CHURCH PLANT PLAN, Draft Submitted to FTS

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Church Plant Course, Fall 2015

Lead church Planters: Ebson Simick and Tryfina Phipon

Executive Summary (Ebson)

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      During the six years of working as a missionary among the minorities living in Hong Kong, I (Ebson Simick) increasingly felt God’s call to plant a church among the multi-ethnic (inter-cultural) minorities living in Hong Kong. I was passionate about evangelism, worship, discipleship, and preaching. While during my ministry time in Hong Kong with Inner City Ministries, I saw God transform people’s lives and felt an increasing burden to nurture new believers in their faith journey and have a church where they belong, grow, and serve. According to the 2011 Hong Population Census of Hong Kong, there are approximately 451 183 ethnic minorities living in Hong Kong. Majority of this population live between two cultures: their indigenous culture from their countries and the majority Chinese culture. They have come to Hong Kong to seek jobs, education, affluence, security, a better future, and prosperity. 1.5 plus generation ethnic minorities of Hong Kong (in Yau Tsim Mong) live in continuous socio-economic and political tensions trying to assimilate in the culture while preserving their identity and find security. As a result, family-system dynamics suffer; young people protest street/racial violence and engage in substance abuse. 

      Various social organizations and churches are already serving the ethnic minorities. Yet, I see the minorities miss the peace and hope of God and a church where they are seen, heard, included, grown, and serve. From what I have observed, there remains a need for a multi-ethnic church for 1.5 plus generations (the in-betweens). From what I have experienced and researched, this 1.5 plus generation (especially the young adults) find it hard to fit into the International setting of a Church (due to high-standard use of English language, culture, and economic barriers); or assimilate into Chinese or their homogeneous churches (due to language barrier). They are left with an identity crisis in a constantly changing culture. I feel like God is giving me a vision of a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, and multi-economic church plant to bring the gospel to the lost 1.5 generation, worship God, grow and serve one another, and participate in God’s mission of bringing hope and peace, and God’s kingdom into neighbourhoods.

Strategy: At first (Nov’16-Feb’17), we want to invest the bulk of our time preparing the core team of 15-20 people. We aim to have 4-5 preview services from Feb-July 2017, and in between aim to have alpha courses, discipleship training, ministry training for our core team in preparation toward our church soft and hard (final) launch. We aim to build our core team of 40-50 people and will then initiate the last launch, likely by the end of July. 

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Executive Summary (Tryfina)

While serving as missionaries in Hong Kong (HK) for about six (Ebson) to seven (Tryfina) years, Ebson and I (Tryfina) felt a deep call of God to plant a church. We came to Fuller Theological Seminary (FTS) to learn to carry this vision and equip ourselves in God’s word. After learning extensively from Church Planting Classes at FTS and from our past ministry experiences, our church vision has only been all the more enriched. Ebson and I feel called by God to plant a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, and economically diverse church in Yau Tsim Mong with a particular emphasis on the 1.5-generation immigrants of HK.

        Of the 451,183 ethnic minorities living in Hong Kong in 2011, Yau Tsim Mong is observed to be one of the top residential districts for the ethnic minorities residing in HK (at 8.4%), after Central and Western (9.7%) and Eastern (9.2%) District Council districts. With an increase in the population of HK from 7 071 600 in mid-2011 to 7 298 600 (Mid-2015 statistics), Yau Tsim Mong is attracting many ethnic minorities. I have worked in Yau Tsim Mong as a ministry coordinator and a youth pastor, during which time; I have built many deep relationships. I consider that God has called me and is preparing me for the ministry of leading a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural church in Yau Tsim Mong.

Our vision is to plant a multi-ethnic; a multi-cultural, economically diverse church that:

• Loves God and loves one another
• It is missional about being inclusive and sensitive of the many cultures, ethnicities, and people from the diverse economic background from all journeys of faith.
• is missional about reaching the unchurched with the good news of Jesus Christ
• is committed to an integration of faith and works: faithful discipleship and equipping people in mission in the power of the Holy Spirit:
• It is committed to being a living presence and a representative of the Kingdom of God through sincere and creative worship of God and acts of genuine compassion and justice. 
• It is a learning and serving community where the congregants can grow and serve God and one another.

