It is becoming of some concern to me that so far only three new churches/missions have actually begun in the ABA (USA) since June of this year. Now, it is entirely possible that we haven't gotten all of the information about new works being started yet, but it doesn't look very good at the present. I know of a couple more works that may begin soon. If you know of a new work starting somewhere please let me know and we will get them registered on our website.
I was told by some that 100 was a realistic goal for our 1200 plus churches to achieve. But I'm not sure that this is realistic at all at the present pace. One of the reasons for this is that, to my knowledge, there has never been any tracking of new works nationally or globally; therefore how can we establish goals or challenge churches properly.
If everyone in the ABA knew how dismal our church planting record was perhaps there would be a change. Perhaps it's time to count more than just the number of souls that get saved everywhere and realize that it is the planting of new churches that creates the most evangelism.
Let's plant more churches!
David
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7 comments:
David,
As you know, we are not ABA, but you might use this as an illustration. In our local association, The Tampa Bay Baptist Association, we are a group of about 150 churches. We have had five (5) new starts in the past 6 months, 18 in the past year for this small group of churches. All of these were local church plants in the Tampa metro area and does not count church starts our churches have been involved in. Our church, Bay Ceia Baptist Church voted last Sunday evening (12-16-07) to sponser a new church plant in an apartment comples where some of our members live.
Keep up the kingdom work, our prayers are with you. Pray for us as we start something new for our church, a day care ministry. We hope in the years to come that this will develop into an elementary school and more.
Steve Wood
Hey Steve, it's wonderful to hear from you. You've done a great work there in Tampa. I pray that the ABA will catch the vision of what can be done. When 150 churches can start five new churches in six months, that is awesome. God is at work where the churches will let Him work. Pray for us.
David
Thanks for the great post! I agree with you 100%!
Does this include new mission starts,the organization of a mission and new church plants or is it just new church plants?
Does this just include ABA "recommended" works or does this include all new works associating with the ABA inside the US?
We are counting all new works whether they are new churches or missions, fellowshiping with the ABA within the USA that have started since July 1, 2007
We may start tracking globally after the first of the year.
We have just been made of an Hispanic church in Texas that got started in August.
There will be another church in Brownwood, TX and another in Spring Hill, FL. That makes six, Lord willing since the ABA messenger meeting in June.
I have recently spoken with Randy Cloud, and he knows of no other works that have started anywhere in the USA.
It is very disturbing to me that only six new works can be recorded since June 07. Read Steve's comment as an example of what we ought to be doing!
David
David,
I read your comment on Russel Knights blog and fully agree. We need to be praying and fasting about starting new churches. I think there are a few things that could help this situation:
1) Start churches not missions
2) Define what we call a church and what has to actually happen for a group of people to be recognized as a church.
3)Shorten the training time for a person or group to plant a church. I am NOT saying do away with seminary or anything ... just maybe we could do an accelerated program for church planters that would focus on the essentials needed for evangelism and outreach and then they could work toward seminary training later. (this MAY already taken care of in Reach America's church planters toolkit ... I am waiting to receive mine.
I am a TBI student working toward what I feel is God's call to start a new church. These are just my thoughts but that is what I see. I think there are others who would be interested if there was more direction.
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