Folks occasionally ask me how many churches we can help plant at one time. My answer, not to be in anyway glib, is “I don’t know. We have never exceeded our maximum yet.” I honestly mean that.
New church plants are the best single way to lead new people into a relationship with Jesus Christ. They are also one of the key tools for community building, community organizing and community development. Then, there is the whole “renewing” effect that new churches have on entire cities and denominations. The fresh wind of new churches enlivens all of Christ’s church!
You might not be totally aware of what others are doing out there in church planting. The Assembly of God denomination have a goal of planting 400 Churches Per YEAR. They are hitting this goal in the USA, alone. Our sister denomination, the RCA, plans to plant 400 new churches in the next 5 years. Our own Christian Reformed Church is striving to plant 50 churches per year for the foreseeable future. The CRC is currently planting around 20-25, but we are on our way!
Church groups that don’t risk themselves in church planting are the denominations and associations in deep decline. Some of these groups, well known by name, may not make it to the middle of this century. That will not be the case for CRC and the churches in the Seattle Cluster where we are working hard to find opportunities and stretching ourselves toward the new, the risky, the faithful choices that bring kingdom results. Easy work? Nope. Worth it? Yep.
Here’s how you can help. First pray for this movement. Second pray for leaders and locations for new churches. Perhaps you are being called to go out and join with a team to do a church start. Perhaps you know a key leader somewhere that would be good at this work. Let our church planting team know. Third, we are always looking for resourcing if you or someone you know has been blessed financially and wants to give to the cause of Christ through new church planting, we can connect them to opportunities that are literally, out of this world – and tax deductible.
Thanks for being a church of pioneers and planters
Randy Rowland