Two of the questions I often get asked by pioneers are: “Where do we meet on Sundays?” and, “How should we structure the midweek group?” This often leads on to another question, “What should be the main time priorities of the pioneer leader?” Due to the diverse circumstances people find themselves in, there can be many ways of answering these questions; it is more important that we try and understand some principles and then apply them to each unique set of circumstances. The following points are some of the main factors that should be taken into consideration when making these decisions.

The visionary leader needs maximum exposure to the first people joining the church. This ensures that these people are totally immersed in the vision and values of the church. This can mean that the first group becomes larger than would be normal before it multiplies into two groups.

The first group can be made up of people with various commitment levels. Multiplying a group based on numbers can sometimes be frustrating, especially if some people drop out as they become more aware of the type of church they are part of. This can mean the two groups becoming too small and having to regroup.

What the main focus of the church should be at this particular time will also have a major bearing on the structure of the church. If there are people on the fringe that would make an evangelistic group like an Alpha course feasible, it might be more appropriate to keep the group together. This gives new leaders time for running the outreach group.

The make-up of the group will also have a bearing on the appropriate structure. Where there is a babysitting need, two groups meeting on different nights can help this. All-age midweek groups may be more appropriate for some people, however this increases the numbers and therefore the pressure on accommodation.

In a highly mobile community, drawing the small group together from different parts of the city may be feasible. Where there is limited private transport it may be easier to multiply into two smaller groups.

As we pioneer churches into large cities around the world, we will find people from different cultures who speak many different languages sometimes living in the same street. This also should have a bearing on how we structure the church.

Colin Dye says, “it is one thing to have a vision, but quite another matter to see it fulfilled. To bring vision into a reality takes time, effort and commitment; it means a single- minded dedication and unrelenting persistence, never giving up until everything is established. Someone has wisely said, ‘happy are those who dream dreams and are willing to pay the price to make them come true!’ Many Christian leaders have great dreams and wonderful God-given aspirations, but it seems that few really take hold of the things God has said and battle through until everything is accomplished.”

Getting started, keeping focused and persevering to the end: these are some of the main ingredients for fulfilling what God has given you. Nehemiah is a great of example of this and a life story any pioneer should keep reading. I want to use one incident in the life of Nehemiah to illustrate how he communicated vision in such a way that motivated a dispirited and downcast group of people, to achieve an amazing building project.

There are a number of hindrances to people confidently communicating their vision:

Past disappointments
Fear of Failure
False humility
Lack of Faith

These and other hindrances have to be faced and over-come, whether it is in the mind of the pioneer or of those he is gathering. Nehemiah faced some of these when he set about the task of leading the people of Jerusalem to rebuild the walls of the city. I believe we can learn lessons from how Nehemiah went about this.

Nehemiah found himself in Jerusalem looking at a city whose walls were broken down and whose people were very vulnerable to an enemy. As he walked around the walls he realised that for nearly a century the people of God had attempted to complete the work. God raised up some great leaders to enable the whole project of a temple and city to be rebuilt. Morale and energy for the task was at a very low ebb. We can learn from the way Nehemiah handled the situation - how he sowed vision in such a way that he motivated and energised the people to set about a way of completing the task.
“Then I said to them, ’You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and it’s gates have been burned by the fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace.’ I also told them about how the gracious hand of God was upon me and what the king said to me. They replied, ‘let us start rebuilding.’ So they began this good work.” (Nehemiah 2:17-18)
We can see the different aspects that Nehemiah addressed in the statement and how he faced up to the problem, helping them deal with some of the hindrances to their faith. He put a challenge before the people and then delivered some fantastic words of encouragement.

Breaking the vision down into bite-sized chunks is the art of goal setting. Mike Southern writes, “goal setting is about having a vision of where an individual can get to, and about understanding the steps they have to take to get there. Well-set goals plot a path to success via a series of challenging but achievable goals.”2 Strategic goals are SMART: Specific; Measurable; Agreed; Realistic; Time phased.
One of the biggest challenges I have found in communicating short-term goals is making sure that communication takes place in the context of overall vision. Short-term goals can easily become the end product. A goal to run an Alpha course to launch a new church plant can easily become a series of successful Alpha courses, and the dream of planting a new church can be forgotten.

Speak out your vision as clearly as you can define it, as often as possible. Those who you are gathering should have no doubt about what it is they are buying into, and they will see that everything you are doing is building towards that vision. Some will have faith for the whole thing and can see it complete. Others however will only be able to take hold of smaller parts of the whole, so wherever possible break it down into manageable chunks. For example, in Manchester, twenty hospitable families in different parts of the city are all we need to start twenty churches.
Steve Nicholson says that when the church planter is talking about vision he is describing where they want to end up. “Vision is like a painting: it needs to have word pictures, metaphors and stories that illustrate the vision and which capture people’s imagination.”
He goes on to illustrate how John Wimber communicated vision. “John Wimber did not just stand up in front of people and give a tick list of his vision; he would tell them this story, that was often told in the early days of Vineyard:

