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Pastor Austin Gardner and VBM Director Jeff Bush discuss the indigenous principle of church planting. In light of the indigenous principle, they discuss ways that a church becomes too dependent on a missionary as well as how to avoid situations like that.

• First, not teaching on giving
  • Missionaries don’t have to worry about their salary
    • They don’t teach the church to give and support the pastor
    • If you don’t you are setting the next guy up to fail or for success
  • The missionary makes a mistake when he constantly gives stuff to the people
    • Pastor Pastor knew a missionary who gave a kilo of rice one week and a kilo of beans the next. 
    • That creates a group of people who are only coming to get food 
    • The missionary should help the church in the beginning, but they need to be weaned off
  • First, you need to teach the church to be giving. 
  • Second, you need to have a men’s meeting where the people can know the finances of the church.
  • Third, you need to have a church budget.
  • You need to make the national pastor a burden. 
    • He needs to be in place as soon as possible 
    • He can be an assistant pastor
    • But the church needs to pay him a salary
    • They need to learn to carry the burden of paying their bills
  • The people need to know that you are leaving!
  • Missionaries give too much
    • A missionary should give only as much as the wealthiest national at the church can give
    • The people’s giving should not be awarded by your giving
  • Should a missionary tithe to the church he is planting?
    • No. Give according to the wealthiest national both tithe and faith promise
    • You would tithe back to your home church or put it into the building if your home church lets you
    • Don’t let someone talk you out of tithing! 
    • If you won’t to be an indigenous church-planter, you need to teach them to give! 
    • Have offering devotionals 
  • Constantly ask yourself, if I were gone, could the people continue without me?
    • You shouldn’t do things or pay for things that the nationals couldn’t pay for without you
    • You should try to get your national pastor to a school teacher’s wage
    • The point is, we don’t want to set the national pastor up to fail
    • If we don’t think it through, that is exactly what we are doing!
• Second, not allowing others to do ministry
  • The missionary does all of the work 
    • If you’re doing all the work, it will do alright as long as you are there
    • If you want them to not be too dependent, then you need to teach someone else to handle responsibilities
    • Teach them how to be deacons 
    • Teach them to take care of the buildings
    • Teach them how to lead music
    • Teach them how to teach Sunday school
  • You need to start several churches so that you’re gone a lot
    • They need to be used to doing church without you!
    • It becomes their church, not your church 
  • Imagine teaching your kids to ride a back
    • If you never take the training wheels off the bike, they won’t learn to be independent
    • If you constantly say that the aren’t ready, they won’t be independent! 
    • Let them fall sometimes and help them learn
  • Don’t just give them the menial jobs.
    • You need to train them how to take care of adults by starting multiple adult Sunday school classes
  • You need a plan
    • You need a process where you can take a brand new believer all the way to an adult Sunday school class
    • Every ministry you have, you should be training someone to take the leadership of that ministry.
  • Delegating is so that you can do less work, but it’s so that you can focus and do more work! 
    • If they don’t know hw to do something, then you need to teach them how to do it! 
    • If you’ve delegated everything and don’t have anything to do, then start two churches!
  • Start multiple churches to keep you busy so that you need people to handle the extra ministries that you don’t have time to do
    • If you don’t want them to be dependent, then you need to help them know like it’s their church
  • If your wife can play the piano, that’s great, but she should be training others to play
    • If you buy instruments, you should buy instruments that they can keep and afford
    • If you treat the church like it’s only yours, then it won’t last 
• Third, not buying their building.
  • Raise the funds and help them buy the building
    • In more first-world countries, maybe you can’t
    • The money from the tithes and offering should go to the pastor
    • The church that you are starting, will not be a huge church most likely
  • How do so many of the smaller churches survive in America?
    • They own the building! 
    • They also own buildings that they can afford to take care of
    • You need to do the same for the nationals
  • When you buy them all the nicest and greatest electronics, you’re making a church that the national can’t afford.
  • It shouldn’t be enormous
    • Quit trying to make it a church of 500 or a thousand
    • If the national can take it that high, you can help him later get more buildings
    • But when you start, start small so that they can afford and maintain it
  • Remember to consider whether they can afford it when you are gone
  • You might want a really nice building or really nice projector or something like that, but if the people couldn’t afford it, you should do it! 
• Closing Remarks
  • World Evangelism conference first week of November 
  • More info on visionmissions.com 
  • Summit is at the end of the year at Lake Lanier
  • If you’re in the area, we would love to take you out to coffee and get to know you!