I'm the son and Grandson of church planners I came to Faith In Jesus at the age of seven and have been around Church all my life during my last week of college I was studying to be a high school choir teacher thought I was going to direct a choir but instead God said I want you to be in Ministry so I started doing Ministry at that time and it became clear that's what I was going to do for the rest of my life 3 months after was finishing College thinking I'm not going back to school
for a long time things changed God had me back in seminary I was at Gateway Seminary used to be called Golden Gate and I was going to school fulltime and and doing different things and soon after I started school I ended up being on staff of a church in Long View Washington my first full-time Ministry job I did a variety of things I was worship leader I led the youth ministry I did Sunday school I led all sorts of things pretty much everything but being the main preacher uh because the senior pastor just loved to
preach and visit people and he wanted me to lead the other Ministries so it was an incredible learning experience for me I just had a wonderful time and man we prayed we told people about Jesus we' go to their house we go to their work we go to wherever they would meet with them and we got to tell people about Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior but but the problem was we were growing but not as fast as I felt like we should be I really became frustrated frustrated that we weren't seeing more people come
to Christ and I I became very honest with God about my frustration and I I let him no I God I I just don't understand and God spoke to me very loudly loudly louder than I'm talking to you right now God said Gary you've been adding it's time to start multiplying now again was the son and Grandson of a church planner I didn't need an interpretation I knew what God was telling me was it was my turn to get involved in church planning so with the blessing of our senior pastor Ted cotton um I led
our church to plan its first church in over 25 years it was an incredible time uh we had a church planner that I supervised his name was Rob pingr great church planner now a missionary been serving overseas a number of years back and forth in the US but God really blessed that church I used to joke with people and say I'm glad God blessed the church uh because if not Rob and I might both be selling cars not that that's a bad thing but it wasn't really what God had planned for our lives and that
church thrived and it was such an exciting time such a wonderful thing that I I could no longer uh think of doing anything else I was hooked I knew that church planning was what I was going to do for the rest of my life so what we're going to be talking about about is you having exposure to that same exciting thing I want to tell you about how we told people about Jesus and churches would emerge we call that planting the gospel I'm Gary Irby I'm going to be your instructor for the next 12 sessions
11 12 we're trying to figure out what exactly that'll be you'll know soon but I'm going to be your instru instructor as we talk about church planning and evangelism so why are church planning and evangelism so important let me show it to you this way so that was probably a little awkward for you right uh it might even have been uh beyond that you might have thought you know is he having some kind of medical episode does he think he paused the recording what's going on why why is he just standing there being silent now
I want you to imagine something else I have five awesome grandchildren and let me warn you now if it were up to me I would be talking about them every time all the time uh we wouldn't get any learning done we would just hear about my grand grandchildren I could show you pictures uh they're incredible my youngest grandchild is 1 month old and because she lives all the way in Ohio with her parents uh I haven't got to see her yet as a matter of fact I get to see her for the first time next
week uh I have grandkids all the way up to age 12 and uh they call me Papa it's funny when you're a grandparent you decide what you want to be called but whatever that first kid calls you that's what you are and my first granddaughter she called me Papa so that's what I became so imagine I'm spending time with these grandkids which I love to do I one of these guys you know I I just asse they live with me uh I would love to watch them uh if I'm ever in your town believe it
or not if I got free time I justum babysit your kids is go preach at your church I would love to spend time with kids we just have a lot of fun together I'm like I'm 63 I'm like a giant jungle gy we just have a good time together now let's imagine that Charlie who is 5 years old that Charlie and I were playing outside right and we live on a street that it's only supposed to be 25 miles an hour but it's it's a main thoroughfare it's a road that people use to go from
one town to another and right in front of our house there's a straight stretch of road and on a sunny summer day in Seattle people know how to get out and enjoy it uh we don't get enough Sun but in the summer we get a lot of sun and a really long day and people get out there in their cars and their trucks and their motorcycles and they go on our 25 mph road and it is not unheard of for people to drive 50 miles an hour or more down our road imagine that I'm playing
outside with Charlie and all of a sudden he books it for the road he's kicked his ball out in the road he wants to go get it and he just goes after it now what would it be like if I did what I just did in the video a couple of minutes ago and I just stood there and looked around and didn't say anything I didn't do anything I might even thought to myself you know Charlie I've told you before more than once do not go on that road but now I'm going to let you
