Seven Steps for Planting Churches

Seven Steps for Planting Churches ty, character, and competence for evangelism, you, as planter, must be committed to multiplying your effort through others. A common mistake made in many new churches is for the church planter to be seen as the staff evangelist. It is the role of the planter to evangelize a group of unreached people. But it is also your role to equip them to evangelize others. For this to happen, you must be intentional about your efforts. This involves modeling evangelism as a lifestyle in general and with specific individuals. It also involves mentoring those who share your commitment to evangelism and multiplying your efforts through them.

Commitment to creating an environment for evangelism. Another key to evangelism in a church planting context is the opportunity to create an environment for evangelism. Several critical areas for creating such an environment include: Your Vision, Mission, and Values—If a church is to be evangelistic, evangelism must be at its very core. Churches begun for any other reason may have evangelism as a part of their ministry, but their motivation may be radically different. For example, churches that are begun to provide deeper teaching will likely reach believers who think their church is too shallow. The church plant may talk about the need to reach people, but it is unlikely that it will ever impact the community.

Your Structure and Programs—It is important that a new church develop a simple structure with very few programming needs. This means that if evangelism is to be a priority it must be integrated into the overall structure and program of the church.

Your Launch Strategies—When a launch strategy is utilized, it should be geared toward the reaching of unreached peoples. This will vary from one unreached people group to another.

Your Worship Expression—There are three basic approaches to worship today including worship that targets churched people, worship that targets unchurched people, and worship that does church for the believer, but maintains a high sensitivity toward the unchurched. Many refer to these as believertargeted churches, seeker-targeted churches, and seeker-sensitive churches. In a church planting context, careful attention should be placed on the unchurched or unreached people. This best happens when believers invite unchurched people into a community of believers that are effectively living out what it means to be a biblically functioning community.

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