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Churches should plant churches, not missionaries. I am not saying that missionaries can’t plant churches, because in the beginning an infant church commissioned the Apostle Paul to plant churches. We know those scattered abroad in Acts 8 and 9 planted churches before there was a church to send them, but the most effective way is for churches to plant churches. Succession is the soundest way, but not always possible. In fact I believe it is Biblical for Christians to beget Christians, preachers to beget preachers, and churches to beget churches. The Church is an organism, not an organization. Christ is the head and we are the body. All organisms the Lord created were created to reproduce.
I want to present to you something that is not a new concept for supporting missions, but is rarely used today. Paul’s first missionary journey was only 200 miles from his sending church. I believe it is more effective and easier to support foreign missions by concentrating on home missions. In so doing your church can give more to foreign missions than you would be possible by consecrating on foreign missions first. The average church concentrates most of their effort on foreign missions, and our success rate in home missions (church planting) is only 20%. Paul did it just the opposite way, he started planting churches close to home and continually worked his way out farther. He didn’t start with the utter most part of the world, he started with his Judea an Samaria. One board I know encourages churches to plant churches and their success rate has been 99%. What is the difference? They don’t plant churches, they help churches who want to plant churches plant them. That is what we would like to encourage you to do, and we are willing to help.
It doesn’t matter what size church you have, any size church can start another church. The church in Antioch wasn’t very big. In the process you will be able to raise more money for foreign missions than you ever could without starting churches at home, without increasing your missions budget. One pastor I talked to in Florida said he could not afford to take on any more missionaries, but he decided to plant a church in a neighboring country. The mission church took on three missionaries. He could not afford to, but through the church he planted he was able to effectually support three more missionaries, because he planted another church at home. That pastor had already planted eight churches domestically when I spoke to him. This is called “indigenous church planting” and it is the Biblical way to do missions. We want to plant churches that will plant more churches themselves, that will plant more, etc.
“And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.” 2 Timothy 2:2
The concept of “Local Church Planting Missions” at home can go on and on and on and outlive your ministry for generations to come by following this Biblical plan. Your rewards can be limitless depending on the faithfulness of your church plants to carry on this tradition, and the money generated from these churches for foreign missions can be unlimited as well. Even if some of the churches fail, the others take up the slack and keep the momentum going. If you retire and your church goes liberal, you will still have child churches out there that are carrying the gospel to the world. If every church in America did this instead of putting all their effort on foreign missions we could reach every city in America, would have revival in America. In fact, I believe this is our only hope for revival in America.
Here’s just some of the ways we can help if you are interested in starting a church:
We can come to your church and explain the program to your people. We can help you set a six month timeline for starting a new church. We can come back and help your new church find a place to meet. We can meet with local pastors and rally their support. We can stay for a few weeks and knock on doors, saturating the area with literature. We can conduct a “get acquainted” meeting in the area for the church. We can pray for the new work and follow up as needed. We can hold revival meetings focused on evangelism.
There is a movement across America to revitalize this kind of “Acts style” church missions. There are about a dozen churches across America that host “home missions conferences,” designed to help home missionaries exclusively. If your church would like to have a home missions conference we can help you get started, where home missions is emphasized and home missionaries are helped. We can help you get on board.
The purpose of our ministry to help home missionaries start churches. If you take us on as home missionaries, even if you can’t have a conference or start a church, you can help us help someone else start one.
The chart below is a sample church planting matrix that shows you how you can support foreign missions more effectively through supporting home missions. It’s just a goal, the figures can be adjusted to fit your situation. Biblically according to Acts 1:8 25% of your missions work should be in your city, 25% in your state, 25% to your nation, and 25% to foreign missions. Biblically 75% of your support should go to home missions, below is a 50%/50% proposal. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here is a graph that lays our this concept.
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