3. Planting the Seed
– PLANTING THE CHURCH After the farmer has ploughed the ground it is now time to plant the seed. This speaks of evangelism and the actual planting of the church – the establishment of the congregation. I am somewhat reluctant to give too many examples of how churches have been and can be started. We are so prone to copying instead of hearing from the Holy Spirit. During your times of prayer the Lord will give you strategies of how the church should be planted and methods of evangelism that should be used. There are many different ways of planting a church but I will suggest five in this particular chapter (not in any order of preference): 3.1. STARTING A HOME-CELL WITH CONVERTS YOU HAVE REACHED OR CHRISTIANS IN THE AREAS THAT ARE UN-CHURCHED.
THE CELL CHURCH I believe that the church structure that best develops leadership in the quickest and most efficient way is the cell model. The largest and most effective churches – as far as discipling and reaching people in the entire world is concerned – are cell churches. WHY HOME CELLS? In Jesus' ministry, He operated mainly out of homes, not formal buildings. He often taught His disciples in houses (Mark 2:1; 7:14-27; 9:33; 10:2-12; Matthew 13:36). His disciples lived with families in homes wherever they went. Living in a home was part of His plan for bringing people into a personal faith experience. In Luke 10, Jesus assigned the seventy disciples to enter homes, offering peace to all that lived within. When they found a "man of peace" (one desiring to find peace), they remained in that home, eating and drinking whatever was set before them. In this way, a household would be converted to Christ and another home Church would be established. In the non-structured Church, one person usually dominates over others (seen in most churches today). This limits the possibility of growth. This was not possible in the early Church. THE CONTRAST BETWEEN THE TRADITIONAL CHURCH AND CELL CHURCH The Traditional Church has a cell ministry as one of its many programs. The Cell Church is a basic Christian Community.
CLARITY ABOUT THE CELL CHURCH It is not : A denial of the need for programs. The Cell Church is : A strategy for a people-centered and community based program. It is not : An absence of departments. The Cell Church is : A structure with departments that support the system of cells. It is not : Only small groups. The Cell Church is : A system of cells, congregations and celebration. It is not : A group of independent house-churches. The Cell Church is : A vision-driven movement of people living in basic Christian Communities. THE NATURE OF THE CELL CHURCH The Cell Church has the following characteristics: 1. The Cell Church operates not only on Sundays but on the other six days as well. 2. Everything that happens in a Cell Church exists to support the cells. 3. The Cell Church first grows and then builds a building. 4. Cells meet in homes during the week and are basic units of the church. 5. The Cell Church considers each member to be a minister and equips him or her to do the work of the ministry. 6. The lost are reached through "Cell Friendship Evangelism". Cells multiply causing dynamic growth. 7. Church members are cared for at cell level. 8. Celebration Worship Services, which take place on Sundays, are an overflow from the body life, taking place in the lives of the members during the week. 9. Spiritual gifts for edification, equipping and evangelism are released in the cells. 10. The community of cells is a place of healing for the individual and the family. 11. In the small groups, members can lose all inhibitions and can receive edification and healing.
THE BENEFITS OF CELL GROUPS 1. Effective Management Units
The cell is manageable because it is self-contained. Every task of the church can be implemented through this one basic unit. The cell also has a simple leadership structure, which cares for and develops the members of the cell.
