Church Planting or Split?
Posted by: forthrightmag <forthrightmag@...>
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Straight to the Cross
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COLUMN: FINAL PHASE
Church Planting or Split?
by J. Randal Matheny, editor
In the midst of reading a piece of extraordinarily good
news today, I was also saddened.
The church in Vilonia, Arkansas, was established two years
ago in one of the state's fastest growing cities. With
good success in its outreach, recently the saints there
moved and renovated a barn to serve as a meeting place
while they make plans for the future.
The news of the church's latest was published today in
Brotherhood News./1
A quote from one of the elders interrupted my joy with
a note of sadness.
"... the concept of church planting is so rare
in the Bible belt today that we struggled to
gain identity. Some of our brethren could
not imagine that we were doing this for the
right reason. Most church plants in the last
30-40 years have been the result of a split.
Our motivation was not dissension or
division, but growth of the Lord's church.
We hope that we can do our small part in
changing the mindset of today's church back
to the very Biblical concept of church
planting."
If this is true, the Lord requires repentance of a
large segment of our brotherhood.
As his church, we have a singular mission in the world,
to preach the gospel. As that gospel is preached,
churches begin to meet.
Have we failed to go into the towns and neighborhoods
of our states and preach to the unreached in a manner
that churches spring up and grow?
Are we so bound to buildings that we can't envision a
new work without one?
Have we centered our preaching in pulpits and
auditoriums so that living rooms and kitchen tables no
longer serve as appropriate mediums for evangelism?
Has the gospel been deposited in the preachers'
salaries so that the laypeople have nothing to do but
be served by more and more full-time ministers whose
focus is on the flock?
Have we wedded ourselves to outdated methods and
traditions that no longer serve the people of God, but
rather hold us back from fulfilling the mission of God
in the world?
Such questions are not peripheral issues, but touch the
heart of our identity as the church of God.
If we are more accustomed to seeing churches divide
because of dissension and strife rather than spring up
through the proclamation of the gospel, we are, of all
men, most self-deluded and self-condemned.
_________
1/ tinyurl.com/yewju66
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