Church plants should plant churches

"You get what you plan for"

Should the local church be involved in planting churches? How quickly should a church planter think about planting out again? I want to argue that we need to plan and develop strategises for further plants in the early days of the initial church plant! Church planting must be in our DNA.

To those who are just starting out in pioneering a brand new church, it may feel irresponsible or even arrogant to plan for another church plant before you have achieved the goal of growing the first one. The reason this intentionality is so important is that you tend to get what you plan for. Those leaders who have a desire to send people and plant new churches but do not have a plan find that they don’t achieve their stated intention. This is because without a game plan other seemingly important things crowd their diaries and dominate the churches agenda.

At Christ Church Manchester Tim Simmonds and I regularly find ourselves deep in conversation, often looking and conceptually planning the next CCM site or church plant. People who have recently joined the church spark our imagination and subsequent discussion can stimulate this. Or sometimes our dreams, more often daydreams, catalyses a conversation that gets the adrenalin pumping with an audacious and often unrealistic plan.

In this environment church planting can take on momentum that comes somewhere near the prophesy of planting 1000 churches John Kpikpi mentioned at the Stoneleigh bible week 1999.

Church plants should plant churches

Should the local church be involved in planting churches? How quickly should a church planter think about planting out again? I want to argue that we need to plan and develop strategises for further plants in the early days of the initial church plant! Church planting must be in our DNA.