New Churches Podcast | Episode 625

What is a Church Planting Movement?

Episode 625: Host Ed Stetzer and Brad Brisco, NAMB’s director of bivocational church planting, discuss church planting movements and why “church multiplication movement” may be a better goal for church planting in North America. How is that defined? What thinking and behavior needs to change to see multiplication happen? What is the starting point?

In This Episode, You’ll Discover:

• How we can think and behave differently to begin to see church multiplication movements happen
• What paths normalize everyday people for using their gifts as leaders in church planting
• What three aspects of our culture framework exert downward pressure against church multiplication
• How church planters can be more nimble and flexible about evangelizing and discipling churches into existence

Sharable Quotes (#NewChurches):

Everybody is using the term “church planting movement” in different ways and having different meanings. What is a movement and how does it relate to church planting? @edstetzer

We haven’t seen “church planting movements” as such in the West, but we have seen church multiplication movements, which we’ve defined as a movement of churches that multiplies the number of churches by 50% in a given year with 50% conversion rate to the third generation – and we’ve actually seen that. @edstetzer

How do we need to think or behave differently to begin to see some level of multiplication movement? It’s probably not complicated, but it’s multifaceted. There’s no silver bullet, but there are several things we can do. @BradleyBrisco

We need to help people see how they fit into God’s redemptive mission and not just the ministry of the Church. Help everyone in our churches discover their passion and wiring for mission, then equipping and resourcing to release them into that mission. @BradleyBrisco

Part of the solution is rethinking “church” to recognize and legitimize smaller expressions of church. Those expressions are going to be in neighborhoods, in workplaces and in social spaces. @BradleyBrisco

Part of activating all the people of God to start new things is giving them a new or different imagination for what church might actually look like in their context. @BradleyBrisco

We have to have a different, more simple starting point. We’re living in a rapidly increasing missionary context and must start with missionary behaviors and activities – discipleship and mission – to equip, release and empower the people in our congregation. @BradleyBrisco

Helpful Resources:

Free on NewChurches.com:
– Brad Brisco’s Covocational Church Planting: Aligning Your Marketplace Calling and the Mission of God
– Our bivocational ministry course
Ed Stetzer’s book Viral Churches: Helping Church Planters Become Movement Makers
Roland Allen’s author page on Amazon.com
Felicity Dale’s “Simply Church” book and blog
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Published on December 09, 2021