Congregation Planting

Mission-Driven

Congregation Planting

The North American Lutheran Church is a mission driven, confessional Church body striving to mobilize its lay and clergy members for the sole purpose of enhancing Christ’s mission in this world. This document provides a broader framework of our work and lays down the strategic direction of our mission. Every mission is targeted and tailored to the local and contextual reality of individual disciples and congregations. Therefore each congregational setting requires to work on its own prayer based and Holy Spirit driven strategic mission plan. However when it comes to the NALC’s collective missional mandate this document sheds light on what we are called and commissioned to do together.

Explaining the Mission Planting Categories

Mission Post

Mission post is where we have less than ten families who are interested in joining the NALC but are not in a position to have their worship place, pastoral leader and full mission plan. This is a way to acknowledge mission groups regardless of size. This is a way to honor people’s faithfulness and getting along side them to help focus their energy towards a possibility of mission.

Mission post can easily grow into a house church or to a mission fellowship. NALC mission plan intends to reactively acknowledge currently existing mission posts and proactively start many more mission posts through out the country. This can be a great entry point into a potential mission field. It is also a mission approach that creates local ownership and grass roots movement. It also encourages and empowers the laity to develop courage for mission. It also sharpens the leadership skills of lay leaders to move mission and ministry forward.

The NALC has a detailed addendum to this mission plan in order to offer a step by step process of starting and nurturing mission posts in a given targeted missional territory (TMT).

House Church

This is a mission model straight from the book of Acts. This model is where groups of people gather at someone’s house for prayer, bible study and worship. There are a number of mission groups meeting in peoples houses across the United States. However this is more and more used in China, Africa and many parts of the middle east. It is a very effective way of expanding the Christian faith without front loading a mission plant with the burden of renting or owning a worship space.

House churches start with ones own family and it involves the whole household. There are numerous small groups that are just starting to gather for worship and mission. This groups can start to gather at a designated place to meet, pray and worship. The size of the place will also create a sense of urgency and intentionality to go out and look for a bigger place. What usually happens is the original group that met at a house for worship remains with the mission congregation as a core group of the ministry and usually the leadership for the group emerges out of that group.

NALC missions office has a detailed addendum on how to form, frame, guide and grow a house church. That form of ministry is already going on through out the USA. The NALC pursues this ministry model in a reactive way to deal with the opportunities that are emerging nationwide and will also guide people in a proactive way especially to help enhance the mission opportunity that comes with the growth of mission posts.

Mission Fellowships

Mission fellowships in the NALC helps groups to focus their energy and motivation in their fellowship towards mission and away from anger, bitterness and discouragement. Mission Fellowships happen in one of the following four ways;

1. Congregations losing votes in their effort to depart from the ELCA who are losing their buildings and their pastors are left with this option of regrouping and starting their own mission fellowships.
2. Mission posts and House churches who show a good pace and sign of growth also grow into becoming mission fellowships. They move into a bigger worship and mission space. They will identify key lay leader or leaders and move on with a strong sense of ownership and leadership.
3. Mission fellowships are also formed where existing NALC congregation with a potential to start a second site can use mission fellowship as a model. That is where these groups are not going to have a full time minister but will have a tent making leader with strong lay leadership support and a mechanisms of oversight and support from the lead pastor of the home congregation
4. The NALC in a proactive way starts mission fellowships in towns and cities where there is a mission opportunity presenting itself in a very self evident way. The main mark of mission fellowship is that it is a very mission driven group without a full time Pastor and with tent making lay or ordained minister. It is also where the group don’t own their own building but are intentionally using rented spaces at visible places for the sake of reaching out to the unreached.

A detailed addendum to this grand mission plan is available to guide groups on the step by step process of starting mission fellowships across the country in the NALC.