As surely as the Lord orchestrated a great movement of evangelism and church planting in the first century, He's orchestrating movements all over the world today. These movements are 'riding on the wings' of the gospel penetrating lostness and changing cultures. The momentum for exponential evangelism and church planting has been much slower to materialize in North America than in many other parts of the world. But there is a gentle stirring of the Holy Spirit, greatly evidenced in the significant interest and increase in church plants. While the increase is occurring in varying degrees among most evangelicals, there are significant happenings among Southern Baptists.
We see an increased interest in missional church planting in three key areas: church planters, church planting partners and church parenting/sponsoring.
God is calling out a new generation of committed, passionate and visionary church planters who want to be instrumental in allowing the gospel to penetrate their culture and change their world by starting reproducing communities of believers. They desire for these missional communities to become missional churches that will produce authentic, deeply committed disciples of Christ whom they can equip as missionaries to live out their faith in the marketplace.
These planters are more interested in genuine relationships, not mechanical religion. They're more interested in individuals than institutions. The mission of Christ energizes them, providing meaningful purpose for living and multiplying themselves through the lives of new believers and disciples who want to make a spiritual difference in their world. They fear the difficult places, but often are challenged and invigorated by these same places. They believe the hard places provide opportunities for the Holy Spirit to manifest His power and prove Himself sufficient through the transformation of lives. These missional planters want to be frontline participants in spreading the gospel, not just sending others to represent them!
God also is raising up church planting partners from every corner of North America. From foundations to wealthy individuals to institutions to private ministries to Kingdom-focused churches, God is calling people and resources to the cause of church planting. More of God's leaders are realizing it takes all of Christ's followers to advance the Kingdom and fulfill the Great Commission. These partners are moving from a goal-oriented life of success to a compassionate lifestyle of significance. These partners care little about the methods, but highly treasure the message (of the gospel!). They are attracted to vision and are motivated by changed lives.
They are willing to sacrifice if they believe it will advance the mission of Christ while adding spiritual significance to their lives. Many church parents/sponsors are answering the call to become Acts 1:8 churches to be missional, reproducing, vibrant bodies of believers. They constantly prove the thesis that if you are healthy you will reproduce. Like the planters, this new generation cares little about perpetuating the institutional church. They care about multiplying the Kingdom by equipping and mobilizing multitudes of disciples into the culture and community to make a difference for Christ. These church planting partners are redefining success for the local church. It's not about who can gather the most people at one time for big spectator worship experiences. They desire to mobilize large numbers of God's people into evangelism, discipling, equipping and life-changing activities.
These churches are springing up in urban and suburban areas and rural, town and country communities. They are continally adjusting their methodology but attempting never to change or compromise the message. They want what is real, transparent, authentic, sincere and life-changing. They will take on many shapes and forms, various models, diverse music and ministry, but the missional churches are passionate and determined to eternally change their world for Christ. They want to sponsor activities that point people to Christ.
Are you a missional church planter? A missional partner? Or a missional parent/sponsor? Would you accept a challenge to allow God to make a difference in your world for Him? Would you commit yourself to do everything you can to take many people to heaven with you? You can by getting involved in church planting.
Ample opportunities exist for you or your church to be involved in church planting in North America. You can participate at one of three levels: Primary-one church sponsors a church plant Clustering-several churches partner together to sponsor a church plant Sponsoring-a church assists a church plant with equipment, mission teams, construction, evangelism projects, etc. For more information or for church planting equipping resources, go to www.churchplantingvillage.net. Begin today to be on mission with the Lord.