Planting a church is like having a baby.
It’s hard to know when you should start trying. During pregnancy some babies thrive, and others have more of a difficult time. When the baby is delivered, it’s messy and painful, but in the end a beautiful life is born, the labor is forgotten, and we often want to have another.
In the same way it’s difficult to know when you should start plans for a daughter church; after all, there always seems to be a countless number of reasons to put it off:
- “We aren’t even two years old, and I’m the only staff member.”
- “When we begin to hit budget, I’ll consider starting a daughter church.”
- “We’re too small. If we start a daughter church, that’ll cannibalize our people and finances.”
- “Isn’t that the denomination’s responsibility anyway?”
- “I’m barely keeping my head above the water, and you want me to add something that big onto my plate?”
Sound familiar? If you’ve found yourself saying similar things, you’re not alone.
However, once you get past those initial hurdles and decide to plant a daughter church, sometimes the assessment, training, and preparation of the planter goes well; however, other times the process unfortunately ends prematurely.
And when that daughter church is finally ready to be launched, it’s painful because everything changes.
You lose leaders, people, tithes, and your sense of normal.
However, after planting, our experience is that God not only replaces those congregants you sent out with the plant, but he often adds more to your flock as well. After all, didn’t Jesus say that “whoever is faithful in very little is also faithful in much, and whoever is unrighteous in very little is also unrighteous in much”? (Luke 16:10).
So ditch the birth control and start having babies.
Yes, giving to church planting is important, but don’t limit your church’s involvement just to money.
Go and plant churches. Partner with other churches, partner with seminaries, partner with your denomination, and partner with networks. Choose not to become a cul-de-sac on the Great Commission Highway. Since God likes to surprise people, get in a place where he can surprise you and the rest of the world.
What would happen to church planting in our cities if churches, denominations, networks, and seminaries stopped working in silos?
What if they came together with a map of their city in hand, started with prayer, and then strategically plotted out each of their roles, much like a general would in wartime? Would we see God’s kingdom more fully realized?
We believe the answer is a large resounding yes!
So let’s stop working in silos. Let’s stop being afraid of working with one another. And let’s start partnering together for the sake of the gospel and the kingdom.
Then and only then, perhaps we’ll see a church multiplication movement in our generation!
*This was a modified excerpt from the book that I co-authored with Ed Stetzer, Planting Missional Churches: Your Guide to Starting Churches that Multiply (2nd ed).