Why plant churches?

UNCHANGED: THE MISSION CONTINUES

The impact of COVID-19 on the way church gathers is huge.  But the need of the Gospel has not diminished, the opportunities to present the Gospel has and will increase, and our vision of seeing new churches evangelised into existence across Australia hasn’t changed at all.  Click below to see how it’s happening in our 4 key areas below:

Recruit

The goal of our Recruit area is to see "men & women to establish healthy church-planting churches with an urgent gospel vision for reaching Australia and the world (Matt 28)."  So during COVID-19 we’ll be continuing the conversations with apprentices, college students and ministry workers about what planting looks like, what planters look like, who is on their heart to reach and how they’d reach them.  If that’s you, we’re keen to connect.

 

Alongside the above, there are two areas we’re going to take the time to build out to help people thinking more about church planting.  The first is an areas we’ve already begun significant work in: identifying and explaining different types of church planting models, and helping people compare their wiring to the gifts needed to lead each of those different types of plants.  The second is developing a new online church planter assessment tool for people to more effectively self-assess against some core competencies we’ve identified for church planters, as well as helping compare their wiring to different types of church planting models.  

 

Our prayer is that the two tools above will be a helpful source for the local church, and for potential planters, to begin to think through whether they could, and what it would look like, for them to plant a new church to reach new people.

Recruit

Assess

The goal of our Assess area is to see "providing effective and rigorous assessment of potential church planters & church planting couples who establish healthy churches ready to plant new churches across Australia."  With as many people as we’ve ever had moving towards assessment, we’re as committed to continuing to help planters/planting couples think through this and have clarity on their next steps.

While COVID-19 will have little impact on our assessment process overall, the key part of the process - the final face-to-face interview - will need to be readjusted.  Currently, this is 2-3 experienced planters from the network in a 2.5 hour meeting with the prospective planters, helping them think through them as a planting couple and digging into their planting plans.  For the foreseeable future, we will using online interviews, and are currently designing some guidelines for most effective ways to do this. 

We’re confident that as the network has generously given their time to help the next generation think through their plans for church planting, we will be able to continue to provide wise and prayerful guidance so as to keep planting healthy churches across Australia.

Assess

Strengthen

The goal of our Recruit area is to "developing a generous network growing in character, conviction and the competency to establish healthy churches ready to plant new churches across Australia through a genuine peer network, effective coaching and quality resourcing."  While we’re mourning the loss of our national conference and the gathering and encouragement that comes with that, the strength of the network has always been built and experienced in numerous ways, many of which are being felt now more than ever. Here’s three ways.


First, the coaching network.  This has always been at the heart of strengthening our planters - both men and women.  At a time of such uncertainty and change, the voluntary coaching network that’s been established for planters in their first few years prior to and post launching, is going to be a key to helping planters navigate and thrive, making the most of the opportunities for which they planted.  As most coaching relationships are done online, COVID-19 will not affect this key framework of the network.


Second, the sharing of burdens, resources and prayer.  Over the past few weeks we have seen churches and church leaders from across Australia reach out to support and share what they have to others going through the same challenges.  The already established network of relationships in Geneva Push has experienced this also powerfully in a number of ways - from the closed online facebook group for Geneva planters, the network prayer gathering online to share stories and pray for each other, to the gathering of network resources to build the COVID-19 resource page.  As with the coaching network, the strength of the network is often in the unseen conversations that strengthen peer-to-peer.  This hasn’t changed under COVID-19, the years of hard work within the network of connecting planters is now bearing fruit in a time of trial and opportunity for the Gospel. 


Third, leveraging our expertise in launching churches.  It’s a given that as a church planting network, one of the key areas we put significant thought into is launching churches.  No-one could have foreseen that this would be needed on such a large scale by so many churches across Australia and the world.  While we’re uncertain when churches will be able to gather face-to-face again, or what the nature of that gathering might be, over the coming weeks and months, we will be leveraging our experience in launching churches for the good of both our network but also the Gospel as a whole across Australia.

Strengthen

Multiply

As we partner with Reach Australia, our goal is to see "thousands of healthy, multiplying, evangelistic churches across Australia."  In 2020 we have been anticipating the launching of 11 churches across all parts of Australia. Some were 1 week into their public launch (Manning Bible Church), some had soft-launched and were building their teams (Anchor Church Coffs Harbour), some were launching mid-year, and many were launching from September onwards.  

While no-one is quite sure when things will reopen, we’re working with each of these churches to see the opportunities to still build their launch team, connect with their communities and those seeking at the moment, as well as working closely with their sending teams, so when the time comes to gather again, they can take full advantage to launch their church plants.  This is an uncertain time in many ways, but one thing we are absolutely certain of - God will build His Church, so in that we take absolute confidence.

Multiply

Why plant churches? Because it’s working. New churches are reaching new people and seeing them saved into God’s kingdom.

From the stats we’ve collected in the network, we can see that God has saved over 1,500 new people into his kingdom. That’s over 1,500 first time or recommitments to Jesus in church plants across the Geneva network in Australia.

“Church planting in Australia is working. It is mobilising groups of people to reach people who haven’t previously been reached. We’re talking about on average 1 convert per 12 members of church. Church plants are per head having a bigger impact than established churches.”

– Andrew Heard, Geneva Push Founder

New Churches Reach New People

James
Chapel Hill, Sydney

“I feel like I am truly alive and I now understand that there’s more to life than I understood before. God and Chapel Hill have given me what I thought I had but in reality, lacked. They’ve given me closure, comfort, love and happiness. Here, I have found more than faith, I’ve found another family.”

Bec
Trinity Grove, Adelaide

“I first came to know about God and Jesus through a friend inviting me along to church. I didn’t really know what to expect at first, but we I arrived, I found everyone so welcoming and I listened to the word of God for the first time. I kept coming along and just this past week have given my life to Christ.”

Christopher
Providence Church, Brisbane

“Providence is my first church! It’s where I first heard God’s Word and it really affected my life. Through Providence, I became a Christian and got baptised! I absolutely love Providence because everyone here is family to me, and it’s a place where I can learn and grow from God’s Word.”

There is an urgent need for more churches

The number of Australians attending church each week is less than 10% and the number of people ticking no religion on the census is steadily on the rise. New churches are five times more effective than established churches at reaching people with the gospel. There is an urgent need to plant more churches across Australia.

Geneva Push church planters share with us Australia’s desperate spiritual need and the vision of the Geneva Push network.

Considering planting? Get assessed.

LEARN ABOUT ASSESSMENTS
COVID-19 RESOURCES & CHURCH TOOLSRead here
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