I was the one who always asked the above question when others approached me in the past on this subject. This region has no shortage of high quality churches. Saddleback Church is 20 minutes down the freeway from us, Calvary Chapel, Anaheim Vineyard, Mariner and Rock Harbor are all very close to us. But if you think the previous list is not suitable for immigrants like us, there are 20 other Vietnamese churches in Orange County including two of the largest Vietnamese churches in the U.S.: Orange and Midway. Or perhaps if you think these 20 churches wouldn’t fit the English-speaking 2^nd generation demographics, then we also have all sorts of other pan-Asian churches ranging from 5000 members Newsong Church from David Gibbons, or the 50-members Converge Church started last year by Sabastian Huynh.

Therefore, church planting is the last thing I would ever imagine being involved with. As I worked with Midway church in the last 20 years, my focus has always been church development rather than church planting.

A. How has God called you to plant a church?

Honestly I don’t even know if God has called me to be a pastor, much less church-planter. I’ve never heard any supernatural voices, but the circumstances around me seem to inconspicuously move in that that direction at a very slow pace.

As a lay-volunteer, I started an English-speaking class for the Jr. High students back in 1989. This evolved into a Youth group, then they grew up forming a college group, then they graduated, got married and had kids. In 2000, Rev. Le Vinh Thach called me to the pastoral path required. I brushed it off, believing that you could serve God regardless of title or position. In 2002, after a Korean pastor pointed out the 2^nd generation issues as their churches grew from English Department to English Congregation (a.k.a. the Goette model), I enrolled in seminary since I felt that God’s place for me was to transition the church from the 1^st generation ethnic church to the 2^nd generation English-speaking church.

Since then, I’ve labored to foster the formation of an English congregation, following the C&MA Denomination and District’s road map of transitioning from a-church-within-a-church (the “Umbrella Model”) to a-church-beside-a-church (the “Parallel Model”)^[1]. During these years, I learned a lot from many church planters, but have always carefully navigated the polity tension between the 1^st and 2^nd generation to avoid the statistic that 85% of English ministries split away from the mother church.

I vowed that I would never split a church. But the church split first without me.

In June 2009, all the members of the Board of the Vietnamese congregation resigned after an 8-months long internal conflict, which had nothing to do with the 1^st or 2^nd generation. Many of the parents of our English congregation members left. They started a new “exiles” church located six miles away in the next city of Fountain Valley. But virtually all (except for two couples) of the English members stayed back because of the strong bond they have within the English-speaking service. Even as the parents of the worship team members left the church, the worship team themselves continued to serve during this tumultuous time.

Our attendance in July 2009 was still around 115. Torn between the “exiles” and the “remnants”, we saw ourselves like the children of a bitter divorce, who didn’t know what to decide.

But we did not have to make that decision. As an indirect result of the split, the “remnants” church leadership ceased the development of English ministry according to the denomination’s “parallel-model” at the end of 2009. The rationale was to prevent further fragmentation as the English ministry becomes an English-speaking church. This divergence in philosophy of ministry for the English-speaking generation led to a mutual agreement for me to transition Midway English ministry to a new leadership as they head back to the one church model. However until today (May 2010), there is no new leadership in place yet.

As the loss of direction became more visible to the English congregation in 2010, the decline became more rapid. In January the attendance was 90. It dropped to 80 in February, then 70 in March. By the week following Easter, our attendance dropped 50% back to 59 (even including some new visitors). People left to attend Newsong, Rock Harbor and other churches (since the “exiles” group doesn’t have an English Ministry yet). As all of this happened, I stayed on, waiting for a transition to a new leadership. At this rate, the ministry will implode within three months. Or even worse, it might not even be salvageable; since I visited the people who left, many had decided that they would not return to any Vietnamese church.

At the urging of several key leaders who have been laboring together with me in the ministry, I am seriously considering church planting as the next step in our ministry.

To be exact, this is a church “re-planting”

As our involvement with Midway English ministry was winding to an end, it seems like a door was opened with the “exiles” at Fountain Valley (FV). In November of 2009, the FV church asked me to help them to moderate their leadership meeting and serve as the translator/liaison with the American church (Coastal Community Fellowship), where they are renting. The District Superintendent gave me permission to facilitate the governing board election to help the church during its formative stage. I agreed to help, because they truly were “sheep without a shepherd”, and surely the Great Shepherd would want me to do so.

Now, the leadership of FV church had approached me to start an English Ministry, despite the fact that they only have about 10 children and eight teens in their Sunday School. I am sensing the Spirit’s lead and will labor to build an English-speaking Church, which would partner side-by-side with its mother church. I am convinced that this is my call, just like David had his call for his generation (Acts 13:36). My prayer is that “if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail” (Acts 5:38-39). Success is not required, faithfulness is.

But is “starting a church” Biblical?

The Bible is clear about the church planting priority. Jesus promises to build His Church in Matthew 16:18. In Matthew 28:19-20 Jesus commissions His disciples and us to make disciples and baptize them, by inference, into His Church. As the New Testament church is born in Acts 2, we see them doing just that. Those who believed and are baptized are added to the church (Acts 2:41, 47). They spread out through Judea and Samaria as Jesus promised (Acts 1:8) and started churches. The church in Antioch becomes the mother church for starting churches to the ends of the earth as they send Paul and Barnabas (Acts 13:1ff). Everywhere the gospel goes, churches are started to continue making disciples. Paul commands his followers to continue the church planting pattern by appointing elders in every town (Titus 1:5). Those who love Christ love His bride, and long to see her in every place. The New Testament ends with the church from every nation worshiping together in heaven (Rev. 7:9).

Church start-ups are for greater Kingdom advancement

Numerous writers show that church planting generally leads to more conversions and greater church growth than merely trying to grow established churches. Tim Keller writes in his church planting manual^[2] why church planting generally brings about more Kingdom growth. In summary:

More younger-adults are generally reached by new churches. Older churches are led by those from a different era, with extra-Biblical (though not necessarily unbiblical) customs (such as dress, music style, etc.) that are not as attractive to many younger folks. These church norms are difficult to change in established churches. In church plants a new church culture can be established from the beginning.

New congregations are better at reaching new people. They can be assimilated, use their gifts, and even become leaders sooner than in established churches where long tenure tends to precede influence.

New churches are generally better at reaching new social groups. An example is David Gibbons’ Newsong church in Irvine. New churches are generally better at reaching the new wave of young people than are the established churches. Even for the kids who grew up in Vietnamese churches, many of them gravitate toward Newsong church as the first stop after their exodus from the Vietnamese church’s culture.

David Gibbons wrote about starting his church, “I remember being broken by the fact that there weren’t too many churches reaching the next generation who were both post-modern and multi-ethnic in flavor. As a kid, my best friends were African-American or Caucasian. I had wondered why churches were so segregated. Furthermore, I saw how most of the churches I knew weren’t connecting with my friends. Church seemed so irrelevant and boring to them. Then I took a hard look at where I was serving. It was a great church yet because of its immigrant nature it was not reaching the new global village that was fast emerging. It became clear to me what the “new song” was. It was to begin a multi-ethnic movement that would reach the next generation. How? Through planting churches and focusing on the next generation of leadership.”^[3]

Keller points out a natural dynamic that “[a]s a congregation ages, powerful internal institutional pressures lead it to allocate most of its resources and energy toward the concerns of its members and constituents, rather than toward those outside its walls… But new churches, of necessity, are forced to focus far more of their energies on the needs of their non-members and become much more sensitive to the sensibilities of non-believers. There is also a cumulative effect. In the first two years of our Christian walk, we have far more close, face-to-face relationships with non-Christians than we do later. Thus new Christians attract non-believers to services 5 to 10 times more than a long-time Christian. New believers beget new believers”^[4].

No wonder church growth expert Peter Wagner said, “Planting new churches is the most effective evangelistic methodology known under heaven”^[5].

But is “starting a church” after a church split advisable?

In his book “Getting a Church Started” the renown Dr. Elmer Towns (Co-Founder of Liberty University with Jerry Falwell, and School of Religion Dean) dedicated the whole chapter 11 on “Planting a Church from a Church Split”. The chapter started with these sentences, “Many new churches are started from church splits. As obnoxious as a church split may appear, there are times when God leads a group of people to leave their church and plant a new one.” He discussed these special dynamics at length:

The attitude prevalent in the Christian world is that a church should never split. Since Jesus said, “I will build my church” (Matt. 16:18), most think it is presumptuous to “split” a church that Christ built. It is difficult to analyze issues that lead to a church split, because splits are usually born of emotions rather than rationality. Good men have deep feelings concerning church splits.

Those who feel a church should never divide usually question any group splitting a New Testament church. The motives of any pastor who has successfully led a split are doubted. The idea of a church split is rejected even though there is some validity to this position. Some will split a church over the smallest issue. Some, like spoiled children, will pick up their toys and go elsewhere to play (lead a faction out of a church). A few pastors who receive a majority vote may try to “run out” those who voted against them. When people leave a church individually, this is known as splintering a church.

Church splits have their humorous side. When interviewing a pastor of a large northern church, I asked how many churches he had started. “Several . . . but none by design,” he replied. Another pastor stated, “We’ve had so many splinterings that we have supplied kindling wood leading to revival fires all over the city.”

Is there a proper way to split a congregation, bringing glory to God? Some say no! At the same time, fights, arguments, court cases, name calling, ugly scenes and adverse news coverage cannot help the cause of Christ. Paul and Barnabas had been a successful missionary team, planting churches. The two men had been friends since Barnabas had befriended Paul when no one else would immediately after his salvation. These men were closer than any pastor and staff member. Yet, when approaching their second missionary journey, Barnabas wanted to take young John Mark along. Paul objected. “The contention was so sharp between them, that they departed asunder from one another” (Acts 15:39). God used Paul’s temper to double the missionary endeavor, and two teams went out instead of one.

In one sense, most American churches come from a split…

Most church splits arise over personality rather than doctrine. Individuals could not get along. Two good friends can disagree over an issue, but love each other in the Lord, and they remain friends. Yet the same issue would split those who already have a basic dislike for each other.

In spite of all the unfortunate church splits, God has used many to his glory. People have been brought to salvation who would not have otherwise been reached. Communities have been evangelized, colleges built, missionaries sent out, and money raised that would never have come from a complacent, dead church. God causes even the wrath of man to praise his name (Gen. 50:20)^[6].

Dr. Towns then proceeds to give practical guidance to the situation, and highlight key advantages and disadvantages in Planting Churches from Church Splits:

Advantages:

The new church has financial commitment.
The new church has a core of people.
The new church has committed and matured Christians.
The new group is closely knit around a cause.

Disadvantages:

There is usually poor reputation in the community and among other Christians.
Bitterness may hinder its ministry.
The new church may be established from some other reason than evangelism.
People who could not get along with others in the old church will cause problems in the new church.
Strong opposition from the old church.

Dr. Ralph Wilson, founder and editor of “The Planter”, a professional newsletter published by the American Baptist Churches, used provocative language to call his district to care for split-churches, “Churches sometimes have illegitimate children, but they are children nonetheless.”^[7]

In that regard, I felt that the flock of the “exiles” would be benefited from a partnership with our re-planting effort, since I’ve started working on the healing process with them. At the same time, I would diligently seek for support and blessing from both the “remnants” church and the District.

Right now, we are still in the pre-launch stage to discern God’s leading. But definitely our desire is that we would be able to build a Gospel-centered faith community which will impact people’s lives. The following pages will describe that vision in more details.

C. Why another church in this community?

As stated earlier, despite many good churches in this region, we have not found enough churches with a bicultural identity, connected to our Vietnamese cultural heritage, yet relevant to the American culture we live in, yet exalting the counter-culture reality of the Kingdom of God.

