Church Planting Led By The Spirit

I recently preached a message at our church that challenges the mentality and philosophy of ’mission work’ in the ABA. For the first time ever I heard this same challenge during our 2007 annual meeting at the World Evangelism Conference. I believe his name was Tim Thompson (not sure about the first name). I’m not good at repeating word for word so I will use my own terminology. This brother led his church to “untie” their missionary in India so that he could work as the Spirit of God led.

The issue is whether or not a ‘sponsoring church’ is to hold a position of authority over a new group of saved, baptized, believers. He said a missionary cannot be led by the Spirit of God if he is authorized to stay in one location by the sending church (among other demands). If the ‘sponsoring church’ is the head of the newly planted church, how can Jesus be the head too?

I recently taught the following responsibilites/instructions of a sending church. The purpose of this message was to prepare our church to be a sending church in 2008…

1. Pray for God to connect us with His man.

2. Make all necessary questions previous to the commissioning service in order that you will have confidence in his decisions (dependence upon God) on the field.

3. Send the church planter/missionary to the location (chosen by God) with the resources necessary to accomplish God’s plan.

4. Participate and be involved as much as possible to help and encourage the church planter/missionary.

5. Advise when necessary but never take an authoritative position over the church planter who is to be led by the Spirit of God.

6. If there is such a disagreement or problem between the sending church and church planter/missionary both can chose at any point to separate as led by the Spirit of God.

7. Enjoy together what God is doing through the ministry of the newly planted church.

This method allows the church planter and new members the freedom to follow the leadership of Jesus (the head of every body) rather than another body of fallen sinful men who’s only worth is in their salvation through Jesus Christ. Most of the time decisions made by ‘sponsoring churches’ that override the decision of a church planter/missionary are based on tradition rather than an understanding of the field, prayer, and the leadership of the Spirit of God. The “Acts Principle” will produce more results and fewer problems between the sending church and the church planter/missionary. We must take our hands off in order for God to get the glory!