Planting Life-Giving Churches to Multiply the Kingdom
(Part 1 of 2)–Church of God USA Missions is devoted to spreading the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, and is dedicated to the mission of the FINISH Commitment to answer the call of the Great Commission. One way that USA Missions is answering that call is through church planting.
The foundation of church planting is found in Acts 2:42, 46-47, which reads:
And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers . . . So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.
In this passage, we discover a model for planting and establishing churches. As we plant churches, we must remember the church in Acts and ask the question, “Can this model work today?”
As the believers in Acts met both in the temple and from house to house, so we must be willing to plant churches in whatever venue the Lord provides. Whether you meet in a home, a traditional church building, or even a coffee shop, there is an opportunity to multiply the body of Christ.
To paraphrase Mark Batterson in his book, The Circle Maker, the coffee houses of today are like Jacob’s well in the New Testament—a place to gather and an opportunity to establish real relationships.
Indeed, the Church of God has seen growth through church planting in the past few years. From 2016–2018 alone, 478 new church plants were launched. In the previous four years, 2012–2016, 450 churches were planted. The goal set to plant 1,000 churches by 2020 at the 2012 International General Assembly will be reached in 2019. To God be the glory!
We believe that the abundant growth in local congregations comes as a result of concentrated prayer for the growth of the church. From concentrated prayer comes a contagious mission to spread the love of Christ to the ends of the earth. This contagious mission results in celebratory worship; and as we celebrate as a body and worship our Father in heaven, we form caring connections with those around us. These caring connections develop in time to a committed discipleship that fuels the spread of the Gospel, healthy churches, and a soil that is ripe for church planting.
To learn more about church planting and how to plant a life-giving church, visit usamissions.com.
–Mitchell Maloney, Director of USA Missions
