Its Organization

1. THE METHOD OF STARTING A NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH
1. Churches Start Churches – Taken from “Be Fruitful and Multiply” by David F. Reagan.
1. The problem of decline
1. Church history, as any history, follows certain identifiable patterns.  Bible-believing churches have always gone through times of revival followed by times of steady growth that ended with years of decline.
2. Generally speaking, a generation is the time it takes for the leaders of a people to be replaced by their children. Church history both past and present will generally follow the pattern set forth below.
1. The first generation is made up of pioneers.
1. They are the ones who start new churches; who see great revivals; who get things started.
2. They are usually a rough bunch with uncouth ways, but they get the job done.
2. The second generation is made up of the builders.
1. They take the foundation that has been established by the first generation and build good strong works.
2. This group is a little more polished but they still make a strong stand for the things of the Lord.
3. They live through a time of growth and strength in the Lord’s work.
3. The third generation is made up of managers.
1. These men are more interested in holding on to what they have.
2. Their convictions waver.
3. The spiritual strength of the churches begins to decline and so do their numbers.
4. The fourth generation is made up of traitors to the cause.
1. They end up selling themselves out to a false gospel, a false spirit and a false Christ.
2. The death of the movement is complete with this fourth generation, unless a group in the fourth generation pulls out of the dying movement and starts over again.
2. Examples of reproduction
1. The example of creation
1. According to Job, if you look to the beasts of the earth and the wonders of creation, "they shall teach thee" (Job 12:7-8 [7] But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee: [8] Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee.
   See All...).
2. On the third day of creation "the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind" (Genesis 1:12And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
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3. Here we see the very basics of life.
1. Since all things on this earth grow old and die, one of the most essential qualities of life is its ability to reproduce itself.
2. This ability is referred to in the phrase "whose seed is in itself" (Genesis 1:11And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
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3. It had in itself the ability to produce more of itself.
4. The ability to reproduce is necessary for all of God's creatures.
2. The example of the early commissions
1. A commission is a sending out to perform certain tasks for the one who sent you with the authority and responsibility to perform those tasks.
2. Immediately after creating man, God told him, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth" (Genesis 1:28And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
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3. After the flood, God gave Noah and his sons a similar commission, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth" (Genesis 9:1And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.
   See All...).  This commission was given in a literal sense to Adam and Noah as a command for them to have children, to multiply their families, and to cover the entire earth with their descendents.
4. God told them both to be fruitful and to multiply.
1. Children are the fruit of the womb (Genesis 30:2And Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel: and he said, Am I in God's stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?
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2. Therefore, to have fruit is to have children.
3. Yet, it is possible to have many children and not to multiply.
4. One of the genealogies in Chronicles gives this report: "And Shimei had sixteen sons and six daughters; but his brethren had not many children, neither did all their family multiply, like to the children of Judah" (1 Chronicles 4:27And Shimei had sixteen sons and six daughters: but his brethren had not many children, neither did all their family multiply, like to the children of Judah.
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3. The example of the first church of Jerusalem
1. Jesus clearly told His disciples before His ascension, “ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
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2. They were commanded to have a simultaneous outreach to their hometown of Jerusalem, to the region of Judaea which surrounded Jerusalem, to the neighboring region of Samaria and to “the uttermost part of the earth.”
1. By being witnesses in Jerusalem, they were to win souls there and establish a local church.
2. In order to be witnesses to Samaria and the uttermost part of the earth, they needed to send out missionaries.
3. However, to be witnesses in Judaea, they needed to plant churches in those locations.
3. Consider the trouble in this church.
1. The church of Jerusalem started with “about an hundred and twenty” (Acts 1:15And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty,)
   See All...) in the church.  These waited for “the promise of the Father” (Acts 1:4And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.
   See All...) as they had been commanded to do.
2. That promise came in the form of the baptism with the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost (Acts 1:5For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
   See All...; Acts 2:33Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.
   See All...).  That “same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls” (Acts 2:41Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.
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3. The church of Jerusalem continued to be blessed and grow.
4. The “Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved” (Acts 2:47Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.
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5. The revival continued to bring in the harvest.  “Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand” (Acts 4:4Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.
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6. With 5,000 men, the church must have been running from 20,000 to 25,000 by now.  Surely this church had the resources to plant other churches and send out church planters.  But did they do it?  No, they were happy to keep building a bigger and bigger church in Jerusalem.
7. After the death of Ananias and Sapphira for lying (Acts 5), the church stopped growing—“And of the rest durst no man join himself to them” (Acts 5:13And of the rest durst no man join himself to them: but the people magnified them.
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8. Then the church had to deal with internal division and murmuring (Acts 6).
9. Finally, after the preaching and stoning of Stephen, “there was great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles” (Acts 8:1And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles.
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10. God forced them to do what they failed to do willingly.