        Our mother church (Community Church, HK) has already been praying for our vision. Starting November 2016, we seek to form a core team of 15-10 people and hope to “soft launch” on Easter Sunday, April 2017. We will build the core team of about 50-60 (with a minimum of 35-40 people), train ourselves together as a team in different ministry areas, and be ready to make a final launch by the end of July 2017. We aim to do 4-5 preview services, strategically engage locally in different neighbourhood outreach programs; build relationships; pray, intercede, and discern; host alpha courses, research; and work on socio-media means invite as many people as possible.

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I. Journey to Call (Ebson)

I grew up in a missionary family in a small village called Bong Busty, Kalimpong in India. My father has had a profound influence on me. Seeing my father serve God selflessly even amid need and challenging circumstances motivated me to serve the Lord also. Although I had believed in God in my early childhood, I wasn’t sure of my salvation. And it was during my school years when I was going through life struggles I began to consider following God and committing my life to him seriously. The conversion was a slow, steady, and gradual process for me, and I remember during this process, I was also developing a deep desire to reach out to people and serve God. I remember one night seeing a dream where I was fishing in a blue lake. There I saw something caught on my fishing line, and as I struggled to pull the line out, it was so heavy that I could barely manage to pull it out. As I pulled my fishing line, I saw people from different nations with different country flags hanging on my line. I was pulling them out of the lake. I did not understand the dream entirely back then, but I kept that in my heart until now. In the process of figuring out how to respond to the call of serving God, I joined Youth A Mission’s Discipleship Training School in Bangalore (South India) for six months. Soon after, God opened a door for me to serve among the Nepali ethnic minority in Hong Kong with Inner City Ministries (ICM). After coming to Hong Kong, I started sharing my testimony with multi-culture people on the streets, parks, homes, wherever I had an opportunity to share. With a handful number of converts, we started youth fellowship in ICM. It wasn’t easy to start at first, but God would strengthen me each day during my worship and devotion, and I would be motivated to serve and have a heart for the people. Gradually I saw God transform people’s lives, and we began to grow also in numbers. Still, I also started to face challenges in discipleship and training the inconsistent young people. They lacked helpful structures, follow-up, and a church environment where they could belong, grow, and serve their community. My heart was to see these new people find their homes and grow as leaders and pastors so that they could also minister to their own. Although we at ICM were doing our best to reach out to the community, I increasingly felt the need for a church for these communities. And since we were not a church, we sent many young people to the local homogeneous churches. Some of them did well to assimilate, while most returned to us and questioned, why don’t you start a church? We started having Sunday evening services for these few, and I remember having around 50-60 people gathered for worship service. But due to much opposition and to avoid miscommunication, I had to stop that program. After that, we started meeting in small numbers and gathered only to pray, so it was called a Sunday prayer meeting and not a church. My heart would burn with passion for this economically poor background, in-between-cultural groups of young people because they would sacrifice so much to fit into other cultures and groups and even in their own cultures. Still, because they are in-betweens, they would express their hardships of being excluded either by their own or by others.

        Church planting vision was growing inside my heart, but I was not entirely confident of my vision because, first, I was not quite sure that God had called me to be a church planter. Second, I had no formative training on planting a church. But I would always share my heart and passion with my wife, and we used to pray together. After many prayers of seeking God and asking God for discernment, my wife and I came to Fuller Theological Seminary through the support of our Church in Hong Kong. We both attended Church-planting class, and our Professor, Kevin Haah, walked with us in this journey of discernment through the reading of scripture, praying, research, and training. While reading Revelation 21:1-4, I felt a deep urge again as like God was calling me to prepare his bride, his body (the Church), for God-self as a representation of God’s kingdom (new Jerusalem). The picture illustrated in Revelation 21 depicts God’s presence with his people, and God wipes every tear from people’s eyes. God’s presence among his people is the hope we have. From God comes healing, new things, and a new order of things. I became more burdened to start a multi-ethnic multi-economic church so that we can be a living presence, a representative and witnesses of living hope of God’s kingdom among all his peoples regardless of ethnicity, gender, colour or socioeconomic background. During this time of discernment, God took me back to the dream I once had about fishing and pulling many people from different places. This time it was not just a dream, but an assurance came to me that it was indeed God who has been calling and preparing me to plant a church –cast a line, draw people into his kingdom, into his family.

