When Should a Church Plant RePlant?
Some churches talk about “planting pregnant”, meaning that they are looking to plant another church even as they are a young church. Jonathan Dodson has compiled a helpful “list of factors to consider when planting a new church out of your existing church”. This is a good list to think through at Grace Ann Arbor, a replant itself, looks to plant in the future.
- Qualified Elder – Qualified pastor-elder who has demonstrated sufficient leadership in pastoring, missional commitment, applied gospel.
- 5 Equippers – Sufficient expression of the five equippers of Ephesians 4 (prophet, teacher, evangelist, apostle, shepherd).
- Number & Location of People – Critical mass of people in a geography far enough from our current Sunday Gathering.
- Diversity of Spiritual Gifts – Good variety of spiritual gifts present in this critical mass.
- Gift of Administration – an elder or co-leader with strong kingly gifts
- Missional Health – an emerging critical mass that has demonstrated sufficient missional health
- Gospel Health – an emerging critical mass that has demonstrated a good grasp of the gospel in theory and application.
- Structural Health – a group of people who possess the requisite talents to facilitate healthy church structures (gatherings and missional communities)