Much has been heard about church planting in the last few years. To most established church leaders, church planting seems to be a threat for the fear of “competition”. If understood correctly it shouldn’t be so. A simple definition of church planting can be such as “a process that results in a new church being established”. It should be distinguished from church development, where a new service is created that is integrated into an established congregation. For a church to be planted it must eventually have a separate life of its own and be able to function without its parent body, even if it continues to stay in relationship denominationally or network. There a basically two ways of approaching church planting. The fist and most popular is planting a church to evangelize a community or a people group. This is where most of the church planting literature is today. The other approach is evangelizing an area or a people group and as a result you plant a church. This seems to be more in line with the first century approach and if done correctly can bear much fruit with a lot less investment of resources. The first approach is depending much more on outside resources, human and financial, the second being more reliable on the willingness and sacrificial efforts of the missionary team. Both approaches can be beneficial to the kingdom of God. Employ whichever approach seems more appropriate to the mission field environment where you are for the glory of God.
