Equip, send and oversee missionary church-planters
Facing the challenge of the “white zone” in western France, we believe the only response possible is to send many more men andwomen into the harvest.
Multiplying churches in our region means training. Jesus saw the fields white for harvest in Samaria (Matthew 9.37) and clearly indicated both the need and the response. “The workers are few” and many more are needed. He exhorted his disciples to pray that God would send workers into the harvest.
The first step is to pray. In praying we activate our faith by believing that God is calling men and women to enter the harvest. As we pray, we start to act in faith, getting ready and preparing to welcome them, to train them so that they will be equipped for their mission, and to stand alongside them in their
work.
Our responsibility is to prepare a generation of church planters, reliable people capable of teaching others (2 Timothy 2 v.2) and passing on the gospel message.
This was the apostle Paul’s strategy in Ephesus (Acts 19.9-10). Although his preaching was contested in the synagogue, he “took the disciples with him, addressing them every day in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. This went on for two years, so that all who lived in the province of Asia both Jews and Greeks heard the word of the Lord." (NET). By multiplying the workers trained in his centre in Ephesus, Paul communicated to them the gospel they themselves took everywhere in the province of Asia.
THE CALL
By sharing the challenge of the “white zone”, we are seeking men and women who feel called to come and commit to working with us in the harvest here in the “white zone” in western France.
A MODEL TO FOLLOW
We believe that Paul’s model in Acts 19 is the only one suitable to the challenges of church planting in our region in the coming decades. It focuses on calling, training, and sending a large number of missionary church planters.
A FLEXIBLE AND EFFICIENT MODEL
Training a pastor to lead a church requires a long- term investment. Taking into account the diversity of callings, missionary church planters are not necessarily pastors, but men and women called by God to the work of planting a church. The role of pastors is to support, train and supervise them. A short initial training period of two years with supervised outreach, support from a close network and adapted ongoing training will ensure the best outcomes for missionary church planters.
A RELEVANT MODEL
The opening of a centre for church planting in the heart of the “white zone” is the strategic answer to the challenge of evangelism in our region. Providing training adapted to missionary church- planters, but also operational and financial support to the plant. This implies strategic direction from the very beginning of the church-planting project.
A DYNAMIC NETWORK
The regional centre will allow us to establish links between church plants for enriching fellowship and mutual support. It will also manage collaborative links with church leaders in the area of the church planting project. And from a more global perspective, it will link with missionary institutions (AdD, MI, other regional centres)