2. An Effective Caring System
The cell structure ensures that hurting members are taken care of at any time and not just on Sunday. 3. Church Growth
The key for the cell church to multiply and grow is the cell unit. As the cell members reach out to the lost, the cells grow and multiply. 4. Raising Up Leaders
The Cell structure provides the opportunities for members with a calling on their lives to fulfill their calling without necessarily entering the ministry full-time. 5. The World Can be Reached
In the cell structure, every member is a minister. They touch the lives of the hurting and lost people out in the world. 6. Spiritual Gifts can be properly exercised
In a cell setting, everyone can exercise spiritual gifts. CONGREGATION A Cell Church member needs a circle of friends around him/her for fellowship. This is where congregational activities for groups of between 50 and 200 people are organised. Large-group interaction, testimony, mass teaching or information transfer takes place effectively here. The congregation may set aside a half-night for prayer, or sometimes several days of prayer. The Zone or District Congregational Meetings are examples of activities conducted throughout the year. CELLS AND CELEBRATION The Cell Church is the ideal setting for God to reveal His nature. When we meet on Sunday as a congregation, we celebrate and worship the Most High God Who is: Holy, Great, Awesome, Eternal and Exalted. During the cell meeting, we experience God's Immanence or Most High Nature: Intimate, Close, Indwelling, Involved, Friend, Comfort, Accessible and Humble. Evangelism Too often, our churches have visible or invisible barriers that keep people out. We have traditions, we have certain ways we dress and act, and we might even have expectations for those who would visit. Cell groups provide a natural "bridge" to unbelievers. As members in a cell group develop relationships with unbelieving friends, it is much more natural for them to invite them to a group meeting. And for the unbeliever, coming to a small, informal gathering is much less threatening than going to a place where they don't know anyone and aren't sure what the "rules" are.
Developing Relationships In a cell group, the members spend time together, participate in ministry together, encourage and pray for one another, and help each other with struggles and needs. There is a strength and intensity to their love and devotion towards God and towards each other. A cell group provides an ideal environment for the development of mentoring or discipling relationships. More mature believers are able to come alongside younger believers to encourage them, to teach them, and to perform ministry together with them. Since one of the goals of a cell group is to grow and multiply itself, the members will continually be looking for ways to reach out to the lost around them. Discipleship Romans 14:19 says, "Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification." Cell groups provide a place where believers can be ministered to, and where they can minister to others. The Bible outlines clear responsibilities that believers have towards one another. All of these occur naturally in a cell group, as each person ministers according to his giftedness. Spiritual gifts were given to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ might be built up (Eph 4:12). We are supposed to encourage one another (1Th 4:18) and speak words that will build up others according to their needs (Eph 4:29). This assumes that we share our burdens one with another (Gal 6:2) so that we are able to help each other. Our greatest desire should be to honor one another in brotherly love (Ro 12:10) and to love one another deeply, from the heart (1Pe 1:22). Developing Spiritual Gifts Cell groups are also the place where the spiritual gifts of each member are discovered, developed and used. In a cell group setting, people are nurtured and encouraged to learn their spiritual giftedness through their involvement in the ministry of the cell. In this way, they grow in their faith and maturity, and have opportunity to be discipled by more mature Christians. In time, they will repeat this process and begin to disciple those in the group who are less spiritually mature. Development of Leaders The benefit of cell groups is that leaders are responsible for the spiritual development of only a handful of people, not tens or hundreds. The cell group approach also involves many more people as it gives lay leaders the chance to develop their spiritual gift of leadership. Instead of having "professional clergy" who are given positions of leadership based on what they know, cell group leaders are qualified by the maturity and ability they have demonstrated through their ministry in the cell group. Church Planting The use of cell groups has many benefits in the process of church planting. One of the greatest advantages of cell groups is that they can be used to the benefit of a church planter, no matter which type of church planting model he is working with. CELL CHURCH IN A SATURATION CHURCH PLANTING STRATEGY In a saturation church planting strategy, it is the desire of the church planter to fill an area with churches that reproduce and start new churches themselves. Cell groups provide a natural and effective way to evangelize, to disciple new believers and to develop new leaders. If the groups meet in people's homes, there might not be a need for a formal church building. Eliminating this cost enables the church to start new churches when the cell groups are ready, not when funds are available. In other words, lack of funds is not a hindrance to natural church growth. Cell groups provide the ability to develop a strategy whereby an entire neighborhood; town or country can be saturated with an effective witness for Christ. Without traditional barriers to growth, the cell groups can flourish. Simply stated, the use of cell groups makes it easier to start new churches. 3.2 HOLDING A CRUSADE AND PLANTING THE CHURCH WITH THE CONVERTS. To simply hold a crusade to make converts is irresponsible. Jesus never gave us a command to make converts! The command was to make disciples. The work of an evangelist is not completed until the convert has become a disciple. You do not have the right to lead someone to Christ without making sure that he will be discipled. I have heard evangelists say that their job is to make converts and it is the church's responsibility to disciple them. In essence, there is some truth in this, but it has not worked in Africa. The church in Africa has not growth through the thousands of crusades. One of our major problems is that we have many converts but few disciples. That is why we could have the biggest genocide of the century in Rwanda, a country with an 80% Christian population. Crusades are a wonderful tool to establish a church with the converts, placing them in cells and nurturing them into maturity. 3.3 DOOR-TO-DOOR EVANGELISM Unfortunately, this is also the strategy used by some of the cults like the Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons. However, in some parts of Africa it is still a viable method of evangelism. It creates an opportunity to start a home-cell in the home of the converts.
