Every pastor can expect the Lord to use you to plant more than one church. After a period you will have a network of churches. These churches will have to be managed. Managing a network of churches involves training, encouraging and guiding a team of ministers as they work.
Three Keys to Planting a Network of Churches
Key No. 1 Teaching on How to Do the Work of Ministry
The first key to planting a network of churches is the TRAINING of ministers. The congregation is a field in which you plant seeds. If you plant seeds of leadership and inspire the members to do pastoral work, they will do it. The more you teach on how to do the work of the ministry, the more potential ministers will be released.
When you teach your leaders, you are actually teaching many more people. You are also teaching the followers of this leader. Pastors must know the principle of explosive growth: if you want GROWTH, teach your members, if you want EXPLOSIVE GROWTH, teach your leaders!
Teaching leaders establishes authority over the leaders who work under you. This is because the authority over the leaders is demonstrated by your ability to feed them. Teaching ordinary members is an investment into the church today. Teaching leaders is an investment into the future when you are gone. Success without a successor is failure!
Every pastor must teach leaders because Jesus Christ taught leaders all the time. Pastors must spend more time teaching leaders than teaching ordinary church members. This is the pattern set by Christ Jesus. Teaching leaders is your greatest key to true expansion. You will not have anyone to delegate if you have not trained leaders.
Every pastor must teach his leaders because the leaders will never know what to do unless you teach them. Many pastors assume that the potential leaders around them will acquire vital knowledge by osmosis. People feel that leadership is for special people who are born that way. Osmosis is not the key to leadership teaching is!
I have written many books on these subjects which I recommend to you: “Lay People and ahe Ministry”, “The Mega Church”, “Transform Your Pastoral Ministry” etc. As you teach your members these materials, you will be surprised at what they will become.
Key No. 2 Teaching on Loyalty
The second key to planting a network of churches is LOYALTY. Loyalty is essential for maintaining a network of churches. The churches you will plant will not be in the same location. It is therefore necessary for people to be loyal wherever they are situated. I have taught a lot on loyalty. I have also written two books on this subject “Loyalty and Disloyalty” and “Leaders and Loyalty”. I recommend that you read these books, as they will be a blessing to your ministry.
I once heard of someone criticizing me for teaching on loyalty.
He said, “Why should you teach on loyalty and disloyalty?”
He went on to say that loyalty is not something that is taught but is something that people are inspired to do because of your leadership.
I was not surprised that this dear critic of mine had not planted a single branch of his church but was criticizing someone who had planted over four hundred churches.
On another occasion, a dear pastor criticized me for teaching on loyalty. However when his church split, he became an avid reader of my books and even promoted them to other ministers. Loyalty is a key subject which must be taught until the culture of faithfulness and loyalty is established!
Key No. 3 – Teaching on Church Administration
Church administration involves the managing of the churches that have been created. It involves managing a combination of secular and spiritual issues. It involves balancing natural things with supernatural things.
Church administration involves the blending of hierarchical leadership and a democratic form of government. Both of these styles are biblical. The Bible has examples of committees being formed as in Acts chapter 6. As in the case of Paul and Timothy, the Bible also has examples of an autocratic style of leadership with direct instructions being handed down.
Church administration requires combining the power of God and the wisdom of God. See my book entitled Church Administration.
Without good church administration everything that you build will eventually collapse. You need to master church administration otherwise your ministry will be likened to a rocket that shoots out and falls apart shortly after take off.
But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God
1 Corinthians 1:24
The Advantages of a Network of Churches
1. History has proved that the networks of churches or branches are very successful. These networks of churches are sometimes called denominations.
2. There are several well-known networks of churches in the world today. These networks are often the most stable and established congregations everywhere. The Assemblies of God Church, the Church of Pentecost, Church of God in Christ are but a few notable examples of these networks. The largest church in the world, pastored by David Yonggi Cho, belongs to the Assemblies of God Church network.
3. History has shown that belonging to a network of churches can give rise to very large stable congregations. It may be the key to church growth for your congregation.
4. Belonging to a network of churches sometimes eliminates the instability that characterizes young independent churches. The institutional stagnation that sometimes develops in a network of churches may be much less of an evil compared to the advantages that come with it.
5. In a network of churches, there are tried and tested principles which are passed on to sister churches.
6. In a network of churches, the already existing name serves as publicity and attracts people to the churches. This name becomes like a franchise and serves as a powerful asset. The good name of a network of churches also has spiritual significance that cannot be quantified.
7. In a network of churches, trained members benefit from an established and respected system of pastoral recommendation and appointments.
8. The network of churches can benefit from each other financially. You are not likely to get financial support outside your network. Through a system of brotherly interdependence, churches are able to accomplish much more.
9. Church members readily flow between churches belonging to the same network. The network of churches is therefore to keep members within the fold.
10. Churches within the network easily benefit from anointed senior ministers of that network. They do not have to go through the protocol or experience the cost of having such ministers.
11. Pastors within the network of churches can receive fatherly counsel and encouragement from seniors. Pastors of independent churches are usually suspicious and wary of external ministers who parade as fathers. There is little trust because independent churches often compete with one another rather than support each other.
12. Churches within a network operate under a particular spiritual covering. The same anointing runs through the entire network because it is really one church.