By Robin G. Jordan
We read in the Acts of the Apostles that the Christian faith
was spread by ordinary believers as well as apostles like Paul and Barnabas. We
are, however, apt to overlook this fact. The result is often a distorted view of how the
Christian faith spreads. Certainly the apostles played an important part in its
spread but they often built on a foundation laid by those whose names the New
Testament does not record. They watered what others had sown.
North American Anglicans and Episcopalians, accustomed as
they are to churches led by seminary-educated, stipendiary clergy are prone to
view the planting of new churches as the domain of “experts.” A body of church
planting literature emphasizing church planter assessments, church planter boot
camps, entrepreneurial church planters, and the like tends to reinforce this
view.
Yet across the face of the planet Earth ordinary believers
are planting flourishing new churches. While certain characteristics may be
desirable in a church planter, the truth is that God uses all kinds of people
to plant churches.
A denomination that is serious about fulfilling the Great
Commission will shed its preconceived ideas about who should plants new church
and how new churches should be planted along with similar ideas about what
pattern of congregational life new churches should adopt. A denomination should
not let such preconceived ideas become a barrier to its church planting efforts
because it does not have the ideal church planter for a new church plant or the
resources for a particular method of church planting or a community does not
have the demographics for particular expression of Church. Christ has entrusted
his Church with the task of making new disciples and one of the best way to
form and multiply new disciples is through the planting of new churches.
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