The rip effect

"Sending people out in small pioneer teams can help minimise this as fewer relationships are affected."

“The rip affect” is my way of describing what has happened to a number of churches around the country that have been involved in church planting. Some churches have planted out 3 or 4 times and then stalled in their own growth often for many years.

In my opinion this is mainly due to those people, who have stayed with the sending church, needing to recover from the loss of their friends who moved on to new church plants.

This is sometimes due to confusion with the strategy of trying to build a resource base before you send people out. This can happen because two philosophies are being operated simultaneously. One is where we spend the first few years building people together into a community, and then when we have achieved this you “relationally rip” that community apart by sending a number of people out. 

Sending people out in small pioneer teams can help minimise this as fewer relationships are affected. Also, effectively communicating the church planting vision encourages people to build relationships with those they will be planting with in the longer term.

The rip effect

“The rip affect” is my way of describing what has happened to a number of churches around the country that have been involved in church planting. Some churches have planted out 3 or 4 times and then stalled in their own growth often for many years.