Reaching people, planting churches
WEC wants to see churches where there are none - to that end our primary focus is evangelism and church planting among the ‘unreached’. One third of the world does not have access to the stories of Jesus. They have never seen a group of God’s people. What are their questions, needs and issues? What will it take to see people come to Christ and then become a community of His people where they are? What will a Christian community look like in that context? How can we nurture the development of a church that truly belongs in this new setting? These are the questions that stimulate and stir us as we wonder what it’s going to take to see a church planted HERE…wherever HERE happens to be. In dependence upon God we pray, we plan and we work with this vision ever before us. That is what we’re about, that is what we want to see.
WEC’s agenda is often different to local Church Planting initiatives because of our focus on those people and places with little or no access to the gospel. We also work specifically to plant churches that do not look and/or feel out of place in their new setting though they may look and feel very foreign to your average Kiwi Christian.
Here’s how our teams go about church planting, in a nutshell…
Sharing the stories of faith: evangelism
There are essentially four interconnecting stories; theirs, ours, others and God’s. There are a lot of people yet to hear God’s unique story. So the seeds we plant are often Bible stories and how God shows up in our and others lives. We humbly, yet abundantly, sow these seeds wherever possible.
Walking alongside, mentoring those on the journey: discipleship
We live closely and genuinely with people, modelling what it is to apply God’s story to our lives. We journey with them, helping them see Jesus in their issues and in their story. As Jesus was, we become “God in skin’, his representatives to them.
Gathering them together in communities of God’s people: church
God’s message enfleshed in their culture, producing vibrant churches that plant other churches, with locals leading from the beginning. A group of local people who follow God and love each other will deeply impact their community in the long term
Sharing, Walking and Gathering will look different in different contexts…the outworking of these practices will be as varied as the people we live amongst and as diverse as the limits of God’s creativity. That diversity however does not detract from the single-eyed vision for a people of God in every place!
