How to start a church

what's up guys this is Carter Cox and you know after a lot of work over the last guess it's been six years now of doing discipleship and church planting I guess I just wanted to share kind of a boil down view of some of the most basic five simple practices that every believer can have in their tool belt in order to begin planting churches so let's get started so the very probably most profound tool that I've learned yet or been taught is called the Turk circle or what we affectionately call it here in Oklahoma City is called Church waffle and this is out of Acts 2:36 through 47 so if you're new to this church waffle or church circle it's pretty simple I'm how you set it up is you basically just draw a circle and in this circle you're gonna draw three vertical lines and then once you've got your three vertical lines then you're gonna draw two horizontal lines and now I'm just gonna tell the story and fill in the icons and then we'll go back and look at them a little bit more in depth so again this is basics of discipleship in church planting which we see all of these basics right here at the beginning of the very first church after Jesus rose from the grave in acts 2 so kind of give you some contacts Jesus died and was rose from the grave and he appeared to his disciples for 40 day period and then gave them the Great Commission to going to all the world and claim the gospel make disciples he said that this Holy Spirit would empower them to do this they told him to go back to Jerusalem and wait for the Holy Spirit to come and so they did that and for 10 days they prayed and they waited and on the the festival of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came so there were Jews from all over the world and Peter began to proclaim the gospel he basically essentially said 3x2 is that Jesus came he died on the cross and he rose from the grave and that he has been made both Lord and Christ and 236 he's actually references the murderers of Jesus who are present and he says this Jesus whom you crucified God has has raised and made both Lord and Christ and so it says that these believers are these these murders of Christ these Jews are cut to the heart and say Peter what should we do and then he tells them they need to repent and believe this truth that they need to be baptized which we know is in water and that they too would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit so I just drew a little dove sometimes we'll draw a fire representing the Holy Spirit and it said he said that this gift is not only for you but it's for your children and all those who are far off all the people that the Lord our God calls to himself and he just continued to plead with them saying save yourselves from this corrupt generation and then 3,000 people that day came under conviction of the gospel and the Holy Spirit they repented believed were baptized and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and it says that these new believers began to gather together daily around the Apostles teaching says daily they devoted themselves to the fellowship or partnership they daily broke bread in remembrance of Jesus and they daily devoted themselves to prayers so it says as they were doing these things it says oh and wonder gripped the entire assembly because many signs and wonders or acts of God were being done through the hands of the Apostles and it said that no one saw any of their possessions as their own but they began selling their possessions and distributing the proceeds to any who had a need and I said that they daily gathered in the temple courts and home to home breaking bread and they enjoy their food was glad in generous hearts and they were praising and having favor with all the outsiders and it said that the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved so this is really the first tool or the I guess you could call it the church circle or Church waffle and essentially we see all the practices here not only of an individual believer in relationship to Jesus but we see the the corporate practices of what a healthy church should look like first and foremost we have the gospel every church begins and is rooted on and built upon the foundation of the gospel the fact that Jesus was that has died for our sins that he was buried and he rose from the grave on the third day and he is Lord and Christ so where are you at with Jesus today have you believed this truth that Jesus died for your sin rose from the grave and that he's Lord in Christ of your life so the only natural response to this that we see Peter says is that we must repent Jesus talked about repentance all the way back to in reference to the gospel as soon as he comes off of his forty day fast at the beginning of his ministry it said he began proclaiming that the kingdom of God is near we need to repent and believe the good news and so where are you at today in your life with repentance have you turned away from your old life of sin and now following in accordance with Jesus and Jesus is saying not just this isn't a one-time thing but we continually repent we continually believe in the gospel the next thing of course that follows is baptism so all throughout Acts we see that every single time a person repented and believed in Jesus that they were baptized that day the only time where we see a little bit lag between baptism and belief is with Paul and he was fasting and praying for three days in Acts chapter 9 but every single time that we see baptism it is in reference to a new believer a person who's entering the kingdom that's because baptism according to Romans 6 is it's a picture of being identified with Christ in his death and then in in his resurrection so this is a symbolic public picture to all onlookers that you are now dying to your old way and life in Christ you were buried just like Christ was buried and that you're raising to a new life obviously baptism doesn't wash away our sins but it is an act or a symbol just kind of like this wedding ring shows the world I'm married baptism shows the world that we're now following Jesus the Holy Spirit so we see that the Holy Spirit is given to every single believer upon repenting and believing in him we see this all throughout Acts that upon belief we receive the Holy Spirit but also Paul continues to exhort believers not only