The author Allen Thompson is the Coordinator for Training, Design & Strategic Initiatives at RCPC. He is also the co-author of the Redeemer Church Planting Manual and a veteran cross-cultural church planting trainer.

Definition: What is a church planting movement (CPM)? Like describing the proverbial elephant, the definition depends largely upon the part of the animal you hold, as well as on the particular theological perspective you embrace. My purpose here is to review several descriptions of CPMs, learn from these descriptions, and emphasize Redeemer’s particular CPM vision.           

The 2000 publication of David Garrison’s Church Planting Movements1 helped instigate the current discussion of CPMs, focusing primarily on strategy in frontier areas. In the 1970’s Donald McGavran began writing about “people movements to Christ” and the “Bridges of God,” which then set the base for the church growth movement, not church planting movements. In older missiology we were indebted to key writers like Roland Allen, who in the early 1900’s wrote The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church and Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or Ours?2 Allen, an Anglican missionary to China, was influential in obtaining the release of national leaders to govern and propagate their own churches; his focus on the Holy Spirit’s role remains foundational to our understanding of CPMs today.

Descriptions: As implied above, the term “church planting movement” encompasses a number of definitions, each with a slightly different emphasis.  Note the following examples.

• “A CPM is a rapid and exponential increase of indigenous churches planting churches within a given people group or population segment” (Garrison, p. 7). Here the main focus is on fast multiplication within a specific context. Those who adopt this thinking call it “church multiplying movements.” The strategy of choice is the development of cell groups and house churches.3
  
  
• “Don’t focus on numerical growth; concentrate on qualitative growth.”4 “We should not attempt to ‘manufacture’ church growth, but rather to release the biotic potential which God has put into every church.” In his research, Christian Schwarz identifies eight quality characteristics and asks, “Are there distinctive quality characteristics which are more developed in growing churches than in those which are not growing?”  The obvious answer is “Yes;” and, therefore, Schwarz’s definition involves spiritual momentum within churches that are addressing quality control. He adds, “Neither the absolute level of quality reached (60-80%), nor the speed with which improvements are made is decisive—although both are worth striving for. The most important factor is the direction in which the quality index is moving.”
  
  
• In World Team5 nomenclature, a movement is defined as a “strategically planned, divinely empowered expansion of the church in a given region or people group that can be observed in: a dramatic increase in the number of disciples (conversions); a prevailing deepening of spiritual devotion; a widespread increase in evangelistic and social involvement on the part of Christians; a noted increased in the church's influence in society; significant multiplication of churches (churches or individuals starting new churches); marked growth in the vitality and maturity of churches; emergence of competent, biblical leadership”6 This definition de-emphasizes rapid expansion in favor of national leadership development and spiritual depth.
  
  
• “We desire to establish in the country of our labors a strong church patterned after the New Testament example. Further, we believe that in order to have a New Testament church, we must follow New Testament methods.”7 Melvin Hodges, former field secretary for Latin America of the Assemblies of God, emphasized the classic definition of the three-“self” church (self-government, self-propagation, self-support) supported by Roland Allen, Henry Venn and others.  Hodges focused on indigenous principles, training of national leaders, and re-training of missionaries to promote indigeneity. Hodges and other Pentecostal leaders would summarize a CPM as having two foci: indigenous church methods and the power of the Holy Spirit. “The mechanics of a successful church on the mission field are the New Testament methods; the dynamics are the power and ministries of the Holy Spirit. Either factor alone is incomplete and inadequate.”
  
  
• “This then is what I mean by spontaneous expansion. I mean the expansion which follows the un-exhorted and unorganized activity of individual members of the Church explaining to others the Gospel which they have found for themselves; I mean the expansion which follows the irresistible attraction of the Christian Church for men who see its ordered life, and are drawn to it by desire to discover the secret of a life which they instinctively desire to share; I mean also the expansion of the Church by the addition of new churches.”8 In his definition, Roland Allen emphasizes a mobilized laity in evangelistic efforts, then an attractive standard of life that draws others to Christ, and finally the unhindered emergence of new churches. In addition, Allen identifies six obstacles to this expansion in the Anglican Church (ineptness of professional missionaries, fear of false doctrine, fear of lowering moral standards, pride of enlightenment and prejudice, cumbersome missionary organization, and elaborate, non-apostolic church structures).9

Summary.  While all five aforementioned definitions focus on “movement” as resulting in more churches, none captures the idea of “movement” as an ideology that sets a person on fire compelling him or her to tell the story of personal transformation. Perhaps Roland Allen comes closest to this in his emphasis on the gospel that transforms ordinary people into compelling witnesses or Hodges in his insistence on the power of the Holy Spirit as the underlying dynamic in all movements. Each definition, apart from focusing on momentum and multiplication, highlight individual preferences such as cell churches (Garrison), spirituality (Schwarz), leadership development (Thompson), local methods (Hodges), and removal of obstacles (Allen).

