A Farmer's perspective on church planting in Europe: An interview with Peter J Farmer
Peter J Farmer and his wife Marsha and 3 kids are based in Nottingham, UK. After a number of years engaged in Pioneer Mission locally and throughout the city and county of Notts they began travelling across the 12 regions of Britain and started NewformsResources through which they and other trainers vision-cast, train and coach established churches, mission agency's and emerging communities in principles and practices related to Kingdom Movements (catalysing the multiplication of disciples, leaders, churches and tribes).
So in his opinion, is it possible to intentionally start a church planting movement, or should you wait for a move of God’s spirit?
“We can intentionally start a movement through listening to the Spirit,” he explains. “With the Spirit’s direction we can train people how to hear the voice of God in relation to mission. So prayer is the beginning, and then by putting it into practice, we can partner with God to see a movement formed.”
Peter advocates forming ‘houses of prayer’ which are groups praying for specific people groups or places: “They tend to pray the apostolic prayers like prayer for workers to be sent out, for open doors, and for signs and wonders and boldness.”
He also uses prayer walking in an area to specifically find people of peace, or groups where people gather: “It’s important to spend time where people hang out in an area, where and when do they meet, and what’s their rhythm of life?’ Then we need to ask how do you we preach the Gospel in that setting.”
Teams across the UK use community 'talent showcases' called 'DREAM Events' to connect with new people, share the gospel through parables and team members transformation stories.
“We try to create connections with people and find people of peace through their wanting to know more, rather than going up to strangers and asking “do you want to know Jesus now?”. This is a ‘yellow light’ strategy where people are not saying “Yes or No – they are saying maybe to Jesus and ‘let’s find out by gathering with our friends.”
When talking of ‘movements’ the conversation quickly turns to generations. What is Peter’s experience of groups starting more groups? Is church planting to the fourth generation possible?
“Some of our teams are established churches who are training members to start ‘simple church’ style groups in their homes, or equipping pioneers to find ‘people of peace’. Others are independent networks of simple churches. We have lots of generation 0 or generation 1 groups – that is groups with mainly Christians, or first generation new Christians.’ They are getting to the point where they can find people of peace and people are being baptised regularly, but the difficulty comes in starting groups that can sustain themselves.’
“We try to create connections with people and find people of peace through their wanting to know more, rather than going up to strangers and asking’do you want to know Jesus now’”
The biggest issue, says Peter, is a lack of tools and reproducible systems to help groups develop beyond the first two generations.
“Movements spread when there are tools that work in the host cultures. The groups who have not received training or coaching, or are not intentional, are struggling to get to second or third generation. We need to ask how we can find people of peace in Europe, what are tried and trusted ways so that people who are not extreme pioneers can do it, how can we gather people in home, work and leisure who are not yet believers and what do we do when we meet together with those people who are not Christians to see them come from non-believing to baptism to disciples to leaders?”
“Tools like Alpha or Life Transformation Groups* are a way of sharing the Gospel or doing discipleship that fits a certain type of people. In addition, while some of the things coming out of the US are useful, the European situation is a much more pioneering field and therefore requires a different set of tools.”
“If a group starts with Christians who leave a church, or a missional community, they already know who to read the Bible, hear the voice of God and be disciples. So they think they don’t need any structure or intentionality. But if these people are going to start a next generation group, say with people at work, they can’t say ‘we are just going to be church’ because those people at work don’t even know the Gospel never mind what it is like being part of a church. You have to be much more intentional about discipleship at this stage.”
“For example, the condition for disciple-making is to hear and obey God’s word so we talk about ‘Truth and Dare’ where we look at the Bible for truth then we dare each other to do it.”
“We also have ‘Bring and Share’. Everyone has something to share – their home food, gifts, talents, scripture. So discipleship is based on ‘Truth and Dare’ and the church is based on ‘Bring and Share’. But this is just a beginning and we need to develop more simple, reproducible systems.”
So what is it going to take to see a church planting movement in Europe?
“Every disciple needs to have the tools to make disciples, to know how to gather communities, and why we are doing it in the first place,” he says. ‘’If everyone knows these things and if they count the cost - to die to multiply - then we will have a movement. But to be honest, a lot of Christians don’t want to do movement They have already been discipled in a certain way of being a Christian, and there has to be a un-discipling and a re-discipling to create movements.”
“If used well, simple church is a simple tool to help form reproducing communities. But it is not an end goal. There is no one size of church – there needs to be a variety of forms. The end goal is really a kingdom movement of multiplication of disciples leading churches in whatever format.”
* Cole, Organic Church, Wiley: San Fco., 2005
Joanne Appleton