1. Introduction to Missiology
Ch.28 – Strategies for Starting Churches

2. Why Start Churches?
 It is the NT pattern
 World population growth exceeds the capacity of existing
churches to evangelize and assimilate, even if they were
trying
 Most established churches plateau by the ten-year mark
 New churches are more flexible and adaptable to new people

3. Reasons to Start
 Diversity exceeds the ability of any one church to adapt to
all the different kinds of people
 Easier to win people in their own setting, which means
planting a church there
 New churches are more evangelistically effective
 New churches inspire the starting of additional churches
 New churches mobilize a higher percentage of their
members for ministry

4. Principles for Planting
 Work through existing local churches
 Do careful study before choosing a target
 Communicate the message with relevance
 As seekers become believers, congregate
 Implement a plan of continual development and growth

5. Application: How to Involve Churches?
 Mission committees and sponsorship
 Volunteers to become a new core group
 Sacrificial giving for a new congregation
 Introduce church starting as a core value

6. Involving Churches (Cont)
 Hire a planter to plant a daughter church
 Hive off a significant number of members
 Become a partner with other churches to plant
 Convert the church into multiple congregations
 Develop a satellite congregation of a different style on a
different day or place

7. Application: Target audience
 Do a demographic analysis – whether near or far
 Criteria for selection include some or all of
 The group most like the current congregation
 The group most open to the gospel
 The group most unchurched
 The group like the intended planter

8. Application: Relevant Communication
 How does the gospel address the pressing concerns of the
target audience?
 What crises have emerged that provide entry points for
service and a message of hope?
 Obtain answers through prayer-walking, surveys, and
friendship building

9. Application: Congregating Believers
 Gather converts into home-based small groups
 Quickly identify and work through potential leaders
 Develop a time of worship and teaching that involves
converts and seekers and reflects their sensibilities of what
is proper
 Extend the ministry though convert-led evangelism and
ministry
 Formalize the new church only after a pattern of
multiplication of converts, leaders, and groups is
established