Saturation Church Planting: A Call to Collaboration

Introduction

We live in a time of great potential for collaboration among ministries. Organizations, movements, and churches working together to bear witness to the love of Christ and the already present but not yet fully consummated kingdom of God is in itself a sign of the kingdom. Many networks and organizations are showing increased willingness to participate in God’s mission in the world and to cooperate with others while doing so to advance the cause of the gospel on many fronts. This is particularly true regarding increasing collaboration in the specific area of church multiplication. 

The Lausanne Church Planting Issue Network desires to see more evangelical disciple-making churches established in every country around the world. We believe it will be fruitful to connect influencers and important ideas into collaborative visions and shared strategies resulting in multiplying new communities of faith that impact every sphere of society. This document addresses the need for greater collaboration among church planting ministries and movements for the glory of God, the edification of the church, and the flourishing of God’s kingdom work in the world. 

The first Lausanne meeting in 1974 experienced the rebirth of a rallying cry for world evangelization and global collaboration around the Great Commission. Now, fifty years later, a growing movement of next generation leaders and linked organizations is participating with the triune God in renewing the church’s commitment to share the good news about Christ with the world and to bear witness to the kingdom of God. The study, practice, and language of missiology has come a long way since that first meeting in Lausanne. But there is a truth that was true then and is still true now: one strategic way to participate in God’s mission is to grow and multiply healthy communities of faith.

In this document, we lay out a specific goal: to establish an effective disciple-making, church planting roundtable in each nation, supported by regional collaborative gatherings. The document, first, offers a brief statement of the biblical and missiological foundations of this goal. Second, it provides an historical sketch of the practice of saturation church planting. Third, the concept of healthy, disciple-making church planting is presented, one that keeps reproduction and multiplication in mind. Fourth, some principles are reviewed in relation to a variety of contemporary methodologies, along with a mapping of some existing models. Acknowledgement is also given to some of the tensions that exist between the various approaches to multiplication with a suggested way being offered to move forward. The document ends with an accessible, practical call to collaborate in saturating the nations with reproducing communities of faith that live and serve as signposts of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God.

Various movements and organizations describe saturation in four different ways. 

‘I will build my Church’ – Jesus

Saturation Defined

The scientific meaning of the word is ‘the state or process that occurs when no more of something can be absorbed, combined with, or added.’ Some mission organizations apply that definition to church planting by setting a goal of having enough communities of faith in a nation such that every single person is within reach of the impact and influence of a local body of believers that proclaims the gospel and embodies the love of Christ to their community. Some traditional definitions claim a country is reached when at least two percent of the population becomes Christian. Saturation church planting seeks to go beyond that goal. It envisions mobilizing the entire body of Christ in a country to participate with God in multiplying disciples and churches in every particular context within the nation.

Example: The Global Alliance for Church Multiplication (GACX), which has over one-hundred member organizations and is committed to this vision: ‘a healthy, multiplying, sustainable church for every 1,000 people on earth.’

Every People and Place

An alternative definition focuses on the need to reach all people living in every place. Approaching saturation church planting from this angle emphasizes that a nation or a city may be home to many different people groups, and reaching one of them does not mean that the work in a country or city is completed. Within a geographical area, many different factors define people groups. These groups can be distinct in a variety of ways, such as: socially, vocationally, culturally, linguistically, economically, ethnically, racially, etc. All these realities must be considered when laying out a robust saturation church planting strategy. In the same way, every place in a nation must have a reproducing body of believers who can embody the love of Christ in that specific context.

Examples: The Coalition of the Willing gathers many organizations under its umbrella and uses this kind of language about saturation church planting. The Coalition describes itself as ‘a coordinated effort of willing ministries who share strategic data on Christian and church presence with the purpose of planting a church in every people and every place.’ The Lausanne Movement also has this language in one of its four pillars: ‘We envision and work toward a world in which there are disciple-making churches for every people and place.’

Every Geographic, Ethnic, and Cultural Space

The strength of this language to describe saturation church planting is its focus on three key aspects of a given population in a nation: its geographic location, its ethnic composition (which often features linguistic differences), and the cultural spaces that the church(es) seek to influence with the good news of the gospel. This last phrase is crucial, because it reminds those involved that even within a defined area or recognized ethnic culture, there can be cultural differences between people in that population. Perhaps occupations and professions, for instance, constitute cultural subdivisions in a particular ethnic group. An effective strategy for saturation church planting would take care not to overlook or exclude pockets of people from the movement.

Examples: The European church planting movement called NC2P (National Church Planting Processes), challenges the European church to utilize ‘a national church-planting process that works towards a reality when the majority of the body of Christ cooperates with one another for the purpose of seeing churches multiplied in all the nation’s geographic, ethnic and cultural spaces.’ A similar expression of this vision is found in the Global Church Planting Network (GCPN) which sees ‘communities of growing obedient disciples of Jesus with easy access to everyone on earth: linguistically, ethnically, geographically, socially.’

Disciple a Whole Nation (DAWN)

This language refers to a concept, and also to an organization that stewarded this challenge for the evangelical church around the world. With the goal of ‘fulfilling the Great Commission,’ Jim Montgomery and other DAWN leaders promoted a saturation church planting strategy in the 1980s and 90s to flood a nation with the gospel and with disciple-reproducing churches. DAWN as an organization dissolved several decades ago, but the concept lives on in different expressions. This present strategy integrates the other ways listed above in describing saturation. Montgomery noted in his now classic book: ‘DAWN has placed particular emphasis on the idea of mobilizing the whole body of Christ for making disciples of all the people groups within the borders of a whole country […] that there might be a witnessing congregation in every village and city neighborhood for every ethnic, linguistic and social group, for every class and kind and condition of man in the country.’¹

Example: Montgomery wrote that the Ghana Evangelism Committee, which was aligned with the DAWN movement, ‘concluded […] that the Great Commission could be most directly fulfilled in their land when there was: (1) ‘an active, witnessing cell of believers in every village, town, urban neighborhood and ethnic community in the country’; (2) ‘a church for every geographical group of 300 to 1,000 people’; and (3) ‘a viable church within geographical and socio-cultural reach of everyone.’’ 

Each of these ways of conceptualizing saturation church planting contributes important elements to the discussion. Some approaches use nationwide strategies that are considered top-down. Other approaches work at a grassroots level and are considered bottom-up strategies. In either case, the desire is to follow the basic idea presented above and all are needed to participate in the task. The process is at the very core of the Lausanne Movement, as reflected in its four-fold vision: 

• The gospel for every person
• Disciple-making churches for every people and place
• Christ-like leaders for every church and sector
• Kingdom impact in every sphere of society

The Church Planting Issue Network is collaborating with several other networks including: GACX, Vision 5:9, GCPN, 24:14, Coalition of the Willing and others. We desire to promote effective church planting movements in every country through national expressions of church planting to develop collaborative visions and shared strategies. We affirm the challenge of The Cape Town Commitment that: ‘[…] when we live in unity and work in partnership, we demonstrate the supernatural, counter-cultural power of the cross. But when we demonstrate our disunity through failure to partner together, we demean our mission and message, and deny the power of the cross.’² This document continues the conversation among all those who are interested in collaborating and participating in God’s mission in the world through saturation church planting, whether through traditional methods, disciple-making movements or church planting movements.

Biblical and Missiological Foundations of Saturation Church Planting

The Bible provides humanity with a narrative for understanding the true story for the whole world. This story, first of all, begins with the Triune God as a ‘creating God’ who formed the heavens and the earth and all living things that dwell on earth. God’s crowning act in creation was to bring humans into existence, who were given responsibility over all the creation to ‘be fruitful and multiply’ and to ‘subdue the earth and have dominion’ (Gen 1:28). 

But this privileged position in the created order was lost through a fall into sin by humans in their disobedience to God. However, the Triune God promised to send a redeemer. Thus, second of all, the Triune God is a ‘redeeming God’ who accomplished redemption through sending His own Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the penalty for sin on behalf of all humans (Matt 20:28). 

God communicated this redemption to the world through a special people—Israel in the OT and the church in the NT (Matt 28:18-20). Mission, therefore, is rooted in the very nature of God, which means that, third of all, the Triune God is a ‘missionary God.’ God’s mission (the missio Dei) is carried out in the world through the Holy Spirit as the primary agent of mission. The Spirit, however, normally works through humans and human agency. For the last 2,000+ years, this has involved church planting, the starting of new congregations. 

Church planting is thoroughly consistent with the missio Dei and is the natural result of the church seeking to participate more fully in God’s mission. This section presents what is known today as saturation church planting (SCP), a thoroughly biblical approach for sharing the good news of the Gospel in every place around the world. Broadly, the SCP approach finds support from understanding that God’s desire and mission is to make disciples from all peoples in order to create through His Spirit one people of God from every tribe, tongue, and nation. 

Motivations for Saturation Church Planting³

Ultimately, the biblical motivation for saturating an area with healthy churches ‘resides in the loving, compassionate, and comprehensive mission of the Triune God (missio Dei). The Triune God desires that all men and women become disciples of Jesus Christ and be responsible members of the body of Christ in a local church.

The Bible presents these congregations as being witnesses to and participants in the already present but yet to be consummated reign of God—the kingdom of God. Thus, the rationale and impetus for church planting originates in the nature and will of God. This section presents five biblical motivations for engaging in church planting. It seeks to answer the question: ‘Why should Christian believers everywhere seek to participate in multiplying new and robust local congregations?’

God the Father seeks and finds the lost

Every activity regarding participation in God’s mission, including church planting, comes from and flows out of the will of God. The Triune God loved the world so much that ‘he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life’ (John 3:16). The God of the Bible is intimately and actively involved in redeeming his creation following its fall into sin. God carries out the work of redeeming, preserving, and sustaining the creation through his Son, Jesus Christ. 

God created humans in the world in his image (Gen 1:26-27). All people born are created in this same image.⁴ God intended great things for humans, yet, from the time sin entered the world, human beings have rejected God and are separated from God because of their sin. But God does not leave humans to fend for themselves. The story the Bible presents is of the Triune God taking the initiative in bringing salvation to people and ultimately to the world. Even after Adam and Eve’s sin, he sought them out in the garden (Gen 3:8-9). He saved Noah and his family from judgment (Gen 6-9). From Adam to Noah to Abraham, Moses, and David, God reveals in his covenant promises a way of salvation through the one He would send into the world. The Father’s purpose and activities to seek, find, and save humans are repeated throughout Scripture.

This purpose and these activities flow out of God’s character as a loving and merciful God, even as he judges sin. Scripture continually reveals God’s nature. When Moses found himself in God’s presence after the delivery from slavery in Egypt, God revealed himself to Moses as ‘The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.’ This description of God’s being is repeated numerous times in the Bible.⁵ In Isaiah and in Luke, we find this description of God’s character is fused with his mission.⁶

God’s concern for the nations is clearly seen in Isaiah 6 where the prophet receives a missionary call. The God of love and mercy cries out, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ (Isa 6:8). Isaiah’s calling is centered in the missionary God’s desire to send His messenger to Israel and all the nations. Isaiah declares:

Jesus’ own teachings were infused with this mission: ‘[…]The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost’ (Luke 19:10). Jesus expressed the global nature of God’s love in his statement to Nicodemus: ‘for God so loved the world’ (John 3:16). In the parable of the great banquet, God, who is represented as the host of the dinner, sends his servant out saying: ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame […] Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full’ (Luke 14:15-24; Matt 22:1ff). 

Many more examples could be presented here as evidence of God’s love and concern for all the peoples of the world throughout the Old and New Testaments. Regarding multiplying healthy churches, this first truth suggests that we work so that every human being might come to know their Creator. The fundamental basis for multiplying new, healthy churches lies in the very nature of God. He is a loving, merciful God who reveals himself to humans and desires to be in covenant relationship with them. Because of this, multiplying churches is not an optional activity. On the contrary, it is part of the essential nature of our faith.

The Love of Christ Compels Us

The way God shows love and mercy in seeking and saving the lost represents the foundation of the mission of Jesus Christ. It results in Jesus sending the Holy Spirit and his call for the church to announce the good news of God’s reign (kingdom of God) to the whole world. For followers of Jesus, his mission is a second main motivation for multiplying new, healthy churches.

The incarnation itself is the ultimate sending act of the Father as Jesus carries within himself the divine initiative to seek the lost—this is why he was sent (Luke 19:10). God’s love for us is not merely a theory or speculation. God, because of his great love, ‘gave his one and only Son’ (John 3:16). God became man and took on human flesh (John 1:11-14; Phil 2:6-8). 

