Although Christ has not spelled out the
details of how we should plant churches, we do have some
beautiful
examples
of church
planting in the New Testament. We should not lightly
toss these aside. During Pentecost the church was birthed
at
Jerusalem when the oil of Christ’s anointing flowed down on His
body, the believers. Christ had made it very clear to His disciples
that they were to go into all the world and preach the Gospel
to every creature. However, as one reads through the book of
Acts, one gets the idea that the church at Jerusalem was grappling
seriously with the non-Jewish nature of the church Christ was
building. For thousands of years God’s people had observed
Moses’ law. Was it possible now to be one of God’s
people and not keep those laws? Even the elders at Jerusalem
seemed slow to understand God’s plan. Stephen saw it
clearly and paid dearly for it. Strangely, the one God chose
to use to plant churches, distinctly Gentile churches, yet
holy churches, was one who was present and consenting to Stephen’s
death. By God’s transforming grace, Saul, the zealous
church persecutor, became Paul, the Apostle and zealous
church planter.
Examples from Paul’s Ministry
It is amazing that one who so fervently fought
for Judaism became the apostle who most clearly understood
the non-Jewish
nature of the church and labored incessantly to build
and defend it. What were Paul’s methods? We can learn much
by studying his ministry. Several things stand out as we
study the Books of Acts and Paul’s epistles. Probably
the first thing that jolts us is the fact that in church
planting, Paul didn’t spend a long time in one place.
When God directed him to a city, he preached the gospel.
Those who repented and believed were promptly baptized then
gathered regularly for teaching. Second, Paul very soon ordained
local leaders to lead the new church. Third, he did not become
the pastor in any local church; instead he kept the role
of itinerant teacher/preacher/church planter (which is really
what an apostle is). Fourth, Paul did not collect monetary
support from the group of people in the locality in which
he was ministering; neither did he maintain the function
of the local church with his own funds or from his sending
church.
Time to Go Home
Paul preached a simple gospel of salvation
by faith in Christ’s
atoning death and resurrection. The Holy Ghost aided his gospel
preaching by mightily convicting the hearers as well as attesting
to the authenticity of the message with astounding miracles.
Paul had a very strong faith in the power of the Word of God
and the Holy Spirit. He also seemed to understand thoroughly
that the church is under the authority and control of Christ
Jesus, not any man. Could it be that the weakness so often
seen in mission work today, in which missionaries hold control
of a local work too long, results from doubt or lack of understanding
in these areas?
Driven by Desire for the Unreached
Why didn’t Paul settle down in one place for a long time?
Reading through the Book of Acts, it seems the longest he stayed
in any one place was about two years and three months at Ephesus
on his third missionary journey (Acts 19). His next longest
stay seems to have been for eighteen months at Corinth on his
second missionary journey (Acts 18:1-11). The length of time
he stayed in most cities is not given, but being unmentioned,
seems to be of shorter duration, perhaps a few months. Paul
himself gives us one of his strongest reasons for not staying
long in any one place. He was driven by the burning desire
to preach Christ to those who had never heard. In his own words
to the Roman church, “Yea, so have I strived to preach
the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build
upon another man’s foundation: But as it is written, ‘To
whom He was not spoken of, they shall see: and they that have
not heard shall understand.’” (Romans 15:20, 21).
Time to Move On
To our way of thinking, it seems reckless
of Paul to move on so soon to a new place especially in light
of subsequent
troubles that arose. If Paul was a church planter in
our time, he would surely receive criticism. Very likely
folks
would use the multitude of problems that plagued the
Corinthian church (I Corinthians), and the churches which
turned away
from Paul in Asia (II Tim.1:15), to argue that he was
leaving them prematurely. Yet Paul was obviously led and
blessed
by the Holy Spirit. Perhaps Paul understood something
we do not. Why was he willing to risk churches losing out,
rather
than staying a long time in one place? And, since Paul
was being daily directed by the Holy Spirit, why was God
willing
to run the risk of churches losing out, rather than have
His servant linger in one place? There must have been
some advantage or God would not have directed that way. As
we
ponder this, two reasons quickly become apparent. First,
newborn creatures learn best by observation. We once
had a hen sitting on eggs that somehow broke her leg. It
healed
partially, but not fully. Because of this she could not
scratch for food, she could only peck. When her eggs hatched,
and
all her fluffy little chicks followed her, guess what?
None of them scratched, they only pecked! With his mouth,
Paul
taught the new converts the importance of preaching the
gospel to all nations. But likely they did not understand
the great
importance of this until Paul announced to the fledgling
church that he was leaving to move on. “What? Paul,
you can’t leave us yet! We’re barely standing
on our own two feet!” Yet move on he did under the
guidance of the Holy Spirit. Thus the importance of preaching
Christ to every creature was driven home to the young Christians
as nothing else could have wunderlined and highlighted it.
Paul’s short stays also forced the churches and their
young leaders to lean hard on God, instead of Paul. This
is a very valuable and desirable effect.
