Why Church Planting?

Dr. Charles Revis, Executive Minister, ABC Northwest

One of the most important tasks of leadership is to help an organization determine its purpose, clarify vision and select strategies and tactics to bring the vision to reality.

ABCNW established Four Landmarks they wanted to pursue together. These Landmarks function as the four broad goals of the Region. They are Connection, Leadership, Church Transformation, and Church Planting.

The Church Planting Landmark stipulates that we will increase the number of church plants to eight every three years. This was a tall order for a Region struggling for its existence. The Region was in financial freefall and many churches had withdrawn from Region involvement. On top of this many of our churches had become so inward focused they had little motivation to plant churches. Planting new churches is the last thing on the mind of a survival focused church, although getting involved in a new church project is an excellent way to shift the focus in an outward direction.

In spite of the dismal prospects for church planting the folks of this Region did the right thing in establishing this audacious goal. I believe the original impetus for this commitment to planting new churches springs from biblical convictions. The Region expressed this in its Purpose Statement affirmed at the 2002 convention:

American Baptist Churches of the Northwest hold in common as essential

• The grace of God, the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the ministry of the Holy Spirit
• The authority of the Scripture
• The church of the Lord Jesus Christ
• The Great Commandment (Mark 12:29-31)
• The Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20)

There is an important connection between Jesus’ command in the Great Commission and new churches. Jesus’ instruction couldn’t be more focused. Our Master didn’t offer us a menu from which we’re free to choose whatever we like, and ignore the rest. No, in His last words Jesus gave a primary mandate, “Go and make disciples, starting in your immediate vicinity and expanding outward from there.”

Christians are to be consumed with making disciples. There is nothing more important in Jesus’ eyes for a church to do than to make disciples. It’s Job Number One! So, what’s the connection between making disciples and new church planting?

It’s quite simple: new churches are the most effective at reaching the lost and developing them into fully devoted followers. If we have a passion for making disciples then it would be logical for us to have a passion for planting new churches since they are so effective at making disciples.

Recent statistical findings bears this out:

• Churches under 3 years of age reach an average of 10 people per year for every 100 members
• Churches 3 to 15 years of age reach an average of 5 people per year for every 100 members
• Churches over 15 years of age reach an average of 3 people per year for every 100 members

But, you might say, “Yes, but aren’t there already plenty of churches in America already?” After all, if someone wants to attend church there are already plenty to go around.

For as many churches as there are in America, the truth is, there are less churches per capita in America today than at any time in the nation’s history. Consider these statistics:

• In 1900 there were 28 churches for every 10,000 Americans
• In 1950 there were 17 churches for every 10,000 Americans
• In 2000 there were 12 churches for every 10,000 Americans
• In 2004 there were 11 churches for every 10,000 Americans

Not only are there fewer churches, most established churches are not growing. Only 14% of the churches in America are growing and most of this is through transfer growth. Only 2% of the churches in America are growing because they are actually baptizing new believers.

American Baptist Churches in the Northwest were some of the first churches to be planted in this part of the country. The missionary zeal and evangelistic fervor of church leaders in the late 19th century resulted in a significant expansion of new churches. Over time this missionary zeal waned, and the result, fewer ABC churches exist in the northwest today than 50 years ago, or even 25 years ago.

I want to see this trend turn around! I believe the Lord wants to build His church, and that includes His church throughout the northwest. To put it another way, I would love to be the Walgreens of Baptist churches in the northwest. Not because we are trying to get a bunch of Baptists to come to our churches. (A foolish notion, because our market isn’t other Baptists.) But, because there are so many unchurched people in our Region, and we need more new churches to reach them. This is a kingdom endeavor!

The ideal way to plant new churches is to employ an “Extended Family Model”. That is, a group of churches work together to plant a church. Two churches can act as the “mother and father” of the new church by taking the lead in providing funding and personnel for the project. Sister and brother churches pitch in as well. They offer funding and people resources, too, but in a smaller proportion. Aunt and uncle churches join in with the project as well. Essentially, this was the method used by the Far West Area churches when they planted the Union Community Church ten miles to the west of Belfair.

My expectation is that pastors who are connected together through the LLCs will eventually develop a plan to lead their churches to sponsor a new church plant in their area. This is a significant portion of the “dreaming” aspect of each LLC meeting. As these plans mature the Region is initiating new church planting in various parts of the Northwest as we locate church planters, and as we raise funds for the work.

I encourage you to become involved in new church planting. How?

• Pray daily for our pastors and new churches.
• Dream of the possibility that your church will get involved in new church planting.
• Give to ABCNW new church planting out of your missions dollars. You can designate your gifts to be used anywhere in the Region, or you can restrict your gift for use only in your Area. You can also give in support of any of our new ABCNW churches.
• Pray that the Lord will raise up new leaders called to plant churches. The most important element in planting new churches is the church planting pastor.

You can find a listing of our newest churches here.