medicine: The West is becoming older while the rest of the world is becoming younger. The West will invest more in longevity medicine to try and live longer. What implications will this have on the rest of the world? 5. The Future of Science: How many things that were considered science fiction will actually become reality as scientific breakthroughs occur and how will our lives be radically altered by these new inventions? 6. The Future of Global Security: How 9/11 changed the course of history and set a new order in place! Threats to individual freedom and life from criminals to terrorists to mind control. 7. The Future of Globalization: Cultures in Collision: The new realities of global trade and competition, the rise of China and India, the clash of cultures and values and the ideological battle for the future. 8. The Future of Climate Change: How the climate is changing and how we need to prepare for increased global warming, pollution and threats to health. How we must change. 9. The Future of the Individual: Navigating the threats from technology, governments, and ideologies in the struggle for human rights, liberty and the freedom of the individual. 10. The Future of America and China/India: How the destiny of these nations from capitalism, to democracy, to religion, to innovation and security – will shape the future. James Canton, www.globalfuturist.com
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Secondly, the pastor was the focus. The main show did not begin until he got up and in some places we went, people called in advance to find out if he was in and if he wasn’t, they missed the service that Sunday. He told us what to do and when, and our part was to facilitate his ministry. My heart went out to some of them as I saw the pressure they were under. Thirdly, for the programs to succeed, resources were needed and so invariably, the subject of money took centre stage. They were places where this was done in a way that was honoring to Christ but in some situations, we felt abused as strangers. Saturday nights and Sunday mornings were not the happiest of times in our family as the question of where we would try next would invariably have to be faced once more. To conclude that the above was true of every church we visited or every church in Orlando would be an unforgivable generalization. Suffice it to say that as I sat through service after service, many questions flashed through my mind. I began to question what ‘church’ is and what it is supposed to look like. I questioned why we come together and what is supposed to happen when we do? I began to dissect church life to see if the traditions we practice were biblical and how they played out in the Early Church. What difference did the presence or absence of the church make in any community? Of the thousands whose planting we were facilitating around the world, what impact were they making? What kind of churches were we planting? These and many other questions haunted my thoughts.
Global trends
My readings and observations on my travels around the world also left me worried about the Church’s preparedness for the unfolding trends that will hit our world in the next 5-20 years. These trends are going to shape our lives and the lives of the people we are trying to reach and for that reason, are at least worth some mention in our agendas. As somebody once remarked, “There are two constants in life, God and change!” While most secular prophets may not view the issues through the same lenses, they at least agree on the issues of concern. I consider Futurist James Canton’s top ten a very good summary of the major issues. See box ‘Top Ten global trends’
Only a little while ago, I would struggle with my kids for the telephone just to do my emails. Today, we have wireless broadband in the house that gives us access to more information than we can process in a lifetime. New technologies are leapfrogging even some of the latest innovations. Church planting strategies are set in this environment within and outside the church!
Strategies
Frank Viola (www.ptmin.org) helpfully identifies four broad biblical strategies:
The Jerusalem Strategy (Acts 2:14–8:3)
The apostles planted the church in Jerusalem together although Peter was the chief spokesperson. For a period of about eight years, the apostles led the church as it grew to a very large size. After the death of Stephen, persecution drove many from Jerusalem and new churches were planted throughout Palestine. One church sends out or loses many workers who then plant many churches. These churches were started by disciples who had sat under and been taught by the original apostles. Many of them had experienced church life for eight years. These disciples were then followed up by the apostles who confirmed their foundations. Antioch was one of these.
The Antioch Model (Acts 13:1–20:38)
Paul and Barnabas are released intentionally after prayer and fasting toward the task of planting new churches. They carry new seeds of the gospel to fresh soil. There was no ‘sinners prayer’. Conversion was immediate and radical. Baptism on the spot was the sign of conversion. Paul and Barnabas very quickly ‘abandoned’ the new believers sometimes in as little as three weeks (Thessalonica) but generally anywhere from four to eighteen months. Often, as the new believers were learning to crawl, they would be running for their lives leaving the new believers on their own without any officially appointed leadership. This demonstrated their confidence in the gospel they imparted. They believed that the new plant had all the seeds within it to spontaneously grow into maturity. All these seeds needed was protection from foreign elements as well as hindrances to growth and they would blossom.
church planting Six months to two years later, they would return to confirm the elders who had emerged within the church. Paul and his team did not plan to stay permanently.