As with Jesus and his disciples, ‘Christ’s love compels us’ (2 Cor 5:14) to make the love of God visible through our interactions with all people. We are ‘ambassadors’ of Christ imploring people to ‘be reconciled to God’ (2 Cor 5:19-21). Just as God became flesh to dwell among humanity, Christ’s disciples are also part of various communities, towns, and cities. Because of this, multiplying new, healthy churches guarantees that the good news is born out of and grows within concrete places, particular cultures, and among a specific people. New congregations are born as people become disciples of Jesus Christ. We seek to multiply healthy churches because, like Jesus, we love people in concrete, incarnational ways, not simply in theory. We multiply churches in every place, establishing churches among new believers, because in his love God ‘desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth’ (1 Tim 2:4).

Christ’s love also compels us because the Lord calls us to be active participants in his mission. Jesus initially sent out the 12 during his earthly ministry then later the 72, to proclaim and bear witness to the presence of the kingdom of God in the world (Luke 9-10). After his resurrection, Jesus commissioned His followers to make disciples of all peoples.⁸ Jesus was sent from the Father to seek and save those who were lost, and He then transferred this mission task to his disciples: ‘As the Father has sent me, I am sending you’ (John 20:21). Jesus’ mission and ministry are the basis for the calling and commitment of Christ’s followers to put into action in and through local congregations the mission and ministry of Jesus in the world. Our calling is to make disciples—disciples who follow Christ’s mission to make other disciples. The multiplying of healthy churches is the result as new groups of people come to follow Jesus and also participate in Christ’s mission.

The Holy Spirit has been sent into the world to indwell and build the church

It is critically important to be reminded that the work of church planting belongs to the Spirit, who works in and through God’s people. An important aspect of this truth is that the Holy Spirit was given to all of God’s people working everywhere. God the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ, jointly sent the Holy Spirit out of their desire that all might be saved. Jesus promised the disciples that he would send the Spirit and that with the coming of the Spirit the disciples would bear witness to Christ throughout the world (John 15:26-27; Acts 1:8). In Acts 2, we see the Holy Spirit poured out on the disciples in the presence of people from many cultures and nations. In his explanation of the event, Peter recounts the words of the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people’ (Acts 2:17). 

In Acts 2:9-11, Luke mentions fifteen places of origin among those who heard that first sermon in their own language. Many of these persons later believed and were themselves filled with the Spirit (Acts 2:38-41). The remainder of the book of Acts records the spread of the gospel to the Jewish diaspora, the Samaritans, and the Gentiles, each with the evidence of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on these new and diverse believers (Acts 8:14-17; 10:44-48; 11:15-18; 19:5-6). It is clear from Acts that one basis for multiplying churches in every place is that God wants to transform the lives of all people. For us to participate in this goal, the Holy Spirit uses Christ followers from local churches anywhere and everywhere to multiply new, healthy churches. 

This process is the norm of the New Testament. Christians often downplay the Spirit’s role because they focus on human agency as being primary. But it is the Spirit’s agency that is primary in using human agents as instruments. This practice is evident throughout the New Testament. We see this in a notable way in Acts 13, as the Antioch church hears the Holy Spirit’s call to ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them’ (Acts 13:2). The rest of the book tells the story of how the Holy Spirit used Paul, Barnabas, and many others in multiplying new, healthy churches in some of the same places Luke mentions in Acts 2.

We also find in the NT that the Holy Spirit gives gifts to believers for the development and maturity of the members of the church, so that they can participate in carrying out the work of ministry (see Rom 12; 1 Cor 12; Eph 4; 1 Pet 4:10-11). In Ephesians 4:12, Paul says that these gifts have been given ‘to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.’ This gifting by the Spirit is part of the church being missionary by nature and reflects the reality of the triune God as a missionary God. Healthy churches have the privilege of participating in the mission of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit as ‘witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth’ (Acts 1:8). This missionary activity through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit results in healthy churches that will multiply other new, healthy churches.

Local congregations bear witness to and embody the presence of the kingdom of God

Local congregations serving as the missionary people of God are instruments of the kingdom of God. They serve as signs of the kingdom, and through them the presence of the kingdom is made known within a local context.⁹ One natural and essential aspect of a local church being missionary by nature and bearing witness to the kingdom of God is for it to reproduce itself in planting new congregations.¹⁰

God created and chose Israel as a special nation in the Old Testament where they were called the ‘people of God’ (Deut 10:15). This name came with the promise as well as the responsibility that they would be an instrument for good among all the nations.¹¹ Jesus coming into the world fulfilled God’s promise of him being the one through whom all the peoples would be blessed. The election of the church as the new Israel under the new covenant carries with it the mission to be a light to the Gentiles and a priesthood for all nations (1 Pet 2:9). A missionary-minded congregation carries that calling by nature. As Jesus continues to establish the already/not-yet kingdom, the local church seeks to enact the kingdom and bear witness to that kingdom in each place. Multiplying churches becomes an important part of the enactment of that kingdom, and saturation church planting is a viable strategy to pursue in helping people to realize the kingdom of God in every place.

It is important, however, to understand that the church is not the kingdom. The local church represents and bears witness to the kingdom, but the kingdom of God itself is far deeper and wider than the church. The two are related through the person of Jesus Christ with him being both the King of the kingdom and the Head of the church. Through faith, believers become full participants in witnessing to the presence of the kingdom of God in their context. 

The presence of the kingdom of God was inaugurated by Jesus and continues to be already present as the church bears witness to it, although it is not yet fully consummated. The church is the missionary community of the disciples of the King who believe and proclaim the good news of the kingdom, that it has already come and yet is still coming. Thus, local healthy churches represent the present and coming kingdom of God wherever they are found. The local church is not an end in itself, but a sign, an instrument and a foretaste of the kingdom of God as the good news of the reign of God in Christ is announced. Multiplying new churches is one of the major results of this announcement.

Local congregations are called to bear witness to the rule of King Jesus and to participate in enacting its presence and power in their local contexts. These acts become part of Christ’s reign being proclaimed. The kingdom comes when men and women come to know Christ, when injustices are dealt with, and when ministry to the ‘least of these’ is carried out (Matt 25:45). As the body of Christ, the church is the physical presence of God in this world for the blessing and transformation of the world (Rom 12; 1 Cor. 12; Eph 4; 1 Pet. 2 and 4). Mission organizations should also view their collaboration as an effort to point to God’s kingdom by partnering with one another in their effort to join the local churches endeavor. Wonsuk Ma and Julie C. Ma note that ‘True partnership must be kingdom-oriented so that our human differences can be overcome. God’s agenda will supersede organizational agendas.’¹²

Multiplying new churches brings glory to God

Of course, the final goal of our missionary labor is the glory of God, and the penultimate goal of multiplying healthy churches is an important aspect of reaching that goal. God has chosen the local congregation as his main instrument for his mission in the world. To reach the ultimate goal of bringing glory to God, it is of utmost importance for churches to participate in planting thousands of new missionary congregations around the world. 

Why multiply new, healthy churches? This fifth reason is where all the others have been leading—multiplying new churches brings glory to God. Our first and ultimate purpose is to glorify God. Everything we do in life and in ministry contributes to this purpose. As churches and individuals prepare to be involved in God’s mission, they must take into consideration the particular mission to multiply churches. The motivation behind everything we do is to please God and glorify him (2 Cor 5:9ff). God’s purpose for his creation is his glory. This is true of all creation, of all people, and of all the redeemed (Rev 4:11; Isa 43:7; Jer 13:11). Everything has its origin and purpose in God (Rom 11:36). 

This also means that the purpose of all mission and ministry is the glory of God as Scripture makes clear. Paul modeled this purpose in his own church planting ministry (2 Cor 4:15). Jesus himself declared that his purpose was to glorify the Father. This was the purpose of Jesus’ earthly ministry (John 7:18; 17:4). This was the purpose of His incarnation, death and resurrection (Phil 2:5-11; John 13:31-32). The very purpose of the gospel, and salvation itself, is to glorify God (Eph 1:3-6, 12, 14). 

When we embrace this purpose, we understand that helping to plant new, healthy churches is not for the glory of a denomination or a missionary organization. It is not for the glory of a pastor or an evangelist. It is not for the glory of the mother church. Our fundamental motivation for multiplying new, healthy churches always must be a profound desire to give glory to God.

The purpose of multiplying healthy churches, and thus of the strategy of saturation church planting, is the glory of God. During the past five centuries, this perspective on the glory of God has been the most fundamental basis for missionary work among evangelical churches. In its most simple expression, the motivation for church expansion was derived from this visionary goal: God wants men and women to become followers of Christ, responsible members of the church, and agents of the transformation of their contexts, to the glory of God.¹³ 

Implementing Saturation Church Planting

The five purposes discussed above provide a broad outline of the motivation for multiplying healthy churches with its ultimate purpose of bringing glory to God. Multiplying churches has a strong biblical basis and motivation. But what of the particular strategy of saturation church planting? Is there further biblical perspective and support for this approach? The answer is ‘yes.’ Everything that is true of multiplying churches is also true of multiplying churches in every place. Two additional considerations provide helpful support and a biblical basis for pursuing this strategy.

The practice of the apostles

Jesus calls disciples to himself in the Gospel accounts by saying, ‘Follow me.’ The most commonly referenced accounts of this call were for them to become ‘fishers of men’ (Mark 1:16-20; Matt 4:18-22; Luke 5:11). This call to follow Jesus, however, implied not merely allowing Jesus to be their teacher, but also following in his example and work. ‘Follow me’ is thus a call to follow Jesus as an apprentice, as one who will learn and carry out the same work as Jesus did.¹⁴ One key aspect of that ministry is ‘proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom’ (Matt 4:23; cf Mark 1:38). Jesus intended that this ministry of their becoming fishers of people would, indeed, be passed on to his disciples and through them, to their disciples.¹⁵

The Synoptics record Jesus’ similar call to Levi/Matthew in another set of passages (Mark 2:13-17; Matt 9:9-13; Luke 5:27-32). In all three synoptic accounts, Jesus extends his call in the form of a command offered as an invitation: ‘Follow me’ (cf the call of Phillip in John 1:43). Again, this call does not imply merely being with Jesus and learning from him, but also joining in his mission. The command to ‘follow me’ in joining Jesus in his mission is an expectation for all would-be disciples of Jesus Christ. 

Luke records in the sending of the disciples on their first mission, that the disciples covered this geographic territory by going to the cities and villages (Luke 9:4-6) of the region. While this first assignment was to the Jewish people, no place was to be excluded within each region. The disciples were to take the message ‘everywhere’ (9:9). The following chapter, as Luke notes, has Jesus sending the disciples ahead to ‘every city and place’ (Luke 10:1) that he would go. The message about the kingdom of God was to spread widely to all in the communities of the area.¹⁶ Thus, within the territory assigned to them, Jesus sends them with a mission designed to saturate the entire region with the message of the good news of the gospel. 

We also see a description of the disciples’ mission to Judea and Samaria in the early chapters of Acts. Extrabiblical evidence reveals a broader mission to the uttermost parts of the world after what is recorded in Acts 1-12.¹⁷ The disciples take every opportunity to preach the gospel. They preach in the temple (Acts 2:46; 3:11; 5:20-21, 42; cf 5:12), in homes (Acts 2:46; 5:42; 10:27), and before the Jewish council (5:27-32), in Jerusalem and also in the surrounding villages and cities of Judea, Galilee and Samaria (8:25; 9:31-32). As the result of this abundant sowing of the gospel, the area becomes saturated with the gospel message. The number of Christian disciples continues to grow (Acts 2:47; 4:4; 5:14; 6:7; 9:31, 35, 42). The persecution in Acts 8 accelerated the spread of the gospel message through scattering the disciples of Jesus. This multiplied the influence of the Jerusalem church and the continuing spread of the gospel to all the surrounding regions. By chapter 9 of Acts, Luke refers to ‘the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria’ (Acts 9:31).

Paul’s mission, too, had a comprehensive vision. Much has been written about Paul’s missionary methods. Herbert Kane has observed from the biblical texts that Paul worked primarily in four provinces: Galatia, Asia, Macedonia, and Achaia.¹⁸ Roland Allen noted that this demonstrated the larger vision of Paul beyond what he personally could accomplish.¹⁹ Paul himself would focus on select cities that would help him reach his goal of spreading the gospel quickly to the world, saturating it with the gospel and founding new churches. David Bosch summarizes Paul’s strategy in this way: 

Paul utilized these strategic cities as springboards for saturating the surrounding communities with the message of the gospel. After two years of Paul focusing his work in the city of Ephesus, the author Luke notes that ‘all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks’ (Acts 19:10). As Kane observes, ‘He established missionary churches in the major centers of population and they in turn engaged in ‘saturation evangelism’ in their own areas.’²¹

Paul’s particular mission focused his work in the four major provinces with the planting of churches in select cities. This work was embedded in Paul’s broader vision of saturating the world with the gospel, a mission that would involve the work of the Holy Spirit through others being sent and the established churches multiplying new churches. In Romans 15:14-33, Paul speaks about his specific geographic goals and his desire to take the gospel to Spain, for his desire was to preach the gospel where it had not yet been named. His assessment was that he had fulfilled the preaching of the gospel ‘from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum,’ which illustrated his desire for churches to be established in every place. 

