This is second part of a discussion of missionary strategy relative to Church planting. If you haven’t read part 1, you can read it here. You may have gotten the impression from that post that I do not think church planting is important, and if you did you were wrong. I want to see as many churches planted as possible. But sometimes the only way to get the thing you want is to aim at something else. For instance, if you make happiness your goal, you will probably find that it continuously evades your grasp. But if your goal is to love and sacrifice yourself for others, you may find happiness comes to you as a byproduct of your actions. I’m going to suggest that multiplying communities of believers is like that. Church planting is not the way to get there. Jesus had a better idea.
In Matthew 28 Jesus commanded us to go and make disciples. He didn’t command us to go and plant churches. There is a huge difference between the two. I’ve seen countless churches planted that did NOT make disciples. You can plant churches without making disciples, but the reverse is not true. If you make disciples, you can’t help but end up with churches. Church planting is an inevitable byproduct of making disciples, but making disciples is not an inevitable byproduct of church planting.
Yesterday we talked about how the basic church planting plan is to move into a town and rent a facility and start Sunday services. The major differences in church planting strategy tend to be differences in marketing the new church or worship style (which is often part of marketing). The interesting thing about the ministry of Paul is that he never did that. You never see Paul arriving in a new place to rent a facility and start Sunday services (if you are thinking of his renting the lecture hall of Tyranus in Ephesus, you need to realize the church had already been planted and was growing by that time. It appears this rental facility was for training workers rather than for church services). On the contrary, Paul did what Jesus told him to do. He made disciples. He went to where the unbelievers were (Jewish Synagogue, riverside in Philipi, Mars Hill in Athens) and preached the gospel to lost people. Some came to Christ and some persecuted him. When he left town, he left a church behind (which in many cases is mentioned in the text almost as an afterthought). When people are born again, they want to meet together for Bible study, prayer, the Lord’s supper, and worship. When you make disciples, you can’t help but end up with churches planted.
Acts 13 and 14 is the story of Paul in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra. As mentioned earlier, you see no Sunday church service started anywhere in that text, but instead you see Paul and Barnabas sharing the gospel in multiple settings. Near the end of the story we read this about Derbe:
Act 14:21-22 When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.
Hmmmm… that is interesting. That is exactly what Jesus told us to do. Go and make disciples. And then in the very next verse we read….
Act 14:23 And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.
What? How could they appoint elders in every church? This is the first mention of the fact that a church was even planted in each of those cities! When did Paul plant these churches? This just proves my earlier point that if you make disciples, you end up with churches. If your goal is church planting, you’ve got the wrong goal. Jesus never told us to plant churches. Church planting is not commanded anywhere in scripture. If your goal is to make disciples, you won’t have to work at church planting. Church planting will just happen.