Foreword by Ed Stetzer, Ph.D.

I planted my first church in 1988 among the urban poor in Buffalo, NY. At the time, I was aware of only one book on church planting. Church planting conferences didn’t exist; neither did church planting websites, webcasts, or blogs. Outside of a call to plant and a radical faith in the Lord of the Harvest, church planters were largely void of any sort of information base from which to glean in those days.

Now everything has changed. It seems like new church planting resources (e.g., conferences, books, blogs, webcasts, podcasts, and websites) are constantly popping up. And, as Martha Stewart would say, “It is a good thing.” These new resources provide tools to help church planters in a new way.

Successful church planters are life-long learners. Learners are gleaners and processors of information. Successful church planters thrive off of conversations with other planters, books by church planters, and conferences led by church planters. Even after planting several churches, I’m still a learner. If I ever stop learning, I lose my focus. The same is true for you.

I know, maybe you are thinking, “but I mostly learn from my personal experiences.” Or maybe you are a doer and you learn from doing. Sure, personal experiences lend much towards personal growth. But what if you could add to your own knowledge by learning from someone else’s personal experiences, from their mistakes and from their successes? Now we’re talking. This is why I’m glad you’ve joined me in reading Joel Comiskey’s newest book, Planting Churches that Reproduce.

If you are like me, you have been tweaked as you interacted with professors, authors, conference speakers, or denominational officials trying to teach about church planting without having actually planted themselves. I am sure they mean well and in many cases know a few things about planting—but it sounds a bit like “do as I say, not as I do.”

They’re experts who tell you everything you’re doing wrong in church planting, even though they’ve never planted a church. Unlike these well meaning givers of theoretical advice, Joel is a voice to be heard. He is a church planter. He’s been in the trenches. He knows what it’s like to experience both the hurts and the joys of church planting.
Joel has walked a long mile in the church planter’s shoes. Along the journey, Joel has learned the things he now shares with you, not only from his own experiences, but also by his extensive networking with church planters across North America and all the way to South America, Africa, India, China, and beyond.

In this, his newest book, Joel has given us a valuable tool in relating the principles of Jesus’ earthly ministry and of the rapid growth in the early New Testament church to the need to create and network reproducing simple churches.

Church planters can be some of the most amazing people in ministry today. Many have followed God’s call into church planting at great cost. Some have left high paying positions with established churches while others have left promising careers in the corporate world, trusting God for their every need, as they seek to put the needs of the unchurched before their very own.

Church planting can run the gamut, from well-funded planters launching mega churches with mega bucks, to planters with more faith than cents, pursuing a call and a dream to be a part of something that only God could orchestrate. If we are going to truly impact the growing lostness in North America and throughout the world, we must recognize not only the value of the church planters who’ve been blessed to launch big, but we must also recognize the importance of planting churches without great resources and fanfare.

God Uses Little Things to Make a Great Impact

The history of God’s activity in the hearts of mankind is replete with examples of God’s use of ordinary people with ordinary means to do extraordinary things. God used the common harlot, Rahab, to spare the Israelite spies as they scoped out Jericho in the land of Canaan. God used little David to kill a mighty giant of a man and a fierce invading army with a little pebble and a sling.

God has used ordinary men and women, many without their own copy of the Bible, to launch church planting movements in difficult places like China. The success of the rapidly growing church in China isn’t because of money. As I’m sure you know, the Chinese government isn’t exactly kind to Christians and certainly not to the underground church.

Yet, the underground Chinese Church is growing exponentially through the teaching of the Gospel in rapidly multiplying house churches. It’s a simple model being propagated by everyday, ordinary people, many of which are new believers. What can we learn from how God is working and moving there?

If we are going to see a church planting movement in North America, it most likely will not come from the mega churches in affluent suburbs—as good and important as those are. Most planters simply will not have the money for all the flashy bells and whistles to create marketing systems and concert-like sound and lighting effects used by the big boys. Yet, the “rest of us” are not insignificant, and the potential scope of their impact doesn’t have to be limited because of fewer funds and limited partnerships. If we are to see a church planting movement in North America, as we have in other parts of the world, it will come from ordinary people becoming missional and incarnational church planters, embracing the unchurched culture through simple, reproducible churches that won’t necessarily rely on big budgets and big buildings.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not opposed to big budgets for church planters. God has greatly used many church plants that were blessed to launch big (I’ve launched one myself). God is even greatly using many established churches that have grown to mega church status over the course of time. Yet God has used even more of our average, ordinary church plants, who’ve started with much less, to make a far greater impact on the lostness of our continent and world.

 

Cell Churches & House Churches Are Readily Reproducible

Joel Comiskey has given us a glimpse into a growing cell church movement through his previous books, The Church that Multiplies and Reap the Harvest. In still another book, Leadership Explosion, Joel has helped us to understand leadership principles for identifying and training leaders who will identify and train other leaders in an ongoing effort to begin more mission outposts for the proclamation of the Gospel. Now with this, his latest book,

Joel has enriched our understanding in the creation and growth of a reproducible model for church planting through simple cell churches and networks of house churches.
Not everyone will have a bank roll of $100,000 start a church. But everyone can start small and full of faith, by investing in one person and then in a small group of people who can be trained to reach others. I believe one of our greatest needs is for a simple, reproducible model for starting many new and multiplying churches.

