why plant churches?

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Kentucky District C.P.R. Workshop(Church Planting & Revitalization)

Why Plant Churches?

Terry Crigger,

CPR Director &Pastor of Christs Chapel


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The Battle Within: A Personal Devotion by Terry Crigger

Im both a pastor and an evangelist at heart. And as much as I know both callings are to coexistpeacefully together, thats not what often happens, especially when it comes to church planting. Let meexplain.

As a pastor I am called to shepherd the people of God under my care. Its a responsibility I give my wholeheart to fulfill. It requires my time and energy, as well as my devotion. Long days and frequentinterruptions into an already busy schedule is the norm. All pastors know the routine and we give

ourselves fully to it. Why? Because we love Gods people and embrace caring for them as a high priorityfor our lives.

I also love the lost and the evangelist in me makes that an equally important part of my calling. I lovelost folks visiting and attending my church, hanging out with the saints and hopefully making a decision

of faith. We are blessed to have unsaved folks in our congregation all the time. But heres the rub

I know the statistics. I know that new churches are statistically some of the best soil for lost folks to findJesus. And new church plants in my community will essentially be a large part of how Gods answer myprayer to save the lost in my Jerusalem. The evangelist in me rejoices when new church plants come intomy community. But the pastor in me doesnt get nearly as excited. Why? Because new church plantsalways bring about a transition in my own congregation. Folks I have invested in and loved and caredabout for years occasionally have a desire to help in the establishment of new church plants and I donteasily let go of folks I have been called to pastor. Thus the battle within me rages. Its happened beforeand its happening in me again, right now. So today I pray

Lord, give me grace and calm the storm within me. Help me to remember that my calling and mycontrol of things is not the same thing. Help me to discover once again that the church, even my church,

belongs to you more than it does to me. The pastor and evangelist in me seem to constantly be at warwith one another. Today, I confess the struggle and ask for a truce. I am so grateful that you use thesemoments to remind me once again that your kingdom is so much bigger than me. Make the pastor andevangelist inside of me drop their individual swords to become lifetime friends and ministry partners.

Jesus, give me peace. In your name I pray, Amen.


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Part 1: Numbers Dont Lie

Weve all heard the saying, Numbers Dont Lie. That statement is usually true but hownumbers get used can sometimes misrepresent the facts or lead to conclusions that arenot altogether accurate. Either way, the purpose of this session is to look at the realattendance numbers of the Assemblies of God fellowship during the past several yearsglobally, nationally, and in the state of Kentucky. Having looked at those numbers, the

question must be asked if we are at a place where considering a different attitude andapproach to church planting and reaching the un-churched is necessary for substantialstrides to be made, especially in our state of Kentucky.

Since 1987, the number of Assembly of God churches in the United States has grown from11,004 to 12,457, and increase during those 23 years of 1453 (13.2%). During that sametime, our worship service attendance has grown from 1,474,156 to 1,886,785, an increaseof 412,629 (28%). When considering adherents to our Assembly of God churches, thosenumbers expand from 2,160,667 to 3,030,944, an increase of 870,277 (40.3%)

Globally since 1987, the number of Assembly of God churches has grown from 126,627 to

350,929, an increase of 224,302 (177.1%) and total adherents grew from 17,977,102 to58,730,450, an increase of 40,753,348 (226.7%).

During the past decade (2000 2010) the numbers are as follows Number of U.S. churches increased from 12,084 to 12,457 (3.1%) Number of U.S. attendance increased from 1,637,665 to 1,886,785 (15.2%) Number of U.S. adherents increased from 2,557,560 to 3,030,944 (18.5%) Number of Global churches increased from 222,519 to 350,929 (57.7%) Number of Global adherents increased from 38,229,266 to 58,730,450 (53.6%)

In Kentucky, since the year 2000, the total number of churches has decreased from 158 to

153. The total adherents have also decreased from 28,665 to 21,474. These numbersreflect a sizeable decrease between 2007 (27,930) and 2008 (21,556) when a handful ofour churches transitioned out of the Assemblies of God. Since that time (2008 to 2010),Kentucky adherents remain about the same (21,474).

