Planting Churches That Plant Churches

(Genesis 1:28)  “Be fruitful and multiply.”  City-Changers are creating church planting movements.  These movements involve the exponential curve of multiplication.  Exponential is the point where the curve turns upward in new growth.

The vision for multiple church planting flows directly from the City-Changers.  The resources for the church planting comes from a combination of funds from the mother church and the church planter’s own fund raising.  City-Changers have learned if a church planter can’t raise funds for a new church plant, he can’t plant a new church.  If he can’t raise funds, he can’t raise people either.

Planting Churches with Both Local and Global Vision.

Our call isn’t to build the largest church in the community.  Our call is to transform the community and that takes a lot of churches.

1. Recruiting – City-Changers are constantly looking for the best and brightest leaders. They believe the key is selecting the right person, for the right job, at the right time. Leadership must be our best if we are going to light up our world.
2. Assessing – City-Changers analyze and assess the strengths and weaknesses of all recruits. They give recruits personal tests to determine their gifts and passion.
3. Training and Development – City-Changers assist church planters in exploring their call, their values, their vision, and strategies.
4. Deployment – their church planters are involved in reading and written assignments. They help them learn leadership development through one-on-one mentoring.
5. Coaching – preparation for deployment isn’t complete until ongoing coaching is in place. The coach does not consider the job complete until the new church has reproduced itself.

Essentials for Developing a Multiplication Movement

1. Passion for fulfilling The Great Commission.Isolated church leaders focus too much on church properties and buildings.
2. Intense leadership training. Much time is invested by City-Changers in development and deployment. There are many zealous leaders but City-Changers are looking for leaders who will risk everything to plant new churches.
3. Cross-pollination among church planting groups. They work to avoid cloning by forming relationships with other church planting movements. To be authentic we must develop our own DNA or we become nothing more than a copy of something or someone else.
4. Preferring their own church vision over denominational positions. It’s more biblical for churches to plant churches than for denominations to do it.
5. A sooner rather than later mentality. Churches which plant churches within their first five years find it much easier to plant their first church and then subsequent churches.
6. There must be a willingness to sacrifice at all levels of ministry. It always costs church planters much time, energy, and money in the pursuit of producing more churches.

Critical Evaluation

The first two years are critical for a new church plant.  If the first two years don’t go well, the following years usually don’t either.  Most new church plants follow the example of failing churches and 80% fail within their first two years.

Good coaching is essential for church planters.  Church planters should first serve as intern ministers.  This gives them the opportunity to lead a ministry while being evaluated.  All training for church planters should include their spouses because the project will fail if the spouse isn’t a part of the team.

Church planting movements set high standards and expectations for their church planters before assisting them with finances.  Many leaders think they could start a new church if they only had the finances but it takes much more than money to successfully start a new church.

Let’s Change Our Cities for God.