Building on the student’s understanding of church planting, this will apply planting principles to residential communities by asking the learner to explore a specific area in which a concentration of residential communities lie, meeting and interviewing the local manager, conducting one specific community building event, seeking a group interested in becoming a part of a discussion and group, and evaluating the outcome of at least three meetings. A written report will be required that will be statistical and measurable.
The student will explore a new venue for starting churches. In most church planting areas, at least a small cluster of residential communities will be available for ministry. They should have completed a basic course on ministry among residential communities, and will now see the value of intentional work here as a way to connect with many more, much more quickly. Additionally, the student will be able to apply the process to neighborhood ministry.
All church planters will discover an entirely new population; 96% of which are not engaged in a local church. They may discover that this is perhaps the easiest way to begin the search for persons of peace and form the core group for a new church plant. Should they fail to understand the residential community piece, in many cases they will eliminate over 40% of the population in their church planting target area. It is therefore relevant to their strategy to engage every pocket of people in order to effectively reach a community and start a new church.
Follows the pattern of the Apostle Paul, Peter, and other early church leaders in intentionally engaging people of peace with a view to begin “house churches” “Mission Outposts”
