Common objections to CPMs. First some background.
Thanks to everyone for sending in your common objections to church planting movements. Now I have some work to do in sorting through and answering them!
In the meantime, here's some background to CPMs. . .
David Garrison describes a church planting movement as “a rapid multiplication of indigenous churches planting churches that sweeps through a people group or population segment.”
Traditionally, missionaries have planted churches sequentially—one at a time. CPMs choose multiplication over addition. They focus, not on how large a church is, but on how many children, grand children and great grand children it produces. They aim for generational growth.
CPMs have been identified all around the world typically in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
The world’s fastest growing CPM is in Asia, led by a Taiwanese missionary called Ying Kai.
Ying was called by God to reach the 20 million people in a rapidly growing urban center.
God gave Ying three insights for those who are called to make disciples:
- Go, not come: The Great Commission says we are to go, not invite people to come to us. We must go to where the lost are and train the new believers to also go to the lost—into factories, homes, shops, and neighborhoods.
- Everyone, not some: We must make disciples of all, not just a few. We typically choose whom we want to share the gospel with, trying to prejudge who might accept it. But God said to share with everyone. We cannot predict who will believe and whom God will use to birth a movement.
- Make disciples (trainers), not church members: Jesus wants true disciples who obey his commands, including the commands to witness to others and train new believers to do the same. Every disciple must be a trainer.
Ying the church planter and pastor became Ying the trainer and catalyst for church planting movements.
In the most recent survey of Ying Kais’ ministry, more than 1.7 million people have come to faith and been baptized. Every month trained workers start 2,000 house churches and small groups, in villages, urban high-rise apartments, and factories. Over 140,000 churches have been started.