to be filled once that the day that they believe but he says be filled with the the spirit on a daily basis he says to walk in the spirit jesus said the the Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus he is the Spirit of Truth and he teaches us truth jesus said that his it is his spirit that empowers us to be his witnesses from Jerusalem Judea Samaria the ends of the earth without the Holy Spirit in our lives signified here by this flame and his dove we have no power to walk in Christ without his presence we can have no relationship with him so obviously the Holy Spirit is a pretty important part of walking with Jesus the next thing we see the Apostles teaching so what were the Apostles teaching we look back in Matthew 28:18 to 18 through 20 and we see that the Apostles are teaching people to obey the commandments of Jesus you can look in Luke 24 when at the end of Luke's Gospel it says that Jesus opened their minds to understand the scriptures and Jesus said you you've seen that all the things written about me and the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms point to the fact that I would die and be raised and that repentance and forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed to all nations beginning in Jerusalem you're my witnesses so he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and that Jesus is the center of them all and that walking in obedience to Jesus is what it looks like to actually learn who Jesus is and how so they're listening to the apostles recount the teachings of Jesus from obviously the Old Testament at that point but then recording the New Testament that we have today that they're partnered together in fellowship so the same word that is used here in acts 2 for fellowship is also used by Paul and Philippians for partnership he says I thank God from the first day until now that you have been partnered with me in the gospel so this isn't just a I like you I shake your hand once a week but this is a genuine love like Jesus talks about in John 14 and in John 17 a oneness Jesus says that he he begins to pray for his disciples and his disciples disciples in John 17 21 he says father I pray that they would be one just as you and I father are one and that the world would know that you have sent me so that kind of oneness that fellowship that partnership is what this first church had we also see that they were breaking bread this is mentioned twice in this passage in acts 2:42 247 that they were breaking bread also says they're breaking bread from house to house and we know that Jesus said on the night that he was portrayed that every time that we break the bread and drink of the cup that we do this in remembrance of him so this isn't just a once-a-year thing or or a quarterly thing that this is something that we do daily with her brothers and sisters in Christ to remember what Jesus has done for us on the cross how he shed his blood for a new covenant for us to walk in and that that we will partake of this whenever he returns and that we feast with him on the day that he returns and makes all things new the next thing we see is prayers so obviously prayers is a huge thing throughout the Gospels Jesus didn't say if you pray but when you pray pray like this as a matter of fact out of all the things Jesus did and taught prayer is the one thing that his disciples asked Jesus Jesus teach us how to pray and he taught them a very simple way to pray to report it both in Matthew and in Luke you can go look that up and also we just see countless examples of Jesus praying and pleading for the Father's will to be done even we think of this back in got the garden of gethsemane surrendering his life to be taken for the sins of humanity and saying you know father if it be my will let this cup pass from me but nevertheless let your will be done he uses countless parables and illustrations that we need to continue to pray with shameless persistence like the friend who goes to as to his neighbor of midnight asking for bread or the widow who's asking the the evil judge to give her justice jesus said that talking with God and listening to what he says and responding that prayer is an important part of a believers life it's probably why it says prayers so it's plural in this text the next thing we see is that there's signs and wonders being done or acts of God now we know that God is is the same today as he was in the scriptures and he will always be the same God doesn't stop operating one way based off of a certain circumstance or period in human history we see the incredible signs and wonders in the Old Testament the plagues the parting of the Red Sea the powerful battles that the Israelites took part in like the Battle of Jericho and the wall just following down after walking around seven days we also see in the New Testament these kinds of signs and wonders in the Ministry of Jesus and into the Gospels and into acts we see that the Apostles are participating in these signs and wonders and even not just apostles but even just everyday disciples you think of Ananias who allowed Paul to regain his sight and it just says that he was a faithful disciple so God can operate and do signs and wonders to any believer and we know these aren't just signs and wonders of healing and and and restoration but also signs and wonders of judgment we see even an act we see Herod he's struck down for not glorifying God and it says that worms ate his body in front of all of these people it says the Ananias and Sapphira after lying to the holy spirit about an amount of money given that was not true dropped dead in the Assembly of the church and they were carried out so God is powerful and he still acts powerfully today we hear stories about dreams and visions and powerful healings and miracles from overseas but they're happening right here in the US as well we've seen them in our own midst so in your own life or are you in awe of what God is doing is there supernatural works of God taking place in your life and through through your obedience or are you sitting on the sidelines saying you know what God maybe operated that that way at one time but he doesn't anymore I can assure you that he operates in ways that will us today if we will simply take steps of obedience the next thing is generosity we see a radical openness and generosity this isn't a