CHURCH PLANTING FOR A GREATER HARVEST
by
C. P
ETER
W
AGNER
From
Church Planting For A Greater Harvest
© 1990 by C. Peter Wagner. Published by Regal Books, a division of Gospel Light, Ventura, California, USA. All rights reserved. Database © 2000 iExalt, Inc.“Do not steal.” Leviticus 19:11. It is unlawful to reproduce these files or copy this material in any form withoutexpress written permission from the publisher. For more information about permission to use this content, visitwww.gospellight.com.Limited permission is granted to the original purchaser of this resource to quote passages up to 300 words for non-commercial purposes as long as no changes are made to the passage. The following credit line must appear with anyquotations:
From
Church Planting For A Greater Harvest
© 1990 by C. Peter Wagner. All rights reserved. Published byRegal Books, a division of Gospel Light, Ventura, California, USA. For more information, visitwww.gospellight.com.
Gospel Light2300 Knoll DriveVentura, California, 93003, USAwww.gospellight.com805-644-9721
1
Introduction
____________________ This book is intended to do three things:1. Motivate church leaders to give the ministry of planting new churches a higher place ontheir personal and institutional agendas.2. Show them the different ways and means available to vigorously multiply churches acrossthe land.3. Provide some of the tools necessary to make it happen.We live in a time when general interest in church planting is higher than it has been since the1950s. While some denominations continued to plant new churches and thereby have grownduring the last 40 years, others have virtually eliminated that ministry with the exception of a newchurch here and there or a cluster of ethnic minority churches. They have been paying the price. Now the climate is changing. Denominational headquarters are adding church planting desks.Motivational material is appearing in denominational publications. Training programs for church planters are being developed.I have been working on the subject of church planting for over 10 years. When my studies of church growth here in the United States and around the world led me to the conclusion that themost effective evangelistic method under heaven was planting new churches, I began to ask howit was being taught in my own institution. I examined the Fuller Theological Seminarycurriculum and found no courses on church planting. When I looked further, I discovered that thesubject had not been taught since the seminary was founded in the late 1940s. Since none of thefaculty of the School of Theology was planning to introduce a course on church planting, Idecided to try it in our School of World Mission in the late 1970s. It proved to be a popular elective, and I have had the privilege of training hundreds and hundreds of Fuller students, manyof whom have subsequently planted healthy churches. The course is still offered.As word of the course began to circulate, several pastors told me that they wanted thetraining, but could not come to Fuller for a quarter of residence. To help meet the need, theCharles E. Fuller Institute of Evangelism and Church Growth began to offer a public "How toPlant a Church" seminar in 1983. From 1983 to 1989 the seminar was offered 16 times and drew5,000 participants. Scores of denominational executives have attended the seminar (some severaltimes), learned how to present the material, adapted it to their own denominational contexts, andare now holding training seminars within their own spheres of influence. This is a significantreason why interest in planting new churches is increasing so rapidly in our day.Because of this shift, the seminar has now been discontinued. This helped me decide to putwhat I had been researching and teaching for over a decade into this book and thereby make itavailable for church planters, supervisors of church planters, trainers of church planters,denominational executives, local church pastors, lay leaders, and missionaries. As you read, youwill find not only an up-to-date textbook on church planting but also a helpful summary of church growth principles in general.You will also find a strong emphasis on the spiritual dimensions of church growth and church planting. As we have moved through the ’80s and now enter the ’90s, God continues to show usthat the real battle for any form of the extension of the kingdom of God is spiritual. "Unless theLord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it" (Psalm 127:1,
NKJV
). I believe that moreand more we will see the technology that we have been developing over the years being weddedto fresh power from the Holy Spirit to carry us into the greatest era of harvest the world has ever seen.2
I pray that God will allow me to be a part of it, and I pray the same for you.3
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