Starting New Churches

At certain times and places throughout the Christian era, God has seen fit to unleash movements whereby great numbers of people have come to believe in Christ and churches have experienced rapid multiplication. In his book, Church Planting Movements, David Garrison contributes a number of valuable insights into these particular phenomena. Garrison defines a church planting movement as, "a rapid and exponential increase of indigenous churches planting churches within a given peeoplee group or population segment."

Evangelical Friends Church Southwest is a fellowship of churches in California, Arizona, and Nevada connected through a shared evangelical theology and fervor with a common Friends' heritage. Today, the stated vision for EFCSW is that we would seek to live our lives as Jesus would live if He were in our shoes and together fuel a worldwide church multiplication movement that our grandchildren's grandchildren will be compelled to expand.

At EFCSW we believe that church planting is a natural, organic process and that relationships play a key role in the launching of new churches.

As an integral part of fulfilling this mission, we foster and deepen connectedness. – we work together and get along so that we can pursue God’s mission effectively and aggressively. Meaningful connections create a “chemistry” between us that catapults ministry to new levels of helpfulness. Without this sense of unity, we are left to question why we are together. With it, we are truly able to accomplish more together than we could by ourselves.

Key Ministry Areas:

Make and Multiply Disciples – Develop patterns for helping people learn how to experience “Jesus - Right Here, Right Now.”

Develop and Multiply Leaders – Implement a coaching and mentoring process within every church that mobilizes and equips servants for ministry.

Start and Multiply Groups, Congregations, Regions and Movements – Cultivate healthy environments and supportive systems that result in an ever-expanding harvest.