Why should we plant more churches? aren’t there enough of them already? Don’t existing churches have room for at least a few more folks? why plant new ones when there are so many of every flavor already around?
Mike McDaniel answers the question here on JD Greear’s blog.
In his book Firefall, Dr. Alvin Reid points out that if you study Christian movements, one of the things you’ll notice is that those movements which emphasized the planting of new churches “were the ones that have made the most profound and enduring impact.” The fact is there have been hundreds of movements throughout history. But only a few have changed the face of a nation – the ones that planted churches.
John Wesley was a part of the Evangelical Revival in England. By the time of Wesley’s death, 825 new churches had been planted across America. As a result of the Second Great Awakening in America, 6,427 new Baptist churches were planted in a 30 year period. In the Book of Acts, Paul planted new churches in every city that he visited. And if it’s good enough for Paul, it’s good enough for us. It makes sense if you think about it – movements that plant churches create a continued Gospel presence in local communities.
But there’s another reason that lasting movements plant churches. Church planting keeps mission at the heart of the church. The normal path for any church over time is to become inwardly-focused, and lose focus on reaching people. Church planting keeps the church on mission.
emphasis in original.
Go read the rest at the link above.
Hat tip to Vitamin Z
According to Hill Country Bible Church:
Are there already enough churches in Austin?
Less than 17% of the people in Austin attend church
Only 8% attend an evangelical church
Church attendance was down 18% from 1990 to 2000 despite a net gain of 89 churches
To keep up with the growing population it was estimated there needed to be at least 415 new churches over that 10 year period
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