Seven Lessons for Church Planters
In the past year, I have been church planting in Taiwan, the country I was born and raised in. My family and I are in the northeastern part of Taiwan and our goal is to grow this church plant so that we can plant other churches together in the future. Reflecting on this time, I think there are seven primary lessons to keep in mind when going to the field.
#1 Understand Biblical Missions Work
We must understand the nature of the mission work according to the Bible. It must center on the preaching and teaching of God's word in the context of the local church. Matthew 28:19-20 is one of the clearest passages in the Bible that defined for us what mission work is. Jesus commanded those apostles to go and make disciples of all nations. These apostles were ordained ministers in the early New Testament church, and Jesus told them how to make disciples of all nations: by baptizing them and teaching them to obey all that Jesus commanded. Notice that baptizing implies church planting because baptism among other things, is a sign and seal of our saving grace and also our joining the church. This is how the Lord Jesus, the Lord of missions, defined missions. Local churches are to send out qualified men to plant churches in other cultures and language groups by teaching the Word, administering the sacraments, and praying.
There are many good works that the church may do on the mission field. These works can be helpful and supportive to mission work. Nevertheless, we must be clear that these good works alone are not Biblically-defined mission work. It's better to call them “mercy ministries,” and not be confused with true mission work. Jesus Himself does not confuse mercy ministries with mission work. In Luke 4:43 when the crowd were seeking Jesus for more miraculous healing miracles, Jesus said, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.”
If any good work can be defined as mission work, then the idea of mission work becomes meaningless. If non-Christians see the church doing lots of good works but not preaching the gospel and teaching scripture, then they can reasonably infer that Christianity is not that different from any other religions. Lots of unbelievers in Taiwan tell me they think Christianity is just like any other religion, simply telling people to do good and be good.
In other words, how we understand mission work really comes down to this question: what do we believe the greatest human need is? It's not food and drink, it's not clothing, it's not learning English.The greatest human need is for sinners to be forgiven and reconciled to God, to be free from their sin and the wrath and curse of God, and to live holy lives through the Lord Jesus Christ and the saving work He has done for His people. That's what mission work is all about: to bring the gospel to the nations.
#2 The Necessity of Prayer
Prayer is absolutely necessary to mission work. One of the greatest encouragements on the mission field is knowing that there are many churches and Christians interceding faithfully for us and our work in Taiwan. I try to write monthly updates to my supporting churches. Why? Because I believe in the power of prayer. God uses our prayers as one of the means to destroy Satan's kingdom and to build up Jesus' kingdom. Remember that Paul pleaded with believers to pray for him. In Ephesians 6, he asked believers to pray for his boldness in preaching the gospel. In Colossians 4, he requested believers to pray that God would open the door for the word and that he would preach the gospel with clarity. How much more do I, as the ordinary pastor missionary, need prayers? Oftentimes, I get really stressed about ministry, but after I send out my updates, I often feel very much encouraged to endure hardships.
Our faithful God is hearing and answering countless prayers. God really sustains our ministry. Do not underestimate the effect of your own prayers for the mission work. Your prayers do really matter. Do you believe that God may answer your prayers by softening a man whose heart has been hardened for years and even decades? God may answer your prayers by delivering missionaries from extraordinary stress or fierce attacks from Satan. Most Christians will not go to the mission field as long-term missionaries, but all Christians can and should faithfully intercede.
Perhaps you are tempted to just ignore missionary newsletters or delete them. Commit to praying for a few missionaries. They need your prayers. That's a means for the success of the Great Commission.
#3 Faithfulness in the Small Things
There's a man in our church in his late sixties. At first, he wasn't very teachable. I visited him and I tried to be patient with him and try to gently correct some of his thoughts. He had a Buddhist background, so he often syncretized Buddhism with Christianity. I had to correct him patiently, gently. But he didn't seem to respond that well in the beginning. Later, in God's providence, his mother, who was not a believer, passed away. Our elder and I visited him and I went to the pagan funeral service of his mother. Afterwards, amazingly, he started to change. He started to bear fruit.
On a mission field, we often have to start with a small number of people. Most of these people will be relatively immature in their faith and have a low appetite for sound preaching and teaching. Nonetheless, their souls are precious in God's sight, worthy of our most faithful labor in the smallest detail. Our ultimate goal on the mission field, as well as on our daily life, is to glorify our Savior and King through our faithful labor, not to impress others or make a name for ourselves. It doesn't matter how many people will remember us. Quite frankly, most of us missionaries working on the field will be unknown to most people in the world. But our faithful labor will be forever known, remembered, and treasured by our loving God, Who will use it for the eternal good of people in such a way beyond our imagination. That's the greatest comfort that missionaries can have.
If you aspire to go to the mission field, practice such faithfulness before you are sent out. If you cannot be faithful while you're at home, how can you be faithful in a much harder situation on the field? God calls us to be faithful in small things. We might despise small things because of our sinful nature, but God does not. And God uses our faithfulness in small things to build up His own kingdom.
#4 Love Evangelism
We must evangelize intentionally, personally, and lovingly. A former firefighter visited our church. And as soon as I saw him from the pulpit, I made it my priority to talk with him afterwards. I try to be very intentional in my approach to any newcomers, especially unbelievers. This man had been suffering from depression for a long time, stemming from his concern for righteousness and justice. He felt so helpless and crushed because he witnessed so much bureaucracy in the government agencies. He wasn't particularly interested in the gospel in the beginning. He wanted to try some religious stuff to see if he could get rid of his depression. I patiently listened to his stories. I asked him a whole bunch of questions sincerely because I want to get to know him so that I could minister to him better. Then I tried to connect his concerns to the gospel. I told him the reason he cared so much about righteousness is because he is created by God after His own image. I pushed a little bit. I asked him, “Are you righteous before God? You aren't. You know, you sin in so many ways, even though humanly speaking, you might be more righteous than many others. But you're still a sinner before God.” And so from there I start to talk about the gospel.
