Floyd & Sally McClung

By Floyd McClung

Introduction: Keys unlock what is hidden from plane sight. Keys also open up treasures that are stored for safe-keeping. Jesus said to his disciples that he would give them the keys to the kingdom of God. The seven keys to building church planting movements are not secrets for the elite or for those who have special knowledge, but they do unlock principles that seem to be hidden to most people.

By understanding and obeying the seven keys in this outline, things get bound that need to be bound, and other things get loosed that should be loosed. Here is how Eugene Petersen translates the binding and loosing passage from Matthew’s gospel:

“And that’s not all. You will have complete and free access to God’s kingdom, keys to open any and every door: no more barriers between heaven and earth, earth and heaven. A yes on earth is yes in heaven. A no on earth is no in heaven.” Matthew 16:19

It is time to repent from traditional ways of doing things. It is time to open our hearts to a new way of doing church, a new kind of Christianity. Open your heart to think about what the church means to God, not you. Learn to see church for how God intended it, not how it’s done in your culture. And if necessary, repent from being religious, of thinking about what you need or get from church, instead of giving glory to God by following the New Testament pattern and practices for being His bride, the church of the living God.

Key # One - Define Church the Way Jesus Defined It

• The key to how we do church is discovered in how we define church. We can define church many ways. We can define by what we want to get by “going to church.” We can define it by how we have always done church. And we can define it by how it is done in our culture. But there is one a problem with defining church in any or all of these ways: it may not be how God wants us to be and do church.
• The simplest way is to define church is the way Jesus taught and modeled it. A question to ask in helping us arrive at a biblical definition of church, is this: what are the minimum biblical essentials to “be church?” In the words of Jesus in Matthew 18:20, there are four ingredients that answer that question.

1. Two or three people – Jesus did not require a large group or a recognized leader to “be church.” There doesn’t have to be a building, and there doesn’t have to be a pastor. But there does have to be people, people who “gather.”
2. Gathered – To be gathered in his name is not just to attend a meeting. Church is not a meeting you attend or a building you meet in. Church is people who form a spiritual family. To gather is to be a community of friends who are dedicated to following Jesus. Just as Jesus gathered his disciples and invited them follow him, the same thing is happening today, all over the world.
3. In his name – The focus of church is Jesus. The church is made up of those who seek to know him and obey him. The church exists first for God, not us. To be gathered in his name means we are committed to obeying his commands.
4. I am with you – Jesus promises to be in our midst when we obey him. Matthew 28:19-20 tells us that we are commanded to go, preach, baptize and make disciples, and that if we do those things he will be with us. Acts 5:32 says the Holy Spirit is given to them that obey him.

• Church is God’s family living for God’s glory. Paul describe a local church community as those who are being “…built together for a dwelling place of the Spirit…” and those who are “…joined together…” He went on to say that this joining together of our lives “…causes growth of the body to edify itself in love…” Paul said to the Roman Christians: “…we are individually members of one another…” Ephesians 3:14-15, 2:20, 4:16 Romans 12
• Jesus modeled church with his disciples. He came to die for the sins of the whole world - and to build his church into a loving family. One without the other does not work. Jesus did not die to have a disconnected collection of individuals who are saved and going to heaven. He came to fashion a people who belong to himself, a bride, a body, a family. Church is not an option for those who follow Jesus – it is who we are. We are the ecclesia, literally, the “called together ones.” IF you follow Jesus you will belong to a band of brothers and sisters who are seeking to love each other and spread his love to others.
• To do church the way Jesus did it is to respond to his call to follow him and to reach out to others. It is not only to be joined to his family, but also to obey his commands. The commands he gave his disciples can be broken into the following categories:

• Believe and receive Him as savior
• Be baptized and live a new life
• Remember his death through the breaking of bread
• Love each other
• Pray daily
• Give and forgive generously
• Make disciples of all nations

• In the New Testament, the church followed a pattern of small and large gatherings. They met from house to house and in large celebrations in Solomon’s temple. ( Acts 2:40-47, 20:20 ). We need both small community and large worship meetings. Both have a role to play in our spiritual growth and our witness to the world.

