I Love Church Planters

I am on a committee for the Assemblies of God that helps lead church planters in the State of Georgia. Yesterday, along with the team, I spent the entire day interviewing prospective church planters. You have to love the passion, vision and no holds bar hearts of people purposing to reach the unchurched in their communities.

We saw everything proposed from student and family oriented churches to a church for cowboys. One churched planned to launch in a school, another a skating rink, even a barn...bet you can't guess which church that would be?

This morning I was thinking about church planting in general and the surge of church planters in the nation the past decade. I was wondering is this just the "en vogue" thing to do. It seems like every young preacher has a passion to plant a new church.
Obviously we know God is at work in this just as he was in the mass evangelism of the last century.

During the last century young men full of passion for the lost and a hunger to see people changed by God hit the evangelism trail preaching in tents, fair grounds and churches. During the 40's and 50's and with a resurgence through the 70's and 80's we saw the rise of the traveling evangelist peak. I am a product of that scene my father had a tent that would seat 175-200 people and we traveled and ministered in it all through the summers during the decade of the 80's.

I had a huge passion to reach the unchurched and hit the "evangelism trail" at the age of 20 with a ministry I dubbed "Fanning the Fire Ministries". As I look back it seemed like I was on the tail end of something that had stirred America for Christ for years. I am not saying the days of mass evangelism in America are over, but most traveling ministries I know have seen a decline in engagements. The argument goes "the churches are apathetic...they don't want to see God touch people anymore." The truth of the matter is half the time services with evangelists are a gathering of believers which isn't a bad thing. It's just not something that stirs the hearts of the preachers that God is calling into his service in the new millennium.

The young men of this generation are still fulfilling the call of evangelism they are just following a "Timothian" model (I think I just made that word up) Paul told Timothy, who was a young pastor, to do the work of an evangelist. As a church planter I am a pastor but I have the eyes,ears, hands, heart, and mind of an evangelist. I think that is true of all church planters.

Let me break this down. In a culture when spectacle was king God employed mass evangelism to reach the unchurched. It worked people would flock to the fair grounds, tent meetings, and church services. Today we receive our informational uptake through relational download. We've all heard it said "people don't care what you know until they know that you care." The modern day move of God to reach people is occurring through these pastor-slash-evangelists. Throughout the country church planters with keen eyes towards their communities and hearts towards God are leading the masses to Jesus one person at a time. The major thrust of evangelism today isn't occurring in stadiums but in communities through local churches that are purposeful in reaching the unchurched one relationship at a time.

So if you are a pastor in a community and someone is getting ready to plant a church down the street don't get discouraged welcome them to the city. Pray for them as they connect and help people connect one person at a time to a life changing experience with Jesus. If you are an evangelist don't get mad or frustrated that engagements have fallen off. Realize that God is still reaching people in America it is just in a way that is consistent with the shift in culture over the past 20 years. If you are a church planter check your motives. Be sure that you're not just doing the "en vogue" thing to do because it is the hardest thing you will ever accomplish for God. If God is genuinely calling you to plant then prepare well. Don't act like you have all the answers...because you don't. Embrace fully what God is doing in your life and do the work of an evangelist to reach and lead people to reach your community one friend, co-worker, and neighbor at a time.