Marcus Ellison

MISS 312
February 13, 2009
Dr. Fiodor V. Baraniuk

Concept of Church Planting

This class has really opened my eyes to the concept of church planting. For years, I have
been misguided on the principles and procedures involved in church planting. As I reflect on the
significant lessons covered in this course, I have discovered some pros and cons toward church
planting. Many churches today in the African-American community have been planted. The
difference, however, is that many churches have been started based on conflict rather than vision.
Church planting is extremely different from church splits. I have seen many churches produced
from controversy and dissention. This is not the same as church planting. This paper will reflect
on some of the principles that I have found to be key in planting, preparing, and progressing a
ministry.
Church planting should be biblical. The mandate that Jesus gave the church was to make
disciples. Not just in our community, but to take the command abroad. We have become
complacent in just reaching our community. Jesus never intended the gospel to become local, but
for it to spread abroad. The early disciples were committed to planting and proclaiming the Word
of God wherever they saw a need. Today we have all types of objections and protests to creating
communities of the kingdom. Just before Christ’s ascension into heaven, he commanded his
disciples to be his witnesses in all parts of the world and to make disciples of all nations. God’s
intention is that every Christian church be an authentic revelation of the presence of the kingdom
of God.
Despite the mandate, we still have not taken the concept of church planting seriously.
Why? After careful study of church planting, I have discovered that church planting takes great
vision. Your purpose in planting churches must be to reach the lost at any cost. Many people see
church planting as a way to steal more members. Some see church planting as a way for the
Pastor to start his own ministry without the hindrances of lay people. Church planting has to be
missional – on a mission with God to see his kingdom expanded. I have discovered that one
argument against church planting is that we should spend those valuable resources trying to
revitalize dying churches. This argument was brought to light clearly as we moved from one
location to another location. In the process of moving locations, I discovered that older churches
that are dying, will not easily embrace change. Anytime a church has functioned for 100 years in
the same mode of operation, change is not a word that is easily embraced. When adopted the
theme “Creating a new mentality, for a new locality, to create a new reality.” It is one thing to
say it over and over, but it is a challenge to actually create a new mentality. Through careful
observation, I realized that dying churches are dying for a reason. They have refused to change
the structure, exegete the culture, cultivate new concepts, or change leaders. Many times people
who are members of a dying church are apprehensive to new ideas that might threaten the status
quo. They have become comfortable with doing it the same way. When you become comfortable
with meager results you have lost your zeal for evangelism. When you try to help dying churches
the resistance will kill the enthusiasm of those who are willing to help. That’s why I believe that
a new plant is far more effective than trying to revitalize dying churches. The ideal strategy is to
help revitalize dying churches and simultaneously plant new churches. Through our transition of
locations, we have changed our locality but our mentality is still the same. In planting new
churches it gives you and opportunity to relinquish the history, legacy, and tradition that will
sometimes hamper, hinder, and hold progress hostage.
Some people believe that the larger the church the better it will function. This study has
taught me that this is not always the case. When a church becomes mega in number it has the
potential to become minimal in ministry. Some people will get lost in the growth and become
lethargic and lose their initial enthusiasm. Sometimes when a church becomes mega in number
they will stop evangelizing the community because they feel there is no longer a need to go out
and reach the lost. It becomes dangerous when churches become consumed with getting numbers
instead of making disciples. In today’s society we have become captivated with numbers. Jesus
never told us to go out and get members. He commissioned and commanded us to make
disciples. Church planting is a biblical mandate because of the command of Jesus.
My only concern with church planting today is that many leaders and planters are starting
new churches without the proper training and preparation. This class has taught me the
importance of choosing a focus group. Who are you trying to reach and how will you effectively
reach them? These are some questions that must be initiated up front. Many church planters
become discoursed, disgruntled and disenchanted because they have not established a core group
to answer the difficult questions. God does not use a lone individual to start a church; he builds a
team to launch the church. This was something that I noticed in our move to our new facility. We
had a project leader who did not effectively share the plan of action with other individuals and
therefore the plan never flowed smoothly. Each team member needs to be able to see the vision.
Church planting is not a solo sport. The workload needs to be shared and the burdens need to be
divided. When we began our project, we had group outings that enhanced unity among the body
of Christ. When we effectively worked together, the progress was evident. Church planting is
deterred often because of finances. Raising financial support will be one of your greatest
challenges, but you must learn the art of “asking.” In this class we looked at the 7 step plan for
Fund Raising. First you must identify potential donors. Second, you must make personal contact
with these donors. Third, you must share the vision with the donors. This is key because you
must convince them that God has revealed the plan and purpose for the task. Fourth, you must
ask for financial help. This is where pride will sometimes get in the way. Many church leaders
feel that they don’t need any help from anyone. They feel that God will totally fund the project.
Yes God will fund the project, but he will do it through individuals. Next you must learn to say
Thank You. Any time that people are gracious enough to help you must be humble enough to say
thank you. You never know when you will need some more assistance. Also you must do an
immediate follow up. Lastly, you must maintain contact with donors and people who have the
resources to help. This 7 step plan is very essential in appropriating the finances needed to
support the church plant. The first place to start raising money is an affiliated denomination.
Some denominations do a great job financially of supporting new churches. I have discovered
that this can be a difficult situation. I realize that denominations are first obligated to help like
denominations but if a church is in need of finances, should we let denominational lines stop us
from reaching out? Many denominations feel they can only help their denomination. Is this
biblical? This question was brought up in the class, and the response was very good. One person
who is a member of the BMA responded that because of doctrinal differences and theological
persuasion many denominations do not lend financial support to those outside of the
denomination. This made sense. Not only is it important to raise finances but you must also learn
how to properly handle the finances. The planter and the new congregation should be faithful and
ethical in handling financial matters and also in how they approach donors and partners for
money. Funds should be handled by someone who is credible and shows a sense of
accountability. We were blessed in relocating to our new facility. We had $400,000 of funds
allocated for the remodeling, advertising, and start up of our new facility. This is one of the
advantages I see in revitalizing rather than starting from the ground up.