socialism or communism because it's not forced it's voluntary the believers are voluntarily out of their love and their hearts and prompted by the Holy Spirit selling their possessions and giving to those who have need we see all throughout the Gospels Jesus's teachings on money how you can't serve both God and money he teaches to not worry about what we will eat or will wear but to seek first the kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to us we see over and over again also that money can be a deterrent away from the Lord we even think about the third type of soil that the seed is cast among and the parable of the sower how this these thorns come up and choke the crop out from being able to produce fruit and Jesusa likens that to a worry for the desires and the riches of the world so it's not bad to have money but if we're living life like this we're showing that we're not trusting God and Jesus said to give to any person who asks so are we living in this way it says that obviously that they had favor with outsiders and they were praising God whenever Outsiders look at our lives are we giving glory to God and praise to him and rejoicing in every situation and circumstance whether good or bad I'm obviously the first church was in constant Thanksgiving and praise to God and this is the mark not only a healthy believer but a healthy church as well we see the result is God's adding to their number day by day those who are being saved and then later in Acts we see that not only addition but multiplication take place and the only difference is adding would be more people coming to this gathering multiplication would be people sent being sent out from this gathering to start other new gatherings and we see this all throughout the New Testament both addition to gatherings getting larger and multiplication of gatherings from Jerusalem to Judea Samaria and all throughout poles journeys to the ends of the earth so this is a result of living in faithful obedience to Jesus command is that he will multiply our efforts as we just model simply how to follow Jesus so this is kind of the main source not only for understanding what healthy church is but what is a healthy disciple we can walk through each one of these things individually and ask do I believe the gospel have I repented been baptized am i walking and being filled with daily by the Holy Spirit am i staying close to God's Word and my in partnership with other believers in my breaking bread and remembrance of Christ and and do I have an intimate relationship and prayer with him am i seeing God do signs and wonders am I even in awe of what God is doing in my life or or and have I lost that sense of awe am i living radically generous am i praising God in all circumstances and am I seeing other disciples being made it is our gathering enlarging or are we sending people out to start other gatherings this is the mark of a healthy not only church but a healthy disciple so if this is your first time to see this take some time pause the video try to reproduce it it's pretty simple and then we're gonna move on to the next kind of tool so say someone does come to follow Jesus how are you going to begin deciphering them well you can use this tool and and some simple stories in light of this tool to begin teaching them the Apostles teachings or the Word of God and so for there's twelve characteristics here and so what you want to develop is is twelve different I'm sorry you want to develop four different story sets and so I'm going to show you what that looks like so the first story set you want to develop and each one of these story sets is going to have twelve Bible stories or passages in them and the first story set of twelve that you want to develop is you want to go into the Gospels of Jesus and you want to read through the Gospels and pick twelve individual stories each of those stories hitting majoring on one of these specific doctrines or practices of the first church so you're going to go through the Gospels and find a story about the gospel of Jesus you're going to go through the Gospels and find a story that gives an illustration of repentance you're gonna go through the Gospels and find a story that illustrates baptism you're gonna do the same thing for the Holy Spirit for scripture or the Word of God you're gonna find one for love or partnership one for breaking bread which is pretty easy you can just go to the last supper you know you're gonna find one for the importance of prayer or find one in the Gospels for signs and wonders for generosity for praising God and for multiplication of disciples or really just finding a story of how did Jesus multiply and make disciples so gonna go through the Gospels Matthew Mark Luke and John and find twelve stories each story is going to major on one of these icons now most every single one of the stories you find are gonna have more than one of these practices illustrated in it Jesus was constantly teaching his disciples how to live this kind of lifestyle individually and corporately but each one of these stories these twelve stories are going to hit on one of these specific topics to teach it so the the second thing if we call that story set a story set B is going to be going into Acts so the book of Acts and doing the same thing finding twelve more stories each one of these stories hitting on one of these practices of church so now you'll have 12 stories 24 stories story set C is you're actually going to go further into the new and go to the letters so the Pauline epistles the p-train epistles the Joanie and epistles and all the way into Revelation even though that's Apocrypha or prophetic literature you're going to go through the rest of the New Testament and you're going to want to find not just stories because this is obviously a different genre epistle is a different genre than this narrative that you're gonna see in the Gospels and acts but you're gonna find may be combinations of passages that teach on each of these topics for example in first Corinthians 15 Paul talks about what is the gospel the gospel is that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures that he was buried and that he has risen since the third day and so that could be one of your scriptures here we obviously since seen this all throughout the epistles but you're gonna go in you're