Why we believe in Church Planting

Terry and Sandy Kreuger with three of their children relocated to Denver, CO in June of 2010 where they serve on the NCMI Trans-local team as well as the Church Planting / Leadership Team of Redemption City Church.

Why we believe in Church Planting 

Firstly in obedience to His call to go into all the world.

Mathew 28 makes it clear that our mission is to go beyond our neighborhoods and even beyond our Nation with the glorious news of The Gospel.

In all honesty there are many reasons to stay, some extremely valid, some less so. But ultimately there is one reason for us to go and keep going until all have heard and that is simply that Jesus required it of us.

Our modus operandi when it comes to church planting is simple – OBEDIENCE! Obedience to The King and a desire to see His Kingdom advanced is what we have been called to.

Secondly, because we still believe that there is no better vehicle to make disciples and transform communities and cities than the church. (Eph 3:10) is clear – it is “through the church” that God desires to make his manifold (many faceted) wisdom known. Acts 8:4 – 8 tells us … “there was great joy in the city.” Proverbs 11:10 also so tells us that “When the righteous prosper the city rejoices;” We truly, in humility, can see our churches as a gift to the city, bringing righteousness, joy and prosperity to the city and it’s people!

I wonder how many people in our cities love Jesus but have lost hope in the church. I wonder how many in our cities may love ministry but have lost their love for the church. The truth is that the church is the only thing Jesus is coming back for. When He comes again He is coming for His bride … His Church! I get nervous around people that will talk ill of this beauty, who prophetically, is without spot wrinkle or blemish and for who Jesus will return. I get just as nervous when some use language that suggests a local church is a bride as in “(church name) is a beautiful bride”. This suggests that Jesus has many brides that He will return for. I do not believe that Scripture bears that out and it make Jesus out to be a polygamist rather then the faithful husband of one wife/bride that He is.

We are compelled by obedience, we are convinced by Scripture and thirdly; we are motivated by compassion. Jesus our savior King is always our example and this Prince of heaven gave up His favored seat to not only walk amongst us but to take on our sins and pay the ultimate price for our freedom restoring our relationship to our loving Father! I love the number of times that Compassion is mentioned in The Gospels. (Matthew 9:35 -38) is a great example! The pattern here is clear – we must go … Then we will see … when we go in obedience and see with eyes of understanding that people are “harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd” the result will be compassion.

The call is to go and make disciples of all nations. While I am convinced that we can go and make converts while on short term mission I am less convinced that we can live out our call to make disciples without the planting of Christ centered, Gospel preaching churches that reflect something of the glory of heaven into broken communities.

Let me just speak into personal motivation for a minute here. I trust that we are beyond thinking that Church Planting is a way to climb the “corporate” ladder. I believe a planter needs to hear from God and know that God is calling him. But I also want to speak into why we go to a certain region/city. Once again allow me to go to the example of Jesus. His mission was clear – to seek and to save what was lost! (Luke 19:10). His mandate to us was just as clear – Go into all the world and do likewise. (Mathew 28) Holding these two truths in tension gives us a great picture of why we plant where – the simple answer drawn from these texts is that we plant because there are unbelievers in that region or city that we believe God the Father has called us to reach. We don’t go to plant a flag. We are not imperialistic planting in cities we have not planted in before. Nor should we avoid planting in cities or regions where there are already churches (relating or not relating to us as a team) unless they have reached the city and there are no unbelievers in that city/region! Church planting is in essence about reaching the lost and bringing them into a relationship with Christ and while we may gain some transfer growth that should and can never be the motivation for us planting anywhere. There are hundreds of cities around the world and indeed here in the States that need many base churches – Los Angeles, New York, San Diego, Boston are to name a few. I am trusting God that in the next few years we are going to see multitudes of churches planted so that we may see multitudes come to a saving knowledge of Him.

In conclusion: We need to plant millions of churches ... This is not an exaggeration we literally need to plant millions of churches throughout the world but we must plant from a foundation of biblical conviction as well as from a heart of compassion. My prayer for each of us is that these things are happening at “Home Base” before we try to export anything. But that as these things begin to take root in our churches may we give our attention to developing a culture of church planting as well as raising AND releasing church planters!

