Church planting

Church planting is a process that results in a new (local) Christian church being established. It should be distinguished from church development, where a new service, new worship center or fresh expression is created that is integrated into an already established congregation. For a local church to be planted, it must eventually have a separate life of its own and be able to function without its parent body, even if it continues to stay in relationship denominationally or through being part of a network.

According to the Rev. Mike Ruhl, “Church planting has been happening for nearly twenty centuries.” The first place that the church spread from Judea was Samaria. Christianity spread to other areas because persecution forced the Christians to leave Jerusalem. Christianity then spread to the Gentiles largely because of the Apostle Paul, who had formerly been a Pharisee and a persecutor of the church. In the Bible, the book of Acts describes Christianity as spreading by the preaching of it in public areas. It then describes the believers of Christianity as gathering together regularly in homes and, at least in the beginning, at the Temple in Jerusalem. This period is known as the Apostolic Period. During this period, and up until the late second century, there is no record of church buildings. Instead, there are references to house churches. Not much is known about how these house churches multiplied. After the late second century, church buildings became the norm. In 380, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, which convinced many to become Christians. As Germanic kings conquered areas of the Roman Empire, many of them converted to Christianity to gain the support of their new subjects. In British colonies, Anglican missionary and church planting efforts coincided with British colonialism. The missionary model of Baptist missionaries, such as in mid-twentieth century Brazil, was a form of church planting. For Southern Baptists, church planting, with its focus on establishing new and independent congregations, is a logical outcome of their theology. "Southern Baptist mission work was driven by church planting. Based on a voluntaristic faith, the work defined individual salvation as the cornerstone of religious life; and religious life took place within local, autonomous congregations." Recently, there has been a focus on Church Planting Movements. However, not all SBC/IMB members agree with the general theory of CPM and think much of it is, detrimentally, man and method focused rather than centered on God. Church planting is not troublesome but the "movements" part of the theory is.

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Wikipedia