It’s time for the start of a new Saturday series, and in light of the recent Church Planting conference, I thought it might be time to stop and reflect on some of the challenges to plant churches that we’ve made in The Briefing over the years. I’m reproducing these in the hope that they will stir our hearts to pray to God to raise up new congregations of his people through the preaching of the gospel all over the world.
Our first challenge comes from the Presiding Bishop for CESA (Church of England in South Africa) at their 1991 synod. Some things, rightly, never change:
Church planting was part of the lifestyle of the New Testament Church. The Pauline approach was to concentrate on major cities and commercial centres that were at the crossroads of main travel routes and from where surrounding areas could be evangelized by his converts.
According to the most restrained estimates, two new churches are being planted every day in Mainland China.
The Archbishop of Canterbury recently said, “I am convinced that church planting is a mark of vigorous and outgoing Christianity and is a sign of hope for the future”.
The great motive for planting new churches today is that we may reach the lost with the gospel. Every church planting endeavour must be tested by the following questions:
A. Do we want to start this new church because we hope that through it those outside the Kingdom of God will be helped to find Christ as Saviour? Will those without hope and without God in this world have opportunity to find hope and God if we start a new church in that place?
If your answer to these questions is YES, surely you need to look for openings to get started.
B. Will this new work be duplicating the efforts of other sound, evangelical denominations established in that area and already doing an effective work?
If your answer is YES, you need to look at another more needy area.
C. Is this the most strategic area in our district to reach out to the unsaved masses? Is it perhaps a growing area with a growing population?
If the answers are NO, then you need to reassess your plans prayerfully, and perhaps look in another direction. While there is undoubted need in the villages and country districts of our country, our limited resources of ministers and money must be used to the very best advantage if we are to be good stewards.
In your church there may be some members who live in the target area—ask them to consider being the founder members of the new church. Initially they may meet in a home, school hall or another convenient venue. The secret of effective church planting is to find in your congregation a well-established Christian with a church-planting mentality—ask him and his family to head up the work, under the supervision of the rector and council of the mother church. The church planter should be a man who has a consistent personal walk with Christ, who is convinced of the urgency to preach the gospel and of the importance of pasturing Christians in a church fellowship. He himself won’t be gifted in every area of Christian work, but he will need to bring together a team of co-workers.
Planting a daughter church involves great cost for the mother church. Key people will be leaving your ranks. They will no longer be attending your services and meetings, and their financial support will now go into the new work.
If you are only concerned about comfortably maintaining your own fellowship, you will never become involved in church planting. Only when you and I area passionately gripped by the need of men and women without Christ, will we have the hearts to initiate programmes such as these.
May I ask:
- For how many years has your church been in existence?
- How long has it been since your congregation planted a daughter church?
- Has your church ever planted a new church?
- If not, why not?
It is my earnest plea that every congregation in our denomination will consider investing in the Kingdom of God by aiming at planting a new church within the next year.
(Briefing #104-105, 8 Dec 1992.)