3.4 THE JESUS FILM I have found the Jesus film to be one of the most effective evangelism tools in rural Africa. I have personally planted churches with the use of the Jesus Film in a crusade style. At the end of the show, after we had prayed with the new converts, we introduced them to a pastor who would be back the next day to establish a church with the new converts who had no church. Similarly, one could do it with the video in a home. Campus Crusade for Christ has a lot of information in this regard. NEVER: Start a church with disgruntled (unhappy) people who walked away from another church. Make sure they have left honourably and that they are not foul-mouthing the pastor and church they come from. Believe me, if they do it with that church and pastor, they will do it with you too. The foundations of a building are vital for the strength and longevity of the building. Any church built on criticism of other churches will reap exactly that.
3.5 CHURCH PLANTING MODELS
The "Strawberry Runner" model In nature, a strawberry plant will send out stems, or shoots, above the ground a short distance from itself. This stem is called a 'runner.' A new daughter plant often develops at the end of the runner. In time, the daughter plant will send out runners itself to start other plants so that there are several individual plants, but they are all interconnected by runners. This is the ideal model for becoming a church planting movement. It suggests the idea that every church must reproduce itself over and over. Some churches plant new congregations which are not intended to become independent churches, but which have a measure of independence and a degree of continuing relationship. These relationship structures must be clearly defined.
The "Daughter Church" model When the subject of church planting is raised, the one model that usually comes to mind is the daughter model. Since the mother church provides resources, support and accountability from the outset, this type of type church plant is generally far more likely to become a healthy, sustainable, growing church plant. Which situations could stimulate the planting of a daughter church? Let us look at two: a. Members in the church come from another geographic area
If a number of members in a particular church travel from an area outside that in which the church primarily serves, the church may recognise that as an opportunity to plant a daughter church by sending out a group from the mother church.
b. When there is a desire to reach other socio-economic groups
Sometimes a church could be growing and reaching many new people in one area, but they may be failing to reach certain other groups of people in the region. There are instances where people do not feel comfortable worshipping in a particular church due to differences in race, class, kind and age. The needs of these groups may call for a daughter church that will accommodate their cultural norms and minister to them more successfully.
INDIVIDUAL CHURCH PLANTING a. Planting with a pioneer
Some individuals are, by gifting, pioneers. They just have to plant churches! They naturally draw people to them. Such people can often see the potential for a church in places where nobody else even imagined one. Pioneers are all different. Some are able to work with a large denomination or a church planting movement. Others are so active that they find it difficult to fit into organizational structures and so work best on their own. Pioneers may start many churches in their lifetime. Once a congregation is established, it is time for pioneers to move on. To stay would be detrimental to what they started because they do not have the giftedness to maintain a church.
b. Planting with a founding pastor
Some church planters plant a church and stay there for a very long time as the senior pastor of the church. They may even continue to plant more churches by training church planters and sending them out from the mother church to plant daughter churches.
The Church Planting
Process
4. Fertilising the Soil