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As I believe strongly the Lord called us into this ministry, the Lord has also convicted me that churches should plant churches, not missionaries. I am not saying that missionaries can’t plant churches, because in the beginning an infant church did it this way. We know those scattered abroad in Acts 8 and 9, and the Apostle Paul did plant churches, but the most effective way is for churches to plant churches. In fact I believe it is Biblical for Christians to beget Christians, preachers to beget preachers, and churches to beget churches. The Church is an organism, not an organization. Christ is the head and we are the body. All organisms the Lord created were created to reproduce.
I want to present to you something that is not a new concept for supporting missions, but is rarely used today. Paul’s first missionary journey was only 200 miles from his sending church. I believe it is more effective and easier to support foreign missions by concentrating on home missions. In so doing your church can give more to foreign missions than you ever thought possible. The average church concentrates most of their effort on foreign missions, and our success rate in home missions (church planting) is only 20%. Paul did it just the opposite way, he started planting churches close to home and continually worked his way out farther. He didn’t start with the utter most part of the world, he started with his Judea an Samaria. One board I know encourages churches to plant churches and their success rate has been 99%. What is the difference? They don’t plant churches, they help churches who want to plant churches plant them. That is what we would like to encourage you to do, and we are willing to help.
It doesn’t matter what size church you have, any size church can start another church. The church in Antioch wasn’t very big. In the process you will be able to raise more money for foreign missions than you ever could without starting churches at home, without raising your missions budget by one dollar. One pastor I talked to in Florida said he could not afford to take on any more missionaries, but he decided to plant a church in a neighboring country. That church took on three missionaries. He could not afford to, but through the church he planted he was able to effectually support three more missionaries. That pastor had already planted eight churches domestically when I spoke to him.
“And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.” 2 Timothy 2:2
The concept of “Church Planting Missions” can go on and on and on and outlive your ministry for generations to come. Your rewards can be limitless depending on the faithfulness of your church plants to carry on this tradition, and the money generated from these churches for foreign missions can be unlimited as well. Even if some of the churches fail, the others take up the slack and keep the momentum going. If every church in America did this we would have revival in America. In fact, I believe this is our only hope for revival in America.
Here’s just some of the ways we can help if you are interested in starting a church:
We come to your church and explain the program to your people. We can help you set a six month timeline for starting a new church. We can come back and help your new church find a place to meet. We can help you design appealing written advertising. We can meet with local pastors and rally their support. We can stay for a few weeks and knock on doors, saturate area with literature. We can conduct a “get acquainted” meeting in the area for the church. We can pray for the new work and follow up as needed.
If your church would like to have a home missions conference we can help you get started. There are about a dozen home missions conferences in various parts of America every year were home missions is emphasized and home missionaries are helped. We can help you get on board.
If you take us on as home missionaries, even if you can’t have a conference or start a church you can help us help someone else start one.
Right click the PDF icon below and choose the “save target as” option to see a sample church planting matrix that shows you how you can support foreign missions more effectively through supporting home missions.
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