For Bishop Dag Heward-Mills, church planting is not just a strategy. It is a lifestyle. It is not something he once did; it is something he continues to live. It is part of his daily thoughts, his long-term planning, his spiritual burden, and his personal joy. Everywhere he goes, in every conversation and every teaching, there is one theme that keeps surfacing—build the Church.
This mindset did not emerge from a leadership book or a ministry trend. It was birthed in prayer and cultivated through obedience. From the earliest days of his ministry, when he preached in classrooms and small halls, Bishop Dag understood that the true expression of evangelism is not only in winning souls, but in establishing churches where those souls can be discipled.
Church planting, for him, is the natural outflow of a life surrendered to the Great Commission. It is not occasional. It is daily.
Obedience in the Small Things
One of the key lessons from Bishop Dag’s lifestyle of church planting is how it began in the small, humble beginnings. He didn’t wait for a building or a microphone. He preached wherever there were people to hear. In those early days, it was not about numbers or scale—it was about obedience.
That obedience laid the foundation for what would become a global church-planting movement. Today, there are thousands of churches across continents under his spiritual covering, but none of them started without a seed. That seed was obedience. And that seed was watered by discipline, faith, and love for God’s people.
Even now, after so much growth, he continues to encourage young pastors and leaders to plant. Not because they are ready in the eyes of the world, but because they are willing in the eyes of God.
A Spirit of Sacrifice
Planting churches is not glamorous work. It requires long hours, personal discomfort, financial risk, and spiritual endurance. Bishop Dag has never hidden this reality. He teaches it plainly, lives it fully, and models it consistently. He has shown that church planting is costly, but it is worth it.
Through his own example, he has raised a generation of ministers who understand that real ministry is not convenience—it is sacrifice. These are men and women who leave their home countries, step into unfamiliar lands, and begin the hard work of tilling spiritual soil. They do not go as celebrities. They go as servants. And they go with the same heart as their father in the Lord—ready to lay down their lives for the sake of the Church.
Because when church planting becomes your lifestyle, you are no longer driven by comfort. You are driven by calling.
Reproducing After Its Kind
A lifestyle always reproduces itself. Bishop Dag’s life has multiplied into sons and daughters in ministry who are not only leading churches but planting them. This is how a movement grows—not by addition, but by multiplication. The lifestyle of one obedient man becomes the legacy of many faithful laborers.
He teaches that every church must give birth to more churches. Every pastor must train leaders. Every believer must be part of a church that is growing and going. And because of this mindset, the ministry has never become stagnant. It continues to spread, expand, and increase—not because of trends, but because of lifestyle.
The rhythm of Bishop Dag’s life is a rhythm of planting. And through him, God continues to raise builders who carry the same beat.
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