go on that road you're going to have to learn your lesson and I hear a big truck coming and I just stand there you would think I'm crazy you would think I am a terrible grandparent and you would be right you should call CPS on me child protective services and get Charlie out of this situation because I'm just not taking care of it but the reality is I wouldn't do that why because I see that great harm or even death is coming to Charlie I need to say something I need to do something I need
to take action so you may be saying well wow Gary this is really a heavy way to start off a class I mean really kind of bringing me down here making me feel guilty okay okay let's look at this in a different way uh we we live in a time where people are all about hey don't be too pushy don't talk about what's truth to you I have Truth for me let's not talk about religions or politics we're afraid uh sometimes to talk but there's also positive reasons why we should talk things not just helping
them Escape eternity away from God but what's a more P positive way to look at it imagine you're going on a dream vacation maybe it's a cabin in the mountains or a cruise to the tropics uh maybe you're going to see family you haven't seen for years for me it'd be like being on a warm beach somewhere a place where you can sit and relax in the shade you can go snorkeling and see all sorts of colorful fish and sea turtles and that would just be an incredible time now imagine you could take that vacation
you could take it as long as you wanted if you wanted to go for a month or a year whatever you could go and you could take anybody you wanted maybe it's your spouse maybe it's maybe it's some friends maybe it's nobody I don't know but imagine you could go to this place and just have an incredible time now can you picture that now think about the Kingdom of Heaven think about this most beautiful place you're thinking about of incredible beauty and it would be nothing nothing compared to the power and beauty and majesty and
worship that is the Kingdom of Heaven the Kingdom of Heaven is incredible because it's in the presence of King Jesus in the last book of Revelation the Apostle John put it this way he said in verse 21 the 12 gates are 12 pearls he's talking about the Kingdom of Heaven as a city the 12 gates are 12 pearls each individual gate has been made of a single Pearl the Broad Street of the city was pure gold like transparent glass I did not see a sanctuary in it because the Lord God the almighty and the lamb
are this s are its Sanctuary the city does not need the sun or moon to shine on it because God's glory illuminates it and its lamp is the Lamb Revelation 21 21-23 the lamb that it's talking about is Jesus Heaven needs no sun because the lamb King Jesus is there it is a glorious place beyond anything we can imagine how would we not want people to experience that now the Kingdom of Heaven is not just a place we go to when we die Heaven is a place we go to after this life but when God
talks about the kingdom of heaven when Jesus talks about the New Testament he's talking about what God is bringing not just in heaven but here on Earth as as a matter of fact Jesus talked about the Kingdom of Heaven A Lot 126 times the kingdom of heaven or its other title the kingdom of God is mentioned in the gospels the gospels being the four first books of the New Testament Matthew Mark Luke and John 126 times Jesus talks about the gospels even when Jesus was answering the disciples request they said Jesus teach us how to
pray even when he was teaching them how to pray he taught him about the kingdom he said Our Father who art in heaven Hallowed be your name thy kingdom come thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven he was teaching us that he wants the Kingdom of Heaven to be practically and present here so what does that mean how is that done how is God's kingdom here it God's kingdom is here because because of what we do in sharing our faith and sharing the gospel with others and seeing churches emerge from that
we call that evangelism evangelism is not just fire service Insurance to keep us from going to hell and burning and making sure we get to heaven evangelism is literally telling people the good news about being in a relationship with Jesus Christ it comes from the Greek word euangelion euangelion literally really means good news the good news of Jesus Christ but evangelism you know it is so much more than about heaven I want to tell you a story about when I first started leading a church planning Ministry I was working in the Northwest where I am
now living in this same house that I've been in for over 30 years now and uh I had gone to the North American Mission board and to be interviewed my wife and I my wife Joyce and I went to these interviews and met a number of people but the one we clicked with the best was a man named Jerry rer and Jerry was the longest employed person of the North American Mission board before it was the North American Mission board it was the home Mission board and that's who my dad used to work for leading
a church planning Ministry but it had become the North American Mission board Jerry had worked for the home Mission board and stayed on when it became the North American Mission board and I remember always learning different truths and ideas and stuff from Jerry but one day he told me about a story about a man who came to his neighborhood and moved into his culdesac this court in his neighborhood where just a few neighbors were and this man also worked for the North American Mission board he was a special assistant to the president of the North
American Mission board this man's name was Dr Henry blackaby now some of you may know that name many of you may not but Henry blackaby was one of the most famous Christian authors of his time and famous speakers he was an incredibly Godly Man uh he was a friend of my parents he served up in British Columbia and and helped start churches there and Lead Ministry there and he wrote a book called Experiencing God it's still widely used today you got to check it out but Experiencing God by Henry blackby has touched millions and millions
