What is a Local Church?

The vision of the Center for Church Multiplication is healthy, multiplying, and sustainable churches in every context on earth. But, how do we define a local church?

We think the following definition, adopted by over a hundred organizations and networks in the Global Alliance for Church Multiplication, is helpful:

A healthy, multiplying local church is a sustainable body of believers and followers of Jesus Christ with recognized spiritual leadership who regularly gather for worship, prayer, fellowship, instruction, communion, and baptism. These churches fulfill the Great Commandment by loving God and their neighbors and fulfill the Great Commission by making disciples of all nations.

The churches described in the New Testament were diverse in their size, make-up, and meeting location. From small groups of believers meeting in secret, household gatherings (Acts 16), to established multi-ethnic gatherings (Acts 13, 14, 17), to thousands of Christians gathering together in one place (Acts 2:41-47), no one church looked the same.

Church Multiplication Principles

We asked church planting teams around the world to share principles they’ve learned during the church planting process. Here are some of the principles they shared in 2025.

1. We pastor a community, not just a church. We are called to pastor the people in our community whether they come to our church or not. We are a pastor to everyone in our community whether they believe in Christ or not. We serve the neighborhood without asking for anything in return. The church planter must spend time in the community they are reaching, day after day, visiting people in their homes and being present at community events. We are a pastor to our whole community, not just the people in our church.
2. Earnest prayer is the church planting strategy. When searching for a place to plant a church, one church planting team in Brazil went to a different nearby town every Saturday and prayed in the town center. They prayed in town after town asking God to draw people to himself. They prayed, “God, grant us the privilege of participating in a revival in this town.” Church planting begins with earnest prayer for your city, your neighborhood, and your neighbors. Pray over time. Don’t give up. Keep praying. Pray for a receptive person – a person of peace (a receptive and well-networked person who will invite others to learn about Christ). Keep visiting and praying for towns that don’t have churches. Ask God to lead you to a receptive person and begin church planting in that town.
3. Pride doesn’t pray. Perhaps we don’t spend time with God in adoration, confession, praise, thanksgiving, and intercession because we don’t think that is the real answer to the needs of our community and church. We prioritize spending time problem-solving and strategizing without truly prioritizing seeking God for his guidance, forgiveness, and power. Pride doesn’t pray. Prayer begins with humbly laying our plans at God’s feet and saying, “What do you want for your church?” (source: Pray the Bay Initiative at Experience Church, San Francisco). 
4. God does the work. It’s not our work. It’s the work of the Holy Spirit. We don’t have the strength to start a church. We articulate the gospel, but God must work to draw people to himself. It’s his church that he is building.
5. Lead with love. “Love your neighbors” is the starting point and the end goal of church planting. The strategy is simple: love your neighbors. Planting a church is planting God’s love in that place. A church planter is someone who closely witnesses God’s love being spread. What is being planted is the love of God. This theme of loving neighbors as the starting point for planting a church was repeated by several church planters.
6. Never work alone. God is fundamentally relational. God isn’t an isolated, independent person. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit model relational intimacy characterized by mutual commitment, communication, cooperation, enjoyment, mutual respect, and honor. God is fundamentally inter-dependent. Each member of the Trinity has a distinct role that complements the others. Within their relationship, power and honor are willingly shared. We are made in God’s image which means we are fundamentally relational and inter-dependent.  Following God’s example, we embrace relationships, willingly share power, and humbly rely on the unique contribution of each member of God’s family.  If God has never worked alone, can we? Jefferson, a church planter in Pinhais, Brazil shares, “No one does anything alone. Each person on the team and in the church has their value within the work.” 
7. Build the team. It is essential to spend time building the core team. Spend the time to build high levels of trust between team members and to develop team ownership of the church planting vision. The church planting team needs to enjoy working together, appreciating the unique strengths and contribution of each team member. People on the team (who are often volunteers) are making many sacrifices to establish a new church, often including physically moving to the new city or community where the new church is being established. The sacrifices of these team members can’t be taken for granted. If enough time isn’t spent building the team, the team members can feel like they are being used to accomplish the church planter’s goals. 
8. Join opportunity-rich environments. To generate contacts, get involved in a setting where there are many opportunities to connect with the people you want to reach. Where are the people you want to reach congregating? Join that group! A church planter in Eastern Europe joined his local gym to connect with men from their community. A church planter in a coastal city in Mexico started a sea-kayaking and environmental club that attracted community members and was well received by the local government. The entry point for most of the new believers in their new church was through the sea-kayaking club. Another church planter formed multiple contacts by participating in their neighborhood’s independence day celebration activities. Connect with people in situations where people from that community are naturally connecting. That’s an opportunity-rich environment.
9. Live the “Shared Life.” A church planter in Mexico described one of the principal values of their house church (the Patio) as “convivencia,” a word with no direct equivalent in English but which means something like “pleasant, shared life.” They continue, “In the Patio we want people to understand that to live like Jesus is more than performing Christian acts, rites and traditions; it is a way of life that saturates every aspect of our being, and which focuses on unity with Jesus and with his Body, the Church.”