Of the 1.6 millions Vietnamese Americans in the US, Orange County is the largest concentration with 157,012. This region could be called the Vietnamese Expatriate’s Capitol of the Diaspora.

Most Vietnamese are gathered north of the map in the cities of: Garden Grove (47,609), Westminster (35,101), Santa Ana (16,216), and Anaheim (11,548). Fountain Valley would be 5th in Orange County (7,088).

Despite the population, there are only about 20 churches in the region (that’s an average of 1 church for every 8,000 Vietnamese Americans). However, only roughly half of these churches are capable of ministering to English-speaking Vietnamese. But since many churches are still struggling to maintain an English youth ministry, that leaves roughly 5-6 churches with English-speaking congregations: Orange, Midway, Anaheim, Westminster, New Life, and Word-A-Live. Since 36% of the Vietnamese American population is American-born that leaves 57,600 of them to be reached by only 5 churches.

From the data of all Asian-American Church plant in Orange County collected by DJChuang^[8], the last time a church was planted with the specific Vietnamese-American target was nearly a decade ago. Perhaps it is the right timing for another church plant to focus on the English-speaking Vietnamese American in the area. Particularly in the area south of Little Saigon (the blue square in the map above), which is under-served since most churches are founded north of Bolsa Blvd.

Church	Since	Type	Website	Pastor(s)
*ReGen, Anaheim*	2009	C&MA	http://regenchurch.net/	Nate San & Jay Abiera
*ConVerge, GG*	2009	Covenant	http://convergefc.com	Sabastian Huynh
*Crossway OC, Santa Ana*	2008	Korean Exodus	http://crosswayoc.org	Paul K. Kim
*Trinity Presbyterian OC*	2007?	Presbyterian	http://www.trinitypresoc.org	Iron Kim
*Crossway, Brea*	2007	Sarang’s plant	http://www.crossway-church.com	Steve Choi
*Cross Community, Irvine*	2006	Korean Exodus	http://www.crossirvine.org/	Jin Cho
*City Lights, Long Beach*	2006	Act29 + EVfree	http://www.citylightschurch.org	Thien Doan
*Village Community, LB*	2006		http://www.avillagecommunity.org	Chris Fukunaga
*Ambassador, Brea & LA*	2003	EVfree	http://www.ambassadorchurch.org/	Ray Chang
*Word Alive, GG*	2002	Pentecostal	http://www.wordalivefamily.org	Hugh Nguyen
*Jubilee, Irvine*	2002	Presbyterian	http://www.jubileepci.org	James Kim
*Exodus 3, Irvine*	2001?		http://exodus3.com	Chi Song
*Pillar* *Bible Church,Fullerton*	2001	Fundamentalist	http://www.pillarbiblechurch.org/	James Lee
*Epic* *Church*	2001	Baptist	http://www.epicchurch.net/	Kevin Doi
*Cornerstone* *Bible Church*	1999	Fundamentalist?	http://www.cbcbible.org	James Shin
*New Life, GG*	1997	Calvary Chapel	http://home.calvarynewlife.org	Vincent Pham
*Newsong*	1994	Covenant	http://www.newsong.net	David Gibbons
*Orange EM*	1977?	C&MA	http://tinlanhorange.com/	Donald Phan (EM)

In addition, the younger Vietnamese American culture has been shifting much due to the assimilation process. The younger audience has become much more postmodern and relativistic in their thinking and will no longer accept the faith handed down to them from their parents without questions. It is one thing to exhort the first generation to dismiss theories of “The Da Vinci Code” or “the Discovered Tomb of Jesus” as portrayed in popular culture. It is entirely different to engage in discussion with the second generation on the issues, when they were educated with relativistic philosophy in college and could cite the work of Richard Dawkins and Bart Ehrman to back up their reasoning. Some of them are even tweaking DNA on a daily basis with new life forms in the labs they work in.

Not only are they changing in intellect, but they are also changing in cultural preference. An obvious example can even be seen in their taste in phở restaurants. For the older generation, Phở 79 would serve them fine, as long as the food is good. But a crop of newer restaurants like Phở Thăng Long started to emerge with the preference of a younger generation in mind. These restaurants must add the attention to clean décor in addition to the prerequisite of great food.

Through out the last 2000 years, the church has always been contextualized in order to reach the lost. Contextualization is not compromise. “Contextualization is not ‘giving people what they want’ but rather it is giving God’s answers (which they may not want!) to questions they are asking and in forms that they can comprehend. ‘Contextualization’ ‘incarnates’ the Christian faith in a particular culture.”^[9]

Therefore a new church will address the younger Vietnamese American context better than an old church. This has always been the driving force behind my English Ministry for the last 20 years at Midway, and so it seems logical for this next step.

D. Why we must act now?

Under ideal circumstances, we would weigh the pro’s and con’s of planting a new church at the expense of how it would impact the overall health of the existing churches. I was trying to foster a longer gradual period to transition from Midway to a new ministry. But the situations has become urgent. Instead of hoping for a careful “transplant”, we now must be content with surviving a “re-plant” effort.

At this point, the split had already happened. The Fountain Valley church has already formed. The exodus of the second generation has already begun. We would plant the new church for the English-speaking generation completely as a separate entity if we could. But the English Ministry is much weaker now as compared to a year ago. Partnering with the Vietnamese congregation at FV would shape the development of both splintered churches and nurse them back to health. Therefore, the interdependency-congregational system is a viable approach until proven differently.

III. With whom will you plant this church with?

One key value we have is that ministry should be done as a team. Therefore without a core team in place, we would not be able to start a church.

A. The partnership components

“I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.” (1 Cor. 3:6)

Follow the insight above, we see three components:

1. The Planters

These are the people who will tackle the hard work of overseeing the formation of the church DNA using the ministry of the word and prayer. Paul described them as the “overseers” in 1 Tim. 3:1-7. We will gather a very small group of planters for prayer and study to discern the vision and direction for the church. More details are covered in section IV-E.

2. The Waterers

These are the people who will support and assist the development of the church based on the work in discerning the DNA and vision from the Planters. Paul described them as the “deacons/deaconesses” in 1 Tim. 3:8-13. They could be fully mature Christians like the planters, but without the specific calling to oversee the church. We will gather a small group of waterers, first for prayer support to the planters as they work on the vision; then to implement the vision God had for the church in our setting.

3. God

We recognize that all growth must come from God. Therefore we will be faithful in discerning His will and carrying out His instructions, but the “success” is solely God’s. We will rest in the harvest God brings in. Should God lead us to close down the church plant, we will not quarrel with Him just to save face. Our identity and meaning of life are founded in Jesus, who loves and died for our sins, and who lived a righteous life on our behalf.

B. Describe the initial planters — included gift mix.

Planters’ Covenant (to do the work)

The planters are committed to the following:

Prayerfully develop a strategic plan for the church plant.
Commit to enthusiastically fulfilling all the functions of the new church (i.e., prayer, evangelism, discipleship, worship, stewardship, missions, preaching/teaching the Word, fellowship, etc.)
Participate in the training and coaching/mentoring provided in order to be effective leaders for the church plant.
Incorporate an intentional plan to multiply/reproduce yourself as described in 2 Tim.2:2 for a greater disciple-making movement.
Abide by the agreed upon governance procedure of the church according to Scripture

1. Bumble and Jenney Ho

Bumble & Jenney have been ministering the English-speaking ministry for the last 20 years. Both work as administrators at community colleges nearby. Bumble’s parents are attending non-Midway churches, while Jenney’s parents go to both Midway and Fountain Valley. Bumble has an MBA from Cal State Fullerton and a Master of Theology from Fuller Seminary. Their son Timmy is 10-years old.

Gift mix: Bumble’s strength is in the area of administration. He has also preached the Gospel as a primary teacher for the English congregation at Midway church up to 2010. At the peak under his guidance, English Ministry encompassed multiple life stages from Children Ministry, Jr High, High School, College, Post-grad and Young Couples.

In the church plant Bumble will serve as the Lead Pastor, taking on the majority of the preaching schedule and administration tasks.

Jenney has been an avid partner and motivator to Bumble in ministry for the last 25 years. She has been serving by Bumble’s side in each phase of the English ministry since its beginning.

In the church plant Jenney will be a community builder with her caring, compassionate and hospitable nature.

Strengths Finder Profile for Bumble:

– Connectedness: People strong in the Connectedness theme have faith in the links between all things. They believe there are few coincidences and that almost every event has a reason.

– Intellection: People strong in the Intellection theme are characterized by their intellectual activities. They are introspective and appreciate intellectual discussions.

– Input: People strong in the Input theme have a craving to know more. Often they like to collect and archive all kind of information.

– Restorative: People strong in the Restorative theme are adept at dealing with problems. They are good at figuring out what is wrong and resolving it.

– Harmony: People strong in the Harmony theme look for consensus. They don’t enjoy conflict; rather, they seek areas of agreement.

Strengths Finder Profile for Jenney:

– Deliberative: People strong in the Deliberative theme are best described by the serious care they take in making decision or choices. They anticipate the obstacles.

– Analytical: People strong in the Analytical theme search for reasons and causes. They have the ability to think about all the factors that might affect a situation.

– Focus: People strong in the Focus theme can take a direction, follow through, and make the corrections necessary to stay on track. They prioritize, then act.

– Significance: People strong in the Significance theme want to be very important in the eyes of others. They are independent and want to be recognized.

– Relator: People strong in the Relator theme enjoy close relationships with others. They find deep satisfaction in working hard with friends to achieve a goal.

2. Steve and Niki Hoang

Steve & Niki have been partnering with Bumble/Jenney for the last decade in ministry, especially in the area of worship and children’s ministry. Their parents are not attending Midway church. Steve is an engineer for Boeing and Niki is an elementary school teacher. Their son Matthew is almost 3 years-old.

Gift mix: Steve was one of the original worship band members of “Of the Seven”, the first English-speaking Vietnamese Christian worship band back in the ‘90s. He has been in the worship ministry for a decade at Orange church and trained the worship team for Midway EM back in 2000. After marrying Niki, who attended Midway, he joined the English Leadership Team and has led the worship ministry since 2004.

In the church plant Steve will serve as the Worship Leader, overseeing most areas of the worship service. He will also act as the treasurer.

Niki served with Bumble since her youth. She led the college ministry, then became the segment leader for the High School ministry, then became the Children’s Ministry Director before having Matthew.

In the church plant Niki will oversee the Children Ministry.

Strengths Finder Profile for Steve:

– Relator: People strong in the Relator theme enjoy close relationships with others. They find deep satisfaction in working hard with friends to achieve a goal.

– Belief: People strong in the Belief theme have certain core values that are unchanging. Out of these values emerges a defined purpose for their life.

– Achiever: People strong in the Achiever theme have a great deal of stamina and work hard. They take satisfaction from being busy and productive.

– Learner: People strong in the Learner theme have a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve. In particular, the process of learning, rather than the outcome, excites them.

– Analytical: People strong in the Analytical theme search for reasons and causes. They have the ability to think about all the factors that might affect a situation.

3. Nhieu and Becky Ly

Nhieu was the first person who accepted Christ in his family in 1991 while attending a crusade of Rev. Thomas Stebbins in Santa Ana. After joining the faith community, Nhieu grew in his faithful service in the church, and married to Becky (Jenney’s younger sister). The couple works as nurse-anesthetists for Kaiser.

Gift mix: Nhieu and Becky are very friendly towards people, and loyal to their friends. They have the gift of inviting their friends to the church’s outreach.

In the church plant, Nhieu will oversee the first-impression team to make sure the church will always be a friendly place to newcomers.

Strengths Finder Profile for Nhieu:

– Consistency: People strong in the Consistency theme are keenly aware of the need to treat people the same. They try to treat everyone in the world with consistency by setting up clear rules and adhering to them.

