Abstract
Background: Over the centuries, various generations have used various models to not only evangelise people but organise them in communities of believers (or churches) for effective discipleship of these Christian converts as commanded by Jesus Christ. The various church planting models employed by mission organisations and churches have served different purposes at different times. A major hindrance to the church planting enterprise of missional churches is inadequate human resources. This is especially profound in the rural and peri-urban areas where the scourge of the impact of rural-urban migration is felt most. This phenomenon tends to put a limitation on the availability of human capital for the successful manning of newly planted churches. In most of these places, the common mantra among church planters and missionaries is ‘we lack leaders here so we are unable to plant more churches’.
Objectives: This research evaluates the various church planting models in the Church of Pentecost and proposes an indigenous model for planting Indigenous local churches and raising indigenous leaders for the same.
Method: This research employs participant observation, review of church reports as well as personal conversations with mission practitioners in the rural and peri-urban areas of Ghana.
Results: The Jesus Mission Model (JMM) proposed by this research seeks to proffer a contextual solution for challenges confronting church planting efforts in rural and peri-urban areas of Ghana.
Conclusion: The model proposed in this research addresses the challenge of raising indigenous leaders for sustainable indigenous churches in Ghana’s rural and peri-urban areas.
Contribution: The study proposes a contextualised church planting model, the JMM for rural and peri-urban areas in Ghana.
Keywords: Pentecostal; church planting; models; contemporary; missions.
Introduction
According to Steffen (1994:43), unlike a decade ago, a plethora of church planting models now exists from which church planters can select. New models continue to roll off the presses. While the multiplication of models provides valuable new insights into the ambiguous task of church planting, they also create a new dilemma. How can church planters select or design a church planting model that matches a specific people group?
A major hindrance to the church planting enterprise of missional churches is inadequate human resources. This is especially profound in the rural and peri-urban areas where the scourge of the impact of rural-urban migration is felt most. This phenomenon tends to put a limitation on the availability of human capital for the successful manning of newly planted churches. In most of these places, the common mantra among church planters and missionaries is ‘we lack leaders here so we are unable to plant more churches’. The phenomenon has led to the closing of many existing churches. This ‘we lack leaders’ syndrome has led to the situation where many existing churches have also become dormant and virtually non-existent, according to Smith (1977):
In some districts converts have had no Communion for two or three years, simply because there was no foreign pastor and the bishop was not able to get around. For they had been taught that only properly ordained pastors had authority to baptise and preside at the Lord’s Table. Whereas, from among themselves, elders should have been ordained, who could have done everything required. (n.p.)
According to Anane-Denteh, irrespective of the socio-cultural dynamics of the place being considered for planting a church, a missional church should be able to contextualise the local system to address the spiritual and social needs of the local people. One of the best ways of sustaining the theories, models and strategies used in church planting is to train a segment of the indigenous people to become leaders of the church so that they can, in turn, train their colleagues rapidly. This research therefore seeks to suggest the use of what I call the ‘Jesus Missional Model’ (JMM), a contemporary missional model to address the lack of leadership hindrance in the church planting enterprise of rural and peri-urban missions frontiers of the Church of Pentecost (CoP) in Ghana.
Research question
- How might an evaluation of church planting models in the Church of Pentecost contribute to the development of a contextual model for Ghana’s rural and peri-urban churches?
Research methods and design
This research is qualitative research that employs the use of participant observation, documentary research and analysis of church reports as well as personal interviews of persons involved in rural and peri-urban mission enterprises in Ghana. Both primary and secondary data were gathered. I had personal conversations with 30 pastors in the Walewale, Bolgatanga and Kete-Krachi Areas1 of the CoP and compared the data collected from those interactions with the church reports and statistics in these areas to validate the presuppositions of this research. I also carried out a review of secondary literature by reading research thesis, books and journals on church planting to triangulate the patterns that were emerging from personal observation (being a pastor in the internal missions field in Ghana for the past 10 years) and conversations with pastors involved in three CoP internal missions2 Areas.
