Definitions of Key Terms
– By Stan Parks –
The Result and the Process: When modern “kingdom movements” began to emerge in the 1990s, the term “Church Planting Movements” (CPMs) was used to describe the visible results. Jesus promised to build his church, and these CPMs show him doing that in marvelous ways. He also assigned his followers a specific role toward that result: to make disciples of all ethnē. Our job is to implement the disciple-making processes by which Jesus builds his church. These processes, done well, can result in Church Planting Movements.
24:14 is not focused on just one set of tactics. We acknowledge that various individuals may prefer one approach or another or a combination thereof. We will continue to learn and use various methods – provided that they employ the proven biblical strategies resulting in reproducing disciples, leaders and churches.
As CPMs emerged, best practice strategies and tactics to make reproducing disciples began to be identified and passed on. God has shown his creativity by using several sets of disciple-making “tactics” or processes to result in CPMs. These include: Disciple Making Movements (DMM), Four Fields, and Training for Trainers (T4T), as well as a variety of very fruitful indigenously developed approaches. Closer examination of these approaches indicates that: 1) the CPM principles or strategies are mostly the same; 2) these approaches all are bearing fruit by reproducing disciples and churches; and 3) all reciprocally influence the other sets of tactics.
Key Definitions:
CPM – Church Planting Movement (result): a 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. When consistent, multiple-stream 4th generation reproduction of churches occurs, church planting has crossed a threshold to becoming a sustainable movement.
DMM – Disciple Making Movement (a process toward a CPM): focuses on disciples engaging the lost to find persons of peace who will gather their family or circle of influence, to begin a Discovery Group. This is an inductive group Bible study process from Creation to Christ, learning directly from God through His Scripture. The journey toward Christ usually takes several months. During this process, seekers are encouraged to obey what they learn and share the Bible stories with others. When possible, they start new Discovery Groups with their family or friends. At the end of this initial study process, new believers are baptized. They then begin a several-month Discovery Bible Study (DBS) church-planting phase during which they are formed into a church. This process disciples the Discovery Group into a commitment to Christ, leading to new churches and new leaders who then reproduce the process.
Four Fields (a process toward a CPM): The 4 Fields of Kingdom Growth is a framework for visualizing the five things Jesus and his leaders did to grow the Kingdom of God: entry, gospel, discipleship, church formation, and leadership. This can be discovered from Mark 1. It follows the model of the parable of the farmer entering new fields, sowing seed, watching it grow even though he knows not how, and when the time is right, cutting and bundling the harvest together (Mark 4:26-29). The farmer works with the reminder that it is God who gives the increase (1 Corinthians 3:6-9). Like Jesus and his leaders, we need to have a plan for each field, but it is God’s Spirit that causes the growth. The 4 fields is usually trained sequentially, but in practice, the 5 parts happen simultaneously.
T4T (a process toward a CPM): a process of mobilizing and training all believers to evangelize the lost (especially in their oikos or circle of influence), disciple the new believers, start small groups or churches, develop leaders, and train these new disciples to do the same with their oikos. Discipleship is defined as both obeying the Word and teaching others (hence, trainers). The goal is to help every generation of believers to train trainers, who can train trainers, who can train trainers. It equips trainers using a three-thirds process of discipleship each week – 1) looking back to evaluate and celebrate obedience to God, 2) looking up to receive from his Word and 3) looking ahead by setting prayerful goals and practicing how to impart these things to others. (This three-thirds process is also being used in other approaches.)
