Church Planting Manual
Church planting is the spiritual goal of the Church. A local Church is expected to grow: not only internally but externally, not only numerically but exponentially. It has to beget another Church and another... If a Church is not planting Churches, it is not fulfilling the purpose for which God has called her to do.
The International Bible Baptist Church, in order to fulfill this duty, has formulated a systematic approach. IBBC calls it the “Jerusalem Model”. The first Church in Jerusalem began as a house Church. To minister to all the people they had reached with the gospel, they started many house congregations, led by Church elders. Unfortunately, after many years the members and Church leaders began to be complacent about the gospel. They wanted to stay in one place and had forgotten that the gospel is for all and must be propagated to all people group.
God, through His providence began to allow the Church to suffer persecution and be dispersed. This resulted to many people getting displaced and consequently many Churches began grow and be established. Let us not wait for the Lord disperse us to fulfill His command.
Concerns about Church Planting:
1. The loss of quality and faithful members.
2. The loss of tithing members
3. The loss of quality leaders and faithful servants.
4. Financial concern.
The modern style of Church planting uses humanistic and business techniques. They approach it as if they are starting a business for profit. IBBC follows the biblical pattern, a God-honoring approach. It is an approach based on faith and obedience. Faith is not based on a burden one feels to start a Church so that when there is no burden there is no action. It is based simply on obeying what God has already declared as a command. If the Lord expects the Church to start other Churches, then we must believe that the members and leaders must be trained and equipped with that goal in mind. Throughout the history of the Church, God has been using the laymen to start Churches, which eventually became the Pastors and leaders of the congregations.
Like what happened in Jerusalem, Churches today focus more on establishing a spiritual empire, in a castle, surrounded by a forest or a fortress. The purpose is self-serving. It is to sustain, empower, en-rich their ministry and maintain it protected and comfortably established as long as it exists. The only involvement most Churches have today in regards to Church planting and world mission is by means of financially supporting other Church planters or missionaries coming from another ministry or local Churches. They do not find the need to send someone from their local churches to physically go to the whole world. They think that sending money, resources, helps constitute the idea of going. To make this happen Churches keep their members within their backyard. They are afraid to release them, albeit; send them because they are afraid of losing quality members along with their financial commitment. New workers and preachers are not being produced and trained due to lack of encouragement and shortsightedness. Instead of building Churches, they build buildings and beautiful facilities to give an appearance of success and accomplishment. Others start Bible Colleges and other schools and inadvertently siphon faithful workers and potentially capable leaders from other Churches to serve in their own Churches. These Bible College students surrendered their lives in their own local Churches with the original intention to come back and help; but instead they have forgotten the Church where they came from and the calling God has in their lives.
On the other hand there are some Churches who believe in the principle of Church planting but afraid to lose excellent workers and income. They get frozen with the thought of losing their treasured preachers and members for another work. To them keeping them within the neighborhood is what is more important than sending them out to start a brand new work. They are afraid to venture out since it will incur additional expenses such as rental of facility, pastoral support, etc.
A Church that does not grow outwardly will become destitute inwardly. It will die from the inside. One can start a Church and see an increase in attendance in just a few years but when you only have that one Church, after many years that one Church will either just remain the same or be gone forever. However, if you have many congregations through Church planting and may even have only hundreds in attendance initially, these Churches will have greater power to reach more people because of a greater opportunity to grow and propagate being spread out in different communities. The positive result is a more progress in growth and expansion. Although we do not adhere to the marketing strategy of many so called fast food restaurants, we do find them more successful with their small franchises compared to a large fine dining restaurant with only one facility. These small franchises serve a greater number of people. I can see that they have learned the principle from the New Testament.
Development of a Congregation:
God is always interested in developing a growing and progressive relationship. He wants to see commitment, dedication, and service in all His creation. He established a home to see the family work together, grow, and propagate. The Lord Jesus Christ died to allow us humans to the have a personal relationship with the Father. He expects us to grow in our relationship with God.
The purpose of the Church is one and the same. The Lord Jesus established it to house His children where they can be nurtured, fed, trained, and then sent out to multiply. Soul Winning is Church Planting. The two must never divorce. You need to have a spiritual home for them.
Church planting carries the idea of relationship, spiritual, that is. In order for a congregation to start, a mother Church has to give birth to it. It does not only allow its birth but also its sustenance, support, and most importantly, its procreation and authority.
In order for a Church to be legitimate, it has to have a sending Church or the mother Church. Eventually, a congregation will become an independent Church so it can start another cycle of Church life.
IBBC has developed a strategy to accomplish this:
“The Jerusalem Model”.
Let us trace the development of a congregation. It begins with the:
Home Bible Study Groups:
Home Bible Study (HBS) is the most effective way to start a congregation. Church members and leaders must be encouraged to start many Home Bible Study groups in some key locations within the Church community to reach the people who normally would not visit a Church but willing to go to a home. It is the initial obedience to the “GO” command. “And daily and in every house the cease not to teach and to preach the Lord Jesus Christ.”