Theoretical framework
The main modus operandi of the Pentecostal mission has been straightforward evangelism and church planting from its inception (Ma & Ma 2010). This assertion resonates very well with what is actually the practice in the CoP. In many instances, souls won from evangelistic rallies or crusades are baptised straight away and organised into local churches where possible. It takes every conceivable method, demonstrable of its creativity and zealousness (Ma & Ma 2010). According to Ma and Ma (2010), it also accompanies claims of the demonstration of supernatural power. A common feature in the CoP is the practice of testimony giving. This affords members the opportunity to share testimonies of what God has supernaturally accomplished for them. The most common of them is divine healing, and it provides an outstanding inroad for the gospel (Ma & Ma 2010). These evangelistic efforts always have the establishment of a vibrant local congregation as their goal (Ma & Ma 2010). Leadership over such a process is not restricted to ‘duly qualified’ clergy, as they are convinced that any believer is called and empowered to be a witness (Ma & Ma 2010). The JMM that this research proposes is rooted in the concept of the universal priesthood of all believers (Pt 1 2:9). Such a combination of strong theological affirmation and the priority given to soul-winning has produced an unparalleled army of evangelists and church planters wherever these eccentric forms of Christianity are introduced (Ma & Ma 2010).
David Garrison’s Church Planting Movements (CPM) theory seeks to facilitate the fulfilment of the Missio Dei on various fronts among indigenous communities. The CPM theory presents a highly effective model for planting churches. He defines the CPM as a rapid multiplication and reproduction of indigenous churches where they in turn plant new ones by their own effort and nurture them into maturity. When churches are planted this way, they become equipped to rapidly multiply and reproduce within their local setting and beyond. Garrison explains that in the CPM model, the mission agency or the missionary may help to start one or a few churches at the initial stages and intentionally disciple the indigenous Christians. Afterwards, the missionary allows them to continue with the reproduction of themselves and the multiplication of their own mission fronts in their local context and beyond. Two other factors identified in Garrisson’s model are churches ‘planting their own churches’. The church planter initially plants one church and that church through its own initiative without being compelled by an external agency plants a new church. The implication is that the initial church planted by the missionary is so discipled that it has the burden on its heart and the zeal to also evangelise an area, plant a new church there and disciple it to attain maturity.
Significance of this study
This research seeks to add to existing models of church planting among indigenous people groups in Ghana. Its findings and recommendations will come in handy for church planters and missionaries in rural and peri-urban areas of Ghana. It will help accelerate the fulfilment of the Great Commission, which is the Missio Dei of the body of Christ.
Church planting among Pentecostals in Ghana
The process by which churches are started, nurtured and resourced to multiply through the proclamation of the Gospel, soul-winning and discipleship is termed church planting. Ort and Wilsonn (2011:22) assert that ‘the Great Commission entails church planting’, and the ‘command to baptise and teach’ the followers of Christ to obey His commandments is the basis for church planting. It results from effective mission work as can be seen from the Acts of the Apostles where the apostles’ missionary activities led to the planting of new churches in communities they evangelised. For churches to multiply and ultimately fulfil the Great Commission, they must be missional in nature and practice. A church must possess a missional mindset and vision to thrive and remain relevant to the community of people it exists to serve. Anane-Denteh has defined a missional church as a product of the gospel with the proclamation gospel as its main task and guided by the view that this earth is a transient place, and eternal life in Christ is its watchword (Anane-Denteh 2021:335). A missional church identifies the Great Commission as its sense of calling and designs all aspects of its policies and practices around the mission of God. It focusses on participating in the Missio Dei while seeking to become a prophetic voice for the transformation of society with Kingdom values and principles. The CoP is a vibrant Pentecostal and contemporary missional church that is growing rapidly with aggressive evangelism and church planting as one of its core values.
The term model refers to the use of a framework, pattern or procedure as an example to follow or imitate. Models are required for use in planning and planting new churches at particular places. They help a church planter to initiate and execute the church planting agenda of the missional church. Anane-Denteh also affirms that using church planting models also helps the church planter to leave a scientific pattern of his ministry for others to study for subsequent implementation. He further identifies 12 church planting models, namely, the Parachute Drop, Apostolic Harvest, Founding Pastor, Home Cell Church, Split Church, Breakaway, Merger, Collaborative Network, Poaching, Merger, Adoption and Cross-Over church planting models (Anane-Denteh 2021:337).
