CPM Universal Elements

First, a prayer request - two of our local friends in India are planning to come for a visit. We have been planning on using this visit to connect, and develop a common vision. Right now there are some visa issues with them coming to the States. Please pray that these would be worked out!

Back to CPM ...
In the late 1990s a group of missionaries who had been a part of CPMs gathered together to see if they could find any patterns in the way God was working. That meeting produced a number of insights that are summarized in a booklet which you can download at http://churchplantingmovements.com/download.php. The entire booklet is a great read and I highly recommend it.

One of the items discovered, was a list of 10 elements that were common to all CPMs. I would like to spend time writing about each of these universal elements as I believe they are incredibly important to use as guidelines for church planting. For now, I will simply list them:

1. Prayer - In the end, a CPM is a work of God, and as with all works of God, it is greatly influenced and propelled by prayer. Prayer works!
2. Abundant gospel sowing - the gospel must be shared with large numbers of people without picking or choosing who gets to hear. The story of Jesus must be told.
3. Intentional church planting - church is God's plan for this age, but it doesn't happen on it's own. People must be taught how to do church and we must be intentional about starting churches.
4. Scriptural authority - The Bible is sufficient as an authoritative guide. The culture of these movements must be one where people look to the Bible for answers - not to missionaries or other resources.
5. Local leadership - This seems evident, but if a movement is to exist, it must have local leadership at it's core.
6. Lay leadership - This may not seem so intuitive. In a rapidly growing movement, there is not time or resources to formally train and pay leadership. Lay leadership is required or their will be a leadership deficit that will stop all momentum.
7. Cell or house churches - This removes the resource constraints of building buildings. There is always a house to meet in - and it's free of charge.
8. Churches planting churches - the churches themselves must be the instigators of new churches in order for multiplication to happen. If they are not, then growth will always be linear.
9. Rapid reproduction - Americans have a hard time with this. Churches must reproduce rapidly. There is nothing that says it takes years to start a church that multiplies. In reality it can be done in weeks or months. Look at Paul's missionary journeys if you disagree. :)
10. Healthy churches - we must have concern for what it is that is multiplying. Healthy churches balance all the purposes and function of the body of Christ. If it is not healthy, it will not last.

I'm planning on diving into these one at a time for the next few weeks. Should be fun. (For me anyway ... may be putting you to sleep!)