Don’t Plant A Church

We like to say things like; “I’m a church planter,”  “This is our church plant,” or “We planted a church.” As if the Church, a spiritual institution established by the Creator of heaven and earth, actually belongs to us. God’s not in the business of establishing communities of mindless sheep so we can have our little fiefdom and “shepherd” our flock for the next 20 years.

Our vision is much too small. Don’t plant a church. Embrace a God-sized vision. Launch a movement.

Remember the parable of the farmer who scattered seed? (Luke 8:4-21) The seed that fell on good soil produced a hundred times more than what was sown. One good and noble heart can influence one-hundred others for the Kingdom. One obedient church can literally plant one-hundred other missional communities.

This is happening all around the world. Small, organic, viral churches are multiplying by the tens of thousands. Never before in the history of our faith have we seen growth and multiplication on this scale.  This is described as a church multiplication movement where churches are planting churches using simple, reproducible, and biblical principles.

Success is not measured by the number of church members or the influence of our ministries. Success is measured by generational growth – where multiple churches are consistently planting churches to the 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th generations and beyond.  So let’s stop putting church in a box. I’m serious…stop putting the church in a literal f…..n box! Stop perpetuating the endless cycle of non-reproducing methodologies. If you are already a pastor of an established church start tracking sending capacity rather than seating capacity. Let’s start believing the vision and obeying the commands of Jesus.