Weekly outline

    GREETINGS
    GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE COURSE
    COURSE FORUMS
    Study weeks:
    1
    2
    3
    4
    5
    6
    7
    8
    9
    10
    11
    FINAL

  • PT513 Church Planting

    We are happy to have you here!

    Make yourselves at home!

                                            

    Dear Students! Welcome to the Course "Church Planting".  We hope and pray you will have a wonderful experience studying with us and complete this course successfully!

    The very first thing we expect you to do is to follow our weekly schedule. We strongly encourage you to complete your lessons within the suggested time frame, which will require maintaining the pace outlined in your course materials. It is recommended that you take a genuine effort in regular forum participation. This allows an opportunity to learn from other students and enrich their learning experience by your views, ideas and discoveries, as you navigate through the course together.

    Before you get started, please, review the Course Description and the Course Schedule.

    Updates on your group activities, further instructions and other relevant information will be available at “Announcements” forum page.

    If you have any questions or messages to the course tutor, please, do this on  “Ask a question” forum page. While the tutor will provide you with support during the course, you should be aware of the self-discipline required for the successful study.

    You are welcome to submit your prayer requests to «Prayer Room» forum page.

    • GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE COURSE 

      Before you get to the lessons, it is paramount that you review the course description and the timetable. They provide important information about the topics and readings, the required assignments and their purpose, etc.

    • FORUMS

    • Many church planters are enthusiastic about their calling and the challenge of launching into such an exciting endeavor. But sometimes they have little patience for defining goals or answering fundamental questions about the nature of the task. But not doing so is like setting out to build a house without blueprints. In the introductory lecture of the course Craig Ott defines terms, speaks about the nature of the church and explains what it means to plant a church.

      After watching these lectures the student will be able to

      • articulate the short and long term goals in church planting;
      • explain practical reasons for church planting;
      • explains how a new church can  impact the community and make the difference, stimulate established churches to  greater evangelistic activity

       

    • Biblical Foundations of Church Planting

      Church planting is more than a practical necessity. It is a biblical mandate!  And yet the theological reflection on the rationale for church planting has often been rather shallow. Mission practice and theology have grown apart. So what are the primary  biblical reasons for church planting? Though there is no explicit command in the Bible to go and plant churches, biblical record leaves no mistake that church planting is essential to God's salvation purposes and the fullfilment of the Great Commission.  God is a missionary God, and we have the privilege of participating with Him.

      After watching these lectures the student will be able to

      • explain why the church is central to God's mission in the world;
      • define the tasks of missions;
      • explain the role of church planting in the salvation history;
      • evaluate Paul’s practice of church planting. 
      Restricted Not available unless:

    • Church Planter

      Though the church planter himself is an essential component of the church plant, the planter's personal and spiritual life hasn't received adequate attention yet. But church planters are just likely to fall short because of personal inadequacies or an inability to work on a team as they are because of a flawed strategy. This lecture is primarily devoted to characteristics of effective church planters and three types of church planters.

      After watching these lectures the student will be able to

      • identify qualities of effective church planters;
      • discern if he has the gifting that is needed to be a church planter;
      • explain the importance of an assessment of potential church planters;
      • explainsthe advantages of tentmaking and  the disadvantages of  church planting with a bivocational team;
      Restricted Not available unless:
      • You get a particular score in Weekly Quiz 02
      • The activity Answer if you watched and read all for the week 2 is marked complete

    • Church Structures

      Just as the church planting team must decide which basic church-planting approach best fits the context and mission, the best  structure of the church should also be selected. Every kingdom community has a unique calling and form, but understanding certain basic designs can serve as a starting point for contextualizing church forms and functions. In this lecture Craig Ott compares traditional western churches with house and cell-celebtration churches. What are  the possible strengths and weaknesses of different church structures? What challenges do they have to face? In which context do they tend to be most effective for God's kingdom?

      After watching these lectures the student will be able to

      • give a quick overview of basic forms that church life can take;
      • explains the fundamental difference between the cell church and traditional western church with small groups.
      Restricted Not available unless:
      • You get a particular score in Weekly Quiz 03
      • The activity Answer if you watched and read all for the week 3 is marked complete

    • Church Planting Models

      This week  you will survey a variety of approaches to church planting, beginning with pioneer church planting, where few if any churches already exist in the area. Then you will examine approaches to reproducing churches. These two categories, pioneering and reproducing, roughly correspond to what we find in the New Testament. Craig Ott will also decribe strategies for multiple church plants in a region. Each of these approaches can be appropriate and effective under the right circumstances.

      After watching these lectures the student will be able to

      • explain  different approaches to church planting and church reproduction;
      • explain the harvest priority principle;
      • give examples of different approaches being used in different countries. 
      Restricted Not available unless:
      • You get a particular score in Weekly Quiz 04
      • The activity Answer if you watched and read all for the week 4 is marked complete

    • Development  Phases of Church Planting

      Much like human life, church plants progress through reasonably predictable developmental phases. These phases reflect a fluid process rather than being clearly defined separate steps. Yet understanding the developmental phases and their characteristics is important to identifying the particulate needs, challenges and opportunities that face a church plant. Failure to give attention to the changing needs of a church plant as it develops can lead to unnecessary difficulties of stagnation. In this lecture Craig Ott talks about the phases through which a church plant progresses: preparing, launching, establishing, structuring and reproducing.