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Journey to the Call (Tryfina)

First Phase

        In 2012, while I served the ethnic minority communities through Inner City Ministries (ICM), Hong Kong, several of those we did express, “I wish ICM were a church.” Inner City Ministries is a non-profit, non-government social organization located in Jordan (Yau Tsim Mong area) serving among the minorities living in Hong Kong. It is an outstanding organization seeking to train and transform a marginalized community. It isn’t a church, though, and those whom we ministered to hoped that it was a church. Those expressing such feelings have become Christian through personal and group evangelism. Although I tried to avoid thinking about the church’s need for different ethnicities, every time a new person would give their life to Jesus, I would feel God’s call to plant a church.

        Now Jordan is a city at heart Yau Tsim Mong area. I did not have any inclination toward city life. My theology of a town wasn’t positive. But I would always catch myself feeling burdened and passionate about God’s work in the city. It is in moments of talking and listening with people in the neighbourhood, in moments of praying for and with them, that I would cry and feel God’s heart for them. On the other end, my husband always felt a call to church plant, and I would always see him pastoring someone or preaching to the young adults. I would discourage him from doing any work related to starting a church or existing like a church, simply because I did not want anyone to feel that we were adding to one more church idea; or starting just because there was a need. Primarily also because I wasn’t ready, and I wanted to make sure that if we plant a church, then it would be because God called us to, and not just because to cover some need. I was convinced that God has called me (us) to make disciples of Jesus, but church planting would be a stretch, I thought.

        These questions, wrestling, prayers, and my husband’s encouragement led me to Fuller Theological Seminary. Two years have passed, and God has only pruned and nurtured me. In fall 2015, my husband and I, after much praying, took a class on church planting, and I think that was one of the best decisions we have made.

Second phase

        Urban Church Planting Class in Fuller, taught by Professor Kevin Haah, was a godly ordained class for me, primarily because God did many works in my preconceived theology of church, city, and people. Keller’s book, Center Church, where he shows the tension of the city (“a place of perversion and violence and as a place of refuge and peace”) brought many corrections on my theology regarding church, city, and city-people. My negative view of the city was challenged, and I found myself repenting before God for judging his city and judging his church, his bride. I started looking at the city and his church with an eschatological vision: I started seeing the city as a holy city and church as his bride in preparation for himself (Rev 21:2-4). At the end of the class, Dr Haah invited those in class who felt God’s call to the church plant to come for prayer; and I found myself being so grateful to God for a beautiful construction he was doing within me toward a church plant which God desires. I found myself unable to stop myself from crying. God had to change me before I could even think about changing his city, his church, and his people. We have shared our vision regarding the church to our mother church in Hong Kong, and both Pastors have expressed excitement and have promised to pray with us even as we discern the next faithful steps forward.

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II. Profile of church planter (Ebson)

       My name is Ebson Simick and my wife name is Tryfina Phipon Lepcha. I have a mixed ethnic background. I am 33% Lepcha (from the grandmother), 33% Nepali (from mother), and 33% Chinese (from grandfather). I finished my Bachelor of Arts from North Bengal University (India). During that time, I also served as a student leader for three years among campus students with Campus Crusade for Christ. After this, I did a Discipleship Training program for six months with Youth With A Mission (Bangalore, India). I came to serve in Hong Kong as a missionary to work among the ethnic minorities with Inner City Ministries, where I served for six years.

        My hobbies include cooking different cuisine, outdoor hiking, camping, fishing, and creating worship music. My wife and I expect a baby boy coming May 2016, and we look forward to doing life together.

Profile of church planter (Tryfina)

        I was born in Pedong, in Darjeeling (in India), in 1983. My childhood days were spent in Darjeeling (North India), although education took me to Bangalore (South India). I grew up in a Christian Pastor’s family. Both my parents were living examples to me of God’s faithfulness and their commitment to God and for those they served. I went to a Pentecostal church because it was my father’s church. As Pentecostals, evangelism was one of their primary focus, so I followed my dad and the church wherever they went, and I was amazed to see how they planted so many churches in the villages and towns they went to. When I was about thirteen years old, I made a personal choice to follow God. During the same year, I was challenged by the enthusiasm and radical gospel witnessing by a group of people who belonged to Youth With A Mission, Hong Kong. I had grown up saying that I wanted to be a missionary (although due to wrong reasons), but watching the group of YWAM, I felt like God was calling me to ministry. I remember praying, “Lord, I want to give my whole life while I am still young.” 

