Aaron Proffitt

As many of you read from my previous post, I am embarking on a new direction with my blog. The direction I am taking the blog will still include posts pertaining to my family life, Aletheia life, and other random stuff, but the primary objective will now be to relay insights on church planting to those interested. I am a church planter, that’s what I have been called to do and it’s what I am currently doing. I love it.

Many people have asked the question why should people plant churches in America if there are already thousands of churches in existence already. People may even say that if many of these said churches (some of which are stagnant or dying) were just given a face lift then we wouldn’t have to pour out the resources into new churches rather build up what is already there. This is wrong for so many reasons:
1. Planting churches is Biblical (See the book of Acts and see Jesus’ little chat before he checks out of earth to sit on the right hand of the father at the end of Matthew). The concepts of duplication and reproduction are very New Testament-y concepts.
2. Many of these said dying churches already in existence don’t want to change the way the are doing things in order to reach people. They are content with maintaining their standard of convenience and comfort while lost people in their community maintain being lost. Enter a new church plant to potentially solve that problem.
3. Planting Churches (can potentially) provide a new and fresh alternative to the old and stale environments that most people will not appeal to. If we want to “become all things to all men so that by all means we will win some,” like the Apostle Paul, we have to change our methodology constantly.
4. Planting churches helps to add to God’s kingdom rather than maintain God’s kingdom. What I mean is that if we stop planting churches, our view point will become one of preserving what we have instead of multiplying to see expansion.
5. Planting churches involves somewhat of a risk (and I am saying here that risk is good)…something that many Americans are not willing to take but are challenged to do in God’s Word. Jesus Himself says in Luke 14:33 that “whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple.” God isn’t saying “wait around, hoard as much stuff as you can, live life out of convenience…heck, serve me out of convenience, and maybe one day your chance will come to really take a risk and be a genuine follower of mine.” Accomplishing Jesus’ challenge in Luke involves risk. Church planting is risky. But taking risks means obeying God!
6. Planting churches gives you the opportunity to do church the way that God really wants you to do it. I remember my father going into a situation in 1993 where he had the tall order of revitalizing a 50 year old stale and dying baptist church. The church needed instantaneous reform. How long do you think it took him to make change happen? Years! Many years! Some of the changes didn’t take place until he had been there for 8 years. When we went to Harrisonburg in 2001 to start the first Aletheia Church,it was an entirely different scenario. We adhered to the Biblical model of how to plant churches (Acts 13-20), chose our own methodology that we felt worked in that University town, and didn’t have to deal with grumpy deacons, 50 year old traditions, and a canonized constitution and bi-laws.

Those are just a few of many reasons that I could spout out today. Give me more reasons. Let’s see where this goes…