Why Plant Churches
13 June 2008WHY PLANT CHURCHES?
At the Elim general conference this year there was a real sense of momentum towards mission and church planting, with many churches from all sizes looking again at how they can get involved in planting new expressions of church in this nation. In light of this I have put together a 2 part article drawn from research done by various church planters including Tim Keller & Mark Driscoll looking again at this crucial question of church planting.
Introduction
The continual planting of new congregations is the single most crucial strategy for the numerical growth of the Body of Christ in any city, and the continual corporate renewal and revival of the existing churches in a city. Nothing else, not crusades, outreach programs, para-church ministries, growing mega-churches, congregational consulting, nor church renewal processes will have the consistent impact of dynamic, extensive church planting. This may seem like a radical statement but to those who have done any study at all, it is not even controversial.
The normal response to discussions about church planting is something like this:
“We already have plenty of churches that have lots and lots of room for all the new people who have come to the area. Let’s get them filled before we go off building any new ones."
This statement appears to be ‘common sense’ to many people, but it rests on several wrong assumptions. The error of this thinking becomes clear if we ask ‘
Why is church planting so crucially important?’
We want to be true to THE BIBLICAL MANDATE
Jesus’ essential call was to plant churches.
Virtually all the great evangelistic challenges of the New Testament are basically calls to plant churches, not simply to share the faith. The ‘Great Commission’ (Matt.28: 18-20) is not just a call to ‘make disciples’ but to ‘baptise’. In Acts and elsewhere, it is clear that baptism means incorporation into a worshipping community (Acts 2:41-47).
The only way to be truly sure you are increasing the number of Christians in a town is to increase the number of churches. Why? Much traditional evangelism aims to get a ‘decision’ for Christ. Experience, however, shows us that many of these ‘decisions’ disappear and never result in changed lives. Why? Many, many decisions are not really conversions, but often only the beginning of a journey of seeking God. Only a person who is being ‘evangelised’ in the context of an on-going worshipping and shepherding community can be sure of finally coming into vital, saving faith. This is why a leading missiologist like C.Peter Wagner can say, "Planting new churches is the most effective evangelistic methodology known under heaven”
We want to be true to THE GREAT COMMISSION. Some facts–
New churches best reach new generations, new residents, and new people groups.
Younger adults have always been disproportionately found in newer congregations. Long-established congregations develop traditions (such as time of worship, length of service, sermon topics, leadership-style, emotional atmosphere, and thousands of other tiny customs), which reflect the sensibilities of long-time leaders from the older generations who have the influence and money to control the church life. This does not reach younger generations. [Note: Often, a new congregation for a new people-group can be planted within the overall structure of an existing church. It may be a new Sunday service at another time, or a new network of house churches that are connected to a larger, already existing congregation. Nevertheless, though it may technically not be a new independent congregation, it serves the same function.]
New churches best reach the unchurched.
Dozens of denominational studies have confirmed that the average new church gains most of its new members (60-80%) from the ranks of people who are not attending any worshipping body, while churches over 10-15 years of age gain 80-90% of new members by transfer from other congregations.2 This means that the average new congregation will bring 6-8 times more new people into the life of the Body of Christ than an older congregation of the same size.
So though established congregations provide many things that newer churches often cannot, older churches in general will never be able to match the effectiveness of new bodies in reaching people for the kingdom. Why would this be? As a congregation ages, internal pressures lead it to allocate most of its resources and energy toward the concerns of its members, rather than toward those outside its walls. This is natural and to a great degree desirable. Older congregations therefore have a stability and steadiness that many people thrive on and need. This does not mean that established churches cannot win new people. In fact, many non-Christians will only be reached by churches with long roots in the community that have stability and respectability.
However, new congregations, in general, are forced to focus on the needs of its non-members, simply in order to get off the ground. So many of its leaders have come very recently from the ranks of the un-churched, that the congregation is far more sensitive to the concerns of the non-believer. Also, in the first two years of our Christian walk, we have far more close, face-to-face relationships with non-Christians than we do later. Thus a congregation filled with people fresh from the ranks of the un-churched will have the power to invite and attract many more non-believers into the events and life of the church than will the members of the typical established body.
Conclusion
In every country and in every mission focused movement around the world the call to church plant has never been louder. The evidence is overwhelming for the need for church planting. We need to be willing to release the resources and most importantly our best people into the harvest field to pioneer new and vibrant expressions of church.