No church plant will ever be successful without proper structure. The Bible provides us with a
solid middle ground for church structure. It is urgent that every newly planted congregation have
clearly defined leadership. Several options observed in this class were: Pastors, elders, deacons,
overseers, and church boards. Throughout the transition of our church there was no doubt who
was in charge. The structure of leadership empowered others for ministry. Responsibilities were
shared and this enabled the body to function as one. Churches should structure themselves for
growth and development. The Bible clearly teaches that “God is not a God of disorder but of
peace” 1 Corinthians 14:33. Nothing can take the place of effective leadership. Everything
hinges on leadership.
One of the great experiences in re-located to a new facility was the opportunity to do
evangelism in a new community. Evangelism is essential in church planting. The strategy of
“invest and invite” was very interesting to me. This strategy encourages the church family to
invest in the lives of their unbelieving friends by spending time together, serving and
encouraging them. After laying the foundation of genuine involvement, caring and loving, the
church members are encouraged to invite their unbelieving friends to church. Effective
evangelism helps build relationships with the unchurched. Evangelizing the lost does not happen
by accident. Sometimes we just assume that the lost will just show up at our church without us
going to meet them. Evangelism is only as effective as your follow up. Our evangelism team
went out into the community but we did not have a proper follow up ministry in place. Our
church passed out flyers, bookmarks, and tracks that advertised our church more than presenting
Christ. This is something that we must improve on. God has blessed us with a great facility to do
ministry by educating and equipping the saints. Advertising was also a key to promoting our
launch service. We advertised with newspaper, television, mass emails, and radio. Our
advertising team promoted our new location and our dedication service. The weekend of the
launch service we made phone calls to people within the neighborhood whom we had contacted
and we also sent correspondents to various churches. Our style of worship could not be
drastically changed even though we were moving into a new location. That was an advantage
that a new church plant has over just simply relocating. With a new church plant you can monitor
the new area, and exegete the culture to find out what style of worship would be advantageous to
the community. Our style of worship has been in existence for 118 years. We have tried to blend
the traditional with the contemporary without losing our traditional foundation.
God has truly blessed the Avenue Baptist Church in relocating to our new facility. We
have been the recipients of many guests who are excited about us coming into the neighborhood
and doing ministry to expand the kingdom. This class has enabled me to see church planting
from a different perspective. The biblical mandate has not changed. I have discovered some key
insights into church planting. Not every culture and community will embrace church plants but
we must continue to move outside the walls of our buildings and invade the community. We
must break new ground, reach new people, and build new communities of faith. We must
become more aggressive in reaching the lost at any cost. Church planting requires much prayer,
much power, much provision, and much preparation. This class has shown me that new churches
are needed to reach this generation. My pastor always says that you can’t be productive in this
CD generation with an 8 track mentality. What worked for your grandparents may not work
today. This class has given me some biblical principles to reach generation next.