The Ephesian Model (Acts 19:1-10)
In Ephesus, Paul established a training center at the Hall of Tyrannus where for two years, he trained church planters among whom it is assumed were men like; Titus from Antioch in Syria, Timothy from Lystra, Gaius from Derbe, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Sopator from Berea, and Tychicus and Trophimus from Ephesus itself. Just like Jesus, Paul lived with these men for roughly three years before sending them back to care for churches he had planted or to plant new ones all over Asia Minor like those planted by Epaphras in Colossae, Laodicea and Hierapolis. That is how all of Asia heard. Paul supported these men (20:34) while later, they became representatives from their churches to bring financial aid to Jerusalem.
The Roman Model
This was inverted transplantation. In the Jerusalem model, believers from one church were scattered all over. In Rome,
believers from all over, were carefully selected and brought together. Many scholars support the notion that Paul assembled a crack team from the different churches he had planted to start a cosmopolitan church in a cosmopolitan city – Rome. There is strong evidence to support this theory.
common Characteristics?
Are there approaches that are common to these various biblical models, and that we can learn from? • They often labored in teams. They were sent from centers where they would return to report back and to be refreshed before being sent out again. • Their strategy was largely urban. The rural areas were left to the new churches to reach but for the most part, they targeted cities. This also allowed for spontaneous expansion from these cities making the gospel indigenous. • The guidance of the Holy Spirit is prominent throughout the New Testament. Jesus is the center of the church. He owns the church, guides and directs it through the Holy Spirit and sees to its development through the gifts resident in each member.
Conclusion?
Statistics on the number of Christians in the world today vary depending on sources. A conservative estimate puts us around seven hundred and fifty million evangelicals. The need is great, the task is doable but the hour is late. The challenge to reach our generation is one we cannot shake off. We are watchmen on the walls and the blood of the ones who die because they did not hear the warning will be required from our hands if we fail to warn them. The promise through Habakkuk is that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord. While he will do it, we are called and privileged to participate in this exercise. Our strategies must be clear, our methods biblical, and our workers bearing the marks of the cross. Only these conditions will produce the kind of bride he will be proud of.
Ngwiza Mnkandla in based in Harare, Zimbabwe, and oversees the leadership of Faith Ministries. Until recently he led DAWN, the global church planting movement.
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8 reasons to Church plant Reason 1: extending God’s family
This first, most important point is made superbly by Newfrontiers senior leader Terry Virgo: “Church planting, it has been observed, is the most effective form of evangelism. Some statisticians have done the sums and worked out that you get more individuals saved through church planting than from any other form of evangelism. Sadly, however, by simply adding up numbers they are in danger of missing the point. Church planting is not simply a matter of getting a number of individuals saved; it is about the advance of God’s community in the earth. Historically, our attitude to evangelism has tended to start with the individual. Once saved, he or she has been free to pursue the secondary matter of finding the church of their choice if they so desire. I believe that we should evaluate church planting from a completely different perspective. God has always been interested in having a people, a family.”
Reason 2: evangelistic effectiveness
If the extension of God’s family is the motive, then it will also be true that church planting is an effective evangelistic tool. Peter Wagner puts this argument, somewhat pragmatically, in this way: “With few exceptions, new apostolic pastors agree that ‘the most effective evangelistic methodology is planting new churches.’ Some people say, ‘Why plant new churches instead of renewing old ones?’ Answer: both time and money can be better directed towards reaching the unchurched. There are few examples of how efforts to renew old churches have effectively increased evangelistic effectiveness. It is easier to have babies than raise the dead!” “Research shows than young churches grow quicker than old churches and 4 | www.saltlight.org
that small churches grow faster than large churches. That is why multiplying new churches is such a dynamic growth principle.”