Local Ownership
Paul very soon ordained local leaders to lead
each new church. He consistently resisted the urge to become
the pastor in
any local church. Instead he kept the role of itinerant
church planter. Thus from its birth, each new church bore
the responsibility
of making its own decisions. Yes, in the early stages,
Paul was there to guide with counsel from God’s Word, but
he was just that—a counselor, not a pastor. Incalculable
advantage is lost when a missionary becomes the pastor of
the local church. The church will have a foreign flavor because
the leader of the church is a foreigner. The zeal and ingenuity
of the local people will likely be stymied because the church
is not really “theirs”. The indigenous believers
may begin to think that they can’t really lead out
since all authority lies in the hands of a foreigner. Thus
their God-given creativity and ability is crushed in the
bud and may never come to blossom, or if so, only after a
long delay. By so doing, converts come to depend on the missionary,
fearful to step out on their own in church administration
or evangelism. The Holy Spirit inspired Paul to tell Timothy
that to qualify as an elder/bishop a man must not be a novice
(I Tim.3:6). Was Paul then going against his and God’s
own counsel to appoint elders who had been believers probably
only several months (Acts 14:21-23)? Perhaps some of these
elders had been Jews or Jewish proselytes who thus were well
acquainted with the Old Testament, but the Bible doesn’t
tell us so. Perhaps the fires of persecution tested new believers
to quickly mature them. Perhaps our definition of a novice
is different from Paul’s (or God’s) definition.
Whatever the cause for the difference between Paul’s
methods and current missionary efforts, there is good instruction
for us in Acts 14:23, “And when they had ordained them
elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they
commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.”
Your Money or Theirs?
Notice also that Paul did not collect money
for his personal support from the group of people in the
locality in which
he was ministering, though he did receive love gifts
from churches which he had previously established. Paul is
painfully
clear on this point and spends much time defending his
position. In II Cor. 11:9-13 he says, “But what I do, that I
will do, that I may cut off occasion from them (false apostles,
deceitful workers) which desire occasion; that wherein they
glory, they may be found even as we.” In Paul’s
day, just as in ours, there were those who used evangelism
as a business, a money-making venture. Paul did not want
to be identified with them in any way, or give them the excuse
of, “But Paul does it that way.” Paul did not
collect money from the local church in which he was ministering,
nor did he fund the functions of the local church with his
own money or from his sending church. Neither do we have
any indication that Paul took initial oversight of the finances
of the local church. These are very important rules if we
want to plant churches that reproduce spontaneously. If churches
from the outset are provided for by the missionary or mission
agency, they will feel that the church is not theirs. When
the locals’ sweat and hard-earned profits have contributed
to buy the simple church benches or the pressure lamp for
evening services, it is theirs in a way it will never be
if the missionary used his money to provide these. Oftentimes
the problem is brought on by the missionary who wants to
build a church building quickly. (Doesn’t that give
good signals to the folks back home that the work is progressing
well?) Or sometimes the missionary feels that the church
building should be of better quality than the locals can
afford. The missionary was likely used to living in a house
of high quality building materials and may not feel comfortable
building a church building of mud walls and thatch roof.
He wants to build a low-maintenance building that will last
a long time. (What will the folks back home think when they
see pictures of a church that looks like a big hut?) However,
by taking the building plan and finances into his own hands,
he gives the locals the clear signal that they can’t
do it well enough and that this is the way church buildings
ought to be built. Consequently, when there is need for the
next church building, the plans and finances must come from
the missionary. The same thing happens when a missionary
uses methods of evangelism that locals cannot afford. If
he uses a sound system and lights run by a generator to hold
an evangelistic crusade, the locals will see this as the
proper way to evangelize. When he moves on with his equipment,
they may not be able to afford similar equipment. Or if he
donates the equipment, they may not be able to maintain it
or replace it when it wears out At that point the evangelism
will likely grind to a halt. Does all this mean that the
missionary or church planter should not give to needs around
him? No! But it does mean that the missionary must be careful
to give in a way that does not, in the end, do more damage
than good (by destroying local ingenuity, effort, and relationships).
When Paul was in Ephesus he obviously gave to needs around
him. As he testified in Acts 20:34, 35, “Yea, ye yourselves
know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities,
and to them that were with me. I have showed you all things,
how that so laboring ye ought to support the weak, and to
remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, ‘It
is more blessed to give than to receive.’” Yes,
as a Christian brother in a community, Paul gave but didn’t
become the whole deacon fund!
Alone, but not Abandoned
Finally, none can rightly claim that Paul
did not care about the churches he planted as an ostrich
lays her eggs and leaves
them in the sand. Even after the Holy Spirit moved him
on to new locations, he labored over the churches and individual
members of those earlier churches in fervent prayer with
tears! At times he wrote letters of encouragement, admonition,
or correction to those churches. Sometimes he sent messengers
to them, at times for a short visit and at other times
to “set
in order the things that were left undone” (Titus 1:5).
Conclusion
May we all learn from Paul who never watered
down the gospel and yet became all things to all men. May
God fill us and
lead us by His Holy Spirit that we may be fruitful for
eternity, a living and contributing part of that leaven that
will diligently
and consistently work until the whole is leavened.