of lives in many languages around the world and now thisy Henry blackaby who is this spiritual giant moves into my friend's neighborhood Henry comes over knocks on Jerry's door and he says hey I hear that you and I are neighbors and he said uh I was wondering if maybe you would like if I could come over once a week and you and I we could take our Bibles and we could sit down together and study God's word together and pray together what do you think now I don't know about you but if somebody picture who
you see as the great spiritual giant whether it's Henry or it's Billy Graham or you know just some other people like today maybe Bill elff shows up you hear one of these guys and they want to come to your house and sit out with you oneon-one and get and do Bible study I don't know I might I might be so insecure in who I am spiritually that I'd say okay I love that idea I'm going to go back to Seminary and this time and get my doctorate and after I have my doctorate it and I
consult some people and study okay I think I'll be ready for this but fortunately my friend Jerry was braver he just said man that would be awesome let's do the study together let's come together and study God's word so he said as you can imagine he was telling me story he said you can imagine Gary this was just an incredible time it we would we would open God's word and we would study things and it would be beyond anything I'd ever experienced before in a one-on-one Bible study and we get done and we'd pray together
and you'd hear Henry pray and you know praying is talking to God but when you heard Henry pray it really was like he and God were having a conversation and you were listening in he just had such a deep personal relationship with God so they'd have this time of study they'd pray together and when they did that the first time Henry stood up he's an older gem he stands up he walks over he uh takes his Bible and he shakes his in Jerry's face and he says Jerry you know the Bible is first and foremost
a book about relationships and Jerry's like yeah man that's deep that's that's yes that's good that's that's good stuff right there so Henry goes home next week he comes back same thing great Bible study incredible time great time in prayer Henry gets up to go home he walks over to Jerry he shakes his Bible in Jerry's face and he says you know Jerry the Bible is first and foremost a book about relationships and Jerry's thinking now I know he's getting older he may not remember that he made that point last week so he goes yeah
you know okay I won't say anything yeah it'll it I I'll just yeah thank you Dr blackby that was great this goes on week after week after week he does the bible study they pray together and then Jerry says I just kind of tense up cuz I know it's coming he's going to take that Bible and he's going to shake it in my face and he's going to say Jerry the Bible is first and foremost a book about relationships he got so frustrated he talked to his wife and he said Julie i' I don't get
it every week we have this incredible study we have this great prayer time and then he comes over and shakes that Bible in my face and he every single time he says the Bible is first and foremost a book about relationships why does he keep doing that and she looked at him and he said she said maybe it's because you haven't gotten it yet oh Jerry realized he had been in church planning for so long he had been working with people for so long that he started to think about the task of church planning and
the task of sharing the gospel and he was he was just driven driven driven and he'd forgotten why he was doing it in the first place he was doing it because God's word word is about him wanting to be in relationship with us he created man in his own image so that he could be in relationship with him he revealed himself through the Old Testament through Moses and those that followed him the prophets so that he can be in relationship he had a relationship with King David and it was a beautiful thing and David wrote
wonderful psalms about it it just kept going on and on and then most importantly he sent his son Jesus because we were still dead in our sin and Jesus died and was buried and was raised again to life why so that we could be in a pure holy relationship with God God's perfect we are not without Jesus we can't have a relationship with God we need to remember that this course is about the fact that God wants to be in relationship with people and that's why he sent his son and that's why we do euangelion
we tell the good news and that's why we have new churches starting and so more people can hear that good news so let's consider why it is so important for us to share the good news of Jesus there's a number of reasons number one there's no more important relationship in this world than a relationship with God Matthew 2237 and 38 puts it this way Jesus said love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your mind this is the greatest and most important commandment Jesus saw it as the
most important thing the second reason is the more time we spend with him meaning Jesus the more time we spend the more we will produce fruit including fruit and others the more we will want to tell others about Jesus if you are intimate in a relationship with Jesus and you know him so well you know his love you know his presence and joy in your life how can you help but tell people we need to be with him so we can produce fruit John 15:5 says I am the vine you are the branches the one
who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit because you can do nothing without me the those are the words of Jesus be with me and you will produce much fruit the third thing is that we need to understand there is no other way the world will tell you there's their truth their beliefs there's many ways to God the Bible says that's not true and more specifically Jesus says that's not true there is no other way he says and John 14:6 Jesus told him I am the way the truth and the life no