Reason 3: THE large harvest field
A third reason to plant churches is the size of the task. There is a very large harvest field facing us, the workers (as ever) are few, so we need lots more churches, touching different communities. It has been said that people become Christians, on average, after a process of 7 meaningful and positive interactions and conversations with Christians. Evangelism ultimately is a one-to-one process – observe, for example, how Jesus treated people as individuals – and so we need enough churches in touch with enough people for meaningful relationships to be formed.
Reason 4: THE diverse harvest field
Those who study church growth, mission and church planting acknowledge that ‘homogeneous growth’ – that is, focussing on those in particular ethnic or societal groups – is the most effective evangelistically. There is quite some discussion about to what extent this is desirable – how, for example, does it concord with Paul’s teaching about church, where the divisions of society are broken down: “Neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female”? However, we need to note that Paul (i.e. the same Paul) also says: “I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel that I may share in its blessings.” Clearly, somehow, he expects us to keep a creative tension between ‘one body’ and ‘all things to all men’. There is room for different tactics for different groups
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of people. The principle of homogeneity is probably essential evangelistically. Subsequently, the challenge for the church is how to breakdown the barriers between people groups in the regular fellowship life of the church.
Reason 5: For rest of the church
Churches (and people) stagnate. Any of us involved for long in local church, and especially in leadership, know that we need to keep stirring ourselves and our churches to be faith communities on a mission to see the Kingdom of God extended on the earth – rather than static, cosy, comfortable places for Christians to be supported, awaiting The End. That would seem to be the lesson of the oft-quoted contrast between Acts 1:8 and 8:1. Acts 1:8 commissions the Jerusalem church to “go to Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth”. In Acts 8:1, when it is seems they have missed the point and are ‘stuck’, God sends persecution to get them moving again! The provocation of church planting is one way in which the church can be constantly kept mobile, responsive and dynamic. And, if church planters seek to develop non-competitive relationships with existing churches in that area, those churches too can be provoked to fresh gospel fervour! That’s human nature – we are all provoked to do a better job when we see someone else doing well. In business, small aggressive start-ups often stir the established companies to find fresh dynamic and strategy.
Reason 6: faith and creativity
Why not simply have creative and missional cells in large churches? Certainly, there are times when this is the right strategy, but cells can all too readily ‘swerve to rot’ (a phrase coined by Laurence Singlehurst, Cell UK ) and either become social clubs (albeit engaged with people around them) where there is no life of Jesus, or become cosy, pastoral and ‘nice’ – there is no multiplication dynamic, no impartation, no power to do anything. There seems to be something about a church plant that draws out an adventurous, creative, pioneering spirit.
Reason 7: To help raise up new leaders
Church planting provides a context for emerging leadership to learn and make mistakes that may often be missing in more established churches. Even with the best will in the world, it is harder to take a risk with younger leaders in a large, established church, than in a small church or plant.
Reason 8: To play our part
There are many movements raised up by God during church history, people with a common vision and fresh passion, used by him to restore some truth of doctrine or practice to the rest of church. The ‘charismatic’/‘restoration’/‘new church’ movement (i.e. us!) is one such movement, Held alongside fundamental evangelical truths, these values have already brought much change to the established church in the last 30 years. We are convinced that the combination of these values and the resultant atmosphere in our churches is still a unique contribution that ‘New Churches’ can bring to cities, towns and in our world today.
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HOW?: preparATION
Steve Thomas explores some of the key issues that we need to face and resolve as we prepare to plant.
