A Missionary's Plea to Church Planters
One of the most exciting things happening in world mission over recent years, in my opinion, is the surge in church planting happening around the world.
As a missionary, I have seen that planting churches, or should I say, planting churches well, is one of the most effective strategies for reaching those without Christ.
With more people than ever planting churches outside their own culture, there is a growing need for training for cross-cultural mission. Most mission organizations require this type of training of their workers, and I’m pleased to hear this training is being included by some church planting networks as well. But unfortunately, this is often not the case, leading to ministry that is cross-culturally insensitive or inappropriate and can hinder the spread of the gospel.
Church planting is too important to embark on without proper consideration of how to serve cross-culturally.
From the perspective of a missionary who’s seen the good and the bad of church planting, here are some suggestions for those planting cross-cultural churches. These thoughts are particularly for people church planting in the Global South (previously called the “developing world”) with their denomination or church network.
A MISSIONARY’S ADVICE FOR CHURCH PLANTERS
Stay Humble. Take the posture of a learner who hasn’t arrived with a set of flawless principles and methods. Learn all you can about the country, people group, culture, and religion before you go. Maintain the perspective of a learner throughout your time there. Listen well.
Study about serving cross-culturally before you go. With the number of people getting involved in short and long-term missions, I wish I could make it mandatory for all Bible colleges and church planting networks to teach on world mission. Make sure teaching on ministering cross-culturally is part of your church stream or denomination’s training of church planters. Planting a church anywhere is hard work. Doing it in a different culture is even harder. The gospel challenges every culture, but that’s no excuse for not aiming to be culturally appropriate in the way you minister.
Commit to learning the local language. Intentionally set time aside at the start for language learning. Many get too busy too soon and write off the idea that they’ll ever be able to minister in the local language. It will be hard, but the rewards are worth it as you learn to identify with and show your love and respect to local people in this way.
Learn from mission organizations. Some church planting networks tend to have little to do with mission agencies. Mission agencies have years of experience in planting churches and cross-cultural discipleship and evangelism. Learn from organizations that have experience in community development, poverty alleviation, etc. Wise up on effective ways to help the poor and tackle injustice. Recognize that giving handouts is not helpful in the long run and that much work has already been done to understand how to walk alongside the materially poor or oppressed.
“Planting a church just after arriving communicates that you think you have a model of church you can just reproduce anywhere without knowing the place or its people.”
Live where you’re planting before you launch the church. No one can specify exactly how long, but knowing a place and building relationships takes time. Planting a church just after arriving communicates that you think you have a model of church you can just reproduce anywhere without knowing the place or its people. An exception could be when you start sharing the gospel in a community you don’t live in and people come to faith, developing naturally into a fellowship of believers. From my experience, missionaries usually plant churches after some people come to faith. Church planters sent by church networks often plant churches before anyone comes to faith.
Love the people. When you’re passionate about reaching a place with the gospel, it’s easy to focus on all that needs to change. You can be quick to spot the many faults that exist. But I challenge you to look for things to appreciate. Determine to reject any tendency toward superiority over the local people. The hope is to reach people with the gospel, and people can tell when they are a project rather than genuinely appreciated and loved.
Love the Church. Never forget the huge price paid by local believers before you arrived. This must humble you. In many parts of the world, believers have shed their blood for the cause of Christ or suffered for their faith in ways we never will. It may be tempting to regard the existing church in the area as boring compared to what you believe you can offer. That is such a bad attitude and is very ungracious.
Love local pastors. If there are other churches in the area, get to know the leaders. Churches planted by foreigners are the source of much concern and often pain among many local pastors. Allow them to get to know you and how God is leading you. I know of one situation where almost entire youth groups, built up over years, have left locally-led churches to attend a foreigner-led and funded church with lots of resources, free gifts, and exciting programs. Not surprisingly, there’s been hurt among local pastors.
“Never forget the huge price paid by local believers before you arrived.”
Mind the money. Avoid building a building, equipping a building, funding a church’s activities, or paying church staff using money sent from overseas. It’s better to start small with no building than to create dependency on foreign money. The hope is to plant reproducible churches. If what’s planted requires money and equipment that local people don’t have or can’t get, it will never reproduce. Christianity is already viewed as “foreign” in many places, and using foreign money only compounds this belief. Seek to avoid dependency on foreign money and encourage the church to be self-supporting, giving sacrificially. A lot of churches in wealthier nations set up partnerships with churches in the Global South, which mostly involve sending money. This often leads to unhealthy influence over the activities, style, and decision-making of the local church.
Keep it simple. Avoid creating a model of ministry that looks foreign and can’t be replicated by local believers. Set only the priorities and let local people take ownership to decide later what extras they want. As others have noted, the book of Acts gives us pillars to erect first: teach the Word of God, worship (in a culturally appropriate way), build a fellowship, break bread, be committed to prayer, and encourage lives of service. From these pillars, more can be added slowly, together with local input and leadership.
Make disciples that make disciples. I’m amazed that in all my Christian life I can recall only a few times I’ve heard anyone teach on how to actually disciple someone. We may get some people coming to our church, but are they being discipled? Do they know how to disciple other people? Obviously, this is key to reproducing more churches. A healthy church takes responsibility for its part in fulfilling the Great Commission.
One last thing. It should be obvious, but choose a name that works in the local language!
POINT TO JESUS
Around the world are examples of faithful, cross-culturally sensitive church planters who have lived out these principles and formed gospel-centered, culturally-appropriate, sustainable, reproducible congregations in both rural and urban areas. These churches are playing a vital part in seeing men, women, and children from every tribe, tongue, and nation becoming disciples of Jesus.
As more people than ever respond to this move of God’s Spirit, may we keep in mind the importance of learning to minister in appropriate ways that point to Jesus and not to ourselves, our network, or our culture. He alone is the hope for the world.
Alex Hawke serves with Interserve (www.interserve.org) in South East Asia with his wife, Ellie, and their two children. They are from the UK. You can follow him on Twitter: @AlexGTHawke.