The need for church planting

Posted By Jeff on November 23rd, 2007

In a recent sermon (11/11/07), John Piper of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis made eight observations about church planting:
[display_podcast]

I’ve summarized them here:

There are 195,000,000re 195,000,000
English: World English Bible - WEB
Izbrano poglavje ne obstaja! Štetje svetopisemskih vrstic se začne z ¹! Vrstica ⁰ ne obstaja!

WP-Bible plugin non-churched people in America, making America one of the top four unchurched nations in the world.
In spite of the rise of megachurches, no county in America that we know of has a greater church population than it did 10 years ago.
During the last 10 years, combined communicant church membership of all Protestant denominations declined by 9.5% while the national population increased during the same time by 11.4%.
Each year 3500-4000 churches close their doors forever, while only as many as 1500 new churches are planted.
There are now nearly 60% fewer churches per 10,000r 10,000
English: World English Bible - WEB
Štetje svetopisemskih vrstic se začne z ¹! Vrstica ⁰ ne obstaja!

WP-Bible plugin persons in American than there were in 1920. (1920 – 27 churches for every 10K Americans, 1950 – 17 churches for every 10K Americans, 1996 – 11 churches for every 10K Americans).
Today, of approximately 350,000 churches in America, four out of five are either plateaued or declining.
One American denomination recently found that 80% of its new converts came in churches that were less than two years old.
“The single most effective evangelistic methodology under heaven is planting new churches.” – Peter Wagner

I listened to the message on my way to Little Rock for Thanksgiving and was greatly encouraged by it. It simply echoed what we already knew to be true in our own experience in our context here in south Arkansas.

It’s a strange and often disconcerting revelation to learn of a reference to our four year-old church as a “cult.” We usually shrug off such statements, attributing them to ignorance. We prefer not to think that they may have been said in malice. However, the fact remains that planting a church in rural America is exceedingly difficult, draining, and may be one of the least appreciated enterprises in American Christianity today.

While the church planting movement in our country continues to pick up steam and grow, let me make a few observations of my own about it:

Church planters often resort to “business models” and demographic studies to determine where to plant their church.
After such studies are made, inevitably a growing suburb of a large urban area is selected.
Few churches in the rural South have ever intentionally started another church. (There have been many unintentional church starts; we call them splits.)
Even churches reknown for their focus on planting other churches tend to use an event model, even though the church of origin most likely did not start that way. You hear of “Launch Sundays” and the like, but there is no space shuttle, only a church-in-a-box, complete with musicians and in some cases, fully-supported, multiple staffs.
Our current church culture encourages new churches to be “up and running” as soon as possible, and as a result, seems to discourage a bivocational model for church planters.
There is an unhealthy preoccupation with numbers, buildings, and programs.

Honestly, it’s exhausting to continually have to redefine what church really is for people in our community. While they know it’s not about essentially about buildings, budgets, and butts in the pews, they unfortunately reduce church to that by their actions and preoccupations. Even this month, in talking with one denominational leader, I was asked early on in our conversation about our church, “How many are you running?”

When did spiritual success come to mean anything less than transformed lives and focusing on the glory of Jesus Christ?

As I pondered Piper’s eight points, I knew I had to proclaim them here for your own pontification. ;)

Simply put, it’s a proven and much better strategy to start new churches than to expect established ones to be able to penetrate their their communities anymore than they already have. In fact, in response to one pastor’s earnest questions about why we were starting our church four years ago, I did some research on established churches in our own town.

I discovered that the church population of Monticello has not grown at all in the past 30 years! Sure, there have been some surges of growth in different churches, but the net result has not increased.

That’s why our church hopes to become a church planting center for our region. Our leaders are actively praying and looking for families and individuals in towns near ours who are open to starting a new work, most often in their living room.

Whatever you may have thought about the church in America before, I hope you at least pause long enough to pray for it. The Bride of Christ must make herself ready for her Groom. It is far past time for us all to be content and happy with status quo Protestantism. We must vigorously pursue the glory of Christ by proclaiming his love to our neighborhoods and the nations.