Evangelism is not just conveying the right biblical knowledge of the gospel. We must be clear about the gospel, but we should also try to make the gospel personal to people with whom we are sharing the gospel. We must try to show them the gospel is the ultimate solution to their personal problems and concerns.
In John 4, Jesus evangelized to the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus didn't just give the gospel. He had a personal conversation with her, which led her to eventually confess her sin. Jesus pointed out that her ultimate needs could only be met in the Lord. Her ultimate problem was that she tried to be satisfied in the wrong place and that's what caused her to commit adultery.
Our evangelism must be intentional, not always waiting for people to come to us, but at times we must reach out to people personally and lovingly.
#5 Cultural Wisdom
We must evaluate culture, not conform to sinful culture.
There's a family who are neighbors of one of our church members. The husband of that family died recently. This man's wife is not a believer, but two of his daughters are professing believers. Though they don't go to the church regularly at all, they requested that our church officiate a Christian funeral service for their father. However, they also intended to participate in pagan ceremonies to please their mother. Sadly, many Christians in Taiwan are taught that it is okay to participate in pagan ceremonies to show respect to the family, as long as they are still worshiping God in their hearts. This is contrary to what the Bible teaches. In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul clearly commanded us to flee from idols and extorted us that we cannot have fellowship with a demon and still be faithful to our Lord.
We lovingly extorted these two daughters to abstain from any pagan ceremony, and we instructed them to show due honor to their father and other family members in ways consistent with the Bible. We also encouraged them that their faithfulness to the Lord would be honored by God, and would be the kind of Christ-honoring testimony that their family members should see and hear. They heeded our counsel and exhortation, rejecting any pagan ritual while showing due respect to their deceased father.
Missionaries need to evaluate the cultures on the mission field in light of the scripture, rather than conforming to the culture by ignoring and even distorting the commands of the scripture. Paul reminds us in Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Nowadays, people like to talk about cultural contextualization on the mission field. We ought to be very careful about what we really mean by this term. If what we mean is becoming all things to all men, that we might save some, according to 1 Corinthians 10:22, that is good and biblical. It is good that we should make the gospel more understandable to certain cultures. Paul circumcising Timothy for the sake of reaching out to the Jews is an example of this. The Apostle Paul preached the gospel to the Gentiles differently than how he would preach to the Jews.
But if what we mean by contextualization is to compromise and distort biblical commands to please unbelievers, that’s unfaithful to Christ and His Word. Cultures are not neutral. There are sinful cultures and they should not be synchronized with our Christian faith. We should never teach people to be Christians while living like non-Christians. Compromising the truth will never make evangelism easier. It will only destroy the purpose, the message of evangelism.
#6 Shepherd Your Family
God builds up his church not only through conversions of individual adults, but also through families where Christian parents raise up their children in the admonition and training of the Lord. In Acts 2, when Peter preached to the Jews on the day of Pentecost, he said to them, “for the promise is for you and for your children.” God deals with His people in terms of families. God ordinarily uses Christian parents to save and sanctify their children and therefore lead to the natural growth of the church.
Healthy churches are made up of healthy families. So in order for the church to grow healthier and stronger, it is necessary for church-planting missionaries to instruct and exemplify how to biblically train children toward godliness. Taiwanese parents often lack the knowledge and practice of disciplining children. It’s common for children to throw themselves to the floor just because they didn't get what they wanted from their parents. By God's grace, my wife and I received good teaching about how to train children. Although our children are still sinners, they obey their parents joyfully. Their obedience has opened doors for me and my wife to share the gospel. People often feel curious about how our children can sit at a restaurant quietly and eat diligently, even joyfully, without throwing food over the place. From there I can start to explain that I'm a Christian and talk about sin and our need for Christ.
Do you shepherd your own children? Whenever your children disobey do you discipline them consistently, immediately, lovingly? If you aspire to be a missionary, it's important for you to learn how to train your children. That will be a huge blessing when you go to the mission field.
#7 Trust Christ to Build His Church
In a church plant where I minister, I often have to shepherd and disciple and even confront people who are older than I. Sometimes I ask myself, who am I to minister to these people? What God has helped me to learn over the past few months is that, though my gift and experiences matter, it's ultimately Christ Himself who is building up His own church through His Word, by His spirit, for the glory of His Father in Heaven.
A man in our church often encourages me by saying he loves being in this church because his questions can be answered in light of the Bible and can learn to apply the Bible to daily life. That's the sort of ministry that should characterize mission work. I've been teaching the book of Romans for our young men's group every Thursday night. They often say that my teaching really helped them learn how to apply God's word. Sometimes I'm afraid we might overestimate the culture differences on the mission field and we somehow lack confidence in the sufficiency and applicability of the scripture of God’s word. We must remember the word of God is sufficient for salvation and godliness. The word of God can and should apply to all cultures in the world. The Spirit can work in people's hearts savingly through the word of God, regardless of any culture differences.
My job is not to entertain people with all kinds of gimmicks, much less compromise the truth. Rather, my job as missionary is to preach and teach God's word faithfully and clearly, and to pray for the Spirit to bless the preaching and teaching so that it will bring saving effect to boys and girls, men and women, for them to be strong believers and to build up the church.
There are still many places in the world where the gospel is hardly heard. There are still many places in the world where people are weary and scattered like sheep without a shepherd. Would you prayerfully consider the possibility that God may call you to be an ordained minister missionary to the mission field? Would you ask the Lord to help you to pray faithfully for the mission work over the world for the glory of our Savior?
May He continue to send out laborers to preach the gospel, to disciple believers to build up His church, all for His glory.