I enjoyed meeting David Watson earlier this year.
According to him, and he should know, there are five major transition points that a church planter must manage. Each transition is a place where the church plant can fail before it has the opportunity to become a fully functional church.
1. Access. Moving into the community in such a way that you are an accepted stranger.
2. Finding the Person of Peace. Finding that spiritually-oriented person in the community who will accept you as a spiritual person and present you as an acceptable outsider to the community.
3. From Person of Peace to small group. Moving from just a personal relationshipds with the Person of Peace to facilitating a Discovery Bible Study that helps a group or family to discover God, their need for Him, and how to place their faith in Him.
4. From small group to church. Facilitate a group of new believers to become a faithful and obedient Body of Christ.
Follow the links for each point to learn more about church planting from a movements perspective.
