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:
1. Home Cell
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.
The Nature Of The Cell Church: The Cell Church has the following characteristics:
- The Cell Church operates not only on Sundays but on the other six days as well.
- Everything that happens in a Cell Church exists to support the cells.
- The Cell Church first grows and then builds a building.
- Cells meet in homes during the week and are basic units of the church.
- The Cell Church considers each member to be a minister and equips him or her to do the work of the ministry.
- The lost are reached through “Cell Friendship Evangelism”. Cells multiply causing dynamic growth.
- Church members are cared for at cell level.
- 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.
- Spiritual gifts for edification, equipping and evangelism are released in the cells.
- The community of cells is a place of healing for the individual and the family.
- In the small groups, members can lose all inhibitions and can receive edification and healing.
2. Crusades
Crusades are a wonderful tool to establish a church with the converts, placing them in cells and nurturing them into maturity.
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, but it is still a viable method of evangelism. It creates an opportunity to start a home-cell in the home of the converts.
4. The Jesus Film
The Jesus film is one of the most effective evangelism tools available. One can planted church with the use of the Jesus Film in a crusade style. At the end of the show, after prayer with the new converts, you can introduce them to a pastor who would be back the next day to establish a church with the new converts.
5. Never
Start a church with disgruntled (unhappy) people who walked away from another church. Make sure they have left honorably 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.
Church Planting Techniques
Seek Information by Researching
- Proverbs 13:16 “Every prudent man acts out of knowledge…” (NIV)
- Proverbs 14:15 “A simple man believes anything, but a prudent man gives though to his steps.” (NIV)
- Proverbs 15:14 “The discerning heart seeks knowledge, but the mouth of a fool feeds on folly.” (NIV)
- Proverbs 18:13 “He who answers before listening, that is his folly and his shame” (NIV)
- Proverbs 24:3-4 “By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established; through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures.” (NIV)
Research is a vital strategy to start with. But the act of gathering vital, accurate, up-to-date and challenging information is no guarantee that the Church will stand up and say, “Let us go and make disciples of all peoples, for we can certainly do it.” We must combine such information with faith, “for without faith it is impossible to please God!” (Hebrews 11:6)
People responsiveness
It is necessary to first look for people’s responsiveness. I am not saying that if the people are not responsive that they should be ignored. However, there are seasonal opportunities when a certain village, neighborhood or people are very responsive for various reasons.
Harvest Field
Identity, location, description and status of the people, including all the ethnic and social groups in the community.
- Identity questions: Who are the people that make up this area or region? What people groups are there and what languages do they speak? What social class divisions are there? Who are the poor and destitute?
- Location Question: What are the geographic divisions in the people?
- Description Questions: What is the political, economic, social, and religious condition of the people? What is the moral condition? What are “the sins of the fathers”? What are the reasons for these conditions? What are the basic needs of community? What are the types and levels of poverty and oppression?
- Status Questions: What is the total population, the urban or rural population depending on the area? How many households or dwellings are there?
Spiritual Assessment (Demonic Activity)
Discover any inroads Satan has made, which prevent the spread of the gospel and the evangelization of a place for Christ. Learn to see the world as it really is, not as it appears to be. Spiritual assessment involves the understanding of spiritual forces and events in the spiritual domain onto places and circumstances in the material world. It is a means whereby we can see what is beneath the surface of the material world.
- Engage Intercessors: Work with intercessors especially gifted and called to strategic-level spiritual warfare, seeking God’s revelation of- (a) the redemptive gift or gifts of the area; (b) Satan’s strongholds in the area; (c) territorial spirits assigned to the area; (d) corporate sin past and present that needs to be dealt with; and (e) God’s plan of attack and timing.(f)Use the power Jesus gave you to bring healing. It is the best form of spiritual warfare. (g) Target these spirits i.e. Prostitution, Gambling, Poverty, Greed, Violence, Exploitation, Murder, Drunkenness, Territorial spirits, Discrimination, Diseases, and Accidents etc.
- Prayer: Without deep intercessory prayer and patience in hearing God’s strategy for the church plant, it will not have a lasting effect. I suggest that prayer walking in the neighborhood or village may be of great value – praying on-site with insight. Acts 4:23-31: On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. 24 When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord, “they said, “you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. 25 You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: “’why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 26 The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.’27 Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28 They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. 29 Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. 30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus. “31 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. (NIV)
In developing and implementing a church planting strategy, take prayer seriously. Do nothing without prayer. Your saturation church planting ministry must be born out of prayer and then continuously be bathed in prayer from start to finish.
Remember: try to be patient, persistent and don’t try to make things happen.