Skip to main content

Clare_inlineJust as God expects living things to be fruitful and multiply, so He expects churches to do the same, suggested Dr. Ken Davis at the start of a concentrated module on church planting presented at the 2016 GARBC Conference, held at Harvest New Beginnings.

Attendees were asked to examine this proposition through the lens of the Great Commission. Davis pointed out that more and better churches are a necessary watershed for making more and better disciples. Davis further exhorted pastors and other church leaders that churches planting more churches is an attainable goal, and he named a plethora of resources to help reach that goal. Davis has been in church planting for over 35 years. He co-wrote The Y-B-H (Yes, But How?) Handbook of Church Planting, designed to be a training textbook for independent Baptist colleges and seminaries.

In addition to Dr. Davis’s presentation, Clair Jewell, GARBC national church planting coordinator, presented several staggering statistics: 3,700 churches close every year; 80 percent of churches are declining, and 250 million people in America are separated from God, giving churches a great opportunity for evangelism. Further, planting a new church often renews and grows the parenting church.

Both presentations greatly aided pastors and church planters with viable, Biblical methods to plant churches. Attendee Joshua Carpenter says that connections and new relationships were created between attendees “that will inevitably prove valuable as we accomplish the Great Commission together.”