This is a repost, originally published on January 27, 2018.

Pastor Priji has a conversation with Pastor Evans Makatia about who serves as the Missions Pastor and discuss the reasons why church planting is essential, the qualification of a church planter, the role of evangelism and submission to leadership.

Transcript:

During my visit to East Africa this time, I was able to meet many pastors and leaders in Kenya and Uganda. Got to learn a lot from the way they do church. On one such meeting we did an interview with Pastor Evans Makatia who serves as the Missions Pastor at Karura Community Chapel in Nairobi, Kenya. We were able to discuss the reasons why church planting is essential, the qualification of a church planter, the role of evangelism, submission to leadership etc. I met Pastor Evans Makatia in Kenya, a mission’s pastor at Karura community chapel, who is passionate about evangelism and has been dreaming of planting churches and has planted 6 churches. The objective of his church planting is to plant churches that plant other churches. Karura’s vision is to create Christ like disciples.

1. Is it necessary to plant churches or is it enough to organize meetings, camps, conferences or retreats? Aren’t there enough churches already?
We can evangelize through camps and retreats but after the meeting is over, there is usually no one to disciple them and help them grow in Christ.
When a church is planted however, people have a center where they can learn and grow in Christ and have fellowship with one another. After becoming good disciples of Christ, people can go out and represent Christ in their communities.

2. Is evangelism more important or church planting? Does church planting lead to evangelism or does evangelism lead to church planting? Should we first evangelize or plant churches?
Matthew 28:19 NLT Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Churches enable evangelism but a heart to evangelize is needed first. We should have a heart to evangelize to a particular community before planting a church. If we don’t have a burden to evangelize, we may plant a church but fail to reach out to the people.
First comes a heart for evangelism, then we evangelize and then plant a church where people can grow and learn to evangelize. One of the main reasons we plant churches is for evangelism.

3. What are some of the other qualifications needed for a church planter other than having a heart to evangelize?Clear calling: A clear calling to plant churches and to minister as a pastor is the first and most important qualification needed.
Training: People can to be trained to acquire some basic knowledge but it is not a necessity. Once GOD calls a person to plant churches, He will help them in the process. E.g. the apostles didn’t all have great qualifications but GOD used them.

4. Can church planting be more than just the typical church setup of a Sunday service in a particular venue or can it also be planted in a corporate setup or in the marketplace or in the government offices, etc.?
In Karura, they believe that people’s business or whatever they do every day is their mission field. We play out the things that we learn during the Sunday service in rest of the week.
We can have devotions at the workplace, have discipleship programs in offices, prayers in schools, meetings in prisons, etc. Many people must have never gone to a church but through such meetings, they can get an encounter with GOD and accept HIM and join the church.
Church is human beings congregating together in Christ’s name in any place and at any time; not necessarily in a dedicated hall on a Sunday.

5. How important is it that church planters have leaders and mentors above them and submit to authorities? Or is it not needed?
Many church planters start functioning independently because theirs bishops and leaders mistreated them. However, it is necessary for every pastor to have another good pastor who can mentor them and tell them if they are going astray.
Church is not just one person’s personal business, so the way we establish leadership is very important. Church planters should plant churches that will outlive them. The church of GOD is one. Let’s not let the denominational boundaries separate us but let us learn from one another and be united in GOD.

We hope you are blessed by the same. Do share this podcast with other ministry leaders and people who carry a similar vision.(Pastor Evans Makatia can be contacted atkaruracc.or.ke)