Two words put together have the effect of either striking terror or creating excitement. They are the words ‘church’ and ‘planting’.
Church planting is the flavour of the decade - and rightly so. This is a great way take the eternal gospel of the Lordship of Jesus to our world. But it may also leave us quaking and inactive as we consider the lack of resources, the cost, our own inabilities and our unfamiliarity with how to do it.
I want to get rid of the phrase ‘church planting’ because much of the fear and inactivity comes from our conception of what a church plant is. Our minds conceive of a duplicate of the church we have, only better and more innovative; and that seems just too hard for us to do.
What church planting really does is that it multiplies ministry, and so ministry multiplication is a much better term. It is creating gatherings where the Word is taught and lived and we are called to live under the Lordship of Jesus. And ministry multiplication is what is happening all the time in our churches.
Every time we begin a children's, youth or mum's ministry; whenever we begin new Bible study groups or commence new meetings we are multiplying ministry, as we are providing even more opportunities for people to gather around Christ. That is much easier to do and work towards than the creation of a whole new structure.
It's like scaling huge mountains. No one expects to be able to scale Mt Everest before learning how to use ropes and abseil. So it is with church planting. We are involved in creating new ministries. Start small, start where you are, with the people God has given you and gather them. Teach and lead them and urge them to invite friends. That is ministry multiplication.
Some ministries we commence will have short life-spans, like holiday kids’ clubs. Some will cease to be needed over time and be absorbed into other ministries. Some will always be part of a larger community, and some will grow and be able to have an existence of their own. All are legitimate ministry multiplications.
Don't begin by wondering if there are sufficient resources to create a whole new structure. Begin by gathering people around the Word, and see what God does in His good time with your multiplied ministry.
So here is a simple way forward. Look for opportunities to gather people around something they have in common. Look for people God has given you to gather. Learn to ‘abseil’ by multiplying these ministries. And make sure we all understand that what we are doing is the essence of all "church planting".
Next month we will look at why we should not be afraid of multiplication failures and then at better multiplication methods than simply ministry duplication.
