Church Planting Round Table

David Watson Session 10:

Important lessons learned Yesterday:

1. Deuteronomy 6 can be seen as a church planting passage
2. Mentoring evaluation questions are important.
3. Reinforcement of the need to facilitate, not teach.
4. Consistency in “Doing” the Talk in the private and public realms
5. Obedience vs. knowledge.
6. “Shema” - hear and talk
7. What it means to be a “holy” man - getting our relationships right
8. Partnerships is a life-long relationship
9. Non-replication is also infectious
10. The greatest commandment is to be impressed, imprinted on our hearts. The person who argues the most can be the greatest advocate down the road.
11. An incarnational, God-honoring life is the key foundation for church planting (Always be the same everywhere).
12. Look for, and be, FATR (faithful, available, teachable, reproducing) people
13. God-Appointments- how many do we miss?
14. Forward thinking accountability:  we’re not able to change the past, but we can impact the future (don’t let accountability stop with just confessing - discover ways to help implement change).  Also, don’t let accountability be an individual struggle.
15. Beware of time stealers.
16. There are benefits to handwriting Scriptures (Memory, Depth, Application).  Writing the Scriptures is good (even better than typing them).
17. The Shema is a crucial cornerstone in the character of a CPM facilitator.  The word is the Authority.
18. Insights into strategic vs. Tactical help to positively relate CPM and SCP.
19. The definition of love in John 14 is obedience (Obedience is God’s love language)
20. Obedience is a magnet.
21. Strategic question:  What will it take to reach the entire on-line generation?  Tactical question:  What must I (my team, etc.) do to reach the on-line generation?
22. Group memory is better than individual memory.

David Watson Session 11-12:

• Panel Discussion on DBS (Are there other ways of doing the DBS?):
  • In oral society, they can’t write out the passage, so they dramatize it.
  • For church planter training, they can do the 3 column study ahead and share it during study time. With younger ones in the group let the youngest people go first.
  • In Muslim, Hindu cultures, can do the same study separately, so when they get together afterwards they are talking about the same material.
  • Facilitators have done it themselves, having written it out they have more confidence in being able to lead others to do it.
  • Other components emerge as they discover what pleases God – music, cultural expressions of obedience
  • Tip: When others ask us what we think about…e.g. homosexuality. “Why are you asking me what I think? It doesn’t matter what I think. The only one that matters is God – and the only way to know what he thinks is to read his word, and the only way to really understand is to start at the beginning and go all the way through – then you’ll know what he thinks.” Emphasis on Scripture.
• Person of peace:
  • A person of peace has a spiritual hunger (he connects when there is a spiritual person around).
  • We must be creative in identifying a person of peace.  Just because someone is friendly and well-meaning doesn’t necessarily make him/her God’s choice.  Also, there are those who just like to raise spiritual issues but, in fact, only for the sake of discussion.  Beware, they will waste your time.
  • They can be found in any location - anywhere.  Markets, streets, shops, athletic club.  But it can take weeks, even months, to find a person of peace.
  • Access ministries can help a person of peace to surface.
  • Who it’s not: Friendly people, people of good will, willing to help you but not interested in spiritual things, those who like to talk about God, but only want to discuss, don’t want to look at scriptures.
  • Person of peace is the person in whom you see a genuine interest in knowing the truth.  May not be a peaceful person, but have a spiritual hunger.  A person who is loving their neighbour, doing good things (ecology, human rights - they may also be the gatekeeper) may be that person  – they may also have great respect among their community.  They are the people God has prepared.  As you make more spiritually–oriented statements, they respond positively.  They know their community, are networked already.  Invite others to join the group.
  • Often persons of peace were already philanthropists.  They were already generous leaders in their community.
  • Or, they may be extremely unlikely.  Imams, village chiefs, opinion leaders, and heads of secret societies of traditional African religions have also emerged as people of peace after much prayer.  Sometimes their first reaction is violent and then they experience a change of heart.
  • Church planter must go with prayer, obedience, persecution, vulnerability, going empty-handed.  May go back to a place repeatedly until he finds the man of peace.  Pour your life into the man of peace.
  • If we serve in a place and don’t find the person of peace, yet stay there, we may inoculate against the gospel.  Have a taste of the gospel, Christians, but don’t taste the real thing.
  • Some indication that the rest of the New Testament referenced Luke 10 for church planting strategy.
• Summary: Characteristics of the person of peace:
  • Opens his/her door to you
  • Receives your blessing and shows interest
  • Opens his/her house to you (is hospitable)
  • Offers to sustain you in some way
  • Is worthy of you
  • Has influence in his/her home
  • Receives you
  • Hears/receives your words

Ministry on the Internet:  The Internet as a Nation- Paul Watson (Reaching the Online Generation strategy coordinator):
       Twitter became a communication system (140-character snippets).  Connected to cell phone (text messaging).  A message is called a tweet.. Picking up the threads through ongoing messages from people to try and find a person of peace. Talk about how I do things, not what I believe, opens doors. Go to the darkest place and that’s where the greatest fruit will be. Online connections are real people. Paul connecting with people of peace, bring them together for training (in person), they would do the DSB online with them, and multiply online groups.

• Today 3 million messages are being sent every day.
• Paul started making shama statements via Twitter (affirmed that there is a God, that He loves, etc.)
• Paul did a search for the word “pray.”  A woman asked for prayer for her daughter to see her baby’s face, because her daughter was going blind.  God responded positively to those prayers.
• Post-modern on-line community:  Paul decided to tell them how he believed.  He started talking about his wife and gained their affection as a genuine Christian.
• Go to the darkest place, and that’s where the church will grow.
• Paul found a community of free-lance writers and was able to join a chat with them (It occurred in a Tarot room).  Those interactions resulted in a woman being given a $1000 gift to help her pay transportation costs to Denver from Wyoming when her 23-week premature baby was in intensive care.
• Paul is currently looking for people who are willing to look for people of peace on line.  He wants to find young and crazy folks who have a passion for the lost and who love to spend time on line.