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How To Plant Churches

How do we plant Churches, which are salt and light, and know the gospel and not ashamed of it. Matthew 21 (Parable of the two sons, a little peak into the Gospel not the full gospel but a little peak) But what do you think? A man had two [f]sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘[g]Son, go work today in the vineyard.’ 29 And he answered, ‘I will not’; but afterward he regretted it and went. 30 The man came to the second and said the same thing; and he answered, ‘I will, sir’; but he did not go. 31 Which of the two did the will of his father?” They *said, “The first.” Jesus *said to them, “Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes [h]will get into the kingdom of God before you. 32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him; but the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; and you, seeing this, did not even feel remorse afterward so as to believe him.

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80 views

How To Plant Churches

How do we plant Churches, which are salt and light, and know the gospel and not ashamed of it. Matthew 21 (Parable of the two sons, a little peak into the Gospel not the full gospel but a little peak) But what do you think? A man had two [f]sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘[g]Son, go work today in the vineyard.’ 29 And he answered, ‘I will not’; but afterward he regretted it and went. 30 The man came to the second and said the same thing; and he answered, ‘I will, sir’; but he did not go. 31 Which of the two did the will of his father?” They *said, “The first.” Jesus *said to them, “Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes [h]will get into the kingdom of God before you. 32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him; but the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; and you, seeing this, did not even feel remorse afterward so as to believe him.

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Jack Brown
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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How to Plant Churches?

Dr A.N.Miller

A Majestic Vision

Charles Spurgeon was crazy-busy on steroids. In addition to his duties as pastor of the
massive Metropolitan Tabernacle Church, Spurgeon worked unrelentingly on behalf of his
beloved Pastors College. Heres just some of the ways he served the college:

He was a recruiter for the Pastors College.


He was a lecturer for the Pastors College.
He was a fundraiser on behalf of the Pastors College.
He was a scout to position men upon completion of the Pastors College.

The Pastors College was strategically integrated into the Tabernacle so students could
observe how to apply their studies within a working model. This deepened their love for
the local church as they observed the transforming power of the gospel at work. Dallimore
observed, This school had a benefit the others did not possess. The college was part of
the life of the Tabernacle, and association with a great and active church provided a
wealth of instruction and a power of inspiration to be found nowhere else.

Yet all of these roles serviced one glorious pursuit:


planting churches! Spurgeons majestic vision was to
plant churches for the sake of the gospel. For him,
missiology needed a robust ecclesiology to be truly
biblical. So Spurgeon dedicated his ministry to seeing
churches multiplied through church planting.
From Spurgeons example we can learn 3 distinct
lessons:

Train Men to Love the Church

The Pastors College was strategically integrated into the Tabernacle so students
could observe how to apply their studies within a working model. This deepened their
love for the local church as they observed the transforming power of the gospel at
work. Dallimore observed, This school had a benefit the others did not possess. The
college was part of the life of the Tabernacle, and association with a great and active
church provided a wealth of instruction and a power of inspiration to be found
nowhere else.

Once the students finished the program, they left the Pastors College to reproduce
what they had observed, experienced, and come to love. The graduates had seen
the fruit of gospel-application within the church and wanted to multiply it by planting
churches. Spurgeon understood: only men who love the church can effectively
reproduce it.

As we work with men considering the call to ministry, we would be wise to follow
Spurgeons example of training men to love the church. Like begets like. Men do
what men see. Only men who are shaped by the church will learn to cherish it and
sacrifice whatever is necessary to replicate it.

The Great Commission is a call to train men to love the church.

Train Men to Build the Church


Spurgeons view of missions was church-centered and church-based. He
knew that one gospel-centered model, well built and wisely deployed, could
have a greater impact than one hundred aimless churches. Spurgeon dared
to believe that the Metropolitan Tabernacle could make a culture-shaping
difference and they did.
Be it the Pastors College, the Stockwell Orphanage, the Colportage Ministry,
the Rock Loan Society, or the Penny Pulpit, the Metropolitan Tabernacle was
a local church with a global vision. As Dallimore concluded, The Metropolitan
Tabernacle was not, as some have assumed, merely a highly popular
preaching center. . . . The Tabernacle was a great working church.
Great working churches serve strategic roles in Gods evangelistic design
they become recruitment hubs, training centers, and mission beachheads for
gospel expansion. They create working models that display the impact of the
message they bear.
Most importantly, they become magnificent tools to connect the world to the
Caller.

