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John Kingma | Church Planting that Works

John Kingma spent time as a missionary in Indonesia. Now he is taking the lessons and techniques he learned on the foreign mission field and using them to plant a church in St. Albert, Alberta. On today’s episode, he will share a church planting method that actually works.

Connect with John Kingma: https://www.facebook.com/john.kingma

Connect with Life Church in St. Albert: https://www.facebook.com/Life-Church-St-Albert-105181072061422

Transcript: 

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
John Kingma spent time as a missionary in Indonesia. Now he’s taking the lessons and technique he learned on the foreign mission field and using them to plant a church in St. Albert, Alberta. On today’s episode, he will share a church planting method that actually works.

Evangelism Podcast Host (00:28):
Welcome to The Evangelism Podcast with Dr. Daniel King, where Daniel interviews, full-time evangelists, pastors, missionaries, and normal everyday Christians to discover how they share their faith, their powerful testimonies, and amazing stories that will inspire you to reach people with the good news. And now here’s your host, missionary and evangelist Daniel King.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:51):
Welcome to the evangelism podcast and I’m Daniel King. And I’m excited about telling people about Jesus today. I have a very special guest with me, John Kema in St. Albert Canada. Thank you for being on the evangelism podcast.

Pastor John Kingma (01:05):
Well, thanks for having me, man.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:07):
Now we first met in Indonesia. That’s right. You were living there at the time and we came and we got to do a gospel festival with you and we had tremendous results and you actually went there as a missionary, right. And you married a beautiful girl. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> tell me about how that all happened.

Pastor John Kingma (01:29):
Wow. That’s a long story, but make it a little bit shorter. I always said to the Lord, you know, I’m just gonna follow you with all my heart and soul, and I’m not gonna be distracted by looking for a mate in life. And if you have someone for me, you know, my address and you know how to get ahold of me. And so a friend of mine in Indonesia asked me to come and do a series of meetings in his church. And after the service, people were just filing out the church and just shaking hands and saying hi. And when my wife passed by and shook hands with me, I felt the hand of God go in, literally go inside of me and pull me towards her. And so prayed about it and felt this is something of the Lord. And then that’s what started it all. And yeah, within a few months we had made the decision to get married. So

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:22):
Now tell me a little bit about the, the type of ministry that you did when you were in Indonesia.

Pastor John Kingma (02:28):
Wow. That was very varied as well. We would do large crusades. We did that probably some of the largest ones. We had crowds of around 10,000 people in some of the largest events. But we also about once a month, we go into a village somewhere like remote, many of which had no electricity. And so it was a real missionary experience, but I love villages. I grew up on a farm. My wife is from a village. And so we would go into those places be in a church, set up some sort of small crusade type event. And then during the day we would go and knock on people’s doors and just pop in and visit them and pray with them and whatever, and do that. And then later on, my wife had a word from the Lord about feeding the poor, and we started to feed people on the streets, the street, people that were living on the streets. And eventually that led to her starting a home for homeless women that had mental difficulties. So yeah, that kind of, that’s kind of what we did mostly.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:38):
And so now you’ve come back here to Canada and you are currently living in St. Albert and you are planting a church right here in Canada, but you’re really approaching your church planting with a missionary type mindset because you are reaching out to people that that may not be Christians. So talk to me about how you’re doing this church plant.

Pastor John Kingma (04:07):
Yeah, well, it was very important for us to do it that way because I believe God wants to start a church planning movement. And I saw a lot of churches being planted where they would either send a large, you know, group of people from one church to start another, or they would do something over the internet, try to attract as many Christians as possible. And we wanted to be very organic and, and really reach local people. So when we came here we just started with people we had met and and gotten to know. And then a lot of what we do is just go out in the community, try to meet people. We go to things like farmer’s markets, car shows anywhere where people get together and try to make a friend or two. I also have a business card done up with dream interpretation and divine healing.

