“There will be 2,500 new churches started in the United States this year,” said Dustin Willis, “but during that same time, 4,000 churches will close their doors.”
Dustin WillisWillis, itinerant speaker for “Transplant” and founder of Midtown Fellowship in Columbia, shared his passion and the need for church planting at a recent convocation at Charleston Southern University.
Transplant, a program sponsored by the North American Mission Board, the South Carolina Baptist Convention, and Midtown Fellowship, introduces college students to church planting. According to their Web site, “The heart of Transplant is to ignite a passion in college students for the unchurched in North America – to start a movement of missional churches into our nation’s communities.”
According to Dino Senesi, director of church multiplication, SCBC, the Transplant program began three years ago and has added several new campuses.
During a Transplant conference, leaders meet with students over several days, casting the church planting vision through praise and worship, introducing Transplant concepts, and providing hands-on experience with area church planters. With the goal to “integrate and cultivate,” students are encouraged to follow their career path, move into communities and cultivate relationships, and begin new churches.