Front Matters

F RONT M ATTERS : P REREQUISITE R EADINGS FOR THE E VANGEL S CHOOL OF U RBAN C HURCH P LANTING • 9

7. Three Expressions (all include assessing, training, chartering, and resourcing) • House Church (20-50 people) Can be understood as a small store in a shopping mall. Needs the connections to other small churches to both survive and thrive. Can meet virtually anywhere and can operate with a small footprint with little to no financial burdens. Can focus on a specific block, housing development, or network of families. A strong discipleship focus of indigenous leadership development can take place in this smaller connected group. • Community Church (60-150 people) Can be understood as a grocery or convenience store. Focuses on a particular geographic identity and proximity, highlighting both the affinity, connection, and unique context of the congregation and the surrounding community. Developed around a deep calling and connection to a particular neighborhood. Will need a semi-stable place to meet (park, community center, or school). Partnership with other community churches is important. • Mother Church (200+ people) Can be understood as a Walmart Superstore or Super Target. A missionally directed congregation that leverages its capabilities and gifts to be a . . . • Center of compassion, mercy, and justice ministries, • Nurturing headquarters for planting new churches, and • Incubator of other effective ministries among the unreached urban poor. • Note that a more rooted facility would be needed within this expression. 8. Church Planting Framework • Church Planting School (Events, Training, Resources) • A unified assessment, training, resourcing, and standardization strategy. • Training World Impact Staff as coaches, mentors, and co-pastors. • Assessing call and gifts of World Impact Staff/Indigenous Leaders. (school, assessment, charter) • Partnerships (local churches, denominations and organizations)

Source: Planting Churches among the City’s Poor, Volume 1, pp. 288-291