Church gatherings arise out of the work of ministry, not the
other way around.
The old way: Gather a core group to start a church, then mobilize the church to go and reach out among friends and neighbors. Finally, invite those you reach back to ‘the church.’
The new way: Invest in building relationships with friends, co-workers, or neighbors and let the expression of the church-gathering (simple, of course) arise naturally out of those connections. From this, those who have been reached learn how to go, reach, and gather others.
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The old way: Start a ministry for recovering addicts, reach them, and then find a church for them to go to.
The new way: Start a ministry for recovering addicts, reach them, and equip them to be the church and to be church planters among others in recovery.
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The old way: Start a ministry among international students, reach them, and then find a church for them to go to.
The new way: Start a ministry among international students, reach them, teach them to be the church and to become church planters among those they return home to.
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The old way: Start a ministry for broken marriages and get those people involved in your church.
The new way: Start a ministry for broken marriages, help them find healing within a small community setting (church gathering), then equip them to reach others in the same way.
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The old way: Start a social business or a business as mission (here or abroad), use it to reach people and help them to find churches to belong to.
The new way: Start a social business or a business as mission, use it to reach people, gather them into simple communities to grow in, and equip them to go do the same.
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The old way: Go to a mission field, build a school/orphanage for children, and send them to a church.
The new way: Go to a mission field, build a school/orphanage for children, and equip them to be church/ministry planters.
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The old way: Help a needy community (at home or in a mission field) to identify the ways it can help itself (development). In the midst of this process, present the Gospel and help them find churches to worship in.
The new way: Begin disciplemaking movements within a needy community that gather into simple church gatherings as disciples are made, and equip them to use these small-group discipleship communities to better their lives while reaching others who do the same. (My personal experience in this is here).
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The old way: Reach some M**lims and get them into your church.
The new way: Reach some M**lims, teach them that they are the church and can gather as church in their homes looking very much like M**lims while continuing to reach others who will do the same.
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The reason we need more apostolic-type, entrepreneurial, ministry catalyzers and starters is because the more we creatively invade the world with Kingdom ministries, the more we will see an explosion of churches arise out of that. Not… the other way around!