Train Men to Multiply the Church

The Metropolitan Tabernacle was not built as a monument to Spurgeons leadership, gifting, or ambition.
It was built to be a church-multiplying church. Only months after completing the facility, Spurgeon wrote,

I look on the Tabernacle as only the beginning; within the last six months, we have
started two churchesone in Wandsworth and the other Greenwichand the Lord
has prospered them; the pool of baptism has often been stirred with converts. And
what we have done in two places, I am about to do in a third, and we will do it, not
for the third or the fourth, but for the hundredth time, God being our Helper. I am
sure I may make my strongest appeal to my brethren, because we do not mean to
build this Tabernacle as our nest, and then to be idle. We must go from strength to
strength, and be a missionary church, and never rest until, not only this
neighbourhood, but our country, of which it is said that some parts are as dark as
India, shall have been enlightened with the Gospel

The legacy of this great church is undeniable. Consider what these biographers
have said of Spurgeon and his extraordinary work in church planting.
Perhaps the most significant auxiliary work of the Pastors College, and that
which made the greatest and most long-lasting contribution, was the work
done in church planting. Scores of churches were planted in London and
throughout the country because of the College students efforts.

Many men went to places where there were no


churches and built them. Some went to good
residential areas, others to poor districts. Some went
to the slums, and there they witnessed for the Lord,
preached on the street corners, visited door to door,
and handed out tracts. They then secured meeting
places of some kind and gathered people in, won
them to the Lord, baptized them, and organized them
into churches.
Spurgeon got it. Training church planters isnt merely
downloading more spiritual knowledge. Its about
altering leadership genetics to include the church and
then deploying men to multiply the church.

A Great Working Church


Charles Spurgeon was missional before it was cool. He
was able, therefore, to build something in the present
that delivered men into the harvest . . . and into the
future. Spurgeon built a great working church and then
gave his blood, sweat, and tears to multiply the model all
over the land.
Over a century later, we are the inheritors of his spiritual
legacy, not only through his preaching, but through his
commitment to multiplying healthy churches.
Praise God that the Govner of the Tabernacle and
Prince of Preachers was also a Prince of planters!

Notes
[1] Lewis Drummond, Spurgeon: Prince of Preachers (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel, 1992), 409; Tim
Curnow et al., A Marvelous Ministry: How the All-round Ministry of Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Speaks to us Today (Ligonier, PA: Soli Deo Gloria, 1993), 66.
[2] Drummond, Prince of Preachers, 412; Curnow et al., Marvelous Ministry, 66.
[3] Drummond, Prince of Preachers, 411; Curnow et al., Marvelous Ministry, 67; Arnold A.
Dallimore, Spurgeon: A New Biography (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1985), 102, 104.
[4] Drummond, Prince of Preachers, 341.
[5] Dallimore, Spurgeon Biography, 105.
[6] Dallimore, Spurgeon Biography, 153.
[7] Drummond, Prince of Preachers, 341.
[8] Drummond, Prince of Preachers, 419.
[9] Dallimore, Spurgeon Biography, 108

Dave Harvey (DMin, Westminster Theological Seminary) is the pastor of preaching at Four Oaks
Community Church in Tallahassee, Florida. Dave has over 25 years of pastoral experience and
has traveled nationally and internationally teaching Christians, equipping pastors, and training
church planters. He is the Executive Director of Sojourn Network, founder of AmICalled.com,
and serves on the board of the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation (CCEF). Dave
is the author of Am I Called?, Rescuing Ambition, and When Sinners Say I Do, as well as a
contributing author to Worldliness: Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen World.

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