Why Plant New Churches
Since we moved back to east Tennessee from Maryland to
plant a new church, we have been asked many questions about
starting a church. One of the most common ones is, “Why are
you starting a church in a place where there are already so
many churches?” It is a legitimate question. The scriptural
conviction that I have developed over the last three years is
that every church is called to be a part of planting new
churches locally (including Tennessee), nationally, and
internationally. Here are seven reasons why I believe this is
true:
1. The Great Commission: In Planting
Growing Churches For The 21st Century,
Dr. Aubrey Malphurs has written, “Once the church is started,
the process doesn’t end there. We must not sit back and be
satisfied with maintaining what God has done! Christ’s Great
Commission is to disciple the world for Him, not simply to
maintain new churches! Consequently, every planted church must
not ‘forget its roots.’ Each church owes its existence to some
person or church of vision. Each church has an obligation, in
turn, to articulate the vision and start other churches. This
is the final stage of the entire birth process of
reproduction. It provides churches with the potential to
evangelize unchurched communities all across America and
throughout the world. The idea is that planted churches
reproduce themselves and make disciples by planting other
churches. This is a process that will continue until the
Savior returns. In fact, this is the true meaning of the Great
Commission. If we desire to know how the early church
understood Christ’s commission, we can find the answer in the
Book of Acts. Acts is a church-planting book because much of
what takes place does so in the context of starting new
churches. Therefore, it shouldn’t surprise us when someone
such as Peter Wagner says, ‘The single most effective
evangelistic methodology under heaven is planting new
churches’.”
Dr. Fred Davis has written, “The Great commission in
Matthew 28 tells us there are several activities related to
what a church is to do – baptizing, teaching, and discipling. This
command calls on us to evangelize, congregationalize, and
reproduce. In many situations we relate the actions of the
Commission to gathering people into existing churches and we
never consider giving birth by planting new churches. The
early hearers of the Great Commission assumed that it meant to
multiply disciples and that multiplication resulted in new
congregations. They heard the commission, left their homes,
and went out and planted new churches. We need to hear the
Great Commission with new ears and understand that to obey the
command the natural response and result is to plant new
congregations. The early Christians believed in and practiced
church planting as a natural part of their lives. Church
planting was the ultimate _expression of New Testament
missiology just as it should be for us today. Why? There are
more lost and unchurched people groups today than at any other
time in human history. Intentional church planting was the
method of the early churches that resulted in an explosion
across the Roman Empire during the time following the
resurrection of Jesus. The activity of the early churches
reveals to us that church planting was a primary activity. Any
church desiring to live in the dynamic nature of the early
church will always include planting new churches as part of
their overall mission plan to touch local communities and the
world with the Good News of Jesus Christ.”
2. The Pattern of the Book of Acts: Southern
Baptists are known as a people of the Book. However, Rick
Warren says, “We only believe as much of the Bible as we
do.” I believe the Book of Acts gives us the pattern for a
true New Testament Church, and we must follow that pattern if
we are going to be obedient to God. That pattern definitely
includes church planting.
We see this in Acts 11 when the disciples were
scattered by persecution. As they went, they shared Jesus with
people. Many people were saved at Antioch so the church in
Jerusalem dispatched Barnabas, who also took Paul, and they
taught the people for a year. They developed into a church
because Acts 11:26 and 13:1 call them a “church.”
Then, the leaders of this new church, under the
leadership of the Holy Spirit, sent Paul and Barnabas out on
the 1st Misisonary Journey where they proclaimed
the gospel, discipled the converts, established leaders, and
ultimately, planted churches in cities including Lystra,
Iconium, Antioch (14:21-23), Galatia (16:6), Philippi
(16:9-15), Thessalonica (17:1-4), Corinth (18:1-11), and
Ephesus (19:1-10).
3. The Multiplication Principle: Something we
are taught when we are trained to be church planters is that
God has created us to multiply. Anything that is healthy grows
and reproduces. I believe that every church should reproduce
in at least four areas: disciples, leaders, small groups
(however you do them), and new churches. In 2 Timothy 2:2,
Paul wrote to Timothy and said, “The things that you have
heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful
men who will be able to teach others also.” There are four
generations of disciples pictured here. It started with Paul,
then Paul ministered to Timothy, but he told Timothy to teach
others who would then teach others also. In other words, Paul
was developing Timothy as a disciple, and he told Timothy to
develop other disciples who were then to develop other
disciples. So, here is a way that you can apply that
principle. How do you know when you are being effective as a
Christian? Well, in part, if you are making disciples who are
making other disciples, you are being an effective disciple of
Jesus Christ. This can be applied to small groups. A small
group is being effective, in part, when it births a group that
births another group. It can also be applied to local
churches. A local church is effective, in part, when it plants
a church that plants another church.