In 2010, when compared to other states of comparable populations (and geographically),Kentucky ranked as follows

State Population Ranking Population A/G Adherents % of populationOhio 7th 11,536,000 60,707 .5

Indiana 14th 6,438,000 53,576 .8Tennessee 16th 6,346,000 48,447 .7Minnesota 21st 5,266,000 77,111 1.5

Alabama 23rd 4,708,000 54,800 1.2South Carolina 24th 4,560,000 19,687 .4Louisiana 25th 4,492,000 54,730 1.2Kentucky 26th 4,314,000 21,474 .5


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Oregon 27th 3,825,000 43,382 1.1Oklahoma 28th 3,678,000 85,692 2.3Iowa 30th 3,007,000 28,380 .9Mississippi 31st 2,951,000 21,355 .7

Arkansas 32nd 2,889,000 66,049 2.3Kansas 33rd 2,818,000 28,869 1.0New Mexico 36th 2,009,000 22,039 1.1Nebraska 38th 1,796,000 20,102 1.1

Hawaii 41st 1,300,000 23,382 1.8Montana 45th 975,000 16,756 1.7North Dakota 49th 646,000 10,807 1.7

What the Numbers Tell Us...

The Assemblies of God has a tremendous record of church growth during the past25 years.

Although the past ten years have witnessed continuous church growth in the UnitedStates, the percentage rate of increase is about one-half of what it was over theentire 25 year history.

Our most rapid growth remains in the area of foreign missions.

Kentucky has about the same number of churches as it did nearly ten years ago andhas experienced a significant decrease in overall adherents. This is largely due to afew larger churches transitioning our of the A/G.

Compared to states like Ohio, Kentucky has a similar percentage of population

attending its A/G churches.

Compared to most other states, Kentucky has a smaller percentage of populationattending its A/G churches.

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#AGChurchesinUS

WorshipA3endance

Adherents

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500,000

1,000,000

1,500,000

2,000,000

2,500,000

,000,000

,500,000

1987

11,004

12,457

1,474,156

1,886,785

2,160,667

,00,944

United States Statistics

Increases in Assembly of God Churches

1987 to 2010

2010

1987


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Part 2: WHY PLANT CHURCHES?

Introduction

The vigorous, continual planting of new congregations is the single most crucial strategyfor

1) the numerical growth of the Body of Christ in any city, and

2) the continual corporate renewal and revival of the existing churches in a city.

Nothing else--not crusades, outreach programs, para-church ministries, growing mega-churches, congregational consulting, or church renewal processes, will have theconsistent impact of dynamic, extensive church planting. This is an eyebrow raisingstatement. But to those who have done any study at all, it is not even controversial.

The normal response to discussions about church planting is something like this:

a. We already have plenty of churches that have lots of room for all the new peoplewho have come to the area. Let's get them filled before we go off building any

new ones.

b. Every church in this community used to be more full than it is now. The churchgoing public is a 'shrinking pie'. A new church here will just take people fromchurches already hurting and weaken everyone.

c. Help the churches that are struggling first. A new church doesn't help the ones

we have that are just keeping their heads above water. We need betterchurches,not more churches.

These statements appear to be 'common sense' to many people, but they rest on

several wrong assumptions. The error of this thinking will become clear if we ask 'Whyis church planting so crucially important?'Because--

