According to the New Testament, church planting is the most practical and effective way to advance gospel ministry. God led the apostles to use church planting as a strategy to change the Roman world.
Acts 14:21-23 presents a good summary of how the apostles worked. First, they preached the gospel and won new followers of Christ (Acts 14:21). Then, they strengthened the believers and encouraged them (Acts 14:22). Finally, they appointed elders in each church (Acts 14:23). This means they helped the believers organise themselves as a formal church. After a new church was up and running, they were free to move on to a new place.
In Acts 14, we see Paul and Barnabas work this way in Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch. More broadly, in the book of Acts, we see the apostles following the same steps in Galatia, Philippi, Corinth, Thessalonica, and Ephesus. We can assume they used a similar approach in Cyprus, Pisidian Antioch, Derbe, Perga, Syria, Cilicia, Phrygia, Berea, Troas, and beyond.
Thus, in city after city, we see Paul not only preaching the gospel, but also teaching believers, training and installing leaders, and planting churches. Once God establishes these churches, they become self-contained, growing units of Christlike presence and movement.
The Genius of the Local Church
In a functioning church, the believers can teach themselves, support themselves, grow themselves, and multiply themselves. Herein lies the genius of the local church. Once a church is established, it has all the elements within itself (including the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit) to take care of itself and continue to grow.
This is why Paul can write, “From Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ. . . there is no more place for me to work in these regions” (Rom. 15:19, 23). Jerusalem to Illyricum is a distance of about 1,600 kilometres, which is about the distance from Delhi to Hyderabad. How can Paul claim that within 20-25 years, he has covered this whole region with the gospel?
The answer is not that Paul had preached to every individual in these areas, but rather that he had planted a church in strategic locations throughout the whole region. These churches were expected to take care of themselves and also continue the work of reaching the rest of their respective areas with the gospel (Rom. 15:14). They did not need Paul anymore. And Paul apparently felt free to move further afield now, to preach the gospel in other unreached places.
Church planting is the central work of missions. All the other activities—prayer, learning the language, spending time with people, preaching the gospel, teaching the Bible, discipling believers, and much more—lead to the planting of a local gospel community. Once a church is planted, we can expect that it will continue to sustain itself, grow, and preach, and live out the gospel in that area.
Why Church Planting?
Here are some reasons why planting churches is such a wise and fruitful strategy.
The Most Effective (Long-Term) Outreach Strategy
Newer churches have the capacity to reach new people and the existential need to do so; otherwise, they will not survive! In felt experience, the vast majority of people who come to faith are from church plants, not from the original church.
Survey after survey has shown that church planting is the most effective long-term outreach strategy. It does not matter how outgoing a church is; established churches naturally focus more on nurturing believers rather than reaching people outside the church. This is not a bad thing, it is just the way it is (and in fact it is a good thing).
Reaches Different People in Different Places
We need churches in every locality to reach everyone. The most effective way to reach a different part of our city or region is to plant a church there.
And not only do we need churches in each locality, but we also need different kinds of churches. It is naïve to think that one church can reach every kind of person in a particular place, given the diversity of languages and cultures in India.
Creates Opportunities to Serve
In an established church, there are many gifted and godly people who often do not have an opportunity to serve. In a new church plant, however, everyone has to participate if the church is to survive and grow. As a result, more people have a chance to use their gifts and often discover gifts they never knew they had.
Sending people out to plant a church also creates new openings for more people to serve in the original church. Thus, now, between the two churches, twice as many people are serving. This naturally leads to greater growth, commitment, and ownership among God’s people.
Renews the Sending Church
Churches that plant churches see this in their felt experience repeatedly, as they plant new churches in a city over the years. New church plants have greater freedom and flexibility, leading to new and more effective ways to reach and disciple people.
Another reason is that different churches simply have different strengths, which we can learn from. After seeing the model of eager, earnest prayer in our first Hindi church plant, our English church began its own journey of learning to pray together. With every new church plant, the sending church can learn from it and grow itself, in some way.
Planting churches is the New Testament strategy to reach the world. Even today, church planting remains the most practical and effective means God has given us to reach and disciple people into the likeness of Jesus.
May God enable more and more Christlike, loving, disciple-making churches to be planted in India.
