Why Start Churches?

I mean, wouldn’t it be smarter to try to make our existing churches healthier? Don’t we have enough churches already? And if a new church starts won’t that new startup just take away healthy members from established churches? 

Why start churches? 

One of the most brilliant answers to these objections was penned by the late Dr. Timothy Keller and was entitled, “Why Plant Churches?” This 2002 article, which you can read for yourself here, pointed out that although church revitalization is very important, it can often be a difficult and costly task. The greater impact for mission investment of time, effort, and finances is often starting a new church. 

Additionally, if the goal is getting people who already go to church to come to a different church, we already have more than enough options to choose from. But if the mission goal is to get people who don’t come to church to start becoming part of the body of Christ, then the answer is very different.

Dr. Timothy Keller’s article pointed out that in the first fifteen years of a church’s existence up to 60-80% of its members were previously disconnected from any church - what some studies call unchurched or de-churched. These people had either never been part of a church or it had been years since they had quit attending church. After ten to fifteen years of a church’s existence, Keller reported, a much greater percentage of growth in the church becomes attributed to member transfer rather than disconnected people connecting to the church. What does this mean?

The initial window of the first ten to fifteen years of a church’s existence is a golden opportunity to connect disconnected people to Jesus. 

Now, when I came across this article, the data was a bit dated. So I looked for a more recent study and found this one by Lifeway Research in 2015 that discovered that on average 42% of the members of a new church were previously disconnected (unchurched or de-churched) from any church for years. 

In 2023, I ran the numbers for Lazarus Church, and based on the personal stories of the families that call Lazarus their home church, our numbers are very close to what Lifeway reported. I found that 41% of the people who call Lazarus Church their home were previously disconnected from any church home for over a year. 

Why start churches? Because it is one of the best tools the institutional church has to fulfill the great commission of Jesus to make disciples!

Does that mean that we should abandon established churches? Definitely not! You can ask the leaders of the sending churches that helped start Lazarus what impact helping to start a new church had for them. They’ll answer that members became more activated in serving within the church and more missional in reaching their neighbors outside the church. They’ll point out that it wasn’t long before the members who were sent to help launch the new church were replaced with people who had always wanted to serve the church in some way, but had previously lacked the opportunity. Starting new churches is good for established sending churches! 

Starting new churches effectively connects disconnected people to Jesus. It activates people with opportunities to participate in the mission of God. And starting a new church helps established churches become healthier too. With the data and stories we’ve collected, the question should probably be phrased a different way. 

With all the benefits, why wouldn’t you start a new church? 

<>< Pastor Mark T Pulliam

P.S. Starting a project as big as a new church can be daunting. You don’t have to do it alone. One of the hallmarks of the Harvest Partnership is churches partnering together to start something new. Want to learn more? Check out the website, https://harvestpartnership.church.