Take it from a church-planting veteran who has wept more and laughed with joy more through this journey than in almost any calling (parenting seven kids occupies the top spot). Church planting is not some ministry hack to rid yourself of the baggage that established churches often carry. Nor should you hope to use it as the critical ingredient to revive your church. Nor should your church planting organization build in funding measurements based upon how many and quickly your church or church plant reproduces another church plant. These postures toward church planting do not reflect that we submit to the sovereignty of God’s redemptive plan. 

Every church that claims to make Jesus followers and be faithful to the truth of God’s Word must weave church planting into its fabric. Church planting is the church’s collective mandate of her mission given to her by Jesus. To be committed to the non-negotiable Great Commission means every church must be serious about participating in reproducing disciples who are reproducing disciples of Jesus. Indeed, this doesn’t mean ONLY planting churches, but it does mean ALSO starting new churches in every place that might need a church.

I cannot tell you how thankful I am for the quality of church planting movements I have been a part of and a cheerleader for in the last decade across our country. I have seen a genuine uptick in church planting taking its rightful place as a critical value for many denomination and mission organizations. It is right and a beautiful answer to prayers for our nation.

It also is in jeopardy of becoming a fad.

Fads Are Fickle

When I think of fads, I think of:

• The latest social craze that screams, “I am in the innovative now!” (Shout out to the latest social app that I MUST download).
• The end-user product that promises quick and easy results. (Shout out to my latest don’t eat this-eat this, diet plan).
• A must-have gadget that has become a talking point for success. (Shout out to the latest Apple product).
• A flash-in-the-pan packaged life hack that has an over-inflated cost to own. (Shout out to the latest fix-all pyramid scheme).

Fads Do Not Make a Good Mission

When planting churches becomes more of a fad than a mission, we begin to value the following:

• Innovation over Biblical Foundations. We are willing to set aside foundational biblical principles on what defines an actual church. Instead, we call our innovations church. Examples? When we equal evangelism efforts such as online, para-church, or Bible studies to being churches planted. If we do this, we are missing several key components of what makes a biblical church and what produces healthy followers of Christ (i.e. regular physical gathering together for sacraments, the ministry of presence within community and neighbourhoods, the function of biblical eldership, deacons and membership, the healthy function of church discipline, etc. etc.).

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