Agreeing and casting vision
Undoubtedly one of the most important things that we need to do for our whole community is to encourage us to have a missional heart and to understand God’s call to us in all of our churches to be missional communities. All our leaders need to be on board that this is the call of God and that this is where God is encouraging us to go. The envisioning of all of our churches to be missional communities is the essential foundation for church planting and for sending people to other nations. Various challenges will need to be faced to avoid the danger of early buy in before a full understanding of the implications of the vision. Passages like Matthew from 9:35-16:31 present some searching questions. • Our perspective of the harvest: Do we see the harvest as ‘hard’ (perhaps even ‘harder’ than other places) or ‘ready’? The need is simply workers. • Our heart for people: Do we see people, with compassion, as harassed and helpless, to whom we go with kindness, grace and mercy, recognising that coming to faith is a process, and seeing love in action is part of the process of people coming to know the person of Christ? • Our prayer: Is it for ‘souls’ first, or for workers? • Our dedication: Do we have a generosity of spirit, as seen in Matthew 10:7-10? Giving of ourselves, our people, our time, our relational life, our money? Giving value to those we seek to reach out to? The mission of Christ undoubtedly requires a priority and dedication which many in the West are not prepared to give. • Our strategy: Matthew 10:11-14 is very pragmatic! Work where people are open and welcoming! Scatter lots of seed! Follow the cloud!
Encouraging mobility
We will need to view mobility as a blessing, a lifestyle and a means to the expansion of the Kingdom. For a good 6 | www.saltlight.org
many people these things are not always connected. Our people will have to embrace the fact that there are significant Kingdom purposes they can fulfil as they journey around the world for business. Their vocations need not be static but can lead to fruitfulness in the purposes of God. We therefore need to continually challenge our people to keep journeying with God in his Kingdom purposes around the world.
Leadership
We want to plant men and women who we sense are called, enthusiastic and to a degree prepared; people who are prepared to journey by faith, being creative and responding to the leading of God’s Holy Spirit. People who carry a creative, cando, have a go, faith-filled attitude will do far more in these new situations than the essential faithful, dependable plodder. They need to be people who inspire others, are godly, fun to be around and exude life in the way they lead. They must have a depth and quality that people can follow. They need to be people who can communicate to others a sense of vision, calling, passion, go-get-it type of life, heading for developing a team. Above all, they will be initiators.
The team
A core group is essential with any people we send out. We have failed in some situations either because we did not send out leaders with the above qualities or because the right leader did not have the support they needed from the start. It is together with this team that the leader will establish sufficient contacts in the community and wage warfare against the enemy’s strongholds. The discipline of putting the right teams behind the right leaders is an absolute must if we are to gain early traction in the new plant.
Identifying planters
Key qualities and skills that are necessary: • Called • Fairly personable • Able to unite others in purpose • Well related pastorally and apostolically to others
• Able to build relationally • Self-starters • Teachable • Growing • Willing to grow in faith Our experience would be that God used just about any personality or gifting in this task, and we don’t need to be too picky! But clearly there is a charisma that people will follow. Nevertheless, call, determination and spirituality will take the plant a lot further than simply charisma!
Training church-planters
Frankly, we have not been very good at this over the years! There has been a lot of learning on the job, being trained as you go, learning through deep-ending. In our experience, the process of doing the job raises most of the issues, and therefore good, supportive relationships are of the essence! The training we have given (through a variety of different people), either before or on the job, has included the following elements: • How to get to know other churchleaders in town, and approach them humbly in order to engage, as far as is possible, co-operatively and not arrogantly in the community alongside them • How to find the demographics of the new community, and try to decide what the main “mission entry points” will be. • Spiritual warfare • The dynamics of building team • Developing a “have a go” mentality • Envisioning and aligning the team • Looking for opportunities into community • Perseverance • Handling major crisis situations, bereavement, prolonged sickness, basic pastoral skills, conducting marriages and funerals! • Handling all sorts of new people with challenging problems, personalities, and tangled relational backgrounds
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• Keeping up your own spiritual dynamic while not seeing huge success, and trying to keep encouraging the troops! • Prayer! • Moving in the supernatural I guess that these are all challenges of church leadership anywhere, but you face everything very acutely when you launch new works!
