Church Planting
The process is your responsibility, and the product is God's
Church planting starts with the church planter. Elmer Towns said: "The man who desires to build a church is usually motivated by the 'impossible dream' and he must accomplish the 'un-performable task.'"
The quote is very accurate! To be a successful church planter, you will have to know that God placed a bucket load of desire in your heart. What you seek to do is outside the realm of human power. A human being can put together a group of people, a crowd but not a church. He might form a congregation but not a New Testament Church. Only the Lord Jesus and His power can equip you to do what God wants to be done. It will be far more than just finding a way to get people to come.
It is impossible and un-performable because it is against human nature to truly love God and begin to allow Him to live in and through us. You will have to have Holy Spirit power to get the job done. Towns also stated in the same chapter, "God must perform a miracle each time a new church comes into existence."
Questions to be answered
- Do you know what you are getting yourself into!
- How have you prepared yourself for this kind of work—ministry-related experience?
- Do you have a solid understanding of the Biblical doctrine of the church?
Church planting is about a man! God always uses a man. Elmer Towns said, "A great church is always caused. It never just happens." "One of the greatest tasks a man can do today is starting a church.'
Throughout Bible history, every time God wanted to do something, He raised a man. When Cornelius wished to be saved, the angels weren't even allowed to share the gospel with him; instead, God said send for a man. That is God's way, and so when He wants to reach people, He calls men to start new churches.
The modern-day Biblical hero, in many ways, is the church planter. He dares to do what very few will ever do. He knows that starting a church is one of the most important jobs he could ever be called to do. He is willing to risk it all to start a church.
There are several questions you need to ask yourself:
- Have you learned the basic steps of Christianity?
- Do you have the physical endurance to visit hour after hour, pray, study, preach, counsel?
- Do you have the emotional endurance not to crack up when your young converts deny the faith?
- Are you willing to study and learn the thousand things you will need to know to build a church?
- Are you willing to be so hard-headed that you will say that you will not give up no matter the cost?
The disciplined missionary will be a natural church planter. It can be easy when you are a missionary to settle for doing less because your support comes in whether the church grows, but you will certainly not want to do that.
No matter where you are, you will have to work like your life depends on it. Get a schedule and a plan and work them. The process is your responsibility, and the product is God's. You do what you are supposed to and trust God for the results.
Numbers should never be the goal of your ministry. They will simply be the result.
