Simon Cox Blog: Three Keys to Increasing Church Planting Capacity in Denominations

Tuesday 8 August 2017

Three Keys to Increasing Church Planting Capacity in Denominations

Engage the Planters. Embrace the Pace. Establish the Path.

A generation of Christians that has grown up with microwaves is also sold on the idea of movements. But rarely do these things go together.

Movements are not instantaneous—they can explode (that’s what makes them movements) but they don’t just show up.

It takes time to see if a movement is going to gain traction and have long-term impact. This is true in ministry. At times, the spread of the gospel has seemed to happen overnight, but the reality is that many of our greatest missionaries have labored for decades without seeing such explosive fruit.

No matter how many shortcuts we find or tips we learn, the Kingdom of God is still more like a seed and a field than a bag of popcorn and a microwave.

So what does that mean for those leading denominations?

For those looking to increase church planting at their church, or increase a focus within their denomination, there are several factors to consider, and a few keys to success. Each area of ministry has its own nuance. So, it is naïve to think that you can take a cookie-cutter approach to developing the foundations of a movement. Some things are true regardless of the ministry. Others are vastly different.

Here are three things to look at when working toward increasing church planting.

Engage the Planters

Church planting is, in a real sense, a community—it’s more of a club than an organization. Planters can spot each other in a room of pastors. It just is. Normal pastors, and a lot of denominations, feel different to them.

That isn’t a knock on denominations, many of whom do things quite well. But the fact is that many church planters find a level of camaraderie with church planters of other denominations that they do not find with people they ...