It all starts with a dream. Mary and Joe feel a calling to plant churches, and they contact a missionay organization. Or maybe they went on a mini mission somewhere, and liked it. That's when the process starts.
First, of course, it's required of them to go to bible school get a degree on missions, which looks great. But they are educated in theology, and not in missiology, even if the name of the degree is missiology. The problem is that bible school is all about information, and not much about practice. We learn how to understand the truths of the Bible, and we learn all the theory in evangelism and missions. But no practice.
After 3 or more years, Mary and Joe are ready for the great adventure. So they are sent to some place where a church has been planted for sometime by another missionary, but instead of doing missions, they'll be doing some kind of church ministry like they did in the church where they came from.
Finally, maybe after 1-2 years, they are sent to plant a new church. Normally, in a place where they don't know the language, they have no contacts (or maybe a couple of locals), and where they don't have a job (since they work full time for God). Not an easy task. And on top of that, they are really inexperienced in church planting, since they never saw anyone doing it, and neither helped in it.
This are the conditions a missionary meets when he gets somewhere to plant a church. No experience, no language skills, no job, no (or few) initial contacts. This is where it all really starts.
Preparation is of utmost importance. Bible school doesn't prepare you, real life does. And that's the first problem a missionary gets into. They really don't get the kind of preparation they really need. Bible schools and missionary organizations should provide an environment where missionaries could learn about missions in practice, not just in theory. That means working side by side with a seasoned church planter while he is planting a new church, not doing bible school for an already implanted church.
Preparation is practice, not (only) theory.
Versão Portuguesa
If you give people a general pattern, they'll follow a general pattern. But general patterns *never* apply generally. :) Far better for church planters to go unprepared and have to deal with whatever the situation throws at them...
There are several ways of achieving it. Giving them short experiences in more than one country is an option. Other option (my favourite) is to send him to the country where he will do the missionary work to get that experience.
For exemple, you would go to Japan help 山田さん in his church planting work for 6 months, and then you would be sent to plant a church yourself.
We see this pattern in the new testament. The apostles wen't in pairs: a seasoned one and an disciple. When it was time, the disciple would repeat the process with other.
Of course, I'm talking about church planters kind of missionaries, there are lot's of other kind of missionaries.
And, of course, I'm talking from my point of view as someone who sees missionaries coming. I never had a problem of someone trying to plant churches in Portugal like they did in other countries. And some of them had been working in completely different countries. But I have seen plenty of unprepared people with nothing more than advices.
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