Coaching Emmanuel Seventh-day Adventist church leaders and members for church planting

Abstract

The Emmanuel SDA Church in the Griqualand District of the Cape Conference in South Africa has not been active in church planting. They had experienced some challenges when they attempted to do it in the past. They could not point to one church or branch that they started themselves. To remedy the situation I employ coaching to assist the church in its mission of church planting. The first step in the program development was to conduct a workshop where church planting and the strategies of outreach were pointed out. This served as a basis from which the church was now going to proceed in its work of church planting. The following part was to assist the church in putting those outreach methods into practice. We requested the three cell groups that already existed to do Bible studies in Stock & Stock. These groups had leaders who had to make sure that they were functioning in the best way possible. The leaders were then taught some principles of coaching. These leaders were going to assist the groups to do the program outlined in the workshop at the targeted area where a church planting initiative was going to be implemented. We had a successful campaign at Stock & Stock. The coaching of the group members had a good success. Although there were challenges in the beginning, but the leaders were patient in coaching the members for success. At the same time they too were receiving coaching from me. As they were motivated to do more, so were the members in their groups. This had a positive impact on the work that was undertaken by the church. As a result of this venture the church was awoken to vibrancy and the people who were discouraged became revived. Most of the people became aware of their talents and the potential of the church in outreach was realised. In the end there was a church branch that was organized in Stock & Stock, and there was also a follow-up program after the campaign. This program serves as a model for church planting in Emmanuel SDA Church and elsewhere.