The universal nature of the biblical vision

Space does not permit a comprehensive look at the global nature of the Old Testament vision, so a few examples must suffice. The scope of God’s vision can be seen in Genesis 12, where God calls Abram and gives him the promise that through his seed, ‘all the families of the earth shall be blessed’ (Gen 12:3; cf Gen 22:18; 26:4; Gal 3:8). As we have seen, the ultimate purpose of our mission is to bring glory to God. In Isaiah’s vision, he saw the sending out of angelic beings proclaiming that ‘the whole earth is full of his glory.’ Isaiah and the other prophets cast this vision as the result of the Lord’s purposes on the earth (Isa 11:9; Hab 2:14; cf Zech 14:8-9). The Psalmist, too, foresaw the day when ‘All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name’ (Psalm 86:9; cf Psalm 22:27; 72:19).

Jesus’ commission to his disciples reflects this biblical vision. After his resurrection, Jesus commissioned his disciples to continue preaching the gospel and announcing the presence of the kingdom. Each of the Gospels and the book of Acts contain commissioning statements of Jesus to his followers. Of the commissioning passages, none is more often cited among Christians than the so-called ‘Great Commission’ text in Matthew 28:18-20. This passage is introduced with the command to ‘go and make disciples.’ The fact that the passage uses ‘make disciples’ as its main verb rather than ‘preach the gospel’ is significant. The participles that follow, ‘baptizing’ and ‘teaching,’ indicate that Jesus had more in mind here than just preaching the gospel. The role of the disciples is about making new disciples who are then baptized into the church and are trained to obey the teachings of the Word of God. This was to be an ongoing process in which more and more people are made disciples of Jesus Christ. This commission itself is comprehensive.²² The scope of the mission is to all the nations (panta ta ethne). The gospel is to go out to every people in every place.

The culmination of this vision appears in Revelation when the congregation comes together around the throne of Jesus Christ in the new Jerusalem. John’s vision presents the picture that this God of love will bring people together from every tribe, language, people, and nation as one people of God (Rev 5:9; 7:9; 15:4; 21:24; 22:1-2). Together they inhabit the holy city, enlightened by the glory of God, ‘in whose light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it’ (Rev 19:24). The tree of life is in this city, whose leaves are ‘for the healing of the nations’ (Rev 22:2). The eternal vision is one that includes participants from all the peoples of the earth. A primary approach is for us to represent, signal, prepare the way for and invite others to join in participating in this vision by multiplying new, healthy churches in every place for the glory of God.

Historical Sketch of Saturation Church Planting (SCP)

Ralph Winter’s well-known presentation at the 1974 Lausanne Congress proved to be formative for the conversation about missions. His comments reflecting on the words of Matthew 28:19 would help shape the imagination of evangelical mission leaders to develop a people group strategy. As Paul Eshleman writes:

A few years earlier, Jim Montgomery, founder of the DAWN (Disciple a Whole Nation) movement, argued that discipling a nation, in a geopolitical sense, was also a way to reach all peoples. Inspired by how churches in the Philippines crafted a national strategy to reach their nation, he developed, with the help of Donald McGavran, a strategy to reach people groups through the saturation of an entire nation. As Montgomery later writes:

These developments, of course, took place within a decades-history of missiological reflection and efforts to mobilize the global church for mission. We can begin that history with the watershed 1910 World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh. It focused on a central conviction of the Protestant Christian missionary community at the time with the phrase: ‘The Evangelization of the World in This Generation.’ The obligation for and urgency of world evangelization drove many of the commission reports, discussions, and speeches at the conference. There also was a call for unity among Protestant missionary efforts. Flowing out of Edinburgh came the formation in 1921 of the International Missionary Council (IMC), which would have a formative influence on the missiological imagination of Protestant mission leaders for the next four decades of the 20th century. International gatherings were held about every ten years with two of these IMC gatherings being especially influential. 

The first was the gathering in Tambaram, India in 1938, in which the centrality of the church in mission was recovered and several core elements of a missionary ecclesiology were developed.²⁵ As Goheen and Sheridan note, the Tambaram report emphasized six crucial elements of what today is being referred to as a missionary ecclesiology: 

1. Evangelism as a God-given task inherent in the very nature of the church;
2. The necessity of making a bold call to evangelize adherents of other religions;
3. The importance of nourishing the new life of Christ in the inner life of the church;
4. The mission of the church in the various spheres of societal life;
5. The importance of the unity of the church for mission; and
6. The urgency to complete the unfinished task of world evangelization.²⁶

The second formative IMC gathering took place in 1952 in Willingen, Germany. Its most important contribution to mission theology was the emphasis placed on the centrality of the mission of the Triune God (missio Dei) for our missionary thinking and practice. The often-quoted words that emerged from this conference were, ‘There is no participation in Christ without participation in His mission to the world. That by which the Church receives its existence is that by which it is also given its world-mission. ‘As the Father has sent Me, so send I you.’’ Other important contributions of this conference, as Goheen and Sheridan note, were: (a) further development by participants regarding the centrality of the local congregation in mission; (b) further development of the importance of unity to the mission of the church; and (c) the development of a holistic, comprehensive understanding and practice of mission.²⁷

Evangelicals were an integral part of the IMC throughout the decades of the early- and mid-20th century. But when it merged with the World Council of Churches (WCC) in 1961, many evangelicals left the IMC out of concern about the WCC’s theological liberalism. The evangelical missionary tradition, however, continued through the Wheaton and Berlin Congresses held in 1966, where both drew large numbers of missionary practitioners and advocates. These two gatherings led to the defining moment of the convening of Lausanne in 1974. 

Over 2,300 delegates from more than 150 countries attended the First International Conference on World Evangelization in Lausanne. The Lausanne Covenant, drafted and signed by the delegates who attended, would prove to play a central role in defining and guiding the evangelical missionary tradition for the next four decades. It also helped to fuel the urgency and passion for world evangelization as Lausanne gave rise to a growing global movement seeking to mobilize the people of God to collaborate for world evangelization.²⁸ Within this tradition and in the context of this history, we can properly understand the emergence and development of SCP.

Jim Montgomery’s research into the explosive growth of the Foursquare Movement in the Philippines led to the emergence of SCP as an intentional whole-nation strategy for church planting. He distilled and articulated seven principles that laid an important foundation for future DAWN thinking (Discipling a Whole Nation). One of these principles was that careful study of church growth dynamics in one area could provide guidance to the global church for expanding its reach within other areas. Another principle was the need for systems to be developed that would further church planting towards completing the task of world evangelization. Put simply, it was believed to be crucial for completing the urgent task of world evangelization to employ research data, quantifiable metrics, and the development of strategic systems to advance the saturation of church planting in whole nations. 

It was a combination of Montgomery’s research methodology with the work of Donald McGavran that provided the needed theological rationale for SCP. This was a necessary element in order to catalyze evangelical mission leaders to action. As Raphael Anzenberger argues, it was McGavran who penned a theological rationale for DAWN:

After surveying both the Old and New Testaments, McGavran concluded that ‘the discipling of all the peoples who comprise each whole nation was clearly God’s will according to the Scriptures.’³⁰ As a result, Montgomery challenged the global church to embrace SCP as the means to ‘work systematically toward the completion of the command, ‘to make disciples of all nations.’‘³¹ Urgency and passion for world evangelization and the completion of the Great Commission were possible if the people of God could rally together around a shared vision and strategy for SCP.

Montgomery argued that adopting SCP on a national scale would require important changes in the way that many evangelical groups operated, such as developing evangelistic methods, training and sending lay people, and learning to collaborate across mission agencies. He wrote:

Montgomery provided a crucial argument in his important 1989 book, DAWN 2000: 7 Million Churches to Go. This argument was that the DAWN strategy of SCP can work in large part because it ‘divides the world into manageable segments, does the necessary research, mobilizes the whole body of Christ around an appropriate goal for its segment and distributes the work to effective structures already in existence.’³³ As Anzenberger argues, ‘With the AD2000 National Initiative Movement, the Joshua Project and the Beyond Movement fully embracing a DAWN-type strategy at the end of 1995, and with DAWN receiving the endorsement of the three major international evangelical bodies concerned for world evangelization, it seemed that nothing could stop the movement.’³⁴

DAWN Ministries closed its doors in 2008, but some important movements across the world continued to develop SCP thinking. Three that are worth noting are Saturation Church Planting Global (SCPG), Christ Together (CT), and National Church Planting Processes (NC2P).

• SCPG seeks to catalyze a network of ‘Antioch churches’ in regions around the world, specifically focusing on ‘pivot nations’—countries with geographic influence in the midst of a significant number of contiguous nations. To reach this vision, SCPG seeks to plant gospel-centered churches that exhibit 7 characteristics of ‘Antioch churches’ and have the capacity to carry the vision of SCP across their region.³⁵
• CT, which was championed in 2011 by Jerry Gillis, aims to unify the church in a given city to consistently demonstrate and communicate the gospel of Jesus Christ to every man, woman, and child. It uses the strategy of gospel saturation, encouraging churches to ‘own the lostness’ of an identified people in a defined place, working together towards a future where every man, woman, and child will have repeated opportunities to see, hear, and respond to the gospel.³⁶
• NC2P is the fruit of a group of church-planting leaders from several European nations coming together on a regular basis to share best practices on national church planting processes in Europe and to find greater ways to collaborate for the purpose of seeing churches multiplied in all of the nations’ geographic, ethnic, and cultural spaces.

The focus and the fruit of these three movements varied, but together they forged new strategies for SCP and the mobilization of local churches and church-planting systems towards world evangelization. As Anzenberger argues, we can differentiate four trends in SCP that these new strategies embodied, trends that provide hopeful signs and spark new imaginations for the future of the task of world evangelization. 

The first trend is the shift in the recipients for whom SCP is intended—from reaching unreached people groups to reaching cities. Lausanne III, which met in Cape Town in 2010, rightly identified the next ‘missions challenge’ facing the global church as reaching the cities of the world:

The second trend is the shift from basing SCP strategy on metrics, research, and goal setting to a strategy that focuses on collaboration. Anzenberger argues this is a notable shift because instead of asking ‘what must be done’ to finish the task of world evangelization in regard to data collection and sharing, this shift places the focus on the question ‘how can we finish’ the task. The answer is clear to the practitioners and leaders of SCP. We will only finish the task as we catalyze deeper and greater collaboration. As Anzenberger notes, this shift has accompanied the massive missiological shift from a church-centered approach to a God-centered one. Any approach to mission must start with understanding that the Triune God is a missionary God, which makes the mission of God (missio Dei) the central focus for our practice. He notes:

The third trend replaces top-down systemic strategies with bottom-up organic approaches. As Anzenberger notes, church growth proponents who are very experienced in systemic thinking and who tend to work out of a Cartesian Enlightenment epistemology have usually ended up prioritizing Western models and strategies. With the gradual displacement of Western predominance in missions, there is now a shift to a polycentric reality in missions where strategies have shifted to organic, bottom-up thinking. A higher priority is now being placed on the local and the contextual. Experimental approaches by local practitioners who collaborate both regionally and globally are opening up new possibilities for the future of SCP. We see this happening with global movements of disciple-making and church planting. 

The fourth trend is the shift underway from institutional leadership to apostolic leadership. A key strategic focus for many SCP leaders is identifying, empowering, and making space for apostolic leaders, who often operate on the margins of institutions. Being led by the Spirit to mobilize these leaders, as often noted in disciple-making movements and church-planting movements, provides greater impetus towards SCP than simply relying on national or organizational leaders to lead the way. 

There is much we can affirm as we consider this brief historical sketch of SCP. To begin, the four trends noted above move us toward a polycentric vision for the future of mission. This brings with it a greater focus on mobilizing local, apostolic leaders who rely on the Spirit’s leading and empowerment to exercise their agency in discerning and implementing SCP strategies. This is to be celebrated. The shift away from a church-centered approach to one of cultivating an imagination shaped by the biblical story and mission of the Triune God opens up new possibilities to recover a holistic gospel and holistic mission. 

