Dealing With A New Congregation Within A New Culture

We have to consider in building a congregation that reproduce within the culture. This is a dynamic process where you won’t even know how will the Holy Spirit work within the culture.

There is no strict nor book by book instruction that we have to use in order to do this. As pastors, church planters, church leaders, we have to be innovative, open for possibilities and adjustments in case our current ministries is not working well. This should be done by trusting the Holy Spirit and allow Him to work through the life of the Church.

God then will allow you as a church planter to see whom you should be working with. Having the right people in your core group in starting a church can really help you boost at the first few months.

Here are some guidelines in starting your new congregation. Again, it is not a step by step instruction but just guidelines.

• Pray – church planters like Paul used to pray before they start a work.

• Love the culture of the people you are serving – be sure to not only adopt but to indulge, accept and love the culture. Many missionaries failed in this. So I guess you better ready to love your new environment.

• Recruit temporary ministerial partners – it is important that you will partner yourself with some other guys who can help you. Paul even though he is single, we can see how he worked with some other workers and partnered with them in order to establish well the work that they have started.

• Work with the man of peace – Jesus’ instruction begins with the searching for the man of peace. This means that we have to direct our focus first to those who are receptive to the word of God.

• Presenting Jesus and the salvation that he gave – the message of the Lord is not complete without the presenting the word of the Lord. And in fact, the very purpose of starting a new congregation is to teach people about Christ.

• Emphasize Baptism as obedience – some workers require people to get baptized and presenting it in a way that is needed to become a member of the Church. We have to remember that baptism is not for their affiliation of your new church but for their obedience to Christ.

• Continuous discipleship – when Jesus Christ gave the Great Commission, he did not end the command in baptism. We are to teach the new believers in obeying Christ everything He commanded them. We have to do this continuously until the whole church reached maturity, where it will reproduce itself and that the cycle will continue.