– Harmony: People strong in the Harmony theme look for consensus. They don’t enjoy conflict; rather, they seek areas of agreement.

– Learner: People strong in the Learner theme have a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve. In particular, the process of learning, rather than the outcome, excites them.

– Positivity: People strong in the Positivity theme have an enthusiasm that is contagious. They are upbeat and can get others excited about what they are going to do.

– Responsibility: People strong in the Responsibility theme take psychological ownership of what they say they will do. They are committed to stable values such as honesty and loyalty.

4. Roselyne Hanifa

Roselyne grew up in the church back when the church was still Santa Ana. As one of the “Santa Ana girls”, the strong relationship with her friends kept her at the same church even after her relatives moved to another church. She studied health administration while helping in her family business.

Gift mix: Roselyne has demonstrated strong administration gifts (she runs a wedding planning service in her spare time). She has served as an English-Ministry-deacon on the Deacon Board for six years, with her last year being on the Executive Board. She has been serving in the Children Ministry for the last few years, and currently serves the CM at the Vietnamese church at Fountain Valley.

In the new church plant she will likely be the liaison with the Viet congregation, and act as the secretary.

Strengths Finder Profile for Roselyne:

– Analytical: People strong in the Analytical theme search for reasons and causes. They have the ability to think about all the factors that might affect a situation.

– Responsibility: People strong in the Responsibility theme take psychological ownership of what they say they will do. They are committed to stable values such as honesty and loyalty.

– Deliberative: People strong in the Deliberative theme are best described by the serious care they take in making decision or choices. They anticipate the obstacles.

– Intellection: People strong in the Intellection theme are characterized by their intellectual activities. They are introspective and appreciate intellectual discussions.

– Belief: People strong in the Belief theme have certain core values that are unchanging. Out of these values emerges a defined purpose for their life.

5. Additional planters are still needed

We are far from completing the core team. We are constantly looking for future elders and leaders for this church (as describe in section IV-E)

C. List of committed prayer warriors (the waterers)

Each planter will recruit at least 10 other prayer warriors. We will develop a mailing list and send them weekly updates so they can pray for us.

At this point there are over 90 of committed weekly prayer warriors for the plant. For a list of their emails addresses, please refer to Appendix B.

D. List of committed launch members (the waterers)

As a church planter, Paul wrote to the church in Rome, “It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation” (Ro.15:20). Therefore our aim should always be building the church among non-church members. We do not want to recruit people from other churches without their shepherd’s consent, especially if they are underage. However, just like God entrusted Jacob with his own flock while he was a hired-hand for his uncle (Gen.30-31), God also gave us a few who were new believers, or whose parents had already left the church. We would start with this small quantity, and trust God for the increase!

At this point there are over 40 people who involving with the pre-launch meetings. They shall be the chartered members of the church, carrying out God’s vision for this church. For their signatures, please refer to Appendix A.

# Persons 16yrs.old+	#Kids	Names & Contact Info	Interest in…	Parents @Midway?
2	1	Bumble & Jenney Ho, w/ son Timmy Fountain Valley, CA 92708	[X] Attending [X] Helping (as Lead Pastor)	No (Bumble) Yes (Jenney)
2	1	Steve & Niki Hoang w/ son Matthew Huntington Beach, CA 92649	[X] Attending [X] Helping (Worship Leadr)	No
2		Nhieu & Becky Ly Yorba Linda, CA 92886	[X] Attending [X] Helping: anything	No (Nhieu) Yes (Becky)
2	3	Hai & Kathy Pham w/ Clara, Noel, Caleb Fountain Valley, CA 92708	[_] Attending [_] Helping: anything	No
1		Roselyne Hanifa Orange, CA 92867	[X] Attending [X] Helping: secretary	No
1		Beth Tran Orange, CA 92865	[X] Attending [_] Helping	No
1		Cyndi Yen Dam Stanton, CA 90680	[X] Attending [_] Helping
2		Joseph Paragas & Julianne Ly Garden Grove, CA 92843	[X] Attending [X] Helping	No
2	2	Tom & Linda Truong w/ sons Wesley & Harrison Fullerton, CA 92833-6583	[X] Attending [X] Helping	No
1		Jennifer Dang Westminster, CA 92683	[X] Attending [X] Helping	No
1		Samuel Nguyen Fountain Valley, CA 92708	[X] Attending [X] Helping	No
1		Calvin Dam Diamond Bar, CA 91765	[X] Attending [_] Helping	Nah!
1		Cathy Mai Santa Ana, CA 92704	[_] Attending [X] Helping	No
1		Elaine Nguyen Fountain Valley, CA 92708	[X] Attending [X] Helping	No
1		Phuong Vo Anaheim, CA 92804	[X] Attending [_] Helping	No
1		Davis Dang Westminster, CA 92683	[X] Attending [_] Helping	Nah
1		Tim Pham Garden Grove, CA 92843	[X] Attending [_] Helping	Nope
2		Tim & Vicki Nguyen Santa Ana, CA 92707	[_] Attending [X] Helping	No
1		William Le Santa Ana, CA 92701	[X] Attending [X] Helping	No
1		David Huynh Long Beach, CA 90815	[X] Attending [X] Helping	No
1		John Ngo Costa Mesa, CA 92626	[X] Attending [X] Helping	Nope
1		Mark Bui Anaheim, CA 92808	[X] Attending [X] Helping	No
2	1	Irwin & Karan Pamatmat Costa Mesa, CA 92626	[X] Attending [_] Helping	No
1		Ray Lee Anaheim, CA 92804	[_] Attending [X] Helping	No
2		Mary Pham & An Nguyen Garden Grove, CA 92843	[X] Attending [X] Helping	No
1		Steven Binh Nguyen Westminster, CA 92683	[X] Attending [X] Helping	No
2	2	Nam H. Pham Santa Ana, CA 92704	[X] Attending [X] Helping	No
1		Jeffrey Truong Irvine, CA 92620	[X] Attending [X] Helping	No
2	0	Han & Mike Yin Wesminster, CA 92683	[X] Attending [X] Helping	No
1		Linda Vo Fountain Valley, CA 92708	[_] Attending [X] Helping	No
2	1	Robert & Christine Dohn w/ son Ethan Anaheim, CA 92804	[X] Attending [X] Helping	Robert: Yes Christine: No
2		Dan & Quynh Nguyen Westminster, CA 92683	[_] Attending [X] Helping	No
1		Calvin Nguyen Huntington Beach, 92646	[X] Attending [X] Helping	No
1		Vivi Truong Fountain Valley, CA 92708	[X] Attending [_] Helping	No

E. Partners and sponsoring organizations

We seek accountability in partnership and sponsorship from the following key organizations:

1. The C&MA (Christian and Missionary Alliance), Vietnamese District.

We seek to be endorsed by the Vietnamese District of the C&MA.

The first reason is the filial connection. The C&MA Missionaries brought the seed of Gospel to Vietnam in 1911 and they watered the field with much sweat and blood. After 1975, the C&MA was also instrumental in gathering and fostering the Vietnamese Christian refugees to continue their churches in the USA. In particular, the Vietnamese District, especially its Vietnamese Alliance Youth has invested significantly to our development for several decades.

The next reason is the theological tradition of the C&MA. The C&MA is more of a missional movement than a faith tradition. They have committed to the Bible, to Jesus, and to spreading His Gospel, rather than to a particular theology or a denominational heritage. This “broad tent” position is large enough for us to grow with one another in both unity and diversity.

Lastly is the pragmatic reason. We are more familiar with the C&MA church polity and structure. Their organizational structure seems to be designed with much Biblical considerations, which should be able to support the work in the long run.

This proposal of a church-plant (designed specifically for the English-speaking Vietnamese context) will be submitted to the District Executive Committee (DEXCOM) for careful review at the next meeting. Should they endorse this plan; a formal resolution will be made in their meeting minutes. We will then pursue the plan, and DEXCOM will review the initial results by November and give further guidance.

2. Redeemer City to City church planting network (w/ Trinity Pres. Church of OC)

We are following the Church Planting Manual from Redeemer City to City church planting network. Our consulting coach is Rev. Iron Kim who is re-planting Trinity Presbyterian Church of Orange County. Rev. Kim has worked in many church plants in the Presbyterian Church of America including Tim Keller’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, and The City Church in San Francisco. As a proven veteran church planter, he is very aware of second-generation Korean American church development context, and therefore he can provide valuable guidance for us.

We seek practical guidance and evaluation from this network to be able to focus on the central core of the Gospel, and implement the Gospel in every area of the church’s life.

Rev. Iron Kim had agreed to review the work and to give unbiased feedback to the plant development bimonthly.

3. Vietnamese Evangelical Church at Fountain Valley

As stated previously in the introduction, VECFV is a part of the parentage of the English Ministry. Many of its leaders have young-adult children who attended English Ministry before the split.

We seek an interdependent relationship with VECFV in which the two churches will choose to co-locate together. They will reach the Vietnamese pre-Christians parents of the English church members, while we will reach their children for Christ.

In this partnership, the two churches will maintain their own organizational and financial structure. But their leaders will come together often enough to collaborate on common goal joined projects.

This proposal of a church plant will be submitted to the leadership of the VECFV for review and discussion. Should they endorse this plan; specific partnership agreements between the two churches will be developed, implemented, and reviewed on a regular basis.

4. Vietnamese Alliance Church at Midway City

Also stated in the introduction, Midway church is the other part of the parentage of the English Ministry. Many of its leaders also have youth who attended English Ministry before the split.

This proposal of a church-plant will be submitted to the leadership of Midway for review. Should they endorse this plan; a church representative could come and bless us at our official launch service in November 2010. We seek their prayer support as we embrace this venture to continue their legacy in a new context.

We have taken steps to work together with the church leaders for more than a year, attempting to gradually transfer key roles and responsibilities to the new leadership. Since the church has not been able to bring any new English pastor on board yet, I will continue the once-a-month preaching assignment as planned (back in Sep.2009). But should an English pastor arrive, I could release my teaching assignments immediately as well. We will be available for consultation to the new leadership if needed be^[10].

This proposal of a church-plant will be submitted to the leadership of the Midway church for review and discussion. Should they endorse this plan; we seek their representative’s presence and public blessing during the grand-opening service in November 2010.

5. Coastal Community Fellowship (North American Baptist Conference)

Coastal Community Fellowship is the American church which has graciously opened the door for the VECFV to meet. Pastor Dan Heringer planted new churches twice before becoming the pastoral placement specialist for the NABC. He meets regularly with me for ministry coordination, encouragement and prayer support.

As we are forming an interdependent relationship with VECFV, we will be bridging the gap in its partnership with Coastal Fellowship through a common vision to reach the lost and impact people for God’s kingdom.

This proposal of a church-plant will be submitted to the leadership of Coastal Community Fellowship for review and discussion. We recognize that it is a great sacrifice for Coastal to make in order to accommodate another service into its facility and ministry structure. In this, they prove themselves to be truly Kingdom-minded for the sake of the Gospel among the nations. Should they endorse this plan; specific partnership agreements between the two churches will be developed, implemented, and reviewed on a regular basis to carry out our common mission of advancing the Kingdom of God in our region, specifically in the community outreach programs as Coastal has been sponsoring for the last few years.

F. How can the sponsoring organizations best help you?

Besides prayer support and other specific needs above, we seek to obtain a short endorsement from each of our partners so that we could include on the church website as a good testimony for the glory of God.

For correspondence please address to:

Bumble Ho, PastorBumble@gmail.com

10460 Slater

Fountain Valley, CA 92708

For financial support, please send to:

VEC Fountain Valley

10460 Slater

Fountain Valley, CA 92708

(memo: English Ministry in the check)

All financial supports are tax deductible in accordance to IRS guideline.

