Yes plant, but don't forget the others either...

Al Mohler wrote an article some time back that I found thought provoking. I came across it again today and figured I'd go ahead and share it with you. In it he cheers on the church planting movement while at the same time wanting to encourage young pastors not to give up on established churches. He writes:


There can be no doubt that the planting of new congregations is a New Testament model. This approach comes with apostolic encouragement, as any reading of the Book of Acts and Paul's letters will reveal. Many of these new congregations will be fueled with great passion for the Gospel and for reaching unreached communities, people groups, and sectors of our society. This is indeed good news.

At the same time, we also need this generation of young pastors to go into established churches and revitalize a Gospel ministry through expository preaching and energetic leadership. Giving up on the established church is not an option. Some young pastors see church planting as a way of avoiding the challenge of dealing with the people and pathologies of older congregations. This is an abdication of responsibility.

Part of the reason I found this article thought provoking is because that second to last line describes many of us planters. I know it described me when I was graduating from seminary. I didn't have a mission mentality as much as I had an "avoidance" mentality (i.e. avoid all the grumpy stick-in-the-mud church members who are in established churches). Once I hit the field, my mindset shifted and I became very missions minded- but, nevertheless, my initial motivation was not so much missions as it was efficiency. Granted, I was encouraged to think this way by church growth classes and fellow seminary students who had more horror stories than I could shake a stick at. I had very little ministry experience at this point (I had only been a volunteer youth leader) and their stories scared me silly. Any way of avoiding that was a no brainer to me.

Would I do it differently this time? I don't think that is a question I can ask- God as put me on the path I'm on and I believe wholeheartedly that I have been used where He desired me to be. I do think that I would have thought differently this time- and I'm very glad to be able to say that.

Read the full article here.