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CHURCH DEVELOPMENT We Sow And God Produces The Harvest By Charles W. Courtoy
Executive Director of Church Development
Several years ago I had a discussion
with a Southern Baptist Association executive in charge of their strategy for church
planting. He stated that less than 50 percent of their new church starts make it. He
pointed to the parable of the sower in which Jesus shared that when the sower went forth
to sow, a good portion of the seeds sown didn’t survive, for a variety of reasons.
The Baptist executive said that the Southern Baptist’s strategy was to sow numerous
new congregations broad and wide, knowing that many would not survive.
We spend a great deal of energy and resources attempting to launch new churches that will survive. We survey potential areas to be sure that there are people there needing the gospel of Jesus in such numbers that a congregation can be formed and survive. We spend time and energy selecting, training and mentoring pastors to launch new congregations. We put considerable resources into the new church launch to give it a chance of becoming a healthy, growing congregation. I believe we are being blessed for our efforts in that of the 36 new congregations started in the last five years 34 of them have survived to date.
Even with our healthy survival rate, I still see the principles of the parable of the sower at work. I have found that I cannot predict the ultimate size of a new congregation. A few of our new congregations about which I had reservations concerning their chance of surviving in the areas they were planted are growing at astounding rates, while a few others that I thought would grow rapidly are struggling. As some of our new church pastors say, "It is a God thing."
I believe the strategy of the "sower" is one we need to more aggressively embrace. I envision a time when each church will assume the responsibility of launching new churches within their respective area. This will cut down on costs and will directly involve doing mission and ministry beyond their own walls, without always having to send teams hundreds or thousands of miles in order to do mission and ministry.
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