Duckling On Momma's Back

A golden egg (a church plant) is like this duckling that grows into a Canadian goose (mother church) that lays more golden eggs.   Reproducing  mother churches is God’s strategy for filling Toronto with healthy churches.

I am excited to announce that we have started a “Church Planting Church” in Mississauga, Ontario, a city of 700,000 right in the middle of the huge Great Toronto Area (GTA).  We pray that this plant will spark an evangelistically effective church planting movement.  We are praying that this first “Kingdom Outpost” will with be the prototype for future ones that will reproduce out of it and spread across the landscape of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

This past Sunday 16 people showed up for at our 2nd meeting and we are completely jazzed about the reproductive potential of this “Kingdom Outpost”.  By the grace of God we envision this multiplying into 3-4 new “Outposts” within the next few months.  Each “Kingdom Outpost” will equip workers fill a specific neighborhood or network with healthy churches.

Our topic for the first few months will be the “The Genesis of the First Church Planting Movement”.  We are currently digging deep into the gospels for nuggets on how Jesus, won people, trained leaders, and started the movement that is still rocking the world today.   It is easy to say we are going to follow Jesus, the problem is He has to do so much rewiring of how our paradigms of how we think about ministry.

Let me know if you interested in checking out a new faith community (Kingdom Outpost) that studies the missional methods of Jesus and seeks to apply them to a specific neighborhood or existing network.

Johnw@churchplanting.net

Plant Like Jesus

March 8, 9am-3 Generation Church 1106 Whaley St. Oceanside CA 92054

A few highlights:

1. Surprising Insights From The Gospels On How Jesus Planted His Church
2. Biblical Secrets Behind Saddleback’s Small Groups Increasing From 500 Groups To 5000 Groups In Less Then 10 Years.
3. Powerful, Yet Neglected Expressions Of The Church
4. Discovering, Developing And Deploying More Church Planters (Apostles)
5. The Fill Toronto Strategy.  We invite you to send crews of men to fish for men in order to build the foundations for hundreds of new churches we have envisioned.

Please RSVP if you are planning to attend.  JohnW@ChurchPlanting.Net

Session 1

Session 2

Session 3

Session 4

1.  Diane and I believe it is the call of God on our lives.  After much prayer, we both sense it is the right direction, and counsel has strongly affirmed it.

2.  The NEED is great. God’s heart breaks over the overwhelming lostness of this densely populated region of 12 million.

• We estimate that only 1-2% of the people in the Toronto to Montreal corridor are involved in an evangelical church.  Mission experts would classify this as an unreached people group, and it is right here in North America.

• The vast majority of the few churches that do exist are plateaued or declining.

• The Canadian National Baptist Convention (CNBC), the group we will be working with, has less than .02% of the population attending their churches in Ontario (the most influential province in Canada). As in most evangelical denominations, CNBC baptisms are dramatically down since 2006.   If we are going to start turning the tide in the cosmic struggle to win souls in Toronto, we will need all the help we can get from stronger churches and organizations from around the world.

• Look at the chart below for comparisons between Southern Baptist (SBC) work in USA to Canadian Baptists (CNBC) and let it motivate you to help send workers to the harvest fields in Southern Ontario, where Toronto is.

• Ontario does not have many other large strong evangelical churches like both San Diego and Georgia have.  For example, in San Diego 60,000+ attend Calvary Chapel related churches. Atlanta has several churches like NorthPointe, that have more members than all Baptist churches in Ontario combined.

• There are 450,000 college students in the Greater Toronto Area alone. The best estimates are that less than 2000 students attend any “on campus” evangelical ministry. This is less than 1/2 of one percent.   We must field more workers for this highly strategic mission.

3.  We also believe Toronto is a good fit for our gifts and experience.

• We have planted churches in tough areas which have similarities with Toronto.

• Since we will not only be planting directly, but also working through other planters, our experience in assessing, coaching, and training planters will be useful.

• We also have had a good deal of experience with different nationalities.  This is important for GTA because it is probably the most international city in the world.  In fact more than half the people that live in GTA were foreign born rather than Canadian born.

• Few organizations are successfully planting churches. Discovering better ways to reach people and plant churches is needed to have the breakthrough results we all desire. Our experience in the innovation area also makes this a good fit. See: http://churchplanting.net/?p=104

4.  Other reasons we feel called to Toronto include:

• Great alignment with leadership:  we will get to work with outstanding missional thinkers and friends like Dan Morgan, Jeff Christopherson, and Gary Smith.

• North American Mission Board (NAMB) has made Toronto a high priority “Send City”, which means they will be channeling significant church planting dollars there.  This will enable us to apply for matching funds for church plants – for example if you gave $10,000, they will be able to match it with another $10,000.

• John was raised in the nearby Cleveland area. Since he did not hear the gospel growing up, he has a heart for those in a similar plight.

CHURCH PLANTER APPRENTICESHIPS, 1982-2011

John and Diane Worcester have been apprenticing church planters as they planted churches.  Typically an apprentice lived with or near the Worcester’s and were trained through relational, on the job training.  Two examples: Ron Johnson, apprenticed in San Francisco during the Bay Marin plant and since then has planted a reproducing church in Denver which is now over 1000, and Ron is currently planting again in Denver.  Bob Johnson (not related to Ron) apprenticed in one of the Huntington Beach plants and has now planted a church of 900 in San Diego.