        But as I grew older, I forgot about God’s call to ministry. I completed my Bachelors in Business Management and was prepared to work at a firm. During the time, my mom asked me to take some time to pray and discern; and it was during that prayer time that God gave me Isaiah 61:1-3. The more I read, the more I felt confirmed that God has called me:

       That the Lord’s Spirit is on me because the Lord has anointed me, he has sent me to preach the good news to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim release for captives, and liberation for prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favour and a day of vindication for our God, to comfort all who mourn, to provide for Zion’s mourners, to give them a crown in place of ashes, oil of joy in place of mourning, a mantle of praise in place of discouragement. They will be called Oaks of Righteousness, planted by the LORD to glorify himself. (Isa 61:1-3 CEB)

        God’s call brought me to Hong Kong, and I was part of Youth With A Mission (HK), where I did my Discipleship Training School (DTS) and Evangelism outreach ministry. I was more convinced that God had called me and has anointed me for his work. I stayed with YWAM HK for another four years, where I led Far East Outreach Ministries (FEET) as a Director. In Hong Kong, I met Ebson (now my husband). After getting married, we worked together as Youth Pastors and as Ministry coordinators with Inner City Ministries (ICM) in Hong Kong.

Marriage brought a lot of humbling and character-building experiences. Through marriage, prayer, quiet times, and community (the minorities we served), God helped me take faithful steps in my walk with Christ and the vocation God has called me into.

        Currently, my husband and I are doing Masters in Divinity at Fuller Theological Seminary. We hope to graduate in the summer of 2016. We are expecting a baby and prayerfully look forward to what God has ahead.

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III. Why Church Plant in Yau Tsim Mong? 

A. Increasing growth of Population

The total population of Yau Tsim Mong in the year 2015 is 313 700.

                     Summary statistics of Yau Tsim Mong domestic households characteristics

Domestic Households in 2014	23 600	An increase of 6 300within five years
Domestic Households in 2013	22 000
Domestic Households in 2012	20 000
Domestic Households in 2010	17 300

* Yau Tsim Mong is seen as one of the fastest-growing areas in Hong Kong, with an increase of 6 300 households just within five years.

B. Evenly proportioned ethnicities

        After Central, Western, and Eastern, the highest proportion of ethnic minorities residing in Hong Kong is Yau Tsim Mong. The former two areas rank higher than Yau Tsim Mong but lack evenly proportioned ethnicities (with White hitting 22.8 % and 15.1%) and mixed ethnicities hitting (9.8% and 5.6%). Yau Tsim Mong has evenly proportioned ethnicities (with white at 4.8% and mixed at 5.2%) compared to Central, Western, and Eastern areas of Hong Kong.

C. Cantonese speaking churches, Homogeneous churches and International Church

        Based on our experience living and partnering with churches in Yau Tsim Mong, there are many Cantonese speaking churches and dozens of homogeneous churches. There is a presence of few English speaking international churches (primarily white and upper-class ethnic groups with western upbringing). Although there are ministries of these churches for the ethnic minorities, there is yet to be a church that is a combination of multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, and multi-economic groups targeting to reach out to the in-between 1.5 plus inter culture generation.

D. Need of an English speaking church for 1.5 generation

        In our observation, there are about seven International English Speaking Churches mostly attended by groups that have grown up in English speaking environments or been exposed to the Western world. The local Chinese majorities attend homogeneous church services. Small homogeneous churches are held in parks or small rented apartments. The emerging immigrants from multi-cultural contexts are in between different cultures. Often, these groups, especially from the low strata, have difficulty assimilating into the upper mobility international churches and their traditional homogeneous groups. The growing economic and social disparity is the unintended consequence of modernity and a global village. One of the Lepcha-Chinese staff in ICM, while defining this generation, rightly says that they are “bhenglang bhunglung” (fragile, loose, and not strong in any particular culture), speaks English, Nepali, Cantonese, Hindi, Tagalog, and other languages, but not fluent in even one. Since English is still the common language spoken among the 1.5 generation immigrants, how will an English speaking multi-ethnic and multi economic “body” (Eph 1:22-23) and “bride of Christ” (Rev 21:2,9) look like that will bring diverse cultures, and both the rich and the poor together at an inclusive table where we accept ourselves as messed up but loved by God through his grace; where we do life together; treat each other with equality; see each other’s worth in Christ (Gal 3:26); and as a “one new humanity” in Christ (Eph 2:15; Gal 3:27-29) we represent the presence and kingdom of Christ to the people who are suffering?

