Planting Churches among the City's Poor - Volume 1

P ART I: D EVELOPING U RBAN C ONGREGATIONS • 35

shares her faith with others.” 31 This natural desire of Christians to share Christ leads to “the spontaneous expansion” of the church. 32 This Spirit-generated expansion begins with individuals and finds expression in the church community. The missionary must nurture this desire for witness from the earliest days of the new church’s life together. George Patterson advises missionaries: Don’t commit the missionaries’ greatest sin – controlling the national churches. Keep out of the way. Let them work and grow. That’s when you see the “spontaneous” dynamic. By “spontaneous” we mean that the impulse comes from the Body itself, indwelt by the Holy Spirit. The controlling impulse does not come from the missionary. You can share your vision to start the ball rolling, and then you’ve got to step back and let the Holy Spirit work. 33 While the missionary should not try to control the church’s witness, he/she should set an example of evangelism and church planting. A mission church’s ability to reproduce itself once it is independent of the founding mission partly depends upon the model set by the founding missionaries. “A church’s view of reproduction will be learned early. Every action of the church planter becomes part of a lesson learned by the church, even during its birth.” 34 As the church moves toward maturity, it must take responsibility for itself. It must plan seriously to reproduce its life in Christ. The church planter cannot insure that every church he plants will become a repro ducing church, but he can do everything possible to leave the way open for such a self-reproducing church. The greater the nationalization from the beginning of a church planting project, the more likely the planted church will be a reproducing church. This means leadership by local people at their own level of ability and understanding, administering their chosen program to speak to the people in their language and culture. This is reproducible in any society. 35 31 Dean Gilliland, Pauline Theology and Mission Practice (Lagos, Nigeria: Tryfam Printers Ltd., 1983), p. 188 32 Roland Allen, The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church , (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1962), p. 7 33 George Patterson, “The Spontaneous Multiplication of Churches,” Perspectives , p. 608 ________________________________________________________________________

34 Brock, p. 55

35 Brock, p. 60