Church of the Hills

"And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we don not lose heart." Galatians 6:9 NKJV

   Let's say I want to hire you to do a job for me for the next thirty days.  Let's imagine that I am a man of unlimited resources...  (I'm sorry, I got caught up in my own imagination. Let's get back to the story). Our contract requires that you complete the full thirty days, or you forfeit any compensation, and you will not be paid until the thirty days are over.  And let's imagine, I give you the option of being paid in one of two ways. You can be paid $30,000 a day for 30 days of work, or I can pay 1 cent the first day, with a promise I will double the amount every day for the next 30 days.  Which would you choose?  If you choose $30,000 a day for 30 days, at the end of 30 days you will have $900,000. But if you choose the second option, at the end of thirty days, I would pay you $5,368,709.12, almost six times the first option!

   We live in a culture that wants instant gratification.  This is why many of us are so deeply in debt. This mindset is prevalent in our churches. One resource promises to teach you how to double your church attendance in ninety days.  I am confident these folks have a good heart and sincere motives.  But such strategies often neglect setting up the systems for healthy, exponential growth for the sake of "quicker growth".

   At the Southern Baptist Convention in Orlando this week, the messengers overwhelmingly approved the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force report.  One of the recommendations calls for the North American Mission Board to come up with an aggressive church planting strategy.  This past year, NAMB reported 1,256 new churches planted in the Southern Baptist Convention.  While we praise God for each of these new congregations, that is 1,256 new congregations from a denomination of 44,000 churches, 1,200 Associations and 42 State Conventions.  Why such little return on such a large investment?  I believe is because we have only 4.8% of Southern Baptist Churches that presently are sponsoring a church plant.  The way forward to reach North America with an aggressive church planting cannot only be, "How do we get more money for church planting?", and, “How do we get churches that are presently sponsoring church plants to sponsor MORE church plants?” but, also, "How do we get more churches to become sponsoring churches?”

   Imagine again, what could happen if we enlisted 500 Southern Baptist Churches each year, for the next three years, that had, not only a heart for church planting, but a history of church planting to sponsor a church plant (Sponsoring Churches) AND to coach two other churches each (Supporting Churches) to partner together to plant a church.  The second group of churches would have a heart for church planting, but not a history of church planting.  At the end of three years, there would be four congregations, the Sponsoring Church, the two Supporting Churches and the New Church.  Now imagine these four congregations become Sponsoring Churches and each recruit two new Supporting Churches to plant a new church.  The cycle would be repeated in three year cycles, but the key to success would be the first three years.

   Now, after three years, it might not look that impressive.  But, following such a strategy, in ten years, we could see 33,000 new churches, with 13,500 Sponsoring Churches (an increase for 4.8% of churches sponsoring new works, to 21%) and 27,000 Supporting Churches (see below for detailS. Pardon the "Scarlet, Grey and White" catagories. I am a rabid Ohio State Buckeye fan)!  And in ten years, there would be an undeniable culture of church planting in the SBC.

    Someone would say, “I have seen this before. This is not new.”  True. But the difference here is, this is not driven by a denomination, but by the vision and passion of the true missional strategy center, the local church.  This is not to neglect the involvement of the local Baptist Associations, State Conventions and the North American Mission Board.  On the contrary, they serve the role for which they were originally established.

    The SBC has spoken clearly of our desire for a GCR.  Let's pray as we move from vision to implementation.

To God Alone be the Glory! 

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