Note: This post is by my new friend Scott Welch who blogs at Our Soveriegn Joy and is a fellow Church Planter. He’s a smart guy, check out what he has to say:

Why Should We Plant Churches?

I live in a city where there are over 700 churches. Adam lives in Atlanta and there may be more churches there than where I am in Charlotte, NC. The obvious question that people will ask is “Why bother planting churches, there are plenty of churches for people to go to out there? Let’s focus on rebuilding those churches.” While this sounds good, Ed Stetzer is right, it is much more difficult and takes a lot more resources to revive dying churches than it does to plant new ones (See Planting New Churches in a Postmodern World). From just a statistical standpoint, most churches in America will not be here in 10 to 15 years as ninety percent of all churches are either declining or at a plateau (plateau being a technical term that means declining a little more slowly than the other churches that are declining at light speed).

More than being practical, planting churches is biblical. We are commanded in Matthew 28:19-20 to make disciples of all the nations. Spreading the gospel is God’s will for His people. His people are the Church. In other words we don’t go to church, we ARE the church. Since this is true, spreading the gospel and planting churches are one in the same. Paul tells Titus to “appoint elders in every city” in Titus 1:5. Why was there a need for Titus to appoint elders in each new city that the gospel was reaching? The answer is simple, because churches were being planted and they needed leaders. If we are going to fulfill the Great Commission, we must be passionate about church planting. Church planting is God’s plan for spreading the good news of Jesus Christ.

How Many People Do You Need To Plant a Church?

It is really easy to get discouraged early on in a church plant. You look around and there are churches with magnificent buildings and high attendance and there you are meeting with ten people in a living room. But here is the question, “How big do you have to be to plant a church.” Henry Blackaby answers with another question. He asks, “How big do you have to be to obey God?” The goal of church planting is not to draw mass numbers or have multi-million dollar facilities, it never has been. The goal of church planting is to glorify God through calling people to worship Jesus Christ forever (John 4:23; Matthew 28:18-20). I have met with several church planters who have successfully reached people with the gospel of Jesus Christ and all of them began with less than 10 people in a living room. Don’t miss this. God has a mission for His church. This mission is to reach people with the good news of Jesus Christ. Church planting isn’t a byproduct of God’s plan, it IS God’s plan, no matter what the size! God has not called His people to seek consultants who can help us plant churches; He has called us to obey Him and plant churches. Whatever your situation is, find a way that you can spread the gospel by becoming stoked for planting new churches.