Outreach Preaching – Biblical Evangelism – Real Church Planting
Doing evangelism whether within our villages or far away (distance preaching with church planting) is honoring the great commission command given by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now to be evangelistically effective & successful, brethren in every church/fellowship need to set up an evangelism system that guides them and eventually becomes their culture/habit in their day to day lives. Through experience, we have learned that evangelism is relatively easy to do, if one starts small and works on it every day until it starts bearing fruits. Having a good evangelism system means that the church works strategically, consistently, and on multiple levels in order to present the gospel to everyone.
Ok, let me in brief talk a bit of our experience here in Moi’s Bridge, Kenya. So far, we have 11 fellowships/ small churches (9 in Kenya and 2 in Uganda) and this is how God is helping us manage to reach many people with this true gospel. Above all is prayers for God’s leadership and guidance, then, before we engage ourselves for this mission, we make sure we identify the place and a contact person from that targeted area/village who could be a church member, relative to a Church member or even just an acquaintance. Through this person, we now try to learn and understand the local culture, the dominant church/faith of the locals and other discoveries.
It might take a while before families in the targeted rural community trust us as they are often a tight-knit community who don’t expect strangers to stay around a long time. So, we utilize any opportunity availing itself to us to win souls to Jesus. To to achieve this, we apply various techniques as evangelizing tools. We apply all approaches available for us to be noticed. So, in some cases, we help them with the farm chores, sometimes we accompany others to hospital visitations of their relatives and sometimes we offer doing free of charge burial services of their relatives because many pastors charge bereaved families for contacting burial services (Matthew 5:13-16).
Another tool we use has been blessing the needy with visible projects such as homes for widows, superfood Moringa for the sick, providing chicken, pure water filters, water jerrycans, farm inputs, charcoal stoves and many others. As we continue to show them love and show them we care about their community, their trust towards us slowly begins to grow. Its very important to be sensitive, knowledgeable and willing to sacrifice for this gospel spreading ministry by putting in use any chance that comes up.
These verses propels us to do the kingdom work without leaving any stone unturned.
Matthew 10:5-16 “These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give. Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses, Nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves: for the workman is worthy of his meat. And into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter, enquire who in it is worthy; and there abide till ye go thence. And when ye come into an house, salute it. And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you. And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city. Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.”
And Paul…
Colossians 4:6 “Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.”
1 Corinthians 9:19-23 “For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. And this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you.”
THE COMMMANDS OF JESUS INCLUDE SENDING OUT QUALIFIED (CALLED) BRETHREN AFTER THOROUGH DISIPLESHIP TO START NEW FELLOWSHIPS – CHURCH PLANTING
Sending out brethren from a local fellowship to start another comes after some disciple training. This training is done to the the whole church and this should happen every time when the Word is sung, prayed, read, preached, during baptisms and during bread breaking. So we Craft, prepare and teach over 70% disciple making sermons compared to the convert sermons. These sermons are to that establish and equip the church. I have learned through experience that every overseer should have a healthy discipleship making plan for new believers that includes elements such as baptism, local church membership and basic spiritual disciplines like prayer, bible study, worship, fasting, and sharing the gospel.
Furthermore, new believers need ongoing training in areas like biblical marriage, parenting, family life and a biblical understanding of work, the church, suffering, persecution and more. This is important because everyone in church should have a thorough knowledge of Scripture. So, every overseer needs to ensure that the church has an understanding of the big picture of the Bible; God’s story of creation, the fall, redemption, and consummation. Finally, the church needs to be taught the major themes of the Bible such as the nature of God, holiness, sin, judgment, salvation, love, and truth.
Now from among the discipled church members, we prayerfully and by God’s guidance select a smaller group who have proved an ability of serving and having a heart for calling sinners out from the world, then, we engage them and start delegating some duties such as making them overseers for small home fellowships. This we do just to be sure or prove that he is the right choice for the task (Acts 13:1-3, 2 Tim 2:2; 1 Tim 3:10, etc).
Now this is the team being prepared for outreach missions. Anytime before we embark on any evangelism, and later church planting mission, this team comes together for prayers for one full week. During this one week, we address issues like the well-being of our families remaining behind ensuring that every single family has enough food and is safe for the whole period the team will be away. We also make sure the team itself has enough to cater for themselves for their day to day necessities while in the fields. In most all cases, we usually have somebody on the ground to receive us (invites us). In other cases, a brother goes ahead to prepare whatever is needed for the mission.
Now while on the ground, we prefer to start with house to house evangelism and do as many invitations as we can working up to a weekend meeting. We try to understand what kind of people we deal with; their cultures, what the false churches around teach, traditions and customs etc. We move in groups of 2 or 3 to cover a larger area. In their homes, we preach true repentance, hope in Christ and also pray for the sick. Those who honor the invitations and for fellowship we teach them about the difference between the true church and false churches and also coming out of their satanic and indigenous traditions. For those who truly repent/believe, we baptize them then encourage them to show up for disciple training fellowships.
We assign a brother that will be tasked with the mentoring and training the few converts for as long as the situation will allow. Later, we pray for God’s guidance for a brother to be in charge whom will be going back there to oversee the fellowship etc.
EXAMPLE OF A CHURCH PLANT IN ISBANIA KENYA POST ONE
EXAMPLE OF A CHURCH PLANT IN ISBANIA KENYA POST TWO
EXAMPLE OF A CHURCH PLANT IN ISBANIA KENYA POST THREE
EXAMPLE OF A CHURCH PLANT IN NAITIRI KENYA POST ONE
EXAMPLE OF A CHURCH PLANT IN NAITIRI KENYA POST TWO
EXAMPLE OF A CHURCH PLANT IN KAPANDI, UGANDA POST ONE
EXAMPLE OF A CHURCH PLANT IN KAPANDI, UGANDA POST TWO
EXAMPLE OF A CHURCH PLANT IN KAPANDI, UGANDA POST THREE
EXAMPLE OF A CHURCH PLANT IN KAPANDI, UGANDA POST FOUR (30 DAYS FOR JESUS IN UGANDA – ONGOING DISCIPLESHIP)
This teaching was done by brother Haron Wanjala, an Overseer of many indigenous missionaries in Kenya and Uganda. He labours day and night for Jesus. You may visit that mission field’s website by clicking here.
