Before I get into the details of chapter 2 of our training manual (“GOD’S PLAN FOR HIS CHURCH”), we must establish that God’s Ultimate Purpose is that He be glorified and show forth His wisdom to a world that does not know Him. Consider first that God will be glorified among all people (ethnos – people groups). “All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name.” (Psalm 86:9). “Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!” (Psalm 96:3). “Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.” (Revelation 15:4). How is this going to happen? Paul tells the believers in Ephesus that their purpose “in Christ [was to] be to the praise of His [God’s] glory” (Ephesians 1:12, 14). If God’s Ultimate Purpose is His glory, then that must be the ultimate purpose of His church. Therefore, the ultimate goal of His Church is not evangelizing, establishing, equipping or expanding, but it is to make known His wisdom to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places and for the earth to be filled with the knowledge of His glory in the church (Ephesians 3:10, 21; Habakkuk 2:14). We will see from Scripture that God’s ultimate purpose and goal is accomplished through His Church by preaching the gospel and revealing His plan to all nations or people groups. I am looking forward to the day when “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” (Habakkuk 2:14). What a purpose to live for! What a purpose to let govern everything we do and every function of the church!
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If you have not looked at our training manual ("GOD'S PLAN FOR HIS CHURCH"), I will give you a brief overview here. It presents the methods and principles used by the Early Church in the Book of Acts and Paul's letters (and many other Scriptures) that produced such amazing results in a brief period of time. Then we bridge those principles by applying them to today's church so we can see amazing spontaneous growth and multiplication for our Father's glory among all "ethnos" (people groups) of the world. 1. RESTORE OR RENEW our courage and confidence in the authority and sufficiency of Scripture and the Holy Spirit. Through this you will be equipped to plant and establish growing indigenous churches and renew existing churches so they also will expand. RETURN TO THE SCRIPTURES 2. PAINT A BIBLICAL VISION of God's plan for His church today; not man's plan and not a western plan, but God's plan. 3. START A JOURNEY of developing your own strategy of church planting and church renewal. This strategy will be built on biblical, simple, practical, supra-cultural and timeless principles and not a strategy that is dependent on man, buildings, money or education. God the Holy Spirit will guide you to reach unreached people groups through this foundation in God's Word. If the Lord is prompting your heart to follow through with this study, please contact us at: newfoundationsinternational@gmail.com <mailto:newfoundationsinternational@gmail.com> . We would be delighted to discuss any details with you. Much of life and ministry that is going on in the church today is pre-Pentecostal. We teach about the incarnation, death, burial and resurrection of Christ but neglect the ascension and Pentecost. Without Pentecost there is no hope, no resurrection power, no transformation and no significant witness. Having the Holy Spirit in us is better than having Christ with us! What does God say?
Genesis 1:1-2; II Kings 6:13-18; Ezekiel 36:25-37:14; John 1:32-33; John 3:3-8; John 7:37-39; John 14:12-26; John 16:7-14; Acts 1:8; Acts 2:1-47; I Corinthians 12:12-13; Ephesians 1:13-20; Ephesians 3:20; Romans 8:1-11; Galatians 3:2; Galatians 5:16-25; Ephesians 4:30-31; Ephesians 5:18; Acts 5:32; I Thessalonians 5:19; Revelation 22:17 Servant leadership is a foreign concept in the church today. In many instances, the humblest of all faiths over the years degenerated into a power hungry and self-seeking organization, competing for bigger and better. Now hear God speak and learn what true servant leadership means. John 3:30; Matthew 11:29; Matthew 20:20-28; Mark 9:33-35; Mark 10:35-45; Luke 22:24-27; John 13:12-20; Philippians 2:3-11; I Peter 5:5-6; I Corinthians 1:26-31; I Thessalonians 2:2-12
Start your own list by filling in the blanks below with a list of accelerators and inhibitors that you think are relevant to your own situation and culture. Discuss with others and challenge these accelerators and inhibitors, but remember, they can change from time to time, and culture to culture.
Accelerators Inhibitors _______________________________________ ________________________________________ _______________________________________ ________________________________________ _______________________________________ ________________________________________ _______________________________________ ________________________________________ _______________________________________ ________________________________________ _______________________________________ ________________________________________ _______________________________________ ________________________________________ The Holy Spirit is moving today and extending to each of you a personal invitation to join Him at work and be a part of this awesome adventure! Will you join God at work now? Yes ______ No ______? Below I have started a list of accelerators and inhibitors which may or may not be accurate within your culture but will give you something to think about as we bridge God’s supra-cultural timeless principles into today’s church and help us do things in the church and mission that do not inhibit the movement of God but hopefully will accelerate the movement of God.
Inhibitors are church planting actions or omissions of actions that may bring measurable short-term results, but are much more likely to inhibit the church from becoming fruitful movements of Christ with lasting results. An example of this can be found with the Hmong people group in Vietnam and in other people groups around the world. Case studies that support this can be found in David Garrison’s book, Church Planting Movements (Pictured Above). Some universal elements which were found to accelerate church planting movements and some elements which seen to inhibit the church plantings movements are found on pages 282 and 283 in Garrison’s book. Tomorrow we will begin to list some of the things we do in mission and in church that can be either an accelerator or inhibitor.
Accelerators are church planting actions or the absence of actions that may not be measurable and may take longer to see fruit but, ultimately, result in strong churches being established with lasting kingdom results. Note: One of the purposes of this manual is to help accelerate and sustain church planting movements by using supra-cultural and timeless principles. This will be accomplished by building biblical tracks for these church-planting movements to run on while laying a biblical foundation for the movement to stand on. Tomorrow we will look at inhibitors.
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