Over the past week I found myself talking about the importance planting churches to various people at some of the most random places. Seeing a trend – I decided to write a few posts about the topic.
Why Plant Churches?
This is a great question. Sometimes it feels that there are enough churches in this country to last a thousand years. However, the sad truth is that mainline Protestant churches – including evangelical churches – are in decline.
There are many factors behind this decline – but as far as church planting goes, it is enough to say that the culture of the USA has changed and shifted like never before. There are more people living in urban cities right now then in all of history – and along with this urban culture comes the mixture of multiple ethnic groups and religions.
Basically, there are areas in the country that have never heard the Gospel – or have been so burned out with "religion" they need a fresh wind of the Spirit. Either way, planting churches is a great strategy to reach these folks.[@more@]
Growth
Another reason to plant churches has to do with church growth. Through out the 1980 and '90's there was a movement to "grow" churches. Hundreds of books were written along this topic – all with the concept that a "healthy" church grows.
The mega church of a thousand or tens of thousands became the shinny beacon of success within the realm of Christianity. However, this polished idea of church growth is beginning to crack.
Willow Creek near Chicago released a document a few years ago that said that their model of "discipleship" was flawed. While they had a huge church with over 17K in weekly attendance they were not producing solid disciples of Christ Jesus. Instead they were creating thousands of Sunday-only believers whose faith had little impact outside of the church building.
How does this fit in with church planting?
Easy. While growth is good – both in attendance and in spiritual disciplines – growth can not be the only measure of a health church. We need fruit.
What is fruit?
Fruit is the offspring of the tree. For example, an apple tree will put all its energy and life blood into an apple so that the apple may fall from the tree and create a new apple tree.
Christianity is no different. We are to multiply and spread across the globe – both individually and as a community of believers (ie. church planting).
Churches that only grow numerically are the equivalence of a fig tree that does not bear fruit. This is not to say that large or mega churches are not "good" or do not have a place in our culture. Far from it!!
The Lord knows that a lot of my training and growth has come while attending a 2,500 member church. Shoot – mega churches have a unique ability to influence the community and state in which it is located due to its size.
The challenge of the ANY church (mega or small) is to do both – grow numerically AND to plant churches!!!
More about church planting, individual growth, and allowing everyone to "play" tomorrow.