Start A Church
3. The third step to start a church in the church planting process is they were confirming the souls (Acts 14:22). The word confirming means to put props underneath something. It’s talking about the act of reinforcing.
Notice the words of the Bible. From what we saw in the first 2 steps in how to plant a church, we saw that Paul and Barnabus preached to the city, taught many, and confirmed the souls of the disciples.
They took the ones who accepted Christ and they discipled them. Not everyone who starts discipleship will finish but the ones who became disciples, they confirmed. They put props underneath them. They did this to the disciples.
From a practical standpoint, Paul said there are many with itching ears heaping to themselves teachers. People have this idea that they can find the secret of life in some seminar, tape or some source that some “guru” markets. The secret is putting props underneath the disciples. Reinforcing the foundation. Everything you need to know to reach the world for Jesus Christ, you learned in discipleship. You don’t need to reinvent something. Reinforce it instead. Good Bible churches will do this.
This speaks of learning by doing. Paul and Barnabas were continually confirming what the disciples were learning. Like learning something in the classroom and going into the lab with the professor and all of a sudden you say I get it. You learn it by life application even though you read it. Christianity is like that.
Seven phases of discipleship (7 stages of growth). Discipleship should be designed to get someone from infant stages to a solid leadership level and then we stop it. Stage 7 is learned in the laboratory of life, not in a book. If you’ve done the job earlier, the disciple will be doing the things needed to be done. Under the tutelage of the local church, that individual will grow into the image of Christ. Not everything is in a course!
When you see the apostles going back & confirming (putting props underneath the people they’ve already preached to and taught) that’s exactly what they’re doing. When starting a church, it is critically important to model what Paul and Barnabus did in confirming the disciples, to prop them up through a pattern of discipleship.
4. Step four is exhorting them to continue in the faith (Acts 14:22). We put props under somebody by exhorting. This same word in Greek was used by Jesus in John 15 and 16. Jesus talked of sending a Comforter. That word Comforter in the Greek is what gives us our word, we anglocize it and make it paracleat.
Paracleat is one called alongside of someone. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit not to Lord over us, but to come up alongside of us and in us in order that we might live the life of Christ. Paracleat is used in the context of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. To be a paracleat, to exhort does not mean to ball out or rebuke, those are different words.
Exhort means to be called alongside of, not called to be over. It doesn’t mean someone made you boss, but rather speaks of the ministry of encouraging. A good synonym is encouraging. Admonishing, urging them on.
Notice it says: Exhorting them to continue in the faith. Not saying just believe, but encouraging to continue in the body of truth. Faith can mean the act of believing or it can mean the archive of our beliefs. You encourage people by pulling up alongside of someone and keeping them in the book. Exhorting is not calling someone in for an appointment with you so you can discuss issues with them. Exhorting is a word that always appears in a loving context.
Teaching people to lean upon truth, the faith rather than lean on their feelings. Disciplers should be exhorting their disciples by saying yeah that is a problem, I’ve faced situations like that, let’s see what the Bible says and I’ll help you to understand. That’s exhorting.
This step of exhorting and the step of confirming implies the need for believers to congregate, to be together. The way you exhort and confirm is by spending time together. That’s all the word church means. Ecclesia means a called out assembly. Christianity is what gave that word its unique significance today.
We attach all types of meanings to that word church, but to start a new church, or even with an existing church body, you must remember that the church is a called out group. To start a church, it’s important to understand the church is not a building. It implies a sense of belonging. There’s no designated meeting place. They meet everywhere. No particular place for a church to congregate. (Heb 10:25) We need to emphasis more our need to congregate together. Not a prescribed mode. The building that the church congregates in is simply a tool where the church, meaning the body of believers congregate.
Where you are defines the methodology you use! What works somewhere may not work some place else. But what is necessary is to congregate together. This is an important point to remember when you start a church.
Read the next two steps to planting churches in the 10 step process to start a church.
