churchplanting.org.au - Church Planning Institute

Who are we ?

Gerald and Elizabeth Rowlands have spent the whole forty five years of their married life preaching and teaching the Gospel in more than sixty nations around the world. Commencing as a pastor in Sydney, Australia in 1957, Gerald has since served as an evangelist, missionary, bible college lecturer and principal and an author of Christian Leadership training materials.

Gerald and Elizabeth have three daughters and six grand children. Each of their daughters are in full time Christian ministry. In 1975, Gerald resigned from the pastorate of a large church in Brisbane to answer a call of God to serve Him in Africa. The whole family moved to South Africa. This marked the beginning of their missionary service. Whilst there they conducted crusades and ministers seminars in many African nations. In 1979 they established the ACTS BIBLE COLLEGE in Harare, Zimbabwe. It was during their time there that Gerald wrote and compiled the materials that later became known as a “Bible College in a Briefcase.”

The syllabus that comprises the CPI course has since been adopted as their training module by approximately twenty seven denominations throughout Zimbabwe. Graduates from the course have participated in TARGET 10,000 through which 10,000 new churches have been planted in one decade.

In 1992 Gerald and Elizabeth moved to Singapore to place their curriculum in some 30 Bible Colleges throughout SE Asia. Whilst there they conceived the idea of publishing the material in a format that could be used in a local church to train prospective leaders in evangelism and church planting skills. Their vision became “Every Local Church A Training Centre!”

The concept was eagerly received and thousands of pastors attended seminars to receive instructions in how to use our program and to receive their training manuals. Dramatic results took place immediately as hundreds of churches launched church planting strategies. One church in Manila, Philippines, planted 58 new churches in the first three years of using the CPI program.

In the past decade some 22,000 local churches in the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, India, Cambodia, Vietnam, Nepal, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Swaziland, Mozambique, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakstan and Israel have embraced the CPI program. In every place exciting results have been witnessed as dedicated graduates have planted new local churches.

We are now offering the program and related subjects on our web site. As a trans denominational ministry, our course is offered like a smorgasbord. All the subjects are on the table but you can take whatever subjects you need and leave some that perhaps do not suit your theological palate. However, the Course is most effective when ALL subjects are taught in sequential order. At present all subjects are offered in English. In the near future several other languages will also be available.