Key: Multiply
MULTIPLY clusters of churches
Stephanas described a healthy church planting movement as a growing vine, putting down new roots as it continues to spread and cover the land. It is not like an individual, isolated potted plant.
The team and the new leaders worked toward multiplying clusters of closely-knit house churches.[1] [2] One lone church seldom survives long. When possible, they arranged united gatherings of these groups.[3]
They helped people to win friends or relatives in other communities. They found that some of the best church planters were new believers! Daughter churches began at once.[4]
Each church was encouraged to reproduce into daughter and granddaughter churches. When churches plant new churches spontaneously—on their own—a movement arises. [5] [6]
To maintain momentum, they kept a balance of ongoing evangelism, discipleship and leadership training.
[1] House Churches: A UNIVERSAL ELEMENT IN CHURCH PLANTING MOVEMENTS “The churches in Church Planting Movements begin as small fellowships of believers meeting in natural settings such as homes or their equivalent. Among the Maasai (Kenya), the meetings take place under trees, among the Kui (India), in open courtyards. The key element in each of these Church Planting Movements was a beginning with an intimate community of believers who were not immediately saddled with the expense or upkeep of a church building.”
“Meeting in small groups certainly has economic implications. Liberating the fledgling movement from the burden of financing a building and professional clergy is no small obstacle to overcome. But there is more. House churches create an atmosphere that fosters Church Planting Movement formation. Consider the following benefits.
- Leadership responsibilities remain small and manageable.
- If heresies do occur they are confined by the small size of the house church, like a leak that appears in the hull of a great ship, the heresy can be sealed off in a single compartment without endangering the whole.
- You can’t hide in a small group, so accountability is amplified.
- Member care is easier, because everyone knows everyone.
- Because house church structure is simple, it is easier to reproduce.
- Small groups tend to be much more efficient at evangelism and assimilation of new believers.
- Meeting in homes positions the church closer to the lost.
- House churches blend into the community rendering them less visible to persecutors.
- Basing in the home keeps the church’s attention on daily life issues.
- The very nature of rapidly multiplying house churches promotes the rapid development of new church leaders.”
David Garrison, Church Planting Movements, How God is Redeeming a Lost World, pages 191-193.
[2] It is estimated that 80 million people gather in house churches throughout China!
[3] Acts 2:46, 20:20
[4] Churches Planting Churches: A UNIVERSAL ELEMENT IN CHURCH PLANTING MOVEMENTS “In most Church Planting Movements, the first churches were planted by missionaries or by missionary-trained church planters. At some point, however, as the movements entered an exponential phase of reproduction, the churches themselves began planting new churches. In order for this to occur, church members have to believe that reproduction is natural and that no external aids are needed to start a new church.” David Garrison Church Planting Movements, page 36.
[5] Acts 13, 14, etc.
[6] Rapid Reproduction: A UNIVERSAL ELEMENT IN CHURCH PLANTING MOVEMENTS “In a Church Planting Movement the body of Christ reclaims the sense of urgency that characterized the Gospels and the New Testament churches. Rapid reproduction indicates that several healthy dynamics are present in the movement:
- The movement has gone beyond the control of the missionary or any other outsider.
- The movement has its own internal momentum.
- The new Christians passionately believe their message to be so important it must be spread rapidly.
- The fields are confirmed to be ripe unto harvest.
- All the elements that are foreign to the church—and not easily reproduced—have been eliminated.
Missionaries experienced in Church Planting Movements would never admit to sacrificing orthodoxy for the sake of rapid reproduction. Instead, they have leaned to build the theological controls into the DNA of each church rather than trying to continually reinforce them from the outside.” David Garrison Church Planting Movements, How God is Redeeming a Lost World, pages 195-196.