Journal: Journal for Baptist Theology & Ministry
Volume: JBTM 18:2 (Fall 2021)
Article: Biblical Principles of Training Church Planters
Author: John Worcester

JBTM 18:2 (Fall 2021) p. 255

Biblical Principles of Training Church Planters

John Worcester

John Worcester is founder of Church Planting Leadership and has trained church planters throughout the United States and in over 30 countries.

Biblical wisdom is the bedrock for church planting success (Luke 6:46–49). Truth from the Bible must be the foundation for both the content and process for the training of church planters. Cutting corners by compromising Biblical truth may build a new church faster, but when the storms of life come, it will collapse.

Church planter trainers and ministers, like all humans, are prone to wander from accurate Biblical interpretation. It is tempting to settle for the approximate meaning of a passage and miss the most accurate meaning. A mixture of truth and error may be as dangerous as orange juice laced with poison. The Bible is our completely reliable guide.

The reality is that we all have minds that are not yet completely renewed (Rom 12:2). This means we can come up with bright ideas that make sense to us, but they may lead to a dead end (Prov 14:12). God’s inspired Word equips church planters by teaching, reproving, correcting and training them to be wise master builders of the local church (2 Tim 3:16–17; 1 Cor 3:10).

One can find nuggets for church planting and training for church planting throughout the New Testament. Most of the writers were church planting apostles. It was written during one of the fastest-growing church planting movements in history. In addition, it was authored, in no small part, to advance the mission of church planting.1

The first section of this paper looks at why the training of church planters is to be prioritized. A strong enough “why” motivates formulating a workable “how.” Section two will focus on

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how to discover church planters to train. Section three will introduce some practical principles and tips for developing church planters.

Apostles

To understand what the Bible says about training church planters, one must know what the New Testament means by the word “apostle.” One of its primary uses was for those who were sent to plant churches.

There is much confusion and abuse over the role of an apostle today. The Greek word “apostolos” is generally just transliterated from Greek to English, and it means...