Tkay

Shepherding

Marcus and Adele Herbert have served at Cornerstone Church in Johannesburg, South Africa for the last 20 years. Marcus has lead Cornerstone for the last 10 years. 18 churches have been planted out under his leadership.

Shepherding

Matthew 9:35-38 ³⁵And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. ³⁶When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. ³⁷Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; ³⁸therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest’.

The flow of events is important – Jesus went, saw and then what He saw, harassed and helpless people, caused compassion to rise up in Him. We usually wait to have compassion before we go! Jesus places shepherding in the forefront, a pioneering task, and not just passive maintenance! Like with Isaac re-opening the wells his father had dug, but the enemy had stopped up, we need to re-open the ‘shepherding’ well again.

We need to redeem shepherding from the many misunderstandings: -

·      Is this thing for the more sedate and ambitionless among us

·      Merely a maintenance task

·      A hospital function  and not an army function

·      ‘If you don’t visit I won’t come to church’

·      It’s the job of a select few whose disposition suites it

The fact of the matter is that if we have been called to serve in God’s Kingdom, we need to have a shepherding heart! The church in Jerusalem had 5000 believers, 7 deacons and 12 elders, and it flourished! Why? One of the reasons is that there was a culture of shepherding that was well established in the priesthood, no doubt with the leaders leading in it!

Two chapters in the Old Testament highlight God’s shepherding heart, Jeremiah 23 and Ezekiel 34. In both these chapters God rebukes the shepherds of Israel for their lack of concern and care for the flock. And because of this He will shepherd the nation. He will go after the lost, heal the broken and wounded and gather them to Himself, under the leadership of David – a type of Jesus to come. As we well know Jesus came to do exactly that, and now encourages us to pray to the Lord of the harvest for those who are moved with compassion for the people because they are sheep without a shepherd!

A question to ask is, ‘Who was God talking to when He rebuked the shepherds for not doing their job?’ Most would think that the profile would fit the priests best. But, when we read these two chapters in context, God was rebuking all the leaders for their lack of shepherding, the king, the prophets, the elders and the priests. They were more concerned about themselves than the flock! Many hundreds of years later, Jesus is still concerned with the lack of shepherding, and challenges us to pray for workers/leaders who are shepherds at heart! Every leader in the body of Christ needs to have shepherding as a foundation in their hearts! For example, a prophet or an administrator or a teacher without a shepherding heart is dangerous!

There is a robust, pioneering and courageous aspect of shepherding that we need to recover! In John 10:9-11 Jesus reveals Himself as the good shepherd and the gate. ⁹I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. ¹⁰The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. ¹¹“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

Therefore, good shepherding is both caring and opening gates for the sheep (the apostolic)! Not one or the other, but both! Through Jesus we come in (caring), go out (apostolic) and find pasture (feeding).

In conclusion, let’s make this blog practical!

·      There is a need to open this ‘shepherding’ well, and redeem shepherding from its many misunderstandings

·      We need a closer working relationship between leaders (elders and deacons) to establish shepherding as a culture in the body of Christ.

·      Every leader will give an account for every person entrusted to them Heb 13:17; 1 Cor 4:2

·      We build people into a reliance on Jesus and not ourselves.

·      Every leader is called to shepherd. Each leader should be looking to innovate, pioneer and reach out with God’s caring heart, wanting to see the flock shepherded. The flock is shepherded when everyone is integrated and functioning, and therefore bearing fruit. It's a corporate or priesthood task.

Lets return to the biblical heart of shepherding. Use Jer 23; Ezek 34 and John 10 as practical guidelines.

Our shepherding heart should extend to the lost and not only the believers. This will motivate us to pray for them and reach out with the love of Jesus.

One of the greatest authorities we have in imparting a shepherding heart is, leadership by example, ‘Follow me as I follow Christ’. 1 Cor 11:1. We can't take them where we are not going. We lead by the example we set in love for the sheep, building them into His Kingdom!