I. We want to be true to THE BIBLICAL MANDATE

A. Jesus' essential call was to plant churches. Virtually all the great evangelisticchallenges of the New Testament are basically calls to plant churches, not simply toshare the faith. The 'Great Commission' (Matt. 28:8-20) is not just a call to 'makedisciples'but to 'baptize'. In Acts and elsewhere, it is clear that baptism meansincorporation into a worshipping community with accountability and boundaries (Acts2:41-47). The only way to be truly sure that you are increasing the number ofChristians in a town is to increase the number of churches. Why? Because mosttraditional evangelism aims to get a decision for Christ. Experience, however,shows us that many of these 'decisions' disappear and never result in changed lives.Why? Many, many decisions are not really conversions, but often only the beginningof a journey of seeking God. (Other decisions are very definitely the moment of a'new birth', but this differs from person to person.) Only a person who is being'evangelized' in the context of an on-going worshipping and shepherding communitycan be sure of finally coming into vital, saving faith. This is why a leading

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[Note: Often, a new congregation for a new people-group can be planted within theoverall structure of an existing church. It may be a new Sunday service at anothertime, or a new network of house churches that are connected to a larger, alreadyexisting congregation. Nevertheless, though it may technically not be a newindependent congregation, it serves the same function.]

In summary, new congregations empowernew people and new groups of people

much more quickly and readily than can older churches. Thus, they always haveand always will reach them with greater aptitude than long-established bodies. Thismeans, of course, that church planting is not only for 'frontier regions' or 'pagan'countries that we are trying to see become Christian. Christian countries will have tomaintain vigorous, extensive church planting simply to stayChristian!

B. New churches best reach the unchurched - period. Dozens of denominationalstudies have confirmed that the average new church gains most of its new members(60-80%) from the ranks of people who are not attending any worshipping body,while churches over 10-15 years of age gain 80-90% of their new members bytransfer from other congregations. This means that the average new congregation

will bring 6-8 times more new people into the life of the Body of Christ, than an oldercongregation of the same size.

So, though established congregations provide many things that newer churchesoften cannot, older churches in general will never be able to match the effectivenessof new bodies in reaching people for the kingdom. Why would this be? As acongregation ages, powerful internal, institutional pressures lead it to allocate mostof its resources and energy toward the concerns of its members and constituents,rather than toward those outside its walls. This is natural and to a great degreedesirable. Older congregations therefore have a stability and steadiness on whichmany people thrive and need. This does not mean that established churches cannot

win new people. In fact, many non-Christians will only be reached by churches withlong roots in the community and the accompaniment of stability and respectability.

However, new congregations, in general, are forced to focus on the needs of its non-members, simply in order to get off the ground. So many of its leaders have comevery recently from the ranks of the un-churched, that the congregation is far moresensitive to the concerns of the non-believer. Also, in the first two years of ourChristian walk, we have far more close, face-to- face relationships with non-Christians than we do later. Thus a congregation filled with people fresh from theranks of the un-churched will have the power to invite and attract many more non-believers into the events and life of the church than will the members of the typicalestablished body.

What does this mean practically? If we want to reach our city, should we try torenew older congregations to make them more evangelistic, or should we plant lotsof new churches? Obviously, we should do both! Nevertheless, all the facts remindus that, despite the occasional exceptions, the only wide scale way to bring newChristians to the Body of Christ in a permanent way is to plant new churches.

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Response: Some people say, What about all the existing churches that need help?You seem to be ignoring them. Thats not completely true. We also plant churchesbecause--

III. We want to continually RENEW THE WHOLE BODY OF CHRIST.

It is a great mistake to think that we have to choose between church planting andchurch renewal. Strange as it may seem, the planting of new churches in a city is oneof the very best ways to revitalize many older churches in the vicinity and renew thewhole Body of Christ. Why?

A. First, the new churches bring new ideas to the whole Body.There is plenty ofresistance to the idea that we need to plant new churches to reach the constantstream of 'new' groups and generations and residents. Many congregations insistthat all available resources should be used in order to find ways of helping existingchurches reach people. However, there is no better way to teach oldercongregations about new skills and methods for reaching new people groups than

by planting new churches. It is the new churches that will have freedom to beinnovative and in turn, become the 'Research and Development' department for thewhole Body in the city. Often the older congregations are too timid to try a particularapproach or are absolutely sure that it will 'not work here'. But when the new churchin town succeeds wildly with some new method, the other churches eventually takenotice and get the courage to try it as well.