MID-SIZED, MULTI-CAMPUS NEIGHBORHOOD CHURCHES, 2008-2011

This strategy was used in San Diego and yielded three churches and three student ministries in three years.  It focuses on reaching spiritually ripe lost people in neighborhoods of about 20,000 homes through a series of launch services.  After planting Mission Trails Church in 2008, John’s church planter apprentice was sent to plant the second church in 2009.  Then in 2010, a second campus of first Mission Trails was launched.  These three churches, along with the three student ministry starts have about 800 regular attendees worshipping.   All three churches now have long-term pastors, and are making plans to reproduce.   It is also worth noting that during the same time period the main sponsor church of these efforts (Pathways Church) grew by more than 400 regular attendees after being plateaued for five years.  The net gain this orchard of churches was 1200+.

UNIVERSITY MINISTRY START-UPS, 2009-2011

John and Diane enjoy helping equip and coach their four sons start evangelistic campus ministries.  Six have been started in three years, three in San Diego, one in Chico, Ca, and two in China.

SAN DIEGO CHURCH PLANTING ALLIANCE  www.SDCPAlliance.com, 2011

John is catalyzing the network of area 60 evangelical planters, pastors and visionary leaders with the purpose of filling San Diego County with healthy churches.  Several church has decided to become 3D Churches, churches the intentionally discover, develop and deploy church planters.

TURNING A DYING CHURCH INTO CHURCH PLANTING CENTER, 2007

John and Diane spent a year in Burbank restarting and rehabbing an old downtown church.  This church now has six congregations meeting in the building and the original church is now growing.

TEAM CHUCH, 2002-2006

This new model of a church planting church in Fort Worth started ten churches in four years.   John recruited, assessed, coached, and trained, and supervised the church planters who became part of the Team Church orchard of churches.  Team Church met on Sunday PM and sent out teams on Sunday AM to serve their planters.  They went on weekly “mini-mission trips” and helped with children’s ministry, evangelism, and worship in the community church plants.  Now over 6000 people are attending these church plants or their offspring.

ACTS STRATEGY, 1996-2001.

While contracting with Tarrant Baptist Association, Fort Worth, and then while working on Saddleback Church staff, John pioneered a comprehensive church planting equipping strategy called the ACTS Strategy that Assesses, Coaches, Trains, and Serves church planters.   Over 5000 planters have been better equipped to plant through various aspects of ACTS.

CONTEMPORARY CHURCH PLANTING STRATEGIES, 1978-2012

John and Diane started purpose driven type churches, with contemporary music and style, cell groups, and neutral church names since as far back as 1978.  They were some of early pioneers of monthly preview services and approaches to starting with a small launch team and a strongly marketed launch.

Yet this death but brings life-giving fruitfulness.  This is not a surprise to followers of Christ.

Jesus said: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.  He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me;”  John 12:25-26a

What is death?  It is form of separation.  When a church is planted, there is almost always significant separation from loved ones.  This feels like death.  In a sense it is.  For example the church planter’s family, like Abraham’s, is often called to go to a new place.

We have done this more times then I want to count, and it always has been a painful sifting for us. This is especially true for my wife, Diane.  Our second church plant took us 2,500 miles away from family, to Los Angeles (which people kept suggesting was going to fall into the ocean at any moment because of its sinfulness).  One angry relative in North Carolina was upset and blurted out “Aren’t there enough _____(beep)_____ pagans on the east coast.”  One thing that helped family feel better about California, was talking about the other option of moving to China.

Our next move, after starting two new churches in Southern California, was to the San Francisco area.  This was a grinding cultural shift for us.  Right away, we faced new challenges like getting reproved by a neighbor for letting our water hose run for a few minutes, reading about trees being raped, and watching a neighbor across the street go out to meetings in his Satan worshipping outfit attire.

But then came the biggest move of our lives.  USA to Moscow, Russia back in 1993.  We went from suburbia to the 15th floor of a Soviet high rise (complete with crumbly steps), from a mini-van to a crowded Russian bus, from Super Wal-Mart to street shopping for vegetables, and from familiar instant meals to making borsch from scratch.  We also transitioned from sunny California to snow 6 months a year.   Diane, like a good girl scout, worked hard to prepare for every situation that might face our family of 6 in a foreign land.  We laugh, now, about the fact that we literally brought more medical supplies than the local hospital had in its inventory.

Yet, the death we experienced in church planting was a doorway to life not just for others, but for us as well. Moving to Russia, for example, motivated all four our sons to either accept Christ or make serious recommitments to Christ.  These commitments are still bearing fruit, as all of our sons are now starting college ministries or churches.  We also had the amazing joy of seeing a church birthed in our Moscow living room and baptisms in our bathtub.  In addition, God used us to develop curriculum resulted in 600 churches and another 600 preaching points all over the Former Soviet Union in just a few years!

Yes, planting has been painful and lonely at times, but the benefits have been well worth it.  Moving for a mission unified our family. Plus, God provided many friends that become like extended family for us.  Our hearts are warmed every time we visit churches we planted, and people thank us for planting them.  None of our eight church plants have grown really large under our leadership, but, by God’s grace, over 20,000 people attend them, or churches they have planted.

We are now struggling with a new challenge.  God is calling us to move from San Diego to Toronto, Canada.  This move takes us away from two of our sons, plus further from our grandbaby.  We try to comfort ourselves by reminding ourselves of the reality of eternal relationships and by clinging Jesus’s promise:

“Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake, but that he will receive a hundred times as much now inthe present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life. Mark 10:29-30

Will you come die with Christ?

John Worcester

Johnw@churchplanting.net