      After watching these lectures the student will be able to

      • explain what tasks should be accomplished on different development phases of church planting;
      • explain the role of a church planter at different points along the road of planting the church.
      Restricted Not available unless:
      • You achieve a required score in Weekly Quiz 05
      • The activity Answer if you watched and read all for the week 5 is marked complete

    • Planning and Research

      Successful church planting always requires a basic understanding of the people that are being reached. So there are several good reasons to engage in ethnographic and demographic study which allow the researcher to focus on a more specific ministry focus group. The research findings will also help to come up with a strategy for evangelism and church planting that is suited to the focus people. In this lecture Craig Ott talks about good planning, different types of helpful information, determining the focus group and discerning the opportunities.

      After watching these lectures the student will be able to

      • give some quideliness on good planning;
      • explain the difference between quantitative and qualitative research;
      • use research methods that are helpful to planting a church.

       

      Restricted Not available unless:
      • You achieve a required score in Weekly Quiz 06
      • The activity Answer if you watched and read all for the week 6 is marked complete

    • Evangelism and Discipleship

      Church planting is that ministry which, through evangelism and discipleship, establishes multiplying kingdom communities of believers in Jesus Christ who are committed to fulfilling biblical purposes under local spiritual leadership. This definition underlines the fact that evangelism and discipleship are the heart of church planting. If you are planting a new church, you want to reach new people for Christ and expand God's kingdom and also impact the community as salt and light.  In this lecture Craig Ott will focus only on those aspects of evangelism and discipleship which interrelate with church planting.

      After watching these lectures the student will be able to

      • explain how the church can build the bridge to the people outside the church;
      • identify three dimentions of kingdom communities;
      • explain the principles for compassion ministry. 
      Restricted Not available unless:
      • You achieve a required score in Weekly Quiz 07
      • The activity Answer if you watched and read all for the week 7 is marked complete

    • Planting Healthy Reproducing Churches

      It is one thing to be concerned about planting more churches and reaching new people, but we also should be concerned about the kind of churches we plant if we want them to be kingdom communities. So in this lecture Craig Ott talks about planting healthy, reproducing churches. This information will be helpful if you are a church planter or are involved in the existing church. He talks about six guidelines for healthy church development. You will learn about the indicators of Church Health.

      After watching these lectures the student will be able to

      • share some important principles for healthy church development;
      • identify the marks of a healthy and growing church.
      Restricted Not available unless:
      • You achieve a required score in Weekly Quiz 08
      • The activity Answer if you watched and read all for the week 8 is marked complete

    • Resources for Church Planting

      Good stewardship of life and resources will be part of the DNA of any healthy church-planting movement. Should a church receive a lot of outside assitance? Where the resources should come from? What are some biblical principles for sharing resources? In this lecture Craig Ott talks about indigenous movement, six ways outside funding can harm or help a church plant and how to navigate two things that are  predominant in church planting these days, short-term teams and partnership with different organizations.

      After watching these lectures the student will be able to

      • share biblical guidelines on resource sharing in God's mission;
      • explain the concept of indigeneity;
      • explain how the outside funding can help church planting or hinder church multiplication;
      • give important guidelines for healthy and effective partnership.
      Restricted Not available unless:
      • You achieve a required score in Weekly Quiz 09
      • The activity Answer if you watched and read all for the week 9 is marked complete

    • Leadership Development

      Developing local leaders is going to be a real key to developing strong and reproducing churches. So with time the church planter will need to focus attention increasingly on developing those persons who will become the future leaders and missionaries of the church.  This is not a course on leadership, that is why you will learn some basic ideas and principles to follow. In this lecture Craig Ott shares methods for equipping leaders and workers in the local church, emphasizes the factors that are essential in identifying potential leaders, talks about different levels of lay mobilization, compares apprenticeship with school model and shares some examples from his personal experience.

      After watching these lectures the student will be able to

      • explain how to identify faithful, gifted and teachable people;
      • help other people to become better servants;
      • explain the difference between apprenticeship and school models;
      • describe three aproaches to ministry equipping. 
      Restricted Not available unless:
      • You achieve a required score in Weekly Quiz 10
      • The activity Answer if you watched and read all for the week 10 is marked complete

    • заключительная неделя

      This week is the deadline for submitting your literature review and the written assignment. These are the prerequisites to obtain the permission to take the FINAL TEST.

      Keep up the good work: "The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on them my new name."

      • Step 1. Final Paper

        Please, submit your final paper. 

      • Step 2. Final Exam

        Please, take the final exam for this course. 

      • Step 3. Reading Report

        Please, submit your reading report. 

      • Step 4. Course Evaluation

        It is very important to know your opinion about this course . Please fill in the feedback form Evaluation of Online Course, which you will find below.

        If you have something to say about how this course helped you in your ministry, in your spiritual development, we will be glad to hear it. If you want to say something to the teacher, you can send any comments and suggestions to our email address : tvs.student@gmail.com 

        THANK YOU!