4. The ministry of the apostle Paul
1. How did Paul do the work of spreading the gospel of Christ?
2. In the book of Acts, we see him going from city to city preaching the word, winning the lost and establishing churches.
3. When he left infant churches, he would ordain elders in them and commend them to the Lord (Acts 14:23And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.
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4. He would follow this up by returning at a later date and “confirming the churches” (Acts 15:41And he went through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the churches.
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5. He also wrote letters, or epistles, to deal with problems in the churches and to encourage them in the work of the Lord.
5. The command to Timothy
1. Immediately before Paul testified that he was ready to be offered and the time of his departure was at hand, he gave this charge to Timothy: “But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry” (2 Timothy 4:5But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.
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2. One of Paul’s most important commands to Timothy was to “do the work of an evangelist.”
3. The word evangelist identifies the job as the taking of God’s good news to the lost.
4. Certainly, the work of an evangelist is to lead souls to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
5. Yet, if this is all an evangelist is, we are all called to be evangelists.
6. In order to know the complete work of an evangelist, we should study the Scriptures out on the subject.
1. Since only one man in the Bible is specifically called an evangelist, his work would define the work of an evangelist as to its biblical definition.
2. In (Acts 21:8And the next day we that were of Paul's company departed, and came unto Caesarea: and we entered into the house of Philip the evangelist, which was one of the seven; and abode with him.
   See All...), Paul’s company “entered into the house of Philip the evangelist, which was one of the seven: and abode with him.”
3. We find Philip first active in the ministry of evangelism after the stoning of Stephen.  "Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them" (Acts 8:5Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them.
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4. Philip goes into an unreached area, preaches the gospel of Christ and gathers a group of believers there.  Though he is not said to have started a church, he certainly laid the groundwork for one.
5. Later, he was sent by the Lord to witness to the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26-27 [26] And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. [27] And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship,
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6. After baptizing the eunuch, "Philip was found at Azotus: and passing through he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea" (Acts 8:40But Philip was found at Azotus: and passing through he preached in all the cities, till he came to Caesarea.
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7. This pretty much covers what we know about the work and ministry of Philip the evangelist.  His work can be summed up in three activities.
1. First, he preached the gospel of Jesus Christ to the lost (Acts 8:5Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them.
   See All..., 40).  This is where we get the idea of an evangelist who travels from church to church preaching special meetings in the services.
2. Second, as an evangelist, he actively led lost souls to a saving knowledge of Christ.  We see this not only in Samaria, but also in Philip's dealings with the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26-39 [26] And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. [27] And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, [28] Was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet. [29] Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot. [30] And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? [31] And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. [32] The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth: [33] In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth. [34] And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man? [35] Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. [36] And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? [37] And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. [38] And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him. [39] And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing.
   See All...).  He is a personal winner of souls.  This aspect of evangelism is often emphasized in messages on the pastor doing "the work of an evangelist" (2 Timothy 4:5But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.
   See All...).
3. Third, Philip opened up new areas to the message of the gospel.  He pioneered the gospel into areas that did not have an established church.  He went to Samaria before others went (Acts 8:5Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them.
   See All...) and later “was found at Azotus: and passing through he preached in all the cities, till he came to Caesarea” (Acts 8:40But Philip was found at Azotus: and passing through he preached in all the cities, till he came to Caesarea.
   See All...).
7. Therefore, if a pastor is to do the work of an evangelist, he must do more than just win souls.
8. Pastors are not to be satisfied with ministering to their flock alone.  They are to take the gospel to new areas; either to places where Christ is not named or to places where He is not claimed.
2. Practical Thoughts
1. Research the need.
1. How many people are in the area?
2. How many Bible-believing churches are in the area?
1. Determine this by certain criteria:
1. Their stand on the Bible
2. Their doctrine
3. Their music
4. Their outreach
2. Be strict, but do not be personal.
3. Are there people looking for a church?
2. Begin a Bible study or preaching stations.
1. In a nearby location
1. This could be in the next town over from you or further out
2. This would be held no closer than just outside the current reach of the church
2. At a non-service time
1. It is best to start with a day and/or time that is different from your standard services.
2. This allows those who work the Bible study or preaching station to stay involved in the regular services.
3. Support the meeting with people.
1. An empty meeting place is not as welcoming as is a full meeting place.
2. Have different people designated to support the outreach.
4. Canvas the area.
1. Print flyers for distribution.
2. Go door-to-door.
3. Do street preaching.
4. Offer in-home Bible studies.
3. Send out an arm – Taken from “A Church Arm” by David F. Reagan.
1. Another idea of starting one church out of another is by sending out an "arm."
2. This arm is usually a small group from the old church that want to start a church in another place.
3. We see this in the sending of Paul and Barnabas as missionaries (Acts 13:1-5 [1] Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. [2] As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. [3] And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. [4] So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia; and from thence they sailed to Cyprus. [5] And when they were at Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews: and they had also John to their minister.
   See All...). They went as sent out from Antioch and established churches in many places.