It's Time to Unbench Existing Congregations to Launch New Congregations

Part Five: Grassroots Strategies for Congregational Multiplication

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It’s Time to Unbench Existing Congregations to Launch New Congregations

Did an explosion of interest in congregational multiplication begin in the 1990s?

No.

Yet that is what a church planter who also teaches Christian ministries at a denominational university recently wrote in a news journal I read. I suspect the 1990s was when he became aware of congregational multiplication movements.

Launching new congregations is a great spiritual calling. But a new wave of interest is not what happened in denominations throughout North America in the 1990s.

What happened is a significant shift in how new congregations were launched. The shift was from existing congregations primarily launching new congregations, to church planters launching congregations.

You may ask, “What’s the big deal? Isn’t that the way it’s been done for the past 2000 years?”

Yes, No, and Maybe.

Yes, from the first century forward apostles, missionaries, pastors, lay leaders, groups, and church planters have launched new congregations. Likely the vast majority of all congregations launched have been launched by individuals and small groups.

No, that is not the only way it has been done. As the structures of the Christian Church developed and the Reformation brought forth denominations, an increasing number of congregations were launched by existing congregations. Often with the help of their denomination.

Maybe, there has been significant involvement by existing congregations in launching new congregations throughout the history of Christianity. They were just not the stories most often told.

Following the end of World War II in 1945, the growth of congregations was driven by existing congregations with the support of their denomination. A reasonably solid effort led the way for 50 years following the ending of the war.

What Happened in the 1990s

At least two things.

First, the itinerant, parachurch, nondenominational movements of church planters launching new congregations reached a critical mass. It became the predominant way of planting new congregations.

Second, instead of existing congregations launching the majority of new congregations, the leadership of this movement shifted. Existing congregations were benched. This allowed individual church planters and church planting networks to take the lead.

Some denominations centralized the planting of new congregations away from local congregations to their regional or national offices. Some mainline denominations de-emphasized the launching of new congregations.

This did not start in the 1990s. I would date the resurgence of church planters launching new congregations rather than existing churches to the 1960s.

It was part of a social, economic, political, and religious revolution as the first generation of time following World War II ended. It was joined in the 1970s and beyond by the seeker friendly to seeker driven congregations such as Willow Creek and Saddleback.

Then in the 1980s multiple campus congregations arose as an intentional growth strategy. Multiple campuses were around for many decades. Until the 1980s this was how urban congregations held on to members moving to new sprawling suburbs.

It is Time to Unbench Existing Congregations

I have known Ed Stetzer of Talbot School of Theology at Biola University for almost a quarter of a century. If I ever heard him say we need to bench existing congregations around the task of launching new congregations, I do not remember it.

What I do remember is in 2018 at the Exponential gathering in Orlando, FL, I heard him share the following insights. (Note: These are not quotes but my own words according to my memory.)

Ed said somewhere in the 1990s we benched existing congregations as having the lead in launching new congregations. We may have needed to do this as the world and the emerging generations were changing so quickly. Existing congregations could not keep up with the concepts and methodologies needed in new congregations.

At times they were holding back new congregations from having cutting edge methodologies. The kind that would connect with people groups who needed Jesus and a compelling congregational experience.

But using the image of a pendulum, we allowed the pendulum to swing too far. Now too many existing congregations have forgotten how to launch new congregations. Just at the time we need them most.

We must unbench existing congregations. Without them our efforts will be inadequate.

Copyright 2025 by George W. Bullard Jr. March 6, 2025 Edition

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