Church Planting Needs People

by   Dena McLaughlin                                                                                                                                                                Vol. XI, No. 7, August 1998

Southern Baptists are being challenged now with special emphasis on church planting, and I am thankful that the SBCV staff and other leaders are planning strategies and stepping up efforts to meet that challenge in Virginia. I have a special interest in this because my husband and I have been involved quite a bit in church planting and serving in smaller churches to equip and help them grow. I may not fully understand all that has been and is being done regarding church planting, but I have observed that most church planting seems to be accomplished through a pastor or other church leader, denominational leader, and/or a church group feeling God’s leading to start a new church to meet the need of reaching people for Christ in a particular area. With much prayer and planning, a core group (usually too few) begins meeting for Bible teaching and worship, trying to draw in lost and unchurched people in the community. Often pianists and music leaders are not available when a new church is planted.

When a well-established church is led to start a new work or to sponsor a mission, I have observed that many Southern Baptists fail to comprehend the importance and significance of this type of mission work. Much mission emphasis is on education, prayer, and giving to missions overseas and in meeting mission needs elsewhere in North America (which are important, of course). People respond well to going on volunteer mission trips, but personal involvement in special activities in the local community for ministry, evangelism, and other outreach too often is done by only a small percentage of the church membership.

Few churches have members who say, “Since God has led in this new church being planted in our area, I think that our church with its fine building and many trained leaders should encourage members and leaders who feel God’s leading to leave our church and serve in this new church that needs them.” Instead, many Baptists (even pastors) are reluctant to lose any church members, especially leaders, but want to see their church continue growing, perhaps to become large enough to have a gymnasium, family building, and other enjoyable facilities that will attract more people. These things are good, but the church may fail to see other churches around them who aren’t able to have even a small initial building of their own in which to meet, often because of soaring building costs. In some cases, this small body of Christians is the only other Southern Baptist group in the community, and often these smaller church groups are reaching out to win and minister to types of people who would not go to the larger church.

My husband at one time was called to pastor a small church that was meeting in a renovated barn. Very few Southern Baptists who moved into the community joined our church then, and the church grew greatly through evangelism, winning and equipping people, most of whom were adults. Then when the church was able to purchase a choice site and build a fine new building, we had many Southern Baptists join.

 If Southern Baptists, both pastors and other church members, could be reeducated and have God’s leading in realizing that direct involvement in church planting work is a great mission opportunity and that their church will be blessed when they rejoice (instead of murmuring) in being able to share prayers, money, and even some of their own members to help new churches, church planting would be helped greatly.

I realize people tend to become established and comfortable in their churches with good friends they don’t want to leave. When those called into career mission work are willing to leave home and take their family to a distant place, surely Southern Baptists should be willing to help a new church in their own community grow by serving in that church. No one likes to leave friends, but I can say from being a pastor’s wife and having moved a number of times to new churches, that in each new church you are richly blessed with new Christian friends -- and still have the blessings of keeping in touch with friends in former churches. Of course, our children were always sad in leaving their friends, but they did find new friends soon and realized they shared in our work for the Lord. I can’t see where being PKs and often being in small churches did them any harm, for one is the wife of a bi-vocational mission pastor in Idaho, one an SBC missionary in Lima, Peru, primarily doing music work, one a youth minister and church music leader in New York, and our youngest and her husband are actively serving in their church in Northern Virginia.

In addition to encouraging established churches and church members to answer a mission calling to go and join in church planting work to assist in building smaller churches who have great need for more trained leaders, I think more emphasis could be directed toward college students giving help. Baptist students could be challenged to locate in an area in which there is a new/small church and find a job and seek to help that new church, especially with children’s and youth ministries and also in reaching out to other young adults. This might also be a two-year commitment such as we have already successfully in operation.

We have a great mission with a great Lord to guide us. As we work and pray together, God will continue to help us to identify areas that need new churches and churches that need help in having buildings to meet in and will lead us to find and use every possible resource to carry the gospel to every community. I pray that many Virginia Baptists will feel called into church planting and will answer that call with real commitment.