one comes to the father except through me he told us that that is the case what's the fourth reason why we should tell others about Jesus because he flat out told us to in Matthew 28 18-20 we have a very famous passage of scripture it's known as the Great Commission the Great Commission says that Jesus came near and said to them all authority has been given to me and in heaven and on Earth go therefore and Make Disciples of all Nations and baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of
the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you and remember I am with you always to the end of the age he is telling us to go tell people very speciic he says as you go it really saying as you're already going life tell people make disciples don't just make disciples have them be baptized and don't just baptize them when he says teach them to observe all things that I've commanded you he's saying teach them to obey what I teach you and he promises he will be with us now people look at
different truths and and they may believe different things but you know I've seen things like a bumper sticker I know that people have these bumper stickers you may even have one you mean well and there's there's some good ideas in it some good truth the bumper sticker says God said it I believe it that settles it a more accurate bumper stcker would sticker would say God said it that settles it it doesn't matter if I believe it or not it is still the truth it matters if I believe it for my sake but it is
truth whether I believe it or not God could have decided any way to tell the world about himself but he chose to use us he chose to use you and he chose to use me that's why we need to do it because he told us so so what's this urgency to tell people what what's the practical application of that why do we need to evangelize well first of all because the need is huge it is massive the good news in the world today is that Christianity is great growing it's growing at a rate that is
almost 25% faster than the population is growing that's awesome news it's growing on every continent except North America in the United States in 1976 91% of us people claimed to be Christian as of 2022 that number dropped to 64% that's less than 50 years years later and there's a 30% decrease 91% down to 64% that means there's 30% less people believing I'm not talking subtraction I'm talking percentages here so Christianity around the world is growing almost 25% faster than population and it has decreased by almost 30% in the US when you look at the number
of people that are involved in a church every week in the US the numbers are even lower than that we're talking about people who claim to be Christian is 64% but when you look at the people are there it's like half of that are actually in our churches and those that identify as Evangelical and I'm not talking a political party I'm talking Evangelical people that believe the good news that Jesus is the the only way and you must be born again those people who believe that that it it's the only way those numbers are even
lower so there is a great need I'm not telling you this to depress you I'm telling you all this to let you know what an amazing opportunity we have I've been church planning in the Seattle area for over 20 years I started a network over 25 years ago called uh Seattle church planning and over a decade ago I took over the same kind of Ministry for the Northwest meaning Washington Oregon and northern Idaho we call that Northwest church planting you can go to nwplan thing.com and read about it so I've been leading these networks in
the Northwest and during that time we saw Christianity grow over the two and a half decades I've been working in this in the Seattle area Christianity Grew From 3% of the population I mean Evangelical Christian We Grew From 3% to 4 and a half per. now you may say that's not a very high percentage and it's not we are one of the least Church cities as a matter of fact a recent study said we are the least Church city of all the major cities in the United States but we grew from 3% to 45% that's
a 50% increase that's something to celebrate and a lot of that happened through the starting of new churches we are one of only three cities that I know of that were growing in Christianity Seattle San Francisco and New York now people would often ask me why those three cities what do they have in common and my answer would be maybe a little tongue and cheek but actually really serious those cities were so low they had nowhere to go but up so when God did something it really showed up it made a difference in those cities
but here's the problem we we had some stuff happen after that you may remember um covid this little disease we had this little thing going around messing up people's lives and you may like me I've I lost some friends to co I know people that were very very sick and weakened by Co and some that are still feeling some of the effects so that took place here and Seattle being the kind of place it is it was one a place where everything shut down I mean really shut down the first case of covid in the
United States was 15 minutes from my house so it had a big impact here we also live in a place that is I'm not trying to get political but we live in a blue State a very very blue State uh it's a place where politics tend to go to the left and they push in those in those politics very much very often they push a very liberal agenda and it affects people and it gives Christians concern that they are living in an environment they're raising their kids in an environment where they are just bombarded with
that kind of stuff day after day after day and finally because of all the restrictions all the government restrictions all this this pushing to the left kind of stuff a lot of Christians just left in the Seattle area I think it was like 38% of Christians in the last few years left Seattle 37% Statewide that's more than a third so we went from 3% to 4 and a half% but by losing 38% we're now less than 3% Evangelical Christians in our in our area now again I'm not telling you all this to be depressed or
