Church Planting Movements – How God Is Redeeming a Lost World by David Garrison was such an informative and inspirational book the first time I read it several years ago that I thought I would read it again.
The book has been as informative and encouraging the second read through as it was the first time.
In the book, Garrison reports on what the Lord is doing to bring a lost world to Himself through church planting movements that are occurring around the world.
Garrison defines a CPM as “a rapid multiplication of indigenous churches planting churches that sweeps through a people group or population segment.”
He “unpacks” the definition of a CPM in Chapter 2 by saying that they …
- Reproduce rapidly. “Within a very short time, newly planted churches are already starting new churches that follow the same pattern of rapid reprouction.”
- Are characterized by multiplication. CPMs do not simply add new churches, they multiply churches.
- Are indigenous, that is, they are generated from within, as opposed to started by outsiders.
- Are a movement of churches that are starting churches.
- Occur within people groups or interrelated population groups.
This is exciting because we know that new churches and the starting of new churches is the most effective means of evangelism that we can be involved in and committed to.
After clarifying the difference between CPMs and mass evangelism and the Church Growth Movement, Garrison says that it is important for us to understand this activity of God because:
- God is mightily at work in them and we can learn much about the Him through them
- We need to be ready to “align” ourselves with His activity and how He would use us in CPMs
- CPMs are “without exaggeration … the most effective means in the world today for drawing lost millions into saving, disciple-building relationships with Jesus Christ.”
- CPMs “multiply the glory of God” and that is our purpose and objective for life and ministry.
Church Planting Movements in different parts of the world are described and discussed in Part 2 of the book. I was particularly interested in the description of what the Lord is doing in China (“Wo Ai Zhong Guo”).
With respect to CPMs in China, Garrison describes a model for house churches that combines multiple lay leadership development, mutual accountability, biblical authority and rapid reproducibility. He refers to this model as the P.O.U.C.H. church.
P.O.U.C.H. churches are characterized by:
- P – Participative Bible study and worship
- O – Obedience to God’s Word as the mark of success for every believer and church
- U – Unpaid and multiple church leaders
- C – Cell groups of believers meeting in
- H – Homes or storefronts
As P.O.U.C.H. churches are started and developed, two very important ingredients are built into their DNA. The first is multiplication. When the churches grow to about thirty members, they multiply (not divide) and start another church. Through the multiplication of churches, communities and networks are penetrated and saturated with believers and authentic faith communities. The second ingredient built into the DNA of P.O.U.C.H. churches is leadership development. The equipping and releasing of believers for ministry is critical for the multiplication of disciples, leadership, and churches to continue.
My heart is thrilled by the rapid multiplication of churches and the development of leadership that is released to do ministry and start new churches that we see in China.
If the church in the West is going to see the communities where we live and minister won to Christ, it would behoove us to seriously pray about, consider, and embrace a P.O.U.C.H. church-type approach to ministry. We do this recognizing this model’s potential for reaching people for Christ and its practical value when considering the cost of land, property, and buildings in most of our metro and urban areas.
This approach to ministry, though it would be more properly referred to as house church network ministry, is being done in the Dallas-Ft. Worth (TX) metroplex and Denver, Colorado areas. Check out the Ethne Network (Denver) and the Church of a Hill Connection (DFW) links under the “Church” heading on the right sidebar.
I believe this model for ministry would be very effective in reaching students enrolled at our local universities and colleges. In other words, start simple churches that reach and disciple students and meet on campus or in its surrounding areas.
Over the course of the next few posts I want to share some of the information about church planting movements that David Garrison has discovered and reports on in his book. I believe that much, if not most, of this information has real potential for application in our local ministries if we are committed to doing whatever it takes to reach our communities for Christ.
~ Blessings ~
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