Video Transcript: The Steps of Planting a Church

I'm so glad we're talking about church planting. And we're so grateful for the  multiplication network and making available some of their curriculum that they  use worldwide. We're going to talk in this curriculum today about taking your  knowledge further about the steps taken to plant a church. So we've looked at  some of their material and their material comes from many authors, it's been  featured 11 countries and these models are things that God has really used in a  powerful way. We've talked about why plant healthy churches, we've talked  about who should plant churches, we've talked about what does the church  we're going to establish look like? And today, we're going to look at what steps  should we take to plant a church. As we look at what steps should we take to  plant a church. Remember, these are foundational steps that really apply to  whatever model we choose. And we're going to talk about models in the future.  Remember, the objective the church planter must be like a wise master builder,  who assures a good result. So at this point, in this church planting class, we are  learning those various architectural type of things that go into planting a church,  this is very important that you hone in on this and dig deep on these principles.  We're going to look today at spiritual preparation, vocational preparation,  sociological and demographic preparation, philosophical preparation, strategic  preparation, emotional preparation. So let's first of all start with spiritual  preparation. If we think about church planting, we go way back to the book of  Acts. And there's examples like the church in Antioch, and take a moment to  read Acts 13:1-3. Right away after Pentecost, the Lord sends out many disciples and apostles. And throughout the book of Acts, we see of one new church being  planted after another whole regions, churches were being established. So  spiritual preparation is first of all that preparation for you, for your area, the  calling of the planting of a church. That's all foundational. What about prayer?  Are you praying and fasting? Is there a study of Scripture about church planting  occurring? Do you have a team of intercessors praying for specific aspects of  the ministry? You know, a lot of ways that they look back at my life, I can look at  all the tangible things that we see I can talk about demographic study, we'll talk  about that I can talk about getting into building for worship, I can talk about all of  these things. But if I made mistakes in church planting in the past, honestly, it's  been I've sometimes overlooked some of the spiritual preparations, because we  don't see them. We know that they're there. But because we don't see them,  sometimes our priorities are not placed to raise up that spiritual preparation in  an area. So spiritual preparation is to really have the knowledge, the  understanding of church planting in the Bible, to begin a discipline of prayer,  fasting study of Scripture, and that team of intercessors. Then there's also  vocational preparation. And we've talked about some of this about who is the  church planter. But so in some ways, this is review. But remember that sense of  call to this type of ministry, conviction that God will bless this ministry, the ability  to motivate involve others in ministry tasks, in training in evangelism, preaching, 

teaching, administration, theology doctrine, in areas of pastoring. This is what  you're doing at Christian leaders Institute, getting trained in that vocational  preparation. Now vocational here means that calling that some people think  vocational is right away a paid position. No, no, no. Vocational is that calling is  an old word. And many of you will be bi-vocational meaning. You have a job in  your life, and you have another vocation, another calling for the purpose of your  life that's going to be experienced in this church plant. You know, recently I was  on vacation and I came upon some books about the practice of calling for men  and women in the early church the first three centuries, and I was fascinated  how many of them were called to plant a church in Sometimes these churches  were planted by men who are traveling more apostolic. Sometimes these  churches were planted by women who are called by God to plant a church in  their home. And then as the church grew, they develop leaders and  infrastructure to expand from there. So as you think about planting this church,  understand it's very much a calling thing are you called to plant a church?  There's also sociological and demographic preparation, knowledge of the  characteristic of the community awareness of the resources and challenges of  the community. Wherever you're called to plant a church, it's time to dig in and  understand what your community is like to see. Does your community have a  large number of these sorts of problems? Does your community have resources  available to help you? You know, I remember one church that I replanted, we  were located right next to a wedding chapel banquet facility. So knowledge of  that is, we had a lot of young couples who needed to be married. So in this  replant of a church, I made it very clear that here a pastor would be willing to  marry people who needed that service. And one thing I did too, is I gave almost  no fees to that. I mean, I just said, Hey, I'm willing to talk with you. Well, as it  turned out, many people came to that church, who were not connected to any  church had some residue of Christianity in their past. But we talked, I did some  pre marriage counseling, I shared the gospel, and some of the most incredible  stories of God's powerful Grace came, because that specific demographic of  people wanting to get married, connected to the location of the church. So that  study of sociological and demographic preparation is very important. Also,  philosophical preparation, a clear sense of the goal of the church plant. And in  this class, we're going to be talking about that later on. How to really get that  philosophical preparation down the congregation's identity as the Church of  Jesus Christ in that location. What the church will do worship education, service  evangelism, clear understanding of the strategy that you will use to, you know,  impact your local community, how decisions will be made and challenges will be  addressed. And in this class, we're going to be going deeper and deeper and  how to set that first leadership board and how does that work, how the ministry  will be financially sustained, you know, to even if your Bi-vocational, there still  will be expenses. And many of you will start out bi- vocational and you'll become

paid staff someday, many of you desire that you can just do ministry full time.  church plant is a great place to sort of experience that narrative, that journey in  your ministry. Strategic preparation, identify which model of church planting you  will use, something we'll be talking about later as well. Identifying people's gifts,  the target group, the resources available, these are all strategic places, in  strategic, important discussions, many of this stuff actually overlaps. But each  event has a important role in the planting of churches. There's the emotional  preparation, ability to discipline oneself and make hard choices. If you're a  church planter, nobody's necessarily looking at how you run your life. It's before  you in God, and there's a sense of self starting that much must occur, connected to the Lord of the universe, ability to accept criticism and learn from it. One thing I learned about church planting is you are the work in progress. Because as you  meet these diverse groups of people and do various things, things about you  come up. And if you take everything personal or you won't accept criticism, I'll  tell you church planting can be very difficult attention to one's family and one's  personal well being in church planting, it challenges all of those things as well,  because you're building something and you could just literally put 90 to 100  hours a week into the new church, but yet you have a family and you have your  personal well being as well. Those are all important preparations for ministry.  here really are the five steps that really apply to any model that you pick. These  are five characteristic steps, areas that need Your attention there evangelism,  discipleship, membership, leadership, and worship and service. So let's talk  briefly about each of them. And again, in this class, we're going to talk in depth  about all of these things. Well, when you plant a new church, it's about  evangelism, making new contacts, asking questions of where will you find the  people who will become part of your church? What strategies will you use to  evangelize people? We're going to talk in this class about some of those things.  Discipleship, organizing Bible study groups, how will you disciple new converts?  What will be the new what the new converts need to learn? Membership,  develop commitment to a local church? What will the process to integrate the  disciples into the congregation look like? What will be the requirements for the  risks and responsibilities of the members. These are the various things that are  big are very important to members of your membership really is, is how do you  get them to get glued or connected to your new church, to get them to cross  over in their commitment to not just sitting in the weeds sort of coming and  going, but actually have a stage for them to grow with God and to use their gifts, leadership to identify and develop leaders? These leaders have to be identified,  how will you do that? They need to be trained. How can that happen? You know, one of the things Christian leaders Institute offers as you identify leaders, you  can send them over to Christian leaders Institute just like you came here and  they can receive free ministry training, especially for elders and deacons that  are starting new church, you want them to be as trained as possible to assist 

you in reaching your local community. At some point, you will begin a worship  service or ministry in the community how and when and do you start doing  worship services? What community service ministries will look like? What about  programs? What about ministry to the community that will be more  programmatic or strategic in those areas? You know, as you plant this new  church, these foundational steps become very, very important. And throughout  the rest of this class, we're going to look at these kinds of topics so you are well  prepared to plant a new church.