Church planting
ECM believes that through planting and developing churches that evangelise and disciple the people of Europe, we will see the continent transformed in the name of Jesus Christ.
- ECM plants churches in places in Europe where the gospel is rarely or no longer heard.
- ECM strives towards churches that become self-supporting and independent of mission agencies, and looks for future leaders who can be developed.
- ECM sees every church as a visible witness of the gospel in society and therefore encourages the members to be actively involved.
- ECM gives priority to the spiritual growth of the believers in the church through teaching, training and equipping with resources.
- ECM aims to encourage relevant expressions of church in each location as well as partnering across denominational barriers.
- ECM works with the local church in each country and where possible with other mission agencies and organisations
In the last 10 years, ECM has been involved in 158 church planting projects. ECM is currently working in 80 projects.
Integrated ministries
ECM believes that mission consists of more than just words. Through words and deeds we can boldly demonstrate the message of the gospel in local and wider contexts.
ECM works in many locations showing love through social action projects, such as:
- Helping people in Albania who live in extreme poverty
- Taking Christ's love to bars where the youth drink and do drugs in Austria
- Supporting El Buen Samaritano, a drug and rehabilitation centre in Spain
- Working with children with disabilities in Sibiu, Romania
The church planting wheel
We understand church planting to be a cycle. The following diagram shows the components of this process.
The church planting process is, of course, not linear and within any one project people may find themselves engaged in a number of different activities shown on the wheel. However, there will often be a particular focus at any one time.
Naturally, there is a great variety of ways to plant a church and the context will have a huge effect on the approach and on the final church. ECM has Church Planting Consultants who stimulate and guide thinking and who identify different church planting methodologies and platforms.
ECM Strategic Priorities
1 |
We reaffirm our focus on discipleship and church planting for all today's Europeans. We recognise that migration has radically altered the task before us requiring us to rethink discipleship, integral mission, and how to plant inclusive churches for both old and new Europeans. |
2 |
We will make the most of our partnerships at every level, in order to realise ECM's huge potential to influence and impact Europe with the good news of Jesus Christ. This will mean identifying and developing new partnerships that will enable us to achieve our other strategic priorities. |
3 |
We commit ourselves to the mobilisation, training, empowering and mentoring of younger leaders, to mobilise a new generation of leaders to serve God's ongoing purpose in Europe and renew the leadership of ECM. |
4 |
We determine to speak prophetically into our European contexts, to speak boldly for the gospel both locally and more widely as opportunities arise so that the people of Europe might be transformed in the name of Jesus Christ. |
ECM Strategic Plan
Our commitment to fulfilling these strategic priorities currently finds expression in the following ten strategic objectives. In the years to come we will:
- Establish a culture of discipleship across ECM
- Expand ECM's church planting network
- Equip all ECM workers for intercultural ministry
- Strengthen our existing partnerships
- Foster the development of new partnerships
- Prioritise the mobilisation of younger leaders
- Establish a leadership development process for ECM
- Encourage and equip all ECM members to speak prophetically into their local context
- Identify and equip some leaders for broader prophetic ministry
- Build a culture in ECM where our values guide all practices and processes
Examples of ECM ministry
Below are short films that are a representative sample of ECM ministries. (These videos were first produced for our Biennial Conferences in 2016 and 2018 - so in some cases people have moved on or projects have progressed to completion, but this gives a flavour of what we do.)