B. Second, new churches are one of the best ways to surface creative, strongleaders for the whole Body. In older congregations, leaders emphasize tradition,tenure, routine, and kinship ties. New congregations, on the other hand, attract ahigher percentage of venturesome people who value creativity, risk, innovation andfuture orientation. Many of these men and women would never be attracted orcompelled into significant ministry apart from the appearance of these new bodies.Often older churches 'box out' many people with strong leadership skills who cannotwork in more traditional settings. New churches thus attract and harness manypeople in the city whose gifts would otherwise not be utilized in the work of the Body.These new leaders benefit the whole city eventually.

C. Third, the new churches challenge other churches to self-examination.The"success" of new churches often challenges older congregations in general toevaluate themselves in substantial ways. Sometimes it is only in contrast with a newchurch that older churches can finally define theirown vision, specialties, andidentity. Often the growth of the new congregation gives the older churches hopethat 'it can be done', and may even bring about humility and repentance for defeatistand pessimistic attitudes. Sometimes, new congregations can partner with olderchurches to mount ministries that neither could do by themselves.

Summary: Vigorous church planting is one of the best ways to renewthe existingchurches of a city, as well as the best single way to growthe whole Body of Christ in a

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city. There is one more reason why it is good for the existing churches of the region toinitiate or at least support the planting of churches in a given area. We plant churches--

IV. As an exercise in KINGDOM-MINDEDNESS

All in all, church planting helps an existing church the best when the new congregationis voluntarily 'birthed' by an older 'mother' congregation. Often the excitement, newleaders and ministries as well as additional members and income 'washes back' into the

mother church in various ways to strengthen and renew it. Though there is some painin seeing good friends and some leaders go away to form a new church, the motherchurch usually experiences a surge of high self-esteem and an influx of newenthusiastic leaders and members.

However, a new church in the community usually confronts churches with a majorissue--the issue of 'kingdom-mindedness'. New churches, as we have seen, draw mostof their new members (up to 80%) from the ranks of the unchurched, but they will

always attract some people out of existing churches. That is inevitable. At this point, theexisting churches, in a sense, have a question posed to them: "Are we going to rejoicein the 80%--the new people that the kingdom has gained through this new church, or

are we going to bemoan and resent the three families we lost to it?" In other words, ourattitude to new church development is a test of whether our mindset is geared to ourown institutional turf, or to the overall health and prosperity of the kingdom of God in thecity.

Any church that is more upset by their own small losses rather than the kingdoms largegains reveals its narrow interests. Yet, as we have seen, the benefits of new churchplanting to older congregations is very great, even if that may not be obvious initially.

SUMMARY

If we briefly glance at the objections to church planting in the introduction, we can nowsee the false premises beneath the statements. A.Assumes that older congregationscan reach newcomers as well as new congregations. But to reach new generations andpeople groups will require both renewed older churches and lots of new churches. B.

Assumes that new congregations will only reach current active churchgoers. But newchurches do far better at reaching the unchurched, and thus they are the only way toincrease the 'churchgoing pie'. C. Assumes that new church planting will onlydiscourage older churches. There is a possibility of this, but new churches for a varietyof ways, are one of the best ways to renew and revitalize older churches. D.Assumesthat new churches only work where the population is growing. Actually, they reachpeople wherever the population is changing. If new people are coming in to replaceformer residents, or new groups of people are coming in--even though the netpopulation figure is stagnant--new churches are needed.

New church planting is the only way that we can be sure we are going to increase thenumber of believers in a city and one of the best ways to renew the whole Body ofChrist. The evidence for this statement is strong--biblically, sociologically, andhistorically. In the end, a lack of kingdom-mindedness may simply blind us to all thisevidence.

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Overview of Older Churches and New Church Plants

Older Churches New Church Plants

The older churches will continue to

be oriented to the original socialgroup.

