Where does a church plant actually come from? An essay at The Gospel Coalition by Ryan Curia works through Paul’s first missionary journey in Acts 13–14 for nine principles gathered under three headings — we send, we plant, we partner — and draws out a claim that sits close to the heart of free church conviction: that sending is fundamentally the work of the local congregation. Curia opens with a homely comparison. Days before his first child arrived he had one job left, assembling the crib, and when he opened the box he found forty wooden dowels, a tiny Allen wrench and an instruction manual with more stick figures than words. He knew he needed to; he knew why. He did not know how.
Look at how Paul and Barnabas were sent, the essay says: they were not self-declared or self-sent, and they were not sent by a seminary or a denomination. They were sent through the church at Antioch — “There were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers” (Acts 13:1) — and the context was ordinary, healthy church life, the congregation “worshiping the Lord and fasting” (v. 2). Churches are welcome to use sending organisations, denominations and associations to help them, Curia writes, but sending remains the job of the local church. It is also, he insists, supernatural work that human planning cannot manufacture: at their best, church-planting plans are like sails — helpful, and needing adjustment, but of no use unless the wind blows. And it is team work, not the heroism of a lone planter; the Antioch church laid hands on its two best leaders and sent them together, later adding John Mark to assist.
The second heading concerns what is planted. Luke frames the whole journey as a ministry of the Word: one verse after Herod is struck down for failing to give God the glory, “the word of God increased and multiplied” (12:24). If churches plant with leaders, members, budgets, buildings, websites and branding — yet without the Word — that is no real church planting at all. Nor is it painless. When the Word is rightly preached nobody is left neutral, and as it multiplied so did afflictions: opposition from a magician, from jealous leaders, from angry crowds, and at Lystra a stoning that left Paul presumed dead. He got up and went to the next city. The third element is autonomy. “When they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord” (14:23) — each plant had its own membership and leadership, and the sending church in Antioch did not add to its rolls, it multiplied. Curia’s summary of the missionary task ends with the words “we plant autonomous churches”.
The final heading is partnership, which in Acts proves not to be one-sided: the young churches sent Timothy to serve alongside Paul and later sent relief to Jerusalem, and Antioch sent Paul back to visit the congregations and “see how they are” (15:36) — a verse Curia notes is hard to fit into a spreadsheet but easy to imagine happening around a dinner table. Church planting, on this account, is church-nurturing too, and it deepens over time. He closes with a present-day example. Fourteen years ago a church was born in a living room in a city in East Asia: a small group of believers, their Bibles and folding chairs. The Word multiplied, the church grew, and in time it sent out several of its elders and a core team to plant again. Today more than a dozen churches share resources, collaborate in pastoral training and gather to “strengthen [their] souls”. Curia rang one of their pastors to check his facts, and was told plainly that they are no more special than anyone else — they have simply been doing normal, healthy church stuff: worshiping Jesus and proclaiming the Word.
Source: The Gospel Coalition — thegospelcoalition.org
