A Component of the Church Planting System
Church Planting Group
North American Mission Board, SBC
Basic
Training for Church Planters equips church planting teams for moving into
their project with an understanding of their context and the beginning of a
strategy for penetrating it with the gospel and planting a Kingdom community
among them. It prepares them for moving into Church Planting Networks (CPN) for
further skill training and networking with other church planting teams near
them.
Basic
Training is a workshop designed to accomplish the following objectives:
1. To jump-start the church planting process: The training
philosophy guides the participants to focus on their specific church planting
project and provides training on using practical tools within that context. It
is most helpful to church planting teams that not begun or those teams who are
less than six months into their project. It is understood that the participants
have already identified their ministry focus group or have identified a field
assignment.
2. To provide skill training: Skills are introduced and extensive
activities are initiated to increase familiarity with the church planting task.
3. To model mentoring: In addition to the church planter's own
mentor being present, there will be lead mentors that will work with the church
planting teams.
4. To provide prayer experience: Not only is prayer discussed as
a critical element of church planting, it is also experienced as a critical
element of this workshop.
5. To promote relationships: The relational dynamic of church
planting is emphasized throughout the workshop. It is also modeled through the
training process, and networking takes place through planned and unplanned
experiences.
Basic
Training for Church Planters is for the church planting team. The minimal
team is composed of the church planter, the church planter's spouse, and the
church planter's mentor. Some teams have additional vocational or volunteer
members.
The
Basic Training workshop is process oriented. It is not designed to simply
communicate a body of knowledge but is intended to provide an experiential
workshop. Therefore, it is activity oriented with only the necessary theory and
lecture to provide enough information to begin applying principles and skills.
The process includes modeling teamship and mentoring.
A key
component of the workshop is intentional worship experiences. The worship
provides a spiritual foundation for the workshop, a modeling of worship, bonding
of the workshop participants, and an opportunity for intimacy with God.
Content
of the workshop consists of a variety of issues critical to the planting of a
church. They are examined not theoretically but from within the church
planter's context. These issues include:
1. Overview: Foundations: In addition to discussing church
planting and the kingdom of God, the church planting team examines a practical
definition of church and their individual calling and giftedness as church
planters.
2. Prayer: The church planter is led to examine his personal
prayer life, develop a strategy for enlisting and maintaining a personal prayer
team, and explore strategies for congregational prayer life.
Personal Evangelism: The church planter is guided through
preparing the personal testimony for witnessing and is encouraged to think about
using this as a training tool for those reached in the new church.
3. Vision: Church planting vision is defined, and the church
planting team is led to begin developing their vision or refining an existing
one.
4. Values: The church planting team is guided in developing
shared values related to church planting.
5. Focus Group: The church planting team develops a clear picture
of the people in their ministry focus group. They will develop it in such a way
that it will be easy to communicate in non-technical language.
6. Mission Statement: The term mission statement is defined and
the church planting team begins the process of crafting theirs.
7. Relationships: Critical to the church planting process is the
development of relationships in many different arenas of the church planter's
life. Covenants are discussed and the church planting team is led in a
covenanting process.
8. Evangelism: Understanding and practicing evangelism from a
relational perspective is emphasized. The church planting team explores
evangelism strategies that will penetrate their context.
9.
Core Group: The Core Group is the initial group that forms the seed for
the new congregation. The church planting team discusses how to gather and
develop this group.
10.
Leadership Development: The process of discipling new believers to become
leaders is discussed.
11.
Small Groups: Since small groups are essential for a healthy church life,
basic principles that apply to all types of small groups are explored.
12. Worship: From the perspective of each church planter's
context, worship is discussed, and networking provides worship suggestions in
church planting team cluster groups.
13. Master plan: The church planting team is led through a process
of analyzing entry points into their church and then how people move through the
various systems of the church--Bible study, training, worship, ministry, etc.
14. Administration, Financial, Legal Issues: Financial, postal,
insurance and tax issues; covenanting, constituting and incorporating issues;
and miscellaneous contracts are all issues examined in this unit.
15. Mileposts: It is critical for the church planting team to know
where they are going at any given point. A flowchart of critical mileposts is
developed by each team. The flowchart will include what must be done to plant
the church. As time allows, activities required to reach those mileposts will
be added to the plan.
In
addition to notes, observations and information through networking, Basic
Training will provide each church planter with a customized set of materials
developed by the church planter himself. These materials consist of the
following:
1. A draft of a vision statement.
2. A rudimentary list of focused values.
3. A draft of a mission statement.
4. A prayer team enlistment strategy.
5. A beginning plan for evangelism
6. A potential church systems design.
7. A flowchart of critical mileposts.
With these tools, a church
planting team will be well on their way to developing their customized strategy
for planting a church in their context.
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