Planting the Gospel / Church Planting Movements
Mini-Workshop
January 9-10, 2009
East Hollywood, CA

Breakthrough Stories

Stories are coming in of breakthroughs in Central and South America, Europe, the USA, India, China, Bangladesh, Thailand, Indonesia, etc.  We are struck by how the vast majority of the impact is coming from “normal” people, not the paid missionaries or pastors.   

For example, God used David and Jan Watson to train indigenous leaders to start over 40,000 churches over the past 15 years in a place known as “a graveyard for missions and missionaries” in Northern India.  Today there are over 2 million baptized believers thriving in that region.  The Watsons’ experience and experiences similar to theirs are written about in David Garrison’s book Church Planting Movements: How God Is Redeeming A Lost World (www.churchplantingmovements.com). 

In each of these breakthroughs people are using simple Biblical principles and methods to see people become disciples of Jesus and groups of believers formed into churches that then reach new people and start new churches.  We have invited Joe Hernandez, VP of North American Church Planting with CityTeam Ministries in San Jose, CA, who specializes in equipping people to use these simple Biblical principles and methods, to facilitate a workshop for those of us who are passionate about seeing breakthroughs in our regions of the U.S.  Other presenters include Mark Hooper of Missions Resource Network and myself (in an apprentice trainer role). 

About the Workshop 

Not easy, but simple.  “It is called Church Planting Movement training, but it could be called training on how Jesus gave all of us simple and effective ways to reach lost people so they can reach more lost people - if we could just avoid letting our traditions get in the way.”  - David Watson  

“A lifestyle, not a program.”  This workshop is not about developing a program or finding a ‘silver bullet’ for your ministry.  It is  about developing a lifestyle that reproduces disciples, leaders and churches as a normal part of being and doing church.  Participants will walk away with practical tools they can begin using right away. 

God-dependent.  Only the Holy Spirit can produce a church planting movement!  Humans can plant the Gospel which God revealed in Jesus Christ.  This workshop equips participants with ways to become more God-dependent as we learn to effectively access and make disciples of people dying without Jesus. 

Who Can Come? 

WE ARE FULL!  SORRY, NO MORE SEATS AVAILABLE. 

This workshop is for people whose primary motivation for starting new churches is to reach people without Jesus.  They must have a missionary reason for starting new churches.  We meet lots of people who start new churches because they are frustrated with their current one, and they fill their new church with mostly frustrated Christians.  We are looking for people who are passionate for the harvest, are open to different (yet biblically-based) ways of doing church, and will put this into practice.  We will have 12 to 15 people (no more than 25) to allow for more dialogue and deeper learning.  Participants are strongly encouraged to bring a spouse or teammate to process this together. 

Schedule

Fri., Jan. 9^th  5:30pm to 10pm (includes dinner and breaks)

Sat., Jan. 10^th  8:30am to 9pm (includes meal times and breaks)

Pre-Workshop Preparation Required

To get the most out of this workshop, we are asking all participants to do two things BEFOREHAND:

(1) SPIRITUAL PREPARATION: 

Pray for God’s MISSING ONES that the workshop participants will lead to Christ. 

Pray participants will be moved by the Holy Spirit to ACT as a result of the workshop. 

Pray also for spiritual protection over the workshop participants and presenters. 

(2) CONCEPTUAL PREPARATION:

During the month prior to the workshop, all participants must watch the free six-hour video series entitled ”CPM Awareness Seminar” by David Watson at http://www.cpmtr.org/?q=taxonomy/term/10.  On this web page there are four sessions listed in reverse order: 4, 3, 2, 1. Watch them in order: 1, 2, 3, 4.  You may want to set aside a handful of nights in advance to view and discuss this material with your teammate or spouse (we find it’s best to break it up since it’s lengthy).  This will lay a great foundation for us before we meet together!  

Thank you for keeping this weekend’s training event in your prayers!

When I tell Christian leaders about the way we study God’s Word with people (primarily via Discovery Bible Studies), one of their concerns is that we are not imparting enough of our knowledge to new believers, but just leaving them to fend for themselves.  Yes, to some extent this is true.  We want them to learn how to lean on Jesus to be their leader, not us.  But we don’t stop discipling them. 

