Prayer Walking for Daughter Church Planting

 

Hello everybody, my name is Dean Davis and this is “Multiply,” the podcast that

provides a word of encouragement for Village Church Planters.

The Four Fields Model is a great description of the church multiplication cycle.

You may remember that it is a diagram with four “fields” or rectangles drawn

on a piece of paper. In the upper left hand corner of the page is a field called

“Field 1: New Field.” To the right is Field 2: the Seeded Field.” Under Field 2

is Field 3, The Growing Field.” To the left of Field 3 and right under field 1 is

the Field called “The Harvest Field, Field 4. These four fields represent the

process of starting, growing, and multiplying a church.

 We study this diagram from time to time, but every church planter would 

be helped if he or she looked at the diagram and meditated on it at least once 

per month. You can find the Four Fields Model printed on the back cover of 

every New VCP Reader.

One of the activities in Field 1, The New Field, is, “Begin by prayer walking.”

We begin church planting in a new village by prayer walking. Yes, we plan,

pray, and research. But prayer walking is a unique and important ministry

activity for starting every new church.

So what is prayer walking? Prayer walking is walking in the place where God is

leading you to plant a new church. Of course, to prayer walk, you must pray as

you walk. But prayer walking is much more than praying while walking. It is

praying on site with insight. You go to the village where you are trusting God

for a church and you begin to walk around. Ideally, you walk with a brother or

sister in Christ. Before you go, the two of you agree in prayer for the

establishment of a church in the new village.

 As you go, you pray in faith. Quietly or silently, you praise God for his great

 love. You thank him for Jesus who came to seek and save the lost. You 

remember that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should 

come to repentance. And together you intercede for the village you are walking 

through. You pray for families you see and intercede for men, women and

 children of the village.

Now, you may be asking, Dean, “I can pray like that at home. Why should I

prayer walk in the village?” I know God is not limited by our location when we

pray. He can answer prayers we make from anywhere. But God gives us

insight and compassion when we walk, with our eyes open, and pray for the

people we see. He gives us a vision of what the village can be like when he

transforms men and women by his grace. Our compassion grows. Our very

presence walking and praying silently in Jesus’ name is an act of spiritual

warfare. We rebuke the devil by our godly presence and like Jesus, we declare

that he Kingdom of God has come.

If you have identified a church member who will plant daughter churches, go

with him or her to the village where that person will plant a daughter church.

Then prayer walk together. As you do, God will work. He will help you identify

persons of peace and take the next steps in evangelism and disciple making.

God will be with you. He will hear. He will answer your prayer for a new

church.

This has been “Multiply,” and I’m Dean Davis asking, “Who will you share this

encouraging word with today?

#EncouragementForVillageChurchPlanters #ChurchMultiplication #PrayerWalk