What is Church Planting?
Definitions matter. And in the world of church planting, “planting” itself can seem like a chameleon, changing colors to fit the context and circumstances. So, let us define church planting narrowly in order to better define how Redeeming Grace Baptist Church fits into the world of church planting.
Definition
Church planting is the process by which a new and autonomous congregation is established.[1] Therefore, a “church plant” is not really a church. Instead, a “plant” is the group of people and the institutional structures set in place before a congregation is truly formed. A church plant becomes a church when that group of people clearly identifies itself as autonomous and agrees to adopt the institutional structures as their own.[2] That self-identification is often referred to as “covenanting,” reflecting the church’s commitment (or “covenant”) to live as a church with one another. The first church service of a plant, often referred to as a “covenanting service,” usually includes a member’s meeting in which the church plant Core Team[3] affirms each other’s membership, adopts the institutional structures (constitution, bylaws, policies, membership covenant, etc.) and formally affirms the church’s leadership (by voting for elders and deacons).
This definition does exclude multi-site church expansion from church planting. Starting a new site for a church is different from establishing a new autonomous congregation. The multi-site church may spread, but it is not planting itself in a new locale, much like grass might spread from the roots whereas a tree spreads through planting new seeds. For our definition, church planting is the planting of trees, not the spread of grass.
A Distinction – Pioneer and Settlers
Even with that relative narrow and restrictive definition of “church planting” there are further clarifications that should be made. I want to distinguish two kinds of church planting that both meet the above definition. First, there is “pioneer planting.” Pioneer planting takes a small core team (perhaps as small as one or two couples) and sends them out to a place with little or no gospel witness. The job of this core team is to immerse themselves into the context to which they have been sent, evangelize and disciple new believers, and eventually establish a new congregation from these new disciples. Pioneer planting crosses significant barriers (distance, culture, language, etc.) and features little on-the-ground support from other Christians or churches. This kind of church planting is necessary for unengaged, unreached people or language groups. Pioneer planting is also necessary in “reached” cultures like in the United States but in pockets of our culture that are less-reached.
In contrast to pioneer planting, “settler planting” features a larger core team (perhaps even one hundred or more core team members) that seeks to establish a more firm foothold for the gospel in a community. This kind of planting will typically (but not necessarily) cross less significant barriers. For example, a church may decide to plant a significant portion of its members in the next town over where those members reside already. Settler planting takes advantage of greater on-the-ground support from other Christians and churches and will likely establish themselves as a church sooner that the pioneer church plant.
Furthermore, settler planting does not rely on evangelism to establish the new congregation. This is a significant difference between the two types of church planting. Pioneer planting necessarily relies on evangelism to reach the lost who will become disciples who will become church members. Settler planting, while still emphasizing evangelism and faithful service to the Great Commission, gathers a group of Christians from one or more churches into a new church for the purpose of reaching their community. Instead of emphasizing evangelism on the front end to establish the church, settler church plants emphasize evangelism on the back end.
Pioneers break new trails and plow new ground. Settlers, with grateful hearts to the pioneers who labored before them, build houses and plant deep roots for the sake of long-term living. Likewise, pioneer church plants break into new territory for the gospel (or territory that has lost its gospel witness). Settler church plants go where the gospel has gone before. They still plow new fields and sow the seed of the gospel through faithful evangelism. But the goal is not to establish the first church in an area. Instead, the goal is to establish a long-term gospel foothold in an area of need.
Jamie Dunlop calls this kind of settler church planting the “yogurt model.”[4] To make yogurt or sourdough bread, you cannot simply mix basic ingredients like flour, water, and salt together. You need something alive. You need a live culture of microbes that take those ingredients and transform them into something greater than the sum of the parts. Settler planting seeks to take a live and active gospel culture and put it into a new context. That is why a core team meets and trains together long before agreeing to be a church. The culture needs time to take root and develop deep into the marrow of this new group of people. That is what will make that group of people a congregation.
Conclusion
Both kinds of church planting are necessary, but they meet different needs. Redeeming Grace Baptist Church is a “settler church plant.” We desire to take a live and active Christian culture into a place that is underserved in gospel witness. There are churches in Indian Land that have gone before us and we are thankful for them. Our goal is to take the gospel culture of our partner churches and see it thrive in a place that needs more churches.
“…to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (Eph 3:21).
[1] This definition and subsequent discussion reflects a baptistic ecclesiology. Presbyterian or episcopal church planting may differ.
[2] “Autonomous” does not necessarily imply financially independent. An autonomous church may cooperate with other churches or groups of churches for funding.
[3] A core team for our purposes is composed of the committed future members of the future church. See our article “What is a Core Team?”
[4] Mark Dever and Jamie Dunlop, The Compelling Community (Crossway, 2015: Wheaton, IL), 200.