This book challenges us to reconsider a common church planting model from the 1980’s forward where massive resources have been poured into launch efforts to take a new church from 20 to 300 in the space of one service. I have used this approach several times and it worked. It still works today. However, I have also seen this approach bomb.

Sometimes no one came. Other times, great crowds came out to a well-advertised launch service but then got lost in the shuffle because the church plant’s leadership wasn’t trained and ready to handle the influx of new people from a huge launch service.

Launching is often a tool God uses—but there are other ways where a church may grow more naturally. It goes without saying, as we look at the early church, the church largely grew in a more natural way. Sure, there were accounts of huge days like the Day of Pentecost, but by and far as the New Testament Church spread and took root, it was planted person by person as one person invested in the life of another who invested in the life of another.

The early church was catapulted to growth as the Spirit of God used the proclamation of the message of Christ by believers who just couldn’t keep quiet about Jesus. While appearing before the Sanhedrin, Peter and John preached to their captors, risking great punishment, even death, saying “for we are unable to stop speaking about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20, Holman Christian Standard Bible). They invested in others, who invested in others, and the church grew and grew. They simply couldn’t keep silent, because they’d seen the Savior. As the message spread and as the early church grew, many were added to the number who had never seen Jesus face to face, but they too had been changed by Christ’s words as they were spread, person to person and from town to town.

In this book, Joel highlights the benefits of the simple models of churches that can rapidly expand through cell or house church networks. His insights on reproducing churches will encourage those engaged in church planting to consider the benefits of moving from a call and a vision to the creation of small groups where leaders can be identified and trained, so that they might create and lead new small groups that will continue multiplying into more leaders and more small groups. Eventually the multiplication of small groups and leaders could lead the church planter to move the church to begin holding regular worship gatherings where all the small groups or house churches would join together for celebration. The ultimate goal of this new faith community would be to impact still more unchurched communities through the multiplication of the small groups into the creation of other new churches which would continue the whole process until Christ returns for his bride.

Grounded in Experience, Holding Forth God’s Word

Comiskey’s approach isn’t theoretical. As he lays out in this book, thousands of simple churches are multiplying all over the world and, increasingly, here in North America we are seeing this simple church philosophy multiply into the creation of an expanding base of cell churches that, I believe, could greatly impact the lostness throughout major cities across North America.

Even if you are not called to lead in a cell church or house church context, you will find a set of transferable principles laid out in this book which will challenge and inspire you in the areas of small groups, leadership training, networking, evangelism, fund raising, and multiplication. Regardless of the model of church planting you have been called to, there are timeless lessons you can learn to assist you in your journey, and many of these principles are addressed in this book.

Perhaps one of the greatest benefits of this book is the way Joel links the Bible to real life in the church planting world. As Joel lays out in this book, the early New Testament Church looked radically different from most of today’s North American churches.

I believe somewhere along the way we have become confused in thinking that it is our methods, marketing, programs, staff, and facilities that will grow the church. We’ve somehow forgotten the impact of God working through the Spirit of God to complete his intentions for the Word of God to serve as a catalyst for transforming lost sinners into becoming the redeemed people of God.

I’m sure that as you read Joel’s words you will be challenged to lead your church or church plant to become more biblical in its approach to the lost and unchurched. What will that look like for you and your church? Though I can’t know the specific details, I do know that the results of seeking to be more biblical in our approach to ministry will be far reaching as we seek to win the lost to faith in Jesus Christ.

Held by God’s Hand

Finally, as fellow labors in the fields that are white and ready to be harvested, I would like to encourage you as Joel does. Church planting is tough. The church planter in Quebec may dream of an easier planting experience in Louisiana, while the church planter in Oregon may believe their journey would have been easier if only they were church planting in North Carolina or Texas. As one who has planted in New York, Pennsylvania, and now in Georgia, I can tell you from experience that church planting is hard work, anywhere. I’ve met with 1000’s of church planters and pastors throughout the world who tell me the same.

Be faithful to the call God has given you. Preach the Word. Stay on your knees. Cherish your family. Love the people God has led you to reach and keep serving the King, Christ Jesus. Joel has some great comments about your King’s desires for you and for those you seek to reach through church planting. As you read Joel’s words, remember that you are not alone. Though there will be times you may feel abandoned and uncared for, hold to the God who is holding you. The babe in the manger who gave himself up for you on the Cross and rose again on day 3 is proof enough that God has his best plans in play for you.

Thanks Joel, for all that you continue to do for church planting and the growth of Christ’s Kingdom.

Ed Stetzer, Ph.D.
Author, Lost and Found and Planting Missional Churches
www.newchurches.com