Where Do We Start?

Does church planting just happen, or is there some deliberate preparation and planning involved? From the perspective of a church planting strategist, there are some specific first steps involved in church planting.


• Prayer and sensitivity to the Holy Spirit is where all church planting should begin. These put us in touch with the Father and help us see the needs around us through His eyes.


• Another important aspect is that of observation and investigation. This involves both the study of the local churches and who they are reaching, and the study of the community in order to see who is not being reached. For this particular aspect of church planting there must be demographic research and surveys of local churches. There should also be some “community leader” and “man on the street” questionnaires developed in order to understand the unreached people who are discovered through investigation and research.


• According to North American Mission Board’s Peoples Search, the questions you want to answer are: Who are the unreached peoples in this area? Where are they? Why are they unreached? How is God working among the unreached peoples in this area? What will it take to reach them? Answering these questions will help in the development of a strategy to reach people through planting a church.


• When unreached people are discovered, then there must be a world view analysis of the particular group or groups of people that the Lord lays on your heart. It is in this particular type of study that the Lord begins to give you a vision for a church plant among a particular group of people. To understand a specific segment of the overall population of an area, we must ask these questions: Why are they in this area? What is their daily life like? What is important to them? What do they believe? What are their needs? What is keeping them from coming to Christ? What can we do to help them come to Christ? This helps us to see bridges and barriers we have to work with.


• After gathering this information, we must analyze the results and develop the best strategy for reaching them and involving them in a new church start. When God gives us a vision and we come to understand the people he wants us to reach, we can use the developed strategy to reach them through their hearts. This is done by developing relationships and meeting needs, which is loving them in the name of Jesus.


• When the strategy is in place we share the vision and strategy with others in order to develop partners to help us in the church planting endeavor.

Submitted by Gary D. Fulton, Church Planter Strategist on the Missions Ministries Team of the ABSC.