Church Planting Essentials
Sometimes the Holy Spirit will speak directly to the heart of a man and place a burden on his heart for the work of missions. Sometimes the Holy Spirit moves in a congregation and a passion to reproduce the church is born. Sometimes the Holy Spirit draws a person, congregation or a group of churches to take interest in a specific site or location. Sometimes, an offering is given from the heart of a church, local association or person that becomes the catalyst for prayer and missions awareness. The Holy Spirit can use a variety of ways to initiate the missions/church planting process but to constitute a mission project; the following things must be in common in every case:
THE LOCAL CHURCH
A church, which has the sole authority for sending, led by God, must see a need. They must be willing to sponsor a person who will be called a missionary. That missionary must be a member of that church. The church must vote to endorse the missionary, thus giving him the authority to do missions work. The church must vote to initiate a new church in the area determined to be the mission field. The church must be willing to pray (as much as possible), participate (however possible), promote (as often as possible), provide support (as providentially, as possible), and protect (as prudently, as possible), the missionary and missions congregation.
THE ASSOCIATION
The association works with churches to select a potential area for a church plant; to assess and interview a missionary candidate; to train, prepare and supervise the missionary before and while on the field, on behalf of the sponsoring church and the association, to raise funds to help support the financial needs of the missionary and his work.
THE MAN
The church planter will be accountable to the association through the Missions Director. The church planter will be in a collegial relationship to other churches in the association, but his primary accountability will be to the Director of Missions and his primary responsibility would be to his sponsoring church.
