Some Practical Reasons
1. Church planting stretches members.
As a pastor of a church plant, I can look around at the people serving and know that if they were at another church they probably would not be doing what they are doing. The fact that they are at a new work forces them to step up and lead. They can’t stand on the sidelines and watch someone else do it; they have to do it, or it won’t get done. This stretching is, I believe, quite healthy.
2. Church planting stretches leaders.
If you are going to be committed to church planting, then you have to be training people to understand how to make disciples. In other words, you have to be training people to be disciples and make disciples. The church-planting pastor has a little bit of crazy entrepreneur in him. He wants to start, build and sustain the organization only to send his best people away and rebuild it.
While his belies the traditional approach to building personal kingdoms of comfort and safety, it does seem to reflect the biblical pattern. And it does force leaders to be constantly working hard to make disciples in light of a big-kingdom view.
3. Church planting is not (very) expensive.
Believe it or not, it is not incredibly expensive to plant a church. Most people look at what they are doing and say, “There is no way we can afford to double this.” The fact is, they are right. However, you don’t need to double it. You need to send a guy and some friends into a community to make disciples. Renting a small space is usually not rediculually expensive (I know this is not universally true), and a budget to suport ministry does not have to include every single “want to have” available.
At the end of the day, you need a pastor, leaders, a Bible and somewhere to meet. Along these lines, we have been greatly encouraged by other churches coming alongside of us and offering to support church planting financially as we endeavor to see a church planted in Gretna, Nebraska (more info). This too is a great encouraging gift from God that echoes New Testament patterns (2 Cor. 9, open in Logos Bible Software (if available)).
It is important to note in this that there are obviously situations where churches are not directly involved in church planting. Things like finances, personel and various seasons in church life could make this more difficult. However, as a pastor we are always to be working to faithfully obey the Great Commission; therefore church planting should be on the radar.
This may involve a reorientation of thought for some, and for others it is just a connection between evangelism to discipleship to church planting. They all come together under the rubric of being a missionary, living sent by God, proclaiming the message of the sent Son in the power of the sent Holy Spirit.
My prayer is that pastors and churches would have the priority of faithfulness to the Great Commission and all if its implications. In some cases, this means a reorientation of discipleship that includes being a missionary who pursues the planting of churches.
