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So, what is a Church Planting Movement?

A simple, concise definition of a Church Planting Movement (CPM) is

    a rapid and exponential increase of indigenous churches planting churches within a given people group or population segment.

There are several key components to this definition. The first is rapid. As a movement, a Church Planting Movement occurs with rapid increases in new church starts. Saturation church planting over decades and even centuries is good, but doesn’t qualify as a Church Planting Movement. Secondly, there is an exponential increase. This means that the increase in churches is not simply incremental growth—adding a few churches every year or so. Instead, it compounds exponentially—two churches become four, four churches become 16 and so forth.

Exponential multiplication is only possible when new churches are being started by the churches themselves – rather than by professional church planters or missionaries.   Finally, they are indigenous churches. This means they are generated from within rather than from without. This is not to say that the gospel is able to spring up intuitively within a people group. The gospel always enters a people group from the outside; this is the task of the missionary. However, in a Church Planting Movement the momentum quickly becomes indigenous so that the initiative and drive of the movement comes from within the people group rather than from outsiders.  The resources are in the harvest!

Example:

Suppose you want to reach a people group of 6 million and have determined you need to start 5000 churches. One missionary can work for 40 years winning one person to Christ everyday, with a gain of 15,000 believers.   This would still leave you  having to reach 5,985,000. 

If 20 church planting teams each planted one new church a year, it would take them 250 years to plant 5000 churches. Increase through addition will not work.

Suppose you planted ONE church that produces a new church every year, and the churches they start also produce a new church every year.  Then the picture looks much different.

 

            Year 1 --           1 church

            Year 3 --           4 churches

            Year 5 --         16 churches

            Year 7 --         64 churches   

            Year 9 --       256 churches

            Year 11--    1024 churches

            Year 13 --  4096 churches

 

In a little over 13 years, it is possible to see all 5000 churches started, compared to 250 years with 20 church planting teams.  One of the important keys is what kind of church you start to begin with.  What characterizes the kind of churches that expand so quickly, and what kind of soil do these churches need to be planted in?  Let's look at some answers to this question.