Missions - Church Planting by Phil Kinney
What comes to mind when you hear the word “evangelism?” Maybe you think of Billy Graham crusades or a home visitation ministry or special outreach events. All of these efforts have their place. Some make for exciting and even sensational community events .What comes to mind when you hear the word “Missions”? Often it is people in faraway lands that don’t have the comforts of home, sharing the gospel while ministering to the sick, poor etc.
These are correct, but they are not complete.
"But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)
Notice that He told the disciples to spread the Good News in four ever-widening concentric localities: first in Jerusalem, then Judea, then Samaria and finally to the ends of the earth.
The theme of this Mission Statement applies today—we have a responsibility to share Christ to these same four localities:
• Our Jerusalem = our hometown
• Our Judea = our local region
• Our Samaria = our cross-cultural neighbours
• To the ends of the earth = people from completely different cultures than ours.
Jesus gave this clear command early in the life of the church, birthed in Jerusalem. But it took a long time for the disciples to reach beyond Jerusalem to fulfil the Great Commission. You can flip through the accounts of Acts 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 without seeing any movement beyond Jerusalem. All the while the church in Jerusalem enjoyed signs and wonders, fantastic growth and fabulous fellowship.
Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:46-47)
Not only did the church grow by 3,000 on the day of Pentecost, it continued to grow in remarkable ways. “But many who heard the message believed, and the number of men grew to about five thousand” (Acts 4:4).
Later the record says, “So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith” (Acts 6:7).
By now about eight years had passed without any significant outreach beyond their hometown of Jerusalem.1 I find that surprising, but not unusual. Think about it – what have we done to begin churches beyond our comfortable “Jerusalem” to fulfil the Great Commission?
Everything changed for the early church when opposition arose against the godly ministry of Stephen. Soon he became the first martyr of the church. While this was a tragedy, something magnificent came from it. Acts 8:1 (easy to remember since it is the reverse of Acts 1:8) tells us, “And Saul was there, giving approval to his death. On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria” (Acts 8:1).
Notice two things about this verse:
1. Everyone but the apostles scattered from Jerusalem. Where did they go? To Judea and Samaria! Due to persecution, they began to fulfil the Great Commission.
2. A man named Saul assisted in Stephen’s martyrdom. Later this persecutor of the church became one of its greatest champions after his conversion to Christ. We know him better by his new name, Paul.
Over the next couple of weeks we will be looking at different areas of our mission as a church. Next week we will focus on Thailand, and the following week local missions.
But Today I want to start with church planting.
You can read back through the history of Bullcreek church and read back as far as 20 years ago church planting was first discussed. I am told that a group of elders back then even went down to the Cockburn region and prayed over the area. Yet like the early church we have not stepped beyond our Jerusalem – we have not committed ourselves to plant new churches and take the Good News of Jesus Christ beyond our walls here. I acknowledge we have done some great working feeding the poor. We have sent money around the world to support missionary work. We have supported chaplaincy in schools in our local area. And I know many of you personally support good causes.
But none of this excuses us from our calling to spread the gospel and plant churches. Jesus said, “I will build my church”. How does He build His church? Yes he grows the local church, but he also establishes new ones.
Why Should Churches Plant Churches?
God blesses churches that utilize the most biblical and most effective strategy of evangelism. Here are three Great Commission evangelism axioms:
1) The most Biblical method of evangelism is church planting.
2) The most effective method of evangelism is church planting.
3) The most effective way to plant churches is daughter church planting.
Let's take a closer look at each of those.
1. The most Biblical method of evangelism is church planting
There are many great evangelistic strategies in the world. But the most biblical strategy--the one that was practiced by the apostles in obedience to the Great Commission--is church planting. As they went from town to town, they didn't start Christian camps, or orphanages, or hospitals, or campus ministries, or evangelistic associations. They led people to Jesus and planted churches.
