Zero to One

(By Clint Bowman, Global Gates Africa Affinity Leader)

Any discussion of getting from zero to one in CPM work (or just regular church planting work in hard areas) must include considerations of such topics as spiritual gifting, personality types (introverts vs. extroverts), natural talents, available resources (including networking), and probably a few other things. Whatever type of training the worker has had and his/her willingness to be open to other ideas will also be major factors in the effort.

• Let’s cover some basic things first. Any serious effort at entering a people group, segment of a people group, region, etc., must be done with careful planning and a lot of prayer. Having a prayer network standing behind you is foundational to the success of the work. Consider that a number one priority.

• Secondly, you must plan for and prepare “feedback loops” to be used in all materials and internet-based tools. This is the email address or cell number which a seeker might use to contact a member of your team to ask questions. You must provide this and keep in mind the need for security for the seeker.

• Thirdly, you must plan for and prepare to deliver the Gospel message to your people in multiple ways, locations, and formats. One person trying to witness in one area is a very limited and shortsighted way of doing the work. Get the Word out!

The three things noted above are foundational. If you are not doing these things, then you are crippling your effort and you will have an extremely difficult time finding those people on whom the Holy Spirit has been working.

So, how do we do this? Praying for workers is foundational. Recruiting and training workers is a huge help. (Luke 10:1-10) Properly preparing materials and resources such as websites, media postings, etc. is also huge. For most unreached people groups, the threat of persecution is a serious consideration — not you facing it, but the seekers and new converts. So, we must deliver the Gospel message in a way or format in which those seekers and others who are just curious can receive it safely and consider it. We want to work from both within the people group setting and from outside the people group setting. We want them to encounter the Gospel from all directions. Gospel saturation is a term which has been used to denote this type of effort. Naturally, one person working alone or a couple working alone cannot achieve this type of Gospel saturation. You must learn to network with others to multiply your efforts.

Networking has its own challenges. While you might be able to partner with someone in scattering the Gospel seed through media postings, you may not be able to partner with them in discipling a new believer because their church background may be different from your own. (Think: a Presbyterian working with a Baptist.) These things must be thought through and plans made for how to move forward in the work. Once, some years ago, I was entering a village in Nigeria which had a strong Muslim and pagan presence. As I entered, I encountered a church planter who had ridden up on a bicycle and was also planning on entering that village. He worked with the Evangelical Church of West Africa denomination and I was with the International Mission Board at the time. After greeting and talking for a short time, I told him that I would move on to another village, because I didn’t want to be trying to do church planting on top of someone else who was doing that. ECWA and IMB churches have the same doctrines but the church government side of things is different. However, I was willing to let him target that village because I knew that the people would be hearing a good Gospel presentation. At that point the young man stopped me and asked that I stay and work in the village also. He told me that the village was very large and extended for a ways. It was actually a lot larger than I had thought it was. He suggested that I take the end we were standing at and that he would move to the far end and begin work. As he said, “This village is too large for one church to cover.” And like me, he was simply interested in the whole village hearing the Gospel. So, we decided to go forward in that way and today two good-sized and active churches are there spreading the Gospel to those who will hear. When you can partner, it is good to do so and it multiplies your work. But do not compromise on what you believe biblically in order to gain a partner. The Lord will send you those whom you can work with — just pray and look for them.

Spiritual gifting is a topic which many evangelicals tend to overlook. If we ignore this resource which the Lord through His Holy Spirit has gifted us with, we then tend to cause those we work with or attempt to work with quite a bit of frustration and aggravation. I believe that one of the reasons some mission teams struggle so much is because leaders are not aware of the spiritual giftings of their team members and try to force round pegs into square holes. Most successful teams have people with multiple giftings. While all team members must be out doing evangelism, some of them will have that spiritual gift and will really enjoy it and work hard at it. If they are also extroverts, then they will charge hard straight into the work. If they don’t understand that all of their teammates are not so gifted, they may cause a lot of tension with them and eventually cause people to leave the team to work elsewhere. Evangelists are needed, as are teachers and administrators and people with the gifting of mercy, of apostleship, and so on. All of these gifts are for the building up of the church. (1 Corinthians 12:4-11, Romans 12:6-8, Ephesians 4:11-13)

Each has its place and a role to play in this work. Wise team leaders will study the gifts and allow team members to work within their gifting as often as possible. Granted, we sometimes have to fill roles where we feel awkward and “as if we don’t fit.” As soon as the Lord brings a team member with the necessary gifting, we can relinquish that role to them and move forward. Don’t ignore this issue. Plan as a team on how you can deal with it.

Remember, that next new team member may be one of your new converts whom God is training up to help their own people hear the message of salvation. A well-used phrase from the earlier days of DM and CPM work, and often quoted by Bill Smith, an outstanding trainer, was “The resources are in the harvest.” I believe that saying still holds true.

In moving from no believers to having that first believer or group of believers, we must take advantage of the vast array of resources the Lord has provided for us. Don’t try to be a “one-man” show. Pray and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit as He shows you possible partners and resources. Some of those partners will be prayer warriors, others financial supporters, and others will want to get their hands directly into the work. If the Lord has called you to this people group, He doesn’t make mistakes and He is already at work. Open your heart and eyes and follow Him.

A very good resource on this topic is chapter 11 of David Garrison’s book, Church Planting Movements: How God is Redeeming the Lost World. The title of the chapter is “In Every Church Planting Movement.”

Another good resource is chapter 13 of Cynthia Anderson’s book, The Multiplier’s Mindset. The title of the chapter is simply “Prayer.” Don’t let the simple title fool you — it is worth reading.

I recommend reading all of both of these books, but those specific chapters cover the topic I have written about in this post.

Finally, another good resource is Cynthia’s podcast, The Dare to Multiply Podcast. The episodes from November 2025 specifically deal with the gifts of the Holy Spirit and discipling.