The necessity for the church to intentionally plant churches in particular areas and around the world cannot be overemphasised. This, however, requires pragmatic and strategic approaches referred to as church planting models. According to Anane-Denteh (2021), church planting is a major missional responsibility for the fulfilment of the church’s mandate to evangelise the world because without it the church would struggle to fulfil the Great Commission. The Great Commission is unambiguous:
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you (Mt 28:18–20). (p. 374)
This task will definitely require proclaiming, baptising, teaching, gathering into congregations and sending (Missions) and as a result, multiplying disciples and churches among the peoples on earth.
The CoP is one church that has bought into the three self-approaches to missions propounded by Henry Venn (1796–1873) and Rufus Anderson (1796–1880). Anane-Denteh (2021:375) asserts that the three self-statements are ‘household words among missionaries and missiologists who uphold the Indigenous church principles’. The CoP with her vision to build indigenous churches wherever it is established has therefore contextualised these mission principles and has expanded it to include two more. The planting of indigenous self-missioning churches, self-propagating, self-supporting, self-governing and self-theologising has been the CoP’s contextualized mode for church planting over the years.
An evaluation of Pentecostal Church planting models in the Church of Pentecost
The church planting model adopted for every context and environment must be scrupulously chosen in order for the intended results to be achieved. There is no universal model in church planting. The context and the prevailing conditions in the environment at the time of the church planting determine the model to be applied. Applying an inappropriate church planting model for any context may result in a failure to achieve the goal of planting a church. This chapter analyses the various church planting models discussed in the previous chapter with the aim of evaluating their strengths and weaknesses. A contextualised model for Ghana’s rural and peri-urban areas is proposed at the end of the article for use in these specific social contexts in order to ensure that the desired results are achieved.
Garrison (1999) asserts that churches do not just happen or emerge in a vacuum without the effort of human agencies that have been appointed to work as missionaries and ministers of the gospel. York (2011) states that to fail to have a plan for opening new churches, or cells of Christians, is to signal betrayal of the mission of God. He is of the view that regardless of any kind of specific assignment given by the mission agency, every missionary must see himself as ‘being in the vanguard of church planting’ (York 2011:240).
According to Heward-Mills (2000:5), a church is a regular gathering of Christians for the purpose of teaching and learning the scriptures. It also involves fellowshipping and worshipping together and putting into practice the precepts of Scripture by the members of the church. The word church is derived from the Greek word ekklesia or ecclesia, which means an ‘assembly’. According to Anane-Denteh, although the initial usage of the term was not about Christian gathering, it has later been used in association with an ‘assembly’ or called out ‘one’ in Christ. Thus the meaning applies to a gathering of people and does not relate to buildings or edifices in which people gather to worship God (Anane-Denteh 2021:374).
Ort and Wilsonn bemoan the assumption by some mission practitioners that their mission-planted churches should look and act like their home church, even though they may be dealing with different cultural contexts or operating under different circumstances and locations. According to Anane-Denteh (2021:335), they hold that this assumption is wrong because the meeting places of the early church and their structures took different forms than what we know today. In spite of their diversity in form and structure, the churches planted by the early apostles were all legitimate churches patterned after the church Jesus promised to build.
Garrison explains that the CPM theory is a macrocosm of people groups or interrelated population segments meant to communicate the gospel in the context of shared language and ethnic boundaries even though their activities may transcend these boundaries. He adds that through the propagation of the gospel and expansion of the Kingdom of God within their areas, they can expand their mission front to other areas beyond their traditional setting. In other words, the local church is trained to be capable of multiplying itself in every facet of the church’s system where new Christians are trained to become evangelists (Ort & Wilsonn 2011:80).
Anane-Denteh has identified the CoP, whose general headquarters is in Ghana as a prime example of a church using the CPM strategies. He asserts that the church has a policy of rapid self-multiplication based on its own initiatives. As a result, it has been able to expand its missions fronts to over a hundred countries across the world with more than 14 000 congregations in Ghana alone as of the year 2015; all through local initiatives. The founder of the CoP, Rev. James McKeown (an Irish missionary), never allowed the indigenous Christians in Ghana to seek external funding or support for church planting initiatives or missionary activities. Every member of the church is discipled to be a ‘missionary’ who bears the mission of God upon their heart and works towards it. Local assemblies of the CoP are trained to be ‘mission agencies’ on their own whereby they evangelise their communities and plant new churches as a way of reproducing themselves. This practice affirms the point that the CPM theory as explained by Garrison tends to work more effectively than many missional approaches.