Pastor John Kingma (05:01):
And we’ve had a lot of people respond to that, you know, wanting to know what their dreams mean. And then we are able to show them how this relates to what the Bible says, cuz God’s very consistent with what he tells people. And so translate it for them out of scripture and show them how God is actually inviting them into a conversation. And that’s born good fruit as well. And just believe in God, words of knowledge, sometimes whatever, you know, you just go out on the street and meet people and make friends and, and let the Lord move in that.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:35):
And so you’re not trying to reach other Christians or send people from one church out to start another church. You’re actually going into the community, looking for people who maybe don’t know anything about God and you’re trying to reach them.

Pastor John Kingma (05:50):
Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. I mean, the thing is, is, you know, if you get a transfer growth comes with its own set of problems, cuz usually disgruntled people stayed disgruntled, no matter who’s in front of them. But the purpose of planting churches is to reach people. I, I personally believe that God wants to do something in this city. That’s gonna result in growth in all churches. And rather than, you know, you always think about as a business person, I’m a business person. You look at where your greatest potential is for growth in your market. And if I’m competing in this space for Christian people, well there’s churches with big budgets, there’s churches with all kinds of stuff, you know? I don’t want to compete in that space, but if I go after people that don’t know Jesus, there’s a lot of less competition and a lot more opportunity. So, and so it’s about identifying who you are, what God’s purpose for you in your community is and connecting with people in that community. And it’s amazing how often God matches you with people that are exactly with what you’re dealing with. It’s just interesting.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:09):
Let’s talk about being by vocational. So you are in ministry, you always have a heart for ministry. You’re always ministering to people. You’re, you’re planting the church. But you also have a business, a carpet cleaning business, which my father ran a carpet cleaning business for, for several years. And so you’re cleaning carpets, but you’re also looking to, to clean hearts. How does that work out? Doing both business and ministry?

Pastor John Kingma (07:37):
Well, it’s hard. I’ll just be honest. It takes a lot of hours. I read a verse the other day in Corinthians where Paul was talking about how the churches were growing because they worked <laugh>. You have to work to get people to come to Jesus. It’s work to get out of the community and meet new people. You know, there’s nights. You don’t feel like it. You feel like sitting at home and watching a movie, but you get off your butt and you go out and you meet someone and you wind up having a great time doing it. And the joy of the Lord shows up in the middle of that thing. But when it comes to work too, you, you know, you need to switch your mindset. I I’m about my father’s business. Now I’m about my father’s business. See, I’m a son of the king.

Pastor John Kingma (08:19):
And so I’m about the kingdom business. So when I come into a home and clean carpets, Jesus wrapped a towel around his waist and he washes disciples feet. And he says, as I’ve served, you, you serve others. So when I’m there, I’m all about serving that person. Cuz that’s what Jesus told me to do. I’m about my father’s business. So the way I do business and the character that I do business with and, and how I’m accountable for what I do and how I’m willing to do whatever it takes to make it right for people and other things that we do in, in the business realm, we’re actually bringing God’s kingdom there. And when the opportunity comes we teach our people in our church. The one question that every Christian needs to be an expert at asking is can I pray for you? And you would be surprised how many times we’re in a home or we’re in a restaurant or we’re in some situation. And there’s an opportunity to say, Hey, can I pray for you? And people respond to that. It’s it’s really amazing. Yeah.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:17):
So let’s talk about the power of that phrase. Can I pray for you? It’s a very simple phrase, but it really opens up people’s hearts. Do you have any testimonies of what people have asked for prayer for when you’ve been asking them this? Oh

Pastor John Kingma (09:32):
Wow. I have a lot of testimonies. I remember being on at a bus stop in Edmonton guy, sat down with beside me and I just turned to him and said, Hey, you know, I’m a Christian and I’m out here. Can I pray for you? Weirdest response I ever had, he just grabbed my shirt with his two hands and put his head right here and just started a ball. And I found out that he was a backslidden Christian <laugh> and he was on his way and he was gonna go have a bender. And he was just like, you know, God just convicted him. Right there, turned his life around. I remember just the other day we were cleaning a carpet for a guy who owns a restaurant. He was complaining about his back and everything like that. And I just turned to my wife and said, we need to pray for him. So <laugh> we went and we prayed for him and it just he’s like, yeah. Okay. I guess, you know, and he, and then you’re able to pray in those situations. It’s it’s really amazing. Really amazing, you know?