When the believers disbursed because of the persecution in Jerusalem, some of them planted a church in Antioch of Syria:
Now those who had been scattered by the persecution in connection with Stephen travelled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, telling the message only to Jews. Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord (Acts 11:19-21).
That church in Antioch became perhaps the most significant church in history. Why? Because we read in Acts 13:1-3:
In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.
I see four significant points in this passage:
I. This Antioch is the same Antioch mentioned above, a church begun unintentionally because of the persecution of believers in Jerusalem.
II. Saul is the same Saul who helped to persecute the church, which prompted the planting of a church in Antioch.
III. This marked the first time a church intentionally sent leaders to plant new churches in order to evangelize the lost.
IV. This daughtering endeavour was birthed by the call of God during a time of worshipping and fasting, then quickly carried out after more prayer and fasting.
In one sense, every church in existence today traces its history back to Antioch. Churches in Europe and the Americas owe a debt to that great pioneering church. Its missionaries, Barnabas and Saul sailed west. The Gospel spread westward toward the westernmost part of Asia. Then via the Macedonian call to “come over and help us” the Gospel spread into Europe, and later to the “New World.”
There are many different models of church planting in Acts – some unintentional such as the scattering of the Christians due to persecution, and some more intentional, such as The “Send a Team Nearby” Model. The church in Ephesus used this model to plant the other six churches mentioned in Revelation 2 and 3. In Roman times a circular Roman road connected those seven cities.
The husband and wife team of Aquila and Priscilla probably started the church in Ephesus (see Acts 18). After its founding, Christians went out in teams to start new churches in the other six cities.
Thank God for a variety of Christian ministries. But the central focus of the church is winning people to Christ and discipling them into maturity in Him. The most biblical method of doing that is church planting.
2. The most effective method of evangelism is church planting.
Research has shown that when compared with other outreach strategies, church planting is the most effective method of reaching people for Christ. Dollar for dollar, hour for hour, the most effective way to invest our resources for the Great Commission, is in church planting.
Lyle Schaller writes,
The most important single argument for making new church development a high priority is that this is the most effective means for reaching unchurched persons. Numerous studies have shown that 60 to 80 percent of the new adult members of new congregations are persons who were not actively involved in the life of any worshipping congregations immediately prior to joining that new mission. By contrast, most long established churches draw the majority of their new adult members from persons who transfer in from other congregations.2 (italics mine)
That is a remarkable statistic—60-80% new believers in each new church. Picture thousands of church plants of 50, 100, 200, 300, or 500 people with 60-80% new followers of Christ! See the tremendous spiritual harvest!
3. The most effective way to plant churches is daughter church planting.
Where do babies come from? Most young children ask this question and their parents do their best to give them correct information (without too much detail)! And though it is possible to conceive a child in a test tube, God's original design is still the best.
Where do baby churches come from? While it is possible for a mission agency or denomination to "give birth" to a church, God's design is for churches to give birth to churches.
Healthy organisms reproduce. According to Christian Schwartz, in his excellent book Natural Church Development, "Hardly anything demonstrates the health of a congregation as much as the willingness--and ability!--to give birth to new congregations. The opposite is true as well. Hardly anything is a more clear indication of illness than structures which by design hinder church multiplication, or at best permit it as an absolute exception."
Denominations are much more limited in their ability to start churches compared to the individual churches within an association. For example, an association of 300 churches might envision starting 15 churches in three years time. But if 100 local churches in that association decide to reproduce, they can start 100 churches in the same amount of time!
God blesses churches and their leaders when they use the most biblical, most effective method of evangelism! The Lord expresses His blessing and pleasure in His promise to those who give. Certainly this is a promise to claim for churches that give birth to daughter congregations.
Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you (Luke 6:38).
(Excerts from DCPI.org)
Talk About
What is your view on church planting?
Why do churches plant (or not plant) churches?
Is church planting a part of our mission as a church? Why or Why not?
How can your Connect Group be involved in mission / church planting?
Remember - Read through the NT. Prayer Service 6 November
