FREEDOM BIBLE ACADEMY – TRAINING CHURCH PLANTERS

by Errol Francis Mannon

God called me and is leading me to establish Freedom Bible Academies all over the world!

How DO you train church planters?

 A little background. You may know that after I got saved and born again in 1970, God called me to preach the Gospel for Him, and to be His missionary. I went to Bible school to get trained for ministry, and met and married Gretchen there. After completing Bible school, in 1978, we moved to Greeley, Colorado. I had been praying diligently about my calling into the ministry. I said, “God, I think I am more of an evangelist than a pastor.” God immediately said to me, “YOU ARE A CHURCH PLANTER!”His words just exploded in my spirit! Instantly I knew that was my true calling! God was calling me to plant thousands of churches in every nation!

Gretchen and I planted our first little house church there in Greeley, in 1978. In 1981, we moved to Wheatland, Wyoming and I planted another house church. In 1985, we moved to Albin, Wyoming and began a traveling ministry, starting and preaching in small house churches in both Nebraska and Wyoming.

Progress was painfully slow, and I was frustrated. I knew something had to change immediately to be able to plant thousands of house churches around the world in my lifetime! God really surprised me in 1994, when He told me to go and attend Colorado Bible College, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. I was shocked! I was 45 years old! Go back to Bible school? “What are you trying to teach me, God?”

In 1995, while attending CBC, I cried out to God in prayer. “How do I plant house churches around the world? I’m only one man!” God spoke two words to me, “TAKE TWELVE!!” Another explosion in my spirit! I said,”Well of course! That’s what Jesus did! Why didn’t I think of that?” I have never heard another pastor or Bible teacher say that!

“TAKE TWELVE!” GOD TOLD ME THAT!

 He further explained that concept.  “Take twelve men and train them to do what you’re doing.”

Train your twelve to also take twelve men as you train them to plant churches. Your 12 train their 12 to train their 12 and so on. Multiply 12 men 7 times and you end up with 35,831,808 simple house church planters!

I had gone to a Bible school and now a Bible college. I learned a lot. God put the dream of opening Bible schools in my heart after I graduated from CBC. We could use Bible schools to train our evangelists and house church planters in every nation. God set me free from legalistic religion in the early 1980’s, so I wanted our Bible schools to set men and women free from legalistic religion also. What should I call our Bible school? Each one is now called FREEDOM BIBLE ACADEMY. This was our plan to train men. We have 6 FBAs in 5 nations.

Our Freedom Bible Academies are our channel to bring the training to as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, so that the Gospel of the Kingdom may be spread to all the world. My Take Twelve! disciples in Africa and Asia have opened up our Freedom Bible Academies to find and train evangelists, pastors, teachers, and Simple House Church Planters! The main text book is the Bible. I am reading and teaching through the New Testament book by book and chapter by chapter. We call it God’s Word for Today! I record the teaching on video and send it to every FBA director. Along with my video recordings, I also send them my Bible teaching notes, my “Selah!”  teaching articles, and my 3 booklets: Heaven, Here I Come,   Simple House Churches!   and  What is True Christianity? They are translating my teaching notes and booklets into their native languages for our FBA students and their church members. I am so thankful for our FBA directors.