Articles Number Five

The simple answer is ‘planting churches’. But that’s a ‘tip of
the iceberg’ answer. There’s more that needs to be said:
How are we going to plant? Which type of churches are we
going to plant? Where and when are we going to plant?
These are the kinds of questions that land on my desk. We
want to be responsible stewards of the people, money,
time, energy and opportunities that God has entrusted to
us.
In the past, our church planting has been primarily organic
and opportunistic. God has presented us with gift horse
opportunities. And wonderfully he’s given us the faith
not to look them in the mouth. Recently, we’ve made
concerted efforts to be organised in our church planting.
Let me explain what I mean:
ORGANIC
Our organic church planting has come through the
numerical growth that God has given to some of our
ministries. For example, planting Fairfield Community
Church (that went on to be renamed Cornerstone Church
Kingston) from Dundonald Church in Wimbledon. A
significant crowd of people travelled to Dundonald from
the other side of the A3, largely from New Malden and
beyond. So it made good sense to start a new congregation
in the Kingston area.
We continue to help church leadership teams think
through opportunities both for internal multiplication of
congregations and for planting into areas untouched by
gospel ministries. Some of my time is spent working with
Senior Pastors and local church elders as they consider
nearby opportunities to plant new congregations.
Obviously, if this were our only model of church planting
then the rate at which we could plant would be limited by
the growth of individual churches.
OPPORTUNISTIC
Our opportunistic church planting has taken the form of
revitalizing churches and pioneering planting. Revitalization
has been especially fruitful in the Church of England
through the Diocese of London. For example, Rupert
Standring and a team from Emmanuel Church Fulham
were sent to revitalize St Peter’s Fulham. We continue to
liaise with organisations like the Church of England, the
FIEC and the Grace Baptist Association to identify and
act on opportunities. Increasingly, such organisations are
approaching us to ask for our help.
Pioneering planting is the adventurous, high risk but
potentially high reward church planting trialled in the
Antioch Plan project launched in 2014. Pioneering planting
is really congregation planting in embryonic form. Usually,
we’re talking about an entrepreneurially minded planter
with a willing and able wife who seek to recruit a launch
team from their existing networks and evangelistic activity.
It’s bold. BLoC epitomises this approach. Jay and Julie
Marriner were willing and able to plant a church in Brixton,
and were convinced that God would provide them with the
resources to do so.
ORGANISED
In addition to growing organic church plants and grasping
opportunities, we also want to be getting more organised.
Co-Mission is a network co-operating together to plant
churches rather than simply a collection of churches
who once were planted. Therefore, we co-ordinate
our resources and think about how to launch plants
collaboratively. For example, Christ Church Earlsfield was
planted by Christ Church Mayfair, Dundonald and Christ
Church Balham working together. We’re currently involved
in a consultation with a handful of churches in South East
London to try to plant a new church in a significant Greater
London suburban town.
OBSTACLES
As you might expect, there are many obstacles to our
planting endeavours. Church planting on paper is very
easy. But church planting in practice is a very different
beast, and not only because it involves people! There
are things that make starting new churches difficult to do,
and we’re working together on trying to overcome those
difficulties.
For example, church planting costs money. There are
always two questions to answer and we’re keen to
distinguish them. First, what will it cost to plant this church?
Secondly, how are we going to pay for it? The answer
to the first question is well established and understood.
Assuming a planter earns the average national wage, has
a pension and rents a three-bedroom house then there
is little change from £60,000 a year. We can tweak the
arrangements but that won’t fundamentally alter the costs.
The answer to the second question has many forms,
but the issue is one of fundraising. And God has been
consistently good to us through the sacrificial generosity
of many who’ve contributed their financial resources.
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