Definitions:
| 1st Generation Churches | The first churches started in the focus group/community. |
| 2nd Generation Churches | Churches started by the 1st generation churches. (Note that this is not biological or age-related generations.) |
| 3rd Generation Churches | Churches started by 2nd generation churches. |
| Bi-Vocational | Someone who is in ministry while maintaining a full time job. |
| Church Circle | A diagram for a church using basic symbols or letters from Acts 2:36-47 to define which elements of the church are being done and which need to be incorporated. |
| Discovery Bible Study (DBS) is the Process & Discovery Group (DG) is the People | A simple, transferable group learning process of inductive Bible study which leads to loving obedience and spiritual reproduction. God is the teacher and the Bible is the sole authority. A DBS can be done by pre-believers (to move them toward saving faith) or by believers (to mature their faith). A DG for pre-believers begins with finding a Person of Peace (Luke 10:6), who gathers his/her extended relational network. A DG is facilitated (not taught) by using some adaptation of seven questions: 1 - What are you thankful for? 2 - What are you struggling with / stressed by? After reading the new story: 3 - What does this teach us about God? 4 - What does this teach us about ourselves / people? 5 - What is God telling you to apply / obey? 6 - Is there some way we could apply this as a group? 7 - Who are you going to tell? |
| End Vision | A short statement that is inspirational, clear, memorable, and concise, describing a clear long-term desired change resulting from the work of an organization or team. |
| Five-Fold Gifting | From Ephesians 4:11 – Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Shepherd (Pastor), Teacher. APEs tend to be more pioneering, focusing on expanding the kingdom among new believers. STs tend to be more focused on depth and health of the disciples and churches, focusing on the same people over longer periods of time. |
| Generational Mapping | Multiple Church Circles linked generationally into streams to help determine the health of each church and the depth of generational growth in each stream. |
| Great Commission Christian | A Christian committed to seeing the Great Commission fulfilled. |
| Great Commission Worker | A person committed to investing their best time and effort in fulfilling the Great Commission. |
| Hub (CPM Training Hub): | A physical location or network of workers in an area that trains and coaches Great Commission workers in practically implementing CPM practices and principles. The hub may also involve other aspects of missionary training. |
| CPM Training Phases (for Cross-Cultural Catalyzing) | Phase 1 Equipping – A process (often at a CPM Hub) in the home culture of a team (or individual). Here they learn to live out CPM practices among at least one population group (majority or minority) in their context. Phase 2 Equipping – A cross-cultural process among a UPG where a fruitful CPM team can mentor new workers for a year or more. There the new workers can see CPM principles in action among a group similar to the UPG on their hearts. They can also be mentored through general orientation (culture, government, national church, use of money, etc.), language learning, and establishing healthy habits in cross-cultural life and work. Phase 3 Coaching – After Phase 2, an individual/team is coached while they seek to launch a CPM/DMM among an unserved population segment. Phase 4 Multiplying – Once a CPM emerges in a population segment, rather than the outside catalyst(s) exiting, they help expand the movement to other unreached groups both near and far. At this stage, movements are multiplying movements. |
| IOI (Iron on Iron) | An accountability session: meeting with leaders, reporting on what is happening, discussing obstacles, and solving problems together. |
| Legacy Churches | A traditional church that meets in a building. |
| Majority World | The non-Western continents of the world, where most of the world’s population lives: Asia, Africa and South America. |
| MAWL Movement Catalyst | Model, Assist, Watch, Launch. A model for leadership development. |
| Movement Catalyst | A person being used by God (or at least aiming) to catalyze a CPM/DMM. |
| Oikos | The Greek word best translated “household.” Because households in the NT context were normally much larger than just a nuclear family, the term can well be applied as “extended family” or “circle of influence.” Scripture shows that most people come to faith in groups (oikos). When these groups respond and are discipled together, they become a church (as we see, for example, in Acts 16:15; 1 Cor. 16:19 and Col. 4:15). This biblical approach also makes sense numerically and sociologically. |
| Oikos Mapping | Diagram of a plan to reach family, friends, coworkers, neighbors with the Good News. |
| Oral Learner | Someone who learns through stories and orality, may have little to no literacy skills. |
| Person of Peace (POP)/House of Peace (HOP) | Luke 10 describes a person of peace. This is a person who receives the messenger and the message and opens their family/group/community to the message. |
| Regional 24:14 Facilitation Teams | Teams of CPM-oriented leaders serving in specific regions of the world, committed to implementing the 24:14 vision in their region. These regions roughly follow the United Nations geoscheme. However, as 24:14 is a grassroots effort, regional teams are forming organically and do not perfectly mirror the United Nations geoscheme. |
| Stream | A multi-generational, connected chain of church plants. |
| Sustainability | The capacity to endure. Sustainable methodologies allow a church or community to continue an activity for years to come without further outside assistance. |
| Unengaged UPG (UUPG) | A subset of global UPGs; a UPG not yet engaged by a church planting team. |
| Unreached People Group (UPG) | A sizable distinct group that does not have a local, indigenous church that can bring the gospel to the whole group without the aid of cross-cultural missionaries. This group may be variously defined, including but not limited to ethno-linguistic or socio-linguistic commonality. |