LifeWay Research conducted a study in 2008, interviewing senior pastors in various denominations. Of the 1,004 individuals in the sample, almost all (85 percent) of the Protestant churches indicated that their churches are involved in a missions in some way, from things like congregational prayer at least once a month to conducting short-term mission trips.
When it came to the mission field of church planting, however, only 28 percent indicated that they directly participated in helping a new church. Because that is a fairly broad description, further clarification was needed. Of that group, 52 percent explained that they gave a one-time gift, provided ongoing partnership, equipment, rent, or a mission trip to a new church plant.Read the rest.
Only 12 percent of that 28 percent, however, were actually churches that acted as a "mother church," or accepted direct financial responsibility for a new church as a primary sponsor. That means that in the previous twelve months, only 3 percent of the Protestant churches surveyed accepted primary responsibility for starting a new church. That's definitely a cause for strong concern.
The reality is that we won't see a church multiplication movement until we have all kinds of churches getting involved in primary participation. If we want to "go viral" in church planting, several qualities need to be in place.
Get Ed's book here.
This is a one of the huge reasons I am excited that The Vine is a member of the Acts29 church planting network.
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