Why do church planting? Most of what you will read here assumes that you agree church planting is something that we should even be doing. Yet, even if you do support church planting as a worthy cause, it’s worth taking a moment to back up and give this question some thought. After all, we have churches already. Why start new ones?
Before we can answer that question, we need to take another step back. Why does any church – young or old – exist at all? Put another way, what are the church’s priorities in ministry? Answering these questions puts us well on our way understanding the purpose of church planting.
As I write this, GCA Director of Training Bob Orner is still teaching the Foundations module. He began by giving us the biblical reasons for the church’s existence, based on Acts 2:42-47 (via the Redeemer Acts Curriculum). Practically speaking, Bob gave us five reasons:
- Worship & Prayer (v. 42).
- Learning & Discipleship (v. 42).
- Fellowship & Community (v. 42).
- Outreach & Evangelism (v. 47).
- Mercy & Social Concern (v. 44).
So a healthy church (biblically speaking) does not have the luxury of picking some of these and rejecting others. Rather, it will balance these five things as it reaches out to its Ministry Focus Group. This doesn’t mean that every healthy church will look the same. Pastor’s and church planters should prioritize and emphasize the above purposes based on the following factors:
- The unique gifts and ministry philosophy of the church planter.
- The emphasis of the church’s core group or leadership team.
- The unique needs of the Ministry Focus Group.
The end result is a ministry that is “serving out of strength.” That is, the church both effectively balances and prioritizes the five ministry purposes and, at the same time, knows its own strengths and passions in order to do those things best.
With all of this in mind, the purpose of church planting in particular should be clear. It’s to produce healthy churches. Actually, it’s to produce more healthy churches. Actually, it’s both. And for church planters, keeping our purpose in mind helps us better understand how to move forward in our communities.
Tags: Bob Orner, Church Planter Training, Church Planting, Conferences, GCA, Global Church Advancement, Planters, Planting Conference, Planting Seminar