gonna find a combination of passages that teach a little bit deeper on the doctrine of each one of these practices of what does this look like for a believer and as a church life the final stories that you're gonna do is you're gonna make twelve twelve stories of from the Old Testament so you're gonna go back into the Old Testament and obviously this is going to be a little bit more challenging but you're gonna find where is Jesus mentioned in the Old Testament the gospel you can go to Isaiah 52 53 if you like to look at a prophecy of what Jesus said that he would do what is repentance look Locke is their story that illustrates repentance in the Old Testament obviously there's a ton is there a story that illustrates baptism is there a story that illustrates the Holy Spirit is there a story that illustrates the importance of God's Word you're going to go through and gather 12 more stories so after you complete this assignment obviously this is going to take some time it took me quite a long time to find stories that I was satisfied with twelve from each of these categories but you're gonna have 48 total stories that you can take a new believer or group of believers through as you're teaching them how to be not only a follower of Jesus but a church together so 48 stories that would be a year-long worth of stories if you missed a couple Sundays then you'd still still be on track so that would be a good starting place if you finish that let me know and we can we can talk about some more but this is again just kind of the starting place so it's going to be a good assignment for you that's the second assignment the the third tool is going to really go along with this second tool and that's really just an inductive Bible study tool now some people use the sword method or SOS or DBS there's many different ways to do this but what I found is is if you have three basic questions about the scripture that you can ask a gathering or an individual disciple and allow them to learn inductively from the Word of God it's very helpful so the three questions that I use we'll just call it the cross method I'm just going to draw cross the first question the Cross points to the sky and reminds us what does this story teach us about God so before asking these questions you're going to actually read the passage once read the passage together a second time and then you're going to retell the passage either an individual can get up and restore the passage or you can retell the details of the story of the passage so after you've done this and and prayed and asked the Holy Spirit to teach you can begin to ask these cross questions and again the first question for the cross is what does this story teach us about God the second question is going to be what does this story teach us about people so the cross is pointed out in the direction of the earth so not only what does this story teach us about God but what does it teach us about people and finally how can I respond in obedience to what God is telling me to do in this story so every time we open the scripture we know that God is speaking to us God is speaking to us also as we go throughout our day through the promptings of his spirit and his still small voice but especially when we're opening up his word and seeing what the Holy Spirit has already spoken we know that God is directing us are leading us more to look like Jesus there are a responsible BD ins so every time we gather together we read the story we read it a second time we retell the story or the details of the story and then we ask some simple questions whether you call this the cross method or the sword method it doesn't really matter just something that's simple and reproducing for people to remember it's important also to do the read read retail because there's different types of ways that people learn some people are more visual and they learn better through reading other people are more auditory learners so they they learn through story or oral learners who learn through story some people more tactile learners so they learn through acting or doing things so however your group is you're most likely going to have a split of all three and you need to be able to help all of the people digest this story with at least three exposures pray and ask the Holy Spirit to teach you we know John 14:26 the Holy Spirit is the teacher and then begin to ask the questions so that you can together as a group if you're the facilitator you want to be only speaking about 20% of the time again I know some of us preachers we love to talk a lot but this is a little bit different of as I guess a setting where we're not wanting to talk as much we're wanting the Holy Spirit to prompt others to make observations of the scripture so as the facilitator I'm merely going to be pressing them on to answer the question I may give my observations at the end of each question but I want others in the in the everybody to feel comfortable to participate also when you're doing this inductive Bible study you want to refrain from jumping around too much to other scriptures so I know many of us are have had a lot of theological education and time ring or Bible we know it really well but if you are with a new believer and you start jumping from first Corinthians to Zechariah to Hosea and back to Matthew you've lost them and they're gonna feel incompetent and and not confident at all to be able to speak in that assembly because you've you've shown how much more educated that you are in the scripture than them and that will come in time but we need to be able to stick to one story when we do this and by the way whenever we talk about these these these diff story sets it's good that the story only be 12 to 24 verses in length anything less is pretty short anything more than that is too hard to memorize in one setting and you do want these these new believers to be able to retell these stories orally so that at the end they can practice so that they can lead their own groups at some point in time so 12 to 24 verses for each of these story sets or each of the stories in these story sets is a good kind of mile marker to try and head so there's only really two more tools that you need and these are super helpful when engaging people whether it's people you know or people you don't know and the first one is how to share your story so