Teaching new disciples to depend on God’s Word and his Holy Spirit for guidance does not mean I never get to tell them my opinion.  I do share lessons learned from my own experiences.  Spiritual authority has an importance role to play, and it is to be distinguished from positional authority, expert authority, or even relational authority.  My team and I are learning this as we go. 

On several occasions a new believer I’ll call “Hector” has asked me, “I know I’m supposed to depend on God to be my teacher, but what do you think I should do in this situation?”  I have to chuckle to myself.  Sometimes, though not every time, I have told Hector what I think is the best course of action, but not until he wrestled first with God’s Word and came up with ideas of his own.  Then I might offer an idea he hasn’t yet considered.  Still, there are many more times that I have withheld my opinion so he could learn from applying his own ideas (which sometimes are better than what I would have done).  My goal is not to leave him vulnerable but to get him to seek direction from the Source, that is, Jesus Christ himself.  That can’t happen if I’m always inserting my two cents or suggesting a ‘better’ way to get things done.  Yikes, if I’ve taught him to depend on me for everything, then I have made him vulnerable!  Making disciples is a LOT like raising children in that regard. 

This is especially important in the early years of a new believer’s discipleship to Christ.  If Hector sees from our mentoring relationship that it’s all about the Phil Show, then when he mentors someone else he will make it all about the Hector Show.  I led Hector to Jesus Christ, not myself.  As I continue to mentor him it needs to stay that way.  And now Hector will lead someone else to Jesus Christ, too.

[Photo taken earlier this year.]

You accept us as we are – unholy
But you don’t leave us as we are – you make us holy.   

I was nobody ‘til I met you. 
You brought me out of the darkness. 

It’s more than I dreamed,
Living in your light and mercy.

Only you, Lord Jesus, are worthy of
This unconditional kind of love.

There are no words to express
How grateful I am for what you’ve done for me.

Unholy to holy. 
Jesus, I have you to thank only.

Unholy to holy. 
Now I live my life for you only.

“If your purpose of serving others is to meet people’s needs, then you are going to burn out because people will always have more needs.  But if your purpose is to glorify God, then you can accomplish that every day of your life.”

• Begin in their homes, not ours.

• It’s about discovery, not preaching or teaching. 

• Let them lead the Bible studies right away, even before they commit to Christ.

• Don’t tell new believers what church is or show them how to do church gatherings.  Point them to scripture and let them discover it on their own.

• Don’t be physically present when the new churches meet for the first time.  Go away, then come back to ask how it went and offer mentoring. Be more obedient.

Removing obstacles.  Additionally, we are going to remove as many obstacles as we can that are getting in the way.  One of those obstacles is my identity and status as paid clergy.  More on that later.

Training trainers and finding partners.  Our third year also will be about seeking an answer to the question “What’s it going to take to see a church planting movement here?”  Asking what it’s going to take is altogether different from the question, “What do we need to do?”  If a CPM is going to happen here, it’s going to take more than just my team and me.  I believe there are critical elements to a CPM that God will bring through lots of people working together.  I want to work with other people who are passionate for the harvest, open to doing church in different (yet biblically-based) ways, and willing to ACT to see a church panting movement.  I want to expose more people to our vision and, as God allows, train more gospel planters in Los Angeles for the harvest and from the harvest.  One of the first steps we’ll take this January is to host a “Planting the Gospel/CPM Mini-Workshop” for folks in this area.  There are lots of other ways we’ll partner with folks in the new year.  Please keep this in your prayers.

Reproduce ourselves.  In everything we do we want to bring someone alongside us so they can learn to do what we do.  We’re each praying God will give us a few people we can invest in who each will invest in a few others. 

Be faithful no matter what.  More than anything our third year will be about prayer and obedience.  As Katie commented in a recent team huddle, “We could be so much more effective if we weren’t selfish, timid, and disobedient.”  It’s not about being successful, it’s about being faithful.  Faithfulness leads to fruitfulness.

I’m excited to see how this plays out! 

