CHURCH PLANTING IN EUROPE

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CHURCH PLANTING IN EUROPE

• 1Corinthians 169
• For a great and effective door has opened to me,
  and there are many adversaries.

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A. UK ReportTogether In Missions

• 1. Numbers
• 1995-2000 Membership of the church fell from
  6.6m to 5.6m
• Number of churches dropped from 49 975 to 47
  6352 340 churches lost
• 2. Strategies Church planting in three areas
• CP within existing structures
• CP on the edge of existing structures
• CP beyond the edge of existing structures

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i. Within existing structures

• Grassroots level involvement
• Bi-vocational leadership
• New shapes/new expressions
• Multi cultural involvement

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ii. CP on the edge of existing structures

• Incarnational living
• Transformational experiences
• Building community
• Favoring the poor
• New culture new paradigm.new experimentsemergin
  g church.
• Stuart Murray on Emerging Church

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Stuart Murray on Emerging Church

• Mission Oriented seeker friendly, purpose
  driven, cell, G12, clusters, club, café, cyber,
  network, youth
• Community Oriented midweek, post Alpha,
  household, organic
• Worship Oriented alternative worship,
  mono-ethnic, multi-congregational, boiler rooms

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iii. CP beyond the edge

• 1m left the church in the past 15 yrs, 1500 leave
  every week
• 90 not reacting but pursuing something
• Maybe 2500 simple churches with an average of 16
  people each
• Characteristics relational, participative, 24/7,
  authentic spirituality, disciple making, low
  cost. Apostolically committed, simple and
  reproducible, organic, family shaped, communitas
  and not community

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B. The Diaspora Element

• 10 biggest churches in Europe led by diaspora
• First generation therefore mono-cultural,
  integration challenges
• Challenge when the W3 moves in next door.

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C. Islam

• The two sides of the coin
• Humiliation the Israeli wars, Kuwait, Iraq,
  9-11, tsunamis, universities, reinterpretation
• Revival repressive regimes, identity crisis in
  host countries, economic realities, the west and
  its freedoms vices (US in particular)
  backlash militant Islam
• Clear agenda world domination.. ideology with no
  compromise

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Islam

• Two views on the ME advance/retreat?
• Big story Revival amongst Moslems
• Israel as the epicenter
• Egypt Cave Church, literature
• Morocco 40 000 new believers, opening of doors.
• Sudan more than 1m since 2000
• Iraq 1m NT since war began, Kurds in the north..
• Iran more converted in the last 20 years than in
  the last 14 centuries

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Conclusion

• Crisis in Chinese danger and opportunity
• Europe and false peace
• Back to your roots.