D. Raising local neighbourhood leaders

        The entrepreneurial nature of how churches have been functioning has allowed an imperialistic notion of who can be empowered in the church. Mostly, the certified are the upper class who have had the privilege of studying in private international schools or have received western education, with a proficiency in the English language sometimes becoming imperialistic. These categories aren’t necessarily wrong in themselves, and in fact, the leading positions in the church do need to be professionals and experts. However, since God has called us among the multi-economic, multi-ethnic community, we are to empower those without privilege and, at times, so-called the least and marginalized of the society. Should the church as Christ’s missions’ representative be doing something that empowers the under-privileged while we empower the privileged at the same time?/!

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E. Characteristics of Yau Tsim Mong 

Yau Tsim Mong is a socio-economically diverse community. 

i. Proportion of ethnic minorities by ethnicity, 2011

White	Indonesian	Filipino	Indian	Pakistani	Nepalese	Japanese	Thai	Korean	Other Asian
4.8	5.0	5.8	18.5	12.9	42.1	17.1	5.6	13.7	19.7

ii. Multi-Economic

The median monthly household income of Yau Tsim Mong appears to be 23,600 HKD. 

Deprivation Indicators Data

Household Income (monthly) in HKD	# of household	%
Less than $10,000	25 500	22.4
$10,000- $29, 999	44 300	38.9
≥ 30,000	44 000	38.7

* A large percentage of the population in Yau Tsim Mong still falls under deprived indicators.

Age groups in Yau Tsim Mong

iii. Ethnography

• Closely knit groups: Besides the Chinese population, since most people are immigrants, they want to preserve their cultural inheritance.
• Hong Kong dream: They are dreamers in that they are committed to their family and family’s future, which is why most of them have left their country to work in Hong Kong.
• Work-oriented/efficiency: The work-oriented culture of Hong Kong have influenced many of the ethnicities also working overtime and doing multiple jobs to survive in the Hong Kong economy.
• Disadvantaged are the less privileged minorities: The 1.5 generation immigrants who do not have economic privilege to enter private and international schools are systematically destined to only apply for diplomas or certificate programs after high school. Many of the discouraged (primarily young) are drug abusers, relapsed drug victims, and many resorts to violence for survival.
• Liberals, atheists, diverse religious background, spiritual (new age).
• Social and religious legalists; and social and religious rejects.
• Hierarchical society: Confucian (most Asians) and caste system (most South Asians) background.

F. Presence of multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, and multi-economic church and our background (Ebson and Tryfina)

        A handful of Social Service organizations (such as Inner City Ministries HOME Centre) reach out to local minorities; there is a lack of a specific church that provides a holistic ministry to a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, and multi-economic population. Yau Tsim Mong needs a church where all people are accepted and where all can grow wholly.

        God has put me (Tryfina) in the context of multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, and multi-economic groups of people throughout my life. I went to an international church where I was nurtured in my faith among the privileged international community. During the same time, I worked with the diverse ethnic economically less privileged groups under Inner City Ministries in Yau Tsim Mong. I received my missionary training in YWAM, which was a multi-cultural setting. I have also been a part of several homogeneous Nepali church groups in Hong Kong. I am married to a mixed-race man (Chinese, Indian-Lepcha, and Nepali). I believe God has prepared me to minister to this diverse context without minimizing the importance of life-long learning leadership.

        Since I represent three ethnicities (Lepcha, Nepali, Chinese), I see myself as a bridge-builder between multi-ethnic cultures. God has allowed me to grow both in a community and work-oriented culture, guilt, shame, and fear-driven culture, and study in both Asian and Western, which I believe will be helpful to relate to the different worldviews, valid for creating a learning environment where dialogue, narrative sharing, contextualization, bridge making can happen across cultures and economic differences, and most importantly where the gospel of Christ is shared.

IV. Theological Vision 

Our theological vision as Church is to worship God, be the disciples of Jesus Christ (love God, love others) and make kingdom disciples of all nations. The symbolic picture of a new “holy city” like a beautiful bride prepared for God (Revelation 21:1-8) stands at the backdrop of our theological vision of who we are and who we want to become. This picture of a new city/bride descending on earth from heaven serves as a picture for us of a church where God is dwelling. It is in the presence of God that every tear, suffering, pain, mourning, death, inequality, and sinful nature of humanity finds its hope for redemption.

