Healthy Church Formation

Abstract

Even though every aspect of the missionary task is vital to cross-cultural missions, healthy church formation is the fulcrum onwhich everything rests and pivots. Church planting is God’s plan for reaching the nations for His glory, which makes healthy church formation simultaneously the goal of the missionary task and the vehicle for accomplishing it. Yet, it is at the point of healthy church formation that things often derail. Multiple complications can occur in this phase of themissionary task, but the two most common relate to “health” and “formation.” Sometimes unhealthy churches are formed, which either inhibits reproduction or results in more unhealthy churches. Another common challenge is the inability to transition from a small group to the formation of an actual church.1 Most church planters have unlocked Entry, and they have well-developed tools for Evangelism and Discipleship. Even on the back end, after churches are planted, leaders often have tried and true methods for developing other leaders and pushing on to other fields. It is at healthy church formation, this