telling you that woe is me we need to remember that uh God warned us these kind of things would happen in Isaiah 5:20 it says woe to those who call evil good and good evil who substitute Darkness for light and light for Darkness who substitute bitter for sweet and Sweet for bitter we were told this kind of stuff's going to happen well it's been happening in our area and so as we think about that we can get really bummed we can get really upset but I don't blame these people they're wanting to move they're wanting
to take care of their families and I get that so here's how I look at this I look at this as God allowed us to reach all these people and to grow them as disciples in Christ and then to send them out as missionaries around North America they went out to other places that are becoming more and more like Seattle more post-christian although Seattle is really pre-christian we've never been Christian but they've been being sent out to these places so that they can have an impact and that just means there's more people people that are
moving in to take their place our population's grown during the time that all these people have left it's just we've had more people that align with the politics of the area that have been coming to the area and it's more people that need to hear about Jesus so we can look at that as the cup is 9/10 empty or we can look at that as just an incredible opportunity to share the gospel we are blessed to see Christians come to faith in this area not because it's politically expedient or it makes them gives them some
great economical boost I've visited churches in some parts of the country where there were people in the church that people knew they were there because if you wanted to sell real estate or be a doctor or be a politician you had to belong to the big church in town or you were kind of shooting yourself in the foot you weren't getting started to begin with that's not the way it is here if anything it's the opposite you actually can be mocked for your beliefs you can actually be put down if you stand up for Jesus
so we're in a place where we need more people that know about Jesus more people that know about God so God is using this to give us opportunities to reach people here and to send people out as missionaries Romans 8:28 puts this this way a very famous passage it says we know that all things work together for good of those who love the Lord who are called according to his purpose I don't know about you but when I hear that all things work together for those who love the lord it's all things so things that
I don't understand things I wouldn't have drawn up if I were God I wouldn't have done things the way they just happened here in the last few years but thank God I am not God he had a plan he had a path to use these things that are so difficult for the sake of being able to share the gospel if we truly understand what evangelism is we don't let those things about the percentages going up and all that stuff stress us out as if we're not doing a good job because there's a definition I want
you to get as a matter of fact this will be on your quiz so take this one down I'm going to give you the definition of evangelism evangelism evangelism is sharing the good news of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results to God I'm going to say it one more time evangelism is sharing the good news of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results to God we do our part God the the son the Holy Spirit and the father they do their part that's
what evangelism is so we are to be prayerful and diligent and relational and telling people about Jesus but the results are not our responsibility the results belong to God you may say all right Gary I get it I understand the importance of evangelism the importance and joy of telling others about Jesus but what does this have to do with church planning what is church planning I'm glad you asked so church planning has been around since the book of Acts but the term church planning has only gained prominence in the past few decades when I first
started in church planning I would tell people that I do church planning I first was a church planner and then I was a church planning missionary and people say well what do you do I say' well I do church planning and they're like so you do the the agriculture like you do landscaping for churches right I'm like no that's not it they go well the plant you know the plant meaning the facility so you you maintain and or build buildings for churches is that it and I'm like no that's not it either and I I
finally would kind of jokingly say to them you know I mess up people's lives then I go home and they'd laugh they go okay that makes what I meant by that is I go find people to start churches by God's leading and help them get started to plant churches and if you've ever done that it is turning your life upside down in a way you've never experienced before so here's something I want to help you with what do we talking about when we mean church planting there's another phrase called Church starting but we use planting
because it's planting focuses more on the making of disciples instead of just starting a church service so church planning is this and I'm going to give you a quote from a book called Center Church by Tim Keller uh in Center Church Tim Keller says church planning is the process of bringing the gospel to a place or people who do not yet know Christ through establishing a new worshipping Community to make disciples train leaders and serve its local neighborhood one more time church planning is the process of bringing the gospel to a place or people who
do not yet know Christ through establishing a new worshipping community that makes disciples trains leaders and serves its local neighborhood we are not planning a church to reach other Christians we are planting the church to see the kingdom of God expand Jesus Jesus felt this was so important that he would talk to us a lot about the Kingdom of Heaven and the church was God's way on Earth of pointing people to the kingdom of heaven that's what really was a priority for Jesus in his time here on Earth uh he talked about it many times
