Two important truths about church planting: First, Jesus never told us to plant churches. Second, churches in the New Testament did not come into existence through the movement of Christians from one location to another.
Both of these truths about church planting are intimately connected. We have been told to preach the gospel, which is the first step in making disciples. And, based on an apostolic model in the New Testament, it is out of a disciple making movement new churches come into existence.
We, especially those of us in North America, fail to apply these two truths about church planting to our contemporary church planting ministries. We go forth with the initial step of establishing a church to then reach a community. Rather, our expectation should be to enter a field and not talk about church until we have seen the Spirit working through our evangelism to produce new Kingdom citizens.
