Starting new churches is far more critical to our ongoing existence than what many may presently understand. We only need to look to Great Britain and see hundreds of church buildings that were once housed by Baptists are now being used as museums, warehouses, mosques, you name it. It is beginning to happen in America.
Already it is clear that there are more churches disbanding and closing their doors than there are new churches being started. Isn't it time for us to turn the tide? Starting new churches will begin to reverse the process. But we must begin now. Some churches need to die because they have served their purpose and time, but these must give birth to new churches so that their kind will not disappear. They will need to reproduce and multiply or die without children.
Those that have a preoccupation with the past and glorify it will have to pay a terrible price, since they have no children, there will be no one to write their history. We have committees established to record our history and archives and we need them; but wouldn't it be more expedient to form committees on how to start healthy new churches? It is time for our association of churches to form a committee, a plan, a strategy to multiply and start new churches. It is time for us to know how many churches have been started in the previous year and how many we pray will be started for the next year. Where is the leadedrship? Where are the voices raised, shouting "Let's plant more churches!" ?
Start new churches or die. Start new churches and live.
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3 comments:
Amen! My wife and I drove to Beaumont a couple of weeks ago for a wedding. The route was filled with old country churches that were obviously falling apart. The buildings seem to speak for those who used to, or still did meet there. I agree with you. Planting churches, not holding on to our own, is the way toward continued church life.
Amen, Bro. David! Our vision is to plant a multiplicity of churches throughout the I-79 Corridor. We need a new church plant in Charleston, West Virginia, yesterday! Who will go...who will plant? LET's GO...We must Save the Cities!
Nothing profound, but however, if there's a way you can and want to put a comment on the blog, my observation is that I've read all the articles on the blog and they all have so much truth as well as genuine passion for each subject, but the article that caught my attention and causes the greatest concern is your observation about Start New Churches or Die! I guess at this point in my life I lived long enough to witness the death of one church from my childhood, and another (not the place of my current membership) is in the process of a prolonged death!
As was observed recently at a ladies Bible study, each lady in the small group had children who were born and reared in the church of our membership, yet not one of our adult children had remained in our association of churches (ABA). All of our children are very active in their new chosen churches. In this particular group, our association has lost them mostly to Southern Baptist Churches with effective outreach efforts! This situation seems to consequently result in some churches with only senior citizen membership. For the most part, at this stage in life, new churches are not being reproduced, but rather efforts are directed toward survival until death!
Anonymous
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