Best to reach New Generations,

New Residents, New PeopleGroups. A new church will be

more receptive to the myriad ofneeds of the new residents.

Deep in traditions which reflect the

sensibilities of long-time leadersfrom the older generations whohave the influence and money tocontrol the church life.

In a new church, new people tendto have equal power with long-timemembers.

In older congregations, it mayrequire tenure of 10 years beforeyou are allowed into places ofleadership and influence.

New congregations empowernewpeople and new groups of peoplemuch more quickly and readilythan can older churches.

Churches over 10-15 years of agegain 80-90% of their new membersby transfer from othercongregations.

The average new church gainsmost of its new members (60-80%)from the ranks of people who arenot attending any worshippingbody.

Powerful internal, institutional

pressures lead it to allocate mostof its resources and energy towardthe concerns of its members andconstituents, rather than towardthose outside its walls.

Are forced to focus on the needs

of its non-members, simply inorder to get off the ground. Somany of its leaders have comevery recently from the ranks of theun-churched, that the congregationis far more sensitive to theconcerns of the non-believer.

Have a stability and steadiness onwhich many people thrive andneed.

People fresh from the ranks of theun-churched will have the power toinvite and attract many more non-

believers into the events and life ofthe church than will the membersof the typical established body.

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Older Churches New Church Plants

Often the older congregations aretoo timid to try a particularapproach or are absolutely surethat it will 'not work here'.

Have freedom to be innovative andin turn, become the 'Research andDevelopment' department for thewhole Body.

Leaders emphasize tradition,tenure, routine, and kinship ties.

Attract a higher percentage ofventuresome people who valuecreativity, risk, innovation andfuture orientation.

Often older churches 'box out'many people with strongleadership skills who cannot workin more traditional settings.

New churches attract and harnessmany people whose gifts wouldotherwise not be utilized.

Some converts cannot stand the

tumultuous changes that regularlycome through the new church andthey move to an existing church.

Sometimes the new church is very

exciting and outward facing but isalso very unstable or immature inits leadership.

Sometimes the new churchreaches a person for Christ, butthe new convert quickly discoversthat he or she does not 'fit' thesocio-economic make up of thenew congregation, and gravitatesto an established congregation

where the customs and culturefeels more familiar.

Ordinarily, the new churches of acity produce new people not onlyfor themselves, but for the olderbodies as well.

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Part 3: A Kentucky Analysis


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Part 4: Church Planting and Revitalization: Vision, Strategy,Philosophy & Goals

Our Vision:To create a structure whereby church planters are recognized, equipped and released to

pioneer healthy churches in Kentucky and to assist current pastors and church leaders in

overcoming the barriers of numerical growth and common ministry plateaus.

Our Strategy:* Building pastoral relationships within the Kentucky District committed to the journey of

establishing a network of trust and friendship as ideas and vision are shared that expand

the kingdom of God within the framework of local churches.

* Participating in an aggressive journey of prayer and planning that results in a high

percentage of involvement from our Kentucky ministries and churches in order to

accomplish our stated goals.

Our Philosophy and Goals:The local church is Gods idea and remains the primary witness of Jesus Christ upon this

planet. The Great Commission is our mandate for evangelism that begins in each local

church and expands first to our communities and then to the nations of the world. Church

Planting and Revitalization is the biblical and primary strategy for enlarging the Kingdom of

God. Cooperating with that strategy will assure success by increasing both the number of

people coming to Christ and in believers maturing in the faith.

Our Superintendent, Joe Girdler, has stated our collective goal to significantly increase the

number of churches in our district, which currently numbers approximately 150. Three

specific goals for Church Planting between the years of 2010 and 2020 are

Goal #1: Every county in Kentucky should have an Assembly of God witness. There

are 120 counties in Kentucky and currently (2011) 35 counties without an

Assembly of God church. It is the goal of the Kentucky District to assure

each of those counties has at least one Assembly of God church by the year

2020.


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