Church Planting

Many people ask "why would someone want to plant another church since we have so many churches already?" That is a good question and the sad truth of the matter is 85-90% of the churches in America have stopped growing or have started to decline. Most churches just simply add people who have grown un-happy with their current church instead of growing by un-churched people coming to faith in Jesus. Any person that wants to plant a church today must realize that doing things the way they've always been done isn't going to cut it and being more concerned with maintaining the status quo then reaching new people isn't going to work. Almost every person writing about the church today will tell you that our greatest hope for reaching new people is through church planting because there is a correlation between the excitement of something new and people being willing to reach out to their non-churched friends to invite them to church.

Church planting should happen not because we need just another church but because we need new churches that will reach the people currently un-reached by the existing churches. As long as there are people that haven't been reached by the Gospel we need to try new things that will possibly reach out to them. Below you will see some of my thought on what a new church would look like. These "statements" are continually a work in progress till God calls me to put them in "stone" but I think you would get the general direction I'm heading.

Vision Statement:

“We want to be a church where un-churched people fall in love with Jesus”

Core Values:

Transformational Teaching- We believe that the Holy Spirit transforms lives and chooses to use the Bible as a primary means to accomplish this transformation. We believe we can be creative, innovative, and daring in our presentation but still hold tightly to the never changing truths of Scripture.

Purposeful Prayer- We believe that God wants to hear the prayers of His people and that we should seek for God to move. We believe we need to understand God’s plans are not always our plans therefore we need to accept God’s plan even when we don’t understand it.

Building Bridges- We believe that Jesus sacrifice demands of us to reach out to those who don’t know Him both locally and globally. We believe we must do whatever we can to help people physically and emotionally, but also help them understand their primary need is spiritual and that the answer is found in Jesus Christ.

Radical Relationships- We believe God created humans to live in relationship and not alone. We believe that having radical relationships where you can be real and grow in your faith are essential to being who Jesus called us to be as a church.

Simple Strategy- We believe that keeping what we do simple yet strategic will help everyone maximize their ability to become all that God wants them to become and will help our church reach more people with the life changing message of Jesus.

Doctrinal Statement:

the Scriptures
We believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the verbally inspired word of God, the final authority for faith and life, inerrant in the original writings, infallible, and God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16, 17; 2 Peter 1:20, 21; Matthew 5:18; John 16:12, 13).

the Godhead
We believe in one Triune God, eternally existing in three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—co-eternal in being, co-eternal in nature, co-equal in power and glory, having the same attributes and perfections (Deuteronomy 6:4; 2 Corinthians 13:14)

the Person and Work of Christ
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, became man without ceasing to be God, having been conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary in order that He might reveal God and redeem sinful man (John 1:1–2, 14; Luke 1:35). We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished our redemption through His death on the cross as a representative, vicarious, substitutionary sacrifice, and that our justification is made sure by His literal, physical resurrection from the dead (Romans 3:24; 1 Peter 2:24; Ephesians 1:7; 1 Peter 1:3–5). We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where, as our High Priest, He fulfills the ministry as Representative, Intercessor, and Advocate (Acts 1:9, 10; Hebrews 7:25; Hebrews 9:24; Romans 8:34; 1 John 2:1–2). We believe Jesus is coming again to judge the living and the dead (1 Peter 4:5; Romans 14:9; 2 Timothy 4:1).

the Person and Work of The Holy Spirit
We believe that the Holy Spirit is a person who convicts the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment; He is the Supernatural Agent in regeneration, baptizing all believers into the body of Christ, indwelling and sealing them unto the day of redemption (John 16:8–11; 2 Corinthians 3:6; 1 Corinthians 12:12–14; Romans 8:9; Ephesians 5:18).

the Total Depravity of Man
We believe that man was created in the image and likeness of God, but that through Adam’s sin the race fell, inherited a sinful nature, and became alienated from God; man is totally depraved and of himself utterly unable to remedy his lost condition (Genesis 1:26, 27; Romans 3:22, 23; 5:12; Ephesians 2:1–3, 12).

Salvation
We believe that salvation is the gift of God brought to man by grace and received by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, whose precious blood was shed on Calvary for the forgiveness of our sins (Ephesians 2:8–10; John 1:12; Ephesians 1:7; 1 Peter 1:18–19).

Eternal Security and Assurance of Believers
We believe that all the redeemed, once saved, are kept by God’s power and are thus secure in Christ forever (John 6:37–40; 10:27–30; Romans 8:1, 38, 39; 1 Corinthians 1:4–8; 1 Peter 1:5). We believe that it is the privilege of believers to rejoice in the assurance of their salvation through the testimony of God’s Word, which clearly forbids the use of Christian liberty as an occasion for the flesh (Romans 13:13, 14; Galatians 5:13; Titus 2:11–15).

the Ministry and Spiritual Gifts
We believe that God is sovereign in the bestowing of spiritual gifts. It is, however, the believer’s responsibility to attempt to develop their sovereignly given spiritual gift(s). The baptism of the Holy Spirit occurs at conversion and is the placing of the believer into the Body of Christ. We also believe that particular spiritual gift(s) are neither essential, nor prove the presence of the Holy Spirit, nor are an indication of deep spiritual experience (1 Corinthians 12:7, 11, 13; Ephesians 4:7–8). We believe that God does hear and answer the prayer of faith, in accordance with His own will, for the sick and afflicted (John 15:7; 1 John 5:14, 15). We believe that it is the privilege and responsibility of every believer to minister according to the gift(s) and grace of God that is given to him (Romans 12:1–8; 1 Corinthians 13; 1 Peter 4:10–11).

the Church
We believe that the church, which is the body and espoused bride of Christ, is a spiritual organism made up of all born-again persons (Ephesians 1:22, 23; 5:25–27; 1 Corinthians 12:12–14; 2 Corinthians 11:2). We believe that the establishment and continuance of local churches is clearly taught and defined in the New Testament Scriptures (Acts 14:27; 18:22; 20:17; 1 Timothy 3:1–3; Titus 1:5–11). We believe in the autonomy of the local churches, free of any external authority and control (Acts 13:1–4; 15:19–31; 20:28; Romans 16:1,4; 1 Corinthians 3:9, 16; 1 Corinthians 5:4–7, 13; 1 Peter 5:1–4). We recognize believer’s baptism and the Lord’s supper as scriptural means of testimony for the church (Matthew 28:19, 20; Acts 2:41, 42; Acts 18:8; 1 Corinthians 11:23–26).


If you have further questions or would like for me to email you an informative paper written about church planting please let me know.