If I could say it any better, I would.
Finally....back to the blog. I just returned from Honduras and saw a very encouraging picture as I met with our team there. The last year has been a time of ups and downs, breakthrough and warfare in the Honduras Church Planting Movement project. Currently we have a direct, Commissioned project that our team is leading in Western Honduras, and 3 other groups that we are attempting to indirectly Catalyze in both Eastern Honduras and Southern Mexico. Numbers are constantly in a flux, but we believe that there may be as many as 239 Discovery Bible studies happening in all 4 groups. That is about 83 groups (either begun or about to begin) in our primary project, about 14 groups with the Olancho full gospel churches, about 70 groups with the Christian Reformed churches, and about 72 groups (some are training groups with believers) in Southern Mexico. (Remember, numbers are constantly subject to change. Sometimes a study begins but does not endure, meanwhile more studies are being birthed constantly).
Our primary project team consists of Randy and Linda Travis (Strategy Coordinator), Keith and Juanita Travis (Missionary and assistant on the SC team), and Four 2 person teams. The teams are Adiel and Jacobo, Daniel and Adam, Oscar and Esteban, and Paco and Mario. These are some of the finest people I have ever met or had the privilege to work with. These men of God are trained and diligent in application of CPM principles.
Our team that went down consisted of myself, Ben Holloway,a missionary evangelist who is a great blessing to the HCPM project and who is helping WME with support raising for the project, Brian Shelton, a minister from Oasis church, the leading sponsor of the HCPM project and Larry Hardin, Missionary to Kenya who is researching CPM principles for application to his work in Africa. We were able to teach our team some important principles, strategize with Randy and Keith, our SC team, and visit 3 of the Discovery Studies. We are amazed at the doors God is opening, and I want to ask our readers to pray now as never before for breakthrough into these needy communities.
Now in closing on this blog, I want to share with you an article by Neil Cole that has just been posted on His website. It deals with a principle that I have been thinking of addressing: Church Planting Movements are really not about Church Planting. They are about Jesus, His Kingdom and Making Disciples in Obedience to His command (Matthew 28:18-20). So often as I use the term Church Planting Movements to describe what we are doing I realize that the words communicate something that is really not what we are involved with. I remember my conversation with a mission leader who, after I spent about 30 minutes or so describing our work, said to me something like, "Good. Maybe your organization can give us money to build church buildings". He had clearly not understood anything I had said, but it was not his fault. The term "Church Planting" is already filled with meaning (as is the word "Church").
CPM is about Making Obedient Disciples to Jesus Christ. Church Planting is basically what Jesus does in response to that.
Here is Neil's article. If I could say it any better, I would.
Dr. Wagner's Cart has been Pulling the Horse for Too Long by Neil Cole
Posted on July 12th, 2010
For years missional leaders have repeated the refrain articulated by Dr. C. Peter Wagner that "The best means of evangelism under the sun today is church planting." I myself have even quoted Dr. Wagner in some of my earlier resources. This statement has become a banner for church planting in the US for the past 20 years.
The reason given for this statement is that new churches tend to be hungrier, evangelistically speaking, than their more established sisters. The very survival of the new church depends upon her outreach ability, so the people are more motivated to do evangelistic work. Statistically this is proven to be true as well. New churches do win more converts than long standing ones, but does that make the quote right?
In the past few years I have come to realize that Dr. Wagner got it backwards. We need to make a shift in our missional understanding:
The best means of church planting under the sun today is evangelism (gospel sowing).
You see, we have a great many people starting churches today but not necessarily doing any true gospel work. There are a number of fast growing churches that simply draw Christians from other churches to form new ones. I do not believe that such a practice is indeed the best form of evangelism or of church planting--but it can still fly the banner quoted by Dr. Wagner.
No, we must get back to seeing church as a fruit of evangelism not the other way around. The Bible never commanded us to plant a church or even instructed us in church planting. The gospel (the good news of the intimate reality, redemption and rule of Jesus daily) is the seed we plant, not a church. If we sow the gospel much, we will reap many more disciples and a whole lot more churches will be started as well.
Of course we must also shift to a more holistic understanding of the gospel and the kingdom of God than we have had. Simply throwing out a lot of tracts or shouting at people on a megaphone is not likely to reap spiritual disciples or churches. Jesus brought the kingdom with him to the people who needed it most in a very incarnational and transformational manner. That is what He instructed us to be about.