A. Mission Statement

To be an inclusive body of Jesus Christ that is a living manifestation of the kingdom of God who mediates God’s love, hope, holiness, grace, justice, peace, and wisdom to the local community. 

B. Core Values

Inclusivity: Jesus was the most inclusive person on the planet earth. Following his servant leadership, we, as the body of Jesus Christ, also value inclusivity. We love individuals and communities of all cultures, ethnicity, and economic background and accept them as the image of God. This value is also because of the context we shall be serving. We want all casts and people from different walks of their faith to feel included by realizing that all of us (both churched and unchurched) are broken and sinful people, but that God in his grace loves us so much. The message of God’s love and our inclusive love will be the good news to our community.

Body of Christ: Christ is the head of the church (Col 1:18). The church is the body of Christ, is the fullness of Christ (Eph 1:23). The first task of our church is to be a church (body of Christ).

Living Manifestation: Church, the body, has individual parts (members), and together only as we remain in Christ can we live and be fruitful (John 15:4). Hence remaining connected with the source of life (Jesus Christ) is of exceptional value to staying associated with different body parts.

Kingdom of God: the Kingdom of God is both an eschatological hope and an already inaugurated kingdom on earth through the incarnation, cross (self-giving love), and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The church is in the in-between stage, prepared and made like Christ’s “bride” (Rev 21:1-4). Jesus prepares the church and builds his bride (the church, Christ’s body). We as a church aim at being a living manifestation of God’s kingdom and mediate God’s presence (God’s love, hope, holiness, grace, justice, peace, and wisdom) to the local community.

Discipleship: Disciples in terms of a) individual spiritual maturity and b) responding to the call to lose one’s life for Christ’s sake to participate in God’s mission through the church.

a) Spiritual maturity: We grow individually and together as a church for an inside-out transformation to happen. This we do by learning how to read the Bible together, formulating practical spiritual disciplines (individual and corporate), and through the ministry of worship, prayer, word, and reflections. Hence we value small groups, bible studies, personal devotion, Sunday service, worship, etc.

b) Responding to the call of God: mission

Incarnational gospel: As we are being formed and transformed inside-out through the enabling of the Holy Spirit, we believe that the love of God takes us outside the church to the local community to witness the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Gospel: Gospel to us is incarnational. Gospel to us is the love of God, which compelled Jesus Christ to incarnate into the world; the self-sacrificial love of Christ that compelled him to the act of cross; and the victorious power of Christ’s resurrection which breaks the power of death, sin, injustices, violence, and all evil. Hence gospel as incarnational is that being enabled by the Holy Spirit, we take the love of Christ into the world and serve the community by engaging in both personal witnessing and practical ways of evangelism (such as social service, social justice, solidarity with the poor, be inclusive, empowerment, etc.).

  [1] By “aim,” we mean that we are being prepared to be Christ’s holy bride. We are God’s visible kingdom on earth, yet we are only representations of God’s kingdom simultaneously.

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V. Timeline of the plant

 Below is our approximate timeline of the Hope For All church plant

30/Sep/2016: Finish M.Div. from Fuller Theological Seminary

Nov/2016: Meeting with the mother church (Community Church Hong Kong- CCHK) and Inner City Ministries (ICM). Visit India for a home visit.

Jan-Feb: Form core groups and church planting training

2nd and 3rd Sunday, March 2017: Pre-launch rehearsal service

Easter Sunday- April 2017: Soft Launch

End of July/2017: Hard Launch

VI. Launch Strategy

A. Core Group forming and training: During November- December, form a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-economic core group of about 20 people, and provide them with church planting training. Tentatively, this group will comprise CCHK (about 10), the people we ministered to in ICM and are without the church (10). By the beginning of December, we should have built a core team of at least 40 people (comprised of people from local relationships, personal evangelism, social heads relationship, and earnest church planters who have a heart for a church plant in Yau Tsim Mong). The plan is to meet with each core member individually. In a group, get to know one another, pray, research, advertise, build relationships with local people, fellowshipping, vision casting, vision building, vision promoting, church planting training, small group training etc. Build worship and ministry team.

B. Preview Service: Do two preview services for the second and third Sundays of 5n Feb 2016. Gather more new people from these preview services (as many as we can) into the core team and meet with them weekly besides Sunday service.

