Church Planting

We believe that the Bible is the infallible and inerrant word of God. It is relevant to us today and should serve as the basis for how we live our lives in service to our creator. It also provides us with guidance on how to structure our church body and helps identify the spiritual gifts that we are each given. The Word is the essential component for preaching the Gospel and teaching believers to obey the commands of Christ. The Bible is also the source of the essential doctrines of orthodoxy regarding God (eternal, sovereign, perfect, and trinitarian), humankind (image-bearers, yet fallen), salvation (by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone), the church (universal yet local, visible, redeemed, and baptized body of Christ), and final things (Jesus’ literal, bodily return and reign).

John Piper wrote in his book Let The Nations Be Glad that “Missions is not the ultimate goal of the Church. Worship Is. Missions exist because worship doesn’t.”  As a result, we believe that our role within the church is to seek the lost in order to convert unbelievers—essentially being used by God to raise up more worshipers. Since worship is the ultimate goal, we must go on mission to where worship does not exist because “God is ultimate, not man.” We want churches we help start to share this passion for making Christ known and seeing people reborn as his disciples.

An important aspect of the church is its ability to be relevant to its context. For example, ours (in the USA) is a postmodern culture, so our church makes every effort to conform our methods (but not our message) to speak the “language” of the culture in order to effectively communicate the Gospel to those living in it. Regardless of the culture, the church has to adapt in order to show Christ as the answer—because he is the only answer for the universal problem: sin. Some traditional approaches in missions have focused on nonessentials (e.g., how to dress or preferred music styles) presenting barriers to belief. Additionally, it is important that the church be able to address difficult topics that any given culture faces. Lastly, one can see throughout the history of the church the importance of reaching people of every socioeconomic status, particularly those of the middle and upper classes, because they have resources needed for churches to be self-sufficient, and do missions and ministry. Reaching a culture includes reaching trend-setters and influencers.

One of the healthiest and most effective methods for creating a relational environment through which people grow closer to God and others, and know God’s Word is meeting in small group settings. This can be done in homes, at restaurants, under a tree, or any number of applications. However, the goal must be the same: spiritual growth and community. Relationships with God are enhanced through building relationships with fellow believers, studying the Bible, praying together, and ministering to each other. This creates accountability and mutual respect for other Christians, primarily because they are doing life together rather than alone. This was Jesus’ model. In small groups, discipleship characteristics found in the New Testament are engendered and small group leaders are able to shepherd and disciple other Christians in an effort to make them leaders of new small groups! This method helps foster spiritual growth in virtually any cultural setting and is proven to be a most effective way to build new generations of committed followers of Christ.

If all previous core principles are present, a church body will inevitably be missional in their approach to reaching people for Christ, both in their own culture and in other unreached cultures. Believers will be fully equipped to reach an unbelieving world, regardless of economic status, ethnicity, or gender. Our hope is that churches that we plant will be convinced of the importance of planting more churches, both locally and internationally, and the Great Commission will be at the forefront of any and all missional efforts of the church.