so and he often talked about it in what we call Parables so parables are fictitious stories maybe they're even based on something true that happened at some at some time but it's really Jesus creating a story that he's putting out there in front of them he's putting out Truth for people to understand he's throwing down some truth the word Parable literally means cast alongside so as you go you're just casting this bit of wisdom out there for people to catch hoping that they it will make more sense you've heard me tell some stories today and
it's because stories are more impactful than statistics or just certain kinds of facts a story will help you get something so of the 43 Parables or stories that Jesus told 13 of those or about three out of every 10 stories he told was about the kingdom of Heaven the Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed that grows into a great tree the Kingdom of Heaven is so precious that it's like a valuable Pearl that a servant sells all that he has in order to buy that Pearl the Kingdom of Heaven is like a field
of wheat mixed with weeds that they you wait until the end and you cut down the weeds and the wheat and you separate them and you harvest the wheat and you throw the weeds into the fire the Kingdom of Heaven is the Kingdom of Heaven is is the Kingdom of Heaven is he shared that over and over again and it wasn't just in Parables he talked about the Kingdom of Heaven all the time he mentions the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God 126 times in the gospels and we know that not everything he
ever said are just in those four gospels as a matter of fact the Apostle John who wrote the last Apostle the Gospel of John uh the last of the four gospels John put it this way he said and there are also many other things that Jesus did which if every one of them were written down I suppose not even the world itself could contain the books that would be written John 21:25 John said that Jesus said and did so much stuff we only know part of it from the New Testament he did so much we
couldn't even write it all down if we had to imagine that so many books the world could not contain it we know if Jesus talked about the kingdom of God that much in the New Testament how much more must he have talked about it uh On and On In other times of life and so it was so important to him yet he only mentioned the church a couple of times why is the why is the church so important if Jesus only mentioned a couple of times we have to understand Jesus didn't start the church until
the end of his life like at the very end when he's talking to the apostles and he he said upon the confession of faith that Jesus that Peter made Jesus was going to build his church he was going to build this church that was going to tell people about the kingdom now the apostles they mention the church about 120 times so they talked about the church a lot as a matter of fact a lot of the writings of the Disciples of Jesus who were known as the apostles a lot of those writings including the writings
of the Apostle Paul who wrote the most of any of them he's the one that came to Faith after Jes Jesus had ascended into heaven that's a whole another story we won't get into now but the Apostle Paul talked about church all the time and wrote to churches all the time why because the church is God's chosen instrument to point people to the kingdom of heaven so why is it so important the reason it's the church is so important is because it's the body of Christ we exist to be his hands and feet we are
each gifted for different functions or gifts and those are to be used to build one another up in the fullness of Christ the first sermon I ever preached when I was just starting Seminary was from Ephesians 4 and part of that passage starting verse 11 says this and he himself gave some to be Apostles some prophets some evangelists some pastors and teachers to equip the Saints for the work of ministry to build up the body of Christ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God's son growing into maturity with
a stat measur Beyond Christ's fullness the church exists as a body to build one another up so that we can we can function more effectively for the sake of each other and that's attractive to the world when the world sees in times of Crisis the love and compassion we have for one another it makes them start to question why they don't believe God wants us to be his body another reason is what we've already talked about the Great Commission in Matthew 28 As You Go Make Disciples we we do that because God has told us
to that's his plan that's so the church is what he wants to use to spread the good news of the Kingdom the church is God's plan there is no plan B yes there are par Church organizations there's evangelists there's all these things but those are things that are supplemental to God's priority which is the church the third reason is because God's plan for Christians is to have fellowship and support in the New Testament there are What's called the one another passages the phrase one another appears about 59 times in the New Testament it talks about
the church and he's talking to the church and he says forsake not the Gathering Together of one another in the church and when you do that love one another serve one another be at peace with one another be devoted to one another instruct one another and on and on and on one another one another we are not intended to be in isolation if you're watching this video and you say I'm a Christian but I don't need a church I can just worship God on a hillside or whatever it's like you are worshiping God in a
