Table of Contents

The Plan In Planting

By Paul E. Drost

| See sidebars "Characteristics of Church Planters" and "Strategies for Church Planting" |

Church planting is the heart of God, and He is calling His church back to the priority of birthing new churches. The last decade has not been good for the American church. There has been an overall decline in church attendance and an increasing lack of Kingdom effectiveness. Church closings outnumbered church openings three to one. Even the Assemblies of God experienced a decline. However, there is some great news.

In recent months there has been a tremendous interest in church planting. This interest has not only been in the Assemblies of God but across all denominational lines. Church planting is the heart of God, and He is calling His church back to the priority of birthing new churches. This interest has come from the bottom up rather than top down.

As a result of a grassroots need and input from districts, the Church Planting Department has been formed to sound the call and facilitate the planting of successful churches. Our purpose for existence is found in our mission statement: The Church Planting Department exists to facilitate the Assemblies of God and its constituents in planting a higher quality and greater quantity of healthy, effective, reproducing churches.

Our reason for being comes out of several foundational beliefs or core values. Core values are more than good ideas; they are nonnegotiable beliefs that give direction, priority, and future to existing organizations and ministries. The local church is the center from which evangelism and ministry must spread to the community and the world. There is no greater investment. Jesus said He would build His church. Our business is to grow strong, healthy, reproducing churches. Church planting is the best evangelistic method under heaven. The priority of church planting is necessary to maintain the blessing and touch of God upon our Movement.

Along with a renewed call to plant churches, God has brought together plans, people, and resources to put tools into the hands of planters so they can get the job done. It is truly a God thing when Kingdom-hearted men of both Pentecostal and non-Pentecostal fellowships share their vision, experience, and training to help each other reach the harvest. This networking is God ordained and will result in a multiplication of effectiveness. Psalm 133 says, "How good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity…for there the Lord commanded the blessing–life forever" (NASV).

THE PLAN

The plan in planting is intentional, reproducible, and successful. The plan is the cumulative experience of several church-planting groups who have tooled it out and proven its success. The plan is successful because it does three things: it answers our long-time problem of a 50-percent survival rate for Assemblies of God churches planted in the nineties; it creates a climate that produces a higher number of new churches; and it attracts a higher quality of planter. Districts are reporting a rise in their church-planting temperature after implementing this plan. They are planting more and healthier churches, people in unprecedented numbers want to be involved, and the survival rate is now 90 percent or better. Joe Woodruff, church planting director for the Foursquare Church in southern California, reports that of the last 50 churches planted using this plan, the survival rate has risen from 37 to 100 percent.

There are four indispensable and interdependent steps in making the plan work:

Step 1: Assess the potential church planter. Church planting candidates go through a thorough 2-day interview by a trained team of assessors. This helps them clarify their call and determine whether they should be the lead planter or one of the ministry partners in the new church. It also identifies strengths and weaknesses to be addressed. This is a matter of stewardship for the district or mothering church, the planter, his or her family, and the people who will be involved in the new church. In one Pentecostal fellowship, assessment has doubled the survival rate.

Step 2: The cornerstone–BootCamp. This is by far the most exciting part of the process. BootCamp is an intense, weeklong training, equipping the planter for the birth and maturing of a church. The planter is taught vital skills: how to recruit and mobilize people, communicate vision, conduct strategic planning, and discover the vital role of the Spirit in a Pentecostal church. We have had hundreds of comments attesting to the value and necessity of the BootCamps. One church planter said, "In all my years of ministry, I have never been to anything that even comes close in helpfulness and practicality for ministry."

"The BootCamp is an idea whose time has come. The Executive Presbytery has adopted a policy requiring all church planters to attend," states H. Robert Rhoden, Potomac District superintendent.

Charles E. Hackett, executive director of the Division of Home Missions, adds, "The BootCamp is a proven method of preparing church planters to plant successful churches. It is the best plan I have ever seen for church planting. I strongly support this approach."

Step 3: Coaching. Highly effective coaching techniques are employed by trained pastors to help planters reach their full potential. A coach walks with the planter to fill the critical role of encourager, equipper, safety net, and prayer partner.

Step 4: Churches reproducing churches. This is the key to any significant and lasting church-planting movement. It is vital that churches get involved in parenting other churches. It is good for the parent church and for the new church. Districts do not have enough resources, energy, and personnel to plant all the churches needed. When a good church gives birth, its spiritual DNA is implanted in the new church. The new birth produces excitement and joy in the church family–just like the arrival of a new baby–and, correspondingly, the parent church nurtures the new church.

OTHER RESOURCES

We offer two other resources to help ensure healthy, reproducing churches. One is in the area of financing; the other is Reboot or Revitalization Training for the struggling or plateaued church.

While revitalizing churches and church planting might seem to be on opposite ends of the spectrum, there are more similarities than differences. The ultimate goal of establishing a strong, reproducing church and the principles of getting there are the same. If we are to have healthy churches, we cannot have an either/or attitude between church planting and revitalization; it must be a both/and emphasis. Because of this we offer a Rebooting track with our BootCamps. The material is outstanding and has been forged in the fires of experience–proven "turnaround" pastors teach it.

Second, through the vision and cooperative effort of the Assemblies of God Foundation, the Church Planting Department has been given oversight of $15 million in interest-only loans to help quality church plants with their first acquisition of property and facilities. The churches are loaned financing at interest-only for 5 years. The mortgage is then converted to a permanent mortgage. During the interest-only period, a church’s monthly payment is significantly less. This allows the new church to invest in other ministry areas and grow quickly to a fully mature church.

There is no ministry more rewarding or productive than church planting. God is renewing our passion and desire for it. At the same time, resources are being placed in our hands so we can fulfill our calling. May those who come behind us find us faithful. Let it be said of us that we served Him with no reserve, no regret, and no retreat.

| See sidebars "Characteristics of Church Planters" and "Strategies for Church Planting" |

Paul E. Drost is director of the Church Planting Department, Springfield, Missouri.