THE setting of atmosphere
This is as important as the nominating of leadership and the developing of a team around the leader. The type of atmosphere the new leader sets is crucial in determining the success of the new plant. Here are some key aspects. Make disciples! The Great Commission in Matthew 28 is the heart of all we are seeking to do. It is Christ’s strategy for taking the world. If you make disciples you’ll take the world, even if starting small. So we foster discipleship. Make friends first! Jesus approached people as people, with dignity and grace. How do people find their way into church? Think about routes in that don’t present unnecessary barriers. There may be giants but we can surely take the land! We need to spy out the land, and find out what is good and what is bad. But then church-planters need to look with eyes of faith and not become grasshoppers! Don’t despise the day of small things. Church planting is a process. It is going to take some time! Sow and water, and you’ll reap a harvest (1Co 3:5-9, Mt 13). Build slowly and steadily – you’re in it for the long haul. Encourage, encourage, encourage! What you encourage, you get more of, so build an atmosphere of encouragement. Is the church half full or half empty? Always on the full side! Develop a rhythm. You can’t do everything all the time. There will be bursts of activity, of prayer, of consolidation. Sow, water, reap. Don’t try to do it all at once – you’ll kill yourself, and your people!
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crossing over – how should we ‘do church’?
HOW?: support
It is very easy to get a new church plant started, and a much bigger challenge to ensure that it really penetrates the community, becomes properly consolidated and grows into a healthy, growing church in its own right. In our experience many church planters, having started with great enthusiasm, slow down, weary, lose heart with the length of the fight, and can plateau very quickly. By the very nature of starters, they are good at starting, and not good at finishing! They need help, and if it can’t come from within the group, it must come from outside the group! It is fairly obvious that the resources, gift-wise, that are needed to build up the Body of Christ (Eph 4) are most unlikely to be available within the new church plant, and therefore must, again, be drawn from outside. The most important point for me is this: everything hangs on the spiritual state of those who are engaged in the church-planting. We know ourselves that when we are living in the fullness of Christ’s resources in us, we are effective, productive and fruitful. But the pressures of church-planting can be very draining indeed, spiritually and emotionally, and, if we are not careful, church-planters become faithless, weary and lethargic. We have discovered the hard way (!!) what should have been obvious to us from the beginning, that we need to take good care of those who are church-planting, and not just send them out and leave them to get on with it just by themselves! We suggest, therefore, that the following elements need to be in place.
1. effective pastoral oversight
This should go without saying. Often, however, church-planting teams are sent out enthusiastically by busy pastors / apostolic leaders, who can then fail to pursue the church-planters properly with attentive care to find out how they are doing regularly, and encourage them. What’s more, when church-planters have previously been well encouraged and pastored as good up-and-coming people with potential in the home congregation, it is a huge shock to find yourself on 8 | www.saltlight.org
your own with little pastoral contact. The truth is, whether we like it or not, a lot of catching up happens at meetings – congregational or leadership – and if we are not in those situations, we have to think hard to make it happen.
any friendship opportunities. They also then rejoice together when there are some breakthroughs, when evangelistic activities go well, new birth comes out, stories of healings are coming about, and so on. Now a new fellowship of encouragement and mutual care is born, and therefore a fellowship of prayer as well.
2. friendship and support 4. Help with Again, a feature of a sending congregation will probably be that activities the church-planters have enjoyed the friendship of peers and church family. Suddenly they are on their own! There is an “out of sight, out of mind” factor that operates all too easily in church life. Sending churches need to encourage those who have been friends of the church-planters to stay in touch, and where practicable, go to see them.
3. fellowship and mutual encouragement
It will often be helpful to create a new forum for friendship that will also be equipping and encouraging. We have found it beneficial to get our churchplanters together once every six months or so, so that they can share their stories of both success and failure / struggle. This is hugely liberating, because while simply beavering away on their own, church planters can begin to feel that they are not accomplishing very much, it’s very slow, maybe they are not cut out for the job etc., etc. Getting together with others reassures them that it’s not unusual for things to take quite a time, for people to be very friendly on the surface, but not follow up
“a whole church activity, not just the madcap efforts of a few crazy pioneers”
If geographical distances permit, some help simply with numbers for pioneering activities or meetings can be an enormous boost for a small church-planting team. It helps them know they are not on their own, and boosts the faith of those engaged in whatever activity and meeting. At various times we have had rotas of cell groups regularly visiting meetings at church plants to encourage, help, support and minister.