Stop planting churches, start planting Jesus. Don't build churches, that is not your job or mine. Jesus said, "I will build my church." What He told us to do is to "Preach the gospel," and make disciples (or followers) of Jesus. To risk being cliche: the horse must come before the cart. The seed must come before the tree, and the fruit will follow. Plant Jesus, and let him start the churches. Frankly, He is better at it than we are anyway.
Thanks Neil. Blessings to all and I hope to blog more regularly now that I am back in the office for a while.
Our primary project team consists of Randy and Linda Travis (Strategy Coordinator), Keith and Juanita Travis (Missionary and assistant on the SC team), and Four 2 person teams. The teams are Adiel and Jacobo, Daniel and Adam, Oscar and Esteban, and Paco and Mario. These are some of the finest people I have ever met or had the privilege to work with. These men of God are trained and diligent in application of CPM principles.
Our team that went down consisted of myself, Ben Holloway,a missionary evangelist who is a great blessing to the HCPM project and who is helping WME with support raising for the project, Brian Shelton, a minister from Oasis church, the leading sponsor of the HCPM project and Larry Hardin, Missionary to Kenya who is researching CPM principles for application to his work in Africa. We were able to teach our team some important principles, strategize with Randy and Keith, our SC team, and visit 3 of the Discovery Studies. We are amazed at the doors God is opening, and I want to ask our readers to pray now as never before for breakthrough into these needy communities.
Now in closing on this blog, I want to share with you an article by Neil Cole that has just been posted on His website. It deals with a principle that I have been thinking of addressing: Church Planting Movements are really not about Church Planting. They are about Jesus, His Kingdom and Making Disciples in Obedience to His command (Matthew 28:18-20). So often as I use the term Church Planting Movements to describe what we are doing I realize that the words communicate something that is really not what we are involved with. I remember my conversation with a mission leader who, after I spent about 30 minutes or so describing our work, said to me something like, "Good. Maybe your organization can give us money to build church buildings". He had clearly not understood anything I had said, but it was not his fault. The term "Church Planting" is already filled with meaning (as is the word "Church").
CPM is about Making Obedient Disciples to Jesus Christ. Church Planting is basically what Jesus does in response to that.
Here is Neil's article. If I could say it any better, I would.
Dr. Wagner's Cart has been Pulling the Horse for Too Long by Neil Cole
Posted on July 12th, 2010
For years missional leaders have repeated the refrain articulated by Dr. C. Peter Wagner that "The best means of evangelism under the sun today is church planting." I myself have even quoted Dr. Wagner in some of my earlier resources. This statement has become a banner for church planting in the US for the past 20 years.
The reason given for this statement is that new churches tend to be hungrier, evangelistically speaking, than their more established sisters. The very survival of the new church depends upon her outreach ability, so the people are more motivated to do evangelistic work. Statistically this is proven to be true as well. New churches do win more converts than long standing ones, but does that make the quote right?
In the past few years I have come to realize that Dr. Wagner got it backwards. We need to make a shift in our missional understanding:
The best means of church planting under the sun today is evangelism (gospel sowing).
You see, we have a great many people starting churches today but not necessarily doing any true gospel work. There are a number of fast growing churches that simply draw Christians from other churches to form new ones. I do not believe that such a practice is indeed the best form of evangelism or of church planting--but it can still fly the banner quoted by Dr. Wagner.
No, we must get back to seeing church as a fruit of evangelism not the other way around. The Bible never commanded us to plant a church or even instructed us in church planting. The gospel (the good news of the intimate reality, redemption and rule of Jesus daily) is the seed we plant, not a church. If we sow the gospel much, we will reap many more disciples and a whole lot more churches will be started as well.
Of course we must also shift to a more holistic understanding of the gospel and the kingdom of God than we have had. Simply throwing out a lot of tracts or shouting at people on a megaphone is not likely to reap spiritual disciples or churches. Jesus brought the kingdom with him to the people who needed it most in a very incarnational and transformational manner. That is what He instructed us to be about.
Stop planting churches, start planting Jesus. Don't build churches, that is not your job or mine. Jesus said, "I will build my church." What He told us to do is to "Preach the gospel," and make disciples (or followers) of Jesus. To risk being cliche: the horse must come before the cart. The seed must come before the tree, and the fruit will follow. Plant Jesus, and let him start the churches. Frankly, He is better at it than we are anyway.
Thanks Neil. Blessings to all and I hope to blog more regularly now that I am back in the office for a while.
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