The Biblical foundation for CPM

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Definition of terms

Church planting movement (CPM) – a rapid multiplication of indigenous churches planting churches that sweeps through a people group or population segment (Garrison 2003:2). A simpler way to describe it is: local indigenous churches multiplying rapidly. Sustained CPM – a CPM that continues on beyond a few months or a year or two. This type of CPM demonstrates consistent exponential growth measured in years and generally saturates a population segment or people group. Stream of CPM – an observed phenomenon that a sustained CPM typically involves several streams of multiplication in different geographical or relational sectors that tend to evolve semi-independently of each other. One stream may continue growing while another may stall. By nature, sustained CPMs are rarely homogenous or uniform due to the explosive nature of the growth and the unpredictable paths it takes along lines of relationship.

Alternate ways of end-visioning

Not all minds, however, find such an end-visioning process helpful. Fortunately, one particular large CPM case study (see Smith W 2004b) utilized a different process that achieved the same end. In this scenario, the SC focused on developing new believers and churches that had such strong ethos for CPM that they immediately began multiplying to successive generations. Churches soon numbered in the thousands and believers in the tens of thousands. The SC’s attempt at end-visioning amounted to starting multiple streams of CPMs in numerous locations. He then watched how they spread along geographic and socio-economic lines.
Often they jumped relational boundaries to new social strata previously untouched by the CPM. As the SC periodically looked at the major relational sectors of his target group, if the CPM was not spilling over into these sectors, he purposefully began a new CPM stream in this sector (Hughes 2005:5). The SC continues to do this as he strives toward the end-vision of every geographical and social grouping of his target group being reached. Such an end-visioning process does not employ the process of reverse problem solving but it does still strive toward fulfilling the mission of reaching an entire target group with the gospel in a short period of time. Both methods try to effectively respond to the question “What will it take to reach my entire target group within the next five to ten years?”

Principles: the unchanging ways of God’s kingdom

As SCs grappled with the answer to the question above (five years versus fifty years), they learned that the next step in building a strategy is to discover and implement principles that will guide them toward a sustained CPM. In this context, principles are the unchanging ways of God’s kingdom (how God acts) that are discovered both in the scripture and in looking at historical examples of how God has worked (Smith SR 2004k:2). These principles are timeless and never change, though the particular way of implementing them may (Smith SR 2004c:5). Therefore, before developing any specific plans, SCs must understand principles of how God’s kingdom works. In NEXT conferences, these principles were discovered through scripture studies (chapter two) and CPM case studies (chapters six and seven). For example, a study of the three Pauline journeys gave evidence that maturing churches can be started by the power of the Holy Spirit and left within a matter of six to eight weeks. Therefore, many SCs began to make plans to start churches in a manner that cooperated with the Spirit to start such churches.

End-visioning and a strategy for CPM compared with other church

planting models Strategic planning is not a concept unique to the CPM model or to the dynamics learned at NEXT conferences. What may be unique, however, is the process of end-visioning as a guide to developing a critical path for evangelizing a people group. Therefore, it is helpful to compare this aspect of strategic planning to the other six church planting models. The concept of end-visioning appears to be foreign to much of the thinking in the six models. In none of the models is any sort of question asked such as “What will it take for this entire target group to be reached?” The concept of devising a critical path that breaks down the progress toward the end-vision step by step, beginning with the end, is also a foreign concept. Allen alone gives attention to some of these ideas in his chapter on “strategic points (Allen 1962:10-17).” In this chapter, he introduces the concept of starting reproducing churches or streams of a movement in key centers of a target area and expecting them to expand to saturate the area. This is a good attempt at trying to find a model of breaking down a large target into manageable sizes. For Allen, this is the critical path, and this concept is very close to the concepts learned in NEXT conferences.