5. strategic input and Accountability
Everyone needs encouragement, and especially those who are labouring away without seeing breakthrough or huge results. Church planters are often in need of reassurance. Questions such as: “Should things take this long?” “Are we barking up the right tree here?” “Am I the reason why this is not taking off?” “Have we got our strategy right?” – and the gnawing question that worries a good many who are embarking on a ministry that they have not engaged in before “Am I really the man for the job?” There must be the right relationships in place so that they can come back to an apostolic figure (and probably a church leadership team) and give account, and then review strategy and the quality of the work being done. There may be lots of very good advice from all sorts of people, but it needs to be clear that there is one point of accountability for the strategy and direction of the new work, otherwise
crossing over – how should we ‘do church’?
there will be a multitude of voices into the situation, which will be unhelpful.
6. Fivefold ministries
It goes without saying that no church plant will have all the resources it needs within itself. Church plants are good training grounds for those we want to train up for worship leading, preaching, teaching etc., and this sort of help releases the planters from the weekly burden of having to do everything. At the same time, the input of equipping ministries such as evangelists, pastors and teachers can be invaluable to come alongside pioneer groups and add their expertise. Ephesians 4 is very clear that it is these ministries that allow the saints to grow to full maturity in Christ. Their involvement in new plants is a must. What is very wearisome to churchplanting teams, however, is to feel that they have constantly to be asking for help. We need to try to develop a culture in sending churches of constantly being willing to go and help and offer help of all sorts. Church planting then becomes a ‘whole church’ activity, not just the madcap efforts of a few crazy pioneers. Indeed, this last statement is the culture we want to develop across the board in our family of churches – we are all engaged in church-planting! It’s God’s heart, and it’s a family gene!
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church-planting News from the nations
The Salt & Light international family is a great blend of cultures, reaching out into nations and people-groups, east and west, black and white, rich and poor. In this section we explore what God is doing through church-planting in different parts of our family.
foundations in the frontier
We are just about to begin our third year as a church plant in Warfield, British Colombia, Canada. As God is building his church here, we have witnessed his favor upon us as he has brought together about 70 people from all different backgrounds (about half of these being young children – our great blessing!). It feels as if the last two years has been preparation, God drawing this team together, building relationship and family with one another, for his purpose for the days ahead. In the fall 2008, at an elder’s retreat, God began to stir something in the hearts of the leaders of West Coast Christian Fellowship (Vancouver, BC) about growing through church planting. Since several families from our church there had come from Trail, it was suggested as a possible location. (Ed: Trail is 600km from Vancouver). Without giving details, the elders invited the church to pray about the idea of church planting. At that time, leader David Bornman accidentally stumbled upon a prophetic word from years before, that God would have us plant a church in Trail. The woman who had given this word four years earlier came back to the elders with the same sense that God was leading us to plant in Trail. The overall feeling was YES! God confirmed this direction in many different ways. The next step was to ask the
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church to pray about who God would join to our church planting team. Although we knew several families were praying about going, we waited until the summer, and still no team. God had spoken so clearly, we felt we wanted to commit to going, and planned to move house in September 2009. After we made this decision, we were so excited to hear that three other families (one of whom was already living in Trail) had clearly heard God calling them to join us. What a team, as well! We have been so blessed to be part of this amazing group of people who passionately love God and people. Again and again God has spoken from the verse, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” Our main aim in these first 2 years has been to build relationship with those God has been joining to us and to build relationships with those around us that don’t know Jesus. A little while before we left Vancouver we felt God challenging us about the place of our unsaved friends. We realized with some shame that those friends were bottom of our list of priorities. We had family, church events, church friends and if we had time then we would try to fit in our unsaved friends. We felt very challenged by that and have tried to make those friendships a priority and draw those friendships into the church community.
