We Value … Church Planting

Sep 17, 2019

Church Planting:  3 Reasons Why

This post is part of a six-part series, written by a leader within the convention, on our core values.  Our core values show who we are and what motivates us.

 

We envision a movement of global-minded churches that are reproducing healthy disciples, leaders, and congregations. Reproducing disciples, leaders, and congregations go hand-in-hand. Reproducing disciples should lead to the formation of new churches and planting new churches should lead to making new disciples.

Our vision includes helping churches keep their focus on making and multiplying disciples. We see churches being equipped to teach and train their members to be lifelong, loving, and loyal followers of Christ who are actively sharing their faith.

Our vision includes being a catalyst for strategic church planting. We see churches praying for, contributing to, and supporting an ever-increasing number of church plants to reach people with the gospel, blessing the communities and churches where they are located.

We value church planting because

  1. God grows His church by adding those who are saved.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow” (1 Corinthians 3:6). Paul makes it clear that we each play our part in the gospel, but it is God who saves. In the book of Acts, while describing the fellowship of believers, Luke informs us “the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47). God adds to the body, His church, those whom He saves.

  1. The task of evangelism is complete only when people are brought into the fold of the church.

In His parable of the great banquet, Jesus said, “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full’” (Luke 14:23). The invitation is not enough; Jesus wants his house full. When Jesus shared the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin, He spoke of the “rejoicing in heaven” over the one lost sheep that was brought home and the lost coin that was found (Luke 15:1-10). Evangelism is not really complete until the born-again believer is brought into the local body of Christ.

  1. The Great Commission implicitly includes church planting (teaching, baptizing, discipling all nations).

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20). Carrying out the Great Commission requires evangelism. It also requires baptizing those God saves and teaching those God saves. Baptizing and teaching happen in the context of the body. Accomplishing the Great Commission requires new churches and necessitates the birth of new churches.

We believe that every church should be involved in some way in helping to start new congregations. The book of Acts demonstrates that new churches are the normal and necessary result of reproducing disciples. We value church planting and desire to expand our reach to strategic places around the world where the gospel is needed, all for the glory of Jesus Christ.

by Darryl Evetts

Multiplying Churches Strategy Director

Verified by MonsterInsights