An evaluation of the parachute drop church planting model
Stetzer and Warren (2008:42) explain that this church planting model is the instance in which the church planter moves with his family to a particular location, evangelises the people, congregates the converts into a church and then disciples to be Christ- like. The church planter moves in with the faith and conviction that he will succeed even though he may not be familiar with the place. He may or may not be funded by a missions organisation (Stetzer & Warren 2008:42). This strategy was very common in the early days of modern mission work (Anane-Denteh 2021:394).
Strength of the parachute drop church planting model
This model places emphasis on the presence of the church planter and his family with the conviction and goal of planting a church as their main motivation. The church planter makes evangelism a key component of his mission thereby driving soul winning in the area.
Weakness of the parachute drop church planting model
Virtually no feasibility studies or scouting of the area is carried out in advance. The church planter moves in with his family with the faith that he will succeed in evangelising, winning souls and planting a church. This approach has a substantial risk of being an exercise in futility because there is virtually no prior knowledge of the context and the environment.
An evaluation of the apostolic harvest church planting model
Stetzer (2006:54) asserts that the apostolic harvest church planting model is the most familiar model in the New Testament. Paul would go to an established urban centre, teach and preach at the marketplace and/or synagogue, engage the intellectuals and elite, start worship, appoint elders-pastors and then supervise the new elder or pastor via letter and occasional visits. The apostolic harvest church planter goes to an area, plants a church, calls out and trains a new planter, … and then leaves to plant another church (possibly with some core members from the previous church plant) (Stetzer 2006:54).
Strength of the apostolic harvest church planting model
This model helps in the rapid spread of the gospel, impartation of spiritual gifts and development of indigenous leadership for newly planted churches. It ensures that the team of church planters make their spiritual gift sets available to as many people as possible.
Weakness of the apostolic harvest church planting model
The weakness of this model is that it does not give the church planter(s) ample time to stay with the newly planted church members for effective discipleship and grounding in the faith. Most of the churches planted with this model were fraught with divisions, fights and contentions because their members were still spiritual babies.
An evaluation of the founding pastor church planting model
Burke (2016:43) posits that this model is the instance where the church planter, unlike the apostolic harvest church planter, moves to plant a church in a place and remains there as the founding pastor for the new church.
Strength of the founding pastor church planting model
According to Burke (2016:43), this model brings about exponential church growth because the new church members have the benefit of being properly discipled by the founding pastor.
Weakness of the founding pastor church planting model
The weakness of this model, in my opinion, is that it slows the rapid evangelisation of the ‘ends of the earth’ (Mt 28:20) because the church planter stays in one place.
An evaluation of the home cell church planting model
Anane-Denteh (2021:394) observes that this is the process of initiating a small cell group in either a house or at any convenient place for fellowship and prayer activities. He argues that although this is one of the oldest church planting models still in existence, the modus operandi of the home cell church planting model varies depending on the prevailing factors in the external environment (Anane-Denteh 2021:394). In areas where public gatherings for Christian worship are prohibited, this model tends to be the best approach for church planting.
Strength of the home cell church planting model
This model is very effective where public gatherings for Christian worship have been banned by government authorities. Where there are religious persecutions against Christians, this model also comes in handy. It helps create the right atmosphere of discipleship and fellowship. It also ensures that the church is brought to the doorsteps of church members enhancing participation in church activities.
Weakness of the home cell church planting model
This model does not permit the mass evangelisation of communities and cities because of its confinement to homes and small groups. It also limits the ability of church members to go out openly to confess their faith.
An evaluation of the split church planting model
This is the process of planting a church by splitting an existing one to either form a satellite church under the leadership of the mother church or a completely new church with an independent leadership placing emphasis on the local church, not the denomination (Anane-Denteh 2021:395).
Strength of the split church planting model
The split church planting model has been employed by churches in urban areas as a tool to expand their ministries (Stetzer & Warren 2008:43). ‘This model tends to facilitate the rapid growth of the church in its locality, provided there is no negative tendency or any situation of conflict affecting the process’ (Anane-Denteh 2021:395).
Weakness of the split church planting model
The weakness of this model is that it does not promote the breaking of new ground for the mission. It is also a model suited only for cities and mega-churches, not small local churches.
