“A Family of Fellowships”
Praise Chapel is a Missional, Disciple-Making, Church Planting Family of Fellowships. Contained in this name is who we are, where we are headed and how we will get there.
A Church Multiplication Movement
We have coined the phrase, “A Family of Fellowships” to describe our Praise Chapel Fellowship structure.
If you can view our structure in the light of a healthy family that continues to reproduce and multiply families you will see how we can “fill the earth” the same way the human race has multiplied through families. You will see that at the end of the day structure is not the issue – but relationship is. I will choose relationship over structure every time. It is Janet’s and my relationship with Paul and Carrie and their families that matter. Those relationships are based upon love not structure. We don’t have “Neville Incorporated” but we do have a lifetime relationship of love and devotion that means more than life itself. I believe this is what is meant when Paul wrote, “What can separate us from the love of God…” nothing! At the end of the day I love and value “you” more than any structure or organization man can conceive. I pray that Praise Chapel Fellowship will always be a family. Families are not perfect but they are able to weather the storms of life because they are family.
We believe in multiplying & reproducing everything we do which results in:
More people are attending events,
• More young preachers are given opportunity to minister,
• More workers are responding to the call to ministry,
• The mother churches are strengthened as their pioneer churches come home to celebrate with them,
• The people are more excited with church planting when it happens out of the home
church rather than a convention center,
• The cost per-capita for touching lives is greatly reduced,
• There is no need to put pressure upon pioneered churches to support an overly expensive conference,
• More can be invested in sponsoring young disciples to attend.
Our Structure
Our structure is fluid. It flows with the activity, timing and direction of the Holy Spirit as experienced in the fruitfulness of ministry. “Ye know, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons” (Acts 20:18 KJV). We understand that there have been and will be “seasons” of change that will affect our structure.
The Pioneer Church
The pioneer church is the life of Praise Chapel. It is our focus. Everything we do and all of our structure is to service, encourage and bring the pioneer church and pastor to the fruitfulness God has purposed for them. The strength of a pioneer church is that they have a mother church. The mother church not only sends out and plants the new church, but is there to provide the spiritual, financial and logistical support needed. It is to the advantage of the pioneer church and pastor to be accountable to the mother church, just as a child is to a parent.
The Maturing Church
How long it takes for a church to grow from the pioneer stage to the maturing stage cannot be calculated by time, numbers or finances. The maturing church is one that is seeing a measure of fruitfulness, becoming or has become self supporting financially and has leadership and ministries developing from within the congregation. The leadership is showing spiritual maturity in decisions, commitment and accountability.
The Mother Church
We believe the local church can and should reproduce by birthing new churches. A mother church is not dependent upon the size of the church, but on the quality of ministry being developed. There is a time frame necessary for development, growth and the fruitfulness to become a mother church. Just like life, a couple can produce a child when they are young and not prepared. But, to be a mother and father, a couple needs to be mature and capable of parenting a child. A local church that is beginning to feel prepared to send out their first baby church needs to seek counsel from both their mother church and spiritual leadership to help them in the process. We do not encourage random, emotional, unplanned church birthing.
The Harvesters Homecoming Church
A Harvesters Homecoming church is a mother church that has planted at least three churches with pioneer pastors, sent out from their congregation (Antioch pattern, Acts 13). These churches are showing fruitfulness and a fellowship of churches and ministries is truly emerging. They are providing a Harvesters Homecoming Bible Conference for the churches that they have planted. They partner with Praise Chapel International and they support world missions through Praise Chapel Missions.
This is not a program or a position to be obtained. This is to acknowledge a point of fruitfulness, where a pastor and local church are truly called and functioning in a position of ministry. Not all churches who plant multiple churches will be called or desire to provide a conference and extended services, and there should be no pressure to feel that this is necessary. Fruitfulness in both the mother church and the planted churches will be apparent and shape the direction of ministry.
The Harvesters Homecoming Bible Conference
A Harvesters Homecoming Bible Conference is for the churches and workers sent out from a mother church. The purpose is to bring the workers home to their mother congregation for encouragement, fellowship, teaching and direction. It is not designed to service workers from other churches or Fellowships.
The Family of Fellowships
We believe that everything God does in our Fellowship can be reproduced. We started with one church that became a Fellowship of churches and ministries through church planting. We have seen this reproduced in the life of some of the churches who now have churches planted and have become Fellowships of churches and ministries. We coined the name, “A Family of Fellowships,” to acknowledge what the Holy Spirit is doing and to affirm our commitment to service ant to develop and partner together in life long ministry.
Praise Chapel Missions
To facilitate the sending of pioneers to the nations of the world we established Praise Chapel Missions. This is sole purpose of releasing opportunity for more churches and individuals to personally be involved with world missions. Praise Chapel Missions is the channel for servicing our Family of Fellowships, enabling us to partner together in world missions.
Praise Chapel International
Our Family of Fellowships maintains an office in Rancho Cucamonga, California, where the senior minister of our Family of Fellowships serves. This office services our Fellowship in whatever way needed to help release continued fruitfulness, in the expressions of ministry, that the Holy Spirit births within our family of churches and ministries. This office provides legal covering and spiritual, doctrinal and relational accountability.
The Harvesters Homecoming Coalition
This coalition is personally picked by Pastor Larry Neville, primarily from among those pastors who are leading churches that have Harvesters Homecoming Bible Conferences. The task is, to recognize those God has called to the ministry of giving spiritual oversight to churches and ministries. The Apostle Paul spoke about this heavy burden of spiritual oversight when he said, “Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches” (2 Corinthians 11:28 NIV). It is not a position that we have simply put a name to for our convenience. It is a prayerful recognition of God’s appointments.
The purpose of this coalition is to provide a forum to service, relate to and foster lifelong relationship and connectivity, among those whom God is raising up, within the Praise Chapel Family of Fellowships. This coalition is committed to the vision of multiplying churches and to partnering together for world evangelism.
We do not intend to develop and release independent Fellowships. Our heart has always been to work together. Our goal is for each Fellowship within this Family of Fellowships to be connected together.