Perhaps you would be willing to begin praying about starting a new work? If so, I’d love to hear from you.

On this day...

I love family picture time... - 2006

14 Responses to “The need for church planting”

K.T.
November 24th, 2007 at 12:25 am

I likes it!!!You made me think about how many churches there were in Drew County which I believe is a county of about 27,000?,have you done any research into how many churches per 10,000 were in our neck of the woods?I think that would be interesting to know…I wonder if there are more or less,if that has anything to do with the term bible belt and if there are as many per 10,000 in say,New Jersey,or somewhere like that,than there are in this small southern county.

I think particularly we live in an area where quite a few people are churched,and was absolutely shocked when I spoke to an old high school friend of mine who now lives in New York and she did not believe in God at all-it wasnt even a matter of churched or not-she didnt have any faith at all,not that I didnt know that some people dont,I just didnt think I knew any.She has cut off all communication with me…

I,myself,am a figures,statistics and documentary style learner-As I sit here,I wonder what the other three countries precede us on that list-
Why suburbs are targeted as opposed to ghettos-
Why a church would close their doors,plateau or decline-
Why people are drawn to newer church plants and what denomination did that study-
Looks like I might have some research on my hands.
:D

K.T.’s last blog post..Thursday Thirteen-Thanksgiving edition!My first time!!!

Jeff
November 24th, 2007 at 10:52 am

K.T., I’ve written several posts about the “Bible Belt,” and yes, I think that it is a primary reason for our church saturation. However, it is also an unnerving producer of cultural religion. Although there might be a “Christian” church on every corner (more than 50 in Monticello alone), that certainly has not transformed our region, has it?

That is an indicator that though Christianity might be present, there is a real poverty in terms of Christ-followers – people who have surrendered their lives to the glory and purpose of Christ – people who have embraced God’s will as their own – and who have laid down everything in order to know, love Him, and make Him known.

I believe that if our town had as many people like that as claim membership to local churches, we would be a radically different community.

In addition, if you want to do research, check out The Barna Group. George Barna is one of the most recognized names in research and the production of materials for the church.

dean
November 24th, 2007 at 11:19 am

KT…

According to Local.Arkansas.gov, Drew County’s population is 18,723. Just in Monticello (in the yellow pages, which did not have a listing for Northside Baptist Church which caught my attention right off the bat, so you can be pretty certain there are more that aren’t listed, especially if they don’t have a phone), there are 23 churches. I’m sure there’s a website somewhere that has county-wide statistics regarding number of churches. But for Monticello, with a population of 9,146, and the 24 churches that we know of (the 23 in the phone book plus Northside… no wait, make that TWENTY-FIVE churches…forgot about Serenity Baptist), that comes pretty close to that 1920 stat quoted in #5 above.

dean’s last blog post..don?t buck the huck

Jeff
November 24th, 2007 at 11:33 am

We did a drive-by a few years ago when we were making a video for us in worship and took pictures of 50-something churches locally.

I’ll see if I can find that video and post it…

dean
November 24th, 2007 at 11:47 am

Jeff…

As you probably know, I’ve had a very keen interest in the house church movement, which I’ve come to believe best mirrors what the early church looked like, and also offers the best opportunity for low administrative costs, allowing for more resources to be dedicated to ministry in the community. I’m with you on that whole thing about church starts discouraging bi-vocational models, which is another area (staff salaries) where I believe church resources get pinched pretty badly, leaving few resources for ministry and missions… especially so for a new church plant. I was recently made aware, much to my delight, that we actually have a house church starting up here in Monticello. I hope to be able to check it out at some point as my work schedule allows. I think it’s exciting!

If a high church-per-1,000 figure would keep churches out of the mind-set that they need to build a monstrous physical plant (and incur a monstrous debt to go along with it), I’m all for it.