Redeemer’s Emphasis. Having reviewed these definitions of church planting movements, what is Redeemer’s particular emphasis and contribution?

Start with the word “movement.” Several uses of the word are common in the literature from both an organizational and sociological understanding.

• Organizationally: (a) a series of organized activities by people working concertedly toward some goal; (b) the organization consisting of those active in this way; (c) the rapid pacing toward the goal.
  
  
• Sociologically: (a) a tendency or trend in some particular sphere of social change; (b) doctrines, opinions, or way of thinking that can change public policy, e.g. feminist movement; (c) body of ideas on which a particular social system is based; (d) a group of people who are organized for, ideologically motivated by, and committed to a purpose which implements some form of personal or social change.

CPMs today are primarily interested in the organizational type of movement definition, e.g. organizing activities and people to work cooperatively toward planting hundreds of churches. Such is the new vision coming from Campus Crusade for Christ; they desire to begin developing kingdom partnerships and strategies between likeminded church planting leaders and ministries with the goal of “starting 5 million churches for a billion soul harvest.”

While Redeemer’s church planting movement is focused on infusing New York City with hundreds of churches, its primary goal is to plant “gospel” churches. Underlying the Redeemer vision is the “ideology” of the gospel with the goal of changing people and renewing culture. Therefore, what propels the movement is commitment to a primary value, a strategic theorem if you will, that has the power to unleash millions of people once they are grasped by God’s truth. In this sense, Redeemer’s CPM could be called a gospel movement and is much more aligned with the sociological framework listed above.

Specifically, Redeemer has outlined its vision this way: to ignite a gospel movement in New York that produces city growth and cultural renewal. A movement that is gaining adherents and momentum is characterized by two distinct marks: significant literature (essays, booklets, manuals) on the primary value of the movement (in our case the gospel), and evidences of commitment by its leaders to the ideology.10

Focus on the word “church.” Recognizing the variety of goals in Christian mission (educational, social action, medical missions, etc.), leaders of a Christian movement should be clear and cohesive with regard to its objective. Redeemer has outlined a clear objective for its church planting efforts: We are not aiming to simply evangelize the city or extend social services throughout it; rather, our mission is to start new, reproducing churches within a specified area, the city of New York. So the question emerges, what kind of church are we planting?

Garrison, in his study of various Southern Baptist movements, observed that most of the churches were small, cell and house churches, led by lay people or bi-vocational leaders. As to the quality of churches, Garrison found that “the Bible has been the guiding source for doctrine, church polity and life itself.” He promoted some training by missionaries but emphasized the releasing of leaders to become involved as soon as possible in the growing movement. Our question at Redeemer is this: How do we apply the movement methodology to the great cities of the world which possess enormous diversity in ethnicity, education levels, economic standards, etc.? How do we apply the movement methodology to New York City in particular? What kinds of churches fit this milieu?

One answer is to revisit the definition of a biblical church. While various models (large, small, store fronts, house churches, cell groups) are effective in different contexts and neighborhoods of the city, the church planting leader must have a firm grasp of the essential elements of a biblical church. In other words, the leader must have no doubt as to what constitutes a true church according to the Scriptures.

The Reformers outlined two essential marks: the faithful preaching of the Word of God, that is the teaching of the Christian gospel according to the Scripture; and the right use of the sacraments, that is baptism and the Lord’s Supper . Later the Reformers specified a functioning system of discipline as a third mark.  Luther found additional marks of the true church alongside the original two; he specified the keys of discipline (Matt. 16:19), an authorized ministry (Acts 14:23; 20:28), public worship (Heb. 10:25), and “suffering under the cross” (Acts 14:22, 20:29). Charismatic churches point to the active ministry of every member as a mark of the true church (Eph. 4:7-16). In Redeemer’s model we focus on the traditional Reformed and Presbyterian position.11

The “what kind of church” issue becomes even more complicated when Redeemer partners with churches throughout the city. In its “partner program,” Redeemer provides training and mentoring to church planters of different denominational persuasions in order to facilitate church planting in many different forms throughout New York City. In this regard, a major training objective focuses on seeding every new church planting project with the “DNA of the gospel” (as explained above) and ensuring that new churches have a biblical ecclesiology. 

