In our mission work, we often talk about the goal of developing missionary churches. What do we mean by a missionary church? A missionary church can be developed in various ways, but the normal process is that (1) a church is planted or established with intense, focused evangelistic efforts, followed by (2) a continuing process of edifying and strengthening the members and the local church so that the development of teachers and leaders occurs naturally. As we use the term, a missionary church is a self-governed local church that (3) accepts the responsibility for its own affairs (including local evangelism) and (4) is willing and capable of duplicating itself in the establishment of additional missionary churches.
The first step toward the development of this kind of missionary church is usually a focused effort in evangelism. Historically, this has been done by “inserted” missionaries who help the church get a foothold in a new area. Such missionaries often leave the field after a time of church planting and intense evangelism.
The second step toward the development of effective missionary churches is the development of teachers and leaders so the church can become self-governed. This is a process of edifying and strengthening local churches , with the goal of naturally developing leaders within the local churches. This process includes helping every member find a place to work and contribute to the ministry of the church.
The third step in the development of effective missionary churches is that the local church accepts responsibility for its own functioning, without the need for outside continuing support. If the church desires a located “minister” with primary responsibilities within the local congregation and community, this third step includes that the local church accepts responsibility for the support of that person. A biblical model uses evangelists who work in congregations already established and also work toward establishing new congregations. In this case, such evangelists often continue to receive financial support from planting churches or mothering churches outside the local region (most often churches in the U.S.).
The fourth step is that the missionary church is willing and able to duplicate itself in the establishing of new congregations, thus becoming a planting church. This requires an intense evangelistic effort which is done by the evangelist, members of the missionary church, and visiting teams or groups from other missionary churches (or from the U.S.)
The fourth step in the development of a missionary church is the first step in the development of a new missionary church. Note that the new church is developed without an inserted missionary team. The gospel echoes forth in a certain region as the result of the work and life of the churches that already exist in that region.