Key # Two - Do Church the Way They Did It In Acts

• Babies do not grow just by being babies. They have to be fed, to be loved, to obey their parents as they grow older. Simply “being church” does not mean we grow spiritually. A baby is fully human when it is born, but it needs to be fed, loved, guided in life by caring parents, and taught important truths. The same is true for a community of Jesus followers. When two or three people gather in his name, they are church. To grow up spiritually they need to express commitment to one another, to study and apply God’s word in an accountable fashion to their lives, to reach out to others, to worship together, to give of their resources, to pray, and to commit themselves to obey the great commission and submit to their spiritual leaders. Acts 2:42-47 shows this happening in the church. You can break the “growth essentials” they practiced into four elements of healthy church life:

1. Upward: worship, prayer, breaking bread
2. Inward: studying God’s word together, eating common meals, sharing their possessions and finances as needs arose, building deeper friendships, and recognizing and accepting spiritual leaders who are called to serve them and lead them.
3. Outward: sharing Jesus with those who don’t know him, caring for the poor, taking the good news of Jesus to other towns and villages
4. Forward: intentionally training workers and reaching out to other nations and peoples who have not heard about Jesus, starting new churches in schools, neighborhoods, villages where there is a need in a home, campus, or market place

• When Jesus ascended into heaven he gave different gifts to people in the church to continue his earthly ministry through others. He gave leadership gifts some members of the church could motivate and equip everyone to find and develop their unique gifts and passions. It is not that he wanted some to be able to serve him and others not – that was more like the Old Testament system. He placed leadership gifts in the church in Acts to stir up the rest and encourage the rest of the church.
• The five equipping ministries named in Ephesians four are designated by Jesus to provide leadership in the church, They were not intended to be exclusive or to create a hierarchical system, These gifts are placed in the lives of ordinary people so they can carry out their responsibilities in a grass roots manner, among the people they serve. We call these people minister or elders. Their role is designed to help guide, guard and to govern the church, without creating dependency or the hierarchical leadership structures that marginalize ordinary people.
• Giving tithes and offerings to is designed by God to support those who serve the church, to take care of the poor in the church, and to send people to spread the gospel to other places. Giving is another way to help us grow spiritually. It requires faith to give joyfully from the heart.

Key # Three – The Culture Key

• Encourage people to worship and teach in their heart language and culture. Every church planting movement should be focused on encouraging people to express their love for God style in their heart language and culture. Churches that are racially or linguistically mixed are important for demonstrating reconciliation, but may make it impossible for most people to feel at home in the church.
• Redeem lost expressions of the culture. God is the creator of languages and cultures. Every culture reflects different aspects of who God is. Therefore, every effort should be made to search for lost expressions of a culture and to encourage indigenous peoples to revive their language and cultural practices. Jesus came to redeem culture, not destroy it. Certain aspects of a culture may have been used to worship demons, but that does not mean the practices themselves are evil, like dancing, beating drums, playing indigenous instruments, etc.
• Don’t civilize, evangelize! The way to disciple nations is to impact the culture, one person at time. That happens through making disciples, training leaders, and planting churches. The way to build a healthy church planting movement that will impact and transform whole nations is to do discipling like Jesus did, one person at a time. Jesus preached to the multitudes, but spent most of his time with a few men, helping them grow spiritually through believing in them can calling them to live holy lives. When the focus of missions is to change the culture, missionaries end up importing a foreign culture. But when the focus is making disciples, training leaders and planting churches, then a nation can be transformed by the power of the gospel.
• Share the story of God chronologically. The most effective way to share the gospel is to tell the story of God. God’s story develops naturally in the Bible, one person at a time. Creation comes involves two people who share the Garden of Eden with God. Sin is explained through the lives of Cain and Abel. The tower of Babel explains how languages develop and where different tribes come from. That is the way the Bible was written and that is the best way to tell it to others.

Key # Four – The Leadership Key: Build on Apostolic and Prophetic Foundations

• Paul said he did not want to” build on any other man’s foundation.” What did Paul mean? It meant that his ambition was to preach the gospel where Christ had not yet been named. The apostolic foundation in the church is the ambition God places in the hearts of his people to make disciples and plant churches where Christ has not been proclaimed. When this ambition spreads in a community of believers, a culture takes hold that empowers a church community to have radical faith for the impossible. Apostolic passion enables a church to live boldly for the purposes of God. This is important because apostolic ambition originates in the heart of God: He longs for His son to be worshipped by the nations and peoples who have never heard about Jesus. Romans 15:7-20
• When Paul was traveling on his missionary journeys, the Spirit led him and his team by dreams and visions. They planned to go to those who had never heard the gospel, but the spirit led them day by day in the details of where and when they should do things. Their passion was to both go where no man had gone before, and to be led by the Spirit as they stepped out in faith. Prophetic foundations involve dependence on the correcting, strengthening, guiding and empowering presence of God’s Spirit. Building on an apostolic foundation means having a passion for the lost to know Jesus, especially those who have never had a chance to hear the gospel one time. Apostolic teams build local churches, and do so by relying on the Spirit’s power to confirm their preaching with signs and wonders.
• The integration of the apostolic and prophetic foundations in a church is like mixing concrete and steel bars together to create strong foundation. Both are essential for a church to be healthy and to glorify God. It is not possible for a local church to be a healthy local church if they do not build on these two foundations. Paul said to the Corinthians Christians;