As he was riding in a cab one day on his way to the airport, the cab driver learned that he was a pastor. The cab driver spent the rest of the trip talking about how bad the church was – how it didn’t help anybody, how it made people feel guilty, how it was always after people’s money. Finally at the end of the cab ride, as they were pulling Wimber’s luggage out of the trunk, Wimber looked at the cab driver and said, ‘OK, tell me this. If Jesus were to have a church, what do you think it would look like?’ The cab driver stopped for a moment, thought about it, and then looked at Wimber and said, ‘if God really had a church it would feed the poor, heal the sick, and it would not charge you money for reading the book.’ At that moment God gripped Wimber’s heart with a vision for what the church ought to look like – and it seized the hearts of those Wimber told the story to as well, when he wanted to communicate his heart and vision for the church. The problem is many pastors get bored in telling their story, so they quit telling it, and then they wonder why their church quits growing. Telling your story is a major part of vision casting and leadership.”
Speaking out vision is creationary. Declaring at the very start of your first home group that you will be multiplying to two groups and will train leaders to take on the second group, will help that very thing to come about. As you declare it and pray it out, you impart faith to people.
As you begin the process of stepping out in faith to see the vision realised, it needs to be earthed with realistic faith goals communicated within the context of the vision as a whole. There is a saying in Africa - “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!” and in Manchester - “How do we see 10,000 saved and added? One at a time!”

We need God’s grace to dream big dreams - to lift our eyes beyond what we now see and to start dreaming about what he will do in our town or city. If we only dream about what we might achieve, then our vision will be very small, there- fore we must keep asking God to give us a vision which captures his heart and his purposes for his church in the place we live.
God gave Noah a massive vision to build an ark, but he also gave him very specific dimensions and instructions, so that in his mind Noah could see the finished ark before he had begun. This meant that he could stand against all the ridicule because he knew that one day his dream would become a reality.
Walt Disney had a huge dream but he died before it came to pass. Many thought that this was very sad and said, “if only Walt Disney could have seen Disney World”, but the reply of those who knew him was, “if he had not seen it, we would never have built it.”
Bill Easum says, “Leaders have strong imaginations. Imagination is the ability to see clearly what doesn’t yet exist and to be able to articulate it so that others see it.”1 They “dream and daydream. In their minds and hearts they go places most of us have never thought of and they take us with them.”
Rob Parsons states that “the most famous dream in the world was held in the mind of Dr Martin Luther King. ‘I have a dream my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.’ His dream inspired millions to make a difference even when a whole world screamed at them, ‘yours is an impossible dream’. But dreams change things – companies, individuals and even societies. God has created us to have dreams.”

When people are thoroughly grounded in the vision and values and have been consistently joining with you, the pioneer leader and apostle need to spend some time with the group to find out where they are. With regard to the questions you ask, it is important to be open to God’s leading – take the example of Paul meeting a group for the first time in Ephesus (Acts 19:1-7). His line of questioning immediately gave him a clear picture of the situation, and enabled him to apply the appropriate teaching and ministry. The bottom line is, you need teachable, humble people, and sometimes human insight alone is not enough to find out what is really going on in people’s hearts. Some may struggle with some of the things they have heard, but if you sense they are teachable then you can go ahead and bring them into membership. Others will say a hearty “amen” to all you have taught and even say such things as, “we have been waiting years for this”, yet in your spirit you may feel that these people are not teachable.
When someone is coming into membership, you need to acknowledge publicly that these people have now committed themselves to the church (it should be noted however, that when you bring people in publicly, you must also give an explanation to the church if they move on).

Another important question asked by pioneers is with regard to the content of their first meetings. This will vary according to the gifts and strengths of the pioneer. For some, prayer and worship will be the primary focus of the first home meeting; a hospitable person may concentrate their first group around meals; for others Alpha might be the most appropriate. In the section on bringing people into church membership I look at some of the challenges that you will face as you seek to transition this first group into a committed community. Knowing what you want to achieve and being ‘up front’ about it is important so that you do not find yourself disappointing people who have got used to coming round to your house for a particular type of evening. When they find the emphasis has changed they can feel hurt or left out.

There seems to have been two major ways New Testament pioneers gathered a group in the initial stages. The first was to go to the people with whom they had things in common, and with whom they had faith to see become Christians. For Paul this meant going first to a Synagogue, if there was one in the city. Acts 17 describes him arriving at Thessalonica “...where there was a Jewish Synagogue. As his custom was Paul went into the Synagogue and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the scriptures.” In Acts 11 we see how those who were scattered due to persecution began pioneering among those they could relate to. This meant that those who were natives of Judea and Jerusalem went to the Jews, but those who were Greek speaking or who were born in Cyprus and Cyrene began to reach out to Greeks. We must reach out to those we have faith to see saved. There were other times when God opened up amazing divine appointments where the pioneers found them- selves in situations that were not strategic. Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26) and Paul and the Philippian jailer (Acts 16:27), are two of many accounts where this happened.