C. Intensive Core-team developmental training and ministerial training: Starting mid-February until the beginning of July 2017, provide church planting and small group ministerial training for the different ministry leaders.

Have a 3-month alpha course for all the core team and the new people we received from the preview service and personal witnessing.

Provide training and motivation for all the ministerial roles twice every month.

Also, form programs and ways that we will employ to get the word of big launch out into the public and our friends. Use all forms of advertisement during this period. We will also be intentional about the people we shall be inviting, hence pray for at least four people four days a week for four months and begin preparing and asking them for the hard launch.

Meanwhile, organize Discipleship Training School (like a one week retreat) for the alpha graduates during July 2nd. Third Sunday of July, we all pray and prepare for the hard launch. Have at least 50- 60 (minimum 40) people into the core team built by now.

D. Semi-big Launch (Church Inauguration) on the last Sunday of July 2017

• Use all available social-media sources like word of mouth, personal invitation, posters, flyers, signs, local newspapers, invitation cards, etc., to get the word about the new church plant and the launch before the Church inauguration day.
• Meanwhile, have all the ministries and ministry leaders ready to launch.
• Arrange all sittings, lightings, and worship bands, welcoming team ready to serve in a rented hall in Yau Tsim Mong.
• Worship God

VII. Budget

       U.S. church planting finding shows that a church plant with a big launch strategy needs about 120 000 USD (9 244 000 HKD). The estimated cost of church plant in Yau Tsim Mong with a semi-big launch model will approximately be HKD 1 688 800 (for two years). 

Particularities	Amount in HKD (for two years)	Amount in HKD (per year)	Amount in HKD (per month)
Building	720000	360000	30000 (+/-)
Utilities	48000	24000	2000  (+/-)
Staff Salary
Pastor (full time)	480000	240000	20000 (+/-)
Administrator (half time)	180000	90000	7500  (+/-)
Worship Leader (part time)	57600	28800	2400  (+/-)
Children Leader (part tme)	48000	24000	2000  (+/-)
Advertisement (brouchers for 23600 households)	47200	23600	1967  (+/-)
Installation of the worship place	60000	30000	2500  (+/-)
Miscelleneous	48000	24000	2000  (+/-)
TOTAL ESTIMATED COST	1688800	844400	70367  (+/-)

Note: The church hopes that in two years, the church will be able to finance all of the costs if we maintain and exceed the average population of about 200 in the church.  We shall by the end of two years also hope to train and raise ministers from within, and budget 20% of our income for outreach and missions. Hope For All Church must experiment with how the financing will look like for a church aiming to minister among the multi-economic context and for the considered least of the society. We believe we will need to raise funds for its operation even after two years continually.

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1 2011 Population Census, Thematic Report: Ethnic Minorities, Census and Statistics Department, Hong Kong (http://www.censtatd.gov.hk),17. 

2 Core team development is key to this planting. We hope to cast church planting vision and create space for team building through times of worshipping God, praying, researching, eating together, doing Lectio together, evangelism and outreach, and participating in ways where God is already working in the neighbourhood among the people.

3 Research shows to not rush into the final launch until we have capable 35-40 members in the core team.

4 According to Census and Statistics Department
 http://www.censtatd.gov.hk/hkstat/sub/sp140.jsp?productCode=B1010002 (November 2015), p.4.

5 Missional here means, being wholly evangelistic church, and not just having evangelistic programs (Keller, 359)

6 Timothy J. Keller, Center Church Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012), 135.

7 Population and Household Statistics Analyzed by District Council District. <http://www.statistics.gov.hk>

8 According to 2011 Population Census, Thematic Report: Ethnic Minorities, Census and Statistics Department, Hong Kong.

9 Hong Kong Church Network for the Poor, Yau Tsim Mong Profile. <http://www.hkcnp.org.hk>

10 By “aim,” we mean that we are being prepared to be Christ’s holy bride.We are God’s visible kingdom on earth, and yet we are only representations of God’s kingdom at the same time. 

11 Stephen Gray, in his research on church planting, writes, “with fewer than 200 people, a church will need to fight just to stay alive” (Stephen Gray, and Trent Short, Planting Fast-Growing Churches, (St. Charles, IL: ChurchSmart Resources, 2007), p.39. One must be careful of evaluating the church’s success in terms of entrepreneurial standards and numerical growth only, but Gray’s research is also helpful in providing practical insights.