Mobilizing the Local Church to Execute the P.E.A.C.E. Plan

By Lillian Kwon, Christian Post Reporter Thursday, June 29, 2006

The five global giants that megachurch pastor Rick Warren identified last summer were largely missing "the best choice" of players to tackle the world's ills, as Warren had stated, which is the local churches.

With more than 2 billion followers of Christ, Purpose Driven Ministries recently released 10 ways that the local church can mobilize congregants, or rather the "average believer" as Warren had highlighted, into an army to address the hard-hitting giants of spiritual emptiness, corrupt leadership, poverty, disease and illiteracy.

After launching the P.E.A.C.E. Plan last summer at Saddleback Community Church's 25th anniversary celebration, Warren and his team of pastors are making determined efforts to mobilize 1 billion Christians around the world for the global initiative. It's a lay movement and a grassroots church-to-church strategy that Warren had emphasized at his first hosted HIV/AIDS conference last year.

Church leaders who attended the Purpose Driven Church conference last month were given an overview of the P.E.A.C.E. Plan and taught ways to involve the local church with their communities and overseas.

Lance Witt, executive pastor and teaching pastor at Saddleback, outlined 10 ways for pastors to introduce the global plan to their churches in a healthy way:

1. Get involved personally.
2. Help your current church and missions leadership embrace the P.E.A.C.E. Plan.
3. Combine P.E.A.C.E. and prayer.
4. Strengthen your small group network.
5. Start teaching and preaching a holistic Gospel.
6. Recognize the implications of P.E.A.C.E. on your entire church structure and program.
7. Designate staff or recruit volunteer leadership to help with the implementation.
8. Practice Local, as well as prepare for Global P.E.A.C.E.
9. Take a long-term view of implementation.
10. By faith, expect and plan for God to use your church.

Summarizing key components, Mike Constantz, Saddleback pastor of missions, said P.E.A.C.E. personally involves every member and works through church-to-church connections rather than the traditional church-to-missions agency or missionary relationships, and P.E.A.C.E. activities are sustainable and reproducible in local communities where third world countries don't have to depend on partner Western churches for resources.

"P.E.A.C.E. is not a program; it is a new paradigm," said Witt, emphasizing a long-term perspective that pastors should have.

P.E.A.C.E. is an acronym that stands for "Plant churches, Equip servant leaders, Assist the poor, Care for the sick, and Educate the next generation."