Shocked 2

I want to let you in on a secret, writes Gary Gibbs

You don’t need to be an ordained Elim minister in order to plant a church. Many have presumed this to be the case, but it never has been, nor will it ever be so.

Right now, there are a number of non-ordained planters doing amazing pioneering ministry.

I’m sure you have heard of the biblical doctrine called ‘the priesthood of all believers’.

In the Bible Peter writes: “...you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light,” (1 Peter 2:9).

The role of a priest was to represent the people to God and to represent God to the people: for us, this means prayer and evangelism.

So, can you answer these few questions with a ‘yes’?

Do you love lost people? Are you in good standing with your present church? Would you like to go on an adventure with God?

If your answers are in the affirmative, I would really like to talk to you.

Now your immediate thought might be that you could never plant a church.

Well, that depends... some time ago I was asked to speak to a group of Elim ministers about church planting.

I started by explaining that there was a challenge with the two words ‘church’ and ‘planting’ because we tend to default to what has been our historical practice and to what we perceive church to look like.

Traditionally our approach has been to start a service in a rented building and hope and pray that, with advertising, people will come along and join us.

Often we would have a mission or campaign early on to raise profile and to reach the community. Generally speaking, in a post-Christian world, this methodology is becoming increasingly ineffective.

Even when we succeed in gathering people, the majority will be believers transferring from existing churches in the area. There are occasions when this approach brings some success, but it’s the exception these days.

So what else is possible?

Well, if we release our ‘missional imagination’ the possibilities are many.

How about if you are a Christian couple who have recently moved into a new housing area? Could you plant the gospel into the lives of some of your new friends and neighbours?

What about if you ran an Alpha course with four people who didn’t know Jesus and they all got saved? In less than three months you would have an Elim house church.

What about if, say, half a dozen believing friends decided to embark on a two-year project and rented a large house, all took part-time jobs and blasted out a new work.

Alongside our established churches there is room for a mushrooming of micro-churches which are organic, flexible and quickly reproducible.

This ‘mixed economy’ is a way forward.

One last thing... Jesus said he will build his church; we are called to make disciples. In other words, to get alongside those who are not Jesus-followers and accompany them on a journey whereby they encounter the Lord and grow into fruitful disciples.

This was why during lockdown I wrote the book ‘The Discipleship Life-style: How disciples develop disciples’. It’s available from me or on Amazon here. I think you’ll find it helpful.  

How Elim churches can be really good news in the sporting community
Don’t pray for victory when taking the kids to football club, says Warren Evans
Giving hope to broken people
How can Elim churches be really good news in the area of mental health and well-being
Jesus is for life, not just Christmas!
This wonderful season is still one of the best times of the year for telling people about Jesus
Hope 23-24: The Year of United Mission
Mark Greenwood speaks to Dr Rachel Jordan-Wolf, Executive Director of Hope
I'm just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then
As he steps down as National Director of REACH, Elim's evangelism and church planting division, Gary Gibbs is just as passionate to follow Jesus now as he was when he met him aged 17

Additional Reading >

Future Events

Saturday 28 September 2024 10:00am – 5:00pm

Save the dates for the annual Elim Evangelism Conference for evangelists and those passionate or interest in evangelism.

TBC
CopyrightT&CsPrivacyCookiesRegistered Charity 251549 (England & Wales) SC037754 (Scotland)