A MISSION-FOCUSED REPRODUCING CHURCH: Part 5

The final thing we will examine in this post and the next will be the “why” of church planting. There are definite reasons Newfrontiers is committed to aggressively planting mission-focused reproducing churches. I’ll share some of these reasons with you now and some in my final post next week.

1. New churches reach more people.

Christian Schwarz of Natural Church Development surveyed over 1,000 churches and discovered that smaller churches were 16 times more effective in winning new converts to Jesus than mega-churches. Having more entry points into the Kingdom of God increases the possibility of people coming to faith in Christ.

Ron Gladden poses the question, “If your city had only one restaurant, would more people eat out?” The obvious is that the more restaurants increase the possibilities of more people eating out. The more churches the greater potential for reaching more people with the gospel.

2. New churches reach new people.

New churches reach new generations, new residents and new people groups. New churches attract new groups about 6-10 times better and faster than older churches do. In a new church, younger and newer people can get into its leadership faster. New churches have a goal to reach new people and aren’t hindered by attempting to satisfy the desires of long-time members.

70% of people in the USA have no meaningful church relationship. The harvest is great and many new people will not be reached without new churches. Jesus said “open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest." (John 4:35)

The harvest is not only plentiful but it is also diverse. Around our building it is estimated that 70 different languages are spoken. Walk our streets and tour the world. One church can’t reach everyone so it will take all kinds of churches. The diversity of harvest requires a diversity of churches to make disciples of all people groups.

3. New churches release new leaders.

Starting new churches provides an opportunity to raise more workers for the harvest. A reproducing church will reach the harvest by developing, and releasing new leaders for church planting.

4. New, healthy churches grow and reproduce.

Hardly anything demonstrates the health of a congregation as much as the willingness and ability to give birth to new churches. Reproduction is a basic principle of life for all organisms. Churches are not designed by God to be unfruitful; they are designed to grow and reproduce other churches. As churches multiply, the potential harvest increases proportionately.