Church Planters: Foundational

2012 European Church Planters Network: Foundational Track

Background:

In 2011, Raphaël Anzenberger (France) and Øivind Augland (Norway) took the responsibility to lead and monitor a network for church planters under the umbrella of the European Leadership Forum. Thirty-five participants from approximately fourteen nations were gathered during the four main days of the Forum. The response was very good. In 2012, Øivind Augland will lead the Church Planters Network. To build upon the success of 2011, the 2012 Network will be split into two tracks: Foundational and Advanced. Speakers featured in the Foundational Track will be Raphaël Anzenberger, Richard Hultmar, Jon Arne Nygård, Magnus Persson, and Dietrich Schindler. Prior preparation will be set for all applicants.

Foundational Church Planters Training:

The newly instituted Foundational Track of the Church Planters Network will be based on a training initiative developed in Scandinavia and the Baltic Peninsula during the last 5 years. This initiative, entitled “M4”, will give the participants a framework for training church planters in their context. M4 is derived from the Great Commission. Not all are career church planters, but we believe all followers of Christ can take part in church planting. M4 is a module-based training that can be taught over a year or two. The content is build around the following principles:

Module I  MASTER:   “All power is given unto me”
Module II  MISSION:   “Go ye therefore…”
Module III  MULTIPLICATION:  “Make disciples ..”
Module IV  MOVEMENT  “Unto the end of the world.”

The idea behind using this model is to give all participants in the Church Planters Network a common framework for important issues that can be addressed in any church planting processes. All teaching will also be available on video in English. Participants will receive a 175- to 200-page workbook in English containing group assignments, individual assignments, and different case studies. There will be a possible follow-up session after the Forum. The goals of this M4 training are the following:

1) Teach participants a proven method of church planting that will help them plant churches in a healthy way

2) Give them the conceptual framework for training other church planters

Requirements:

Participants in the 2012 Church Planters Network: Foundational Track must:  

• Already be church planting practitioners OR leaders working to start their first church
• Attend a Pre-Forum Seminar meeting on Saturday, 19th May, that begins at 12.00.

 

NETWORK LEADER

Øivind Augland (Norway) is a pastor and church planter in the Evangelical Lutheran Free Church of Norway. He is a leader of the DAWN network and is involved in the training and networking of church planters in Scandinavia and the Baltic. He also developed the “M4” training for church planting. He is founder and owner of Xpand Norway and Persolog Norway. Øivind’s call in life is to get multiple generations—especially young people—leaders, churches, denominations, and nations side-by-side to increase the expanding of the Kingdom (Nehemiah 3:1). Øivind is married to Linda, and they have four children.

 

NETWORK SPEAKERS

Raphaël Anzenberger (France) is an evangelist, apologist, church planter, author, and speaker serving in France with a passion to raise a new generation of evangelists and church planters for the French-speaking world.  Married with four children, he lives in Loches where he just started a new urban church plant.  He recent completed his doctoral degree at Columbia International University. He is General Secretary of France Evangelisation and author of Moi aussi je voudrais croire, mais... (BLF Europe, 2008) and co-author of Questions autour de Dieu (Farel, 2009).

Richard Hultmar (Sweden) is a church planter in Luleå, Sweden. He is an ordained pastor in Inter Act Sweden. After leading evangelism and church planting teams for the organisation, “Team i Norr”, in the Murmansk Region of Russia, he moved to Luleå and started Korskyrkan 2001, a church he is still pastoring. From 2007-2009 he oversaw church planting in Inter Act Sweden. Since 2007 Richard has led the Swedish Church planting network. It is a network where all the evangelical denominations in Sweden are represented and work together to see new churches planted all over Sweden. Today, Richard is also working to establish a new programme for training church planters in Sweden, entitled “M4”. He also coaches church planters in the north of Sweden and is working in partnership with local churches and missionaries to plant house churches on the campus of Lulea Technical University.

