Dear Strategy CoordinatorStrategy consultant,

Greetings, and welcome to one of the most exciting jobs you will ever have: to aid team leaders in establishing church planting movements around the world! Your role is significant because of your ability to walk side by side with the team leader and help them in their leadership & strategic skills. You will help them recognize what is necessary in order for a movement to begin and be self-sustaining. As we have seen movements begin around the world, we have noticed several significant factors in all of them:

  • They are spontaneous
  • They continually reproduce themselves
  • They saturate the entire people group around them

In this manual, we give you numerous tools that we believe will help you in your role as Strategy CoordinatorStrategy consultant. We are believing God for a 4th generation movement to start in 2010 that will serve as a teaching model for us in the future.

Feel free to give us feedback on this manual, as we are committed to continually make it better.

Blessings to each one of you, and may you continue to help people spread His kingdom among the people’s of the earth!

For His Glory,

Kevin Johnson

Director of Church Planting

AMI

New Strategy CoordinatorStrategy consultant Orientation

Behind every great team is a great coach. Someone who can inspire, advise, challenge, and support those who are out on the field. This applies not only to athletics and business, but also to church planting. Strategy coordinatorStrategy consultants have one of the most important roles in the entire movement. They are the primary ones interfacing and advising those serving around the world.

To succeed in this role you need to commit to continually be a learner, to be accessible to team leaders, to consistently pray, and to empower the team through timely questions and feedback.

Role of Strategy CoordinatorStrategy consultant

A strategy coordinatorstrategy consultant's primary role is to advise team leaders on the field. The team leader is the one directly responsible for making decisions and leading the team. The strategy coordinatorstrategy consultant regularly talks with the team leader and makes a site visit when possible in order to consult and evaluate strategy.

Strategy coordinatorStrategy consultants are not the decision makers, that role is reserved for the team leader and the elders of AMIRegional Director. But they should be involved in the decision making process.

How to do this job effectively:

Understand the church planting process

Most of this manual focuses on basic church planting process. Strategy coordinatorStrategy consultants should spend time studying and learning how churches are planted. Unfortunately, those who are asked to be coordinatorconsultants often already have many responsibilities. Typically the first thing to go when we are busy is study time and preparation. Honestly evaluate if you can spend the time required to do this job.

Start by reading this manual. Once finished, try to articulate the overall strategy in less than five minutes. Take the time necessary to reread and discuss with others until you have a strong grasp of the material.
You will need to identify and distinguish between the strategies that are Biblical and authoritative for all cultures and generations (like the importance of the local church, prayer, boldly sharing the Gospel, etc) and those strategies that can be adapted according to culture (such as the Gospel presentation used, how churches are structured, etc).

Understand the culture

Take time together with the team to truly learn the culture. How is this culture distinct from your own? What are the God-inspired giftings within this culture? What are the unique challenges this culture faces? How will political considerations affect your strategy? What will be the primary stumbling blocks to the Gospel?

Learn through conversations with national believers and other missions organizations. Take time to visit the country and see first hand both the challenges and redemptive qualities. Help the team leader assess how they will fit within this culture.

Understand Research the methods of other organizations and national believers

Most cities we target will already have local believers and other mission organizations. This can be one of the most complicating factors in seeking to establish a movement. You will need the help of national partners (more on that later), but you will also need to be careful in how you approach it.

Many organizations have great knowledge of the culture, but can also have distorted views that, if you are not careful, can damage your strategy. For example, many groups are fearful and timid in sharing the Gospel. We need to be careful not to judge, but must also preserve the boldness given to us, while at the same time listening to political and social considerations. None of this is easy. Strategy coordinatorStrategy consultants will need to be a sounding board to help team leaders maintain a right perspective.

Overcome barriers for growth

Each stage of a church planting movement will have barriers preventing future growth. Strategy Ccoordinators help team leaders overcome these barriers through timely advice and question asking. Some teams are facing a barrier that is preventing broad sowing of the Gospel. The strategy coordinatorstrategy consultant should primarily focus on helping the team grow in boldness and an effective Gospel tool. The main barrier for other teams is effective, reproducing methods. That team will need very different advice than the first team. At each stage of growth new challenges will be faced and new methods will be needed.

