Why We Need More Church Plants

The following article is taken from On Mission Magazine Summer 2012.................

It's easy to look around at North America and focus on the lostness - to see the declining morals, broken families and misplaced values - and miss the root cause. The people of North American need Christ. The North American Mission Board estimates that there are 259 million people on this continent who don't have a relationship with Christ. We simply don't have enough churches to reach all of those people.

Church planting isn't the only good evangelism option. But it should be the ultimate outcome of all of our evangelism efforts. Evangelism should lead to new disciples. Disciples should lead to new churches. If we want to see a thriving Southern Baptist Convention far into the future, we need a lot more evangelism, disciple-making and church planting.

We want to see a net gain of 5,000 new Southern Baptist churches over the next 10 years. Sure, it's a big goal. It would be the biggest net gain in the history of our convention.

But it's critical, too. Why is it so important that we start more evangelistic churches in Nort America?

• It's biblical. Making disciples is at the heart of the Great Commission. Throughout the book of Acts you see that new churches were always the natural outcome of the early Chruch's evangelism.
• It will strengthen existing churches. Healthy organisms reproduce. Churches are no different. If we, as Southern Baptist, hope to see a plethora of new churches throughout North American, it'll only happen if healthy Southern Baptist churches reproduce. A big part of our Send North American strategy is to help churches get healthy so they can evenetually plant new healthy churches.
• It expands the kingdom. Not everyone will come to an existing church. The more contextually appropriate churches we start in North American the more people we'll reach with the gospel. As Southern Baptists start new churches in North America, we'll develop a stronger base to reach the nations.
• New churches baptize more people. According to Ed Stetzer and Warren Bird in their book Viral Churches, established Southern Baptist churches baptize 3.4 people per 100 resident membes. New churches average 11.7 baptisms!
• It involves more people in North American missions. As we focus on church planting, we'll give individual congregations throughout the continent an opportunity to get involved in direct, hands-on missions. Currently, only 4 percent of Southern Baptist churches are involved in church planting. As Southern Baptists focus on church planting in the years to come, we expect that number to go up. We're praying it goes up to at least 10 percent.
• It's measurable. Church planting is a measuring tool that can help us get a picture of how effective our evangelistic efforts are. If our evangelistic efforts take root in an area, we should expect the number of churches nearby to grow.

At the North American Mission Board, we want to help you be part of what God is doing through church planting. To get personally connected to a Southern Baptist church planter, visit namb.net, click on "Mobilize Me" and give us some basic information about your church. You'll be contacted by one of our expert mobilizers to start your church's journey toward serving some of the most unreached areas of North America.

No matter the size, ethnic makeup, geographical location or history of your church, you can do this. Your church can be part of penetrating lostness in North America through church planting.

I hope you'll join us!

Aaron Coe is the vice president of mobilization and equpping at the North American Mission Board and is the author of this article