Resource Guide for Church Planting and Growth

A Church is certainly not the building at the corner there, with the beautiful stained glass and steeple on top. The Church may meet there, but that building is not the church. It is not building of houses that are Church planting but preaching to people and making disciples for Christ from those who come together in a place, to fellowship with each other, either on a mountain or in a valley. The moment converts are thoroughly discipled, the Church is planted. Therefore, Church Planting is the composite of activities and efforts that is involved in the establishment of a church. It is an act of evangelism which has to do with preaching, teaching and discipline of converts with the resultant effect of establishing a Church. The subject of Church planting involves principles and life styles that are borne out of the Scripture and applied in daily Christian life. Launching a new Church is a lot of work which requires the expertise of successfully navigating from the idea stage, to the implementation stage and to the thriving stage. The missionary task is making disciples and planting Churches among all the unreached peoples and places of the world. The Church is at the center of the Great Commission. Church planting is simply what missionaries do as they faithfully proclaim the gospel and make disciples. When disciples are raised among unreached peoples and places and these disciples gather together in groups, they intentionally work to bring them to the point where they identify as a Church. As Churches are formed, missionaries help them to grow in health through patient teaching, training, prayer, and guidance. The goal in proclaiming the gospel and making disciples is healthy Church formation. Church growth on the other hand is the science that diagnoses the nature, function and the health of a growing church, with key emphasis of ensuring that the church is alive and on track. It can formally be defined as that science which investigates the nature, function and health of Christian Churches, as they relate to the effective implementation of the Great Commission to "make disciples of all nations" (Matt. 28:19). Church growth is a theological conviction and an applied science, striving to combine the eternal principles of God's Word with the best insights of contemporary social and behavioral sciences. It is the sum of all activities that are necessary to lead people to Christ, to enfold them and to integrate them into the life of the church, to get them exposed, and to help them to discover their potentialities. The challenge in this book: Resource Guide for Church Planting and Growth; is to remind us of the special love that God has for the perishing multitudes. The growth of the Church is the heart-beat of God. The Church of God is in the world to offer illumination and a sense of direction that will bring perishing ones back to a Savior that cares. What is it that you need to change in your ministry? What is it you need to change in the perceptive of your Church? What is it that you have been doing for the last number of decades that you need to change? What structure in your Church needs to change? What things in your Church are hindering your moving out in a new dimension? If the Holy Spirit says: "Take a new direction", take it. Let's go with the Holy Spirit. When we follow what the Holy Spirit says and do what He instructs us to do, we will have a Church that is alive in the Lord Jesus Christ and wonderful things will be accomplished. There are lot of changes that we need to make, changes in style, changes in concept, changes in approach, changes in orientation, etc. How do you intend to move into God's perfect will for your Church? The contents of this book provide the pre-requisites and practical guidelines for Church painting and growth, with in-depth analysis of modalities for Church planting and strategies for its growth and your interactions with materials contained in this book will be of immense