Planting New Churches Is Necessary -- Pastor Clint Davis
I wrote the below post on three essential commitments the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (ARPC) needs to make regarding church planting five years ago, while finishing up my term as Chairman of Catawba Presbytery's Committee on Church Extension. I repost it today because it is more relevant now than it was in 2017. Recent research reveals that the number of "nones" -- those not affiliated with any religious faith -- continues to rise in America. And, none of us have to be convinced that the Church's influence on the broader society has waned significantly in the last 5 years. Here are two statistics that are telling.
First, the percentage of the population of my county -- Chester County, SC -- who do not identify with any religion has ballooned to somewhere near 50% at present, and it continues to rise. This is shocking given that our county is located squarely within the region of the country commonly referred to as the Bible Belt. If this is the case for us, then I imagine it's surely the case everywhere else across our land.
Second, the folks at Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF), in their latest annual report, estimated that only 2 of every 10 children in America attend church regularly with their families. That means that 80% of America's children grow up in environments where they are not taught about the glorious love of God in Jesus Christ. As a result, they have no knowledge of the hope of the good news that so many of us learned at our mother's knee.
So, I submit this first of several posts over the next few months regarding the efforts of church planting and revitalization within the presbyteries of Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. I should also note that even though my thoughts are primarily focused on the American context of the ARPC, I am equally concerned for our brothers and sisters in Canada as they confront the challenges to the gospel sweeping Western society as well as their particular iterations in the Great White North. I think we can learn from one another as we strive to see Christ glorified in all things.
Three Necessary Commitments for Church Planting in the ARPC (Original Post)
The number of Americans not affiliated with Christian Churches is rising, and the Christian Church’s influence in our society is declining. This reality gives many Christians, myself included, a great sense of burden for non-Christians and for the future of the Christian Church, which we dearly love.
What can we do? The best thing we can do, out of the many possibilities, is to plant more Christ-centered churches. Planting new, biblical, Christ-centered, and confessional churches is the most effective way to impact the lost world for Christ (Acts). Period.
I have experienced this first hand over the past 5 years (2012-2017) as I have overseen the church planting and revitalization efforts of Catawba Presbytery of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (ARPC). God has worked mightily and wonderfully in our church plants.
The Three Commitments
As the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church moves into the future, our church planting efforts have to be understood as intentional missionary endeavors of our presbyteries and, by extension, our denomination. To do that, we must make the following three commitments.
1. Commit to planting more churches.
Tim Keller has written, “The vigorous, continual planting of new congregations is the single most crucial strategy for (1) the numerical growth of the body of Christ in a 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, congregation consulting, nor church renewal processes — will have the consistent impact of dynamic, extensive church planting.”[1]
He’s right. New and reclaimed Christians are often better served by new congregations because, unlike older, established ones, they do not have long-standing traditions, leadership and social structures, and other baggage that must be adopted, broken into, or carried. Additionally, new churches can think creatively about ministering to our increasingly diverse and transient society more so than established, mature congregations can. Research bears this out, indicating that 60-80% of attendees of church plants do not have any affiliation with other Christian congregations.
2. Commit to viewing our church planters as missionaries.
Our church planters are missionaries, and they are planting in a “foreign” culture, full of idols with constantly changing norms. This is true even though their mission field oftentimes is within a 30-minute drive of our existing congregations. Planters must learn how to effectively communicate the gospel, the essence of the church, and the principles of the faith in a complex and changing environment. This takes time, and time takes a long-term financial commitment from those who support them.
3. Commit to rethinking the timeline and funding paradigm for our church planters.
Our (ARPC) current funding paradigm was designed for a time when Christianity was the dominant influence in general culture. The social, political, moral, and intellectual landscape has changed drastically in the last 15 years, leaving Christianity to be simply one of the many voices being heard around the table of American religious and public life. Therefore, we can’t expect our planters to plant on the same timeline and have the same financial expectations now as they did in the early 2000s.
Presbyteries and the General Synod through Outreach North America should continue to support church planters financially with a lump sum to be disbursed over a period of 3-5 years. In addition, local congregations and individuals should be strongly encouraged to partner with the planters’ efforts by making long-term commitments to pray for and financially support our planters in much the same way as they partner with missionaries in foreign countries.
Furthermore, we must consider the church planting model that the planter has chosen and the context in which he will be planting when developing a timeline for his church plant instead of applying a general, one-size-fits-all funding paradigm and timeline to every mission. For instance, a church planter planting among the rural poor should take longer to develop solid leaders and become financially solvent than a planter planting among highly educated, upwardly mobile suburbanites. Any timeline that disregards these realities will be insufficient.
Christ will be faithful.
We plant churches expecting that Christ will be faithful to bless the work of his people as we go into the world and make disciples of all nations. Making disciples cannot be done completely apart from planting new churches. In fact, the book of Acts tells us the opposite. Planting new, local congregations is actually the preferred and most effective way to fulfill our Lord's Great Commission. May we go forward and plant many churches for Christ’s glory, trusting him in his sovereignty.
[1] “Why Plant Churches,” Redeemer PCA, http://download.redeemer.com/pdf/learn/resources/Why_Plant_Churches-Keller.pdf