Elmer Towns on reproducing groups

I received this Email for Elmer Towns the other day and found it so interesting I wanted to pass it along:

YOUR CHURCH CAN PLANT A SATELLITE CHURCH

Last week I taught a course on planting reproducing churches to approximately 15 students in Houston, Texas, at Grace School of Theology.  Some were sitting around the tables, others had Skyped in from their homes/churches.  I could see all the students on a giant flat screen and they could see me.  I answered questions, and we discussed issues. I began the week, “This course can change your life and ministry!! Then your church can double starting a satellite church.  Not double attendance or twice the number of baptisms, but doubling your evangelistic outreach by beginning another congregation.”  

Reproducing churches can reach the world for Christ. 

Reproduction was God’s plan in the beginning when He created nature, animals, birds, fish and people.  Everything God started can reproduce – why not the church? Jesus began the church (Matthew 16:18).  Everything created in nature has “His seed within itself” to reproduce itself. In the same way, a church can reproduce itself. 

Even if your church has 100 in attendance, or is limited by auditorium space, or limited by an ethnic culture of the neighborhood, or limited by the age of its members, your church can start a satellite church.

I said the same thing three weeks earlier when I challenged about 450 leaders and pastors at the annual meeting of the Friends (Quaker) Association that each of their churches could begin a satellite church. At a three-hour seminar, I showed my research in 19 nations in the past 4 years among the churches in the Global South.  Christianity is rapidly growing in Africa, South America, Indonesia, India and China, while we in Western Christianity are barely hanging on.  Their dominant evangelistic method is planting new satellite churches (multi-church ministry).

The Friends took the challenge to double their number of churches in a new evangelistic outreach.  See the attached letter from Dr. Tom Crawford, newly elected president of the Evangelical Friends of North American (Liberty DMin).

I have added a new course to the Global Church Learning Center. It is available for educational institutions, churches, and foreign mission boards. This course describes several ways churches are beginning another church.  Over half a dozen educational institutions and a half dozen churches already use the courses in this series. 

Before trying to start a satellite church, make it a matter of prayer. Then develop plans to get it done. Your people will need vision, strategy, and confidence. Your church can start a satellite church.

REVIEW

Let me come back and tell you about Grace School of Theology.  It has over 500 students in the United States and abroad. They use this course and others in my curriculum. They work with foreign mission boards, upgrading existing training for Christian workers. They offer diplomas, plus bachelors, masters and doctorate degrees.  Their professors travel to foreign destinations to give resident teaching to supplement online educations. Grace College has accreditation from both TRACS and ATS.

_____ Send information how I can receive the course Churches Planting Reproducing Churches for my church, and/or send to our missionaries.

Please email:rbgrooms@liberty.edu.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Elmer Towns