Church Planting in the Future

by Lance Finley, CGGC Executive Director

My first memory of “church planting” occurred sometime in the mid 1980s. The Illinois Conference of the Churches of God purchased a church building that had become available due to the closing of a congregation from another denomination in a small town in central Illinois. The Conference put out word that a new work would be started. A pastor was appointed to the church and the new work began. I was just a teenager at the time and have no insight as to what went on behind the scenes related to assessments, training or other matters critical to the new congregation, I just remember that it never achieved viability and eventually closed. My first impression of church planting was simple: Find an existing church building that had been closed, and work to establish a new congregation in that same location.

Over the years my understanding of church planting certainly grew and changed significantly. Later on, in my college and seminary years, I got to witness other models of starting new works. Those models typically didn’t start with an existing building, but often utilized rented spaces like schools, dance halls, fire halls or YMCA gymnasiums. I also became more familiar with the efforts behind the scenes related to assessment of church planters, training and funding. Several of the CGGC’s church planting efforts during the 1990s utilized a phone campaign that consisted of a team of people making thousands of phone calls in a given time period to inform potential church attenders of the new congregation being established. While such efforts would be considered culturally offensive or ineffective in our present time, they were effective for that day and age and helped identify a potential pool of people open to the ministry of a new congregation.

The establishment of new congregations has always been a part of the DNA of the Church of God. In John Winebrenner’s era, new congregations would often grow out of revival meetings being held for weeks at a time in a particular location. The revival or evangelistic meeting would give birth to a new congregation in that community. In recent times, church planting efforts have utilized a wide variety of approaches to attract enough people to form a new congregation in a particular location. These efforts ranged from different styles and approaches to worship to diverse community ministry efforts designed to connect with new people who weren’t presently connected to a local congregation.

You must understand that I’m a big proponent of church planting! I believe in church planting. Every month I give to support the efforts to establish new churches so that more people can come to trust and follow Jesus. For a period of time in my 20s, I was a part of a church planting team that explored establishing a new work, which unfortunately, never made it to launch. I believe we need more churches in more places working to demonstrate and proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ to people who are lost and desperately need the hope found only in Jesus. I’m a big believer in the importance of establishing new churches to help carry the Gospel to every man, woman and child to whom we are sent.

But, I also believe that the way we’re going to plant churches in the years to come is going to look remarkably different than the way we did it in the past. Most of my experience and knowledge in church planting was based upon the assumption that establishing new works consisted of attracting a large enough crowd of people who were open to, familiar with, or interested in Christian faith to create a sustainable congregation. There was a lot of emphasis placed upon launching worship services which would draw enough of a crowd to make the new work financially viable. The launch was incredibly important: a church plant that launched with 200 people in attendance had a much better chance of making it than a church plant that only launched with 50 people.

The landscape in North America is changing dramatically. Most of our efforts to establish new works were very effective at reaching folks who might have been “de-churched” or marginally “churched.” You could launch a new worship service with contemporary music and relevant preaching and draw in those who had become disconnected from a local church. The young family, where mom and dad had grown up in church but became disconnected through their college years, were prime targets to connect with the ministry of a new congregation. The person who had grown up in the church but never really had it “stick” might finally find meaning and connection in a new church that helped make faith relevant to his or her life. How do we help those who have less, much less, experience and memory of congregational life explore faith in Christ in ways that are helpful and effective?

How will church planting look different in the years to come?

I think our planting efforts will start with more focus on the specific people we’re called to reach rather than the style of worship or model of church. Who doesn’t know or follow Jesus? What will it take to connect with them in a way that leads them to trust Christ and follow Him? Do you want to reach service industry folks? Better think about a time to gather other than Sunday morning. What’s required to reach survivors of sex trafficking? What about single parents living below the poverty line? What about America’s growing population of senior adults? What about children growing up without one parent in their lives? Who are the immigrants in our midst who need to hear and experience the Good News? We’re going to have to start at a different place with people than just an invitation to “come and worship with us.” How well do you know the people you’re called to reach and how does that shape the approach you take? What kind of church will it take to reach the people you’re called to reach?

I believe our planting efforts will grow out of disciple-making efforts: as disciples are made, new works will emerge. We’ve been planting churches with the aim of making disciples. I think we’re in a time where we’ll have to make disciples in order to see new churches born. This is a very different approach than that which most of us are accustomed. Rather than build an experience and invite folks in, this approach requires that we start with the people to whom we are sent. This necessitates inviting people into our homes and lives long before we ever invite them to a church gathering. Who is God calling you to disciple? With whom can you walk alongside in order to help them move from unbelief to belief in Christ?

I’m firmly convinced that planting in the future will rely upon churches planting new churches and works. In the past, church planting mostly relied upon the skills and efforts of an individual, the church planter, to make the successful plant happen. Too often, established churches even viewed church plants as threats or competition. The world that is unfolding before us is going to require existing congregations to send out teams of men and women to make disciples and establish new works. Churches will plant churches by equipping and sending teams of Christ followers to the people to whom they are sent: neighborhoods, specific people groups and immigrant populations just to name a few. When is the last time your local congregation prayed about giving birth to a new work to reach people in your community who aren’t presently being reached?

Church planting in the future is an embrace of our original commission by Jesus to go and make disciples! There will be different models and shapes and sizes: house churches, neighborhood missional communities, immigrant congregations, and business ventures with a missional focus of restoring what God intended for His creation and making disciples of Jesus Christ. Some of these expressions will feel familiar to our own church expressions while others will not, but they’ll all join in the common mission to seek God’s Kingdom first and to see men and women become disciples of Jesus Christ who make disciples of Jesus. The future isn’t really a choice between existing or new, planting or revitalization or some of the other ways in which we’ve divided ourselves in the past.

The future is about seeing disciples made, it’s about seeing men and women being developed and deployed to make disciples in their homes, neighborhoods and workplaces – to every man, woman and child to whom they are sent. The future isn’t about whether it’s better to be established or new, but rather about seeing the people God’s placed before us and committing to bear witness to the Good News of Jesus Christ in culturally appropriate ways. We live in one of the most exciting moments in the history of the church. Every church and every believer have the opportunity to be a part of doing something new that will result in disciples being made, lives being transformed by Christ and new communities of faith being established to continue the work. The future is here and it’s full of possibilities!