Monday Discussion
We don’t need to plant churches. We need to plant church-planting churches. We need to plant churches that replicate themselves as part of how they define health and obedience to Christ. As Ed Stetzer and Warren Bird write in Viral Churches:
We want to lay the foundation for an out-of-control replication of new churches, a movement of God that will literally change the landscape of North America.
It will not be neat. It will not be orderly. But when spontaneous movements authored by God occur, there is a tendency to shake up the status quo. …
If such a movement happens, many more people will find peace with God, purpose in life, and an eternal destiny in heaven. This is the sort of kingdom work that we as Christians need to be about.” (p. 12)
The biggest barrier to planting this type of church, to starting this type of movement is leadership that is short sighted, uncourageous, and narrowly focused on “church health.”
Plant churches that see growth in size as opportunity to grow the Kingdom with a capital “K”. Make the deployment of apostolic bands of brothers and sisters sent out from your church one of the major criteria for evaluating the health of your discipleship. When your people begin to care more about more people knowing Christ than they do about the quality of the programs that serve themselves, revival–true revival, will be around the corner.
ChosenRebel's Blog 
This was at the heart of the Celtic Revival, the longest lasting, widest spread revival in the history of the Church. Their communities were sending communities; they replicated through going on periganiti, not short term missions but missions that were lifetime commitments.
The brothers and sisters left their home communities and expected that they would never return; they went out to plant another community and then another and another. And these sent out small bands on periganiti. An explosive spreading of the Kingdom.
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John, great comment. I am familiar with the Celtic missional movement and have admired it for a long time but I have lost the meaning of “periganiti.” Help me and my readers here. Can you give us a little help and clarity?
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To go on periganiti was to go as a small band, sometimes as few as two, on mission, often without expectation of return to ever see your loved ones again. This was the method that spread Christianity throughout Ireland, into Wales, Cornwall and Scotland, then brought revival to England, the Low Countries, France, Switzerland, northern Italy and Spain.
The Voyage of Brendan is a fascinating description of one such trip. It is shrouded in hyperbole and superstition and probably has many such missions conflated into one but provides a good deal of understanding and is supported by historical research. The Irish did reach the New World long before Columbus.
Read Cahill”s “How the Irish Saved Civilization” for the best one-source description of the Celtic revival and its impact. T.M. Moore’s “The Legacy Of Patrick” is a good source for the underlying theology.
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I need to expand on that 1st paragraph a bit
These small bands went out, not to preach to heathens, but to live and work among them, to form communities and teach them, through word and deed, what it meant to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Having planted and nourished, the crop was harvested by sending out others to do likewise and continuing on themselves to plant another community.
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This is true! I would love to chat with you sometime. I will send you a personal message.
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Would love that Steve. Keep preaching the word and making disciples.
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