By Jimmy Inman
Teaching Pastor in Jefferson City
Of the many questions we were asked about starting a church in east Tennessee, one of the most common ones was, “Why are you starting a church where there are already so many churches?” It is a legitimate question. My scriptural conviction is that every church is called to be a part of planting new churches locally, nationally, and internationally, and our church is 
doing that. Here are some basic biblical reasons why I believe this is true.
(1) The Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20): In Planting Growing Churches For The 21st Century, Aubrey Malphurs writes, “We must not sit back and be satisfied with maintaining what God has done! Christ’s Great
Commission is to disciple the world for Him, not simply to maintain new churches! Consequently, every planted church must not ‘forget its roots.’ Each church owes its existence to some person or church of vision. Each church has an obligation, in turn, to articulate the vision and start other churches. … It provides churches with the potential to evangelize unchurched communities all across America and throughout the world. The idea is that planted churches reproduce themselves and make disciples by planting other churches. This is a process that will continue until the Savior returns. In fact, this is the true meaning of the Great Commission.”
(2) The pattern of the Book of Acts: I believe Acts gives us the pattern for a true New Testament Church, which definitely includes church planting. Malphurs continues by saying, “If we desire to know how the early church understood Christ’s commission, we can find the answer in the book of Acts. Acts is a church planting book because much of what takes place does so in the context of starting new churches.”
We see this in Acts 11 when the disciples were scattered by persecution. As they went, they shared Jesus with people. Many people were saved at Antioch so the church in Jerusalem dispatched Barnabas, who also took Paul, and they taught the people for a year. They developed into a church because Acts 11:26 and 13:1 call them a “church.”
Then, the leaders of this new church, under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, sent Paul and Barnabas out as missionaries, and they proclaimed the gospel, discipled the converts, established leaders, and ultimately, planted churches in cities including Lystra, Iconium, Antioch (14:21-23), Galatia (16:6), Philippi (16:9-15), Thessalonica (17:1-4), Corinth (18:1-11), and Ephesus (19:1-10).
(3) The intentional contextualization of the gospel: Paul wrote, “I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some” (I Corinthians 9:22b). The gospel is unchanging, but we need different methodologies to relate to different people groups. I believe that God wants us to stop fighting over styles and start focusing on taking the gospel to people in a culturally relevant manner.
(4) The lost sheep principle (Luke 15:1-7): Jesus told a story about a shepherd who had a hundred sheep. Ninety-nine of them were in the fold but one went astray. What did that shepherd do? He left the 99 and went and found the one lost sheep! The principle is that as long as there is one lost sheep, we have a mandate from God to go find it. There are millions of lost sheep in Tennessee. Our existing churches will not be big enough, nor will the need for new churches cease until every lost sheep is found. Church plants are seeing people’s lives transformed by the grace of God as lost sheep come home and become followers of Jesus.
(5) The kingdom reality: God has called us to build His Kingdom together. We are partners in the harvest and working together to plant churches is an important part of bringing in the harvest and building the Kingdom. Consider the following example from Decision Magazine.
“Bigger is better. Mike MacIntosh thought so — at least at first — when his congregation grew from 2,000 to 3,000 after the 1976 Billy Graham Crusade in San Diego.
“ ‘My pride loved it,’ said Mac-Intosh, pastor of Horizon Christian Fellowship in San Diego. ‘I was getting media attention and I thought, ‘This is kinda cool.’ But as he sought counsel from members of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) to form a school of evangelism based on BGEA’s method of training, his perceptions began to change. Mac-Intosh said that he saw how the mission of BGEA is to enhance others’ ministries — namely those of the local church — and he wanted to take a similar approach.
“MacIntosh began to identify leaders in his congregation and to train them to plant their own churches. ‘I’d say ‘Take 10 of our home fellowships and start a church,’ MacIntosh recalls. Today, Horizon has birthed 28 churches in San Diego County and more than 100 churches and para-church organizations across the United States and around the world.
“Although the idea of pastoring a congregation of 40,000 (roughly the combined size of the San Diego church plants) has appeal, MacIntosh is content to hold multiple services in the 1,650 seat gymnasium that his church has been in since 1985. He would prefer to grow by empowering others to serve.
“One of MacIntosh’s former ministry assistants moved to Indianapolis and started a church. Now, he has an 88-acre facility and has started nine church plants in Indiana as well as a fruitful ministry in the Ukraine.”
God’s Word is clear about church planting. Are your convictions about church planting biblical? Remember a conviction is a belief that produces action so what are you doing to be a part of planting new churches?
