Assist with 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.

Jesus believed in the multiplication of disciples and workers. He modeled the

way to do ministry. When Jesus appointed his apostles, “He appointed twelve,

so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to preach

(Mark 3:14). Jesus spent time with those whom he would send out. He served

as their model for ministry. They saw how Jesus approached people, how he

healed the sick and cast out demons. They observed his prayer life and his

interactions with men and women, boys and girls. So when the 12 apostles

went out to minister, and later the 72 went out two by two, they knew what to

do because they had seen Jesus in action.

Church planter, do your disciples know how to minister? Have they observed

your prayer life? Do they know how you approach people and how you turn the

conversation to Jesus? Do they know how and when you share your 15-second

testimony and how you present the Gospel using three circles? Have they seen

you teach the Seven Basic Commands of Christ? Your disciples have probably

observed some of these things. But if you were to ask them they might say they

would like to see more.

As a church planter you always have your eyes open to look for and find unsown

fields where you can sow the good seed of the Gospel. As a church planter,

you know villages where there is no church. Why don’t you take one or two of

your timid disciples with you to one of these villages without a church? Show

them how you prayer walk. Tell them about praying on site with insight. But

don’t spend too much time teaching with words. Let your actions do the

teaching. Let your disciples know that you want to assist them as they take the

first steps in planting a church.

One of the best ways you can assist a disciple as he or she begins to plant a

church is to go with them and do ministry together. Of course, you have many

more ministry experiences than your disciples do. So they will often defer to

you and try to make you do the hard parts. At first this is OK. But soon you will

tell them that they will pray, they will teach, they will lead worship.

You will let your disciple know that you are present to assist, but that they are

present to lead the ministry.

This seems crazy at first. They will resist. But you must be strong. If you do

not step back so that your disciple can lead ministry in your presence, they will

struggle unnecessarily. But if you step back and say “I am here to assist you;

you lead the way” your disciple will grow strong in the Lord and develop great

ministry skills.

As you go, perhaps together you will find a man or woman of peace. When you

do, gently push your disciple to the forefront. Tell the man of peace that your

disciple will come back to pray with him and teach him the Word of God. By

doing so you will provide a new worker who can make disciples and start a new

church.

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

encouraging word with today?

#EncouragementForVillageChurchPlanters #AssistInMinistry #PrayerWalk