10. Context matters. Strategy is dependent on context. Cross pollination between church planters is helpful for sparking new ideas and new approaches for reaching communities. Each church planting team is then responsible for evaluating those ideas in light of scripture and the unique cultural, religious, and community issues of their church planting locale. Context is king. The church planting team works together to thoughtfully evaluate what ideas to keep, reject or modify based on their unique context. The goal is to make the beauty of the gospel crystal clear to their audience. What works well in one place will probably need some modification to work well in another. 
11. One-to-one evangelism. There is great power in personal, relational evangelism—sharing the gospel through trusted, one-on-one connections. In environments where public proclamation is limited or prohibited, the church grows through quiet faithfulness and intimate witness.
12. Keep experimenting. Many church planters mentioned that they experimented with a variety of approaches to connect with their communities and attract people to their church. Many ideas didn’t work, but, through experimentation, they found ideas for outreach that did work and connect with their community. For example, one woman trying to reach her artistic community, joined a drawing class to make contacts. That wasn’t fruitful. But when she joined the local Toastmasters club, she found that the club created many opportunities to talk about Christ in a natural way.
13. Communicate with existing churches. When a new church starts to emerge in a community, existing churches in that community may feel threatened. When those churches feel threatened, they tend to spread misinformation and negative comments about the emerging church. It’s essential for the church planter to connect with the pastors of existing churches early in the church planting process, win their trust, and explain the unique vision of the new, emerging church. Intentional communication goes a long way in dispelling opposition.
14. Use what’s at hand. Effective church planting begins not with what is lacking, but with what is already present. This principle encourages church planters to build from their existing vocational skills, life experiences, and the unique opportunities embedded within the local community.
15. Unfortunately, betrayal is common. Many church planters experienced unexpected betrayal by leaders in their sending church, leaders in the church they planted, or from leaders of existing churches in the community where their new church emerged. Church planters emphasized, “Build trust, but don’t be surprised if you experience betrayal.” The Lord Jesus experienced betrayal from his followers and his closest disciples. If Jesus was betrayed, at some point, church planters may be too.
16. Self-care is important. It’s not uncommon for church planters to have parents who served as pastors. Unfortunately, many of these older pastors did not have a good work-life balance, and current church planters feel like their parents sacrificed them for the sake of ministry. Because of this painful experience, many church planters are very committed to practicing a work-life balance which their parents didn’t have. Brayan from Brazil writes, “Learning to take care of oneself and one’s family is the greatest challenge and what I constantly try to do with my wife.” ⁠Personal life and ministry are intertwined, but they need to be cared for separately. The family of the church planter is as important as the church being planted. 
17. Pastor the children. Several church planters recognized that they needed to do more than just have a Sunday school class for kids; they needed someone to actually pastor and invest in the children of the church. Children are the next generation of the church and they need someone to intentionally invest in their development and not just babysit them. A pastor in Brazil made this bold statement: “Ministry to kids is more important than a ministry of worship. If you have great worship but don’t have anything for kids, young couples won’t return. You have to minister to the kids.” 
18. Failure is normal. “It didn’t work out.” “The small group stopped meeting.” “The person I expected to lead, moved.” These are frequent comments by church planters. They experience a LOT of failure, disappointment and unmet expectations. Failure is normal in this line of work. Failure happens to skilled church planters and good people. Never give up. Never give up. Keep praying. Keep experimenting. You are not alone in experiencing failure. Keep going.
19. Do not despise small beginnings. The word of God does not return void. Church planters must sow broadly remembering that God’s word will bear fruit. Continue to sow gospel seeds – keep witnessing. When we sow and pray, God hears our prayers. We live our ministry by faith – whether we experience abundance or lack. The worst thing that can happen to Christians is not to believe that God can perform miracles. When we are involved in church planting, we must expect God to do miracles.
20. Nothing compares to you. We must not compare what God is doing through others with what is happening through us. We all experience times of abundance and drought. Rejoice in the success of peers but don’t compare. God has a unique path for each church planter and everyone will experience mountains and valleys. 
21. Everything has its time. A seasoned church planter in Brazil explained, “Wait for the right time to start changing things. Build trust.  Move forward together.” 
22. All things in common. A church planter in Cuba discovered the importance of adopting a posture of generosity and trust—sharing what remains, even when it seems insufficient. When each person offers what they have, no matter how small, the collective abundance meets the needs of many.
23. Redeem culture. Many believers don’t understand what it looks like to bring God’s Kingdom (life as God intended) into their workplace, community, and government. Because many of our institutions are corrupt and broken, we need the people of God to go into those public places and bring reformation and redemption. One urban church explains, “Our tag line as a church is ‘Love God, Make Disciples, Redeem Culture.’ We have a passion to raise up people to go into their vocations and advance the Kingdom of God and enact changes in the culture that contribute to the shalom of our world. We are not satisfied with simply being a Christian that is a teacher, or a Christian that is a doctor or a Christian that is a farmer. We want to say, ‘What does it look like to go into your sacred callings, as a teacher, doctor or farmer, and ask the question ‘What does it look like to bring the Kingdom of God into this context? What does shalom look like in my profession?’ This is a vitally important value to our church.”
24. Keep learning. Many church planters are not aware of Disciple Making Movement (DMM) and Church Planting Movement (CPM) principles. Although hundreds of thousands of people around the world are following Christ because of Disciple Making Movements, many church planters are not aware of DMM principles or other new paradigms and ideas in church multiplication. It’s important for church planters to participate in learning communities and networks so that they can keep learning of new ways that God is building his church in diverse contexts around the world.