Starting Church Planting Movements in the USA

In 2020, while serving on the staff of Greater Orlando Baptist Association, I hosted an online training event with Dr. David Garrison on starting Church Planting Movements in the United States.

CPM's focus on starting small, rapidly reproducing churches with little to no money. They usually meet in places that do not require the church to own a building or pay rent. Their pastors are often volunteers who take care of their own living expenses through employment in jobs outside of the church. 

This video is a part of our online curriculum on Becoming a Multiplying Church Leader, which is a free online course that anyone can take to learn how to multiply disciples, leaders, small groups and churches. 

Become a Multiplying Church leader

Here is the recording of my interview with Dr. David Nelms, Founder and President of The Timothy Initiative.  In this video, we talk about the need for Micro Churches to reach people who are currently being missed by Legacy Churches.  We are offering free TTI training through our website.   Go to reach.mba/cpmx2 to sign up for the online course. 

Micro churches start out small and multiply quickly. They can meet virtually anywhere and they typically have unpaid leaders. In reality it costs absolutely nothing to start a micro church. On the other hand, it can cost ¼ to ½ million dollars to start a legacy church where paid staff and rented facilities are needed.

Legacy churches are currently reaching less than 20% of the American population. If we could increase that to 50%, that would leave half of our population without a local expression of church that they are willing to attend. 

Tony and Felicity Dale compare micro churches to rabbits, they start small and multiply quickly. The gestation period for rabbits is approximately three months while the gestation period for elephants is 18-22 months. Two elephants can multiply to 4 elephants in about four years. Two rabbits can multiply to nearly four million rabbits in that same four year period.

To learn more about how to make disciples who, make disciples, who make disciples that plant churches, that plant churches, that plant churches sign up for our free online Church Planting Movement Leader course. 

What is Obedience-Based Discipleship?

Church Planting Movements (CPMs) are movements of God where churches multiply rapidly - reaching to four generations in less than two years. Reports are coming in from all over the world where Christian churches are seeing rapid multiplication.  Multiplication of churches stems from the multiplication of leaders, which comes from the multiplication of disciples. We see this occurring in the New Testament and in various parts of the world today. 

There are many common characteristics of church planting movements and they have been well documented. However, one characteristic that appears to be common in areas where there is rapid church multiplication is obedience-based discipleship. 

Obedience-based discipleship is a method of discipleship that focuses on teaching people to obey the Bible, rather than simply teaching them Bible content. This approach is based on the belief that true discipleship is not just knowing about Jesus, but following Him in every area of our lives.

Obedience-based discipleship often results in the multiplication of disciples, leaders and churches. In the Great Commission, Jesus commanded us not only to make disciples, but we are to be about "teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:20). When we move from knowledge-based discipleship to obedience-based discipleship, we begin to see the 30, 60, 100 fold kind of fruit that Jesus talked about in Mark 4:20.

If you are interested in learning more about obedience-based discipleship and church multiplication, sign up for our free online course, "Become a Multiplying Church Leader" and see for yourself at: 

https://www.reach.mba/obedience-based-discipleship