Moreover, this theocentric shift places the proper priority on the agency of God in mission. Our place is one of faithfully seeking to participate more fully in God’s mission for the sake of the renewal of God’s world. This leads to our practicing discernment as we seek to perceive God’s activity in our contexts and to participate more fully in the Triune God’s mission. For too long, mission thinking and mission leadership have been captive to Western idols where there is an addiction to technique and human agency along with a posture of management and control.³⁷ We can celebrate a pivot away from this ‘managerial mission’ approach. Kwame Bediako, recognizes that ‘the Christian religion is rescued from a Western possessiveness of it, whilst at the same time the […] missionary endeavor is seen for what it is […] to the extent to which it stimulated the emergence of a genuine indigenous Christian tradition in terms of missio Dei in the local setting as a fresh cultural incarnation of the faith.’³⁸ We must also deeply affirm the ongoing desire for deeper and wider collaboration; indeed, the unity of the church is integral to the church’s witness to the gospel, as Lesslie Newbigin never tired of reminding us. 

Passion and desire for world evangelization is certainly to be applauded, and it is necessary for being a faithful witness to the gospel. However, it is precisely here that the SCP movement needs to recover a full-orbed gospel. Newbigin’s missionary ecclesiology is a tremendous help. As Goheen and Sheridan argue, at the heart of Newbigin’s missionary ecclesiology is a ‘gospel dynamic.’³⁹ This is a dynamic that always starts with the gospel as nothing less than the good news that in Jesus, God is acting to bring the power and presence of the kingdom of God into the midst of history. The kingdom of God is focused on nothing less than the cosmic renewal of the whole creation and all human life. This is the very goal of universal history. The good news is that this cosmic renewal is now present in Jesus through the presence of the Spirit. A note from Asian Churches in Global Mission which summarizes a mission convention in Jakarta says it well: ‘For the Bible clearly shows that the gospel is about transformation of every aspect of the whole creation through the death and resurrection of Jesus, and that evil at every level is a defeated foe. Our calling is to share that in every possible way.’⁴⁰

The gospel places us in the middle of a story that makes the astounding claim to be the true story of the whole world. It is only within this story that we as God’s people find our truest identity. A central thread of this story is, indeed, about God’s work in and through His people. God’s people are those in whom and through whom God will accomplish his redemptive purposes for the whole world. Throughout history and in every place, God’s people have always been called to embody and announce this gospel within particular cultural contexts. 

Therefore, the central vocation of embodying God’s purposes for the world in the midst of the nations will always involve God’s people in a missionary encounter with a specific culture. Newbigin’s gospel dynamic provides a biblically robust and holistic vision for the gospel and for global mission. This work includes the ongoing and critical task of understanding and engaging the diverse cultural contexts of our world as well as understanding our missionary calling in the world and in all aspects of human life and vocation. It is in this pursuit that we recover our identity as God’s people within the biblical story. These are some of the crucial issues to be pursued as we continue to collaborate for the evangelization of the world through saturation church planting.

Principles of Saturation Church Planting

Several existing church planting models and contemporary methodologies are outlined in this section which highlight the importance of being guided by overall principles. Some existing tensions among the various approaches are identified. This is followed by a proposal that presents a way to move forward. It borrows heavily from the Church Planting Manifesto for 21^st Century North America drafted by the Send Institute Missiologists Council, with their permission.⁴¹ It has been adapted for our purposes by adding voices from Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America to provide a more global perspective.

We live in a time of tremendous growth and multiplication of communities of faith. Thousands of churches, Bible study groups, and communities seeking to enact God’s kingdom are being established, multiplying, and making disciples around the world. The Global South has seen particularly fertile soil for this with churches being born there every day. The testimonies of the transformation of lives and communities are inspiring for many. In some places the gospel is reported to be spreading rapidly through entire people groups. While there are still billions of people in the world who do not walk with the Lord, there are fewer and fewer ethnic groups across the globe that do not have a Christian witness in their midst. Incredible progress is being made in following the Spirit’s leading in pursuing the global proclamation of the gospel and the formation of new missional communities.

Missiologists and practitioners have expressed a growing concern, however, about the health of many of these congregations. For example, Central America includes some of the most evangelized nations on earth, and one can track the extraordinary growth of churches and related organizational systems located there. Some practitioners and observers believe that saturation has taken place, yet these very locations are also some of the most violent places on earth. Many leaders have concluded that this violence is so incompatible with Christian mission such that these places cannot truly be regarded as saturated with the Gospel. Nevertheless, there is an amazing number of new churches, leadership trainings, theological education institutions, church planting organizations, literature distribution systems, media presence through radio and television, and a plethora of specialized ministries. Church leaders are being forced to ask the following key questions:

1. As we participate with the triune God in mission to the world, what kind of gospel are we preaching?
2. What kind of disciples are we making?
3. What kind of churches are we multiplying? 

A related issue in today’s world is the increasing complexity of the diverse contexts in which the church participates in the mission of God (missio Dei). Sociopolitical changes, that pose ever greater challenges for the church, are taking place at a faster pace. Examples include the rapid growth in urbanization, technological expansion, nationalism, political polarization, ethnic strife, physical displacement, population diasporas, and international wars. Such changes are causing many nations to experience significant cultural shifts, demographic changes, and increased resource inequality. In short, the mission context is a moving target. Addressing these realities requires the church to develop a diverse, globally-minded mission force that is radically committed to disciple-making and church planting, one rooted in God’s mission, grounded in the Word, and led by the Spirit of God. 

The world needs healthy communities of faith that reflect God’s character and nature. These communities must understand their purpose and mission in the world. Then they must strive to be faithful and fruitful in their specific contexts as they participate in God’s reconciling mission. New, multiplying, healthy churches are needed that are what Lesslie Newbigin called a ‘sign, instrument and foretaste of the kingdom of God.’⁴²

There was a theological bifurcation of the gospel among mission organizations for many years. Some individuals and groups focused primarily on bearing witness to the presence of the kingdom of God in the world. Other individuals and groups focused primarily on inviting persons to experience personal salvation. This bifurcation of the gospel has sometimes led to planting churches that are either ineffective in evangelism, or churches that don’t adequately address injustices in the contexts their communities serve. Today, many persons and organizations are wondering how to break out of those old wineskins so that Jesus and the good news of the gospel can more fully reshape them for the future. One respondent from Asia to this issue declared, ‘We contend that only gospel preaching linked with development processes that seek total transformation are adequate to witness to the wholeness of the gospel.’⁴³

These 21st-century realities can seem insurmountable to some from the previous generation of church planters. However, to many persons in the next generation, they seem like opportunities for fresh expressions of gospel ministry. Thankfully, some church planters in various areas of the world already model a more integrated and holistic approach to the mission of God. The coming decades will require the formation of a generation of leaders with a creative vision for discerning the activity of God’s Spirit in the world and then seek to participate in it. 

To do this, they must increase the diversity of their leadership, yet be committed to the unity of the Body of Christ more than any previous generation. We believe that God’s Spirit will use them to birth new multiplication movements that are committed to starting new churches to live out a holistic gospel. Lausanne 4 says it this way: ‘We believe it is intrinsic to God’s mission that the global church declares and display Christ together to a watching world.’ These churches will engage with a new mix of social and cultural realities as they make disciples of the kingdom both inside church buildings and where churches gather in natural social meeting places like homes. 

Complexity requires us to adopt a posture of humility and learning. This is a time to champion collaboration and innovation. This is a time for different movements to come together through a variety of initiatives that seek to discern the work of the Spirit of God. This is a time to practice the conviction of prayer and the graceful humility of shared discovery. Only by churches learning from one another from around the world will we find fresh insight for joining together for participating in the mission of God. This can happen in contexts of trust and mutual respect for different strategies.

It is time to come together around biblically faithful and missiologically sound principles for the planting of new churches in a 21st-century world. We believe that greater collaboration will result in a new generation of disciple-makers, churches, and networks across the world. We also believe that as they seek to participate more fully in God’s redemptive work that they will help account for innumerable people coming to Christ, immeasurable cultural transformation, and ever-increasing glory being given to God. We offer the following principles to help guide the next generation of leaders for church planting that results in faithful gospel ministry and contextually appropriate churches.

Here we present the principles for saturation church planting. (Used and adapted with permission from the Send Institute.)

Prayer and obedience to the Holy Spirit in light of the Word of God take priority over systems, structures, and strategies. 

(Luke 6:12-16; Acts 16:6-10)

We affirm that any genuine church multiplication movement is birthed out of prayer and sacrificial obedience in cooperation with how the Spirit of God is already at work. Over the last few decades, a variety of denominations, movements and networks have developed useful organizational tools and practices that assist in efforts toward church planting stewardship—both human and financial. With great appreciation toward this end, we recognize that church planting is not simply about starting efficient and sustainable organizations. Church planting is primarily about cooperating with the heart of God and accomplishing His creative work in a specific context through prayerful methods and means.

We agree to lead our ministries as a spiritual movement, steeped in prayer and communion around the Word of God and the people of God. We call on the global church to seek God for spiritual refreshment and awakening. We need more methods that are inspired by Scripture, but we resist the temptation to rely more on turnkey processes than Spirit-led means.

Church planting is both the impulse and the result of multiplying disciples who hear and obey God.

(John 10:27; Rom 15:18)

We affirm that Jesus’ primary commandment is to make obedient disciples. Because of the complexities in modern methods, church planting methodologies have often focused more on executing a project plan for launching large group gatherings rather than on developing appropriate disciple-making strategies. However, the missionary task of church planting is to engage a particular context with the gospel in order to bring non-believers into a relationship with God, and believers into the profound joy of a deeper obedience within that mission. Therefore, the multiplication of new disciples from the harvest into biblical community and mission becomes the modus operandi and the expectation of a new church.

We agree to orient church planting strategies around multiplying disciples and disciple-makers from the harvest. We avoid any strategy that side-steps or deviates from disciple-making as the primary vocation of the church.

Every believer is a disciple-maker with a holy calling and vocation.

(John 4:29; 1 Pet 2:9)

We affirm that, while the ministry of church planting is unique and particular, every believer has a holy calling and every vocation that is not sinful can be leveraged to advance the kingdom of God. The tendency to professionalize the work of church planting can create an unbiblical and unhelpful divide between clergy and laity. This divide often restricts faithful and faith-filled believers from meaningful participation in the work of church planting. It also perpetuates unreasonable pressures and standards onto church planters, creating unhealthy expectations and self-serving motivations.

We agree that the work of church planting flows from God’s heart to see all believers mobilized and participating in disciple-making and mission. We resist any notion that church planting is reserved for a professional class that excludes the gifts and callings of a functioning Body. We also resist any organizational culture that commodifies church planting or church planters.

Planting contextually appropriate churches will require much innovation and risk-taking, and much of this new learning will come from the church from around the world.

(2 Cor 4:7-12; Rom 1:8-15)

We affirm that as with the first-century church, and with the persevering church globally, our current missiological circumstances necessitate courageous paradigm shifts to better align ourselves with the mission of God. Churches everywhere need to learn from a humble position what God is doing all over the world. This includes places where rapid disciple-making movements are happening as well as where churches are in decline. Our intention should not be to imitate their methods and models, force fitting them into our context. Instead, we praise God for how he has worked, and humbly and introspectively search for points of cultural adaptation. 

We agree that God is mightily working around the world and churches globally have much to learn from each other and the church in all parts of the world. We resist ‘echo chamber’ thinking that limits God and our future direction by past and current successes and failures.

Planting churches that bear witness to the redemptive presence of the kingdom of God in the world requires a holistic engagement of the community with the whole gospel. 

(Luke 10:9; 24:19; 1 Cor 4:20)

We affirm that the gospel of the kingdom is not a matter of talk, but of power. Salvation is by faith and not by works, and the serious work of evangelism and disciple-making should not be independent of confronting the evils of society and the structures that perpetuate them. The contextual engagement of any community necessitates holistic engagement with all aspects of the gospel. There is a temptation to bifurcate mission into word or deed, or to overemphasize one at the expense of the other. But truly proclaiming the kingdom engagement necessitates both word and deed approaches. To a spiritually hungry world, our good news will clarify, and our good works will verify.

We agree that evangelism and disciple-making through both word and deed is the kingdom approach to addressing the contextual needs and issues of a community. We long to see people reconciled to God and to one another. We resist dividing a whole gospel by separating Jesus’ command to love our neighbor from his commission to make disciples.

Multiplication movements require local churches taking responsibility for raising and spiritually parenting future church planting teams.

(Acts 15:1-3; Rom 15:22-29)

We affirm that it is the responsibility of local churches to plant and care for new churches. Church planting movements empower the local church to not only grow through addition, but to also to experience growth through multiplication. Local churches take responsibility for discovering, developing and deploying church planting teams from within. Healthy and well-supported church planting teams often come from local churches that provide care and covering. While at times it has become necessary for denominations and networks to catalyze new churches, we believe that a healthy pattern for ongoing multiplication is through a local church’s internal disciple-making processes.

