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Facing the Challenge

Multiplying Churches: reaching today's communities through church planting

edited by Stephen Timmis, Christian Focus, 2000.

'A failure to think biblically about the church will stifle church planting.' (page 27)

This book has been written to encourage church leaders and individual Christians to consider church-planting as a key means of mission and outreach. It's edited by Stephen Timmis, with contributions by Tim Chester, Tim Thornborough, and Roger Welch. There are six main chapters:

1. Setting the Scene (Stephen Timmis)
2. A theological perspective (Tim Chester)
3. A historical perspective (Roger Welch)
4. Contemporary initiatives in the UK (Tim Thornborough)
5. Contemporary initiatives from around the world (Tim Thornborough)
6. Key principles (Stephen Timmis)

There is also a section on resources, by Stephen Timmis and Tim Chester.

This book is both challenging and useful, with the first and last chapters - and Tim Chester's theological perspective - probably being the most useful.

Setting the Scene

Timmis critiques the UK church for being risk-averse when it comes to church-planting. He says that:

'... a refusal to undertake a gospel initiative out of a fear of failure is a far greater problem than a gospel initiative failing.' (page 12)

A key theme of this book is that the church is central to God's purposes, and that church-planting is one of the most biblical and effective ways to reach people with the Good News of Jesus Christ:

'Church-planting is a God-ordained strategy for fulfilling the command to 'Go and make disciples.'' (page 14)

Timmis particularly critiques the belief of many church leaders that 'bigger is better.' He says:

'One of the assumptions that seems to be particularly enduring in many western countries is the ideal of the large church.' (page 15)

And he goes on to say that:

'The received wisdom is that large churches have resources that smaller churches do not have. A statement that is self-evidently true, but what do they often resource? Larger buildings!' (page 16)

Important research

One of the most important recent pieces of research about church life and growth is the massive survey of a thousand churches, in thirty two countries across Europe, carried out by Christian Schwarz.

Schwarz looked at how fast churches of different sizes were growing. He found that:

'Churches in the 1-100 category had won an average of 32 new people over the past five years; churches in the 100-200 bracket had also increased by an average of 32 new members; churches between 300 and 400 increased by just 25.' (page 16)

Thus churches with fewer than a hundred people grow twice as fast, proportionately, as churches with between one and two hundred people. Schwarz's conclusion was that...

'A small church wins just as many people for Christ as a large one, and what's more, two churches with 200 worshippers on Sundays would win twice as many new people as one church with 400 in attendance.' (Schwarz page 47)

In other words...

'The evangelistic effectiveness of minichurches is statistically 1,600 per cent greater than that of the megachurches.' (Schwarz page 48)

This is surely a strong argument for planting more smaller churches. If more church leaders were aware of this research (and willing to take it seriously), it could have a significant impact on how we think about planting churches. Timmis asks when is the right time to plant, and says that:

'Planting is perhaps an option sooner than we might have imagined it to be. There is no reason why churches with a membership of around fifty committed individuals can't at least begin to be thinking of planting.' (page 18)

However, he goes on to observe that:

'Sadly the reality is that most churches with even a hundred members wouldn't dream of planting...' (page 18)

And he says that:

'Church planting does not have to wait until there are sufficient funds to rent a large school hall, or support a full-time minister. Neither is it vital that a constitution be written, a pulpit purchased hymnbooks acquired, nor quality musicians found to lead the first 'public' meeting.' (page 18)

In the light of the biblical importance of church planting, and the demonstrated effectiveness of smaller churches, Timmis asks why church planting is regarded with suspicion by some, and with indifference by many. It is hard to disagree with his conclusion that:

'... a preoccupation with our own comfort and reputation must have something to do with it.' (page 22)

A theological perspective

Tim Chester's chapter on the biblical basis for church planting indirectly picks up this point about a preoccupation with our own comfort. The key issue is whether or understanding of church is biblical, or is formed by our traditions which we cannot violate. So Chester says that:

'Pastor, building, sermons, membership role, constitution - implicitly these shape the image of the church for many people, But do they define what it means to be church? Here the challenge is not just to do the theological thinking, but to have the imagination to strip away the traditional or denominational baggage from our images of the church.' (page 24)

And:

'Ask when a church plant becomes a church and people's functional definitions of church are often revealed. Is it when a launch takes place? Is it when a constitution is agreed? Is it when leaders are appointed? Or is it, as Luke's statement might suggest, as soon as you have a group committed to the Bible, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayer?' (page 24)

His argument is that:

'Unless we are prepared to work from definitions that are biblically and theologically informed, church plants run the risk of being clones - copies of sending churches. Unless we recognise this danger, church planting may in fact reduce missionary activity as smaller churches struggle to ape the programmes of larger churches.' (page 25)

Of course, one of the reasons why people are reluctant to plant churches is that they fear it will weaken the 'mother church.' But Chester argues that:

'Far from weakening a sending church, church planting is a vital opportunity to re-focus the life of the church on the gospel. The identity of the sending church should radically change - it cannot continue as the same church. It can no longer simply repeat its programme. It will look again for new leaders to emerge. It has to ask all over again how to reach its neighbourhood with the gospel.' (page 26)

Think small

One of the biggest practical difficulties in the way of church planting is the belief that we have to send out a large, fully functioning congregation, with staff, buildings (or at least, a building programme), and a full programme of activities right from the word go. Nothing could be less biblical. We need to learn to think smaller, not bigger:

'The apostolic churches met in homes... Whatever the reasons for this, it meant that they grew by adding further household gatherings, rather than by adding numbers to one mega-congregation.' (page 39)

Clearly, in the New Testament, churches were household churches:

'Household determines a size in which mutual discipleship and care can realistically take place. It creates a simplicity that militates against the maintenance mentality; there are no expensive buildings to maintain or complex programmes to run. It determines a style that is participatory and inclusive, mirroring the discipleship model and table fellowship of Jesus himself. It was no accident or force of circumstance that the church of the New Testament met as household groups - this was the best way to 'do' church.' (page 41)

Ant Chester sums up by saying:

'The church in the New Testament grew by dividing, not by building larger auditoriums.' (page 42)

'Dividing a large church may well mean more effort and struggle, but inactivity and comfort are not biblical norms for discipleship.' (page 43)

History and geography

Roger Welch's historical survey focuses on England, and takes in the early Baptists, the Methodist revival, and the work of C H Spurgeon and his college.

In the next two chapters, Tim Thornborough looks at what can be learned from church plants both in the UK and around the world. These chapters provide plenty of thought-provoking illustrations of the principles in the first two chapters.

Key principles

In chapter 6, Stephen Timmis distills out some key principles for multiplying churches:

1. Think Gospel
2. Think Church
3. Think leaders
4. Think team
5. Think strategy
6. Think creative
7. Think long-term

One of the biggest issues that this book brings to the surface is the way that, even when we say we believe the Bible, our ideas about the church, and our church practices - our ecclesiology - are often driven by tradition, and by what we are comfortable with and have come to expect. Timmis says that

'The practical reality is that to many people, church is synonymous with buildings, Sunday meetings, constitutions, officers, printed programmes, music groups, PA systems etc. But this is far from the truth.' (page 106)

His conclusion is that

'Willingness to subject the baggage of our traditions and denominations to biblical scrutiny is vital. Church planting is not church cloning. To 'do' church in a way that is appropriate to the new mission context, it is necessary to engage in serious thinking about what church is.' (page 106)

Stephen Timmis and Tim Chester are leaders of The Crowded House in Sheffield

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