Impure Thinker

In approaching the subject of church planting, the most immediate and pressing question may be a simple, “why?”. In any city, there are hundreds if not thousands of churches, of any style, flavor, denomination, age group, or liturgical method. We can find churches that are “contemporary,” “traditional,” “attractional,” or “missional.” We may walk into a service on Sunday morning and hear or see any of a thousand different combination of a thousand different ecclesiastical and spiritual traditions. That being the case, what is the use of just one more Christian church, whose particular distinctives are mirrored or at least approximated somewhere in the community? Do we really want just another place for disenfranchised Christians to be able to float their membership when they have, for whatever reason, become dissatisfied with their current communion?

This touches the issue of motivation in church planting. If we take the above into account, and we are honest about the ecclesiastical environment in which we live, I submit that church planting for the sake of attracting a group of Christians to particular theological, liturgical, or governing traditions, we are engaging in a futile exercise. Let’s be honest. There is likely already a church in your community that does what you want to do church-wise. If it is an established church, they likely do what you want to do better and with more resources that you can with a new and untested mission.

But, if our motive is other, if there is a greater reason to plant a church than to make your denominational mark on an area, then we may see that church planting is a noble, holy, and indeed necessary endeavor. Consider the Great Commission of our Lord Jesus Christ:

“Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, ‘All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.’” Matthew 28.16-20 AV

If the essence of the Great Commission is to go out, teach people who Jesus is and what He has done for them and all the world by His life, death, resurrection, and ascension, and to baptize them, thereby bringing them into the covenantal community of the church, then church planting is a natural, indeed necessary, outgrowth of evangelism! In fact, I don’t think that it is too strong a statement if we might say that evangelism, as we are accustomed to doing, that does not lead to either addition to an existing church or the establishment of a new and lively church-work is seriously amiss!

Brothers, there are sinners out there that know not Jesus Christ, and it is our duty to bring to them the Good News of the Kingship of Christ over all things! Additionally, if they are blessed to be given faith by the Holy Ghost unto repentance, we are to gather them together into a lively communion of saints, binding them with all the saints in baptism, and leading them in a blessed life in this time, and a glorious future in the age to come. If our church planting is an outgrowth of our evangelistic efforts, if we establish new parishes for the sake of bringing people to Jesus in faith, then we have engaged in a good and necessary work. Indeed, we have come close to the heart of that Great Commission.