We agree that the initiative for church planting falls on local churches and that denominations and networks exist to support churches in that mission. We discourage any strategies that create orphan churches and that short-circuit multiplication dynamics.

Biblical churches that are culturally relevant exist in a variety of models and sizes.

(Philem 1:1-3; Acts 2:42-47)

We recognize that throughout history, as today, our creative God has been transforming the world through churches expressed in various models and in a wide array of sizes. But we also recognize that a virtual industry has developed around church growth principles and best practices resulting in exalting particular models. Some new models have emerged in reaction to this to deconstruct rather than helpfully engage. We believe churches should plant churches in the particular way the Holy Spirit leads them, especially as they are contextual to the domains of society and the people they intend to reach and disciple.

We agree to hold our models loosely and to champion how God is at work in all kinds of ways. We avoid rigid models, especially when they are proving to be contextually insensitive and evangelistically ineffective.

Leaders of emerging churches must be recognized and developed from within the cultural and geographic context of the new churches. 

(Acts 20:16-18; Titus 1:5-6; 2 Tim 2:2)

We affirm that it is best to develop leadership from within the harvest. Cities that are multicultural are made up of communities with already existing social structures populated by people that have the best potential to provide leadership in newly established churches. It is sometimes necessary to import leaders with cross cultural giftings from other geographies to initiate a church plant, but this practice cannot generate a church planting movement unless indigenous leaders are recognized and equipped. A reliance on imported leadership prohibits young disciples from attaining maturity and stunts natural pathways for multiplication. New believers must become multiplying disciple-makers in their own communities. For this to happen, any leaders imported from other geographies or cultures are necessarily temporary.

We agree to champion discipleship pathways among our churches that enable new believers to become multiplying disciple-makers. We resist any model of mobilization and leadership that asserts the preference of external leadership over the contextual needs of the mission and its internal leadership.

Healthy communication and collaboration among groups, especially at local levels, is an essential dynamic for multiplication.

(John 17:20-26; 1 Pet 3:8-9)

We affirm that what God wants to do around the world can only be accomplished among all faithful groups, and not only among any particular few. The ideas of free enterprise and start-up culture are useful for innovation, but has often created an isolationist mentality, fostering a kind of competition that is unhealthy. We believe that when church planters and leaders communicate and collaborate from national levels to the cities and communities in which they plant, a more conducive environment is created for the Spirit of God.

We agree to be collaboratively minded at the highest levels of our organizations and especially at the local levels. We avoid any methods that would intentionally create unhealthy competition and isolation among our leaders and church planters.

Regular and ongoing evaluation of mission strategies, structures, and systems is necessary for contextually appropriate methods and models.

(Hab 3:2; Mark 2:21-22)

We affirm that Jesus’ commission to make disciple of all nations often necessitates new ways of discovering how God is at work throughout the world in church planting. The successes of the past can often be our greatest hindrances for the necessary discoveries of the future. This means that denominations and networks must do the hard work of identifying and removing any traditions or structures that are hindrances from obedience to God and effectiveness in mission.

We commit ourselves to the humility of open and reflective self-evaluation. Where constructs such as tradition, structure, or even proven methods become stumbling blocks for aligning with how God is at work, we gladly leave them behind. We resist building monuments to the past if it means missing out on what God is doing now.

Mobilization for mission is rooted in a hopeful belief in the progress and future reality of God’s completed work and the renewal of all things.

(Acts 17:24-27; Rev 21:4-6)

We affirm that God continues to be active in the world, reclaiming it unto Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Some places of the world are experiencing revival and great growth while others are not. The key is for the church to continue to bear witness to God’s already but not yet kingdom and participate with the Spirit in the renewal of all things.

The eschatological reality of a new heaven and a new earth can spark the imagination of each church to participate, in contextual ways, with what God is doing in the world. Some crucial ways to mobilize the whole Body of Christ into mission include biblical reconciliation, more robustly announcing the kingdom, learning and being inspired by the church from around the world, and witnessing how previously unreached communities are now worshipping and glorifying God.

We agree to mobilize churches and church planting teams not simply by talking about church decline, but also by the multiple ways God is actually at work in developing a diverse mission force around the world. We avoid a one-dimensional theology of mission that neglects the multiple heritages that are found around the globe.

The whole body engaging in mission—men and women, young and old, from different racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds—is a demonstration of the power of the gospel.

(Acts 13:1-3; Rom 16; James 2:1-7)

We affirm that God has sovereignly used high levels of diversity as part of His plan to raise up new disciples and new churches around the world. All movements must continue to look to Jesus and the New Testament pattern for how to disciple and release both men and women into mission. Many churches around the world understand that the Great Commission is all peoples reaching all places with all of the gospel. This reality requires a mission force led by varied and culturally intelligent leaders. Acts 13 reminds us that God launched a global mission enterprise from the church in Antioch, which was composed of people from different nations and socio-economic backgrounds.

We agree that the global church, as a cultural mosaic of God’s children, needs all kinds of churches for all kinds of people. While not every context demands high levels of diversity, we believe that healthy churches reflect the composition of their area. Mission strategies that are led by meaningfully diverse teams demonstrate the power of the gospel to a non-believing world in a unique way. We discourage the marginalization and side-lining of any groups within the Body of Christ.

Disciple-making Movements, Church Planting Movements, and Traditional Church Planting All Needed for Saturation

During the same period that several top-down Saturation Church Planting strategies were emerging, including the DAWN strategy, the Lord began launching many parts of the church into bottom-up, grass roots church planting through low profile house church networks. These are often called Church Planting Movements or Disciple-making Movements. Because Church Planting Movements often occur in hostile environments, they are less well documented or understood by the church at large, though they are clearly discipling people from many ethnic groups in every major region of the world. Some of these are well documented, others are not because of security concerns.⁴⁴

The best known of these sweeping movements are those that occurred in China as the consequences of World War II played out across the globe. It took decades for news to leak out from behind the bamboo curtain, but it eventually became clear that despite all the missionaries being expelled and most churches and institutions being closed or tightly monitored, the church was growing quietly but rapidly in house church networks. In China, even in the face of cruel abuse and death, many of the basic components of New Testament movements including fasting and prayer, house gatherings and the public reading and memorization of Scripture were amazingly fruitful.⁴⁵

Similar stories in the 1990s came out of India, the Horn of Africa, and the Middle East. People began researching and writing about Church Planting Movements. By December of 2022, the 24:14 Coalition had compiled a list of movements it had tracked across thirty-three movement families worldwide, where there had only been five such movements in 1966.⁴⁶ The reality of over 115 million disciples coming to Christ via Church Planting Movements caused global leaders to insist that CPM be part of any national saturation church planting plans.

Several effective tactical approaches to disciple-making and church planting have developed since the emergence of traditional strategies. These have added creativity, momentum and, in some cases, caused either a paradigm shift or even confusion among observers. 

Church Planting Movements (CPM) may find their roots in the work of George Patterson. In the 1970s and 80s he began to focus new believers in Honduras on direct obedience to seven commands of Christ, including ‘go and make disciples.’ Lay leaders soon began to plant small churches using that same model. In the 1990s, David Garrison observed similar movements on other continents and coined the term Church Planting Movements to describe this ‘rapid and multiplicative increase of indigenous churches planting churches within a given people group or population segment.’

Besides the widespread involvement of lay people using a simple Bible Study, leadership and mentoring pattern, there are several common characteristics of Church Planting Movements. This summary is from Curtis Sergeant:⁴⁷

• There is awareness that only God can start movements, but disciples can follow biblical principles to pray, plant, and water the seeds that can lead to a ‘Book of Acts’ type multiplying movement.
• The focus is to make every follower of Christ a reproducing disciple rather than merely a convert.
• CPMs emphasize igniting movements of multiplying generations of disciples and churches. (The first churches started in a people group/population segment are generation one churches, which start generation two churches, which start generation three churches, which in turn start generation four churches, and so on.)
• Patterns create frequent and regular accountability for lovingly obeying what the Lord is speaking to each person and for them to pass it on to others in a loving environment. This requires a participative small-group approach.
• Each disciple is equipped in comprehensive ways (such as interpreting and applying Scripture, a well-rounded prayer life, functioning as a part of the larger Body of Christ, and responding well to persecution/suffering) in order that they can function not merely as consumers, but as active agents of bearing witness to and enacting the kingdom.
• Each disciple is given a vision both for reaching their relational network and for proclaiming the kingdom to the ends of the earth with a prioritization on the darkest places (with a ‘no place left’ mentality). They are equipped to minister and partner with others in the Body of Christ in both of these environments.
• Reproducing churches are intentionally formed as a part of the process of multiplying disciples. The intent in CPM approaches is that (1) disciples, (2) churches, (3) leaders and (4) movements can multiply endlessly by the power of the Spirit.
• Emphasis is not on the specific model of CPM/DMM used (eg T4T, Discovery [DBS], Zúme, 4 Fields, etc.) but on the underlying biblical principles of multiplying movements that reflect the power of God’s kingdom.
• A value is placed on radical evaluation and willingness to change and grow to make sure that each element of character, knowledge, disciple-making skills and relational skills are (1) biblical and (2) able to be emulated by other generations of disciples. This requires intentional simplicity as well.

One way to look at it is that T4T, DMM (DBS), Zúme, and other related approaches are various processes using the same principles, and the common result is Church Planting Movements. Once a CPM has started—regardless of the approach used—the resulting disciples and churches have very similar DNA with similar outward expressions.

• Praying: CPM is always accompanied by a prayer movement. And once a movement starts it is also marked by extraordinary prayer. Those coming to Christ are highly aware that only God can birth new disciples and churches. They are highly motivated to see God break through the darkness in the lives of their friends and neighbors.
• Scriptural: In CPMs, the Bible is taken very seriously. Everyone is expected to be a disciple and sharer of the Word, and to interpret and apply Scripture.
• Obeying: The churches are devoted to listening to God’s Word and obeying it individually and corporately. Obedience is expected and everyone is held accountable for it. Jesus told us that if we love him, we must obey his commands.
• Indigenous: The outsider looks for persons of peace and households of peace (Matt 10, Mark 6, Luke 9, 10) that God has prepared within a society. When these people and groups come to faith, they are immediately equipped to reach others. Since the insiders are the disciple-makers, the new churches can grow in ways that are both based on Scripture and adapted to the culture.
• Holistic: By focusing on obedience to Scripture, believers become eager to show God’s love to people. The disciples in these movements love those around them in practical ways, such as caring for widows and orphans, ministering to the ill and fighting oppression.
• Rapidly Reproducing: Just like the early church in Acts, these modern-day movements multiply rapidly. Every disciple and church is equipped to reproduce and taught to rely on the Holy Spirit to empower them. On average, churches in movements take about one year to reproduce another church that often leads to doubling the number of disciples and churches every 9-18 months. 

A key to the growth of these movements is having a simple visible pattern that can be imitated by new disciples, in the same way that apprentices learn by observing the skills and habits of their trade. The measure of a disciple in the time of Jesus was whether they became like their teacher. The ministry activities Jesus commanded the 12 and 72 to do, he first modeled and taught to the three and the 12, including fasting, prayer, preaching the kingdom, healing the sick, and casting out demons. The core message and core practices were seen again and again from town to town. Paul likewise described the growth of the Thessalonian movement saying, ‘You became imitators of us and of the Lord’ (1 Thess 1:6). This modeling, mentoring and ‘learning by doing’ shaped the lifestyle and teaching of the apostles.

This church planting approach contrasts with the prevailing model of church multiplication not because one values prayer, the authority of Scripture, obedience, etc. and the other does not. Rather contrast may be found in the specificity of application of principles involved, particularly in an area such as training workers in the harvest. The following may serve as examples:

MAWL focuses on best practices in leadership training. A missionary or church planter: Models the leadership skill, Assists the new believer as he or she practices the role with support, Watches as the new believer serves on their own with openness to coaching and input from their mentor, and then Leaves the emerging servant-leader to learn by doing. As needed, the new leader brings questions to their mentor.

POUCH focuses on best practices for local church health. ‘A POUCH church utilizes Participative Bible study and worship groups, affirms Obedience to the Bible as the sole measure of success, uses Unpaid and non-hierarchical leadership and meets in Cell groups or House churches.’ 

Most of these movements have a strong community development component springing out of love for God and love for neighbor. Some create community centers that bring many kinds of assistance to their village or urban neighborhood, including after school tutoring, job skill training, community health services, etc.⁴⁸ Bible study, leadership and coaching usually happens best in small groups. 