Jon Arne Nygård (Norway) is the leader for church planting and mission in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Norway. He is a church planter himself and has helped to plant many new churches in the denomination. He is a trainer, coach, and teacher on church planting in his denomination and around Norway.

 

Magnus Persson (Sweden) has planted United Malmø, a Baptist church that has grown to 500-600 people in the last seven years. He is leading the United Network, which is planting churches around Europe. He is a part of the Pentecostal movement in Sweden and has the responsibility of leading the church planting network within the movement and training church planters. Magnus is one of Scandinavia’s most renowned teachers and communicators. He is married to Gunilla, and they have two children.

Dietrich Schindler (Germany) is a German-American missionary church planter who is currently the executive director of church planting for the Evangelical Free Church of Germany (Bund Freier evangelischer Gemeinden). Under his leadership the denomination is striving to plant 100 new churches in Germany in ten years. After five years 54 churches have been planted. He has himself planted five churches in Germany and has written and lectured on what it would take to see a church planting multiplication movement to take root in Germany and in Europe. Dietrich has been married to Jan Carla for thirty years, and they have three adult children.

Mark Stirling is the leader of the European Disciple-Making Leaders Network. He is a former medical doctor who has worked in student ministry with the Navigators in Edinburgh. In 2007 he completed an MA in Exegetical Theology at Covenant Seminary in St Louis. He, his wife Jenny and their four children now live in St Andrews, Scotland, where they seek to help students grow to maturity in Christ. As well as leading a new church in St Andrews, Mark is also finishing his PhD studies in Theology and Biblical Studies (Learning Christ in Ephesians) at the University of St Andrews and is involved in helping to lead the work of the Navigators amongst students in the UK.

 

NETWORK PROGRAMME

Pre-Forum Seminar  (Saturday, 19th May, 12.00-17.00):

12.00 – 13.00: Eating lunch together (introduction around the tables)

13.00-17.00: Introduction to the “M4” Model

Master: All Authority in Heaven and on Earth Has Been Given to Me
Øivind Augland

Everything starts with God's omnipotence and his commission. The church is his dream and his initiative. He says, “I will build my church” (Matthew 16:18). It is His church: the church is for Him and from Him. If you plan to plant a church, you need to know who sent you and what you are called to do. We believe it is important to have a clear understanding of who God is, the One with all authority, and to recognise His call into the situation you are approaching.

Master: The Church Planter
Øivind Augland

In a church-planting scenario, when you start facing challenging circumstances, all experiences show that the call of God is what will carry you through. When you consider giving up, when you face conflicts in your team, when people disappoint you and growth is absent, there is only one thing remaining: God has called you! To plant a church in Europe today, you will need a long-term commitment. Establishing a living and growing church, or a network of small communities, may take four to seven years, sometimes less. On average, this has been our experience. As a church planter, your character and gifting will be one of the key factors in the success of the church plant. It is of high importance that you and your team are accountable to someone outside your team and can raise prayer support from the start.

Master: Building the Core Team
Jon Arne Nygård

“Relationship” is a key word in church planting. To build a sound, new church, church planters need to build their core team upon good relationships. Working together as a team can be the most fantastic and dynamic experience, full of joy and creativity. But it can also be exhausting—with conflicts, discussions, and lost directions. Psalm 133 describes a good and fruit-bearing teamwork. Everybody who has experienced this knows that there are no alternatives that produce the same kind of joy and long lasting results. Building your core team is essential in church planting. The core team puts the DNA in the church from the start and creates the future culture of the church.

Master: Building Vision
Richard Hultmar

“Where there is no vision, the people perish” (Proverbs 28:18 KJV) A clear vision is important in every church plant. When God called the prophet Habakkuk, he said to him, “Write this. Write what you see. Write it out in big block letters so that it can be read on the run.” (Habakkuk 2:2 - The Message). Leaders without alternative visions of the future will only repeat what is visible to people today. Planting a new church is about casting a vision of things not yet seen. Dare to proclaim what God has called you to do. There must be a clear vision in the core team—and you will need to proclaim it. The process of forming a clear vision and set of values is absolutely crucial in the early stages of church planting.

