Why Plant Churches?

The vigorous, continual planting of new congregations is the single most crucial strategy for:

• the numerical growth of the Body of Christ in any city.
• the continual corporate renewal and revival of the existing churches in a city and
• the reaching of new generations, new residents, new people groups and the un-churched -- period.

Nothing else -- not crusades, outreach programs, para-church ministries, growing mega-churches, congregational consulting, nor church renewal processes - will have the consistent impact of dynamic, extensive church planting. This is an eyebrow raising statement. But to those who have done any study at all, it is not even controversial.

Why is church planting so crucially important?

Because

• New churches bring new ideas to the whole Body.
• New churches are one of the best ways to surface creative, strong leaders for the whole Body.
• New churches challenge other churches to self-examination.
• New churches may be an ‘evangelistic feeder’ for a whole community.

Jesus’ essential call was to plant churches. The Apostle Paul’s whole strategy was to plant URBAN churches. New church planting is the only way that we can be sure we are going to increase the number of believers in a city and one of the best ways to renew the whole Body of Christ. The evidence for this statement is strong - Biblically, sociologically, and historically. In the end, a lack of kingdom-mindedness may simply blind us to all this evidence. We must beware of that.

Excerpted from the article, “Why Plant Churches” by Dr. Timothy Keller, Redeemer Church Planting Center, February 2002.. Used by permission. Dr. Keller has been called by Newsweek magazine, “a C.S. Lewis for the 21st century.” Books by Keller: “A Reason for God,” “Prodigal God” and coming so, “Counterfeit Gods.”