IV. What kind of church are we trying to re-plant?

A. What is your mission statement?

Mission Statement (“What is your church about?” in 30 seconds)

This church is all about redeeming relationships. We see relationships broken all around us: in families, between generations, among the churches, in different cultures, isolations in society, etc. But the “Good News” (in which the Bible called it “Gospel”) is that: all can be (and will be) restored when God reconciles our broken relationship to Him. To that end, we exist to…

…be captivated by God’s love

…grow together in His Spirit

…serve and share the Gospel of Jesus

The Gospel changes everything!

Expanded Mission Statement (more of “What your church is about?” in 3 min.)

Therefore, our church will build-up a people who are faithful to the Gospel, and living it out together in all aspects of life, for the transformation of the surrounding society to the glory of God.

Our vision is to establish a community of faith for those who may feel uncomfortable with the traditional Vietnamese church culture, while at the same time committing to honor the heritage of our Vietnamese cultural relationship.

We dream of an interdependence and harmonious relationship with our parents’ church, in which we are advancing the Kingdom of God among the English-speaking subcultures, as they are pursuing the Vietnamese-speaking subcultures relentlessly with the same Gospel.
We long to know and experience God; we long to live out the Gospel authentically with each other and the world. We don’t want to pretend to have everything together. We want to be accepted despite our brokenness; and we want to be challenged despite our success.
We want to see ministries flourish in the church with collaboration and teamwork among the “priesthood of all believers.” We want to help our pastors to live a life of wholeness and balance in his vocation, relationship, community, and personal growth. We want to be an active partnership with them in ministering to our people according to our gifts as well.
We wish to be self-propagating by reproducing daughter-congregations of our own. First as self-propagating home/fellowship groups, then as multiple worship services, and perhaps as multi-site church and church-plants. We wish to establish the Presence of God within our own Vietnamese American subculture, making the Gospel real to people here in Orange County. And we wish to be passionate about advancing the Kingdom’s Presence in the remote place of the earth, that God’s name will be revered everywhere under heaven.^[i]

B. What are the externally observable core values?

Core values are not the marketing mantra for us; they are the values which people can discern as they observe the expressions of faith among us in the last decade^[11]:

Intentionally Sojourning in God’s Word^[12], and the centrality of the Gospel.
Living a New Identity in Jesus: Practicing prayerful dependence^[13], Exalting the Father, and Relying on the Holy Spirit, like Jesus^[14]
Fully Trained in a counter-cultural but authentic Gospel-community^[15] through intentional loving relationships
Responding to a Personal/Costly Relationship with a Seeking Savior by Obeying the Kingdom’s agenda^[16] of redeeming relationships as our primary mission
Embracing the Process of Becoming Human: Ministering with one another in team and becoming effective disciples of Jesus in both faith and work environment, doing justice and mercy in our sphere of influence.^[17]
Expecting Individual Transformation through the Spirit by prayerfully appointing and sending proven multipliers to spread the Gospel throughout our world, planting reproducing movements everywhere.

We believe that as people grow in our faith community, there will be visible actions observed just like what was described from Acts such as:
– show-up regularly (1:14),
– commit to Jesus publicly (2:37-41),
– commit to a church (2:42-47),
– prayer (3:1, 4:23-31),
– giving to God, (4:34-37),
– study Scripture (5:29),
– meet in home groups (5:42),
– serving to church peers (6:1-6),
– sharing to the unchurched (8:4-5),
– tithing for church’s needs(11:29-30),
– and some among them were called for leading ministry (13:2)
and planting churches (Acts 19:21-22).

However, since these external signs could be misleading (the Pharisees could be able to perform all those religious duties above), we would always focus on the internal Gospel renewal of the heart, on the spiritual transformation within, so that our “doings” would be an overflow of our “beings”, not mere “gifts of the Spirit”, but “fruit” as well.

C. What is the internally motivated Gospel-centered focus?

As stated in the previous section, we have a tendency to be driven by external religious observances, and to measure our “accomplishment” before God by them. This would lead to the same attitude of the religious leaders in Jesus’ time. Unlike other religions (or even other falsified biblical religions), Christianity centers around the truth of the Gospel: “Jesus Christ – God’s promised Rescuer and Ruler – lived our life, died our death, and rose again in triumphant vindication – as the first fruit of a new creation – to bring forgiven sinners together under His gracious reign”^[ii]. This gospel is described through out the Bible in the most astounding terms: Angels long to look into it all the time (1 Peter 1:12); it does not simply bring us power, but it is the power of God itself (Rom.1:16); it is also the blessing of God with benefits, which accrue to anyone who comes near (1 Cor.9:23); it is even called the very light of the glory of God itself (2 Cor.4:4-6).

The Gospel has the life of God; after it has regenerated us, it is the instrument of all continual growth and spiritual progress (Col.1:6). Paul is showing that we never “get beyond the gospel” in our Christian life to something more “advanced” (Col.2:6-8 and Galatians). The gospel is not the first “step” in a “stairway” of truths; rather, it is more like the “hub” in a “wheel” of truth. It is not just the A-B-C’s but the A to Z of Christianity.

We are not justified by the gospel and then sanctified by obedience, but the gospel is the way we grow (Gal.3:1-3) and are renewed (Col.1:6). It is the solution to each problem, the key to each closed door, the power through every barrier (Rom.1:16-17). The main problem in the Christian life is that we have not thought out the deep implications of the gospel, we have not “used” the gospel in and on all parts of our life. Richard Lovelace says that most people’s problems are just a failure to be oriented to the gospel–a failure to grasp and believe it through and through. Luther says, “The truth of the Gospel is the principle article of all Christian doctrine… Most necessary is that we know this article well, teach it to others, and beat it into their heads continually.”^[iii] The gospel is not easily comprehended. Paul says that the gospel only does its renewing work in us as we understand it in all its truth. All of us, to some degree, live around the truth of the gospel but do not “get” it. So the key to continual and deeper spiritual renewal and revival is the continual re-discovery of the gospel. A stage of renewal is always the discovery of a new implication or application of the gospel–seeing more of its truth. This is true for either an individual or a church.

The gospel opposes both religion and irreligion (Matt.21:31; 22:10). These two errors represent the natural human tendency: they can be called moralism/legalism, and hedonism/relativism. They are both ways to avoid Jesus as Savior and keep control of our lives; both are based on distorted views of God. The Gospel will say to both at the same time: “I am more sinful and flawed than I ever dared believe” (vs. antinomianism); and “I am more accepted and loved than I ever dared hope” (vs. legalism). To “get the gospel” is to turn from self-justification and rely on Jesus’ record for a relationship with God. The irreligious does not repent at all, and the religious only repent of sins. But Christians also repent of their righteousness. That is the distinction of the Gospel, which produces love, joy, humility and gratefulness, and all godliness in our lives.^[iv]

D. What are the expectations to members?

Not all regular attendees are members. Our members are believers of the Gospel^[18], who commits to our core values^[19], so that we could achieve our mission of redeeming relationships as we are captivated by God’s love, growing together in His Spirit, and serving/sharing the Gospel of Jesus^[20].

1. Member’s expectations

Each year, all attendees will have an opportunity to review/renew their membership covenant to the church^[21].

Then as a church, all our members will adhere to Scripture’s exhortations to the church community as we interact with “one another”:

Help one another grow toward Christian maturity by bearing one another’s burdens, encouraging one another, exhorting one another, praying for one another, confessing our sins to one another, speaking the truth in love to one another, admonishing one another, building up one another, teaching one another, comforting one another, submitting to one another, serving one another, patiently bearing with one another, being hospitable to one another, greeting one another, living in peace with one another, regarding one another as more important than ourselves, caring for one another, exercising our spiritual gifts to serve one another, being kind and tenderhearted to one another, being devoted to one another, accepting one another, forgiving one another, loving one another.^[22]

Our church leaders will commit to our members, and to help them grow according to our focus on Christ together.

2. Church discipline

We invite fellow members to pray for us, teach us, correct us, or rebuke us, if necessary, in a spirit of gentleness and humility should we stray from our Lord’s commands, because the thing we desire most in life is to serve Christ. We voluntarily submit ourselves to one another and to the discipline of the church. Such discipline will always be for the loving purpose of restoration – restoration to fellowship with God and with the covenant community – and it will always be done in accordance with Scripture, especially Matthew 18.

Our church leaders will make available a process for disciplines, restorations and appeals, and applying it among themselves as well as to the church^[23].

E. What are the expectations of the leadership?

1 Leaders’ Qualifications

The New Testament established the quality for leadership clearly in I Timothy 3 and Titus 1. In-depth studies^[24] of Biblical leadership reveals the following qualifications for the church leaders:

In relation to God

“A man” – The Overseers/Elders have always been referred to as male leaders. The Deacons could be “women” (they are called Deaconess).
“Able to teach” – effective Bible communicator. 1 Tim.3 distinguishes the office of an elder from that of a deacon in that each must meet the same character requirements, but elders must also be able to teach^[25]. The leader is able to communicate with others who may disagree with him.
“Above reproach” – without any character defect. The leader has a solid reputation as a Christian both among fellow believers as well as among non-Christians
“Not a new convert” – mature Christian^[26].
“Devout” – Holy. The leader’s life reflects God’s holiness

In relation to Family

“Husband of one wife” – “one-woman” man, sexually pure. The leader has a healthy relationship with his/her spouse
“Has obedient children” – successful parenting. If they are a father or mother, the leaders have the ability to function in this role according to God’s plan
“Manages family well” – provides for, teaches/leads, organizes, loves

In relation to Self

“Prudent” – adhere to Biblical wisdom. The leader is wise and discerning
“Temperate” – mentally and emotionally stable. The leader maintains good balance in his/her Christian experience
“Self-controlled” – disciplined life of sound decision-making. The leader has the ability to live a disciplined Christian life.
“Not given to drunkenness” – without addictions. The leader has the ability to control various kinds of obsession and compulsion.
“Not a lover of money” – financially content and upright. The leader has the ability to be non-materialistic.

In relation to Others

“Just” – Upright. The leader has the ability to be just and fair in his/her relationships with others.
“Respectable” – worth following and imitating. The leader’s life reflects the life of Jesus Christ
“Hospitable” – welcomes strangers, especially non-Christians for evangelism. The leader demonstrates hospitality/generosity.
“Not violent” – even-tempered. The leader handles his/her anger well without any form of verbal or physical abuse.
“Gentle” – kind, gracious, loving. The leader is objective and fair-minded in his/her relationships with other people and has ability to relate to other people without being self-centered and controlling.
“Not contentious” – peaceable, not quarrelsome/divisive. The leader has the ability to avoid arguments.
“Good reputation with outsiders” – respected by non-Christians

All leaders are expected to adhere to qualifications 3 through 20. All “church elders” will be expected to meet all the qualifications above. Every year, the church leaders should perform peer-review with one another on these characteristics in their life^[27].

