Seven Steps for Planting Churches
5
Step
Evangelize Unreached People “Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age’” (Matt. 28:18-20). “Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field’” (Matt. 9: 35-38).
Jesus ended His ministry on earth by leaving the disciples with the commission to “go make disciples of all nations.” Two aspects of the Great Commission are evangelizing and congregationalizing unreached peoples. Evangelism is incomplete without congregationalizing, and congregationalizing is incomplete without evangelizing. Church planting allows one to be involved in both of these important aspects of His commission in any given context. Church planting gathers a new group of believers out of an unreached people through contextual evangelism and ministry. Furthermore, church planting is essential in contexts where many people do not have a Judeo-Christian worldview. For many years, the majority culture in North America embraced this worldview. In that context, the majority of 45