way that is contrary to how God told you to do it not saying you can't worship God on a hillside sometimes yes but he's telling you you should be in the church for the your sake and for the sake of other Christianity is not just about you Christianity is about God and about others so if the church is God's plan then we need more churches so as you may have guessed if you if you're familiar with the New Testament and you're familiar with the book of Acts you're going to realize that as a church planter
the book of Acts is one of my favorite books I often refer to the book of Acts as not only the original church planning story but the original church planning manual we learn learns so much about how to plant a church from the book of Acts yet it never says church planning in the book so why do why do we think that's so important if they don't say it because they didn't use that phrase but that's what they did they went around planting the gospel remember that mission I talked about they planted the gospel which
resulted in new churches amongst different people groups different places they planted the gospel we were sent out as missionaries and new churches emerged that's where our mission statement in Northwest Church planning Seattle church planning comes from it our statement is planting the gospel we call that the T-shirt test it's short enough to fit on a shirt planting the gospel the longer version of that statement is planting the gospel resulting in new churches amongst unreached people groups we start churches to reach people that aren't reached and sometimes they may be surrounded by Churches we have conversations
about people who say man there's churches on every corner but there in their town but there's still people in that town that don't know Jesus maybe it's because there's no church in their language or maybe it's because they live in an apartment and people in apartments don't tend to go out of those apartments as much to other churches it's kind of an isolated part of North America we're going to unpack that more in the weeks to come so why is planting the gospel through the planting of a new churches so important I'm going give you
three reasons and then I'll impact them number one church planting expands the kingdom number two church planting reaches the loss and number three healthy churches reproduce meaning they plant so let's look at those church planting expands the kingdom Timothy Keller again in Center Church says the vigorous continual planting of new churches is the single most crucial strategy for Kingdom expansion there are other ways to share the gospel but if you are planting a church correctly and for the right reason there is no better way to tell people about Jesus I work with people that plant
churches around the world and many of them have worked in places that have seen movements grow up of hundreds if not thousands of churches and some places Millions these churches are expanding because it's God's plan it's his way there's no plan B Jesus says in Matthew 16 blessed are you Simon son of jodah because Flesh and Blood did not reveal this to you but my Father in Heaven I will also say to you that you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades or the Gates of Hell
will not overpower it now we often look at that passage and we think the gates of hell are trying to storm the church but in reality Gates they don't go anywhere they just stay there and it's another way of saying is the Gates of Hell will not Prevail the gates of hell and Satan will not Prevail against the church we already know that we win we already know that the church is going to get it done my question isn't whether or not the church will get it done the only question for me and for you
is are we going to be a part of the winning team imagine you played a sport and you always knew which team was going to win wouldn't you want to join that team that's what we're doing when we're joining into seeing the Kingdom of Heaven expand through church planning we know we're on the winning team the second reason is church planning reaches the loss we've talked about that but we need to talk about it more there's there's a famous quote by a man C Peter Wagner he wrote a book called church planning for a Great
Harvest and he said the single most effective Evangelistic method under Heaven is planting new churches the single most effective Evangelistic methodology under Heaven is planting churches some people will say well that's not really true there's this and this and some people start churches because they're trying to they're trying to have a better Church than the church down the road so they can attract people from that church we call that swapping sheep we're the Sheep we're already in the church there's no reason for another church to try to come get us to go join their church
that's not what real church planning is church planning is planning a church to reach the lost because it is the most effective way to do it new churches are Evangelistic for a few reasons I want to tell you what they are one they're Evangelistic because if they aren't they're done before they start new churches plant and share the gospel out of necessity if they don't reach people for Jesus their Church isn't going to make it another reason is that new churches are Evangelistic because they are made up of lost people and who become new Christians
and because they were just lost most of their friends are lost people too which means new Christians know far more lost people than somebody like me who's been a Christian for over 50 years I have to work to know more lost people I have to be out in society whereas people that are lost most of their friends are lost most of my friends the people I work with are Church planners you know Church planners are Christians so I have to work I have to engage in other ways so that I can have an impact in