Some barriers have already been consistently overcome by other teams or organizations. Learn from their successes and how to apply these best practices to your situation. Other barriers are in uncharted territory. You will together with the team need the wisdom of the Spirit.

Advise through question-asking

The goal is to empower the team leader and the team, not to lead the team vicariously through the leader. This shapes the way you give advice. Learn to ask questions that will allow you to assess the situation. Often the team does not need a wholesale strategy makeover, but rather a small shift in focus.

The church planting overview in this manual includes several assessment questions. Ideally, in the process of question-asking, the team leader will reach the right answer themselves or at least will have a clear understanding of the barriers they face.

Your goal is disciple the team leader. Don’t just give them an answer – teach them the reasoning behind it.

Help the team set goals

People need goals in order to achieve them. The Bible succinctly says, “Without vision, the people perish.” Without Spirit- inspired goals we lose our sense of urgency. We will never know if we are doing well because we have no benchmarks to reach.

Goals should first and foremost be led of the Spirit. They should be high enough to need miracles, prayer, and faith. But they should also be realistic enough that they are obtainable. Goals should be measurable and they should be reviewed at intervals along the way.

Consider implementing a team-wide goal for the next 6 months (such develop a 2nd grade language proficiency or find 3 national partners, etc). Then break down a series of 6 week goals for each team member.

Hold team leaders accountable

Most peopleEveryone (you included!)including you!) needs accountability. This includes personal matters of finances, purity, and family life, but also includes accountability for ministry. International ministry presents unique challenges. Teams arrive as cultural outsiders, have no schedule, and cannot speak the language. Simply learning to live in a country can be taxing! Much less actually fulfilling your purpose.

Gracefully help the team leader to stay focused. Encourage them to rest when needed and to focus on their families. Help them to build a schedule and toto put prioritize their time. Each team will need tailor madetailor-made goals; without good accountability it will be difficult to meet them. If they are not reaching their goals, take time to analyze why. Is it a character or work ethic issue? Are they trying to achieve the wrong goals? Are their goals unrealistic? Is their a greater problem that must be resolved first? Have they wrongly identified barriers to growth?

Please remember to make sure the team leader is filling out their monthly assessment (online at Quikforum.org). You should review this sheet each month before your phone call. It will help to provide a basic overview. Don’t just look at numbers but instead how they relate. For example, if 100 people were saved, but no groups have been formed it will allow you to see where the gaps are and where the team needs accountability.

Other roles of a Strategy CoordinatorStrategy consultant:

  • Help the team leader assess the community’sies needs
  • Provide resources
  • Help evaluate a platform

Help the team leaders build a strong team

  • Coordinate volunteers
  • Develop a prayer strategy
  • Keep the focus on the unreached
  • Help team leaders cast vision and hold them accountable to fulfill that vision
  • Ensure team leaders are discipling team members
  • Prioritize Encourage them to grow throughto continuing education (specifically Quikforum.org)
  • Consistently remind the team to empower nationals to lead, not lead themselves

Job Responsibilities

In order to be successful and to integrate with the movement, strategy coordinatorstrategy consultants need to be able to fulfill the following tasks. If you are unable to do these things, please talk with the your Regional Ddirector to determine if you are the best candidate in this season.

Monthly Phone Call with the Team Leader

Set a time that is convenient for both of you to talk for 1-2 hours each month. This call should include accountability, mentoring, and strategic advice. In ministry, there will always need to be a degree of pastoral connection in addition to strategy, but please remember that team leaders should all have someone whose primary job is pastoral covering. If you discern there are major issues, take time to connect and then pull in theirPpastoral Ooversight.

If your conversations consistently take on a more pastoral tone, then please set up a separate time so that you can focus on strategy.

Be Available for Crises

In the event of a political or pastoral crisis, the SC and POstrategy coordinator will play a lead role, along with the elders of AMI and the CPMLT. Please be available in these situations to attend emergency meetings or even make a last second site trip.

Attend Travel Team Meeting

This is a monthly meeting between the strategy coordinators and pastoral team overseeing the church plants. Strategy and pastoral covering will always be connected so there must be good communication between the two groups.

If you are unable to attend this meeting, then you need to talk each month with the pastoral oversight for each team you oversee (through phone call, face-to-face, or Skype).