2. Biblical duties of leaders

According to the Bible, the church leaders (especially elders) are expected to many duties^[28]:

Prayer and Scripture study (Acts 6:4)
Ruling/leading the church (1 Tim. 5:17)
Managing the church (1 Tim. 3:4-5)
Caring for people in the church (1 Peter 5:2-5)
Giving account to God for the church (Hebrews 13:17)
Living exemplary lives (Hebrews 13:7)
Rightly using the authority God has given them (Acts 20:28)
Teaching the Bible correctly (Ephesians 4:11; 1 Tim. 3:2)
Teaching sound doctrine and refuting false teaching (Titus 1:9)
Preaching (1 Timothy 5:17)
Praying for the sick according to request (James 5:13-15)
Working hard (1 Thess. 5:12)
Rightly using money and power (1 Peter 5:1-3)
Protecting the church from false teachers (Acts 20:17-31)
Discipline unrepentant Christians (Mat. 18:15-17)
Obeying the secular laws as the legal ruling body of a corporation (Rom.13:1-7)
Developing other leaders and teachers (Eph.4:11-16; 2 Tim.2:2)

The Lead Pastor will lead the congregation as the “first among equals” when the leadership team is in place. But starting out, he will also need the following:

Gifts as apostle, leader, evangelist, and teacher (Eph.4:11-16)
Life of passionately following Jesus that is worth following (1 Cor. 11:1) and imitating (Heb. 13:7)
Ability to pull the congregation toward God’s mission with the strength of an ox (1 Tim. 5:17-18)
Fight for the purity of the church with the toughness of a warrior (2 Tim.2:3-4)
Live a life of discipline so that he can compete with the skill of an athlete (2 Tim.2:5)
Work tirelessly like a farmer who is doing his job everyday (2 Tim.2:6)

No one leader can fulfill all the duties above, therefore a plurality of leaders are needed to minister to the whole congregation. The forms and methods for selecting leaders will be described in details in the church Bylaws.

3. The accountability of leaders

According to the Bible, the authority of the church leaders can not be an excuse for overlooking sin or error (James 3:1). If it is believed that a leader is in sin, a formal charge should be brought according to the principles of 1 Tim.5:19-21^[29]. Too often one disgruntled person who has a personal issue with the leader becomes the source of gossip, rumor, and slander. However, personal matters are to be dealt with personally according to Matt.18, not through gossip or accusations. Leaders must be held accountable by the elders, and/or a team that has commissioned them; but they must not be quickly accused or disciplined unless a formal charge of sin which is duly investigated according to the church’s Bylaws^[30]. Dependent on the severity of the offense, the leaders may be rebuked publicly or even removed from church leadership.

4. Lifestyle of service

We strive to develop a lifestyle of servant leadership among our leaders. Therefore once a leader is commissioned (especially by the congregation), we encourage them to continue to grow in God’s calling of their whole life in service. However, we recognize there are seasons of life which might be difficult for us to be effective in ministry; therefore all leaders shall actively mentor other apprentices to take their spots and renew our availability for ministry on a regular basis.

F. What will the congregational life be like?

We envision that mature members of our congregation would worship regularly in the large group corporate setting, grow and fellowship (do life together) in a small group setting, and serve or share the Gospel of Jesus in a ministry.

1. Worship (“Captivated by God’s Love”)

Worship is primacy call from God on our lives to respond to Him (the first in the Great Commandment). Therefore it is expressed through out everything we do, including gathering weekly to worship God as Christians have been doing through millenniums.

For the particular culture and context of our church demographic, the following distinction can be expected from our weekly worship:

a) Gospel-centered Preaching relevant to BOTH Believers and Unbelievers

Since the whole Scripture is about Christ (Jn.5:39), the textual^[31] sermons in our worship service must aim to proclaim the Gospel (1Cor.1:17, 23) and its relevancy to our lives in a way that both believers and unbelievers could understand. The goal of the preaching is to vividly behold the marvelous work of God through His Gospel so that the believers would exalt God, and the unbelievers would want to believe in Him.

Note that since the aim of the preaching is toward worship, we will also need other venues for “instruction”. This will be done through occasional seminars, or more often, in smaller gatherings of believers. An example of the preaching year is as followed:

b) Contemporary Music & Creative Arts

The Scriptures are filled with instruction to sing praise as worship to our God with joy, originality and intellect^[32]. Therefore we sing in most of our gathering, from worship services to home groups and even leadership meetings.

We understand that each culture has its own expression, and our generation is more at home with worship using contemporary music and creative arts. We want to encourage and develop worshipers from within our faith community, rather than relying on outside talents.

2. Community and Discipleship (“Grow Together in His Spirit”)

The Bible described God’s work as establishing a people for Himself, a community of redeemed and restored humanity. Therefore the church is more than just a worship service. First and foremost it would be a community of people who commit to follow Jesus and become like Him. In our church, community will be fostered in various sizes:

a) Larger Worship Celebration

This was already described in the previous section in much detail. However, one should note that worship celebration happens in larger-sized context^[33].

b) Small Cell Groups, the building block of the church

The foundation of the church is built on “cell groups”. “Cell” is the description for a roughly-ten-people group, throughout all functions of the church. Cell groups are not just a home group for Bible Studies and doing-life-together. It could be a Sunday School class meeting at church, a worship team, or even a committee which counts the church offering every week.

The DNA of a cell group would be carrying out our mission and values (redeeming relationships through worship, growing together, serving & sharing the Gospel) in the immediate context.

So an offering-counting committee will no longer be just a committee, but a cell when it amplifies the DNA: when it seeks to glorify God through the highest integrity in its practice; when it grows together in obtaining professional development, cross-train one another, back one another up in case of sickness and pain, caring for one another. And when it multiplies by recruiting, mentoring new members, and sending out veteran members to develop another area like fund-raising.

The strategy is to develop a maximum number of small cell groups, with as much larger celebrations as you need for the worship needs of the cells, as much medium fellowship events as you need to feed the cells formation, and as much personal care cases as you need to care for the cell system’s referral needs.^[34]

Discipleship (learning to follow Jesus) happens in the smaller group context since it could be interactive and fit the needs of an individual best. As an illustration of this, the cell groups meet in the home to discuss how to apply the worship’s sermon into the life of each group member. Sunday School classes are just another centralized cell groups which meet on the church premise.

Pastoral care (one-another ministry) should also be happening in cell groups as we love one another as God intends for us to. This is the normal tender loving care, comparable to preventive-care in health care. Preventive-care is also much more effective to an organizational health system such as the church. In order to provide enough preventive-care at the grass-root level, the church must utilize its most plentiful resource: the potential leaders among its lay people^[35]. It should be noted that the Redeemer Fellowship Group Leaders’ handbook including pastoral care resources as standard training for its cell group leaders.

c) Personal Critical Care Cases

However, it would be unreasonable to expect the cell group leaders to entirely handle all cases needing pastoral care. Psychological imbalances, addictions, domestic abuses, traumas, etc. are just a few examples where para-clergies or more professional training would be required. Therefore the church should also have even more specialized services to refer these critical cases to.

Personal attention is sometimes required in non-critical cases. Marital counseling, discerning a call for ministry, etc. are all special cases requiring specialized training.

Our church will develop a list of external referral resources, as well as train internal para-clergyperson (elders, lay pastors) in order to meet these needs.

d) Medium Fellowship Meetings and Events

Between the larger-sized celebration gathering for worship and the smaller-sized cell groups for growth and community is the medium-sized fellowship meetings and events. These groups, meetings and events serve as a bridge for outside community to the church, as a mezzanine to recruit people for mission or ministry, or a pool for new people from worship service into small groups.

Since our church is relatively small in size, we won’t need many of these events. Perhaps we will have a monthly social to welcome new people, and a leaders’ meeting to foster new leaders. But as the church grow in size, this area will need to be revisited to adapt to our needs.

e) Global Mission/Service

God always challenges us to look beyond growing our own local church into the global advancement of His Kingdom through foreign mission. Our church will be involved with the global and local community to serve His purpose, specifically in joined ventures with VAY, the Vietnamese District, and other partnering mission agencies. As part of our practice, 10% of our resources will be set-a-side for such objectives.

f) Ad-ministering

The word “administration” has the root from “ad-minister” (ad = enable, minister=ministry), so administration will always be done as a support function with the purpose of enabling ministry.

Like everything else in the church, administration should also be done in cell by mostly lay leadership. Paid staff (like the axis through the meta-globe below) should focus on keeping the different segments of the whole church together. The main job of the paid staff is to serve the lay-volunteers, who in turn serve the church.

3. Outreach and Service (“Serve and Share the Gospel of Jesus”)

Unlike the traditional churches, where evangelism and outreach are done by specific departments, we want every segment of the church to become missional in its activities.

This “whole church evangelism” is developed primarily through cultivating a mindset, a collective attitude, and only secondarily through setting up programs. It would require^[36]:

a) The partnership between new believers and matured-believers

Most new believers still have access to many of their non-Christian friends, but they can’t articulate their new found faith very well to their friends. On the other hand, mature believers could articulate the faith, but the longer they are in the faith, the less access they have to the non-Christians. Therefore, the partnership between the two is crucial.

b) The convictions which turns worshipers from “comers” to “bringers”

As our worship and preaching addresses BOTH believers and non-believers, people who comes to worship would be enticed to bring their friends. Before long, every worshiper can be classified either as a seeker, a bringer, or a cell leader (follow-up) or you are deadweight!

c) The cultivation of this “missional” mindset

There must be an atmosphere of expectation that every member will always have 2-4 people in the “incubator”, a force field in which people that are being prayed for, given literature, brought to church or other events. This should happen from the core leadership outward to every level of leaders in the church.

d) The approaches through all variety of network

There are four basic kinds of “web networks” for evangelism: familial, geographical (neighborhood), vocational (career/school associates), relational (friends not necessarily in the other networks). In our context, the latter two are more relevant.

e) Commitment to “process evangelism” (rather than “event evangelism”)

Most programs of evangelism are “event” oriented, usually bringing the person to a decision very quickly — through the signing of cards or through the praying of a sinner’s prayer. Research shows that a) the more varied ways a person hears the gospel, and b) the more often a person hears the gospel before making a commitment, the better the comprehension, the less likely of “reversion” to the world. Therefore, we encourage introducing people to the gospel content over time, and give the opportunity for seekers to dialogue with us.

f) Experiencing Gospel-community will be the best demonstration

Since the cell groups are the church, a missional cell living out the gospel will have positive impact. Tim Keller gave this example:

A ‘missional’ small group is not necessarily one which is doing some kind of specific ‘evangelism’ program (though that is to be recommended) Rather,

if its members love and talk positively about the city/neighborhood,
if they speak in language that is not filled with pious tribal or technical terms and phrases, nor disdainful and embattled language,
if in their Bible study they apply the gospel to the core concerns and stories of the people of the culture,
if they are obviously interested in and engaged with the literature and art and thought of the surrounding culture and can discuss it both appreciatively and yet critically,
if they exhibit deep concern for the poor and generosity with their money and purity and respect with regard to opposite sex, and show humility toward people of other races and cultures,
they do not bash other Christians and churches

then seekers and non-believing people from the city

will be invited and
will come and will stay as they explore spiritual issues.

If these marks are not there it will only be able to include believers or traditional, “Christianized” people at best.^[37]

G. How will you be related to the Vietnamese Church?

This has been a hotly debated topic even amongst the core-planters, but finally we committed (for the near future) to be interdependent with a Viet-speaking church as a way for us to live out the “redeeming relationship” mission statement. If we can’t do this with to our Vietnamese-speaking parents Christians, how could we live it out fully to others? Besides, maybe God will call others to plant 3rd generation churches independent from our Viet ancestors, but right now it’s not my call.

Our relationship will be interdependence. Each church will have its own 501c3 independence in self-governance, self-support, self-theologizing and self-propagation. We would depend on the Vietnamese congregation to reach our parents’ generation, and they could depend on us to reach the younger generation. All this will be done as an interdependence-partnership^[38]:

Separate English worship service from the first-generation congregation.
Pastor or associate pastor must be a second-generation (1.5 or 2.0) pastor.
Separate governance authority or board.
Separate budget.
The two boards meets periodically to discuss different issues as they arise.

We recognize that this model will impose some constraints in the development of the new church (meeting time, worship space, projects, etc.) and it will incur some coordination overhead in order to keep everything in order. But in keeping with our mission statement of demonstrating redeeming relationships, we would look to God as the source of common ground for partnership.