The purpose of the Bible Study, while it also edifies the faith of the members and the other believers, its goal continues to be Soul-Winning. People are strongly encouraged to bring unsaved people from the neighborhood. HBS serves to teach, encourage, edify, train the members and prospects in the local community. It will allow people to have the sense of belongingness and support. It is encouraged that the people will also be trained to give not only their time in attendance, service in soul-winning and inviting prospects, but also financial offering to give towards the need of the local Church.
If the Home Bible Study is within the 50-mile radius from the Main church, the Church will remain a Satellite Ministry.
Satellite Ministry:
Satellite Ministry (SM) is a congregation within a congregation. This is an ideal setting if a Church does not have a bus ministry to pick up people to come to the main Church. It will enable the people from within the 50-mile radius to be a witness in the area where they live. There is always a feeling of frustration among the members who live far from the Church. They find it hard to be involved in service and invite their friends and loved ones to attend Church services.
SM serves as a local outreach. There is no need to organize this into a mission work. They join the Mother Church in the Sunday school and Worship Services in the Main Church facility and have a separate meeting during the Sunday evening services and Prayer meetings. The Church in Jerusalem, I believe, followed this same pattern. Since they did not have a big building to accommodate all the members, they had many satellites within the city to minister to the Christian members living in the same communities. Jerusalem Church had multiplicity of pastors – leaders who oversee the satellite congregations.
The members of the SM are actively involved in the Main Church. They can be in the Main Church Choir. Some can teach and help in the Sunday school, Ushering, and other opportunities of Christian service. In their local area, they can be involved in Soul-winning to invite the neighborhood people to attend the Satellite services on Sunday evening, Prayer meetings, and home bible Study. They give their tithes, missions giving, and other offerings to the Main. Offerings that are not designated as tithe and mission offerings can be used to help the local expenses and can be kept by the Preacher-in-Charge.
A Home Bible Study can become an SM if there are 3 – 5 new families who are saved and baptized from the local area. The leader of the SM has to be a licensed preacher and must have a minimum two (2) years of Institute training or must be a current student in IBB College. His appointment is Preacher-in-Charge and if the congregation is able, the leader will receive a minimum financial support of $200.00/month. Since it is a ministry, all legal matters, administrative decisions, and ministerial concerns must be brought to the attention of the Main Church and the Senior Pastor.
Outreach Ministry:
An Outreach Ministry (OM) is the initial road towards becoming a Mission Congregation. It begins from a Home Bible Study group from outside of the 50-mile radius from the Main Church. It is a congregation with a Church potential.
In order for a Home Bible Study to become an OM, there must be 5 – 10 new families saved and baptized coming from the local area. The Home Bible Study leader will be called the Preacher-in-Charge. While an OM, the tithes and mission offerings are all remitted to the Main Congregation. It will have the same status as the SM. However, when there are 10-15 new families saved and baptized from the local area, the status will convert into a Mission Congregation (MC).
The minimum qualification of the OM Preacher-in-charge remains the same as the SM.
Mission Congregation:
A Mission Congregation is one step before the independent status. To achieve this the OM has to have 10-15 new families saved and baptized from the local area. The following must also occur:
- The Preacher-in-charge will have to be appointed and formally designated as a Mission Pastor and may receive a minimum allowance of $500.00/month.
- The tithes and offerings are kept in their local Bank of America Acct.
- 10% of all the tithes and offerings but not including mission giving will have to be remitted to the Main Church so that the money can be used to support new congregations and missions.
- All Mission offerings must be remitted to the Main through the IBBC Mission Board to help support new congregations and world missionaries. The MC can designate the recipient of the mission money.
- The MC must be financially independent and able to take care of the rental facility of the Church and pastoral support.
Independent Congregation:
When the MC becomes financially stable and has developed a full program for the said congregation such as Adult, Children, Music, Soul-Winning, Discipleship, Youth, Usher, it can then become an Independent Local IBBC Church through the decision of the Mother Church after a minimum of two years. IBBC does not intend to overlook the importance of the Church Ministerial standard. The MC must provide proof or evidence of stability to the Senior Pastor who will give the recommendation to the Mother Church. A local Pastor must then be called and installed with the recommendation from the Senior Pastor and jointly approved by the main Church and the Mission Congregation. When this happens, the Independent Congregation (IC) will be totally independent from the Main and from the Senior Pastor. However, the IC can still consider the Senior Pastor as Pastor Emeritus, a symbolic, non-controlling position. The IC can also choose to select their name that is unique to them but it is the recommendation of the IBBC to retain the name “International Bible Baptist Church” to maintain the identity and uniqueness. It is also recommended as a sign of courtesy to the Church that has helped them and to the Senior Pastor, that the IC continues to support the Church Planting ministry regularly and support other IBBC congregations, affiliates, and missionaries. The IC must bear in mind the goal of the local Church given by the founder, the Lord Jesus Christ – To go and plant more Churches for the glory of God.
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