Interesting that you mentioned the “unintentional” church starts in the rural south… it’s my understanding that both Immanuel Baptist and Serenity Baptist have recently been referred to as “church plants” of Second Baptist and Immanuel Baptist, respectively (anyone who is not aware should realize that both of these churches were the results of church splits). I’d be interested in knowing if there are any figures out there that indicate how many new Christian converts are drawn to such church “plants.”

dean’s last blog post..don?t buck the huck

Jeff
November 24th, 2007 at 12:51 pm

Here tis:

Mandy
November 24th, 2007 at 4:03 pm

wow. I had no idea we had so many churches in Monticello! I have to say it actually made me quite sad… how can it be that I so often run into totally ungodly people when we have SO MANY CHURCHES in our little city? Oh wait, that’s right, because too many people sit on a pew each Sunday and then leave God right there when they walk out… okay, question answered. Not that I’m perfect (I mean, I’m close… but not quite.. ;) ) but I must say that there’s a problem somewhere. Is it the church leaders? Is it that that church just happened to get “unlucky” in its membership roll with people that don’t really want to know Christ? Both?

I must say that twice I’ve been asked, “You’re going to Journey? The cult church?” In a joking way… and I actually mentioned this at our last Bible Study session. I think people think this way b/c, in general, there is something different about the people that attend Journey. That’s what finally drew us there after 3 years of refusing to visit because it was just “too different.” Wow, different is what is needed, in my opinion! I’ve had a major soul shake up since that first visit, that is only strengthened by small groups. I really wish more churches operated this way. I agree that with small groups and worshipping in each other’s homes, it’s much more like what would have gone on in biblical times. And I like it!

Mandy’s last blog post..Thank you!

Elton
November 25th, 2007 at 11:43 pm

We got the “cult” tag when we were starting our church in Croatia. If you don’t fit into people’s pre-conceived ideas of what church is, you must be a cult. Instead of telling students I was a “campus minister”, I could have just easily told them I was alien from the planet Zarkon. It would have had the same effect. If people don’t have a cultural context for what you’re doing, it seems weird. AND, if it seems weird and it has anything to do with religion it must be a cult.

Elton’s last blog post..Another Hillbilly President

DB
November 27th, 2007 at 7:21 am

Who is cheeky enough to refer to your church as a cult? Do they actually know the characteristics of a cult, or is it just a convenient epithet?

Jeff
November 27th, 2007 at 10:34 am

DB, it’s just a symptom of being in the Bible Belt. If you don’t have Sunday School, they look at you funny. If you don’t meet at 9:45, 11:00, 6:00 on Sundays and 6:00 on Wednesdays, then your doctrine must be off. If you don’t have deacons, a personnel committee and pews, then you are not a real church…

Any lover of scripture will see that the traditional church today in America has little to no resemblance to the forms and structures present in the New Testament church. That’s no bad or horrible; it’s just unfortunate that traditional church-attenders in the South won’t extend the same grace to other structures and forms.

Kimberly Wagner
February 10th, 2009 at 10:13 pm

Jeff,

I was doing some research for a conference message I’m preparing & stumbled across your website. I am so glad I found it! Sounds like you have a lot in common with both me & my husband. I was surprised to learn you’re not too far down the road from us. We’re located in Hot Springs. If you ever get a week-end off, come check out our church: Dayspring. oh, you won’t find us in the yellow pages, we’re sort of underground :-) but people keep coming to Christ, even without the “fringe benefits” of a mega church :-)

My husband has been in ministry for more than 30 years (surrendered to preach when he was 13)and most of that time was a full time pastor. Our views on the church have drastically changed through the years. I read some of what your views on the church from an earlier post, then I came to check out your home page – but you probably know all that!

I look forward to coming back & reading more of what you have to say about blogging. I’m a staff blogger for Revive Our Hearts ministries. You can check out our websites at: reviveourhearts.com & truewoman.com

(If you’re married, have your wife check us out)

Glad I found your site,
keep pointing people to Jesus & keep living for God’s glory!
Numbers 14:21

Jeff
February 11th, 2009 at 9:11 am

@Kimberly: Thanks so much for your kind comments. I looked at both sites – excellent! So glad to hear that you guys are doing kingdom work that spans generations here in Arkansas! We desperately need more and more churches that be “underground,” missional and focused on honoring Christ’s commission to us.