some people have called this the 15-second testimony or the 15-second story and I'm just gonna illustrate mine with you and it's just said it has three parts so for me there was a time in my life when I was really religious but I was depressed but then I received Jesus's forgiveness and begin to follow him as the king of my life and since then he's given me a relationship with God and he's filled me with a joy like I've never experienced do you have a story like that so I'm gonna say that one more time there was a time in my life that I was really depressed even though I was super religious even to the point of trying to commit suicide but I received use his forgiveness and made him the king of my life started following him and since then he's filled me with joy and given me a genuine relationship with God do you have a story like that so really there's just three parts and in each part your life before Christ you're gonna give two characteristics so for mine I said that I was religious but I was depressed in the center I talked about how I had received God's forgiveness and I began to follow Jesus as the king of my life and then I had two characteristics over here in my life since following Jesus and that was the opposite of what was before so before I was religious but now since receiving Jesus's for giving us and making him the king of my life he's given me a true relationship with God the other one that I have been depressed and that Jesus has now filled me with joy like I've never experienced and then at the end of telling your story to anybody you can say do you have a story like that and begin a conversation if people are more interested to actually take steps to begin following Jesus this is a great place to start and just take him through Acts 2:36 247 and say this is what the first believers did in response to Jesus's death burial and resurrection do you believe the gospel do you want to repent of your sin when would you like to be baptized lay hands on them and say you acknowledge that the Spirit of God is now within you and empowering you to live this new life teach them partner and fellowship with them take the Lord's Supper with them and teach them how to pray all of these things you will begin to do with a new believer as you walk through these different story sets and teaching them what it looks like to follow G is individually and corporately so sharing your testimony just kind of like in John 4 you know you see the power of a testimony there this woman who just met Jesus who has no character no education no competence she goes into the city she says come see a man who told me all I ever did could this be the Christ and I said that that town believed that Jesus was the savior of the world because of the woman's testimony and she brought them to Jesus so your testimony is really powerful if you want to see another in-depth look of someone sharing their testimony before Jesus how they came to know and since look at acts 26 the final thing you're going to do is you're going to make a name list of 25 names now I know this might seem like a really simple tool this fit tool this nameless but essentially this nameless is going to become the list that you're going to begin to pray for the people that you know whether they are close to God or that are far from God and you're going to begin praying for them every single day until you begin seeing them follow Jesus you're gonna pray that the Holy Spirit would convict them of their sin you're going to pray for opportunities be able to share the gospel with them you're going to pray that they would repent but we even Jesus be baptized be filled with the Spirit that they would develop a love for Scripture that they would embrace fellowship of other believers that all of these things would take place in their life and you're going to pray for them day in and day out you can make this simple list and put it in a bag in your shower or you can put it on your dashboard or someplace that you're gonna see it regularly you can put it in your Bible but you want to make one of these lists and begin praying for these people and asking God for opportunities to reach out to them so if you have these five different tools you've got your church waffle or your church circle which is the practices of a healthy church and individually of a healthy disciple you've got some homework to put together 12 stories for the Gospels 12 stories for Acts 12 stories for the letters 12 stories for the Old Testament each one of those stories majoring on a different characteristic of law of a healthy church you've got your discovery Bible study or inductive Bible study tool with the cross or the sword you know that whenever you gather with these believers you're gonna read the story read it a second time and retell the story so that people can be confident and competent to engage you've got your way to share your story your testimony with those you know and even those that you don't know and you've got your prayer list of 25 people if you consistently do these practices day in and day out as the spirit I promise that God will honor your obedience and you will see a church started whether it's in your home or your neighbors homes or your family's home you can see this take place we've seen it happen again again we've seen it with both sides of our family with our siblings we've seen it with people we don't even know we've seen it happen from people from other nations who have come here so engage in these practices faithfully and we cannot force the spirits hand we cannot cause conversion but we can lift the sails with simple biblical practices and faithfulness to do them and ask the Holy Spirit to blow and when he does the kingdom of God will be advanced until there's no place left thanks for watching

Channel: M_2_X

Views: 29,661

Keywords: How to start a church, how to make disciples, how to evangelize, how to plant a church, #NoPlaceLeft, No Place Left, How to see a church planting movement, how to multiply churches, how to multiply disciples, church circle, church waffle, CPM, Church planting training, discipleship training, How to share your testimony, how to share your story, 15 second story, inductive bible study, Discovery Bible study

Id: 4uWjf-zhsis

Length: 33min 33sec (2013 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 13 2019