You should be looking to build some real, genuine friendships amongst those with whom you have contact. At times it will mean going to things and taking part in activities that you don’t always enjoy, but it will enable you to get into the life of those you are befriending. Often though, it is doing what you’re good at and what you enjoy. Spend time get- ting to know people and letting them get to know you. Greg Livingstone also says that those who are pioneering into Muslim Countries “are strongly encouraged to make friends in high places. Friends can be called upon to rescue them when under the threat of expulsion or prison.”2 He says a large percentage of missionaries to Muslim countries who have been asked to leave would not have had to do so (at least not as soon) had they adequately enmeshed themselves in the society.

Prayer is a major key to answering these and other questions regarding building the first group and the ongoing development of the church. In the gospels and Acts we find some of the prayers Jesus and the apostles prayed - these are very helpful in directing our praying in pioneer situations:

Jesus said, “Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into the harvest field” (Mt 9:38). I believe this is a prayer given to the pioneer to pray in faith and confidence that God will send the right people to work with you.

Paul asked for prayer “that God may open a door for our message” (Col 4:3). As we build friendships with people, we want opportunities to demonstrate God’s love and share our faith.

Paul asked the Ephesians to pray “that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel” (Eph 6:19). In the early church this was a frequent prayer request, as it should still be today!

Paul constantly asked churches to pray for him and his current situation, envisioning them with his onward march of church planting. Getting everyone praying for you is one of the ways an apostle will help you to pioneer a church, and who knows, maybe God will call some to come and join you! Terry Virgo once got me up in front of three hundred pastors, before I even moved to Manchester, and asked them to pray for me and for the city. Is it any wonder there- fore that we have seen churches start right across the region!

As the church you are building is going to grow through people being saved and added, it is important that you begin to look for ways of making new friends as soon as possible. Asking for help from new neighbours and work colleagues is a great way of getting to know people. Many people feel more comfortable helping you, and this often gives easy opportunities for them to come into your new home, and for you to go to theirs. This is also true when moving cross-culturally. Greg Livingstone in his book Planting Churches in the Muslim World writes, “My wife Sally and I found it is easier to make friends with Muslims if we were dependant on them.”1 As you develop relation- ships with neighbours and work colleagues, there may be those who are interested in the Christian faith, or simply what you’re up to, and they may want to spend time around you. It is important that an evangelist is part of the church planting team otherwise there can be a lot of relationships made, and very little fruit in terms of people becoming Christians. Making use of a travelling evangelist could help you reap where you are sowing.

Why have a carol service I hear you cry? Simple really, Jesus is a big deal for us and as best we can work out it will soon be his birthday so having a party seems like the decent thing to do.

This will be our first CCM:City carol service and the plan is very simple. We shall worship Jesus with some carols, there will be some short pieces of drama and a short talk to explain why we think Jesus is so important.

The evening will be shorter than a normal CCM:City meeting. We hope that this will be something that you feel comfortable bringing your friends along too.

So at 6pm on Sunday 4th December (that’s this Sunday!) at Luther King House you are invited to join us.

There will be open mic after the meeting at Baa Bar in Fallowfield.

Gathering a church planting team is vital to forming a community that can be strong enough to plant a church. Pioneering with the support and covering of a larger movement of churches can give you a broader resource from which to draw. Make it known as widely as possible your plans to plant a church, and request support in as many ways as you can get it. God may call people (or move them through circumstances) from around the UK and even other nations, to join you. The ideal would be to have a team of people with different giftings that would compliment your gifting. This of course seldom happens, and part of the joy of working with an apostolic team is that they can supplement some of the lack as they visit and help you plant the new church.

Although in general you should be ready to discourage people who come from other ‘born again’ churches, especially if they have left with hurts, there may be those whom God has genuinely called to work with you. It is essential that you make your vision and values very clear to them, and to resist any attempt by them to impose things on you.

It is easy for pioneers to feel pressured to grow the church almost overnight, especially those who are being given financial support by the sending church or organisation. I would rather encourage those who have moved into a new area to initially spend most of their time sorting out their home and settling their family. For some this may be frustrating, but it will prove a worthwhile investment in time and effort as the work begins to demand more and more time and attention and extra pressures are put on their lives. This is even more important when planting into a new nation or a different culture. Learning a new language can take 2 years of intense tuition and then even longer to feel totally fluent. Adapting and feeling at home in a new culture will also take time.

It is important that you don’t attempt more that you can really manage - the time for full-scale mission is probably not when you have a group of only four people! The apostle Paul was aware of this principle, as we see in Acts 18:1-5 where he arrives in Corinth and begins to work alongside Aquilla and Priscilla making tents. Only on the Sabbath is he found reasoning in the synagogue, and it was not until Silas and Timothy arrived to support him that he “devoted himself exclusively” to preaching the gospel.

With all the instructions, warnings and encouragements comes the challenge in Matthew 10:32, “Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will acknowledge before my father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men I will disown before my father.” Jesus wanted them to be wholehearted and to go for it because they will be acknowledged before God in heaven. In the end, pioneering a new church is a great challenge. William Carey said these famous words “Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God.” We are looking for men and women who will take up the challenge of the great commission, making disciples of all the nations by starting churches in villages, towns and great cities all over the world.