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:30):
Yeah. We just did a great outreach in broken arrow, Oklahoma down in the United States at a street fair where we put up a booth and just put up a big sign that said free prayer. And then as people walked by, we gave them a, a drink of water. We had bottles of water and we said, Hey, we, we’re also praying for people it’s free. What do you need prayer for? And we found so many people to be open and it’s over a three day period. We prayed with over 300 people. We had 56 give their lives to Jesus and pray with us for salvation. And so we’re gonna take that same idea to the Tulsa state fair, awesome this year. And they’ve given us permission to have a booth. We’re actually gonna have a little platform with a sound system and then a, a, a prayer tent. And as people come through, we’re going to pray with them last year. 1.1 million people came through the Tulsa state fair. And so I think one of the challenges of evangelism in the church is, is people think people are well, if they want to get saved, they’ll come into the church. But really I think the church needs to go to where the people are. Talk to me about that.

Pastor John Kingma (11:43):
Okay. Well the Lord challenged me in this cuz a lot of churches talk about, you know, how do we get outside the four walls of the church? And the phrase the Lord said to me is forget the walls, just have church outside. And the thing is, is people are not coming to a church unless they have a meaningful relationship with someone. Who’s a believer. I remember doing an evangelistic campaign one summer. I worked in a church as a on staff evangelist. We did an evangelistic campaign. We did follow up, we did all that stuff and I collected data. And what we found out was that 100% of the people that followed through with their decision to follow Jesus and wound up in a church, had a significant relationship with the Christian before they accepted Jesus a savior. So your friendship is everything.

Pastor John Kingma (12:36):
And our, you know, in our church, when we build our church, coffee, pot is one of the most important things. We want to have time for fellowship. We want the, for us, that’s just as important as the service cuz it was in the, in the, in the new Testament. They continued in, in the apostles doctrine and in fellowship in breaking of bread and in prayer. And so those were just as important as prayer. And so that’s vital. That relationship is what brings about discipleship. You think about it. Are you going to go to a complete stranger and say, Hey, what about this in my life? No, but will you go to your friend? Absolutely. So natural discipleship flows along relationship. So we don’t just go out on the street and just randomly talk to people, pray for ’em. Okay. See you later. We always have a point of contact.

Pastor John Kingma (13:30):
So we are continually running an alpha program in our house because we find that’s a very safe place for people from non-church backgrounds to come and discover Jesus. And so we have that constantly running because we can plug people in as we’re meeting them. You know, we’re meeting people, we wanna follow up at Tim Hortons with a coffee, you know, or Starbucks or wherever they like to hang out. And we want to have that relationship beyond going because if you don’t, you’re gonna lose him. You absolutely hard. The relationship is everything. Look what Jesus did. He walked with people for years. He didn’t just randomly call disciples and then take off. He walked with 12 guys for three years and that was a real relationship because they slept in the same place. They went and ate in the same place. You know, they followed him everywhere. That was very important. Concept is the relationship aspect. And to miss that means that you’re not gonna get quality discipleship.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:28):
I really like what you’re saying. That discipleship requires relationship. I think one of the, the challenges of many discipleship programs, a lot of people are, are moving online and they think if I can just put videos together and training materials, then I can disciple thousands and thousands of people. But it’s really hard to disciple someone without that, that face to face connection. It is. So not only are you planning a church, but you also want to train church planters. Yep. Both in the Canadian context and also in the international context you have lots of experience in Africa and Indonesia and other parts of the world. And so we have lots of listeners that have a heart for evangelism. I’m sure many of them would like to plan a church. What advice would you give to someone who has a heart to plan a church?

