Church Planting

Cross-cultural church planting is the very heart of our ministries, as it has been from CMF’s founding. Church planting takes many people and different strategies to establish a worshiping community among people who have not heard the Gospel. We have seen that by planting reproducing churches and training strong national leadership, a church-planting movement is the natural fruit. This means developing within a local church the passion, vision, and resources to reach out beyond their location into their community and even the world.

Church planting requires generalists, such as preachers and evangelists, as well as specialists. Our missionaries can be seen working with a church under a tree in the Turkana desert or in a school building in the Midlands of England. Or, church planters can be found working alongside nationals in a Mexico City suburb or a Djoula courtyard in Ivory Coast. Closed countries offer opportunities for planting churches through the use of cell groups or house churches.

Discipleship and leadership training then become key components in establishing national-led churches that are self-supporting and ready to reach out beyond their own communities.