Our first year (2007) was about being shaped for mission.  Our team had several life adjustments happen all at once: a new baby, the loss of a parent, a broken leg, surgeries, fixing up the building we moved into, and getting to know our new mission field.  Another significant change was all the unlearning we had to do.  We were unlearning “church” as we had known it and learning to be church as a way of life.  We were active in ministry those 12 months, and a man gave his life to Christ, but clearly God was doing more in us than through us that first year.  He was calling us to intimacy with Himself, and calling us to obedience.  And it is out of that intimacy with God and our obedience to Him that mission has flowed.

Our second year (2008) has been about discovering our approach to missions.  It’s a lot clearer to us now that it’s not all theory any more.  We’ve been getting some just-in-time training (the best kind).  We’ve had opportunity to practice simple Biblical principles and methods for catalyzing a church planting movement (CPM).  Another person gave her life to Christ, and we’re beginning to find (or be found by) more people who are spiritually curious and willing to expose themselves and their households to the Word of God on a regular basis.  God noticeably has begun to do a few things through us as well as inside us. 

Our third year (2009) will be about doing this approach whole-heartedly and making necessary changes to live it out as a lifestyle.  

…Tomorrow I’ll share what some of those changes will be. 

“I urge you to be faithful.  Your Father wants that of you.  His Spirit in you is not just about you; it’s about our Father.  John Piper wrote that missions is not the goal of the church, but worship is.  Missions exist because worship doesn’t (yet).  And you are the jars of clay that eternal love is poured out of.  Be faithful as he is faithful.”

Family of All Nations 

We’re a family of all nations
And we join in celebration
Of the One who gave us life.
For we’ve made it our decision
In a city of division
To live as one under Christ. 

We praise you, Lord, for making us one.
To each of us you’ve given your grace.
We praise you, Lord, as many who are one.
Through your Son you bring peace to this place.

You’ve torn down the walls
And united us all
Into one new heavenly race.
For in all our diversity
One thing we’re beginning to see
Is Jesus in every face.

We praise you, Lord, for making us one.
To each of us you’ve given your grace.
We praise you, Lord, as many who are one.
Through your Son you bring peace to this place.

[Note: This has been slightly re-worded since it originally posted.]

Here are more thoughts on “home groups” as they relate to a church planting movement (CPM).  Note: After today I’m going to pause the “home groups and CPM” series and make some single entry posts through the holidays.  When I resume this series I’ll try to address all the questions that have been posed to me by my coach: What do your groups do when they meet?  Who leads?  What do you do when a group gets way off track?  How do provide guiding influence without overwhelming?  (Of course, I can only speak from the experience of 2 years so far, which is not much, but I’ll do the best I can.)  For now, here’s part 3.  Enjoy!

Part 1: Focusing on groups, not individuals. 
Part 2: CPM, not house church movement.

Part 3: How do you form one? 

Technically, we don’t form “home groups.”  We work with already existing groups of unbelievers in the community (households and affinity groups) and help them to discover the Gospel of Jesus the Christ right where they are. 

This is different from doing a mass advertisement and pulling strangers together to be artificial community with each other.  We are looking for existing groups that are willing to expose themselves to God’s Word through a discovery process. 

This means that after gaining access to the community, we are learning to find individuals who serve as a bridge to their household or affinity group - that is, is a Person of Peace (as seen in Luke 10).  In our limited experience so far, finding (or being found by) such a person has begun with prayer and fasting and living an obedient life that is “conspicuously spiritual without being religious obnoxious.”  We’ve been found by this person through building relationships and meeting needs among the people in ways that lead to appropriate evangelism. 

There is so much more I want to say on the person of peace, but the point I want to make for today is this: The question is not, “How do we form a group?” but rather “How do we access and work with existing groups?”  When laying a foundation for a CPM, home groups are not to be confused with starting up a small groups ministry to supplement the Sunday assembly.  In E-Ho, as each group is led to Christ they have the potential of becoming a church that will reproduce more churches.  We want to model for the ones we’re reaching how they will help new churches form in the future: By going to others, by being Christ’s presence and power among the people, and by working with existing groups in the community. 

Some links for digging deeper:

• Church Planting Essentials - Appropriate Evangelism 

• Church Planting Essentials - Find the Person of Peace 

• Understanding Transition Points - Access 

• Understanding Transition Points - Finding the Person of Peace 

• Understanding Transition Points - From Person of Peace to Small Group