The Significance of Planting Churches on New Ground

Bishop Chin Kang Mon is the national overseer of Myanmar. Bishop Chin has planted numerous churches throughout the country. One of our newer nations, Bishop Chin has 35 churches, 3 missions, and 1,550 members under his care as well as three orphanages. One of his greatest accomplishments is the establishment of South East Asia Mission College. Bishop Chin writes, The ultimate objective of this college is to prepare, equip, and train his people to be effective workers of God in Myanmar and beyond. Its vision is to adequately produce and multiply planters, evangelists, missionaries, and cell-leaders. SEAMC graduates and students are enthusiastic in different fields of ministry in Myanmar. There have been 425 graduates from SEAMC and 75 percent of graduates have been serving the Lord as missionaries, evangelists, pastors, and association/church key leaders in Myanmar. Fifty percent of the graduates have been serving the Lord in new mission fields among unreached people groups.

- CHIN KANG MON

Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. Yea, so have I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man's foundation (Romans 15:19, 20).

The apostle Paul intensely encapsulated his own motivations in this passage of Scripture. He was not ashamed of the gospel and his ambition was to preach it where Christ was not known. After his conversion to Christianity, Paul focused entirely on taking the gospel message to where it was previously unknown. In so doing, he was not building upon another’s foundation but grace for which he received a divine and direct calling. Paul understood the complete gospel and the grace of God toward mankind in the person of Jesus Christ, and he desired to reveal this knowledge to the rest of the world. For this cause, he willfully and cheerfully exposed himself to all kinds of dangers and hardships in order to build new churches on new grounds.

As Paul acknowledged, the gospel message is not meant to receive and keep to ourselves. Instead, we are to take it to people who have yet to hear. In other words, we are not to sit comfortably within the four walls of our churches. We are to extend God’s kingdom by planting new churches on new grounds. The followings are steps we need to consider.

1. Begin with prayer (Acts 13:1–3).