God’s Word our Strategy!

Have you ever wandered how a missionary knows the minds of the Lord regarding church-planting? Fundamentally we know the Lord’s mind since the New Testament clearly teaches the importance and necessity of the local churches. Whenever people turn to Christ as their Savior they have a spiritual need to gather together as believers. We are busy strategizing even while on deputation.

Paul explained to the Romans that church-planting should be based on scriptural guideline. Here are some of the main guidelines: 

Acts 20:14 “And when he met us at Assos, we took him on board and came to Mitylene”

-To meet with pastors, missionaries and Bible college students in this region, and form a prayer group including potential team members. We would be keeping all our prayer partners informed on a regular basis. (In America and in South Africa.) With the help of team members we would start surveying potential areas with the following goals in mind:

Romans 15:20 “And thus I aspired to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named, so that I would not build on another man’s foundation;” 

-We like Paul would look to break new ground and are focused on identifying new areas where there is no Afrikaans speaking Bible believing Bible preaching church in a 10 mile radius. There is only one Afrikaans speaking Independent Baptist Church in South Africa. The doctrine of a biblical church has been greatly lost since 1930, today’s generation know nothing of a biblical church. 

Acts 16:9 “A vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him, and saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." 10 When he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them." 

-Just as Paul and Timothy took the information they were given and “gathered that the Lord called them to preach”, looked at the information available to them and saw the opportunity God gave them. We also analyze demographic for each area looking for regional growth and specific languages who need reaching.

1 Corinthians 16:15 “Now I urge you, brethren (you know the household of Stephanas, that they were the first fruits of Achaia, and that they have devoted themselves for ministry to the saints),..”

Just as many believers did in the New Testament times we would use homes of those we led to Christ as potential outreach opportunities by using on site “Evangelistic Bible studies”. 

Toward the end of this survey period we would refocus on those communities that we believed to be the best areas for building evangelistic relationships. We will also look for individuals and families who are open for the Gospel to be shared with them. We are praying that the Lord would send the right combination of co-workers to partner with us in our church-planting efforts. 

Romans 10:14-15 “How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?15 How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!”

Written by: Deon van Rensburg