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starting new churches

Holidays are over, back to work!

I continue to learn from and be inspired by Guy Muse and his team in Guayaquil, Ecuador. They have seen around 250 churches planted since 2000, and despite the fact that around half of these no longer meet, they have learnt some key lessons.

Here are the Guiding Values of "La Iglesia en Tu Casa" (LIETC)

1.) LIETC is built upon a foundation of prayer, which is the most important work in which we are engaged. (Luke 10:2)

2.) LIETC is built upon the idea of "mobilizing the laity." The laity is empowered to go and do tasks traditionally assigned only to trained professional clergy. (Eph.4:11-12, 1 Pet.2:9-10)

3.) LIETC is built upon the concept of taking the church to where the people are, rather than bringing the people to the church. (Matt.28:18-20, Luke 10:3)

4.) LIETC crosses denominational lines and works with Great Commission Christians to plant New Testament churches. (Eph.4:4-6)

5.) LIETC depends on God to provide the workers, free of recruitment or manipulation. (Luke 10:2)

6.) LIETC is built upon the understanding that women are likewise called to plant churches. (Matthew 28:18-20)

7.) LIETC is built upon the understanding that it is Christ's responsibility to build His church, not ours (Mt. 16:18). Our job is the Great Commission, his to build His Church.

8.) LIETC is built upon an understanding that the missionary task is primarily one of praying, modeling, teaching, training, and mentoring. (Eph.4:11-12)

9.) LIETC is built upon the strategic use of locally available and reproducible communication media (radio, brochures, videos, copies, letters, tracts, cassettes, Bibles). We don't use anything or bring in from the outside anything that can't be done/reproduced locally by the people.

10.) LIETC is built upon the idea of church being more a "family gathering" held in a home setting, and less a "traditional church service." (1 Cor. 12-14, 14:26, Book of Acts)

11.) LIETC is built on the twin pillars of prayer and continuous lifestyle visitation/evangelism.

12.) LIETC is built upon the understanding that group multiplication is the focus, not addition to existing works. (Matthew-Luke, the “parables of the kingdom.”)

13.) LIETC belongs to God, and He can do with it (us) as He pleases. Change in the way things are done is on-going as God continues to open our eyes to his ways of building the Kingdom.

Here is the full article explaining in detail how they start new churches in Guyaquil.

posted by alexander @ 2:44 PM 4 comments

4 Comments:

I hesitate to engage first on what might be seen as a negative comment... but one of the things I am trying to run away from is formulas. Doesn't this sound a bit too much like the recipe?

By David, at 9:09 PM

Hi David, nice to 'meet' you. We PM's are so sensitive to formulaic stuff! One sniff & we're headin for the hills! That said, I don't think what Guy is capturing here is at all a formula, rather they are his observations of the actual values which underpin what God is doing there in Guayaquil.
There is only one formula (apart from: "if momma ain't happy then no one's happy!") - pray then obey.
I think one of the key things we, in the organic scene, have to recognise is the need for intentionality about what we are doing; Jesus and the apostles weren't afraid of being intentional. The tide coming against us will always pull us in the opposite direction unless we are strongly intentional about where we are headed. Finding this balance is a fine art and not easy so I'm willing to learn from anyone who has experience, especially someone who has seen 250 churches started in 5 years!

By alexander, at 9:41 AM

Forgive me, for posting back. I agree about intentionality. And that is something I/we need to get to grips with. I struggle with the 'obey' though. Not that we should - yes of course we should. But what? It almost implies that someone else has the answer and we should obey it.

I don't think that Guy is wrong in any way - he's doing what God has commissioned him for there. I'm just not convinced it's transportable. I have friends who were involved with the G12 thing in London who now have left disillusioned and facing a crisis of faith. I'm sure that G12 worked somewhere, just not there. I have friends in Burkina Faso who plant Churches by the dozen, yet when they come here they immediately see that it's very different.

Having said all that, it's really good to have a model, any model to look at and learn from and if its one that has worked then that has to be a plus! Also this is the first time I have been referred to as a PM! (Apart from being a Project Manager in my day job) It's like a right of passage! Also, I like your blog I keep coming back. Just decided to lurk no longer.

By David, at 9:30 PM

Not completely sure what you mean about obeying? "It almost implies that someone else has the answer and we should obey it." What I meant was that the answer for our particular context lies with God and the only way to access this is by praying.
I'm certainly not into 'models' either, or trying to emulate what someone else the other side of the world is doing - been around the block too many times for that!
We do indeed have a different context here and that's our challenge and why I'm keen to hear about what's going on particularly here in the UK or europe; we need some ground breakers to lead the way.

By alexander, at 5:24 PM

emerging church, emergent, simple church, house church, home church.

4 Comments:

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