Planting the Gospel

What comes to mind when you think of church planting? Maybe it’s locating and outfitting a building; maybe it’s thinking throughout outreach strategy; or maybe it’s forming a team or gathering the broken and lost together. Maybe your mind pictures a charismatic leader or dollar signs. While all of these things can certainly part of church planting, there is another image that I believe is very helpful to us, and it comes through this phrase: planting the gospel. 

Recently I have been reminded of this core feature of church planting through two completely unrelated stories. The first is the Grace Inside story out of Cleveland. This video is worth the watch and in it, you will see how the gospel was planted inside a prison, and the result was a church. The second story comes from the Journal of David Brainerd, a missionary to the Native Americans of the eastern United States in the 1740s. He recounts how, as he shared the gospel with the natives, conviction led to repentance and belief, and how as these people began to grow in their knowledge of Christ, their lives bonded together in love and worship of Him, and a church was born. Brainerd recalls how the new converts began to drop customs and habits without a word of instruction from him, evidencing the reality that God was at work to form and shape His bride. In both cases, the gospel of Jesus was proclaimed in a particular area to a particular people, and then Jesus built His church by the Holy Spirit (just like He said He would).

This is important to remember for several reasons, one of which is that it removes the false impression that church planting is such a daunting and monumental task that a local church could never hope to plant another church (especially a local church of “our” size). At its core, church planting is simply the planting of the gospel… Jesus does the building. That planting can look a thousand different ways, but when the seed of the Kingdom truly takes root in the hearts of people, we are merely assistants to the Spirit as He oversees the master plan. 

So where is God leading you and your church to plant the gospel? What part of town, which people group, what social space is God calling you to enter to plant the gospel? Perhaps this is the link between these two stories: in both cases, there was a going, not an inviting. If we are going to plant the gospel, it means that we will have to go somewhere. We can’t plant it where we are; it’s already here. What would it look like for us to ask God to allow us to plant the gospel in just one more place this year? As always, I’m here to talk more and assist in any way that I can.  

Together with you,

Chris 
ctweedy@rmdcma.com or (406) 647-2764