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Why Start New Churches?. Church Planting is Biblical. Matthew 28:19-20.
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Why Start New Churches? Church Planting is Biblical
Matthew 28:19-20 • “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. A-men.”KJV
ACTS 1:8 • " But you will receive power, when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” ACTS 8:1-4 "….On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem; and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria….those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went."
WHY PERSECUTION? Could it have been to start new churches? • "Now those who had been scattered by the persecution in connection with Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, telling the message only to Jews. Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch, and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus….Saul met with the Church….." (ACTS 11:19-26)
New and Old • No man puts a piece of a new garment upon an old; if otherwise, then both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old. And no man puts new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish. But new wine must be put into newbottles; and both are preserved. No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, Theold is better (Luke 5:36-39).
Why Start New Churches? Also the FACTS convince us of the need to plant new churches
Church Planting is the most evangelistic methodology to reach the lost. NOCounty in Oklahoma has a greater percentage of churched persons today than a decade ago. (Barna and ASCG)
CONSIDERING OKLAHOMA SBC CHURCHES;SMALLER churches win more people per person than LARGER churches. The top ten Oklahoma SBC churches in ratio of resident members to baptisms; • Churches with a resident membership of 1,500 & UP had a ratio of 23 resident member to win 1 • Churches with a resident membership of 700-1499 • It took 13 resident member to win 1 • Churches with a resident membership of 400-699 • It took 11 resident member to win 1 • Churches with a resident membership of 200-399 • It took 6 resident member to win 1 • Churches with a resident membership of 100-199 • It took 4 resident member to win 1 • Churches with a resident membership of 1- 99 • It took 2 resident member to win 1
You can see from the chart below we need baptisms in Oklahoma
Less Committed Witnesses Southern Baptist in Oklahoma
SBC CHURCHES STAGNANT POOLS?Membership and baptisms at Southern Baptist churches: SOU RCE: Southern Baptist Journal of Theology, spring 2005
SBC CHURCHES SMALLER SHARE The percentage of Americans who identify themselves as Southern Baptists has fallen in recent years. • April 2005, 4% • 2004, 6% • 2003, 7% • 2002, 7% • 2001, 7% • 2000, 8% • 1999, 9% • 1998, 8% • 1997, 8% • SOURCE: Gallup Poll
While the population has grown by 1,000,000 people Oklahoma Churches have plateaued and began to decline
The last 6 years the total resident membership in Oklahoma continues to fall.
When you take away the new churches that have been stated the resident membership per church would be worse.
Why Be Concerned about Oklahoma? • On any given Sunday in Oklahoma 84 out of 100 people are not in Church
We must Understand: • A new church will grow from 0 to 95 in attendance in the first 5 years. • A church older than5 years will grow from 95 to 100in attendance in the next95 years. (Tim Ahlen,Dallas Baptist Association)
Considering all evangelist churches in America, we are losing ground • In 1900, there were 27 churches for every 10,000 people in America • In 1950, there were 17 churches for every 10,000 people in America. • In 2000, there were 11 churches for every 10,000 people in America.
In Oklahoma we have 1,631 churches and 83 missions. A total of 1,714 • Anglo 1,411 • Black 27 • Hispanic 56 • Chinese 5 • Indian 182 • Korean 8 • Other 25 • Total 1,714 • 9 churches with an average S.S. att. Of over 1,000 • - 500 to 1,000 • 120 – 200 to 500 • 233 – 100 to 200 • 1,048 – 0 to 100
How are we doing?2005 estimated Population to church ratio • 2000 Population of 3,381,589 • 2005 estimate 3,499,409 • net gain of - 117,820 • Divide 1714 churches, today’s number of churches, in to today’s population and it will give us a population ratio 2,042! • For the last 3 years we have averaged around 60 new starts per year. We have gained from the 2000 ratio of 2,052 people per church. • First gain in 45 years. • It still would take 274 new churches to get us back to the population to church ratio we were in 1960 of 1 church to 1,760 people
WE MUST COMMIT TO PLANT MORE NEW CHURCHES • Here are some popular excuses churches make to avoid starting new churches: • Not enough leadership • Not enough money • Not enough members • In three years, Calvario Baptist Church in Corpus Christi, Texas has started 31 new missions... • Calvario only has 332 members. • Now, what’s your excuse?