Church planting experience

Missionaries looking forward to an evangelistic or a church-planting ministry should get some experience in these areas before venturing overseas. Church planting on the mission field often involves starting from scratch and beginning a church on one’s own.

This is not easy to do even in our own culture where Christianity is the dominant religion. It is much more difficult in a foreign culture where Christians may represent only two or three percent of the population.

It is highly desirable, therefore, that all church-planting missionaries get into full-time church work in the U.S. before trying to do the same work overseas. There is much more to church planting than appears on the surface. For this reason many mission boards are now requiring their candidates to take a church for two years before embarking on a missionary career. The experience gained in this way will be invaluable on the mission field.

Herbert Kane, Life and Work on the Mision Field