If you have never read the The Four Fields of Kingdom Growth by Nathan and Kari Shank, you are missing out on a tool that the Lord has been using to effectively develop healthy multiplying churches.  Many of the Kingdom growth principles found in this short manual have found their way into a number of church planting tools currently in use in many parts of Asia.  ChurchPlantingMovements.com is pleased to be able to offer this manual free of charge to those who visit the site.  Recently updated in May of 2011, now is your chance to download and read this insightful manual of best practice principles.

Download the latest Four Fields training manual here.

In Jesus’ masterplan for the Kingdom found in Mark 4:26-29, we see Jesus lay out five sub-plans or parts that will be present in any Kingdom building or CPM strategy: 1) Entry, 2) Gospel proclamation, 3) Discipleship, 4) Church Formation, and 5) Long-term Leadership Development and Multiplication (For a more detailed discussion of the 5 parts, see The Four Fields by Nathan and Kari Shank).  In every successful CPM to date, we have seen these five parts or sub-plans present.  Additionally in every case, these 5 parts have been carefully, prayerfully, and intentionally implemented to work well together.   Proverbs 24:6b states that in an abundance of counselors there is victory.  As we strive to be intentional about implementing Jesus' masterplan for the Kingdom, let us consider some practical "lessons learned" from various practitioners for applying these five elements into our CPM strategies:

This is the second in the two-part article "A Handy Guide to Healthy Churches." The article is accompanied by a PowerPoint that can be downloaded here.

P-O-U-C-H

In the palm of the hand we drew the five letters P-O-U-C-H to remind us of the kinds of churches we see in healthy Church Planting Movements.

The P reminds us that healthy CPM churches engage in participative Bible study and worship, rather than passive listening to a pastor/preacher.

The O recalls the mark of success for the CPM church. It is not size or wealth or style; it is obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ and His word, the Bible.

The U points to the fact that in healthy reproducing CPM churches, there are multiple unpaid leaders. Unpaid leaders are only realistic when the church size remains small and leadership responsibility is shared.

This article is written in two parts, both of which are supported by a PowerPoint presentation with notes that can be downloaded here.

What do CPMs, Church Planting Movements, look like up close? What would we see if we went right down into the living room of a house church that was in the middle of a rapidly multiplying movement of new churches?

There are a wide range of church types found within the world’s many different Church Planting Movements, and they are not all of the same quality. We have little to gain from imitating the least exemplary churches in these movements. Let us look instead to some of the best practices in Church Planting Movement churches.

What is a church?

First things first: what are we calling a church? We could fill dozens of volumes responding to this question. With more than 40,000 Christian denominations in our world today, you can bet that there are many forms of church in existence.

Though a church may develop many expressions, it is, at its core...