The Pauline Church-Planting Cycle: Ten repeatable phases
Channel: Galen Currah
Date: 17/12/2015

The Pauline Church-Planting Cycle
Ten repeatable phases of starting new churches
(cc) www.PeopleOfYes.com

The New Testament Book of the Acts of the Apostles 14:20-28 provides a model of how the Apostle Paul trained others to start several new churches in diverse localities.

(The apostle Paul) went on with Barnabas to Derbe. When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying, “It is through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.” And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed. Then … they sailed to Antioch (in Syria), where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had fulfilled. And when they arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. And they remained no little time with the disciples. (ESV, 2001)

From this text and similar ones, we can discern the following ten overlapping phases:

1. A church appoints and send a small team of experienced disciple makers. See Acts 13:1-3

2. Team members seek out a receptive community. See Mark 6:10-11 

3. They announce the Good News, usually to households where invited. See Acts 10:33

4. They make disciples who obey the commandments of Jesus. See Matthew 28:18-20

5. They return to each locality to strengthen the disciples by urging them to remain faithful. See Luke 22:32

6. They prepare ?disciples ?for persecution by teaching them the great truths and promises of the Christian faith. See Romans 16:25

7. They appoint elders in each young church. See Titus 1:5-6

8. After prayer with fasting, they commend the new churches to the Lord in whom they have come to believe. See Acts 15:40

9. They return home and recount all that the Lord had accomplished with them.  See Romans 15:18

10. They spend time raising up new workers amongst obedient believers. See 1 Thessalonians 1:6-8

And so the cycle keeps on rolling, through many generations, across every nation.