An insight most easily embraced by all expressions of the church is that purposeful small groups are a key element in the spiritual multiplication of emerging disciples. As Christian Schwarz has illustrated using numerous sample sizes, smaller groups consistently grow proportionally more rapidly through baptism than do larger groups.⁴⁹

This may be largely because the skills needed to lead small groups are less extensive than for larger groups. For example, the skills it takes to lead or begin a new group of four people may well be within reach of two or three of them. This makes it easier to find and train a leader for the next small group than it is to recruit and train a leader for a group of 100. Usually, only a few of its members are likely to be equipped to lead such a large group. The larger the group, the slower the process of reproduction.

Such applications of principles are spilling over into the wider church. This is important because some view CPM and DMM principles as only applying to ‘the mission field’ (forgetting for the moment that every nation, city and people group is Christ’s mission field) or only among adherents of non-Christian faiths. It is true that such settings have been the laboratories in which principles have been refined but also that learning gained in faith, costly obedience and experimentation can be applied to and benefit disciple-makers on all continents. 

In summary, as Murray Moerman writes in Mobilizing Movements, ‘Movements do not presume the use of any single training tool.’⁵⁰ Disciple-making through multiple streams in multiple generations can emerge by applying the principles of CPM and DMM using the tools of T4T, DBS, Zume, 4 Fields, and others. The key is to focus on the underlying biblical principles of multiplying movements that seek to proclaim and enact the kingdom of God. Central to these are the intention to make every follower of Christ a reproducing disciple rather than merely a convert.

Traditional Models (sometimes called ‘prevailing models’ or ‘denominational models’)

In Planting Healthy Churches, Ken Davis says: ‘New churches are planted in many ways. Each has its own unique birth, and the circumstances surrounding its beginning are different. Consequently, there is no single ‘right’ way to establish a new church. God is limitless in his creativity, and his servants can also be creative in their ministries. In his sovereignty, the Lord of the harvest is blessing a variety of church planting approaches in our day. […] Many kinds of churches will be required to reach all kinds of people; therefore, no one church planting model will be appropriate in all settings.’⁵¹

The chapter goes on to describe 15 models of church planting, including individual pioneer models, mother-daughter models and models involving several churches, denominations and even seminaries. Each model is presented with consideration given to the pros and cons of each choice.⁵²

Traditional models have largely focused on asking denominations to encourage local churches to plant daughter churches in strategic locations, for the new generations and among least reached peoples. Some leaders insist every congregation needs to plant at least two others while it is young and vigorous, one to replace itself because no congregation lives forever, and another to contribute to the extension of the gospel.’ Some churches are also now planting digital churches and considering alternative models in what some call ‘fresh expressions’ of the church. All these approaches are needed to saturate the nations with the light of the gospel.

Differences and Potential Tension

The differences between CPM/DMM and traditional church planting are both methodological and ecclesiological. Lay leadership may lie at the root of these differences. The methodological question may be whether lay leadership is effective; the ecclesiological question may be whether it is legitimate.

Few would argue that the laity should not have a role in the mission of church planting. Rather, the debate follows questions regarding time and place. How soon can emerging disciples contribute directly to the mission? How close should ordained clergy be, geographically, to church planting that is underway? 

Raphael Anzenberger highlights another difference between CPM/DMM and SCP. He writes: ’How can we reconcile a top-down SCP approach with bottom-up DMM practices? Are the two profoundly antagonistic, or is there apostolic genius in keeping the two in healthy tension? What if Ralph Winter and Jim Montgomery were arguing for a convergence of apostolic and institutional energies, which would reflect the dynamic of early church movements where these two lines of ministries were operating in full convergence?’⁵³

David Bosch offers this historical insight: ‘At an early stage there were indications of two separate types of ministries developing: the settled ministry of bishops (or elders) and deacons, and the mobile ministry of the apostles, prophets, and evangelists. The first tended to push early Christianity toward becoming an institution; the second retained the dynamic of a movement. In the early years in Antioch there was still a creative tension between these two types of ministries. Paul and Barnabas were at the same time leaders in the local church and itinerant missionaries and, apparently, they resumed their congregational duties as a matter of course whenever they returned to Antioch.’⁵⁴

Anzenberger and Bosch suggest that differences presented by CPM/DMM and SCP approaches may not always result in tension. If some perceive tension nonetheless, the tension may represent a polarity to be managed in the missiological journey rather than a problem to be solved. Among church planting ministries, as in so many walks of life, a competitive spirit can arise despite sincere best efforts to avoid it. Here are some examples of how competition may play out. In a bid for funding, an organization might claim to have planted thousands of churches, but in reality, has simply provided a weekend training with no follow-up. Contrast this with an organization that provides a year or more of sustained training and then puts a lot of effort into building a tracking system.

Interestingly, some ministries provide minimal initial training but have excellent on-going coaching and implementation. Similarly, a ministry eager to report that many churches have been planted might include on the list a Bible study of three people. Contrast this to a faith community that was planted as a church from out of four or five Bible study groups that the planter formed, but who only reports one church. In these examples, cost figures per church plant would vary widely. These are just a few examples of issues that can arise and lead to confusion regarding results reporting and consequent funding. 

Another polarity that needs to be managed is the tension of data sharing versus observing security protocols, particularly in hostile arenas. Some top-down approaches have helped spread very useful information such as prayer guides, statistics, and mapping in ministries such as Joshua Project, research done by Lausanne and contributions of the World Christian Encyclopedia. However, in this global internet era, the gospel has gone into increasingly dangerous places. Mapping and prayer guides sharing where new churches are starting can paint a target on the backs of our brothers and sisters.⁵⁵

Another tension comes from the use of voluntary versus vocational leadership. Victor John, a senior leader in the huge Bhojpuri movement in northern India writes, ‘We aim from the beginning to train bi-vocational leaders (tentmakers like Paul and Aquila and Pricilla). We don’t force those already serving as pastors to get another job. But we encourage farmers, teachers, engineers, and laborers to become church planters and lead churches.’⁵⁶ Clearly there exists tension between some existing pastors and denominational leaders when they are compared to unpaid ministers or perceive house networks as not contributing to the income or membership rolls of the existing churches. We need to humbly balance these tensions and find ways to reconcile the different approaches to church planting. This must include allowing lay leaders from movements to participate in national forums, roundtables, data sharing decisions, and strategic planning.

We wish to acknowledge these differences and tensions, while calling for a way forward. It is through clear communication in national roundtables or regional gatherings, in a context of respect, that mutual appreciation and trust can grow. We must become intentional listeners, hearing the stories of God from the people of God. From there, when appropriate, common visions and shared strategies can be shaped. Mutual learning awaits all sides in the conversation as disciple-making and new church formation remains our primary and shared goal. A kind and generous missional posture in these contexts is itself a sign and foretaste of the kingdom.

A Way Forward with National Roundtables where Everyone Has Access

Dave Coles explores an additional facet of the differences between approaches.⁵⁷ Coles argues that traditional and CPM/DMM approaches each provide something the other does not, and that both are needed to complete the penultimate stage of discipling all nations. He also quotes Russ Mitchell, who portrays the two paradigms as being complementary: ‘CPMs or DMMs are not replacements for saturation church planting or whole nation processes. While CPMs and DMMs are movements, they are not normally nationwide movements—the very thing that the DAWN strategy aims to facilitate. Disciple-making Movements and whole-nation processes are complementary.’⁵⁸

Coles’ conclusion: ‘The Lord appears to be using both SCP and CPM/DMM to move us forward toward gospel access for all peoples, preparing Christ’s Bride for the wedding supper of the Lamb. May a spirit of mutual appreciation, encouragement, and collaboration characterize our interaction as children of our Father, eagerly awaiting and hastening the arrival of our bridegroom.’ 

This spirit of mutual appreciation and practice of collaboration to bear witness more fully to Christ’s kingdom is precisely that which we pray God will empower at national roundtables (to be described momentarily) for Christ-centered leaders in every country, state, province, or other type of regions of the globe. To this end, we pray for: the gospel for every person, disciple-making churches for every people and place, Christ-like leaders for every church and sector, and the Spirit’s power to enact the Kingdom in every sphere of society.

Collaboration for Saturation Church Planting

The Apostle Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 12:1-31 that none of us as individuals make up the whole. Each of us needs the spiritual gifts of others that are given to all believers by the Holy Spirit (v.15-16). This means everyone in the church is necessary (v.21) in order for everyone to reach their full potential. Some translations even suggest that each of us is ‘indispensable’ (NIV). This intensely practical truth also applies to every aspect of Christian mission including local assemblies of believers, the ecclesia (church) in any city, and the church’s global work for the sake of reaching God’s lost sheep (Luke 15). This truth leads necessarily and inevitably to our needing to collaborate with others at every level in relation to our work and calling.

In private conversation Grant Porter has discerned three levels of collaboration. The first he calls coordination. This occurs when a group gathers to ask ‘Who is doing what, where, with whom? Where are the gaps?’ Shared information, prayer, encouragement, and network flow from coordination. The second level may be termed commendation. This occurs when mutual respect welcomes differing methodologies and philosophies of ministry to the task. Trust allows group A to conclude, ‘Let’s commend ministry team B to take the lead using their methodology with our blessing and support. The third level of collaboration may be termed commitment. This occurs when a group of ministries gather regularly to discuss, plan, and pray for the long-term success of their shared mission. In this ongoing process each is committed to see the success of the best contribution of each in the group to the final goal.

How should we understand collaboration in the spirit regarding our shared Lausanne goals? In Matthew 28, the Lord calls us to disciple all ethnē—all peoples. In John 17, Jesus prays that we will do so in unity. We know from 1 Corinthians 12 that unity does not mean that we should all be doing the same thing. Rather, the chapter speaks of individuals with a variety of spiritual gifts who interactively contribute to the church’s participation in God’s mission in the world. 

We can helpfully apply this concept of collaboration to the national roundtables and collaborative gatherings that are being formed for church planting and disciple-making. A national roundtable exists to share the good news of the gospel with all and to disciple the last, the least, and the lost. Any organization or person who can contribute is invited to the table where participants are encouraged to contribute what they can, and to do so in Spirit-led unity. Methodologies may differ from country-to-country, but roundtables are intended to be platforms where ideas can be shared, and ministry approaches can be collaboratively planned. The intent is to enhance more effective disciple-making churches that can help influence a nation with the presence of the kingdom of God. A church planting gathering in Batam, Indonesia in 2024 summarized it this way in a slogan: ‘Collaborate to Saturate.’

It is intended that most contributors at these national roundtables will participate in one or more of the following four ways described below. These four mission-critical components have been important to the success that has been experienced in Europe with the National Church Planting Process (NC2P) in helping to create national church planting initiatives. The components are Leadership, Information, Gathering, and Systems.

These four components of a healthy, functioning national roundtable are simple and scalable to any size gathering. They can hopefully be helpful in your nation to advance the shared Lausanne goals that are:

• The gospel for every person
• Disciple-making churches for every people and place
• Christ-like leaders for every church and sector
• Kingdom influence in every sphere of society

If no collaborative roundtable or similar alliance exists in your country, perhaps you are being called to help initiate one. Further detail can be found in Mobilizing Movements.⁵⁹ Also, see the ‘Call to Action’ at the end of this document.

National roundtables operate with a variety of approaches and models. Here are brief sketches of several.

Cambodia

Lausanne Church Planting Network partnered with the Evangelical Fellowship of Cambodia to call together more than twenty organizations, denominations, and movements to shape a collaborative vision for church planting. Multiplication Network came alongside as the supporting ‘backbone organization.’ A national team promoted the group’s initial meetings widely in 2021 through the Cambodian churches. Leaders have been careful to make space for dialogue among the different groups, regardless of those groups’ methodological differences. In one recent meeting, each group shared for several minutes about what it is doing to saturate Cambodia with healthy churches. On a big map on the wall, each group marked the places where it is active. When every participating group had done so, the map made evident to all that there was a need for additional outreach to thousands of villages and places that had no church. One group asked for forgiveness for the way they had conducted their work without respect for the local culture. Some leaders came together in a space where different approaches usually don’t have dialogue. Hope was generated among every participating group in seeing what others were also doing in Cambodia. Time was provided for fellowship and networking.

Canada

Nearly thirty years ago, leaders from twenty-two denominations formed an organization called Church Planting Canada. Its first national gathering took place in 1997 with 279 participants. National gatherings have continued every other year with as many as 700 attending. Together, they set Spirit-discerned goals in response to current research. This helps different denominations identify groups to serve and mission agencies to collaborate with to accelerate church planting. Prayer has been mobilized, books published, training materials exchanged freely, and interdenominational training events shared widely. Bible schools and seminaries are providing new courses and majors. In between the national roundtables, in less formal ‘intersession’ gatherings, about fifty denominational leaders discuss challenges and explore solutions. Initially, Church Planting Canada focused on church planting training, coaching, and assessment. Its scope has expanded to include co-vocational planters, micro-church planting, and making disciples prior to church planting.

