Planning the Launch of 500 New Congregations in 15 Years

Part Three: Grassroots Strategies for Congregational Multiplication

Photo by Clint Patterson on Unsplash

Planning the Launch of 500 New Congregations in 15 Years

I came to South Carolina 40 years ago to serve as the missions director for Southern Baptists. At the time, SC Baptists were accidentally launching five to six new congregations per year. This was the annual number of church splits.

The South Carolina Baptist Convention (hereafter SCBC) is the oldest regional organization of Southern Baptists. Established in 1821, it had over 1700 affiliated congregations by 1985.

I was asked to develop a strategy to create a new congregational development movement. For six months, I studied the context and available methods. I drew on my experience in new congregational development from my childhood forward.

I researched the people groups and various demographic data for the state. I sought to understand the culture of Baptists and other denominations in the state. As well as the projected future population growth.

Learning Through Bold Strategies

Then I met with the SCBC executive director to share my plan. His name was Ray Rust. He was the kindest and most affirming supervisor I ever had. I felt comfortable sharing openly with him.

I shared with Dr. Rust that since we were a five-talent regional denominational organization, we had a tremendous Kingdom obligation to reach preChristians, unchurched, underchurched, and dechurched people.

To do anything less than something bold would fail God and the Great Commission.

I then said, “We need to launch 500 new congregations over the next 15 years.”

At that point, Dr. Rust figuratively fell on the floor in shock! (Not literally, but he did lean over in his chair like he was going to fall.)

As you can imagine, he had many questions. Following this meeting, however, he fully endorsed my goal and the strategy for achieving it.

Resourcing the Plan

SCBC was a significant regional denomination among Southern Baptists, equipped with resources to support the execution of this ambitious plan.

My predecessor built up a $750,000 financial reserve to launch a bold effort, but he unexpectedly left the missions role before he could activate his plan.

(Today, this would equate to about $2,000,000 for the same purchasing power.)

He already had a non-English language specialist, a Black church specialist, and a Spanish-speaking field strategist on staff or under contract.

In the first year, we successfully secured a director of new congregational development to oversee this team. Additionally, we hired an Asian cultural strategist and general strategists in the densely populated northwest region of the state, as well as along the rapidly growing coast.

The strategy anticipated each of these seven individuals, once they had the opportunity to reach capacity, could catalyze five new congregations each year. This would lead to achieving the goal of 500 new congregations.

This was also a time in Southern Baptist life when the national missions agency generously shared finances and expertise with regional denominations. They realized they could not control the new congregational development from a national office.

They were dedicated to empowering regional denominational organizations and local offices called associations to participate in new congregational development.

Churches Launch New Congregations

It takes more than money and regional staff to launch 500 congregations. It takes existing churches providing leadership. Churches can best launch new congregations, support them spiritually, financially, with volunteers, and help raise up the pastors and other staff.

This was our greatest challenge in South Carolina. There were few pastors and their churches that had any experience in launching and supporting new congregations.

The first local group of churches that expressed interest in launching a new congregation asked me to speak to a gathering of pastors and engage in dialogue.

They tried to launch a new congregation but kept hitting a barrier. I asked about the barrier. What was it?

They said they had been unable to find any land for the new congregation to build on.

I was now the one in shock. I could not believe what I was hearing. My response was inappropriate, but honest.

I asked, “Could you proof-text that for me? Can you show me in the Bible where the first action taken by any apostle or early church to start a new congregation was to seek land to purchase?”

This highlighted the enormous size of the challenge. How were we going to get enough churches to launch new congregations if their ignorance of the methodology for new congregation development was so significant?

Copyright 2025 by George W. Bullard Jr. February 13, 2025 Edition

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