Updated Tuesday, March 18, 2008

'Planting New Congregations Sunday' set for March 30

By Mickey Noah

NAMB

ALPHARETTA, Ga. - The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) has designated March 30 as "On Mission Together: Planting New Congregations Sunday" - a day to emphasize the need for SBC churches to plant new churches throughout North America.

"We hope that holding a special day focusing on planting new churches will inspire and motivate existing churches and individual members to recognize their communities as mission fields, and to be used by God to start new churches," said David Meacham, the North American Mission Board's (NAMB) senior strategist for church planting. "Some might ask those of us in the Southern Baptist Convention why it needs more churches when it already has more than 42,000 churches with some 16 million members."

In highlighting the need for planting new churches across North America, Meacham cited research by Dave Olson, director of church planting for the Evangelical Covenant Church. The study includes 10 years of attendance data from 300,000 Christian churches in America.

"According to Olson, 3,200 churches close their doors each year in America, while 3,600 new churches are started. That resulted in a net gain of 4,600 churches from 1990-2000. However, to have kept pace with population growth during the decade, a net gain of some 39,000 churches was needed," Meacham said.

In the last 10 years, the overall membership of all Protestant denominations in America has declined 9.5 percent, while the national population has increased by 11 percent, according to Meacham.

According to NAMB statistics, there were 29 churches for every 10,000 Americans in 1900; 17 churches for every 10,000 Americans in 1950; 12 churches for every 10,000 in 2000; and only 11 churches for every 10,000 in 2004.

"Clearly, we are losing ground with each passing year," said Meacham. "We have a growing evangelistic deficit in America that will best be answered by starting new churches."

Planting new churches is widely accepted among Christian denominations - especially the SBC - as the single most effective way to evangelize. New churches simply do a better job of reaching more people for Christ than older churches, according to Meacham.

"Studies show that a three-year-old church is only half as effective in reaching people for Christ as it was in its early days. Once a church is 15 years old, it becomes only one-third as effective," Meacham said.

He added that new churches reach more new people, while established churches reach more established people. Statistically, the larger and older a church, the less likely it is to successfully evangelize, Meacham said.

"New churches also speak the language of the next generation," he said. "New churches are often led by younger pastors who know the subtleties of the culture. What they lack in experience, they make up for with a pioneering spirit."

Ed Stetzer, director for research at SBC's LifeWay Christian Resources in Nashville, Tenn., claims more than 50,000 churches were planted in North America between 1980 and 2000, but that church planting today is only half what it was in the 1950s.

Meacham said a complete package of "Planting New Congregations Sunday" promotional materials for churches are available online from NAMB, including posters, clip art, sermon outlines, PowerPoint presentations, videos and extensive information on church planting. The package is free and downloadable at http://www.churchplantingvillage.net.

Contact Shelby Bork at (770) 410-6223 at NAMB or e-mail discoverchurchplanting@namb.net.