Dominican Republic

In the Dominican Republic, Lausanne Church Planting Network established an alliance with the National Church Planting Roundtable that aims to add 12,000 churches in the DR over the next few years. This interdenominational roundtable is made up of thirteen ecclesiastical organizations that have demonstrated maturity in missiological reflection and who are committed to practical obedience to God’s mission. Led by the Holy Spirit, the roundtable meets periodically to pray, exchange reports of achievements in the field, encourage each other, and celebrate. It acts as a national platform that focuses on discerning biblical and Holy Spirit inspired strategies and then proceeds to apply these to healthy church planting. Once a year the roundtable hosts a meeting with Christian leaders from other Caribbean and Latin American countries to encourage them to form similar roundtables. In May 2023, leaders from Puerto Rico, Paraguay, Venezuela, Honduras, Haiti, the Small Islands of the Caribbean, and the Hispanic community in the USA attended this international meeting. Some of them have taken the first steps toward organizing national roundtables in their respective countries.

Spain

Spain’s church-planting roundtable is called ‘La Plaza.’ It took shape in 2015 after an informal conversation among fourteen representatives of churches, federations, denominations, and mission organizations dedicated to church planting. They had heard other European leaders speak about church planting and were encouraged to organize a roundtable in Spain. La Plaza’s motto is ‘Relationships that propel the planting of churches,’ and its stated vision is ’Motivated by our unity in Christ, we will join God’s mission to see a multiplying gospel fellowship in every strategic collective (cities, villages, and towns) in Spain by 2030.’ The Lausanne Church Planting Issue Network and European Christian Mission have served as backbone organizations in supporting this network. La Plaza has an up-to-date mapping system and multiple church planting training and coaching systems. The roundtable now has twenty leaders that includes an executive team composed of three ‘catalysts.’ A face-to-face national gathering takes place once a year and ninety-minute Zoom gatherings take place every ninety days. 

Philippines

Nearly 45 years ago a vision for establishing 50,000 churches in the Philippines by 2000 was conceived. An evangelistic and church planting effort converged into a single national congress in November 1980. Out of that gathering the DAWN 2000 movement was born. A broad spectrum of churches rallied behind the strategy of ‘a church in every Barangay’ in the nation. A national coordinating committee was assembled and regular progress was recorded. From 5,000 churches planted from 1900 to 1975 to a total of 10,500 churches in 1980, the goal was set to plant 40,000 more churches by the year 2000. By the best estimates the national survey in 2000 confirmed 51,000 churches in the Philippines! The coordinating team disbanded after the celebration. Then, after a hiatus of seven years, Philippine Challenge took up a coordinating role with the support of the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches and other Christian groups to continue the church planting effort in all the 82 provinces of the country for a ‘church for every Barangay’ focusing particularly on those most resistant.

Many more examples exist and these are being catalogued and encouraged through the joint efforts of the Collaborate to Saturate movement. (collaborate2saturate.org)

Vision and Call to Action: National Roundtables/Collaborative Gatherings

Collaborate to Saturate: The Lausanne Church Planting Network joined with the Global Alliance for Church Multiplication (GACX), Global Church Planting Network (GCPN) and Vision 5:9 in inviting 250 leaders from 65 nations to Batam, Indonesia 29 February through 2 March 2024. The purpose of the Collaborate to Saturate conference was to explore ways to advance in the four stages of collaboration described in this paper. Leaders of the networks agreed to meet ‘90 minutes every 90 days’ to steward the fruit of the conference into every nation. Since the Batam gathering leaders of the four networks continue to meet at six-week intervals to collaborate in tracking the growing number of regional and national roundtables, exchange information, build on progress, and overcome duplication. Other networks such as 24:14, Coalition of the Willing and Finishing the Task have joined the Collaborate to Saturate roundtable. Roundtable planning is underway in most of the 12 Lausanne regions and the remaining regions are anticipated to engage after Lausanne 4 in Seoul, Korea.

Preliminary Work

The goal of the Lausanne Church Planting Network (LCPN) is to facilitate collaborative gatherings or roundtables at regional, country, city and district levels that result in a national church planting strategy. As described in this document, this process can integrate top-down, national strategies as well as local, grassroots, bottom-up approaches. One of the tools LCPN used in recent years as a precursor to convene collaborative gatherings or roundtables is what we refer to as listening calls or consultations. We usually have gathered twenty or more recognized leaders on a call or in a face-to-face meeting. Our hope has been to produce an understanding of different perspectives that can be heard by all and instill a desire for greater collaboration in the development of a national church planting strategy. During a meeting, LCPN invites and engages participants with six questions that facilitate listening to one another. The facilitator poses the following questions:

• What are the most significant gaps or remaining opportunities toward the fulfillment of the Great Commission in the area of church planting and disciple-making?
• What promising breakthroughs or innovations do you see that can accelerate the fulfillment of the Great Commission in the area of church planting and disciple-making?
• In what areas is greater collaboration most critical to see the fulfillment of the Great Commission in the area of church planting and disciple-making?
• Where is further research needed in church planting and disciple-making?
• To whom else should we be listening as part of this process in church planting and disciple-making?
• What is the ONE most important and/or strategic activity or concept that the global church should be addressing in church planting and disciple-making in the next decade?

Once the meeting or call is completed, the results are compiled and summarized by the facilitator and distributed to the participants. Recognized leaders on the call can then begin the process of calling others together for additional consultations that could lead to an ongoing roundtable for developing national church planting strategies.

Getting Started

The key question to be answered regarding Saturation Church Planting is: ‘What will it take to saturate our nation with the gospel through church multiplication?’

The vision is clear:

• The gospel for every person
• Disciple-making churches for every people and place
• Christ-like leaders for every church and sector
• Kingdom influence in every sphere of society

In concluding this document, we would like to propose a way forward for those who desire to get involved and participate in cultivating roundtables for Saturation Church Planting. The Lausanne Church Planting Network proposes a two-step approach.

The first step is to collaborate with other significant networks that share similar goals. No one network can accomplish this important task alone. We recognize with humility that we need to work together under the theme: ‘Collaborate to Saturate.’ We will cultivate a common vision and language and a collaborative approach to national roundtables for saturation church planting in every nation (what some call ‘national alliances for church multiplication’). 

A second step is to work together to identify the developing and existing national roundtables. We will encourage collaboration by developing relationships of trust, where connections are established, ideas shared, and unity built. For this to happen, it is important that we develop a relational contact list (where there aren’t obvious security restrictions) and share the contact information of the key leaders of those national entities. Every network that agrees to work together will have a way to access and update this list (see websites listed below where you can make contact). How can you engage, personally, at a strategic level? A ‘pre’ step may be to explore whether a national roundtable for disciple-making and church planting is already active in your nation. Collaborate to Saturate is cataloguing the progress of these national roundtables country-by-country.

If no roundtable is active in your country, your first step may be to initiate or join a conversation about how to begin forming one inclusive roundtable and national process in your country. In some countries, several leaders or organizations may have invited everyone to support various initiatives. Your first step might be to invite these leaders to participate in a single roundtable that would be inclusive of all efforts. An initial meeting for prayer could focus on Jesus’ prayer in John 17. After visions are aligned and relationships are established, the next steps can be planned towards a first or renewed national gathering. A one-page covenant that you may find helpful is added at the end of this document to aid with the process.

If there is an active roundtable in your country, you may wish to inquire if you can meet with the national team to explore how you can help. As you review your experience, gifts, and sense of calling, you may offer to do one of the following:

• Serve in a research capacity to ensure strategic information is available to help guide priority setting and decision making to meet national goals.
• Lead or assist a team in program and event planning for the next national gathering of church planters, denominational leaders, and mission agencies in your nation.
• Help provide tools and training in an area of strength and passion, such as prayer movement mobilization, coaching, leadership development, mentoring, or another area in which national leaders have discerned that the need is great.
• Faithfully pray for and support leadership and efforts underway.
• If you are not immediately needed to advance a particular component of your national roundtable, find out whether there is a local, state, provincial or other level gathering of disciple-making and church planting practitioners you can join. If there is not, consider initiating one, or joining others who are already building toward that goal. Many of the principles of a national roundtable apply here as well. 

Some leaders might be positioned to serve on regional catalyst teams. Where no national roundtable exists and the process of organizing one has not yet begun, the appropriate regional team might help catalyze that process. For example, if a strong roundtable in Latin America sees a country that desires a national roundtable but doesn’t yet have one, the regional team can help develop it. Where the process is underway, national roundtable teams can help to encourage unity and momentum. They can also pray and seek to assist where they are able. Resources for regional teams are available at collaborate2saturate.org.

May Jesus be lifted high in worship, word, and deed as we multiply movements of disciple makers and church planting in every sector of every nation to shed the light of Christ in our needy world. In this way, we will participate with the Spirit in seeking: the gospel for every person, disciple-making churches for every people and place, Christlike leaders for every church and sector, and the influence of the Kingdom in every sphere of society.

For further information visit either of these two websites:

• churchplanting.lausanne.org 
• collaboratetosaturate.org

Appendix 

An Invitation to Collaborate to Saturate the Nations with Disciple-making Churches

The key question to be answered regarding Saturation Church Planting is: ‘What will it take to saturate our nation with the Gospel through church multiplication?’

What

A collaborative gathering and process to pray, share updates and ideas, and discern ways to partner with one another to plant healthy, multiplying, sustainable churches throughout our nation, and strengthen existing ones. We focus prayer and action to saturate every linguistic, ethnic, geographic, and social space of our nation with churches that multiply disciples.

Why

We do this to participate in the triune God’s redemptive mission in the world. 

How

We recommend this simple framework carried out in a spirit of prayer, humility, inclusion and shared purpose:

• Facilitate participatory meetings and take initial action steps.
• Evaluate and act on strategic information.
• Gather to coordinate disciple-making church planting efforts, evaluate and celebrate progress, set new goals, and mutually encourage one another.
• Organize communication systems, tools, training, and follow-up.

Invitation

We invite you to participate in a global network of collaborative gatherings to saturate every nation with disciple-making churches:

‘We covenant together to form and/or support a national collaborative gathering for ________ (nation) to:

• Saturate our nation with healthy, multiplying, sustainable churches (Matt 28:19-20)
• Pray for and promote unity and cooperation around God’s Word (John 1:1, 14; 17:20-21)
• Gather regularly to encourage each other and share research, systems, tools, and training
• Track progress and plan strategic next steps to accomplish the church saturation goal

Signed __________________________________________ Date ________________

Note: 

For further resources and an additional description of roundtables visit: collaborate2saturate.org. 

Glossary of Definitions

It is essential to identify and define specific words to provide clarity for the objectives. Certain words may contain varied definitions, in which case, there could be a delineated view or methodology. The authors chose the terms within the definition section due to clarification, purpose, description, and conceptual understanding of the reader, in circumstances which could exist in multiplicative meaning(s).

Disciple-making

Disciple-making means, ‘to make disciples (Matt 28:19)’ with three prominent areas of concentration: deliverance (evangelized and baptized), development (taught to obey Christ’s commands), and deployment (trained and sent out on the mission of God).⁶⁰ Thus, disciple-making refers to a comprehensive and intentional relationship with people for the purpose of Jesus-centered maturity and reproducibility.⁶¹ Disciple-making denotes partnering with Jesus in his life and mission.⁶²

Disciple-Making Movement (DMM)

The term disciple-making movement (DMM) relates to the reproducibility of discipleship-driven groups manifesting in more than two spiritual generations. Sometimes synonymous with Church Planting Movement (CPM), DMMs tends to utilize inductive teaching methods and focus on indigenized dynamic multiplication via small groups.

Church Planter

The term church planter refers to a disciple that obediently adheres to the Great Commission call to reproduce disciples that collectively gather, serve, and develop as new churches. 

Church Planting

The biblical definition of ‘planting’ churches (1 Cor 3:5-9) derives from the Apostle Paul, when he directly referred to ‘laying a foundation’ where none existed (1 Cor 3:10-15, Rom 15:20).⁶³ The term church refers to gathered believers of Christ forming the body of Christ (Eph 3:6, 4:11-16, 5:23; Col 1:8). Church planting is a planned process of beginning and growing new churches following Great Commission obedience, yet the methods for planting a new church depend on many variables (culture, geography, people group, network, ideology, etc.). 

