Church Planting v. Church Starting…

Monday, February 16, 2009 10:11 PM Posted in Christianity, Church Planting, Life, Missions

If a church starts with over 5000 people, is it a church plant?  I’m sure this is dabbling in semantics and wordplay, but I do see a difference between planting a church with a core team of about ten or twenty people and starting a church that runs an attendance of 1000+ the first day.  The difference isn’t so much in the numbers for me; it’s in how it all begins.  And hooray! we have biblical precedents.

Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. [Acts 2:37-42, ESV]

Three thousand people decided to follow Christ after Peter’s sermon, and immediately began exhibiting the actions we consider the foundation of a church: devotion to the apostles’ teachings and to each other, eating and praying together. On that day, the Church in Jerusalem was planted (eventually led by James until his martyrdom, but that’s another story). Paul, on the other hand, took three missionary journeys and Luke (the author of Acts) records something like thirty cities across the eastern Roman Empire. In none of those cities do we hear of thousands responding to the Gospel in the way we saw in Jerusalem. Most of the churches planted by Paul were very small, sometimes just a handful of people.

So in the book of Acts, there are two types of church plants. The shared identity in both is that they started with new believers. In some cases Paul encountered believers, and he gathered them together with new believers. Peter’s believers were already gathered (and maybe questionable to consider Peter their pastor, anyway).

Open discussion time:

  • What do you see as the difference between church planting and church starting?
  • Are Peter and Paul church planters or does their apostleship make them more?
  • What can we conclude from the Peter-to-James handover of the Jerusalem Church?
  • Does any of this even matter?  Am I just getting caught up in words?
  • Any other thoughts?

Go at it.

by Joe Kennedy

6 comments

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February 17, 2009 - 10:40 AM

billy - As long as we are dabbling in semantics anyway, what is a chruch at all? Is it where “two or more are gathered” or does one of the two have to be preaching/teaching? Is a sunday school or home group a church? I am sure there is technical definition for church but it seems to be left a little open at least compared to the level of detail the LORD laid out in Exodus just for the High Priest’s garments. So maybe if we start with I do not have this well thought out, just piping in.

February 18, 2009 - 6:26 AM

billy - The current issue of Mission Frontiers has an interesting article on Church Planting. I think it reveals the need for balance in being vs thinking. People on the front lines should be asking questions and thinking about how they go about God’s work. At least they should take time to read and listen to those in the rear who are asking questions and thinking. Two examples come to mind: sailors who take time to check there position, and a woodsman who takes time to sharpen his axe.
Planting Churches: Learning the Hard Way Tim and Rebecca Lewis
http://www.missionfrontiers.org/latestissue.html

February 18, 2009 - 8:19 AM

Dennis Muse - It’s not really a numbers issue that we should look at, the key issue I think is this. Are you just “starting a church”, which to me is simply creating an alternative to a church people already go to. In other word all you have is church transplants, people who are already Christians and are just leaving one church to go to your new one.

Or like in Acts are you gospel planting, resulting in salvations, resulting in a church, a new community of followers of Christ, i.e. church planting, the church is birthed out of new salvations just like in Acts with the 3000.

Today in America we have nothing but church starting, 99% of church growth here is just transfer or unchurched Christian going to a “New church” the latest version of church.

In China and the rest of the World we have “church planting”, people going out and planting the gospel, resulting in people coming to Christ, resulting in new churches – community of faiths.

February 18, 2009 - 6:20 PM

Joe Kennedy - Dennis, I tend to agree with you, BUT… I do think there are exceptions to your 99%. What Neil Cole is doing, for example, is mostly new growth. What I’d like to do is the same.

The way I see it, if 80-90% of the church in America is lost, then I see myself as a missionary to the “churched” non-Christians, just as much as anybody else, especially if I am a part of an established church. Then, of course, there are your nominal/cultural Christians- people who are only Christian because of birth and tradition. They, too, need to learn what it means to follow Jesus.

The goal certainly isn’t to start a church (or plant) and watch the believers in an area start showing up. My guess is if they’re dedicated to Christ, they’ll stick around their own churches anyway. Any church hoppers I would get- well, we’d want to lead them into a deep relationship with Christ just like anybody else. I guess what I’m saying is, “treat’em all like they’re lost until they show that they’re not.”

February 18, 2009 - 6:35 PM

Blaize - Paradox of the heap…If a pile of sand has a million grains in it, is it still a pile of sand if you remove one grain? How about 2? 3? 4? 5? ….. 999,990?

February 23, 2009 - 5:27 AM

jason - I would suggest three things to consider as you are thinking this through:

1st_consider the historical fact that multiple “churches” were really planted that day when Peter preached in Jerusalem. Here’s why – many of those people had gathered for this festival from all over the world, speaking in many different tongues. They did not stay in Jerusalem. More than likely, they returned home from this event – a pretty strategic move on God’s part I’d say. Israel being a land bridge for the three continents connecting the world and therefore exponentially multiplying the impact of the Gospel. So – lots of “churches” were started that day and planted in multiple contexts through the lives of these people returning to their home towns.

2nd_I would suggest that neither Peter or Paul set out to start churches. I am not sure from reading Acts that you can say they were passionate about church planting at all. I think you could say they were passionate about planting and watering the Gospel into people’s lives. What happened from there is that the church sprouted up in and through the lives of the church (people) following Jesus together and being the church in their context.

3rd_I would suggest that we don’t “start” or “plant” churches, we plant and water the Gospel into lives. God uses us as catalytic growers into lives, but He BLOSSOMS His church. Paul said that we plant and water, but God causes the growth. If so, then He blossoms His church. We just plant and water into the lives of the people who will soon be the church as they follow Jesus.

Thoughts from the cheap seats. Thankful for you Joe.

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