Church Matters: Retrieving the Great Tradition

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Chur ch Mat ter s : Ret r i ev i ng the Great Trad i t i on

A. Definition of Church Planting Movements: Five Distinct Features (David Garrison, Church Planting Movements: How God Is Redeeming a Lost World . Midlothian, VA: WIGTake Resources, 2004.) “A CPM is a rapid multiplication of indigenous churches planting churches that sweeps through a people group or population segment,” p. 21 (a five-part definition).

1. A CPM reproduces rapidly (within a short period of time, newly planted churches are already planting new churches, “faster than you think possible”), p. 21.

2. A CPM is multiplication (they do not simply add new churches, instead they multiply them, akin to the multiplication of the loaves and fish), p. 22.

3. A CPM is indigenous (meaning “generated from within as opposed to started by outsiders), p. 22.

4. A CPM is churches planting churches (church planters may start the first churches, but at some point the churches themselves reach a “tipping point” and a “movement” is launched), p. 22.

5. A CPM occurs within people groups or interrelated population segments (they involve the communication of the Gospel to people within shared language and ethnic boundaries), p. 23.

B. What a Church Planting Movement is not:

1. They are not a revival or spiritual awakening , p. 23.