Church Planting Training

How do you go about planting a church in a village in New Guinea? What are the steps? What do you do the first day? The first year? How do you know when the church is ready to function on their own without you?

Training is vital! We want to help prospective church planters acquire the tools necessary to be effective in sharing the gospel and discipling believers cross-culturally in Papua New Guinea. The curriculum is about 800 hours of time together in the “classroom” and assignments you complete on your own. It will take 1-2 years to complete, though we can move as fast or slow as you’d like. We are very flexible on location (Starbucks, church classroom, online meeting, etc.).

Finisterre Vision is focused on training and sending church planters to the Finisterre Mountains of Papua New Guinea. It is a very specific vision with an end goal − to see indigenous churches praising and glorifying God, and a new region of the world permeated with the gospel.

We train missionaries to be ready for church planting in PNG by building upon the theological and pastoral training that they receive in their local church. Our training covers 4 main categories: Strategy, Family & Team Dynamics, Ministry Abilities, and Learning Language.

What Can I do?

Strategy

The Big Picture

Our vision for reaching the pockets of unreached groups in PNG.

We have so much more on this topic in the big picture and the strategy section of our website.

Orientation

The first 6 months in PNG

We have blogged quite a bit about orientation. Check it out here!

First Contact

50+ people groups left to reach! Which one, Lord?

You can read about our experiences in making first contact with different language groups in our blog.

You can also explore our map to help you understand the needs in the Finisterre Mountains.

Pre-evangelism Ministry

How to build interest in the Gospel before you know how to talk

Read about examples of pre-evangelism in our blog.

Handling Outside Influences

Shepherding the church in a world opposed to the Gospel.

Examples from our blog

Literacy

Developing an alphabet, teaching it, and passing on the vision of literacy

Want to find out more about how literacy works in tribal societies? Read our literacy stories in our blog.

Planting the Church

Introducing an unreached people to the God of the universe

The Maturing Church

Passing the vision of discipleship onto those you lead

Stories from our blog

Phase Out

The exit strategy for the foreign missionary

Blog Posts

Family & Team Dynamics

Schooling of Missionary Kids

What are the options for educating our kids in PNG?

Blog Posts

Team Formation

Getting ready to serve on a team

Blog Posts

Working Alone

Preparation for those seasons where you are away from the expat members of your team.

Health and Wellness

Basics of what you need to know about staying healthy in the tropics

Blog Posts

Partnership Development

The importance of the sending team. Read our stories about the difference our sending teams make.

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House building

The basics of simple house construction

Interested in building houses? See what it looks like in our blog….

How to Live Off-Grid

How to set up and use an off-grid solar electric system.

Blog Posts

Ministry Abilities

Time Management

Setting ministry goals and accomplishing them in a timely manner

You can read examples of how this skill has been helpful in our ministry in PNG. Check out the time management section of our blog.

Teaching to change lives

Glorifying God by training obedient disciples

Blog Posts

How to teach the Gospel in PNG

Telling the Gospel story from start to finish

Evangelism Stories from our Blog

Discipleship

Teaching faithful followers to pass the message on

You can read more about this in the discipleship section of our blog.

Translation

How to translate into a language that doesn’t yet have the New Testament

Check out the translation section of our blog!

Training leaders

Teaching New Guineans how to serve others

Read more in the training leaders section of our blog.

Learning Language

Culture and Language Acquisition

How to learn an unwritten language in 2 years.

We’ve got lots of fun stories in the language section of our blog

Stage One Pidgin

You will achieve 25% fluency in the trade language of PNG

Want to read more about Melanesian Pidgin? Check out the Pidgin section of our website.

Phonetics

Reducing our foreign accent

If you’re a nerd and want to read more about this topic, check out the phonetics section of our blog! 🙂

Finisterre Grammar

Common grammar patterns in the Finisterre Mountains

FAQ’s

How do I know if I’m supposed to be a missionary?

If you have even a small desire to go reach unreached people groups, you are a rare jewel! Act on that. If a church were to post on the internet a need for a new Pastor, they would have dozens of applicants in just a few weeks. There are comparatively few who feel the burden to go to the unreached. If this is you, act on that, and begin a conversation with us about getting trained. God will not accidentally lead you to the mission field if He has another ministry in mind for you. Remember, He planned which good works you would do in advance! (Ephesians 2:10).

I am in debt, can I begin training?

Yes, but before you can receive support, you’ll need to be out of debt. Having a mortgage would not preclude you from receiving support.

Can my church function as a sending agency/mission organization?

Yes! And this is something we can help you with if you’d like.

I am a single woman. What role can I play on a church planting team?

We believe single women are one of the greatest untapped resources for finishing the Great Commission. Every team should consider the benefits of having a single woman as part of the team. Did you know that there are areas of the culture that may go undiscovered if a single woman is not part of a team? We encourage single women to learn the language, take part in bible translation, literacy, discipling other women, and if you feel called, to help with the schooling of the missionary children on your team.

How do I get linguistics training?

We offer this! Our linguistics program is able to be shorter than others’ because we are focusing on a particular part of the world, thus reducing the need to expose you to all of the linguistic complexities in the entire world. We are able to walk you through the common language patterns and sounds made in Finisterre Languages, and get you on the mission field all the sooner.

Do I need Greek or Hebrew?

Being fluent in the languages that the Bible was written would of course be very helpful. However, we don’t require this because there are a multitude of helps written in English that will be invaluable to you as you translate. We leave the final answer to this question up to the Pastors of your sending church.

Who decides where we will be sent?

We trust that God will lead you step by step towards the unreached people group that He has been planning for you to reach. We will watch with excitement as this happens and are here to help you if you need it.

Will I need a computer?

Yup!

When is the deadline to apply for training?

We actually structure the training around your availability, so you can apply anytime you’re ready, and we’ll begin the discussion on when to start training, and how fast to move.

How long will training take?

We want to get you on the mission field as fast as possible. We have about 200 hours of intentional conversation that we need to have, and you have about 600 hours of things on your to do list to get you ready to go. We work with you depending on how available you are. If you are financially able to not need a job in order to meet your living expenses, you could get through the training in 4-6 months. If you are working full time, it will probably take 2 years.

I’ve got some training already, do I need to re-take those classes?

Nope! We want you to be prepared and in PNG, where you can get busy learning a language, evangelizing, and shepherding believers. If you’ve already taken some classes or have life experience in any area that we offer, we are eager to check that off your list of things to do to get to PNG.

How long does it take to translate the Bible?

From the time you leave for PNG to the time you phase out of full-time work in the village should be about 10 years. Anything longer than that tends to foster an unhealthy dependency on you as the missionary and actually stifles the growth of the church. Realistically it will probably take about 15 years to translate the New Testament and key Old Testament portions. So, after you’ve been there about 10 years, it will be time to move out of the village and just have occasional checkup visits with the church. You could carry on the translation from a remote location, or better yet, equip the believers in your village to finish the translation. There are amazing helps available to assist you in this.

Request more information about training

Church Planting Training

What Can I do?

Get trained & go

Pray

Go short-term

Donate

Translate the Bible into Pidgin

Become a Logistics Coordinator

Strategy

Family & Team Dynamics

Ministry Abilities

Learning Language

FAQ’s