Why Plant New Churches?

Read more: Why Plant Churches? by Tim Keller

The Great Commission is to plant churches.

• Make disciples and <u>baptize</u> them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

• Traditional evangelism aims at getting a "decision" for Christ. Experience, however, shows us how crucial it is for an initial convert to be tied to a healthy on-going discipling community.

Paul's primary strategy was a church planting strategy.

• Paul operated under two assumptions:

  • the way to most permanently influence a country was through its cities.

  • the way to most permanently influence a city was to plant churches in it.

"Planting new churches is the most effective evangelistic methodology known under heaven." C Peter Wager.

• Traditional evangelism aims at getting a "decision" for Christ. Experience, however, shows us that many of these decisions disappear and never result in changed lives.

• New churches best reach new generations, new residents, and new people groups.

• 2015 Lifeway Research study found that 42% of church plant attendees were not previously part of a church. Contrasted that with established churches, where 90% of new member are membership transfers.

Planting churches renews the whole body of Christ

• Congregations that give birth to new congregations grow nearly twice the rate as those churches that do not plant.

• In 2014, 3,700 churches closed their doors - a number that is certainly on the rise.

• When needs are big and the mission seems impossible, prayer becomes mandatory. Church planting aims at a work that no believer can accomplish on his own. It is only the Spirit of Christ who can awaken a soul to new life. Prayer is mandatory.

• New churches bring new ideas to the whole Body of Christ, challenging the church to self-examination.