In response to the letter writer from Greenville regarding church planting, I have a slightly different perspective on the situation you described of new church plants that may be geographically close to an existing church. It seems as if you are painting new church plants with too broad of a brush. If you are reflecting on a specific situation you have observed or been part of, that’s fine. But to generalize new church plants as the result of the desires of disgruntled staff members of existing churches to branch out on their own, well, I think that’s not fair.
Churches minister to people, not geographic areas. New churches are often planted to reach people groups who aren’t currently being reached with the gospel. There are often diverse people groups within a geographic area, and their needs can’t be met or are not being met by the church bodies in that area.
Sometimes the spiritual needs can’t be met because of language or cultural barriers. Therefore, a church body equipped to minister in that language or culture is planted to meet the need. Sometimes the spiritual needs simply are not being met by the churches in that area.
If an existing church is not missional in its outlook or effective in reaching people groups unlike themselves, then a new church plant is needed. A people group can simply be one that has a different worldview which alienates it from the existing church – for example, young, independent, postmodern people who don’t have the same sense of community and values as older generations tend to have. These sorts of people groups have to be reached with the gospel of Jesus Christ, and if existing churches shy away from the challenge, then new church plants are needed.
I’m not saying that no churches are planted for the wrong reasons, as I’m sure that occasionally happens. But I am saying that most SCBC church plants are well-planned, God-ordained, and absolutely necessary for kingdom growth, whether they are in your backyard or all the way across town.
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