Saturation Church Planting (SCP)

Saturation denotes the essence of gospel-influence and adherence within geographical, ethnical and cultural spaces. This method of church starting, ‘highlights church planting as the means to mobilize the ‘whole church’ in the ‘whole nation.’⁶⁴ Generally, it is viewed as an approximate ratio of one disciple-making church for every thousand unregenerated persons.

Church Planting Movement (CPM)

A CPM is a reproducible ‘multiplication of disciples making disciples, and leaders developing leaders, resulting in indigenous churches (usually house churches) planting more churches. These new disciples and churches begin spreading rapidly through a people group or population segment, meeting people’s spiritual and physical needs. They begin to transform their communities as the new Body of Christ lives out kingdom values.’⁶⁵

Pioneer Church Planting (PCM)

PCM is the employment of contextualized church planting methodologies utilized by mission and/or collaborating network organizations to reach unreached people groups, which may reside in resistant or closed environments. 

Collaboration

Collaboration refers to the working partnerships of shared information, methodologies, and outcomes between organizational, church, network, or other entities for the purpose of SCP.

Great Commission

The Great Commission is a ‘divine directive for those who have been saved by grace and filled with the Holy Spirit to ‘be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.’’⁶⁶ The purpose of Christ’s commission focuses on the mission of disciples ‘nurturing of converts into the full obedience of faith,’⁶⁷ specifically regarding baptism, world evangelism, and fulfilling Jesus’ commands.

Great Command

The Great Command is a divine directive to all believers in the body of Christ to love the Lord your God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. (Matt 22:37, 39) This is regardless of gender, age, or ethnic origin.

Endnotes

1. James H. Montgomery, DAWN 2000: 7 Million Churches to Go (Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 1989). 
2. Lausanne Movement. The Cape Town Commitment: A Call to Action (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2010).
3. This section is adapted from Charles Van Engen, ‘Why Multiply Healthy Churches? Biblical and Missiological Foundations’, in Planting Healthy Churches, ed. Teja, Gary and John Wagenveld (Sauk Village, IL: Multiplication Network Ministries, 2015), 23-60. It originally appeared in Spanish as ‘¿Porqué Sembrar Iglesias Saludables? Bases Bíblicas y Misiológicas’, in Juan Wagenveld, Sembremos Iglesias Saludables: Un Acercamiento Bíblico y Práctico al Estudio de la Plantación de Iglesias (Editorial Miami: Unilit, 2004), 48-85.
4. Gen 3:20; 5:1-2; 9:19; 10:1-32; Ps 100:3; John 1:3; Acts 17:24-31; Rom 11:36; 1 Cor 8:6; Eph 3:14-19; Col 1:16-17).
5. See, for example, Exod 22:27; Num 14:18; Deut 5:9-10; 7:9-10; 2 Chron 30:9; Neh 9:17; Ps 51:1; 86:5, 15; 103:8, 11:4; 112:4; 116:5; 145:8; Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2; Micah 7:18; James 5:11.
6. Isa 6:8; 42:5-7; 49:6; 61:1-3; Luke 2:32; 4:18-19.
7. cf Isa 49:6; 61:1-3; Luke 2:32; 4:18-19.
8. Matt 28:18-20—compare with Matt 10:5-15; Mark 16:15-16; Luke 24:46-49 through Acts 1:8; and John 15:12-17 with 21:15-17.
9. Several missiologists connect the mission of the church (and in some cases, the multiplying of new churches) with the theme of preaching the good news of the kingdom of God. See, for example, Juan Driver, Imágenes de una Iglesia en Misión: Hacia una Eclesiología Transformadora, 61-69; Darrell L. Guder, The Continuing Conversion of the Church, 28-48; Fred Herron, Expanding God’s Kingdom through Church Multiplying, 3-30; René Padilla, Mission Between the Times, 180-193; Daniel Sánchez et al., Starting Reproducing Congregations, 9-14; Howard Snyder with Daniel Runyon, Decoding the Church, 161; Valdir R. Steuernagel, Obediencia Misionera y Práctica Histórica, 154-56; Charles Van Engen, Dean Gilliland, and Paul Pierson, eds., The Good News of the Kingdom, 69-106; and Johannes Verkuyl and Dale Cooper, Contemporary Missiology, 89-204.
10. This phrase is adapted from the definition of mission in McGavran, Understanding Church Growth, 35.
11. Gen 12:3; Exod 19:5-6; Deut 26:18-19; Isa 42:6; 49:6; Gal 3:8; 1 Pet 2.9.
12. Wonsuk Ma and Julie C. Ma, eds., Asian Church & God’s Mission (Manila: Mountain World Mission, 2003), 49-50.
13. This phrase is adapted from the definition of mission in Donald McGavran, Understanding Church Growth, 35.
14. Donald A. Hagner, Matthew 1-13, WBC, vol. 33a (Dallas: Word Books, 1993), 76-77; W. D. Davies and Dale C. Allison, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to Saint Matthew, ICC (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1988), 1:398; R. T. France, The Gospel of Matthew, NICNT (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 2007), 96, 147; John Nolland, Gospel of Matthew (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 2005), 179. 
15. Mark 3:14; 6:12; 16:15; Luke 9:2; 24:47; Matt 10:7; 28:19.
16.  Eckhard Schnabel, Early Christian Mission (Downers Grove: IV Academic, 2021). The author has shown the practical possibility of achieving this mission, and how the pairs of disciples could have preached in each of the known cities, villages, and settlements in a relatively short period. 
17. Schnabel, Early Christian Mission, 1: 527-32.
18. Herbert J. Kane, Christian Missions in Biblical Perspective (Grand Rapids, Baker Book House, (1976), 75. For evidence of Kane’s assertion, see Acts 16:6-7, 9-12; 18:5, 23, 27; 19:10, 21, 22, 26, 29; 20:18; 1 Cor 16: 1, 5, 15, 19; 2 Cor 1:1, 8, 16; 2:13; 7:5; 8:1; 9:2; 11:10; Gal 1:2; Rom 15:26; Phil 4:15; 1 Thess 1:7-8; 4:10; 1 Tim 1:3; 2 Tim 1:15.
19. Roland Allen, Missionary Methods—St. Paul’s or Ours? A Study of the Church in the Four Provinces (New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1913), 17-18.
20. David J. Bosch, Transforming Mission, (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1991), 130. 
21. Kane, Christian Missions in Biblical Perspective, 82; cf. Dean Gilliland, Pauline Theology, 233. 
22. Note the fourfold use of pas (‘all,’ ‘always’) in the commission passage.
23. Paul Eshleman, ‘Prioritizing the Essential Elements of the Great Commission,’ Lausanne Strategy Working Group, 2010, https://lausanne.org/content/world-evangelization-in-the-21st-century.
24. James Montgomery, ‘How DAWN tackles the Great Commission,’ DAWN Report no. 6 (March 1988), 9.
25. Michael W. Goheen and Timothy M. Sheridan, Becoming a Missionary Church: Lesslie Newbigin and Contemporary Church Movements (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2022), 20.
26. Goheen and Sheridan, Becoming a Missionary Church, 20-28.
27. Goheen and Sheridan, Becoming a Missionary Church, 35.
28. Goheen, Michael W. Introducing Christian Mission Today: Scripture, History, and Issues (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 2014), 169-170.
29. James H. Montgomery and Donald A. McGavran, The Discipling of a Nation (Milpitas, CA: Global Church Growth, 1980), 17. 
30. Montgomery and McGavran, The Discipling of a Nation, 21. 
31. James H. Montgomery, ‘Can We Disciple Whole Countries?’, Evangelical Missions Quarterly (January 1984), 3.
32. Montgomery, ‘Can We Disciple Whole Countries?’, 4.
33. James A. Montgomery, DAWN 2000: 7 Million Churches to Go (Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 1989), 99.
34. Raphael Anzenberger, Whole-Nation Saturation Church Planting: Towards a New Dawn? (Columbia International University, 2020).
35. SCPG identifies the following seven characteristics of ‘Antioch churches’: (1) target driven, (2) measurable incarnate values, (3) people empowerment intensive, (4) laterally postured, (5) interdependent leadership, (6) Antioch related to other churches, and (7) telescoping. 
36. Christ Together pursues four priorities to pursue this vision: (1) mobilization—God’s people taking responsibility for the lostness of a defined people in a defined place; (2) transformation—God’s people transformed into the image of Christ, resulting in gospel renewal of lives, communities, and cultures; (3) multiplication—God’s people continually reproducing disciples, leaders, and churches for the gospel saturation of a place; and (4) collaboration—all expressions of the church in a place partnering together for gospel saturation.
37. Goheen and Sheridan, Becoming a Missionary Church, 120.
38. Kwame Bediako, Christianity in Africa: The Renewal of Non-Western Religion (Edinburgh: Orbis Books, 1996), 121.
39. Goheen and Sheridan, Becoming a Missionary Church, 253-274.
40. Eun Moo Lee and Timothy Park, eds., Asian Churches in Global Mission (East-West Center for Missions Research & Development, 2012), 124.
41. Send Institute is a gathering of missiologists from across North America who meet to plan for evangelization and church planting. They were convened by Ed Stetzer with the organization being housed at Wheaton College.
42. Lesslie Newbigin, The Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission (Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1995; reprint; original 1973), 110, 113, 150.
43. Lee and Park eds. Asian Churches in Global Mission, 124.
44. Warrick Farah, Motus Dei: The Movement of God to Disciple the Nations, (William Carey, 2021).
45. See for example, Brother Yun and Paul Hattaway, The Heavenly Man, Piquant Editions, 2003.
46. See https://2414now.net/resources/#global-movement-statistics. It was felt that ongoing publishing of even aggregate statistics for dangerous regions should be deemphasized, even as movements keep multiplying.
47. This list is from Curtis Sergeant on www.Discipleship.org; compare to Garrison, 33-40 and Tasse, 179.
48. Victor John, Bhojpuri Breakthrough, A Movement that Keeps Multiplying, (WIGTake Resources, 2019).
49. Christian Schwarz, Natural Church Development: A Guide to Eight Essential Qualities of Healthy Churches (Apple Valley, MN: ChurchSmart Resources, 2012).
50. Murray Moerman, Mobilizing Movements: Leadership Insights for Discipling Whole Nations (Littleton, CO: William Carey, 2021), 35.
51. Ken Davis, Is There Another Way to Plant a Church? in Gary Teja and John Wagenveld eds. Planting Healthy Churches, (Multiplication Network Ministries, 2015), 305.
52. For those who would like to go deeper you can reference the book here: https://www.multiplicationnetwork.org/resources/ministry-toolbox/64-planting-healthy-churches.
53. Anzenberger. Whole-Nation Saturation Church Planting: Towards a New Dawn? (Columbia International University, 2020). https://scp.outreach.ca/Portals/scp/SCP%20Towards%20a%20New%20Dawn%20Final.pdf. 
54. Bosch. Transforming Mission, 51.
55. Chuck Baker, Security in Intercession for the Unreached: Secret or Wise? Missions Frontiers, Jan-Feb 2021.
56. Victor John and Dave Coles, Bhojpuri Breakthrough, A Movement that Keeps Multiplying, WIGTake Resources, 2019.
57. Dave Coles, ‘Preparing Christ’s Bride: Saturation Church Planting and CPM/DMM’ (blog, 18 May 2023), https://lausanne.org/about/blog/preparing-christs-bride.
58. Russ Mitchell, ‘Three Insights that Facilitate Nationwide Disciple-making Movements’, EMQ 55, no. 1 (January-March 2019), 42.
59. https://missionbooks.org/products/mobilizing-movements. Please let us know if you need help obtaining a copy.
60. Bill Hull, The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Making Followers of Christ (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2006), 34.
61. Ralp Moore, Making Disciples: Developing Lifelong Followers of Jesus Christ (Ventura, CA: Regal, 2012), 42.
62. Keith Johnson, Theology as Discipleship (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2015), 146.
63. Mike Barnett and Robin Martin, eds., Discovering the Mission of God: Best Missional Practices for the 21st Century (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2012), 58.
64. Murray Moerman, Mobilizing Movements: Leadership Insights for Discipling Whole Nations (Littleton, CO: William Carey, 2021), xi.
65. Dave Coles and Stan Parks, 24:14—A Testimony to All Peoples: Kingdom Movements around the World (Spring, TX: 24:14 Publishing, 2019), 315. 
66. Matthew Fretwell, Church Planting by Making Disciple-Makers (Castlerock, UK: Timeless Publication, 2020), 68.
67. Andreas J. Köstenberger, Andreasand Peter O’Brien, Salvation to the Ends of the Earth: A Biblical Theology of Mission (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001), 105.