their life so that's another reason a third reason is new churches are more Evangel istic because that's the vision that God has given them in his book about church planning movements David Garrison put it this way he said the church is the only institution that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members we start new churches for those who don't know Jesus yet this is very important if we start churches for people who don't know Jesus yet it greatly determines the type of churches that we start in Luke 14 when Jesus was
sharing one of his Parables about the Kingdom of Heaven he didn't tell them to go to the elite people of society instead he said go out into the highways and hedges and make them come in so that my house may be filled you know years ago a friend of mine a man I used to pastor with he um he sent someone to me who was moving to our area and this man who was coming to our area was going to start a new church he was from a different denomination and so he he called and
asked me he said hey I want to start this church can you tell me how to reach people from my denomination that have moved here and I told him no I have no idea how to help you remember I'm supposedly a church planning expert and this guy asked me a question that I didn't have an answer to I wasn't trying to be difficult but I really didn't know how to start a church to help him Reach people from his denomination I'd never been a part of a church that was trying to reach Christians from a
particular group I don't PL a church to reach Baptists or methodists or whatever I PL a church to reach people who do not know Jesus Christ so as you can imagine that was a pretty short phone call that I had with this guy see we don't plant churches to reach church people we plant churches to reach the lost the the third reason we want to do this is we want to plant churches because healthy churches reproduce it is a natural and spiritual order of things that healthy things reproduce animals plants people um my siblings and
I we we have a text train going where we text each other multiple times a day and it'll be a variety of things it might be somebody's traveling and oh I'm in this cool exotic place I want to share with you or it might be oh it's 18° here today how cold it is in you're in place uh things like that but lately we've been sharing a text that my older brother he came across a link and this link was of these two Eagles that have a nest in a big area in California and this
Nest uh the mom had just laid an egg and then like three days later she laid her second egg and now she's up to three eggs it's it's possible Eagles can have as many as four eggs it's rare but it could happen and we'll know that in the next day or two we have just loved watching this because it's just an amazing thing of nature it's just incredibly beautiful these birds are and they're so Majestic uh there's so many things that uh we can observe about God's Beauty when we see things reproduced well the same
is true of the church Rick Warren put it this way in his book purpose-driven Church healthy Church have healthy babies they grow by starting new churches When someone tells me that their church is growing and healthy I first congratulate them congratulate them and say man that's awesome that's great news but then I asked them so tell me when was the last time your church planted a new church and some of them are like oh yeah we're planting churches all the time but some of them are like oh we haven't planted a church in years and
I try to find a tactful way to tell them your church is not as healthy as you think because if your church is healthy it will reproduce it's not it's not something that just some Churches should do all churches are supposed to reproduce so they're not quite healthy yet if they're not doing that the book of Acts tells us the story of the first Christian martyr his name was stepen he was stoned for preaching the gospel he was killed by people throwing stones at him he was one of the first deacons and the Bible says
he was full of the Holy Spirit meaning he was so in tune with God he couldn't help but tell people about the good news well after he was killed it really scared the church in Jerusalem and this church that had been huddled up in Jerusalem despite Jesus telling them to go everywhere they were still in her in Jerusalem but God used that to scatter them and they went to all these different places and um one of the places they went was a place called Antioch now Antioch was a healthy God centered Church uh and I
want you to read about what happens in the in the book of Acts in in Chapter 13 about Antioch says now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers Barn Barnabas Simeon who was called Niger Lucius of sirene Manan a close friend of Herod the tetrarch and Saul who later we know becomes Paul and later on in this chapter it says as they were worshiping the Lord and they were fasting the holy spirit said set apart from me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them then after they fasted
prayed and laid hands on them they sent them off this was a church that was devoted and they were worshiping they were praying they were fasting they were clearly in tune with the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit told them to send out Barnabas Barnabas and Saul on the first missionary journey and the church was so with God they did it they sent them out on this missionary journey and on this journey new churches were started on these Journeys that Paul had uh some with Barnabas some without the churches planted in galatia and Philippi and
thessalonica and Corinth and Ephesus new churches that came why because a healthy Church laid hands on them prayed for them and sent them out healthy things reproduce healthy churches reproduce planning the gospel is our marching orders from God planting new churches is his method and the kingdom expansion is the result in the weeks to come we're going to talk about these things and hopefully we'll even get to go beyond evangelism and church planting to what we call Church multiplication where it's it's a becomes a movement of churches planting churches planting churches rapidly in many generations
I look forward to being on this journey with you
