We stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us. We all have our influences. For me, that person was Charles Brock. On Tuesday, November 13, 2018, Charles passed away. The obituary may be found HERE.
I was introduced to Charles and his missiology and thoughts on church planting in June 1996. During this encounter, I had my “Damascus Road Experience.” Such was not a conversion to Christ, but rather a radical transformation in my missiology, ecclesiology, and ministerial direction.
This episode of Strike the Match is produced in Charles’ honor. I hope you are blessed to hear of my unexpected journey into the world of church planting. Charles advocated:
- What God’s Word says is more important and more powerful than anything I could say about God’s Word.
- What you want at the end, put in at the beginning.
- A perverted and tarnished view of what a church is constitutes one of the greatest hurdles faced by church planters.
- In an age when perhaps more than four billion people do not know Christ in a personal way, it borders on immorality for a planter to plant a church without considering reproducibility.
- The four absolute essentials in church planting: Seed, Sower, Soil, and Spirit. Excess baggage can be a major problem.
In this episode, I also reference Church Growth International. Be sure to check out Charles’ site and get a copy of Indigenous Church Planting: A Practical Journey.
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Charles Brock also greatly influenced my life and thinking about church planting. His book on church planting was the first one that I read, and Dr. Brock trained us at an orientation with our organization on our way to Asia. My wife and I used the Red Book and the Green Book extensively in our early years in ministry. Even after we stopped using those, we continued using a participative method, largely from the influence of Charles Brock. His time of service is over, but his influence continues. Now he gets to rejoice around the throne together with the many churches that started as a result of his teaching and ministry.
Amen! Thank you, Ryan, for sharing. I appreciate reading your story and about your ministry!
Cleveland had a special place in Charles and Dottie’s heart as they can herenover and over to train our planters and pastors. A faithful servant who lived church planting and was bold enough to challenge the stud quo in our denomination.
Thank you Bro.Charles for bringing the Good News to our place. Churches have been planted because of using Good News for You booklet and You Have Been Born Again What’s Next.