Planting Churches Among the City's Poor - Volume 2

P ART II: C HURCH P LANTING T OOLKIT • 239

5. They are not just a divine miracle , but CPMs recognize the vital role that Christians play in the success or failure of these movements, p. 26. 6. They are not a Western invention , that is, they didn’t originate in the West, nor are they limited to one type of culture or another, p. 26. 7. They are not an end in themselves but rather a means to an end, merely “a way that God is drawing massive numbers of lost persons into saving community with himself,” p. 27.

D. Why is the study and understanding of CPMs so important?

1. They are important because God is mightily at work in them (e.g., see the numbers on p. 16).

2. We need to learn all we can of CPMs because of the critical role God has reserved for us to play in launching them. “The difference between CPMs and near-CPMs is often the differ ence between God’s people properly aligning themselves with what he is doing or failing to align themselves with what he is doing,” p. 28. 3. CPMs are important to understand because of what they are accomplishing. “Without exaggeration we can say that CPMs are the most effective means in the world today for drawing lost millions into saving disciple-building relationships with Jesus Christ [italics his]. That may appear to be an ambitious claim, but it is an accurate one, and an honest description of how God is winning a lost world,” p. 28.

a. CPMs are the most effective means in the world for winning the lost.

b. “No other avenue so quickly and effectively multiplies the glory of God in the hearts of so many people. No other means has drawn so many new believers into ongoing communities of faith where they can continue to grow in Christlikeness. This is why CPMs are so very important,” p. 29.