Bible Churches
The final two steps to starting Bible churches from a 10 step church planting process as outlined in Acts 14 from the lives of Paul and Barnabus leads us to the following.
9. Step nine is they shared the Blessings. Acts 14:27 “and when they were come, and had gathered the church together”. They went back to where they were sent from and shared the blessings. What God was doing in their lives and in the world.
10. Step ten is abiding. Acts 14:28 “and there they abode long time with the disciples”.
The relationship ought to exist between the missionary and the sending church. There should be a close relationship between the church planter and the local church or churches that send out the missionary. Sometimes missionaries come back and get re-incorporated back into their home church.
These are ten steps that Paul and Barnabas went through on their first missionary journey as they established the Bible churches in Galatia. This is the 10 step model that should serve as our model today when starting a church.
Instead of relying on man’s modern advertising and marketing techniques in the church growth movement, why don’t we decide to let God be God and let Him add to the church? I think God can do a good enough job without man’s marketing strategies.
At Pentecost, there were 120 in the upper room. 100 – 150 years later the gospel reached the world. There were no modern church growth strategies involved here.
The early church in the first century was planted and grew based on the following:
* It reached man’s heart needs. Today, “user friendly” seeker churches use marketing tactics to reach man’s flesh needs. They use marketing tactics through marketing studies to find out what people want and they give it to them. The early church reached man’s heart issues and answered with the truth of the word of God. Healthy growing churches will do the same.
* The gospel was seen as reality. There was the testimony of the martyrs as people stared death in the face with a confidence. Those witnessing people dying for their faith couldn’t understand that. If you have something to live for, then you should have something to die for.
* People witnessed the testimony of a transformed life. Today’s modern methods leave people empty inside and provide no real solutions for their problems other than an instantaneous feel good sensation that wears off once the mood changes.
* The message was preached to all social classes and it was authoritative as individuals witnessed the gospel to family and friends. There were no mission boards, bible colleges, professional missionaries, business philosophies or tactics. It was God’s people being faithful to the Word of God because it was real in their lives. Bible churches today would do well to emphasize the reality and the teachings of Gods word instead of promoting programs.
Summary and Conclusion
The emphasis of church planting and starting a church and or building churches is going to be on the decisive point in training key men (leaders). Jesus concentrated most of his time with training his disciples, whom would become the key leaders of the church. As goes the head (leadership), so goes the church (body).
Three keys to planting churches and starting a new church:
Start by observing what is in your hand. What has God given to you that you can work with or what can you start with? Narrow the focus to concentrate on what piece God wants for his church. Then develop a specific long range plan which focuses on 3 items:
1. Training key men.
2. Identify key cities – (where God has or will placed these key men.)
3. Generating key tools.
Focus on one thing and do it well! Take those resources and build it up, continue to do it well, then invest or move onto something else when you continue to do it well. In the church, it can be discipleship that grows into other ministries instead of going out and starting a bunch of ministries that none is done well. There is no depth! The need is quantity over quality!
Make sure the message is emphasized over the methods. The methods will change. The mission doesn’t. The objective is to plant God’s church to accomplish the mission. This 10 step process and three keys are what I believe the word of God teaches to planting Bible churches.
Read all ten steps to the church plant process:
