Church Planting is not the Single-Most Effective Evangelistic Methodology

When C. Peter Wagner published his 1990 book, Church Planting for a Greater Harvest, he included these famous words: "The single most effective evangelistic methodology under heaven is planting new churches." The reality is this "truth" was not true in 1990 and it is not true today.Can church planting be an effective evangelistic methodology? Yes, but that depends on your approach to church planting. Not all church planting methods are the same. Many churches are planted with little or no evangelism. Though throughout the Majority World, many churches are being planted from the harvest of lostness, the overwhelming majority of churches planted in North America are through transfer growth. It is extremely, extremely rare to find a church in the U.S. or Canada that has come into existence with 100% conversion growth (It is not because we lack lostness here, including over 400 unreached people groups.).As I have shared before, the biblical model of church planting is unusual for us. We have a serious problem. We are not called to plant churches, but think we are. It is out of disciple-making that churches are birthed. Such is a supremely apostolic work.Today, some of you will hear of the number of new churches that your network started. Next week, Lord willing, some of you are going to hear about the number of new churches that have come into existence through your denomination. Next month, some of you are going to hear about the number of newly planted churches started by your church.And everyone will be excited because we believe we are called to plant churches.And someone somewhere is going to say, "The single most effective evangelistic methodology under heaven is planting new churches." And everyone is going to assume that because all of these churches were started, we are making wise contributions to the Great Commission.When you hear these things, be a wise Kingdom steward and remember the Great Commission (Matt 28:18-20) and how churches were planted in the New Testament (Acts 11:20-26; 13-14; 1 Thes 1:2-10). Then ask, "How many people came to faith and how many sheep were shuffled around in the Kingdom to plant all these churches?"