Today I was a part of a training event for church planters hosted by the Baptist Convention of New England. The guest speaker was JD Payne, author of “Discovering Church Planting: An Introduction to the Whats, Whys, and Hows of Global Church Planting” (Affiliate Link). Everyone in attendance received a copy of the book so I’m sure I’ll be reviewing it here at ChurchETHOS soon.
JD Payne is a national missionary with the North American Mission Board and is an Associate Professor of Church Planting and Evangelism at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY where he also directs their church planting center. He has written two other books and is the founder of northamericanmissions.org.
Here are a couple of insights from JD Payne’s research and missiology from today’s talks (and also from some blog posts and other data I’ve gotten from him in months past):
There are 29 metro areas in the US with fewer than 5% of the population who are evangelical.
When I looked through this data, I discovered that 11 of the 29 metro areas are in New England and I’m living in one of them! Here are some more nuggets:
The way we are planting churches in North America must change. There are 4 billion people around the world who are not following Jesus and 2 billion who have never even heard of him. Our methods need to change if we are going to reach them with the gospel.
Payne’s definition of church planting: evangelism that results in new churches. Question: can you plant a church without evangelism?
If you have a shaky theology then your missiology will be shaky, if your missiology is shaky then your missional practices will be on shaky ground. Our theology informs our missiology informs how we do mission.
Suggested ethical guideline for church planting practices: Since the global need for the gospel is so great, unless God reveals otherwise, we will begin our ministry among people with the greatest need and with a high level of receptivity to the gospel.
Another suggested ethical guideline: Since the world consists of four billion unbelievers, with two billion who have never heard the gospel, our strategy will involve the use of highly reproducible church planting methods.
I couldn’t agree more with JD about these guidelines and some of the thoughts he conveyed at our meeting. I will be sharing more of his insights and my responses in the weeks ahead, but for now I thought I would share some of the highlights!
What are your thoughts to some of his research and insights about church planting in North America?
Long time reader / 1st time poster. Really enjoy reading the blog, keep up the good work. Will definitely start posting more in the future.