The Evangelistic Cutting Edge
Jul. 6, 2009
By Phil Stevenson
Author Tim Stafford relates that he has visited multiple evangelistic denominations asking, "What they were doing to grow?" The common reply he received was this: "We're excited and committed to church planting. It's the cutting edge."1 Growing evangelistic denominations view church planting as the best way both to reach people for Christ and to grow their movements.
What is fueling this kind of thinking?
It Works
Evangelistic crusades, outreach campaigns and come-to-us events tend to be limited in reaching people. In spite of the many resources that must be used to mount such efforts, it is difficult to show that they have made an overall difference. Church planting makes a difference in a culture that is largely unchurched.
It's Biblical
Church planting is an ideal way to fulfill the Great Commission. Scott Thomas of the Acts 29 Network states, "It's apparent in the Great Commission that we are to make disciples through the avenue of churches." New churches designed to reach new people is Great Commission strategy.
It's Missional
To be missional is to go out into the culture in order to connect people to Christ. Established churches tend to focus inward. This trend can be resisted, but it cannot be avoided. New churches are geared outward. They have to be if they are to survive and thrive. Church growth expert George Hunter has noted that after 15 years, churches typically plateau and that after 35 years they generally cannot replace any members they lose. New congregations reach more new people. Even new churches can quickly adapt an "old mentality," so church planting is continually needed to sustain a growing movement.
It's Evangelistic
Church planting expert Gary Rohrmayer relates the story of a 1,200-member church that planted a church. The new church quickly grew to 200 while the parent church grew to 1,600. Both had excellent growth, yet the church plant reported about 100 adult converts while the parent church named only eight in the same period. Clearly, planting new churches is an effective means of evangelism.
Planting Imperatives
Most evangelistic denominations desire to grow their movement through reaching people for Christ. Therefore, what might movement leaders do to better mobilize their church planting efforts?
Dream Big. One major denomination has a goal to double the number of its congregations in the next 20 years. Within the next five years, we in The Wesleyan Church desire to plant a number of new congregations equal to 5 percent of our existing churches. The idea behind dreaming big is to get on the edge, where you need to consistently hang onto the hand of God.
Start Many Kinds of Churches. Plant churches for ethnic minority groups, immigrants, emerging, re-emerging, demographical sub-groups, and niche audiences. Starting churches is often like scattering seed. Some will take root and grow, others will not. The idea is still to scatter seed in as many places as possible.
Use Varied Strategies. There is no single best strategy for starting a new church. Use parachute plants, mobilizing churches to parent, satellite campuses that spin off in order to harness their unique energy, multiple churches within one church or whatever works for establishing a new work. Various strategies will reach varied audiences.
Strengthen New Churches. Start churches that will penetrate the culture and at the same time provide a place for new disciples to grow.
Make It a Lifestyle. Aim to create not merely a season of planting churches but a lifestyle of planting churches. Work at ingraining it so deeply in the fabric of your movement that it will outlive the existing leadership base. It must not be what one generation did, but it must be what the movement does.
Stafford said, "A church [denomination] that seeks to obey the Great Commission will keep sending out missionaries. And missionaries plant churcheseven when they never leave home."2 •
- Phil Stevenson is general director of the Department of Evangelism and Church Growth, The Wesleyan Church, Indianapolis, Ind.
1. Tim Stafford, "Go and Plant Churches of all Peoples," Christianity Today, September 2007 (http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/september/36.68.html).
2. 2. Ibid.
