Some Reasons for Starting A Church Planting Fellowship

Here is a brief list of reasons why a church planting fellowship needs to exist:
1. To promote church planting and the reproduction of churches, since this seldom occurs in our associated work. (Our associated work is primarily about raising funds to support missionaries and not about facilitating the actual work of starting new works.)
2. To bring together pastors and churches who are wanting to be a part of a progressive and visionary movement to establish more works nationally and eventually globally using every viable and godly method to achieve church planting. (This is not to form a new association, or to foster schisms, or to take away from any existing associational activity which is involved in church planting and starting missions.)
3. To establish a simple plan that empowers churches to focus on one thing only; the planting of new churches. (Nothing like this exists within our associated work at this time, to my knowledge.)
4. To establish a simple structure whereby all churches willing to "fellowship" could expect that church planters being sent out by the local churches of this "fellowship" would be adequately trained through internships, mentoring relationships and actual on the job training before they are ever released to go start a church. They would be evaluated and assessed as to their compatability with certain fields and as to their ability to be the point man in a church planting team effort. (We would call upon the resources of established ministries that would assist in accomplishing these goals as necessary.)
5. To provide an avenue for all potential church planters to exercise their spiritual gifts without the restraints of perceived common practices or terminologies for those practices. (Preferences for style of worship, evangelistic methods of outreach, type of clothing worn in the pulpit, kind of music or musical instruments, will not be issues worthy of debate; it will be understood that we are to become all things to all men that we might by all means win some.)
6. To provide a positive atmosphere where the common goal of church planting is clearly understood and that every effort is made to achieve it.
7. To provide guidance and direction to the churches wishing to utilize this "fellowship" for the purpose of recruiting and training church planters and planting churches. (each local church decides as to whether or not they will participate. They will then enter into the "fellowship" realizing that the main goal is to assess and prepare the church planter in order to start a new church as effectively as possible. (Whether or not the local church decides to follow that guidance is up to them). More about guidelines for the "fellowship" in a later blog.
8. To provide resources as they are made available to the "fellowship" in assisting the church planter and his sending church to achieve their goals in church planting.