Attend Strategy CoordinatorStrategy consultant Meetings and Trainings

These will happen quarterly and are an environment to brainstorm and evaluate strategies that are working around the world. International staff can attend through Skype or phone calls. If you are based in Waco, you will be asked to physically attend the meeting. Skype equipment can be provided if necessary.

Communicate Coordinate with the CMPLTRegional Office

Things happen quickly around the world and it is easy for information to slip through the cracks. Please err on the side of over-communication with home basethe regional office regarding developments on the field. If there are any concerns, call the your Regional Ddirector.

and/or the pastoral team. If cannot attend travel team meetings, please send a monthly update to the director and administrator of AMI. This does not need to be long as long as it communicates important changes (new staff, new direction, new challenges, breakthrough, etc).

By becoming a strategy coordinatorstrategy consultant, you are invited to play an incredibly important role in the movement. Ultimately, we will all need to rely on prayer and the wisdom of the Spirit in order to see His Kingdom come to earth and to witness all hearing in our generation.

The following section details basic church planting strategy. Please take time to study each passage of Scripture and prayerfully assess how this applies to your team. As you achieve breakthroughs in your location, let us know what changes you made so that we can consistently learn from one another so that future generations might see even more of the power of God poured out! Most of this material is adapted from Steve Smith’s T4T training – we are very grateful for his insight.

Church Planting Movements - The Big Picture

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." Matt 28:19-20

How many people are represented in your target group? How many of them will hear the Gospel today? This month?

Stop for a moment and consider what you've just answered, let reality sink in and understand the depth of what we are facing. How long will it take for all to hear? Or even more difficultchallenging, to fulfill the command to actually make disciples in all the nations? For most of the world's unreached, the birth rate far exceeds the evangelism rate, meaning we are only moving further away from our goal.

This reality is sobering, but there is hope. It really can be done in our generation. How do we know? There are case studies throughout history of entire people groups being reached in a generation through church- planting movements. These movements are massive periods of growth in which churches multiple out other churches, resulting in entire regions saturated with the Gospel. One of the most dramatic movements is documented in the Bbook o f Acts. The church went from a small, geographically isolated band of believers to a dynamic movement spread across the Roman world. All in less than twenty years.

Strategy coordinatorStrategy consultants and church-planters need to be cognizant of the big picture - both the challenges and the opportunities. If they do not carry the burden for their people group then who will? The task is impossible for us in our finite wisdom and strength. Ultimately, we must completely rely on the wisdom and power of God.

Our desire is not to give you perfect answers (because there are none), but instead to help you build Biblical convictions that will lead to a persevering faith. Much of this manual will involve studying the Bible in order to build strategies for fulfilling the command of Jesus. The Word never changes. If it was true for the disciples then it is true for us today.

We will start by looking at how the early church reached most of the known world in a short time span. This is the macro study of a church planting process. Later in the book we will break down how to plant individual churches in unreached areas, but first let's get a macro view of the DNA of a movement.

Acts Study

Read Acts 13:4-52, Acts 14:1-25, Acts 15:39-16:40, Acts 17:1-34, Acts 18:1-21, Acts 18:23-20:1, and Acts 20:1-38. Ask the following questions:

  • Where did he work and how long was he there?
  • How many churches and believers resulted? What did Paul DO that led to these good results?
  • Why did Paul leave?

Let's review the basic principles:

Paul started at least six church planting streams in eight years - Paul visited Ephesus, Galatia, Corinth, Philippi, Thessalonica, and Colossae Pisidian Antioch and in each location left behind a reproducing church. By the end of his ministry, Paul was able to say, "from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ” (Romans 15:19). Amazingly, this all occurred in eight years among difficult people groups with little to no prior Gospel witness.

Paul did have a distinct language advantage compared to many modern missionaries that should be taken into consideration, but nonetheless, his example should inspire us in faith to believe for more. As Paul eloquently describes in the rest of this Romans 15 passage, once the church was started and growing, he would move on to the next location so that more would have an opportunity to hear. Paul left once the movement was sustained.

Paul targeted regional centers - Each of these cities represented a major trade or social center for the corresponding region. Rather than attempt to reach each village, Paul strategically chose central locations in order to establish the movement. From there, the new believers could spread the Gospel to the surrounding region.