Through that we have seen one of our neighborhood friends radically give her life to Jesus, leading her husband to Christ just 2 weeks later. Also, we have other neighborhood friends who are coming to the church on a regular basis. The majority of the church so far has been made up of those who moved here with us, other Christians from the area that were not attending anywhere and some that have moved from other churches to join us. One of our challenges and joys has been to discover with so many young children how to be the church together, with God highlighting that these little ones are the church; that we are not to put them to one side but so seek to draw them in. We are now entering a season in which we are seeking God as a church for how he would have us reach the lost in our area, what is his plan and strategy and to also seek him regarding how he would have us effectively train and equip our children to live for his purpose. Along with this has been the emphasis recently that we must be empowered by the Holy Sprit! There is no other plan – we must be energized, filled and guided by the Holy Spirit. He is moving among us, and it is a great joy to be part of what he is doing in Trail.
Andrew & Rachelle Freeman Trail, B.C., Canada
NEWS FROM THE NATIONS
Implantation d’églises dans la francophonie Lorsque l’on parle de la francophonie nous sommes loin d’imaginer que cela représente environ 890.000 millions de personnes parlant et comprenant la langue française et ceci dans plus de quarante pays et sur les cinq continents. L’Afrique à elle seule compte 29 pays dont la langue est le français, 8 de ces pays se trouvent dans le Maghreb.
Les contextes culturels et religieux entre ces pays sont diamétralement opposés (ex. Québec, Algérie ou les îles Vanuatu <Océanie>). Actuellement « Destinée francophone » qui représente une vingtaine d’églisse se concentre sur son réseau en France, Suisse et Belgique, bien que des relations se créent dans les provinces francophones du Canada. Le grand défi dans notre propre réseau c’est justement cette notion que l’implantation de nouvelles églises devrait faire partie de son mandat apostolique. C’est pour une de ces raisons que la formation « Josué » a été mise en place : former des responsables qui deviendront des agents pour une église missionnelle. Sans un changement radical de mentalité les églises resteront centrées sur ellesmêmes et dépenseront leurs énergies à leurs propres survies. Aujourd’hui nous sommes engagés dans six nouvelles églises (trois dans le sud, une en Italie, une en région parisienne, deux sur le nord et la Belgique). Il nous semble que Dieu prépare dans notre réseau cinq églises qui deviendront des centres de ressources et des modèles de communautés apostoliques (Bruxelles, Wattrelos, Créteil, Lausanne et Marseille). Nous croyons à la croissance exponentielle car Jésus en est le dénominateur. Jean & Agnès Pillonel Pour l’équipe Destinée
growing diversity
Church planting in South Asia is getting more diverse, as Stanley Mehta reports: For many years they have developed separate church-planting strategies for English-speaking and local-language communities. Different approaches are needed for the young Westernised English-speaking urbanites and those that live in rural India. With rapid cultural and sociological changes, the gaps between the economic and technological ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ grow. Within each different community they look for opportunities to get involved, serve and preach the gospel. Urban mission is increasingly like mission in the West, while in rural or slum areas the power of supernatural breakthrough continues to be a powerful factor. They also continue to plant overseas, as people move for jobs or more deliberate moves. A couple have moved Kathmandu, Nepal and in September 2011 started an English-speaking church. Locallanguage churches also have contacts in Nepal through their existing church members and they may plant 2 Nepalese language churches by the middle of 2012.
75 by 2020
Church planting in the Francophone world
When we talk about francophone countries, it’s hard to imagine they include 890,000 million people who speak and understand French, in more than 40 countries over the five different continents. Africa alone has 29 French speaking countries and 8 of these are in the Maghreb. The cultural and religious contexts of francophone countries are diametrically opposed (for example Quebec, Algeria or the Vanuatu Islands in Oceania). At the moment, Destinée Francophone (20 churches) is concentrating on its network in France, Switzerland and Belgium, even if relationships are being formed in the French-speaking provinces of Canada. Our main challenge is how to ensure that church planting is part of our apostolic mandate. This is one of the reasons why the ‘Joshua Training Programme’ (Formation Josué) was set up: to train leaders to become missional church agents. Without a radical change in mentality, local churches will remain focused on themselves and spend all their energy on their own survival. We are currently involved in six new churches (three in the South of France, one in Italy, one in the Paris region, and two in the North of France and Belgium). We believe that God is preparing five churches in our network to become resource centres and apostolic community models (Brussels, Wattrelos, Créteil, Lausanne and Marseille). We believe in the exponential growth of the church because Jesus is the driving factor!