“But for right now, friends, I’m completely frustrated by your unspiritual dealings with each other and with God. You’re acting like infants in relation to Christ, 2 capable of nothing much more than nursing at the breast. Well, then, I’ll nurse you since you don’t seem capable of anything more. 3 As long as you grab for what makes you feel good or makes you look important, are you really much different than a babe at the breast, content only when everything’s going your way?” 1 Corinthians 3:1-3

• Apostolic and prophetic foundations mean both “building and blessing” approaches to ministry. “Building” means being intentional, strategic, focused - looking beyond the local church or our individual wants and needs. “Blessing” means seeking the power of the spirit right now, spontaneous, open to anything and everything the Spirit says – except to be diverted from the task of making Christ known to the lost.
• Building on “another man’s foundation” as Paul describes it in Romans 15:20, most likely will lead to conflict of values and vision. It’s vital for each church planting movement to be clear on how they define church, what approaches they take to starting new churches, and the core values they deem essential and to their endeavor. If a local church has a passion to make Christ known where God’s love has never proclaimed, they have apostolic passion. It is not that other foundations are wrong, but differences in vision and passion can lead to conflicts, to time and energy used for other things than making disciples, training leaders and planting churches.
• Paul knew and taught radical values that were essential to his pioneering work. Paul could not have taken on the challenges he did in reaching villages and towns that had never been reached with the gospel if he did not have these kind of core values. His core values were consistent with his passion to preach the gospel where Christ had not been named. See Acts 20:17-30 for a more detailed description of Paul’s core values.

Key # Five - The Kingdom Key

• There is a kingdom that is above all other kingdoms, a government that rules all other governments, and that is the Kingdom of God. God is the king over all kings. It says in Daniel 2,

“God changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings…” Daniel 2:21

• God’s rule came into the world in a new way when Jesus was born. Jesus is the servant King. He rules now with a mercy and grace, but he will rule when he returns with power and might. Every knee may bow now, but every knee must bow when he returns the second time.
• Jesus preached the kingdom more than any other topic. He began his public ministry announcing the kingdom had come ( Mark 1;14-15 ). He sent his disciples out two by two to announce the arrival of his kingdom. The kingdom of God is defined in the Bible as the rule of God through Jesus the servant king. The kingdom is lived out in the lives of those who believe in Jesus and submit him as their ruler, their supreme chief. God’s plan is to extend his kingdom through his those who honor him and submit to him. God’s plan is to impact culture and touch every sphere of life through his kingdom servants.
• The church is not the kingdom of God, but God uses the church to proclaim the kingdom. Church planting is the work of extending the influence of the kingdom, in every nation and every sphere of life. The kingdom spreads one changed life at a time, one family being transformed at a time, and by church being planted at a time.
• In God’s kingdom everyone is called to spread the good news about the king of the kingdom of God. Every member of the kingdom is a minister with a special calling and unique gifts to enable them to fulfill their calling.
• God created each of us with unique abilities and spiritual gifts. All of life has been given to us by God to enjoy and bring him glory. Therefore, there is no aspect of life that is not to be touched by the kingdom of God. This means there are no jobs that God did not create and intend to be for his glory and our enjoyment. As we submit ourselves to God’s rule over our lives, each and every one of us are sent into the world. When Jesus said to go, teach, baptize and make disciples, he meant every one of us.
• God wants to saturate the whole earth with his glory – through kingdom-minded church planting churches. Every nation and neighborhood, every village, every university and school, every place of recreation or the arts is a potential place for planting a “campus church” or “market place church” or “house church.” The king of the kingdom commands us to go – our part is to be so in love with him, that we can just as easily here him say “here or there.” We don’t find our part in spreading the kingdom by asking God were to go, but by falling in love with the king, then dedicating our gifts and resources %100 to spread the kings rule in people’s lives, and then lastly, to ask him where we are to go. When we love the king, we will want to make him known!

