New Church Planting Book

Winfield at a recent book launch of Plant: A Sower's Guide to Church Planting. 

Are you interested in starting a church, but don’t know where to begin? Winfield’s new book on church planting called Plant: A Sower’s Guide to Church Planting is officially out with Seedbed Publishing!

Plant is an ideal resource for those who are in the “discovery phase” of church planting. It helps answer foundational questions about the “what” and “why” of church planting. Rather than presenting models or programs, Plant offers essential seeds for exploring the process of starting a new church. Written for a wide range of people, including those exploring church planting for the first time and those right on the cusp of launch, this highly practical book will be an invaluable resource as you explore the exciting world of church planting. It is also a resource that church planters can introduce their core groups to the process of church planting. You can find out more about the book and order copies at www.plantthebook.com.

What Others are Saying...

“Winfield Bevins is a fresh voice with new insights and solid church planting experience. His insights are worth your time!” - Ed Stetzer, President, LifeWay Research

“Every era in the history of the church has both called for, and given us, the intelligent and anointed young minds required for the day. Winfield Bevins is a classic example. A Sower's Guide To Church Planting has a fresh, yet down to earth voice that adds richly to the conversation about church planting in the contemporary world.”

-Todd Hunter, Bishop: Churches For the Sake of Others, Author, Christianity Beyond Belief

"Winfield Bevins calls himself 'an accidental church planter' but there is no doubt that he is now both an experienced practictioner and a wise reflector of church planting practice. This book is a gem - concise, digestible, and practical and is at the top of my church planting course booklist."

-Ric Thorpe, Bishop of Islington, UK

Why Mission Matters

There is a lot of talk about mission and being missional. You may be wondering, “Why does mission matter?”

First of all, mission is why we exist. God’s love inspires us to be missionaries to the world around us. Emil Brunner said, “The church exists by mission just as fire exists by burning.” Mission begins at home, serving in our local church, and reaching our community.  We have been sent as missionaries to share the Gospel in our present culture and to fulfill the Great Commission. 

The church is rooted in the concept of the Missio Dei, which recognizes that there is one mission and it is God’s mission.  The Missio Dei is a Latin theological term that can be translated as "Mission of God."  The word missio literally means sent.  The church is not an end in itself; the church is sent into the world to fulfill the mission of God. 

God is a Missionary

To understand what it means to be a part of the mission of God begins with understanding that God is a missionary God. The very being of God is the basis for the missionary enterprise. God is a sending God, with a desire to see humankind and creation reconciled, redeemed, and healed. God’s mission can be seen throughout the pages of the Bible and history. Nowhere is the mission of God better understood than in the person and work of Jesus Christ. John 3:16 tells us that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Many Christians and churches teach and preach that missions are something we support or do, such as sending or supporting missionaries in other countries. This was the case 20 to 30 years ago. However, in the 21st century the mission field has come to us. We live in a post Christian world where people simply don’t know the gospel anymore. Therefore we are all called to be missional and share in the mission of God.

 Jesus: The First Missionary

Being a missional Christian is simply following the way of Jesus.  Jesus Christ was the first and greatest missionary.  The Bible tells us that He came from heaven to earth to die for a lost and dying world.  The following scriptures reveal how the mission of God was fulfilled through Jesus Christ and how we are called to continue and complete the Missio Dei in our culture.

• Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to accomplish His work." John 4:34

• "I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me." John 5:30

• "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me." John 6:38

• "I know Him; because I am from Him, and He sent Me." John 7:29

• "And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him." John 8:29

• "We must work the works of Him who sent Me, as long as it is day; night is coming, when no man can work." John 9:4

• And Jesus cried out and said, "He who believes in Me does not believe in Me, but in Him who sent Me. And he who beholds Me beholds the One who sent Me." John 12:44-45

• "For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me commandment, what to say, and what to speak." John 12:49

• "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me." John 13:20

• "And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent." John 17:3

• "For the words which Thou gave Me I have given to them; and they received them, and truly understood that I came forth from Thee, and they believed that Thou didst send Me." John 17:8

• "As Thou didst send Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world." John 17:18

• Jesus therefore said to them again, "Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you." John 20:21

Sent on a Mission

As the Father sent Jesus, He also sends us into our time and culture. We have been chosen by God to live in this time and place in order to fulfill the mission of God.

Acts 17: 26-27 tells us that God has determined the exact place and time where we should live so that that men may find Him.  It is truly awesome to realize that you have chosen by God to be His representative to this world.  It is both a great privilege and great responsibility. Paul describes our calling in the following way, "we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God."  2 Corinthians 5:20.

Being missional is God’s way of showing the love of His Son Jesus through His church.  Christians must strive to always be like Jesus, our perfect example.  Jesus said, “the Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45) This scripture beautifully embodies the task of Christian ministry.  To be a minister is to be a servant.  We are to serve and give our lives for others.  Serving is the example that Jesus gave; therefore we should follow it.

As the church we are called to care for a lost and dying world that is in desperate need of a savior. Too many times we compartmentalize the different ministries of the church. We have viewed social ministry as something we do on one hand and evangelism on the other.  God is calling the church to rediscover the biblical model of holistic ministry.  Jesus met both the physical and spiritual needs of the people He ministered to.  As the Body of Christ on earth we are His representatives to a lost world.  Therefore what we do and say are of eternal importance.

