How Does Church Planting Relate to Discipleship?
When I was young, my father told me, “Nick, throughout your life you will hear unbelievers in North America saying disparaging things like, ‘There are too many churches everywhere,’ or ‘There’s a church on every corner’—when, in fact, they do not attend any church on any corner.” To this, he added, “There will always be a need for God’s people to plant more biblically solid churches.” He elaborated, “There are many so-called ‘churches,’ but there are never many biblically faithful churches. God would be glorified if His people planted doctrinally solid churches on every corner of every city in every country of the world!” I didn’t understand how profoundly important that sentiment was at the time. However, having planted a church and having helped with training church planters over the years, I have come to embrace my father’s conviction about the need for church planting.
I love church planting because God is glorified when the redeemed gather together to worship Him in Spirit and in truth in faithful congregations across the face of the earth. I also love church planting because it is one of the principal ways in which the church faithfully carries out the Great Commission. The mission of the church is the discipling of God’s people among the nations (Matt. 28:18–20). God’s people are best discipled in the context of the local church. When there is no biblically sound local church in a particular locale, a church plant is needed for the purpose of lifelong discipleship.
Prior to His ascension, Jesus told His disciples:
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. (Matt. 28:19–20)
The great Discipler charged His disciples to make disciples. How would they accomplish this? Simply put, through the work of evangelism leading to church planting and, from there, to organized churches. This is exemplified by the Apostolic commitments recorded in the book of Acts.
God’s people are best discipled in the context of the local church.
The Apostles didn’t simply engage in evangelistic preaching in the village greens of the cities they entered. They set in place what was necessary to ensure disciple-making and disciple-building in specific geographical regions. In short, Jesus’ charge of disciple-making is best fulfilled through the establishment of biblically faithful churches on every corner of every city in every country throughout the world. We find a key example of this in the account of Paul and Barnabas in the region of Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch in Acts 14:21–22:
When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.
Paul and Barnabas did not stop their labor with evangelism after seeing new converts brought to saving faith in Christ through the preaching of the gospel. Rather, they returned to where they had previously made disciples. Luke tells us that they strengthened the souls of the disciples (Acts 14:22). Paul recognized that a further work was needed among those who had become disciples of Christ through the preaching of the gospel.
Luke records that “when they had appointed elders for them in every church . . . they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed” (Acts 14:23). At the inception of the new covenant church, Paul and Barnabas understood that believers needed a church in order for them to be strengthened to “continue in the faith” (Acts 14:22). Where there was no church, they organized one with the believers there. This too is essential to discipleship. Believers are brought to saving faith and then strengthened for continuance in the faith as disciples through the ministry of local churches.
Discipleship occurs primarily through the ministry of the means of grace—namely, the Word, prayer, the sacraments, and discipline—in the context of the gathered worshiping assembly of God’s people. While some well-meaning believers may convince themselves that discipleship primarily occurs through a youth group, college ministry, one-on-one mentoring, or personal Bible study (all which have their place in the lives of the people of God), the local church is the principal sphere of discipleship. For this reason, the Lord has sent laborers out to the harvest to plant and establish local churches in which men, women, boys, and girls are discipled in the school of Christ. If we are going to be obedient to the Great Commission, we should commit to supporting the work of church planting for the discipling of Christ’s people among the nations.