Key # Six – The Disciple Making Key

• Disciple making is the heart planting church planting churches and preaching the kingdom of God. Making disciples gets at the heart of being and doing church. There is no short cut and no substitute. There is no program or school that can disciple people. People make disciples, one person at a time.
• This is how God grows his people. He works through people to change people. Teaching, healing, and helping people is disciple making. Jesus modeled how to do it: he made friends with ordinary people, and then he gave them a a vision for their lives. He gave them something greater than themselves to live for. He commanded them to go into all the world, and then taught them how to hear his voice so they would know where to go. That is what discipleship is all about.
• Jesus gathered them as he made disciples. Notice that Jesus did not wait until he had a church with a bunch of holy, heavenly Bible school graduates before he started discipling them. He began discipling them from the first moment he met them. He continued as they followed him around. Making them disciples culminated in them believing and receiving him as their savior. Discipleship is not a program; it is about relationship. It is about stirring dreams in people, about inviting them to be part of what God is doing to change people’s lives. It is about calling people to be fully alive by spending time with Jesus every day.
• Making disciples means helping people discover their spiritual gifts. It is about training them on the job to be disciple makers themselves. It is helping them learn the joy of sharing Jesus, leading someone to Christ and teaching that person how to grow in their relationship with Jesus. It is about giving people opportunities and assignments to lead, and then helping them when they fail or fall.
• Disciple making is about holding one another accountable, It is about obeying the commands of Jesus, and learning to obey them in accountability to others. Disciple making is about setting goals for personal growth and then taking steps toward those goals. It is about growing as a follower of Jesus in our work habits, in fasting, witnessing, personal holiness, and forgiving others.
• Disciple making also has to do with finding a spiritual mother or father and asking them to speak into your life. Everyone needs those who are more mature in the Lord to give them input for growth. Older Christians can serve as models, spiritual guides, advocates and mentors. That is why we honor the elders God has put in our lives.
• Disciple making creates a net to gather in a harvest. When every one is making disciples it creates a big relational network that allows a church community to grow relationally. Jesus said we are to be fishers of men, and disciples making is how we catch the fish. God’s intention is to work through each of our lives to impact a sphere of influence he has assigned to us. There are people he wants each of us to reach, to “catch” for him. Disciple making is discovering who that is and focusing on those people through prayer, friendship and sharing Jesus.

Key # Seven – The Mission Key: Plant Small, Simple, Church Planting Churches

• The most important thing to do to reach the world’s unevangelized and neglected peoples is to plant small, simple, easily reproducible churches. It is estimated that over ninety percent of the churches being planted in the world today are small, house-type churches that are led by non-professional leaders. They are easily reproducible because they are not dependent on buildings or programs to spread the gospel. Seminary trained leaders are not required to proclaim the gospel in the villages and slums of the world. In fact, Western models of church do not work in most of Africa, India, China, and the Muslim worlds.
• Intentionally plant churches that plant churches. The goal is not to plant churches but to plant churches that plant churches. Immediately after a handful of believers are gathered in a new church plant, it is vital to mobilize them to reach a near-by barrio or village. To do that we need church planters more than we need pastors. We need evangelists and apostles who are more interested in seeing movements of churches than one church at a time. Large churches are attractive in some cultures, but are not essential for launching church planting movements. In many instances, they hinder church growth, numerically and spiritually.
• Build movements don’t just plant churches, they plant church planting churches. They teach people to share the gospel as soon as they come to Jesus. Church planting movements allow for flexibility, freedom and fast growth. A movement focuses on moving forward not growing in one place. To see a movement birthed, certain traditional church practices may have to be abandoned. Movements don’t require pastors, salaries, buildings or bible schools. But they do require discipleship, boldness, sacrifice and humility. Church planting churches spring up in prisons, hospitals, factories, and campuses.
• Local, lay leaders that are unpaid, move from one place to another, and see themselves as leading from behind the scenes make the best leaders of church planting movements. Leaders of church planting movements have to decide early on if they are willing to give up money from the West for trusting God, tent meetings for small meetings, being seen for being unseen, and preaching for personal discipleship. Movements are led like Jesus led, by focusing on a few people at a time.
• Leaders of church planting movements lose control very quickly. They don’t take positions that obligate them to one place or one group, but they focus on discipling new leaders on a continual basis. Church planting movements emphasize mobile, non-paid, servant leaders. Leaders of church planting movements don’t have to worry about losing their job - they never have one in the first place! Their role is to release others through personal, one-on-one times of training and equipping just like Jesus did with his disciples.
• Church planting movements follow the POUCH approach to doing church:

• Participative priest hood of every believer – everyone involved in the church not just a few leading from the front
• Obedience oriented – to the seven commands of Jesus
• Unpaid workers – leaders must learn to trust the Lord not worry about salaries or pensions
• Culturally appropriate worship and practice – church should be in the language and culture of the people, not Western styles that are popular with a few people in the cities but don’t work for the masses of people
• House churches – small churches meeting everywhere, not big meetings meeting in buildings

• Church planting churches are started by doing five things: pray – a lot, meet – people and their needs, make – disciples not just decisions, gather – people in simple house churches, multiply – as soon as possible start more small churches