Church Planting: Discover, Develop, Deploy

3 days ago

4 min read

Hey Pastors and Ministry Leaders,

Last week we talked about Thriving Churches and the belief that every church has a next step. Part of being a healthy church is looking beyond ourselves and asking how God wants to use us to reach others.

That brings us to our third Gear: Church Planting & Missions. This Gear covers a lot of ground, so rather than trying to squeeze everything into one communication, I’m going to take the next few weeks and talk about three areas where we are working together: Church Planting, Northwest Collegiate Ministries, and Missions.

I am very encouraged about the future of church planting in the Northwest. Over the years, a lot of faithful people have invested their lives in planting churches here. They have prayed, given, planted, coached, trained, and helped establish churches in communities all across the Northwest. We continue to build on the foundation they have laid. In fact, over the past year, 11 new churches have been planted as a result of churches working together.

Like any family, there have been seasons when we haven’t always agreed about strategy or how best to work together. Some of those differences were real and legitimate. But I don’t believe we have to settle every disagreement from the past in order to cooperate around the mission in front of us.

That’s why I’m encouraged by what I’m seeing today. Northwest Church Planting and Send Northwest are sitting at the same table, talking, planning, and working together. We are also seeing associations step into those conversations and think strategically about how churches in their areas can work together to plant churches.

That’s a pretty big deal, and it is very Baptist. Autonomous churches and ministries voluntarily cooperating, pooling resources, and working together to accomplish something none of us could accomplish alone. Churches plant churches, and our job is to figure out how we can help them do it.

That’s where another piece of this gets exciting to me. Ryan O’Malley, Gary Irby, and Keith Evans, along with a church planting team made up of Northwest Church Planting and Send Northwest, have been working on ways to help our churches discover, develop, and deploy future leaders and church planters.

One of the things I’m passionate about is helping churches become more intentional about developing the people God has already placed among them. Send Network has developed a Leadership Pipeline that allows emerging leaders to remain in their local churches while they receive training and develop their leadership skills. Some of those people may become deacons, small-group leaders, ministry leaders, pastors, or missionaries. And some may eventually sense God calling them to plant a church.

Pastors, there may be someone in your church right now in whom you see something. Maybe your first step is simply telling them, “I see this in you.” Encourage them. Invest in them. Give them opportunities to lead and help them grow. We don’t have to know where all of that will eventually lead. We simply want to become more intentional about developing the people God has already entrusted to us.

But developing and sending planters isn’t the only way a church can participate in church planting. You don’t have to plant a church yourself to be involved in church planting. I believe every one of our churches can participate in church planting in some way.

In fact, I can envision a day, maybe within the next three years, when 300 of our churches have a relationship with a church planter and a church plant somewhere in the Northwest. I’d love for us to make church planting personal again.

What if a church adopted a planter and his family? They could learn their names and their story and begin praying for them regularly. People could write cards and notes of encouragement. A Sunday School class or small group could pool together funds to buy some gift cards so the planter and his wife could have a date night. They could bless the kids together. Some churches might send a team to help with an outreach or another need. Others may be able to provide monthly financial support.

And I want that relationship to go both ways. I want planters to know the churches that are praying for them. They can send pictures and videos, share prayer requests, stop by and give a report when they are able, and let those churches celebrate when someone comes to Christ or is baptized.

I would love to walk into one of our churches and have someone tell me, “Let me tell you what’s happening at our church plant.” And I would love to visit one of our church plants and hear a planter tell me about the churches across the Northwest that have loved, prayed for, encouraged, and supported his family.

Church planting would no longer be something “they” are doing somewhere else.

It would be something we are doing together.

So let me leave you with two questions. Who has God placed in your church that you could begin developing? And how could your church become involved in helping plant a church?

And let me make that second question really practical. If your church would like to explore adopting a church planter and his family, let us know. You don’t need to know exactly what that looks like, and you’re not committing to anything simply by reaching out. We would love to begin a conversation and help connect your church with a planter and his family. You can begin the process today by visiting https://nwplanting.com/partner/adopt-a-planter.

I am very encouraged about the future of church planting in the Northwest. I don’t think the future is one organization figuring out how to plant more churches. I think the future is our churches, associations, Send Northwest, Northwest Church Planting, and others asking how we can work together to help churches plant churches.

Many Churches. One Mission.

Next week we’ll continue looking at our third Gear by talking about Northwest Collegiate Ministries and how our churches are working together to reach students on college campuses across the Northwest.

Lisa and I count it a privilege to serve alongside you as a family of churches on mission together.

by Faith,