Using the Book of Acts for Developing Leaders for Church Planting Movements in Kazakhstan

This project addresses the need for church growth and multiplication of Kazakhstan House Church Association (KHCA) in Almaty Province as well as other regions of Kazakhstan. Since church growth and church multiplication require a growing number of leaders with Bible knowledge and ministry skills, the project suggests a Bible study tool based on the narrative of the book of Acts. The book of Acts also serves as a prototype of modern church planting movements (CPM) around the world. Leaders of KHCA should be familiar with church multiplication principles found in Acts in order to be able to align their ministries to CPM. To meet that need, a one-day training was offered to house church pastors, evangelists, and church planters of KHCA and guests from other evangelical entities. Before the training, they were offered a questionnaire to analyze church growth problems in Kazakhstan. The data showed that many leaders have a sound judgment on church growth issues, while others have somewhat less realistic picture of it due to the limited scope of ministry. After the training, the leaders were offered another questionnaire. They answered the questions relative to church multiplication principles based on the book of Acts and expressed their willingness to do ministry purposefully. The research data clearly showed that leaders learned the most important lessons from the book of Acts, have commitment to church planting movements, and have a vision of saturating the country with multiplying house churches.