Knee Jerk Church Planting

One of the things in this world that is truly bothersome is knee jerk church planting. What is knee jerk church planting?

Knee jerk church planting goes like this: A denominational executive, or independent church planter with a call to plant a church, gets their hands on some demographic info that lists the fastest fifty growing counties in the United States. The independent church planter who engages in knee jerk church planting chooses the county that fits him/her and their family the best and moves there and seeks to begin a church (along with the other 25 people who have felt called by God to start a church plus the 15 denominational church planters there). The denominational executive takes a look around the area to see if there are any churches from his/ her tribe serving that area, and if not, decides that we really need a church in Kalamazoo.

Apart from the necessity to get on one's face before God in sustained prayer before starting to plant a church, there are other major problems with this type of church planting strategy. Instead of asking what the fastest growing counties are in the nation and using that as the sole basis for beginning new churches, it might be better to see which counties are most underserved, most in need, and most importantly most prechurched. The days of starting churches based solely on population demographics must come to a close. For the denominationalists, it should never be a question of whether my denomination has a presence in an area but whether or not the area is effectively being reached for Christ regardless of what tribe is doing the reaching.

I am a big proponent of holistic church planting that starts with a commitment to discernment in prayer, searching the scriptures and fasting. This would be a system that takes into account population trends but does not let them be the sole basis for the decision to plant or not plant. In fact, there is something to be said for planting in areas without a "through the roof" population boon. This can be particularly effective if one is the first to plant a church that is a fresh expression of Christianity in a particular area and be the first to do it well.