Pastor John Kingma (15:22):
Just do it, just do it. So in our church and with people that we’re discipling, we always talk about let’s redefine church. Okay. So we’re always talking about it. You know, most modern churches is a building central location. But Jesus said where two or three are gathered in my name I’m right in their midst. And so that means that you have to have people gathering together, not just for the sake of gathering together, but Jesus has to be involved. So just getting together and sharing food is not church, but when you get together share food and talk about Jesus. Now you’re having church. So when you redefine church that way, then it’s about, and the other thing that’s exciting is Jesus never said all three of the people had to be Christians. So if you’re sitting there with two, your unsaved buddies and you’re talking about what Jesus is doing in your life that’s church, Jesus is gonna show up and so go and have church as much as possible.

Pastor John Kingma (16:26):
I mean, use the local coffee shop, use a local restaurant you know, your breaks at work. You’re, you know, wherever it is that God opens a door for you, you can just go and have church and then start to take that and take the relationships that come out of that and start to put it together into a regular ongoing thing where it could be in your home could be a small location. You rent. Usually it’s really good to start in the home because that is what church is about. So our goal is to raise up people that will think like entrepreneurs, because everywhere you go, you’re gonna have different things. Even you go in the same country to a different city, you’re gonna have different things to overcome in that city. There’s gonna be a different mentality in the people. There’s gonna be different strengths and weaknesses as you go in and you’re just gonna have to figure it out.

Pastor John Kingma (17:21):
So as an entrepreneur in the business world, what you do is you try an idea. If it fails, you learn from it. Try another idea until you find an idea that works and you can build a business that makes money well in the Christian world as a church planter, I go and I try something. If it fails, I learn from it and I try something else. And I keep going until I find something that works and that’s gonna work in that community that people are attracted to, or that people connect with. And that we start getting traction and start making disciples of Jesus. So that’s kind of, if you’re a new church planner, just go try it, just try something. How can I have church here? Help me. Holy spirit. Talk to me, show me the opportunities. Ask that little question. Can I pray for you that opens so many doors and yeah, just go for it.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:12):
Well, let’s finish with a word of prayer. Would you pray for people who are called by God to be church planners and to build relationships that lead to discipleship?

Pastor John Kingma (18:23):
Awesome. We’ll do so father, we just lift up those who are either watching or listening. And Lord, we just pray for them. Father there’s many people that the fire of evangelism burns strong and in their heart, but they don’t know how to connect that to a local church. And I know Lord Jesus, that church planning is a great way to do that. And for many people who have this thing, they want to see the kingdom advanced. They want to see God’s kingdom move forward. And they’re not sure where to go, father. I just pray for them. Lord Jesus, that you would just somehow through this conversation, that there would be just an idea, a spark in their life that would just take hold and that they would just be able to go for it. I just pray for boldness like you, like it was prayed for an acts of boldness and that when they pray for people, people would be healed. That demons would be cast out when they prayed for people that you give them authority and Jesus’ name and that you would give them wisdom as they talk. And they share about you in Jesus’ name.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:28):
Amen. Amen. Well, thank you for being on the evangelism podcast.

Pastor John Kingma (19:32):
Well, thanks for having me. That’s a lot of fun.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:33):
Thanks so much for listening today. I am excited about telling people about Jesus and I want to invite you to be a part of helping us to rescue people from hell and take them with us to heaven. There’s two things you can do to help. First of all, can you go find the evangelism podcast on apple iTunes and leave us a positive review by giving a review, you will help other people find these valuable resources about sharing our faith. And second, would you become a financial partner with king ministries? Every single dollar that people give us enables us to lead at least one person to Jesus. And so that means for only $1, you can help start a party in heaven. And so today I want to invite you to become a monthly partner. You can start out for just a dollar, but if God puts it on your heart to do more, of course you can do more. But please go to king ministries.com and become a monthly partner with us today to help us to lead more people to Jesus. Thank you so much. And God bless you

Evangelism Podcast Host (20:53):
For more information about how to share your faith or to financially support our worldwide evangelistic outreaches. Visit king ministries.com. Again, that’s king ministries.com.

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