Witnessing to the lost

With exceptional intentionality, the SCs individually gave a gospel witness to five to ten people each week. In addition, they created an intentional and accountable expectation that each believer personally witness to at least five people each week through a testimony and simple gospel presentation. As the number of new believers expanded, this evangelistic ethos created an environment in which eventually daily tens of thousands of non-believers would hear a testimony or gospel presentation from a neighbor, co-worker, relative or friend. The result was that thousands responded to personal invitations to follow Christ (Smith W 2004e:1). In four years almost 500,000 people made decisions to follow Christ because millions heard gospel presentations from believers who cared about them.

TABLE OF CONTENTS :

• 1. Introduction
  • 1.1. The research question
  • 1.2. The working hypothesis
  • 1.3. Underlying assumptions & theological paradigm
  • 1.4. Definition of terms
  • 1.5. Value of the study
    • 1.5.1. Personal
    • 1.5.2. Missions
    • 1.5.3. Church
    • 1.5.4. Society
  • 1.6. Organization of the Study
  • 1.7. Development of the research method
  • 1.8. Sources
• 2. The Biblical foundation for CPM
  • 2.1. The parables of the kingdom of God
  • 2.1.1. The Parable of the Sower and the Soils (Mt 13:3-23; Mk 4:1-20; Lk 8:4-15)
  • 2.1.2. The Parable of the Tares (Mt 13:24-30)
  • 2.1.3. The Parable of the Seed Growing Quietly (Mk 4:26-29)
  • 2.1.4. The Parables of the Mustard Seed & Leaven (Mt 13:31-33)
  • 2.1.5. The Parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl (Mt 13:44-46)
  • 2.1.6. The Parables of the Talents and Minas (Mt 25:14-30; Lk 19:11-27)
  • 2.1.7. Applications from the parables
• 2.2. The growth of the early church in the Book of Acts
  • 2.2.1. Precursor to Acts: the mission of the seventy disciples in Luke 10:
  • 2.2.2. The Province of Cyprus (Acts 13:4-12, 15:39)
• 3. The Person that God uses
  • 3.1. The spiritual character of persons God uses
    • 3.1.1. Integrity of heart and skillful hands
    • 3.1.2. Godly character and evaluation
    • 3.1.3. Spiritual character issues in other church planting models
  • 3.2. The changing SC role
• 4. The goal of a sustained church planting movement
  • 4.1. The need for sustained CPMs
  • 4.1.1. CPM defined
  • 4.1.2. The introduction of sustainability
• 5. A strategy for getting to sustained CPMs
  • 5.1. Path: End-visioning the critical path of sectors that must be reached
    • 5.1.1. Step 1: Look at the final result you want to achieve and then find the critical path that gets you there
    • 5.1.2. Step 2: After looking at the end, ask what the stages of a movement look like just prior to reaching the end-vision
    • 5.1.3. Step 3, 4 5+: Continue this process until you can see how and where to begin
    • 5.1.4. Alternate ways of end-visioning
  • 5.2. Presuppositions: Mental boundaries and expectations of what God will do
  • 5.3. Principles: the unchanging ways of God’s kingdom
  • 5.4. Plans: Actions plans that expect that God will honor such efforts
  • 5.5. End-visioning and a strategy for CPM compared with other church planting models
  • 6. Case studies presented
• 7. Case studies: commonalities and distinctives
• 8. The priority of high yield activities in progressing down the critical path toward sustained CPM
• 9. The priority of high yield activities in progressing down the critical path toward sustained CPM
• 10. Evaluation of the lessons learned
• Bibliography
• Appendix A: Pauline case study
• Appendix B: Planning for generational growth worksheet scenario #
• Appendix C: Planning for generational growth worksheet scenario #

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A STUDY OF THE DYNAMICS OF DEVELOPING SUSTAINED CHURCH PLANTING MOVEMENTS IN ASIAN NATIONS, BASED ON LESSONS LEARNED IN THE 2004-2005 NEXT CONFERENCES IN EAST ASIA