The Holistic Gospel Movement Strategy Group

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The Holistic Gospel Movement Strategy Group

Posted by Justin Long ⋅ May 2, 2006 ⋅

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The Holistic Gospel Movement Strategy Group was comprised of people from all over the world with a commitment to see God start Gospel movements among the unreached. The group began by establishing clear definitions: A “church” is: “A local group of baptized believers in the Lord Jesus Christ who gather regularly for worship, nurture, and fellowship; and who depart the gathering endeavoring to obey all the commands of the Lord Jesus Christ.” A “holistic gospel movement” (also known as a church planting movement) is: “A gospel planting effort resulting in the birthing of consistently reproducing indigenous churches that seek to live out the whole gospel to the whole world.” These are sometimes referred to as , but we wanted to emphasize the holistic

We asked, “What are some failures and mistakes we can learn from?” Leaders of the most dynamic movements were very open in sharing mistakes and setbacks, as well as lessons learned from these failures.

We spent time discussing the factors needed before a holistic gospel movement can happen. The foundational factors, or critical elements, which we listed included prayer, Scripture, holistic ministry that meets needs, evangelism that results in church planting of churches that plant more churches, and discipleship and leadership development.

Then we asked, “what can we do together?” We identified three key areas.

1. Information sharing. We will create forums where we can securely access resources and models.

2. Joint research. We will identify untouched areas in need of movements, help evaluate each other’s approaches, document holistic gospel movements in process, and help form HGM think-tanks for the different religious segments of the world. 3. Training. We will be developing training manuals, radio programs, HGM workshops for churches, a church-planting coaches network, and methods to help people understand cross-cultural tensions and worldviews.

Our five purposes can be summarized as: inform, connect, pray, learn and train.