MRN's Role in Church Planting

What Is a Church Planting Missionary?

Are You Called?

The Role of MRN's Directors for Church Planting

Church Planting Regions of the World

Teams Served by MRN

MRN's Role in Church Planting

MRN welcomes you to the journey to become a church planting missionary.  We would like to walk with you through the entire process, from assessment, to preparation, on the field, and when you return.

MRN will prepare you and your team to plant healthy churches that ...

• Practice vibrant spirituality.
• Operate under authority and guidance of local leadership.
• Grow evangelistically by local initiatives.
• Demonstrate healthy body life by ministering to the needs of their members and community.
• Maintain an on going biblical teaching program.
• Provide locally for operational and developmental funding.
• Reflect the heritage of the Churches of Christ.

MRN is committed to giving you a professional assessment of your role in a team that plants such churches.

The mobilization of Church-Planting Mission Teams is a high priority in successfully reaching the world with the gospel of Christ. Missions Resource Network is firmly committed to the biblical concept that this is a church sponsored task. However, the church is not adequately accomplishing this task in our own culture of America, or in cultures throughout the world. In light of the growing world population, the church is actually losing ground in its mission to make disciples of all nations. People groups remain untouched by the Gospel, with no community of believers nearby.

In order to give specific information and insights to churches, MRN established directors for church planting for each of the world's major continents. These continental directors recruit, screen, prepare, and assist mission teams who will be supported and overseen by local churches. Since most churches are inadequately equipped to foster the entire foreign church planting enterprise, MRN stands beside sending churches and the missionaries being sent, helping each church and mission team to be as successful as possible in reaching the objective in planting indigenous churches and fostering a cross-culture community.

The Lord has raised up a grand band of church planters throughout the centuries. In the first century, Christianity spread, like a raging fire, across the known world - the Lord planted the first congregation in Jerusalem, then called and sent Spirit filled church planters to Judea, Samaria, and throughout the world. We need a revival of evangelistic fervor that births new communities of faith locally and globally. Could it be that God is calling you to be a part of this revival of church planting?

Short-term missions has its place, but history and experience illustrates that sending well-prepared cross-cultural mission teams is the most strategic approach to long-term church planting. MRN has developed or acquired information and resources, and coordinates events and global activities that are accessible to all prospective church planting missionaries.

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What Is A Church Planting Missionary?

It could be said that you, and every other true disciple of the Lord, are a missionary, because true disciples tell others about their faith. A Church Planting Missionary is a disciple who is commissioned and sent into another cultural context to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ and to demonstrate a Jesus-shaped ministry and lifestyle. As a Church Planting Missionary, you go beyond just bringing people to faith in God and what He has done through Christ. You will be God's vessel to form the new believers into vibrant congregations that are indigenous and multiplying throughout an ethnic group or population segment.

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Are You Called?

A survey of 493 missionaries in fourteen countries showed that a clear sense of calling was the most important variable preventing personnel from prematurely leaving the field, followed by a very supportive family, spouse and good spiritual health (Church Planting from the Ground Up, Tom Jones, editor). How do you know God called you to church planting missions? A passion for church planting, confirmation by your spouse, and positive feedback from a mentor all go a long way in confirming your calling. Do you have a passion for the mission? God mourns over the billions of people who are physically alive but spiritually dead and on their way to an eternity in Hell. Do you agonize over their lostness? Do you have His passion for saving them? As part of your life as a disciple of the Lord, are you already sharing your faith with the lost? If these qualities and activities are in your life, it is a good sign that you have been called to be a church planter among the lost. The calling will most likely be confirmed by those closest to you - those who know your heart. If you are married, your spouse will recognize this urgent passion in your thinking and feeling. As a disciple of the Lord, you are connected to other Christians who are mature and who are capable of helping you discern your call. Listen to your spiritual mentors and others who know you and, Lord willing, they will provide helpful feedback regarding your desire to serve as a church planter. Their objectivity should help discern God's will for your life.

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The Role of MRN's Directors for Church Planting

Activities of the directors for church planting for each continent include:

1. Prioritizing launching sites for outreach to each continent
2. Developing criteria for selecting personnel for mission teams: identifying, recruiting, and training mission teams; encouraging the sharing of resources and information between mission teams; providing services and strategies that will assist the mission teams on the field.

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Church Planting in Regions of the World

Africa

Asia

Europe

South Pacific

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