For this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you; rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me. (Acts 26:16-18 NASB)
The Lord Jesus did not instruct Paul to just go and give a well polished Sunday sermon or do a healing crusade or have a convention [conference] or broadcast a message or show a Jesus film because, by themselves, they do not result in churches being planted. Despite many astronomical claims, these efforts do not produce much “fruit that remains”. (John 15) None of the above things are wrong, but church planting is not a haphazard series of events but a rather well-planned, goal-driven process, which results in multiplying the church planting movement.
Sadly, we Christians are expert “Event Managers” and need to change into “Process Managers”. Jesus gave Paul the whole process: to open their eyes of the unbelievers, to bring them form darkness into light and from the power of Satan to God, and to enable them to receive forgiveness of sins and become inheritors of the Kingdom. Jesus gave very specific instructions on church planting. He sent his seventy disciples two by two to find the “person of peace”, live and eat there, conduct and in-house healing and deliverance ministry, make disciples, baptize, and plant a multiplying church. (Luke 10: 1-9)
We should do whatever it takes to saturate our city with rapidly multiplying churches. When a child learns the Alphabet, his goal is to learn all the way to Z. This “Z thinking” is essential in church planting so that we have the aims, objectives, goals, and methodology worked out clearly before we begin in order to avoid failure and disappointment.
Just like the permanent fruit of an apple tree is another apple tree, similarly, the fruit of the church is not just a new convert but a new church. Without a well-planned and systematic approach for saturation church planting of the city, we might as well be operating a religious treadmill that goes nowhere.
Victor Choudhrie The Prayer Warrior (English Edition 2003)