Thoughts Along The Journey

Here’s one possible response to the question I raised in yesterday’s post from Craig Ott and Gene Wilson in their book, Global Church Planting:

“From the outset national must be trained to do all essential ministries: evangelism, preaching, teaching, counseling, administration.  The church planter must surrender the desire to have “up front” ministry.  His or her primary role is behind the scenes, equipping others.  The church planter who loves to preach must learn to focus on equipping others to preach; the church planter who is gifted in counseling will need to shift emphasis to empowering others to counsel.
The lay sermons will probably not be as homiletically polished or theologically astute as those the missionary could preach. But the reward will be the development of truly empowered local leaders who will serve the church well after the church planter has departed. The missionary is constantly working himself or herself out of a job, performing a ministry only so long as necessary to train a national.  Indeed, apart from evangelism and initial follow-up, if a national is not available and willing to be trained, the ministry should probably not be initiated.  This may make for a slower start but will result, we believe, in a more solid finish for the church plant.”

One of the essential attitudes, though, needed to keep our hearts and minds focused on the endpoint is gospel humility.  Without a heart mastered by Jesus, convinced
of His incredible love for us, we could not keep an other-centered focus, where we would always seek to equip others in ministry and release them to that task.

Filed under: Church planting, Gospel, Humility |