Thinking about being a church planter?
Some lessons from the Apostle Paul
Roland Allen (1868-1947) was an Anglican missionary to China, an ordained minister from the orthodox ‘High-church’ tradition of the Church of England. I’m reading his book, Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or Ours?, on church-planting. His basic argument to his generation on church-planting was to move away from a paternalistic, colonial approach, and go back to the NT to discover the Apostle Paul’s approach to church-planting. Since I haven’t finished the book yet, I can’t tell you what he discovered! But, I firmly believe his instinct was correct. If we are to undertake a new Reformation of Ireland, it must be through the planting of biblical churches. Therefore, we need to learn lessons from one of Christianity’s foremost master church-planters, the Apostle Paul himself. For the following lessons from the life and ministry of Paul, I am indebted to Ed Stetzer in his book, Planting Missional Churches (B&H Publishing Group, Nashville, 2006; pp.44-47).
Paul was personally prepared for church-planting
Just as the Apostle modelled an example for others to follow in how to honour Christ (1Cor.11:1), so too he models for us a godly approach to church-planting. Firstly, he was personally prepared for church-planting. He was converted to Christ; he lived for Christ; he was deeply prayerful; and he had an excellent theological training which gave him a biblical understanding of God’s purpose for the nations to acknowledge Christ as Lord and Saviour. From the moment of his conversion, he was about the task of mission (Acts 9:20), prepared to do an ‘apprenticeship’ with Barnabus in team ministry (Acts 11:25-26) and modelled a Gospel life to others (1Thess 2). In other words, people who want to be about church-planting need to know Christ personally as Lord and Saviour, be living Gospel lives, be involved in some kind of ministry in their local church, and willing to learn ministry from others, as well as having a desire to grow in their knowledge of God and His Word.
Paul was an evangelist
Paul was passionate not only about knowing Christ more but also making Christ known. This was true from the very beginning of his Christian life. Not only did he start preaching in the synagogue in Damascus, but he did so all his life, seeing individuals and whole families come to faith in Christ. He was involved in one-to-one evangelism, street evangelism, large-group evangelism, evangelistic preaching in the synagogue and evangelism across all social and economic groups, from slaves to governors. He often looked to develop relationships with those proving to be most receptive (Acts 18:6). The heart of an evangelist is basic to church-planting, and whilst we may not yet be as skilled as others, if we are to engage in church-planting, we must be involved in evangelism in an appropriate way.
Paul’s church-planting was innovative
In making Christ known, Paul was innovative. He was ‘conservative’ (Bible-believing) in his theology but radical in his practice. He would preach in a lecture hall, in a synagogue, in a market place, at the riverside – the world was his parish! He sought to plant churches in new towns and strategic cities. The churches he planted didn’t meet in so called ‘holy’ buildings, but in houses and homes. He set plans (Acts 19:21) as well as being open to opportunities opened to him by the Holy Spirit (Acts 16:6ff.). To reach Ireland with the Gospel, we need to learn to be as innovative as the Apostle, conservative in our theology but radical in our practice, making plans and yet open to God-given opportunities to plant churches that may meet in the unlikeliest of places.
Paul’s church-planting was team based
From the earliest days of his missionary work, the Apostle used teams in church-planting. He gathered ‘partners in the Gospel’, not only individuals who joined him in active outreach, but also churches that supported him prayerfully and financially in the work (Philippians 4:10ff.). He carefully chose members for his team, looked after their spiritual welfare, and trusted them to do important work. He modelled to them how to love the people who were members of his church-plants and instructed them how to lead those churches. He modelled to them how to be risk-taking, sacrificial, cross-bearing, prayerful, bold and courageous church-planters. To reach Ireland, we need such courageous individuals to pioneer new work, but more especially we need teams of such people, couples, friends, partners in the Gospel, who are willing to band together for an extended period of time to reach a community.
In closing, Roland Allen in his book makes much of the fact that Paul was ‘bi-vocational’ in the way that he did church-planting. We haven’t the room to explore that in this article. That’s the subject of another day. But, it is important to say that as a way to reach Ireland with the Gospel, we are going to have to think ‘bi-vocational church-planters’ – at least to get churches started. In the meantime, is there anyone out there, who like the Apostle, wants to get the Gospel out to the world, especially in Ireland through planting churches? Is there anyone out there that is willing to go? Is there anyone out there willing to be a partner in the Gospel by supporting such church-planters. Some can go and some will stay, but all are called to do all they can to get the Gospel out.
Eddie Coulter