Becoming a Missional Church

What does a missional church look like?  The Gospel and Our Culture Network where among the first to define the term “missional church.”  They have done research into cultural trends and a new missional approach to church.  They have defined twelve hallmarks of a missional church:

1. The missional church proclaims the gospel.
2. The missional church is a community where all members are involved in learning to become disciples of Jesus.
3. The Bible is normative in this church's life.
4. The church understands itself as different from the world because of its participation in the life, death, and resurrection of its Lord.
5. The church seeks to discern God's specific missional vocation for the entire community and for all of its members.
6. A missional community is indicated by how Christians behave toward one another.
7. It is a community that practices reconciliation.
8. Peoples within the community hold themselves accountable to one another in love.
9. The church practices hospitality.
10. Worship is the central act by which the community celebrates with joy and thanksgiving both God's presence and God's promised future.
11. This community has a vital public witness.
12. There is a recognition that the church itself is an incomplete expression of the reign of God.

Being missional is not an either or situation.  It means that we care about people’s souls and their bodies.  It means that because we care about the gospel we should care about social and environmental issues.  Being missional brings all of live together under the banner of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  

The Church Why Bother?

I love the local church with all of my heart and I always will.  However, this wasn’t always the case. Before I was a Christian church was one of the last places on earth that I wanted to be.  Like many people, I thought church was boring, dry, stuffy, and irrelevant to my life.  In a recent book entitled; They like Jesus but Not the Church Dan Kimball addressed some people’s negative view toward the church.  Sadly, the book is right about many people’s attitudes toward the church. 

In an article entitled “The Church Why Bother?” Tim Stafford says, “A living, breathing congregation is the only place to live in a healthy relationship to God. That is because it is the only place on earth where Jesus has chosen to dwell.”[i]  The church is God’s plan for spiritual growth, there is no backup plan.   Therefore, it is more important than ever before to rediscover the great and beautiful gift of the church. 

The Church is the Body of Christ

A common misconception that many people have about the church is that is a building or an organization.  This wasn’t always the case. Slowly over time, people’s concept of church shifted from being the people who gathered together in the name of Jesus to simply being a building that sits empty six days a week and is used on Sunday morning.  Nothing could be further from the truth. Nowhere in the New Testament does the word church refer to a building, in fact there were no church buildings until three hundred years after the time of Christ when Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire.

We need to rethink being the church in biblical terms.  A closer look reveals that the Old and New Testaments are based on an organic worldview that uses various organic metaphors to describe spiritual growth such as sowing and reaping (John 4:37; 2 Cor. 9:6) planting and watering (1 Cor. 3:6), growing (1 Pt. 2:2; 2 Pt. 3:18) and bearing fruit (Mt. 7:17-20; John 15:1-16; Gal. 5:22). 

We must get back to an organic understanding of what it means to be the church because like all living organisms the church is a living and breathing thing. Therefore, one of the best ways to understand the nature of the church is by using the Biblical metaphor of the church as the body of Christ.

The church is the body of Christ and Jesus Christ is the Head of the church. The apostle Paul talks about the whole body as a distinct metaphor for Christ’s church where every member and part has an important role to play in the whole (1 Corinthians 12:12-27: Eph.4). Just as the physical body has to have an organic structure to hold it together while allowing it to grow and develop, likewise the body of Christ has an organic structure where each part does its part. If one member of the body is out of place or is not working the rest of the body suffers as a result.

The Church is a Family

Another Biblical metaphor for the church is a spiritual family. The Bible uses terms like, sister, brother, mother, father, bride, and husband to refer to relational nature of the Christian faith.  As believers we are spiritual brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. I have a good friend Brad who always calls me his “brother from another mother.” What he really means is we are brothers in Christ despite being from different parents and living in different states. 

The Church is “Catholic”

The Apostle’s Creed says that the Church is catholic. You may be thinking, “Wait a minute, your not catholic are you?” The word catholic, actually does not specifically refer to the modern Catholic Church of Rome. Instead the word catholic simply means universal and refers to the universal nature of the church.  Paul reminds us, “There is one body, one Spirit…one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all” (Ephesians 4:4-5). This means there is only one true church and it made up of all true believers in Jesus Christ.

The universal nature of the church is a beautiful mystery and a profound truth of the Christian faith.  Think about it for a minute. The church is universally made up of all true believers from every time, place, and part of the world.  The church transcends our geographical and language boundaries.  Our God is a global God.  Pastor and writer John Stott reminds us, “We need to become global Christians with a global vision because we have a global God.” 

The Christian faith literally spans around the world and is made up of millions men and women who live in hundreds of countries and who speak thousands of different languages.  We are deeply connected to other believers from around the world. You and I may never meet or travel to see these believers but we are still a part of the same great family and body of Christ.  I have brothers and sisters in Christ who live in Africa, China, and Russia.

The Church is Local

Every believer should be a part of a local church because the church universal is also made up of local congregations of believers who gather together in the name of Jesus Christ to worship, grow, and live out the message of faith together.  All the way back in the time of the New Testament there were different local churches throughout the cities of the Middle East in places like Ephesus, Galatia, Corinth, and Philippi.  Many of these early churches were small in size and meet in homes due to widespread persecution. 

Today there are many different kinds and expressions of the local church. For instance, some churches have buildings while others meet in homes.  Some churches meet in bowling alleys, funeral homes, YMCA’s, schools, and some even meet outdoors.  Some churches are Baptist, Pentecostal, Methodist, Presbyterian, or non denominational. Some churches are traditional, some are contemporary, some are home fellowships. The list could go on and on. 

A commonality is that each local congregation of believers is gathered in a local expression of being the church wherever they are. The church in Africa looks different than the church in Texas because each one is called to be the church in their unique context and culture. 

One of the best experiences of my life was spending a summer travelling across the countryside of Peru. I was able to visit and worship with dozens of different churches throughout the country. Some of them were in cities, jungles, and the Andes Mountains. Each of the churches were a little different, however they all had one thing in common: they worshiped Jesus Christ.  Take a moment and think about what are some of the things that make your local church unique? 

[i]Tim Stafford “The Church Why Bother?”Christianity Today,49, no.1 (January 2005): 42-49.