The elders recommend the church consider planting a church in in the Wiregrass area. The elders plan to bring a motion to the church with further details in the next members meeting. We ask the church to enter a season of prayer and education beginning now toward this goal.
We live in a time when the church is obsessed with growth. Everywhere you turn, there are strategies, programs, marketing techniques—people trying to figure out how to grow the church. But the real question is not how we grow the church; the real question is, how does God grow His church?
And the answer is simple: through the faithful preaching of the gospel, the making of disciples, and the planting of new churches. That’s the pattern laid out for us in the New Testament. That’s the divine strategy.
In Acts 1:8, Jesus tells His disciples, ‘You shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.’ Now, how was that mission carried out? By planting churches.
As we move through Acts, what do we see? The apostles don’t just gather crowds. They don’t simply hold large evangelistic campaigns. They preach the gospel, people are saved, and then they establish local congregations. In Acts 13 and 14, Paul and Barnabas are sent out by the church in Antioch, and what do they do? They proclaim Christ, they make disciples, and they plant churches.
Church planting is not just about expansion—it’s about health.
Too often, people think of church growth in terms of size. ‘How big is your church? How many members do you have?’ But biblical church growth is about faithfulness, not numbers. It’s about maturing believers, equipping the saints for the work of ministry (Ephesians 4:12), and raising up new leaders who will shepherd God’s people.
If a church simply gets bigger and bigger but fails to multiply, what happens? It becomes inward-focused, leadership becomes strained, and discipleship suffers. But when new churches are planted, new leaders are raised up, new disciples are made, and the reach of the gospel extends further.
This is exactly what we see in the New Testament. Paul didn’t just plant one mega-church and call it a day. He established multiple congregations—each with their own elders, their own structure, their own mission. And these churches, in turn, planted more churches. That’s why we see letters written to the churches in Galatia, Philippi, Thessalonica, Ephesus—all evidence of a multiplying movement.
Church planting not only fosters growth and health—it protects the church from compromise.
One of the great dangers in our time is the tendency for churches to drift into pragmatism—to abandon sound doctrine in pursuit of cultural relevance or numerical success. But when the focus is on planting biblically faithful churches, the emphasis remains on truth. The goal is not to entertain or attract, but to proclaim the Word of God and disciple believers in sound doctrine.
This is why Paul was so adamant about appointing qualified elders in every church (Titus 1:5). Strong, biblical leadership ensures that new congregations remain committed to the authority of Scripture, to sound theology, and to the true gospel. And when churches remain faithful to Scripture, they multiply in a way that honors God—not through gimmicks or worldly methods, but through the power of His Word.
So, what does all of this mean for us? It means that if we are serious about biblical church growth, we must be serious about church planting. It means that pastors must be training up the next generation of leaders. It means that congregations must be willing to send out their best, to sacrifice for the sake of the gospel.
And it means that all of us—whether we stay or go—must be committed to the mission of Christ: to make disciples, to establish churches, and to see the gospel spread to the ends of the earth. That’s the biblical model. That’s the divine strategy. And that’s what we must be faithful to pursue.
Consider whether you and your family might be a part of this church plant as faithful members serving, living, or working in this community for the sake of the gospel.