The Jesus mission model
The model this research proposes therefore is the JMM. It presents us with a more effective model for contemporary Pentecostal mission endeavours in rural and peri-urban areas in Ghana. The JMM is inspired by three main texts in the Bible: Mark 5:18–20; Acts 14:21–23 and Titus 1:5:
And when He got into the boat, he who had been demon-possessed begged Him that he might be with Him. However, Jesus did not permit him, but said to him, ‘Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you’. And he departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him; and all marvelled. (Mk 5:18–20, NKJV, emphasis mine)
And when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, ‘We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God’. So when they had appointed elders in every church, and prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed. (Ac 14:21–23, emphasis mine)
For this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking, and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you. (Tt 1:5, emphasis mine)
It provides a five-pronged approach to church planting in rural and peri-urban areas where human resource availability has been discovered to be a major hindrance to church planting. They are: (1) Power Evangelism/mass or personal, (2) soul winning and baptism of converts by immersion, (3) plant church or open Local Assembly, (4) prayerfully appoint a leader (‘JMM Leader’) with a genuine salvation experience from among the converts in a situation where you do not have an already discipled leader or mature Christian to lead the newly open Assembly. Put your ‘JMM Leader’ on an intentional leadership training programme to bring him or her up to speed and (5) draw up a routine to regularly visit, teach, admonish and encourage your newly planted church, that is, disciple them into maturity in Christ (Missionary tours). Figure 1 presents the conceptual model for the theory this research proposes.
 |
FIGURE 1: An illustration of the Jesus mission model. |
|
Conclusion
The church has been given the mandate to not only evangelise the nations but disciple the same into maturity in Christ through the Great Commission. This can only be achieved when converts who are won and baptised through the church’s evangelistic outreaches are congregated into churches in places where churches do not exist. The church therefore becomes a centre for the discipleship of the converts according to the great commission. This research project has proposed the JMM, a contemporary missional model to address the lack of leadership hindrance in the church planting enterprise of rural and peri-urban missions frontiers of the CoP in Ghana.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank the Church of Pentecost, Ghana for the permission granted in conducting this research.
Competing interests
The author declares that no financial or personal relationships inappropriately influenced the writing of this article.
Author’s contributions
E.A.K. is the sole author of this research article.
Ethical considerations
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Verbal informed consent was obtained from all individual participants involved in the study. Data collection from the participants of the research was conducted orally because of the use of local Ghanaian languages such as Twi, Konkomba and Kaakye. Interpreting and transcribing these languages into English would have made the research too expensive for the author to conduct.
Funding information
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Data availability
Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author.
References
Anane-Denteh, V., 2021, Revitalising Mission and Missiology: The way forward in the twenty-first century, Pentecost Press, Accra.
Burke, J.F., 2016, Building bridges between cultural groups. Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN.
Garrison, D., 1999, Church planting movements, International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, Richmond, VA.
Heward-Mills, D., 2000, Evangelism and missions, 2nd edn., Electronic edn., Smashwords, Accra.
Ma, J.C. & Ma, W., 2010, Mission in the spirit: Towards a Pentecostal/charismatic missiology, OCMS, Oxford.
Smith, A.G., 1977, Strategy to multiply rural churches, OMF Publishers, Bangkok.
Ort, G. & Wilsonn, G., 2011, Global church planting: Biblical principles and best practices for multiplication, Baker Books House, Grand Rapids, MI.
Steffen, T.A., 1994, ‘Selecting a church planting model that works’, Missiology 22(3), 361–376. https://doi.org/10.1177/009182969402200305
Stetzer, E., 2006, Planting missional churches: Your guide to starting churches that multiply, Broadman & Holman, Nashville, TN.
Stetzer, E. & Warren, B., 2008, ‘The state of church planting in the United States: Research overview and qualitative study of primary church planting entities’, Journal of the American Society for Church Growth 19(2), 1–42.
York, R., 2011, The Nature of Evangelism in Missional Churches, George Fox Evangelical Seminary, Portland, OR.
Footnotes
1. An Area is a collection of administrative church districts in the Church of Pentecost.
2. Internal Missions refers to mission areas in Ghana.
| 
Hide
Show all
Email this article (Login required)