This partnership should be re-evaluated formally at least once a year between the two boards^[39]. Informally, some liaisons from each board should serve in non-voting advisory roles for the other board to improve communication.

H. How will this church be terminated, or better yet propagated?

The Church of Jesus Christ will never end, “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”. However, a local church as an organization will have ebbs and flows as it go through generations. Most local churches will face the same organizational life cycle of “Introduction – Growth – Maturity – Decline”. Therefore, it is best to reproduce the Church of Jesus through church planting, even in this early stage of working on this church plant.

The church planters and I understand that our vision for this local church, may not reach everyone in their context (cf.1Cor.9:20-23). Therefore we will be committed to actively support church planting elsewhere and within this region. (To reach people adequately, we would need a church for every 1000 people^[40]. It means we would need 50 more churches just to reach the English-speaking Vietnamese Americans in this area^[41]).

However, church planting is an extremely difficult venture of faith. Three out of four church plants fail within the first three years. This is a well known statistic. Therefore we will support this vision with much prayer and preparation. Church planting and development activities will be overseen and carefully fostered according to the same process we are following right now for proper results.

Should we not succeed after this church re-planting had started (by becoming bankrupted financially, by failure to recruit the minimum officers and leaders needed for the church, or by unsustainable average attendance^[42]) then we will follow the dissolution procedure in the Bylaws and give the church’s assets to other charitable organizations according to state law^[43].

V. How will you plant this church?

We follow 5 stages^[v] of church planting: Locating, Learning, Linking, Loving, and Launching.

1. Locating: (in 2009)

þ The core planters

This phase was the easiest for us since most of the core planters had already settled in the Fountain Valley area within the last 2 years. It should be noted that Bumble’s neighborhood (a new housing track of 55 houses), 95% of homeowners there are Vietnamese.

þ The operating region

As typical with the highly mobile Southern California (especially among ethnic immigrants), our operating region will be the broad Orange County. Some of our members are commuting to church from Whittier or Diamond Bar (30-40 minutes away).

þ The prayers and supporters

Most of our prayers and supporters are from the local region, except for intercessory family and friends (whom could be as far as in Korea and Australia).

þ Other partners

Likewise, all of our partners have local presence in the region. The Vietnamese District of the C&MA is right in Anaheim.

2. Learning: (before 2010)

þ Who we are

In an English Leadership Team’s retreat in the winter 2007, the team had determined that they are more in tune with younger postmodern Asian Americans who are more casual and unstructured. Further examination into the structural make up of the church (among the 5 basic traits of worship, learning, fellowship, outreach and mercy) reveals the predisposition for the church to become a primarily teaching-fellowship church^[44].

¨ Prayer walks

The prayer meetings and prayer walks will take place in the next phase 3. However, it should be noted that our planting team has encountered serious setbacks for lack of prayer. Providentially, between Easter and Pentecost of 2010, our preaching calendar was on the topic of prayer. We believe that God is calling us back to the basic fervent prayer to establish His church.

þ Demographic profile (life/internal context, worldview/religious background, etc)

Our target audience will be second generation Vietnamese American and their friends. From our 2007 retreat’s discussion, they would be likely in the 20-30 age bracket, college graduated, professional, singles or early-staged of marriage with pre-K to elementary kids, and had some religious upbringing.

þ From church planting/developing materials

Bumble had completed the C&MA Church Planting Training xSt in March 2007, Fullerton.

The core planting team is following the methodology described in:

– Redeemer’s Church Planting Manual by Dr. Tim Keller (of the Presbyterian Church of America)

– Proceeding from the North America Church Planting Conference by Steve Childers (of Global Church Advancement)

– The Church Planter Instruction Manual by Fred G. King (of the C&MA)

– Beyond Church Planting by Bob Logan & Neil Cole

– Intervarsity Chapter Planting Manual by Shawn Young, Chris Nichols & Brian Sander (of Intervarsity Christian Fellowship)

þ From other church plants and outreach efforts in the region

Members of the core planting team had visited and learned from the following churches:

– God’s House, Huntington Beach (C&MA) since 2001, pastor Eric Oelsen: Paid attention to having portable decorative element to keep its own distinctive atmosphere as they move from locations to locations. (As reported by Bumble)

– ReGen, Anaheim (C&MA) since 2009, pastors Nate San & Jay Abiera (coached by OB O’Brien): Observed a pair of planting pastors splitting the work. The offerings are taken by calling attention to a box on the way out. (As reported by Bumble)

– New Life Christian Fellowship, Garden Grove (Calvary Chapel) since 1998, pastor Vincent Phạm Thanh Vũ: Light weight administrative structure support for dual-congregation: the Vietnamese congregation prefers Sunday School, the English congregation uses home groups. (As reported by Bumble)

– Living Way Community Church, Los Angeles (non-denomination) since 1998, pastor James Yim (Hai & Kathy’s cousin): Paid attention to service time (Sunday AM preferred), efficiency in setup and breakdown. (As reported by Hai)

– Crossway Church, Santa Ana (Korean Exodus) since 2009, pastor Paul Kim: Excellent children ministry, solid teaching and worship, great use of medical facility as a meeting space. (As reported by Steve)

3. Linking: May-June, 2010

A. Information Meeting: April 25

We are calling an Information Meeting (“Next Step”) at Bumble’s house. The purpose of this meeting is to break the news and see if anyone interested in starting an English Ministry church for the soft-launch in July. This will be an open forum where we would share our vision and seek out those who are interested for a series of prayer meetings every other week in the month of May and June.

B. Prayer Meetings: May 2, May 16, May 23, May 30

In each of these prayer meetings, we will be gathered for a short time of food & fellowship. The meeting will start with worship songs, followed by a short Bible Study from the book of Philippians. We will also present the key themes of the church vision: Redeeming Relationship, Captivated by God’s love in worship, Grow Together in His Spirit, and Serve and Share the Gospel of Jesus.

Afterward, there will be break out sessions for prayer. Then we will brain-storm, coordinate ideas and tasks for the new church.

During these meetings, bits and pieces of the ministry models and actions plans will be presented and worked on.

B. Outreach Meetings: June 6, 13, 20

In each of these outreach meetings, we will be gathered for a short time for food, presentation of the Gospel & fellowship. We have a few non-Christians contacts so far and we would like to present the Gospel to them as well as train our congregation to outreach using this opportunities.

C. Ministry Model and Action Plans

¨ Opening day’s specifications and resources needed

A typical worship service would be like this, (told from the perspective of a pre-Christian guest):

I followed my friend direction from their website to the corner of Slater & Ward and noticed the church was easy to find, but it was called “Coastal Fellowship”. But I also found some smaller signs “Redemption Point” with arrows leading in the parking lot. The lot was well lit and parking spaces were easy to find (the 1^st row was reserved for 1^st time guests). I was a bit out of place, but the people were friendly enough to guide me inside. Someone greeted me and gave me a brochure about the church and its activities, which I read to kill time while waiting the program to get start. There were other people who were checking their kids into the babysitting area.

We sat in round tables and not pews. The screen has a count down clock, which cycling through some info & announcements. When the clock hit zero, someone got up there and welcomed everyone. The band then came up and leading the church through their songs, scripture reading, and prayer. It was interesting, yet engaging. They then broke into a short video segment introducing the talk. Then the pastor preached the Bible, and offered quite a few interesting points that I hadn’t thought about before. They ended the sermon with a few more reflective songs, taking a special collection for the poor, giving some announcements and invited people over to the coffee bar.

I hung out and got some free refreshment at the coffee bar. This is the part I like a lot since it makes it much more personal. Even the pastor hung out there and chit chatted with people. There are other people who came and talked to me as well. My friend introduced me to a couple, and they invited me to hang out at their place some times during the week. Heck, I’ll check them out too.

But the above scenario is just about a weekly worship service, and the afterglow fellowship time followed. For the church to grow, this would be insufficient. An attendee must work out what he/she learned on Sunday throughout the week (in real life) with other people to love and challenge him/her. The church also needs to have a more conducive environment to connect with non-Christians before inviting them to church. And those who serve the church must work together to reach people they serve effectively. A fuller picture would look something like this:

From the picture above, we would need the following components:

Sunday Worship
1. Teaching team: (Bumble, An?)
2. Worship team leader: (Steve)
  1. Band members:
  2. Audio/Visual:
3. Welcoming team leader: (Nhieu)
  1. Facility Setup crew:
  2. Parking lot greeter:

Ushering/communion serving/offering:

Children ministry coordinator: Niki
1. CM teachers:
Post worship afterglow host:
1. Refreshment providers:
2. Facility Breakdown crew:

Non-Sunday gatherings:
1. Ministry prep cell: (Bumble, Steve, other candidate-elders?)
2. Music prep cell: (Steve, ?)
3. Cell group hosts: (Hai?)
4. College-aged cell?
5. Women cell group?
6. Jumble’s Community Connection: (Jenney)
7. Sport practice outreach:
Monthly Leadership Community meetings: (For everyone who serve)
Quarterly church board meeting (required for legal purpose): (Bumble, Steve, Rose)
Occasional/ad-hoc groups:
1. Décor for worship:
2. Website:
3. Service projects:
4. Mission teams:
5. VAY’s events liaisons:
6. VECFV liaisons:
7. Coastal liaisons:

¨ Leadership, Structure & Staffing plans

We would like to follow Scriptures in our church leadership structure. The early churches appeared to be led by the Elders, for a plurality of leadership. From the Bible, we learned that while deacons were elected or selected by the congregation and then affirmed (Acts 6); Elders were called by God (Acts 20:28) appointed or selected by Paul and his designees (Titus 1:5) and then affirmed by the church for a life of service after a time of preparation (1 Tim.5:22). Therefore we will implement an Elders-led structure as church leadership. The C&MA defines the Elders “As undershepherds, elders shall serve with the [pastors] to oversee the local church and its ministries” … “They shall constitute the Committee on Membership. They shall be the Committee on Discipline…”^[45] The Elders main responsibility is to discern the vision for the church. They will make up the majority of the Board of Directors.^[46]

The plan is that the Lead Pastor will be the first Elder, and he will train others who qualified to become co-workers with him, and appoint them to be Elders after a period of time for preparation and evaluation of their lives and ministries. The Elders will be commissioned by the church. From then on, the Board of Elders will seek to train and nominate others to join them by consensus. They are expected to hold the office of Elders for life with this church, although they could become inactive for a season.

But since not all Elders can spend every waking hours working for the church, we will have staff (both paid and un-paid) responsible for implementing the vision the Elders discern from God. Some staff are also Elders (such as the Lead Pastor), and they are accountable both for setting the vision of the church (as elders) and for implementing that vision (as staff).

The plan would be to utilize un-paid staff during the short-term until the church could be financially strong enough to supplement paid staff. Usually a church would need one staff for every 100^th member; but this important decision will require a lot of discernment, and it would be consulted with the District.

The work of the church will also require the service of other lay leaders. The Bible called these offices Deacons/Deaconesses. They are especially important in providing benevolence care to the church (Acts 6). The C&MA defines the office of the Deacons/Deaconesses as being “elected” … “shall have charge of the ministries…”^[47], and they will be elected at the Annual Conference of the church. In most cases (like Phillip in Acts 6) people will start out as Deacons and end up as Elders.

