To Plant 50 New Churches

The last of our five regional program goals for the next decade. Since there has already been so much in print about this goal, what can be said new? I want to address five kinds of questions that arise.

Why plant churches? Since the New Testament era, church planting has been both a command and privilege of gathered believers. It is a faithful response to the Great Commission. In particular, new churches are required because of changes in population distribution and growing ethnic communities within the Great Rivers Region. Many of our churches were planted 75-100 years ago when Illinois and Missouri looked very different.

Don’t church plants fail? Yes. The Parable of the Sower describes “failure.” Not all “plants” take root and flourish. While we are not deceived into thinking otherwise, we do not allow this unfortunate reality to give us an excuse to neglect the Great Commission. This reality does mean that we try to be good stewards of resources and encourage church plants in locations and ways that increase their probability of continued life. While many church plants fail, others thrive. Someone planted the church YOU attend!

Won’t new churches weaken other churches by competition? This is a common fear. But this fear presumes that churches are exact replicas of one another. I am not sure there are two identical Baptist churches in the entire ecclesiastical universe! We look differently, we feel differently, we worship differently, and we minister differently. A church that seeks to be a carbon-copy of another nearby church brings nothing new to a community, but a church that deliberately chooses a different style of worship and a different ministry focus will expand the Kingdom of God in that community. Evangelism will happen!

How will we plant new churches? Some churches may decide that the most effective way to meet a particular ministry need is to start another church within their church! This might reflect a difference in worship style, but more likely would be focused on a generation or ethnic group that the “parent” church is not presently reaching.

Some churches might have a vision of starting a new church in a nearby neighborhood or community. This becomes a part of their mission and evangelism. One by-product is that they themselves become energized and renewed in the process.

Some churches may choose to partner with others in planting a church because they don’t have the financial resources alone, or the site is too far away for any one of them to function as “the gardener”

Finally, the Region may target high-population, but under-churched communities for regional initiatives.

Which brings us to the last question: Exactly what is the Region’s role? We will continually lift up church planting as a natural part of evangelism. We will challenge churches to seek the ways to expand the Kingdom of God. We will link churches in networks for church planting. We will develop financial resources for “start up” money; we will review and suggest programs and publications for new churches; we will develop continuing education for church planters; we will help churches participate in a world-wide mission enterprise; most of all, we will be there to encourage and offer suggestions.