Network Sessions

Day 1

Mission: Pioneer Work and Comfort Zone
Jon Arne Nygård

Church planting is pioneer work, and it takes us out of our comfort zone. It is an action of faith with the focus of planting the Gospel into a new culture. It challenges our thinking and behavior, our financial situation and family. It involves everything in us. To stay focused on the long run, we need to experience God’s own loving heart for the people “without a shepherd”. We need to step into the culture that we are not used to, understand it, and live and preach the Gospel in a way that is relatable to that culture. This talk will be followed by discussion, reflection, and prayer in groups.

Mission: God's Heart for the People
Richard Hultmar

Mission is the heart of a church plant. We need all to understand to whom we are sent and the pathways the church plant has to the surrounding people: Praying for people, reaching out to them, and living and sharing the Gospel of Christ. Church planting is Gospel planting. No church plants will grow without their leaders sharing in God’s heart for the lost and understanding how to give the Gospel message to new people. This talk will be followed by discussion, reflection, and prayer in groups.

Day 2

Mission: Community and Mission
Raphaël Anzenberger

Without mission, no new community and church plants will be started. In this session, the speaker will teach and reflect upon how we, through planting new communities in today’s Europe, can reach new people for Christ. Church planting communities are sociological mirrors of society. In this context, how do we breed apologetically minded community where love – the relational aspect of God’s revelation-- and truth – the propositional aspect of God’s revelation-- come together to reveal the full revelation of God to his people? No church plants will grow without its leaders having God's heart for the lost and understanding how to give the Gospel to new people.  This talk will be followed by discussion, reflection, and prayer in groups.

Multiplication: Make Disciples and Teach Them to Obey
Mark Stirling

This session will address the biblical theological basis for understanding the nature of Christian discipleship and the role of leaders in the body of Christ in helping others to become disciples and grow towards maturity. We will address the relationship between discipleship and mission and formulate the practice of disciple-making as the systematic dismantling of the default secular world-view and the systematic building of a Biblical worldview in its place. We will describe Christian disciple-making leadership, therefore, as “content-full relationship”. This fundamentally relational process has far-reaching implications for Christian ministry praxis and therefore also for the training and equipping of leaders for the church in Europe. The session will conclude with a discussion of the implications of this Biblical overview for theological education.

Day 3

Multiplication: The Challenge of Discipleship in a ME Culture (combined with Advanced Track)
Magnus Persson

Discipleship: Teaching to obey in a culture where the ME is the center. This session will outline the seven most important lessons of doing discipleship from the context of tje secularised city of Malmø.  In a culture that worships the selfish trinity of “me, myself and I”, the whole concept of discipleship – “lay down your life, take up your cross, and come follow me” – is utterly countercultural. How do we remake self-centered, secular, urban, post-modern people into Gospel-centered, unselfish followers who live to give rather then get, serve rather then being served? This talk will be followed by discussion, reflection, and prayer in groups.

Multiplication:  Creating a Culture of Discipleship
Richard Hultmar

Your growth in a church plant depends on the core group of disciples committed to the vision. If you do not win people and start discipleship from the start, the church will stop growing. Our commandment is to make disciples, and disciples form communities in which leaders are raised up. Great church plants witness life-changing and healthy growth within their smallest units: small groups or triads. Therefore, all involved in church planting need to reflect upon and work through how to live out the biblical life of a disciple and also create a culture of discipleship. This talk will be followed by discussion, reflection, and prayer in groups.

Day 4

Movement: How to Create a Jesus Movement of Multiplying Churches (combined with Advanced Track) 
Dietrich Schindler

This session will explore how to create a Jesus movement of multiplying churches in a European context. While most people look to the Apostle Paul for their teaching on church planting, we dare not miss what Jesus has to teach us on how to plant churches. This session will highlight the life of Jesus as a church planter and the lessons we can learn from Him on how to plant churches that reproduce and become a movement.

Discussion, Q&A, Summarising, and Prayer
Øivind Augland