GO AND PLANT

If your group has committed to being a church, make the dotted line circle solid. Then put an icon representing each of the remaining elements inside or outside the circle. If the group is regularly practicing the element itself, put it inside. If the group is not, or waits for an outsider to come do it, put it outside the circle.

ICONS :

1. Covenant – solid line instead of dotted line

2. Baptism – water

3. Word – book

4. Lord’s Supper or Communion – a cup

5. Fellowship – heart

6. Giving & Ministry – money sign

7. Prayer – praying hands

8. Praise or worship – upraised hands

9. Evangelism – one friend holding hands with a friend he led to faith

10. Leaders – two smiley faces

Finally, you can give your church a name. This helps you establish an identity as a church in your community. In CPMs your goal is to develop a multi-generational Church-Planting Movement to the 4th generation and beyond, so you would include the generation number which helps you see where you are in seeing God start a movement in your community.” (Steve Smith, Mission Frontiers.  Used with permission)

Another example from the Mission group, Beyond

This drawing from a church planting movement shows one house-church reaching out and starting another group.  The items that are being done by insiders of the new group are put on the inside of the circle and those practices that are being led by someone from the mother house-church or by other outsiders are put on the outside of the circle, and since they do not yet consider themselves a church, there is only a dotted line around the circle. The Exit plan or Health Plan is to have all the elements active and locally led and to have the group see itself as a church body.

It's relatively easy to see what is blocking the group from really becoming a church that can go on without outside leadership. Though they may be deficient, you now see a way to transform this group into a church, and they see it too! It is a wonderfully empowering, practical process to let the group prayerfully brainstorm about how to add each of the elements into the circle. These become clear action plans for the group, and for the planter to model and equip the local members to carry on each aspect of the new church's life.

Health Plan of a Church Planting Movement

Here we have an illustration from Beyond of what this Health Plan would look like when a church planting movement is happening.  At this point, the early church planters can exit or transition to a role of Equipping the emerging leaders and assisting the new leaders to continue the movement.  

The idea of the exit plan is to move intentionally toward the goal of having a healthy, functioning, reproducing church that can continue on without the presence of the Church Planter, and to do it in such a way that they can pass it on to the next group that is starting.  It helps us devise simple, reproducible ways of building in the necessary elements of maturity and independence from the missionary worker.

Take some time now to evaluate and list the things that would indicate to you that you have a healthy church and that you can now transition away to start in new areas.

Response:  If you have done something like this in your ministry, please tell us briefly about it, or share your thoughts here that may help others.