Jean & Agnès Pillonel for the Destinée Apostolic Team
Having planted extensively in the ‘80s, UK church-planting has stalled somewhat. They were duly provoked by the Lord! Through a lengthy process of waiting on God and consultation, UK church leaders resolved together that God was calling them to ‘step up together’ and make a difference in the nation. At the heart of God’s plan is that they would be ‘healthy growing missional churches’. They agreed a vision to pioneer, proclaim and transform – together and a series of four goals to help keep each other accountable. The first goal is to plant 75 churches by 2020, enlarging the existing UK family of churches by missional community-transformative churchplanting. Easier said than done perhaps, but ‘expect great things from God and attempt great things for God!’
city gates in kenya
Deliverance Church Umoja is seeking to plant 5 churches into the major entrance routes (‘gates’) into their city. They write “by the year 2015 we are believing God to have planted 5 campuses around Nairobi: churches that are dynamic, missional, unique to their locality and innovative with a congregation of 50,000 people in total. Churches that will equip people to pull down strongholds in their areas and initiatives that will influence the seven areas of culture.”
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NEWS FROM THE NATIONS
spiritual battle
In Sweden a church is closed down every week, and the speed is increasing. Sweden, claimed to be one of the most secular nations in the world, is facing a huge challenge for Christian influence. After leading Centrumkyrkan in Heby for almost ten years with a good development and yearly growth, me and Anette felt led to move in a new direction. God had talked to us for a couple of years to plant a new church in the nearby city, Sala, out from the church in Heby. God’s word to us, prophetically confirmed, was to “take the land” and “enlarge your place”. After we proclaimed to plant the church all hell broke loose – Anette’s mum Kerstin passed away very soon with cancer, and she was our best evangelist! Anette also got breast cancer, and at the same time also our other leader for the church-plant Mattias got cancer. At one point, we thought that both Anette and Mattias might die in cancer at the same time. It was tough indeed, and I also lost my income. BUT, God was good, so Anette’s breast-cancer was successfully removed and Mattias’ cancer as well and I found a job. During this fight we started the church and got our own downtown
ancient ruins
Ordaining eldership couples in the new building
building that we refurbished. The church is on the same street as the ‘New Age’ street, very convenient amongst seekers. Since we showed up, one café doing weekly séances has given up and sold their business! Today we are about 15-25 people that meet every week. Once a month we have a celebration together with our mother church in Heby. We open up the building a couple of days a week, inviting people off the streets to just come for breakfast and fellowship. We are filling a need and meeting a lot of people. It is not easy to plant new churches. Not every church will survive the spiritual battle that follows, especially the first years when you need to be established, both spiritually and relational in the city. We feel though very excited and believe we are in the beginning of a great adventure. – So people, it’s time again to plant churches, many churches all over the world, and especially in Europe.
Andreas & Anette Tofters Nordic Team
We are seeing a restoration of some previous church planting initiatives in the C2C family, the rebuilding of “ancient ruins” that seemed lost. Back in the late ‘80s, Life Church, Kirksville, Missouri sent a couple of families to live in nearby Edina and join with others who were reached from that community to begin a house group. In the mid ‘90s a leader was commissioned to that community and a church was launched. With all the unfortunate events that transpired in the C2C family the initiative went dormant. As Life Church began to be restored to health, the church plant in Edina began to come online again. A leader that had been scattered to another state in the midst of the difficulty, Tommy Hutchens, returned to Life Church and was later commissioned afresh to replant the church in Edina. The mandate to become missional has taken hold of much of the C2C family during the [e4] training that was recently completed. We are looking forward to more planting and restoring initiatives!
Doug & Denise Kreighbaum Coast2Coast, USA
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International
Leaders Conference
Finding Our Voice ALSO
Friday 17 to Sunday 19 February 2012 Oxford, UK
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International Senior Leaders Forum FOCUSING OUR VISION Thursday 16 to Friday 17 February 2012
www.saltlight.org/ilc12