Introduction Over the years, church planters have passionately dedicated themselves to planting churches around the world, at great cost, in obedience to God's calling. Some have used the method of mother church and the cell or home church method in intercultural contexts. Some planters believe that it is the quality of their planting methods, effective advertising, attractive programs, mission teams, and resources that will make their church plant successful. While these are useful, the central factor is the God of the mission, who, through the work of the Holy Spirit and the Gospel, reveals himself to people, convicting them of sin, transforms people and brings them salvation. For effectiveness, planters with the right mix of spiritual gifts including outreach and evangelism, missionary leadership, pastoral care skills, good administrative gifts and physical strength are helpful in conducting missionary work. The church functions to participate in God's ongoing mission with the mandate to proclaim the gospel. Proclaiming the Gospel requires, among others, overcoming cultural barriers and planting churches in the social context of the missionary community; founders have lessons to learn from these past experiences. Church planting is an important topic, although it is often not given due attention. For example, summarizing the report of the Church of England Council for Mission and Public Affairs working group, in the late 1970s, church planting in England was largely unknown, although the Church of England was familiar with the idea of daughter churches, and in the decade following each world war, the century-wide general decline in the opening of new church buildings was reversed. The report finds that:...church growth thinking has come to the UK via......half of the document......S4241EN_L07.pdf; accessed 09/08/11Raising up - http://ubahouston.org/files/New%20Work/Raising%20Up%20Church%20Planters%20by%20Glenn%20Smith.pdf; accessed on 08/09/2011Principles of church planting - http://www.missionaleurasia.com/downloads/english/external/Principles of_Church_Planting.pdf; accessed 9/8/11Church Planting and the Great Commission: Part 2 http://www.abcog.org/plant2.htm; accessed 08/09/11 http://ecoggins.hubpages.com/hub/Seven-Steps-to-Effective-Church-Planting; accessed 09/08/11 http://saddleback.com/aboutsaddleback/history/; accessed 09/19/11 www.newchurchinitiatives.org/.../CPArticle0206LessonsfromTheEagles.pdf; accessed 09/08/11http://voices.yahoo.com/church-body-christ-4190411.html?cat=34; accessed 10/28/11 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+16%3A15&version=NASB; accessed on 08/09/11
tags