4. The Intentional Contextualization of the Gospel: The
apostle Paul wrote, “I have become all things to all men, that
I might by all means save some” (I Corinthians 9:22b). He is
speaking of intentionally contextualizing the gospel. Warren
Wiersbe writes, “It takes tact to have contact. A good witness
tries to build bridges, not walls.” The gospel is unchanging,
but we need different methodologies to relate to different
people groups. I believe that God would have us to stop
fighting over styles and start focusing on taking the gospel
to people where they are in a way they can relate to (see
Paul’s model at Athens in Acts 17). We need the existing
churches and their ministries, but we also need new churches
who can relate to different people. However, the key is that
all of us focus on developing intentional strategies to bring
in the harvest instead of being internally focused and doing
what we have always done.
5. The Spiritual Impact: New churches can be
used by God impact people’s lives that are not otherwise being
impacted. That is the only proper purpose for planting a
church. We have certainly seen people’s lives impacted since
we started True Life. We have baptized 55 people since we
started. We have seen people who were never in church or out
of church for many years become disciples of Christ. We have
seen people called and sent out into missions. We have taken
two mission trips to Honduras and seen people go on a mission
trip for the first time. We have seen people begin to serve
God and become reproducing spiritual leaders. We have seen
people lead others to Christ for the first time. We have seen
God restore marriages and families when it seemed like they
were beyond hope. We have seen people’s faith and vision grow
because of the vision for this church and seeing God provide
for it. We have seen people go from not even being Christians
to now being a part of the core group of a church plant. We
have sent out a core group to plant New Heights Church in
Dandridge, and we are now in the early stages of working
together to plant a church in White Pine. Many other church
plants can share similar and even greater testimonies. When
they are doing His will, God will work through church plants
to make a great impact in individuals, communities, and the
world.
6. The Lost Sheep Principle (Luke 15:1-7): Jesus
told a parable about a shepherd who had a hundred
sheep. Ninety-nine of them were in the fold but one went
astray. What did that shepherd do? He left the ninety-nine and
went and found the one lost sheep! The principle is that as
long as there is one lost sheep, we have a mandate from God to
go find it. Our existing churches will not be big enough, nor
will the need for new churches cease until every lost sheep is
found. Consider the following statistics regarding the number
of lost sheep:
-According to the International Mission Board of the
Southern Baptist Convention, the population of the world is
over 6 billion and over 3 billion of those people have never
had an adequate opportunity to hear the gospel.
-If we shrunk the world population to a village of 100
people and based it on current statistical realities, only 11
would be Christians.
-America has an estimated unchurched population of between
100 and 200 million. At least a third of the population is
totally unchurched at this point.
-America is the 3rd largest unchurched nation in
the world. Only China and India have higher numbers of
unchurched people. In fact, the unchurched population of
America by itself would be the 11th largest nation
in the world.
-In 1900, there were 27 churches for every 10,000
Americans. Today, there are only 11 churches for every 10,000
Americans.
-According to the North American Mission Board of the SBC,
America gains 24 churches a week but loses 72.
-According to Edward Drayton, churches in America are
losing 2,765,000 members a year.
-America leads the world in every category of violent and
domestic crime and social decay.
-In some states, the ratio is as high as one SBC church for
every 150,000 people. Canada
has one SBC church for every 227,000 people.
-In 2001, about 7,500 SBC churches (about 20% of our
churches) reported 0 baptisms. Another 3,000 only reported 1
baptism.
-Rick Warren says, “In the next 365 days, 2.3 million
Americans will die. 54 million will
die worldwide. Will they head into a Christ-less eternity?”
-On average in the SBC, we baptize one person for every 44
church members.
-There is not one county in the U.S. that has a higher
church attendance than it did 10 years ago.
-From 1985 to 1995, the population growth in the United
States was 11.4% (24,153,000). However, Protestant
denominations combined declined by 9.5% (4, 498, 242) in the
same time frame.
