Why Plant Churches?
Church planting is the Biblical model for kingdom growth.
Before his ascension, Jesus left his disciples with a mission to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the body of believers (Matt 28). His strategy was church planting, building on this work of the Apostles (Matt 16). And this is exactly what we see in the book of Acts. Paul and others go out into the world, share the gospel to new people in new areas and they gather together into a church (Acts 2). Those people who come to faith in Christ are then gathered under elders and leaders and into new churches (Titus 1).
There is a huge need for more churches.
We need Jesus’ eyes for our community; we want to see the great number of lost people around us and desire them to come to Christ. The United States is one of the biggest mission fields in the world. Less than 20% of the population attends church and the number of churches in America has shrunk by 70% per capita since 1900. Our nation’s population is growing by roughly 11.5% per year, while church attendance is simultaneously dropping by 9.5%.
There is a great need for more churches in Colorado Springs.
Only 16% of the population in Colorado Springs is evangelical protestant; that’s even less than Denver! This means that there are over 500,000 people in El Paso County who don’t know Christ. We would need 700 new churches to meet that need. Colorado Springs is also expected to grow by 14% in the next 10 years. That means an additional 80,000 people who need to hear the good news of Christ right here in our own city.
The best evangelism strategy is church planting.
On average, church plants see eight times more conversions in the first 5 years than established churches. Church plants also form with around 10-40% of attendees coming from unchurched backgrounds. If we imagine the Christian church as a tree providing shade and rest for the world, each individual church body is like a different branch of that tree providing shade and shelter to a unique part of the world. We are called to reach all kinds of people, and we can do that by planting all kinds of churches in all different areas of our city.
Multiplication is the best strategy for reaching large numbers of people.
If a church committed to planting a church every 5 years, and those church plants each planted new churches every 5 years, there would have 15 new churches in town within 20 years!