Basic Training for Church Planters

1. Purpose

   Basic Training for Church Planters equips church planting teams for moving into their church plant with an understanding of their context and the beginning of a strategy for penetrating it with the gospel and planting a Kingdom community among them. The training prepares them for moving into Church Planting Networks (CPN) for further skill training and networking with other church planting teams near them. Basic Training is currently available in English, Spanish, and Korean language tracts.

2. Description of what Basic Training is about

   Basic Training is a workshop designed to accomplish the following objectives:

   1. To jump-start the church planting process: The training philosophy guides the participants to focus on their specific church planting project and provides training on using practical tools within that context. It is most helpful to church planting teams that have not yet begun or those teams who are less than six months into their church plant. It is understood that the participants have already identified their ministry focus group or have identified a field assignment.
   2. To provide skill training: Skills are introduced and extensive activities are initiated to increase familiarity with the church planting task.
   3. To model mentoring: In addition to the church planter’s own mentor being present, there will be lead mentors that will work with the church planting teams.
   4. To provide prayer experience: Not only is prayer discussed as a critical element of church planting, it is also experienced as a critical element of this workshop.
   5. To promote relationships: The relational dynamic of church planting is emphasized throughout the workshop. It is also modeled through the training process, and networking takes place through planned and unplanned experiences.
   6. Basic Training for Church Planters is for the church planting team. The minimal team is composed of the church planter, the church planter’s spouse, and the church planter’s mentor. Some teams have additional vocational or volunteer members.

3. How the Basic Training works

   The Basic Training workshop is process-oriented. The workshop is not designed to simply communicate a body of knowledge, but is intended to provide an experiential workshop. Therefore, Basic Training is activity-oriented with only the necessary theory and lecture to provide enough information to begin applying principles and skills. The process includes modeling teamship and mentoring.

   A key component of the workshop is intentional worship experiences. The worship provides a spiritual foundation for the workshop, a modeling of worship, bonding of the workshop participants, and an opportunity for intimacy with God.

   Content of the workshop consists of a variety of issues critical to the planting of a church. They are examined not theoretically, but from within the church planter’s context.

   In addition to notes, observations and information through networking, Basic Training will provide each church planter with a customized set of materials developed by the church planter himself. These materials consist of the following:

   1. A draft of a vision statement.
   2. A rudimentary list of focused values.
   3. A draft if a mission statement.
   4. A prayer team enlistment strategy.
   5. A beginning plan for evangelism.
   6. A potential church systems design.
   7. A flowchart of critical mileposts.

With these tools, a church planting team will be well on their way to developing their customized strategy for planting a church in their context.

To register your church planting team please contact Scheryl Ng.

**Prerequisite for Basic Training -

Straight Street is a personal spiritual preparation guide to be used by members of a church planting team 2-8 weeks before engaging in Basic Training for Church Planters. Straight Street may also be helpful to an early stage church planter who is working through the Early Stage Church Planter Development Equipping System (ESCaPaDES).

By completing Straight Street, which is based on Acts 9, a member of a church planting team will be better prepared from a spiritual perspective to process and implement much of the content found in Basic Training for Church Planters.

To download Straight Street:

1. Click on the Straight Street link above.
2. When the web site appears, click on the Route you want to take.
3. Right-click on the section title - a message box will appear giving you several choices.
4. Click save target as…. In the next message box, tell it where to save the file.
5. Locate the file with windows explorer.
6. Double-clicking should open the file.
7. Print out a copy for each of your team members.
8. If you don’t have Adobe Reader, you will need to download it as well in order to view and print out the materials.

If for any reason you experience problems downloading the file or printing, please contact the Church Planting Department, and we will gladly put a copy in the mail for you.