Getting Ready for CPM - 3 - David Watson
Access Ministry

“Where do I start?” and “How do I get there?” are among the first questions a Church Planter asks. In restricted access work where the community or community leaders may be resistant or hostile to the Gospel, answering access questions is very important.

It is through access ministries that the Church Planter comes into sustained contact with the people God laid upon his heart. It is through access ministries that relationships are established and the Church Planter has the opportunity to meet the person of peace who will be the first to open the community to the Good News of Jesus Christ. We train our Church Planters that their primary responsibility is to locate the person of peace, build a relationship with that family, and start a new church: beginning with that family.

Every community is different, and will require creativity on the part of the Church Planter to gain access. The kinds of access ministries that can open the doors to a community are as varied as the Church Planters and the teams who share the love of God with a community. It is in access ministries that church planting teams practice their creativity. Almost anything and any circumstance can be used as an access ministry if the team is creative and single-minded in their approach to a community for the purpose of starting a new church.

Traditional access ministries include medical work, education, recovery, relief, development, agriculture, and more. In these ministries funding flows one way. These social ministries can be used for church planting if the goal is meeting people’s needs, building relationships, and keeping an eye open for the person of peace in order to share the Gospel with families.

An underutilized area of access ministries is business. Most of us have not been trained that it is ministry to provide goods and services to people who need goods and services. Again, the purpose of meeting needs is to build relationships. But when we do legitimate business, the people we help are paying the bills for those who will build relationships, discover the person of peace, and start new churches.

We must carefully plan our access to a new group of people, especially if they are part of a resistant, closed, or hostile population. Look for the needs of the people we want to reach, and recruit the right people to meet those needs through access ministries. The best access ministries meet needs, but allow for the building of long-term relationships that provide opportunities to meet the person of peace.

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