Mark Dever explained the relationship between Staff, Elders & Deacons as follow:

“We [need] to keep a healthy distinction between the role of the elders and the role of the staff. We often say that our church is elder-led, but staff-executed, The elders work together to determine the spiritual direction of the church, and the staff work together to fulfill the vision or direction set corporately by the elders…

The elders decide where the church goes, because they are the men whom the congregation has recognized as having the spiritual maturity to make those kinds of decisions. The staff drive the bus in order to get us all there, because they are the ones who are released from secular employment to minister full-time and equip the saints for the work of ministry. Deacons [and trustees] make sure we have enough gas to get to where we’re going. They release the elders to devote themselves to spiritual leadership by serving in physical and financial matters in a way that brings unity among the church under the authority of the elders (Acts 6:1-6)…

The elders decide on the destination. The staff drive the bus. The deacons make sure we’ve got enough gas to get there.”^[48]

But it would be foolish to think that a healthy church should have only these three types of people contributing to its well being. The Bible commands all believers to actively building up the Kingdom of God. So while some might have specific office and duties, all should become disciple-makers to advance the Gospel.

¨ Community & Small-Group plans

We will be utilizing a cell-group structure to foster growth and community.

The plan is to have a “post-worship afterglow” where people can mingle and build relationship. From there, we will connect them to a cell-group, “doing life together” so that we could truly “grow together in God’s Spirit”

There will be a weekly dinner and game night to foster relationships between Christians and pre-Christians. The goal is to have the pre-Christians feel as they belong before we ask them to believe.

We do not plan to have a student ministry at this point since most of our children are under 3^rd grade. A children ministry will be provided during the worship time, with the option to allow children to attend with their parents, who are strongly involved in discipling them.

College-age and Young-couple ministries will start as cell groups (with the size of 6-12 people). If these ministries get bigger, we might choose a format where everyone gathers in big group before breaking out to smaller groups.

The major launch of the cell groups will be in October when we start the 6-weeks small-group campaign using the series “The Prodigal God”. For that period we will aggressively recruit new people to host a cell group using DVD sessions and light refreshment. Then afterward we will encourage people to continuing with their group for the next year. Ideally we would like to have 1 or 2 of these campaigns a year, but during the regular series, we will recommend available resources to the cell groups. However, each cell-group could follow their own materials to meet their needs, except for the campaign period.

We pray that we would have at least 70% of our members be connected to a cell-group.

¨ Outreach & Networking plans

Someone has said that “the church is the non-profit organization which exists for the benefits of non-members”. We believe that Christ build His Church to reach the world.

This mission-mindedness will have to be the DNA of the church. It will have to live out amongst our leaders and be modeled to others as well. The advantage of being a small church start-up is that we are forced to be outward focused, otherwise we will not survive. It is also a reason why we didn’t join the Fountain Valley church, so that we have to grow on our own.

Our outreach methodology will be mostly relational, friendship evangelism. We will have the typical events: Christmas, Parties, New Year, Easter, Summer Sport Fest, Camps, BBQ, Picnics, Halloween, etc. But these events are just a means to build social connection. We will shape our worship service to accommodate pre-Christians presence in our midst, with the hope that they will connect to Christ and to the faith community.

For Sports Fest we engage the pre-Christian athletes in a short series in the summer which provides them opportunities to learn about the Gospel. For this year, we will try the “Simply Christianity” series. Next year we will attempt “30 Days to Live”. But all of these series will have to be promoted by friends who invite friends, and not just by media promotion.

This also means that a constant measure we have to look at is the answer to the question “how many non-Christians would call you their friend?” Sometimes as we engage in more and more Christian activities, we begin to have less and less non-Christian friends. However, a dilemma exists in which “bad company corrupts good character” (1Cor.15:33). Contact with non-Christians could hinder the growth of new Christians as well. Therefore more mature Christians should actively partner up with new Christians to disciple him/her as well as help them influence their non-Christian circle of friends.

In addition to these friendship evangelism efforts and outward focus worship service, we should maintain a few outreach events such as the Health Fair to build credibility with the non-Christian community. These events could be a joint venture with other churches (such as the Surf-Central’s tutoring service, which Coastal Fellowship is running already), which our members could join together for the same purpose.

¨ Budget & Fundraising plans

As with everything, it takes upfront money to start a venture. Church planting is no exception. The initial cost to launch the church between June and Dec.2010 is estimated at $34,500, which include $14,000 allocated for worship space rental and the rest for incorporation cost, website startup, materials, and minimal equipment.

At this point, our core planters committed financially to the church for $30,000 with the rest being tithing and contributions from our charter members and partners.

4. Loving: July-November, 2010

A. Specific outreach events leading up to the Launch

¨ June 25-28, 2010: Obtain final permission from DEXCOM to start

As the annual Vietnamese District Conference takes place, the DEXCOM will have its meeting. The DEXCOM members will review and discuss this proposal. We will heed their counsel and will not proceed without their support.

¨ July 4 & 11, 2010: Partnering with VAY’s & VECFV’s Sport Fest

The annual summer Sports Fest organized by VAY is fertile ground for outreach. We are planning to invite pre-Christians to join us in forming a sports team to represent VECFV at Sport Fest. In the past, these relationships proved highly sustainable over time. Currently we have at least 2-3 pre-Christians in mind for this event.

¨ July 18 – Aug.29, 2010: First weekly worship service (Premiere 1)

We will turn the bi-weekly prayer meetings into a series of 7 weekly worship “dry-runs” to test-drive our worship service. We could test out a variety of settings / time-slots and to fine tune our worship. The preaching will likely be based on the existing schedule from Midway (through the book of Philippians) since I would not have sufficient time to plan for a new teaching series.

¨ July 26, 2010: VBS with VECFV, Coastal (& Cathedral De L’Amour?)

We will be teaming up with the Vietnamese, American, and Spanish churches to minister the Gospel for kids through VBS-type program.

¨ Before Sep.4, 2010: Friendliness Exercises with VECFC, Coastal, CDLA

To prepare for the upcoming community outreach, we will have members of all four churches engage in exercises to be friendlier.

¨ Sep. 4, 2010: Partnering with VECFV, Coastal & CDLA in Family Fun Fest

Coastal has been spearheading “Family Fun Fest” to outreach to the community for the last few years. This is a typical “Cultivating Event” for hundreds of people. We will be serving the community and promoting our churches.

¨ Sep. 6, 2010: Labor Day Picnic @ Tremont Park

This will be the strategic outreach through personal relationship. The picnic will be held at the park in front of my house. Members will bring their friends to this BBQ picnic and making new friendship.

¨ Sep. 12 – Nov.21, 2010: weekly worship service (Premiere 2)

After Labor Day we will take stock of our progress and actively pursue new contacts from the “cultivating events”. The measurement should be on whether we have any pre-Christians present with us regularly in our service or not. If we continue, the preaching series will be based on the life of Jacob and Joseph, with both Christian and non-Christian audiences in-mind.

¨ Oct. 17-Nov.28, 2010: Small group campaign “The Prodigal God”

For these 6-weeks we will do this same series with the American (and perhaps Vietnamese and Hispanic) congregations. The main goal is to be able to launch more cell-groups to facilitate deeper relationship in the congregation. We will end the series together on Thanksgiving Sunday, meeting together with all four churches, celebrating the goodness of God.

¨ Oct. 31, 2010: Partnering with Coastal’s Trunk-or-Treat

We will be present with Coastal as they serve Trunk-or-Treat to the community.

¨ Nov. 14, 2010: Partnering with VECFV’s Health Fair

We will be partnering with VECFV to reach out to the community with a free Health Clinic. Our church’s health workers will be vital contributors in this event.

5. Launching: Thanksgiving 2010 and beyond.

¨ Nov. 28, 2010: Grand Openings

Should God choose to do His work through us, we will set this Thanksgiving as the Grand Opening and commemorate it later as the official launch date for the church.

¨ 2011: Tentative Plans

There is much synergy that could be achieved by the partnership of the churches. If things go well, perhaps we could attempt a synchronization of two teaching series among the VECFV, Coastal, and CDLA in 2011.

VI. What are the critical success indicators at each step before launch?

1. The Vietnamese church is stabilized for us to connect & partner with

The partnership with a Vietnamese church will largely depend on the health of the FV church. If the church is dissolute, then the whole uniqueness of two generations working in tandem for the sake of the Gospel will not be realized.

2. There is a go-ahead, support from the District leadership

Without the authorization from the District, this plan will be shelved. The Midway leadership had reasons to no longer support this direction. But since the idea was originated from the C&MA and was supported by the District, we appealed Midway’s decision and put together this proposal directly to the District. Should it be rejected by the District, then we are clearly in the wrong and should rescind from our actions.

3. There are substantial leaders and members for this launch

The C&MA guideline recommends 20 committed launch adult members. The RCP manual recommends a total 120 prayers, including 40 committed launch adult members in regular attendance. The challenge is even though we had 40 signatures in the petition to plant this church, we are not even sure if we have that many people committed in the venture. Things might change when the rubber meets the road. The young people might not be as committed as they say. Therefore the best test for the Grand Opening is to see whether or not we have traction to form a 2^nd generation church or not.

IX. How much will it cost and how do we support it in the long run?

A. Budget.

Besides the Start-Up budget described previously for July-Dec.2010, we believe that it would take an annual budget of $68,147 starting in 2011 to sustain this church.

About 41% of the expenses ($27,862) would be for Worship (“be captivated by God’s love”) and mostly is the cost of worship space rental and its associated liability insurance. This might seem significant at first, but it is comparable with the same contribution we made to Midway church before.

About 35% of the annual expenses ($23,785) would be for Nurture and Community (“grow together in His Spirit”). It will cover most of the programming, food, activities, web-site and on-line tools, as well as ministry expenses reimbursement for volunteer-staff.

About 20% of the expenses ($13,500) are allocated for Services and Outreach (“serve and share the Gospel of Jesus”). This include various denominational tithes, mission participations, seminary supports, as well as the cost of various outreach projects such as Sports Fest, Family Fun Fest, Health Fair, etc.

The last 4% will be reserved for other expenses as prudent accounting practice.

For a detailed budget, please refer to Appendix E. To date we have received the pledges for $50,000 annually from the core team and need to raise the rest from the launch members.

As most church launch with 40 members will be stabilized at 80 members after 4 years, we pray that we would double our contribution by then (to $136,000) and be able to support an additional paid-staff to grow the church beyond the “100-members barrier”.

B. Funding Strategy in Bi-vocational planting: Low cost at Biblical quality & other advantages

The start-up costs would be minimal compared to normal church plant since the planting team members are all bi-vocational. Fred King, a C&MA District Superintendent endorsed the model:

We are quite familiar with the fact that the great church planter, Paul, the Apostle, was not only a great scholar of the Word, but he maintained a secondary occupation, that of a tent maker. It was not beneath him to work with his hands to provide food, clothing and housing while at the same time proclaiming Christ in the marketplace and in the local synagogues. How far we have moved from the excellent model of this incredible man who was so very gifted of God! He happily worked with his hands until a church was developed and strong enough to provide adequate support for Paul. He was most certainly a bivocational church planter! It would be good for us to once again visit the clear Biblical model of pastoral church planting support given us in Scripture.

The advantages of being a bivocational church planter are many, but a few stand out as significant:

The Luxury of Time

First, a bi-vocational church planter has the luxury of time on his side to establish the new church. He is not under the same time constraints and pressure to grow a church to a certain size and strength before grant monies run out, thus he is able to devote himself to building a strong church planting team that possesses the appropriate DNA.

A Model of Intentional Witness

Second, he has the wonderful opportunity to model personal evangelism by being an intentional witness on and through secular employment. He seizes the opportunity to develop healthy personal relationships with coworkers and thus have many opportunities to lead people to Christ.

Freedom from Pressure

Third, the district will not be forced to expect certain unrealistic goals of the church planter. If the church planter receives temporary financial support, he will be expected to produce a new, self supporting church within certain time restraints. If the church has not attained financial stability by the designated time, the church planter may become discouraged and quit when the funds are depleted. The district will pressure him to accomplish the task and he will experience frustration and even a sense of failure that will stay with him for years to come.^[49]

D. Full-time Ministers:

As the church grows, the elders of the church will assess the need for full-time ministers to server the church. The elders could call a minister to the church, or they could request that I consider relinquishing the bi-vocational status to serve the church full-time. I hereby pledge to take God’s overall interest before mine and consider their call.

