Why Plant a New Church in the City?
Teaching | by
Pastor Adam Sinnett
The vigorous, continual planting of new congregations is the single most crucial strategy for 1) the numerical growth of the Body of Christ in any city, and 2) the continual corporate renewal and revival of the existing churches in a city. Nothing else–not crusades, outreach programs, para-church ministries, growing mega-churches, congregational consulting, nor church renewal processes–will have the consistent impact of dynamic, extensive church planting. This is an eyebrow raising statement. But to those who have done any study at all, it is not even controversial.
– Tim Keller, “Why Plant New Churches?” (article)
“Church planting? What exactly is that?”
Any way you slice it the idea of church planting is often either misunderstood or, literally, unheard of. The questions are many, including:
- Why plant (i.e. start) a new church in a city already filled with many other churches, some even growing?
- Why not focus instead on helping existing churches grow?
- Won’t starting a new church merely take people away from other churches?
- Shouldn’t we focus on cultivating better churches, rather than adding churches?
These are valid concerns that stem from a fundamental misunderstanding of the complexities of revitalization, organizational life-cycles, demographic diversity, theological distinctions, leadership styles, evangelism, and general philosophies of ministry within existing churches. To put it simply, it’s more complicated than we may at first realize.
Therefore, to simplify it a bit, the following are seven guiding principles driving us to plant a new church in the heart of the city of Seattle.
#1. Jesus’ fundamental call was to plant Gospel-centered churches.
Matthew 28:18-20 is known as the “Great Commission” from Jesus to the Church. It is a commission to “make disciples”, “of all nations”, to “baptize”, and to “teach”. In other words, Jesus commissions his followers as a sent people; sent to all peoples, to invite them to become one of God’s people, that results in a changed people. It’s a commission to plant churches not merely isolated acts of sharing our faith. Even the act of baptism itself signifies “incorporation into a worshipping community with accountability and boundaries.” (1) (cf Acts 2:42-47) It is apparent the apostles interpreted Jesus’ words in this way as they immediately began to plant churches after Pentecost. (cf Acts 13f)
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