CHURCH PLANTING STRATEGY
When the Lord of the Harvest grants us a harvest of souls, we must be prepared to train the new converts to walk in obedience to the Lord. This is the only feasible way an Unreached People Group (UPG) can be reached. It will not be expert soul-winners trying to win many converts, one-by-one, but by training each new believer to reproduce themselves in the lives of their friends and family.
From day one, we must breathe faith into new believers that God has equipped them with everything they need to walk with Him, understand His Word, lead others to Christ, and teach others how to lead others to Christ. Eventually, they must be directed to take leadership in new churches that have a passion to reproduce themselves among their people group.
From day one, we must breathe faith into new believers that God has equipped them with everything they need to walk with Him, understand His Word, lead others to Christ, and teach others how to lead others to Christ. Eventually, they must be directed to take leadership in new churches that have a passion to reproduce themselves among their people group.
Making Disciples
- Teaching them the importance of obedience for living fellowship. Not knowledge-educated, but obedience-trained.
- Teach them how to read the Word of God for themselves, trusting in the Spirit's teaching ministry, and feed themselves daily. (This involves a simple Bible study they can follow.)
- Immediate obedience in baptism as their first step as a follower of Jesus Christ (public declaration is powerful).
Making Disciple-makers (Matthew 28)
The next step in training new converts is to teach them how to be disciple-makers. The very same way you led them to Christ is the way they will lead their friends and family to Christ. They must be given confidence that God will empower them to be as effective or more so than you.
- Teach them to how tell their own story of how they were saved. (My life before Jesus, How I learned the Bible truth about Jesus, and My life since knowing Jesus.)
- Give them a reproducible chart or presentation and help them work through it.
- Help them to target five key people in their social circle that they can tell their story to.
- Teach them not only how to lead another to Christ, but how to follow up by giving them the same reproducible plan of winning friends in their network.
Making Church-planting Movements
Now, we must train new leaders to take charge of small Bible study groups that will eventually develop into new churches. We provide them with a simple reproducible Bible study and show them how to use it. Then we step back and let them use it! Eventually, these small Bible study groups become new churches. These churches are trained to go out and reach other groups of people and start their own church.
Once the DNA of reproducing churches is implanted in the heart of the people, a church-planting movement has begun! These new churches will not only start new churches, but they will be fully equipped to train the new churches from the beginning how to reproduce themselves.
Once the DNA of reproducing churches is implanted in the heart of the people, a church-planting movement has begun! These new churches will not only start new churches, but they will be fully equipped to train the new churches from the beginning how to reproduce themselves.
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"An unreached people group is considered reached when it has a Bible in their language, when it has a national-led reproducing church, and when there are nationals being trained to do the work of the ministry in reaching their own people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ."
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-- Ken Fielder (Worldview Ministries)