X. How can one be involved?

Thank you for taking the time to review this Proposal for Redemption Point Church. Should you want to be involved, please check out our website at http://RedemptionPoint.info and sign-up on our prayer-list to be informed about our specific prayer needs as well as other needs for finance or resources.

May the Lord accomplish His will in us and through us!

____________________ ___________________

Bumble Ho, Lead Planter Steve Hoang, Treasurer

____________________ ___________________

Roselyne Hanifa, Secretary Nhieu Ly, Co-Planter

Appendix A: List of Committed Planters & Launch Members

As a church planter, Paul wrote to the church in Rome, “It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation” (Ro.15:20). Therefore our aim should always be building the church amongst non-church members. Do not recruit people from other churches without their shepherd’s consent, especially if they are underage or their parents are attending Midway. But like Jacob shepherding the flock for his uncle (Gen.30-31), God also gave us a few who were new believers, or whose parents have already left the church. We would start with this small quality, and trust God for the increase!

The following two pages were the contact info and signatures of the young people who are petitioned to start Redemption Point, an English Ministry church. All but three have no parents at Midway church.

Reserved for photocopy of the petition list page 1

Reserved for photocopy of the petition list page 2

Appendix B: List of Committed Prayer Warriors

Appendix C: Sample Annual Covenant for Members

Appendix D: Sample Annual Quality-Review for Leaders

Appendix E: Annual Budget for 2011

Worship
9701 Shared facility cost w/ Coastal Church (Thue Nha Tho)	27300
8910 Liability Insurance (Bao hiem tai nan)	562
Growing Together		27862		41%
8672 Web presence	135
8672 TheCity	1150
8672 F1	600
8673 Quickbooks Online	300
8673 Food & Programs	15000
8673 Min.Exp	3000
8673 Min.Exp2	1800
8673 Min.Exp3	1800
Sharing & Serving		23785		35%
8673 SportFest	1000
8673 Health Fair	2000
8673 Family Fun Fest	1000
8673 Special Causes	3000
8673 Tithe	6500
Other		13500		20%
8910 Worship Equipment	0
8910 Legal fee	3000
		3000		4%
			68147

Appendix F: My own mileposts to discern God’s call to plant

I am sensing the calling more vividly as I look at the following signs:

I have had extensive exposure to the Church Planting Movement in the last few years as I seek to develop the English congregation to become self-governed, self-support, self-theologize, and self-propagate.
In the last few years the Gospel re-captivated my heart and re-vitalized my life in such a way that I want people around me to taste the Lord and know Him deeply. I desire to be in a distinctive “Gospel-centered” church. I believe our community will benefit from such a church.
Convicted by church-planters’ commitment to “live among people you minister” (especially from Tim Keller), I agreed with my wife to sell our house in the suburbs & move to Fountain Valley even before the church conflict got started. Despite the housing market’s stumbling, and a close brush with wildfire at the end of 2008, God allowed us to sell the house in Feb. 2009 and purchase a new one smoothly before the year ended.
“The Exiles”’ Fountain Valley church got started by itself. I would never imagine that the people who left would form a church on their own, even without any pastoral leadership. Without a Vietnamese local-church to partner with, there can’t be any “interdependent partnership” for an intergeneration parallel-model church.
My personality profile assessment doesn’t fit that of a church-planter. Perhaps that’s why God arrange for a “re-planting” rather than “planting” scenario.
The Midway leadership no longer requires my services (I asked for my name to be included as they passed a Board resolution to appoint new board members overseeing EM, but it was denied, in writing).
My fellow lay-leaders in English ministry have been praying for me to “see the light”, and willing to partner with me in the new venture God lead us to.
I connected with Iron Kim and he agreed to be my church planting coach.
The FV church leadership is asking me to facilitate their governance meetings for church-development.
The FV church leadership is recovery from internal conflicts (carried over from the church split).
I was audited by the IRS on my contribution to Midway church (which the IRS is now approved, after everything was substantiated). This led me to attend a seminar on the church and the law, which also providentially presented the legal means to incorporate a church from scratch.
I met with the District Superintendent and he is supportive of the church plant, especially if it will be connected to the Exiled church at Fountain Valley.
The core planting team agreed to commit to the Vietnamese church at Fountain Valley
The Fountain Valley church is supportive of a parallel-model church structure, in which the English congregation will be entirely self-governed, self-supporting.
Coastal Fellowship is supportive of facility rental agreements and joined outreach projects

^[1] For more details, please refer to http://staffwww.fullcoll.edu/cho/Ministry/MidwayCity/PubInfo/EM/2005-EM-BriefingPack.pdf

^[2] Timothy J. Keller & J. Allen Thompson, Church Planter Manual, (New York: Redeemer Church Planting Center, 2002), 29-30

^[3] David Gibbons, Newsong Church Website’s “Our Story”, http://www.newsong.net/about-us/our-story – accessed Jan. 2010.

^[4] Timothy J. Keller & J. Allen Thompson, Church Planter Manual, (New York: Redeemer Church Planting Center, 2002), 30

^[5] C. Peter Wagner, Strategic Growth (Glendale: Regal, 1987), 168

^[6] Elmer Towns, “Getting a Church Started: A Student Manual for the Theological Foundation & Practical Techniques of Planting a Church” p.73ff from the online version at http://elmertowns.com/books/online/get_ch_start_sm/Getting_a_Church_Started_student_manual%5BETowns.PDF

^[7] Ralph Winson, “When the New Church Is a Splinter” from http://www.joyfulheart.com/plant/splinter.htm

^[8] http://aacp.wetpaint.com/page/California

^[9] Keller, Timothy, from “Being the Church in our Culture” sermon, Resurgence Conference, 2006

^[10] Please see the Appendix for the transitional roadmap

^[11] These 6 values are described in Michael Wilkins’ book: “In His Images”

^[12] In older document, this was referred to as “Communicating the Word”, a SonLife value

^[13] In older document, this was referred to as “Prayerful Dependence”, a SonLife value

^[14] In older document, this was referred to as having a “Proper Concept of Christ”, a SonLife value

^[15] In older document, this was referred to as “Creating an Atmosphere of Love” and “Building Relationship through Consistent Contacts”, all are SonLife values

^[16] In older documents, this was referred to as having a “Healthy Biblical Group Image”, a SonLife value

^[17] n older documents, this was referred to as “Peer-Care and Peer-Share”, a SonLife value

^[18] Which was described in previous section C “The internally motivated Gospel-centered focus”

^[19] Which was described in section B “The externally observable core values”

^[20] Which was described in section B “mission statement”

^[21] Membership commitment will be valid for two years. A sample copy can be found on the Appendix A

^[22] For further insight, study the word “one another” as it was used in the New Testament.

^[23] Please refer to the Bylaw for details

^[24] Please refer to the book “On Church Leadership” by Mark Driscoll, and the books “A Measure of a Man”, “Elders and Leaders”, and “The Measure of the Church” by Gene Getz, as well Alexander Strauch’s “Biblical Eldership”

^[25] The Greek word denotes “able to teach” is about public speaking skills as well as the ability to instruct/counsel effectively.

^[26] Immature Christian may serve out of moralistic motivation, while mature Christian depends on grace/gospel motivation.

^[27] A sample form can be found on Appendix B

^[28] “On Church Leadership”, p.19

^[29] Which echoes Deut. 19:15-19

^[30] In the C&MA Manual, this is in Section E8

^[31] “Textual” sermon is a form of “Expository” sermon based on the inductive study and meditation on a text honing in on a particular “Topical” theme. In Gospel-centered preaching, no matter what the topic is about, eventually the theme will lead to the Gospel.

^[32] Joy: Psalm 67:4; Originality: Psalm 96:1, Intellect: 1 Cor.14:15

^[33] The famous Kononoia passage of Acts 2:41-47 refers to both “at home” and “in the temple court”

^[34] This is also known as Meta-church thinking, which was discussed in more details with Carl F. George “Prepare Your Church for the Future” and “The Coming Church Revolution – Empowering Leaders for the Future”. The paragraph above was adapted from page 245 of the later book.

^[35] Ibid. 42.

^[36] See Tim Keller “Evangelism through Networking” paper for more details.

^[37] Tim Keller, “The Missional Church” – http://www.redeemer2.com/resources/papers/missional.pdf

^[38] This is from the Instructional Statement for Parallel Church Model of the C&MA Manual, Section B4-2

^[39] The book “Growing Healthy Asian American Churches” brought up many aspects which we should consider.

^[40] According to Keller & Thompson, “Redeemer Church Planting Manual”, p.32

^[41] This is not counting that we need 80 more churches for the Vietnamese-speaking population.

^[42] The C&MA defines this as “average attendance below 20 over 3 years”.

^[43] The default charitable organization will be the the denomination.

^[44] See section 5 of the Proceeding from the North America Church Planting Conference.

^[45] CMA Manual Article X, Section 1: The CMA’s position of Women in Ministry is in disputed at the moment. The official manual insists that Elders must be males, but Deacons and Deaconesses are recognized.

^[46] The “Board of Directors” is a legal entity required by law to ensure the church operates in compliance with IRS regulation. Our Board of Directors will start with the Lead Pastor as the Chairman of the Board, and 2 others Elder/Deacon/Deaconess as Treasurer and Secretary.

^[47] CMA Manual Article X, Section 2-3: We will have Deacons and Deaconesses as elected and Trustees as those who are appointed

^[48] The Deliberate Church, p.168-169

^[49] Fred G. King, “The Church Planter Instruction Manual”, Sothern District of the Christian & Missionary Alliance

^[i] This is part of our vision documents as we work through the English Ministry Pastoral Search process in 2008, a full year before the split in the Vietnamese congregations happened. The pastoral search was canceled in the aftermath of the split.

^[ii] This definition of the Gospel was heard from David Fairchild at the Gospel Conference 2009 in Simi Valley as recorded at http://vimeo.com/4247194. D.A. Carson has a similar definition at the Gospel Coalition conference 2004

^[iii] Martin Luther’s commentary on Galatians 2:14f

^[iv] This is only a brief excerpt. For a full treatment, please refer to Tim Keller’s “The Centrality of the Gospel”

^[v] http://www.redeemer2.com/themovement/issues/2004/dec/citychurchplanting.html

Include a profile of any confirmed ministry partners.^[1]
Indicate how many a team members are currently committed to the plant.⁴
Indicate how many intercessors you have recruited.
Using page 2 – 15 in the Church Planters Toolkit as a guide, indicate your level of strength and weakness in the roles listed, indicate the level of strength or weakness in any role areas that your spouse is planning on taking an active role (only evaluate spouse in the arenas in which he or she plans on being active), and then rate the level of team strength in each of roles (do not rate your ministry partners or team members individually unless they are an intern working 20 hours or more a week in the plant). As is indicated on page 2 – 15, please also indicate which roles you must fill in the first two years and which roles you are willing to fill in the first two years.

Describe your churches ministry style.
Describe the church’s worship service.

Include a detailed explanation of how you will gather your core group,
Describe how you will meet people.
Describe how you will gather people.
Describe how you will recruit people to the vision.

2 Comments

Reply September 7, 2019
Jim Price

This article is well worth reading, even for those who are in an established church. Having planted two churches while I was still in my twenties, I could have used the wisdom and thought processes found in this book.
Reply September 7, 2019
Varnel Watson

Jim Price I would say so What were your favorite points? Things have probably changed since the 1920s 🙂