Begin With Missionary Activity

In the North American, post-Christian context in which we now live, we can’t plant churches by simply starting a Sunday morning worship gathering. There may have been a day when we could build a cool website, rent a meeting space, send out flyers, put up banners and “launch” a church by starting a Sunday service.

But those days are gone, at least in many North American contexts. What is the alternative? We must begin with missionary activity. Instead of starting with "church” and trying to get to discipleship and mission, we must start with discipleship and mission and work toward church. Too often church planters start with Christians from another church or they gather disconnected believers from around a city. This may be well-intentioned and might be better than nothing at all, but in most cases, that is simply starting a church with a church. We need to think differently about the flow or direction of starting a new church. We need a new framework, a new way to think about planting that doesn’t begin with Sunday.

For more on rethinking church and mission, check out this free download.