by Dan Greer
Over the past few months I have seen a groundswell of enthusiasm for planting churches in our movement or among those wanting to affiliate with our network. I regularly receive calls from young men who have recently planted churches and from those who want to become church planters in our Fellowship. This is good news, because according to www.churchleadership.org, over 4,000 churches are closing their doors in the U.S. each year.
Historically, the BBF has been known for church planting and evangelism resulting in thousands of church starts across the land and millions of people coming to Christ. What’s exciting is that there has been a recent upsurge of enthusiasm over starting new churches that is gaining momentum in many areas of our country.
I live in Houston and have had contact with young men such as Jeff Williams in Humble, Gary Melbourne who started a work in the Rosenberg/Pearland area, Harold Payne, Jr. who planted a church in Pearland, and Lynn Phipps who is starting a new church in the Kingwood area. Ira Walton came to Houston during October to work with some of the young men who are planning to start new works in this area. North of Houston, Dan Greer has had meetings with Robbie Pollard who has launched a new work in The Woodlands, and Willie Gains who is meeting with about 40 adults in preparation for a launch soon.
To accommodate this resurgence, our subcommittee has approved a plan to divide the nation into ten regions that will cluster states together for assessing, training, coaching, mentoring, and assisting in the fundraising effort for new churches. Already New Mexico, Texas, and Louisiana have united efforts under the leadership of Terry Kiser and their state chairmen, while Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, and Arkansas are pulling together under the leadership of Linzy Slayden and their state chairmen. Other clusters are now beginning to form in the Ohio River Valley and the Deep South.
Out in California, John Markum just launched a new church in the Bay area with 93 in attendance, seven saved, and five following the Lord in baptism. Markum recently wrote, “As a movement, I’m very excited that our Fellowship is thoroughly exploring the options of a decentralized, regional church planting emphasis. In my experience, this will give us the ability to do five things: (1) Better assess the qualifications of a potential planter for a specific part of the country. (2) Create a more local and regional passion among Fellowship pastors and churches for planting more congregations in their region. (3) Expedite fundraising and resourcing for planters. (4) Create local networks for sharing tools, experience, resources, and ideas among established pastors and other planters. (5) Enable tenured pastors/planters to mentor and coach new planters. A regional structure will enable us to plant many more churches, tailor the vision to reproduce churches to each region’s context, expand our great movement, and reach more people with the Gospel.”