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Why plant churches?

Posted: Mar 01, 2010 by Matt Newboult

Recently I’ve been listening to a Tim Keller sermon entitled: “Why Plant Churches?“ You can listen to it here or download it by right-clicking the link and choosing “Save file as…” or something similar.

Why Plant Churches?

The reason I like the sermon so much (and I’ve listened to it a few times now) is because it explains the reasons for church planting so clearly. Keller says that there are three types of Christian when it comes to church planting. The first two groups take up 99.9%.

• Group 1 are those who don’t like the idea of planting new churches. For whatever reason, they don’t see it as a wise strategy, normally because they see the needs of so many struggling congregations.

• Group 2 are those who love the idea of planting new churches but don’t really understand why; not at any level of depth at least. The problem comes when Group 2 come to persuade Group 1 about church planting. They struggle.

• Group 3 are the tiny minority who love the idea of church planting and understand why.

I won’t spoil the talk for you. You’ll have to listen to the talk to find out the secret to being in Group 3, but one thing I would say about the talk is that it’s very balanced and explains clearly why the kingdom of God needs both maturer congregations and new churches; both are a compliment to each other, they’re not rivals.