New City Church is a church planting church. We believe that one of the best ways to reach new people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ is through church planting. We do and will aggressively seek ways to plant new churches... but there are obstacles! Below is an article addressing some of those obstacles, or Limiting Factors. Money and Training seem to be two of the most common factors... and two of the factors that have been on my mind.
* This post is not meant to be an endorsement of MentorNet, but is meant to stir further thought on overcoming church planting obstacles.
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MentorNet #43
Factors Limiting Sustaining Church Planting Movements
Copyright © 2006 by Galen Currah and George Patterson
May be freely copied, translated, posted, and distributed.
1. Limiting factor: Many church planters are young men without jobs who must be supported by a limited source of funds that often come from outside of the region they serve.
Remedy: Enlist as church planters more persons who already have an income and who would qualify as a shepherding elder as defined by the New Testament.
Remedy: Supplement class-room type training with mentoring that is available to all, such as is described under “Mentor New Leaders” from www.MentorAndMultiply.com.
3. Limiting factor: Church planters who are volunteers and self-supported often have jobs or businesses that do not let them travel far.
Remedy: Let paid or professional church planters start only the first two or three churches in a region, as they are able to travel afar. Thereafter, let these churches send some of their own members to plant the rest of the churches nearby in their region. The most effective church planting teams normally are composed of members of a nearby 'mother' church of the same culture. Such members usually have friends and relatives living where they plant daughter churches. This type of churchFactors Limiting Sustaining Church Planting Movements 2 reproduction is described under “Start, Develop and Renew God's Flocks” at www.MentorAndMultiply.com.
4. Limiting factor: New churches often have new leaders with only a minimal amount of training and Bible knowledge.
Remedy: Enable all shepherds to fulfill their biblical duty of mentoring the new leaders of their daughter churches in the same way that Jesus and the apostle Paul did, as also described under “Mentor New Leaders” at www.MentorAndMultiply.com.
5. Limiting factor: Missionaries and church planters often lack experience in a type of mentoring that is both biblical and 'menu-driven,' which meets urgent needs of new churches, and is geared to rapid church reproduction.
Remedies: 1) Ask a mentor to help you start mentoring. The mentors listed under “Select a Mentor Skilled in your Area” at www.MentorAndMultiply.com charge no fees (unless being mentored for academic credit). They will stay with you, helping you to think through your plans, until you see churches multiply.
2) Teach and apply biblical guidelines of Christian mentoring. See “Tasks of a Christian mentor and Mentoring 'Chains' in Scripture” under “Mentor New Leaders” at www.MentorAndMultiply.com.
6. Limiting factor: Mentoring the way Jesus and Paul did it proves too time-consuming to continue doing indefinitely.
Remedy: Like Jesus and Paul's apprentices, your trainees must be weaned from intensive mentoring as soon as their churches are practicing the vital ministries that are required by the New Testament. These trainees, in turn, must by now have the confidence and skills to mentor other, newer leaders of their daughter churches or cells. Trainees can then receive ongoing training in more conventional forms such as workshops, personal reading and classroom instruction. Just take care not to force institutional training on the newer leaders.
Conclusion
Sustaining a church planting movement requires ongoing training of church planters and shepherds. In many movements, especially where churches must multiply under severe restrictions, mentoring as done in the ways that Christ and Paul did it, does in fact sustain the movement.
