This is the first of a weekly series from Dr. George Wood on the 10 T’s in an Apostolic Church Plant.

The most successful church plant in Christian history is chronicled by Luke in Acts 19.  It started with twelve spiritually dormant disciples and within thirty months grew to such proportion that over 25,000 citizens gathered riotously in the outdoor theater to protest against the burgeoning church because the pagan economy was collapsing.

If we had a similar situation today all the sin industries – the pornography and sex industry, the immoral television shows, the tobacco and alcohol purveyors (to name a few) – would likewise react vehemently against the rising tide of the Gospel within our secular culture.

The Ephesus church plant, led by the Apostle Paul, provides a helpful checklist as we assess our own efforts in bringing the Gospel into the nearly 18,000 communities in America without an Assembly of God.  Here are the elements we find in Acts 19 for a church plant that shakes a city.

Timing

At the outset of the second missionary journey, Paul clearly wanted to go to the Roman province of Asia, but he was kept from doing so by the Holy Spirit (Acts 15:6).  The key city in Asia was Ephesus and it’s understandable why Paul wanted to go there – his strategy lay in targeting the urban areas, and from the hub of population fling out new churches into the outlying regions.

He stopped briefly at Ephesus as he neared the end of the second journey and promised; “I will come back if it is God’s will” (Acts 18:21).

Only in retrospect do we understand why the Holy Spirit prevented him from going earlier.  In the first missionary journey, he founded churches to the east of Ephesus; and, on the second, he established churches to the west.  When he finally came to Ephesus on the third missionary journey he was equa-distant from the churches on the east and west – perfectly positioned to keep letters and couriers going in both directions so that the fledgling congregation could be strengthened and remain sound in doctrine and practice.

Additionally, the Spirit knew he needed to build up his church planting muscles before he tackled Ephesus.  He described having to “fight wild beasts at Ephesus” (1 Corinthians 15:32).  The city of Ephesus presented the greatest challenge faced heretofore.  It was a city where east met west, where pagan worship crystallized in one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the Temple of Diana.

Taking this city was no cake walk, and the Spirit knew it.  Thus, the Spirit had him wait until an opportune time.

We must likewise not simply plunge into a church plant without waiting on the Spirit and asking:  “Is this the right time?  Do we have a green light from the Holy Spirit?  Is this the strategic moment of opportunity?”

Check back next Tuesday for the second ‘T’ of church planting.