Consider the word “planting.” Church planting movements are concerned with starting new enterprises, beginning something new. We call these new ventures “planting,” borrowing from Paul’s agricultural metaphor and emphasizing inherent life (“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.” I Corinthians 3:6-8)

The Redeemer movement definition asserts that a CPM is a Spirit-directed activity which naturally builds, renews and expands the body of Christ in a given city-region through the recovery and application of the Gospel.

While “movement” in this definition primarily focuses on the strategic theorem of the Gospel that gives dynamism and momentum, and “body of Christ” clarifies the essentials of healthy reproducing organisms, “planting” deals with harnessing and focusing the energies of the churches in reproduction. The point is that church planting will be natural and constant, not traumatic and episodic, as a result of the gospel being applied constantly in growing, healthy churches. The first two elements—gospel and church—must be in place, at least in rudimentary form, before natural church planting occurs and evolves into a movement. In other words, “You can’t plant the church if you aren’t becoming the church.”

For healthy churches to be reproductive (become natural church planting churches), the book-of-Acts- Christian-ministry mindset must be developed. Keller says this requires the adoption of several principles:

• First, the ability to give away and lose control of money, members and leaders. This presents a huge barrier for churches. Often, church leaders cannot bear the thought of losing money-giving families or key leaders or favorite friends. When a pastor helps organize new churches from his own church body, he loses money, members, numbers, leaders, and control. In addition, when a pastor lets go, he loses direct control while also assuming responsibility for problems in the project, a possibly unpleasant combination. Not unlike being the parent of an adult child, he is not allowed to provide direct instruction, but if there’s a problem, he is expected to help clean it up.
  
  
• Second, the ability to give up some control of the shape of the ministry itself.  This is a scary premise, especially to ardent truth-lovers. But the simple fact is that the new church will not look just like your church; it will develop its own voice and emphases. On the one hand, pains must be taken to ensure that differences are not too great (or fellowship and cooperation will become strained). But on the other hand, church planting cannot take place in the context of cloning. If a church insists upon reproducing an exact duplicate of itself, or if it is not willing to admit the necessity and reality of gospel contextualization (in that different generations and cultures will produce a different kind of church), then that church cannot engage in church planting.
  
  
• Third, the ability to care for the kingdom more than for your tribe. Basically, the church planting mindset is not so much a matter of trusting new leaders but trusting God. Paul does not give the new churches up to themselves or others.  He committed them to the Lord.

Conclusion. Progress has been made through Redeemer’s church planting movement, as we learn from our endeavors and failures. Since the founding of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in 1989 as a resource church, Tim Keller and his staff have pursued the church planting vision with wisdom and boldness and have helped plant 16 PCA churches in New York City and assisted in an additional 50 new church planting projects. In addition, Redeemer has initiated the New York Church Multiplication Alliance and used this platform to work with 15 denominations and networks in planting more than 100 churches in the past four years.

1.	David Garrison, Church Planting Movements: How God is Redeeming a Lost World, 2004.
2.	Roland Allen, Missionary Methods, St. Paul's or Ours? Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1962.
3.	See Ralph Neighbour, Jr., Where Do We Go From Here? A Guidebook for the Cell Group Church, 1990.
4.	Christian Schwarz, Natural Church Development, 1996, p. 3, 10, 122.
5.	An interdenominational missionary society founded in Cuba in 1928 by my father and B. G. Lavastida.
6.	Paul Thompson, The Church Multiplication Agenda: Filling the Earth with God's Glory, paper 200l.
7.	Melvin Hodges, Growing Young Churches, 1970, p. 12, 124.
8.	Roland Allen, The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church, 1962, p. 7.
9.	See Allen Thompson's outline, Movement Blockers, taken from the book of Acts.
10.	The following essays and study courses illustrate Redeemer's emphasis: What is the Gospel?, Centrality of the Gospel, Advancing  the Gospel into the 21st Century, Gospel Christianity (10 lessons), Galatians: Living in Line With the Truth of the Gospel (13 units);  Romans (23 lessons), all written by Tim Keller.
11.	See Tim Keller and Allen Thompson, Church Essentials: The Healthy PCA Church, 2004 (see movement issue December 2004).