Catching a wave: Church Planting Movements in Europe
Right across Europe, there are rumours of a growing wave of church planting movements and God at work in amazing ways amongst Muslims and Iranians, the African diaspora and the Roma to name just a few.
But when you try to discover the number of churches or generations involved, the wave seems to recede and actual stories are harder to find, possibly because of their vulnerable and dymanic nature, and the fact they operate in sensitive areas.
The churchplantingmovements.com website (1) states that a church planting movement is:
a rapid multiplication of indigenous churches planting churches that sweeps through a people group or population segment (Garrison).
It continues: ‘These churches are satisfied with nothing less than a vision to reach their entire people group or city and eventually the whole world. As each church realizes that it has the capacity and responsibility to reproduce itself, the numbers start compounding exponentially’.
While European groups and churches may have this vision, are there particular factors within the European context which make it harder for the Gospel to sweep through a particular people group or city.
Several reasons are given by practitioners, including:
Our cities are multi-cultural and even within one ethnic group there may be different streams
People don’t always stay in one place for very long, so it’s harder to disciple them
The appropriate resources and tools needed to disciple people from non-church backgrounds need more development (see p6 for more about this)
‘Samuel’s’ experience reflects these observations. He works in Bosnia amongst Muslims. His mission organisation is committed to using the church planting movement strategy, and he has successfully planted two churches amongst the transitory Roma community. However, this is a long way off from the movement he longs to see.
‘Social integration within an urban context is a barrier,’ he explains. ‘The key to church planting movements is for national groups to convert as groups, with parents, children and the extended family all coming to Christ. However, in the city where we work, families are disintegrated. We are exploring other definitions of social groups where a movement could begin, for example the karate class our children attend and trying to identify the people of peace.’
Samuel’s work is focused on trying to create the conditions to make a CPM possible. ‘If a movement is going to take place, we need to have the correct DNA and systems in place. Church planting should be approached in an easily replicable style, with no church buildings or labour intensive programmes.’
“The key to church planting movements is for national groups to convert as groups, with parents, children and the extended family all coming to Christ.”
This approach mirrors that of ‘Simple Church’ networks. A Simple Church status report (2) was published in 2010 which identified 69 simple church networks in 16 nations across Europe. 40% of these were intentionally part of a bigger denomination or network.
Each of the networks identified tended to fall into one of three categories:
Apostolic networks: started by an apostolic worker ‘straight in the harvest’, mostly along the lines of the instructions Jesus gave his disciples in Luke 10 (planting a new simple church group in a household/social circle instead of inviting people to an existing church meeting).
Bridge networks: simple church groups made up of existing Christians who intentionally seek to be ‘missional’. They try to build relationships with non-believers, often using conventional forms of evangelism and a ‘come to us’ approach.
Christian networks: simple church groups formed by existing Christians who mainly seek a more relational and participatory alternative for conventional church.
The apostolic networks were the most effective in reaching unchurched people. Overall, there was a conversion rate of 22% in 2009, with the rest of the growth coming from a ‘recycling of the saints’. So while only one in four new members are not already Christians – how does this compare with your context?
For the purposes of the report, a simple church network had ‘groups of between 3 and 20 people’ forming the ‘backbone of the church’. The networks and groups were Jesus-centred, relational, intentionally mission-minded, reproductive, decentralised and connected. Buildings, full-time paid clergy and a congregational service as their main focus of church life were not included in this definition.
But churches with clergy, buildings and services can also be intentional about church planting to the point of being considered a potential ‘movement’.
Some of the African diaspora churches have grown at a tremendous rate in Europe, for example the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) which originates from Nigeria and has churches in 15 European countries from Ireland to Serbia, Germany, the Czech Republic and Malta. In the UK alone over 670 parishes (3) have begun since 1988. Over 3000 people meet in the largest parish, the Jesus House for All Nations, in Brent Terrace, Brent Cross, London.
There are three primary ways that the RCCG begins a new church:
A parish in another country gives the financial assistance to start a parish in a Western country. This may include a church in Nigeria paying a pastors salary in the UK or USA.
A RCCG member who has migrated for work or study may start a parish which becomes part of the wider network once it is viable
A pioneer church planter is commissioned by their church to start a new parish
‘Church planting is one of our core values, with churches established in new communities as soon as it is feasible,’ explains Babatunde Adedibu, Mission and Ecumenical Manager with the RCCG Central Office, UK.
“The first objective of the church is ‘to evangelise the world in the name of Jesus Christ and to propagate the Gospel of Jesus Christ”
‘The first objective of the church is ‘to evangelise the world in the name of Jesus Christ and to propagate the Gospel of Jesus Christ’. Members of the church pursue five goals. One of these goals is ’to plant churches within five minutes’ walking distance in every city and town of developing countries and five minutes’ driving distance in every city and town of developed countries.’
Even this level of church planting has ethnic ties, and not just Nigerian. Compare 670 UK parishes to just 30 in France. ‘It is apt to note that church planting within RCCG is highly significant in Anglophone countries, intrinsically linked to colonial antecedents such as use of the English language, and commonwealth ties,’ says Babtunde.
So in a few years time, are we going to look at church plants in Europe and see multiple generations of all kinds of churches?
I hope so, and the case studies in this issue of Vista give a foretaste. But maybe by only counting churches we are missing out on so much more.
‘Our team is not thinking so much in terms of church planting, but rather in Kingdom planting or Kingdom movement,’ says Marc van der Woude of Simple Church Europe. ‘While it is useful to form new communities of faith (indigenous and contextualised) the Kingdom is a larger paradigm. It involves disciple-making and forming faith groups, but also local community development and impact, and reforming societal-economic systems.’
Maybe he has a point. After all, Jesus did teach us to pray: ‘Your Kingdom come, your will be done’.
Joanne Appleton
1. See http://churchplantingmovements.com/index.php/vert5parts/vertbigpicture/54-what-are-church-planting-movements
2. Download the report from http://simplechurch.eu/download
3. A parish within RCCG nomenclature is a branch of the denomination situated within a geographical area in a community.