We are passionate about planting and strengthening churches, in all contexts. We have seen God use and bless us as a movement as we partner across the globe to this end. At times, this has happened organically, through friendships and relationships, as well as through tools and structures God has guided us in using. One such tool for this is our Church Planter’s Mentorship Programme (CPMP) which has been very fruitful in South Africa. We have seen 14 participants complete the course in South Africa, 3 churches planted and a number of churches strengthened because of the programme.
Gareth Bowley, who leads Reconciliation Road Church, an Advance Partner church in Amanzimtoti, Durban, South Africa, let us know about the exciting new partnerships being formed in Ghana.
As part of the ‘strengthening’ that we give ourselves to as a movement, Gareth has spearheaded CPMP. The course content is tailored for church planting in under-resourced areas, it also has an ‘alongside’ component, where participants are mentored by other leaders and church planters who have gone ahead of them in similar contexts.
Here is more from Gareth:
“James Apeligeba, who leads a church in North Eastern Ghana, in a town called Bolgatanga, reached out to some of us in the Advance Movement, in 2021. He was looking for material to assist him in strengthening his own leaders and raising up church planters to plant in the under resourced context of his town and surrounding rural regions.
We began to communicate back and forth, and shared about the Church Planter’s Mentorship Programme (CPMP) material and the process we had developed as Advance, (which we are using here in South Africa & in Madagascar, in similar under-resourced contexts).
As a result James and another church leader, Gabriel Apugmina, with a similar heart for rural church planting in Ghana, asked if we could come and help them to establish a CPMP that they would run in Bolgatanga and Katanga.
Fast foreword to June this year, where Robert Dlamini & I visited to help launch the programme and were very encouraged! We felt like God had prepared the way before us. We are excited to now transition into a new phase of supporting & encouraging James & Gabriel as they continue with the curriculum & the task of local leaders raising up local leaders & future church planters.”
Please join us in prayer for this course in Ghana and the churches and leaders who will emerge! Watch this space for updates.
(If you’d like to connect with Gareth Bowley or Robert Dlamini, or if you would like to find out more about CPMP – please send us an email on info@advancemovement.com and we can connect you.)