-85% of U.S. churches are plateaued or declining. 75% of
TBC churches are plateaued.
-According to Tom Rainer, only about 2% of graduating high
school seniors now claim to be born again Christians.
-Only 4% of SBC churches will start churches.
-Tennessee has an estimated 2.7 million people who are not
Christians. 3 out of 5 are basically unchurched.
-Between the 1990 and 2000 censuses, Tennessee had a
population growth of 16.7%. However, the Tennessee Baptist
Convention only grew by 0.88% during the same time frame.
-On an average Sunday in Jefferson County, 18% of the
population is in church somewhere. 48% of the population has
no church affiliation at all.
7. The Kingdom Reality: It is about God’s
Kingdom-not us. God has called us to build His Kingdom
together. To use an agricultural analogy, we need to stop
focusing on our tree and look at the whole orchard. We are
partners in the harvest and sacrificially working together to
plant churches is an important part of bringing in the
harvest. When we sent a core group and a church planter out of
our church to plant a new church in Dandridge, it definitely
challenged us. However, they will make much more of a Kingdom
impact there than they would have made by staying with
us. Plus, it is a biblical principle that we are in danger of
losing anything that we hold on to, but anything that is given
to God will be taken, used, multiplied, and we will be blessed
in return (John 12:24-25). It is the paradox of the
Kingdom. Consider the following example from Decision
Magazine.
“Bigger is better. Mike MacIntosh thought so -- at
least at first -- when his congregation grew from 2,000 to
3,000 after the 1976 Billy Graham Crusade in San Diego.
‘My pride loved it,’ said MacIntosh, pastor of
Horizon Christian Fellowship in San Diego. ‘I was getting
media attention and I thought, This is kinda cool.’ But as he
sought counsel from members of the Billy Graham Evangelistic
Association (BGEA) to form a school of evangelism based on
BGEA's method of training, his perceptions began to change.
MacIntosh said that he saw how the mission of BGEA is to
enhance others' ministries -- namely those of the local church
-- and he wanted to take a similar approach.
MacIntosh began to identify leaders in his
congregation and to train them to plant their own churches.
‘I'd say 'Take 10 of our home fellowships and start a church,'
MacIntosh recalls. Today, Horizon has birthed 28 churches in
San Diego County and more than 100 churches and para-church
organizations across the United States and around the world.
Although the idea of pastoring a congregation of
40,000 (roughly the combined size of the San Diego church
plants) has appeal, MacIntosh is content to hold multiple
services in the 1,650 seat gymnasium that his church has been
in since 1985. He would prefer to grow by empowering others
to serve.
One of MacIntosh's former ministry assistants moved
to Indianapolis and started a church. Now, he has an 88 acre
facility and has started nine church plants in Indiana as well
as a fruitful ministry in Ukraine.”
Larry Michael’s book, Spurgeon on Leadership,
quotes Spurgeon’s autobiography where Spurgeon said, “We must
build this Tabernacle strongly, I am sure, for our friends are
always with us….But our desire is, after we have fitted up our
vestry, schools and other rooms, that we shall be able to
build other chapels…I will not rest until the dark county of
Surrey is covered with places of worship. I look on this
Tabernacle as only the beginning; within the last six months,
we have started two churches,-one in Wandsworth and the other
in Greenwich, and the Lord has prospered them, the pool of
baptism has often been stirred with converts. And what we have
done in two places, I am about to do in a third, and we will
do it, not for the third or the fourth, but for the hundredth
time, God being our Helper. I am sure I may make my strongest
appeal to my brethren, because we do not mean to build this
Tabernacle as our nest, and then to be idle. We must go from
strength to strength, and be a missionary church, and never
rest until, not only this neighborhood, but our country, of
which it is said that some parts are as dark as India, shall
have been enlightened with the gospel.”
The Bible is clear that church planting is at the
heart of God’s plan to fulfill the Great Commission. How can
we be involved? Pastors, we can teach our churches these
biblical truths. We can give to the Cooperative Program,
Lottie Moon, Annie Armstrong, and Golden State offerings
because much of that money goes to church planting. God may be
calling some of you to plant a church. Churches and
associations can partner together to sponsor new churches. We
can send mission teams to various areas with the goal of
starting new churches. We can lead people to Christ where we
are which will lead to the starting of new churches. Let’s
work together to fulfill the Great Commission and build God’s
Kingdom by planting new churches.
