PT513 Eng 32. Development Phases of Church Planting. Preparing.
Preparing is the time of great anticipation. The groundwork is laid so that when the church plant is actually launched, it will be built by a crew of artisans who possess both the necessary skills and an acurate understanding of the task. Preparing is broken down to two subphases: targeting & commissioning and understanding & strategizing. Neither should be neglected. So what tasks should be accomplished on these phases of preparing? What is the role of a church planter? In this section of the lecture "Development Phases of Church Planting" Craig Ott focuses on these two subphases, when it is necessary to focus on team building and learning more about people and culture.
PT513 Eng 33. Development Phases of Church Planting. Launching and Establishing.
Launching is the most exciting phase. This phase consists primarily of the pioneering ministries of evangelizing and discipling. In this section of the lecture "Development Phases of Church Planting" Craig Ott emphasizes how important it is for the church planters to use methods that are easily imitated and reproduced by the local people. During the establishing phase the first fruit of progress are experienced as the local believers are formed into a functioning congregation of worshippers increasingly living out kingdom purposes. The teacher thinks that it is the most critical phase, because the DNA of the church is determined, and patterns for ministry are formed.
PT513 Eng 35. Planning and Research. Introduction. Focus Group.
Can we really make plans or we should follow the leading of the Holy Spirit? In this section of the lecture Craig Ott: - shares a couple of important biblical reminders about planning from The Epistle of James, the Book of Acts and Proverbs; - gives some quideliness on good planning; - explains how to answer the question of where to plant the church and how to determine the focus group.
PT513 Eng 38. Evangelism and Discipleship. Dangers on the Way.
Sometimes the church can be isolated from the world. Christians live in their own sub-culture on an island and it seems that the world they are trying to reach is on another island. How can the church build the bridge to the people outside the church? In this section of the lecture " Evangelism and Discipleship" Craig Ott talks about the challenges of evangelism and potential dangers on the way. He draws a diagram to emphasize the fact that evangelism and discipleship is a process.Though regeneration occurs at a particular time, there is a process leading up to that point and a process leading onward in Christian growth.
PT513 Eng 39. Evangelism and Discipleship. Loving People.
Evangelism is first and foremost about loving people the way God loves them and then sharing the message of God's redeeming love with them. In terms of church planting Craig Ott emphasizes that loving people means understanding them and their belief systems and also developing relationship with them. People are not objects or targets. They are people worthy of love, respect and time. In this section of the lecture Craig Ott also answers the question about the time a person is born again. Some people have dramatic conversion experiences, but for many people it is not so clear cut.
PT513 Eng 27. Church Planting Models. Adopted Daughter and Multi-Mother.
Occasionally a group of Christians has formed in a locality apart from the direct assistance of an established church. When its members decide that they want to become a more formal church, they seek assistance from an established church that can provide guidance or pastoral care. In this section of the lecture "Church Planting Models" Craig Ott talks about advantages and disadvantages of adopted daughter church planting method. He also talks about the approach when two or more mother churches hive off members who combine to form one new church. This is called multi-mother or partnership church planting. What should be done for these approaches to succeed?
PT513 Eng 34. Development Phases of Church Planting. Structuring and Multiplying.
As God opens up the opportunities you begin to expand the ministries of the church and empower the local people to lead those ministries. The structuring phase becomes a time of great satisfaction as the hard labor begins to pay off. And a church planter's joy comes when the church plant had reproduced itself by planting another church. In this section of the lecture"Development Phases of Church Planting" Craig Ott: - talks about the tasks of expanding and empowering during the phase of structuring; - looks at the biblical text in the Book of Acts to show how the church addresses the needs and finds new ways to meet these needs; - talks about the task of stengthening and sending during the phase of reproduction or multiplying. In conclusion of this section Craig Ott emphasizes different spiritual gifts that are necessary during the phases of launching, establishing, structuring and multiplying.
PT513 Eng 28. Strategic Beachhead. Cluster Church Planting.
As church planter enters a new region, the question is, where to begin? In the early years of mission work, missionaries evangelized from village to village and then focused church-planting efforts on those locations where people were most receptive to the Gospel. This approach is in keeping with the harvest priority principle. The strategic beachhead approach seeks to establish a spiritual foothold in several political, commercial, or educational centers. Cluster church planting is opposite to the strategic beachhead approach: the intial goal is to plant several churches in a more limited geographical area. In this section of the lecture about regional strategies Craig Ott discusses strengths and weaknesses of these approaches.
PT513 Eng 19. Church Planter. Questions and Answers.
In this section of questions and answers Craig Ott talks about who the unbelievers or non-Christians are. He shares the biblical understanding of who the true Christian is. He also explains that the apostolic church planting method is more common than we hear about and gives examples of countries where this model has developed. Craig Ott also talks about the post-Christian culture.
PT513 Eng 21. Church Structures. Traditional Western Church vs House Church.
In this section of the lecture "Church Structures" Craig Ott looks at the main features of the traditional western church and explains how it tends to operate. This type of churches are called "elephant type church" because they are large, strong and solid. There are also "rabbit type churches" which are small but quick to reproduce. So what if we took the best of both? What would happen if we mated an elephant with a rabbit? Is it really possible to have the best of both? Craig Ott thinks that everything is possible with God. Such churches are called cell churches or networked house churches.