How do we define church planting?

• When I look around at North America in particular, I find that our definitions are based more on cultural expectations, traditions and popular trends. Everything we do as followers of Christ, we need to be led by the Holy Spirit and that includes how we define terms.
• When I look to the Scriptures for a definition, I see it defined as evangelism that results in new churches.
• We often start by saying, “Let’s gather some long-time kingdom citizens together and let’s start instant church,” where as in the Scriptures new churches come from evangelism and are made up of new believers.

There is no verse in the Bible that says, “Go into all the world and plant churches.”  Instead the Bible says, “Go into all the world and make disciples.” How do these two things fit together?

• There is no verse that talks about church planting and yet we talk about it a great deal.
• What we see in the Bible is that churches are birthed out of the harvest fields – they come into existence through disciple making.
• When we look at Paul and Barnabas, we see them do evangelism – of those that hear some believe and became disciples. When you get to the end of Acts 14, Paul and Barnabas revisit all these cities where they made disciples and appointed elders in each of the churches.
• As disciples are made, they are gathered together to be obedient to the teachings of Jesus. The natural fruit of disciple making is churches.

Should church planting be done by individual believers or by church communities or both?

• Both are involved in this process. Let’s look again at Paul and Barnabas – they were the ones who went on the journey to make disciples but they were sent by the church of Antioch. When they are finished they return to the church of Antioch to report what they’ve done.
• It is a partnership between individuals and the church body.

Should every church expect to plant another church?

• Because the apostolic nature of the church is what we see modelled through the Scriptures, every local church should be asking how they can be involved in the planting of churches.
• Church planting isn’t as complicated as we’ve made it out to be. It is simply about disciple making.
• Every church should expect to send out apostolic workers who will be making disciples.
• Any church of any size can do this. A lot of churches can be involved in church planting if they can move back to the Biblical model and definition.

What are some of the practical steps or stages in planting a church?

• If the pathway to church planting is evangelism, disciples made, teaching obedience, gathering them together to follow out the commands of Christ, and raising up their own pastoral leadership, then some of those characteristics fall into many of the things that local churches already have as part of their DNA and things they are doing in their local ministry. Do we have people who are sharing their faith? Do we have people who pray? Do we have people leading small groups?
• Church in the beginning doesn’t have to be a church of 200 people.
• The early apostles were accused of turning the world upside down – you don’t turn the world upside down with complexity.

What are some of the qualities that will be necessary for a church plant?  Who should we be looking for as church planters?

• What you want at the end, you put in at the beginning.
• When I am in the process of looking for people with church planting qualifications, I am looking for people that the Lord is calling out. I’m asking:
  • Are they already engaged in sharing their faith?
  • Are they people that can teach the word, particularly in a small group context?
  • Do they work well on a team?
  • Are they able to do leadership training?
• We do leadership training and assessments with the people we identify as church planters, but the foundational things are – they’re walking with the Lord, they’re intentional in their evangelism, they can teach.
• We aren’t looking for things such as the ability to give a sermon or administrate a budget or organize small groups or lead worship. These aren’t questions we’re asking.  They are questions that come later and they are questions we ask of the harvest, not the church planters.
• We need to focus on planting the church that is, not the church that it will become.

How does church planting and missions go together?

• The term missions has become very broad and now means a lot of things. Church planting is more specific than missions.  Missions is more of an umbrella term and under the umbrella there are many different activities, with church planting being one of them.

Can you do missions without doing church planting?

• Based on today’s contemporary definition, yes you can. If missions is digging a well, or painting the side of a building, than yes, I can do those things without being involved in church planting.
• We really need to drive ourselves back to a more Biblical understanding of the mission of God and what missions should look like.
• I think we need to change our language to become more Biblical – maybe we need to stop using the word ‘church planting’ and start talking more about apostolic laborers and apostolic work.

What advice do you have for someone who senses a call to consider church planting?

• If you are sensing that the Lord is leading you in that direction, I would encourage you to have a conversation with your brothers and sisters in Christ for their insight. Talk to your pastors and get their input.
• There are resources out there – books, podcasts, conferences – that you can attend to learn more.
• Begin to pray about how God would lead you – we encourage people to keep using the skills and degrees they have and move to a place with those skills where you can live out your faith among the unreached.

How could our listeners learn more from you?

• JDPayne.org
• @jd_payne
• Read my books – Apostolic Church Planting and Discovering Church Planting
• Strike the Match
• Email me at jpayne@brookhills.org