Church Planting: Mission & Renewal

Sarah and I moved to Richmond at the start of 2005. I had just taken a new job with a church plant in Hanover County. At the time, I didn’t know that the next 20 years of my life would be spent in the work of church planting. Admittedly, church planting is a strange phrase. To many it sounds “churchy” and foreign. In this post I want to provide some explanation of what church planting is. 

What is Church Planting? 

Church planting describes the process of starting new churches. A church plant is like a new small business. It’s the equivalent of a tech start-up, but for faith. Let’s think of a church plant as a faith start-up. 

City Church began as a church plant in the summer of 2008. For almost two years prior to that (beginning in the fall of 2006), City Church was an afternoon worship service, providing a church option to mostly young people in the city of Richmond who weren’t worshiping or didn’t want to worship at suburban churches. But when City Church hired me, I was called as a church planter or as the organizing pastor. My job was to organize and lead the church from its fledging state to established congregation.

When Sarah and I moved to Richmond in 2005 we brought our infant son, Reed, with us (thoughtful of us, I know). Less than a year after I started as pastor at City Church, our youngest daughter, Raynie, was born. Their presence in our family became a helpful metaphor for church planting because with both the church in Hanover County and with City Church, they were pretty much the same age as the church. That’s why, in the early years of City Church, I talked about church birthing as much as church planting. Church planting is the process of giving birth to a new church and watching it grow—taking its first steps, learning to talk, gaining strength and independence.

Why Church Planting?  

The practice of church planting is biblical. As Tim Keller says in his book Center Church, “Paul never evangelizes and disciples without also planting a church.” Not only is church planting biblical, it is also beneficial for a city or region. It brings renewal, growth, faith, and sacrifice. 

Studies show that in the average church plant 33-66% of its new members are people who haven’t been attending any church. Meanwhile in churches that are 10-15 years old (like City Church), 80-90% of their new members come through transfer from another church. Church plants are simply more effective at bringing new people into a worshipping community. 

Church planting efforts are valuable, too, in catalyzing innovation and creativity. In turn, such innovation produces churches that can reach a wider diversity of a region’s population. We seek to foster lots of church planting approaches and strategies in Richmond because we believe it will help reach all of the region’s population. 

But church planting isn’t just good for our city. It’s good for us, too. The two-stroke engine of the Christian life requires mission and renewal. The mission of church planting brings renewal to an existing church. It keeps us from becoming ingrown; from being overly-focused on ourselves, our needs, our facilities, our programs. A new church feels a desperation that established churches seldom do. That desperation drives bold evangelism and outreach.

What Church Planting Has Looked Like

For the last fifteen years, City Church has participated in church planting in Richmond and around the world. At first, City Church participated in church planting by receiving from others. In our earliest years, other local churches supported City Church financially and provided the oversight we needed to become self-sustaining and self-governing. More recently, City Church has been able to partner in support of other new church plants around the Richmond area, primarily through our financial resources. Over the last 10 years we have given money to Northside Church of Richmond, Crown and Joy Presbyterian Church, Iglesia Hispana, New Creation Presbyterian Church, and River Run Presbyterian Church.

What’s more, a lot of our global ministry partners are involved in the work of church planting. Faith Community Church in Prague, planted and pastored by Phil Davis for almost 20 years, has been a City Church partner for over a dozen years. Ben and Kim Church in Kampala, Uganda, are planting a church called Christ Our Rescue. City to City Europe is a church planting network seeking to bring new churches to some of the most spiritually dark places in Western Europe. 

What Church Planting Will Look Like

During the next phase in City Church’s life, we desire to take a place of greater leadership and greater investment in the work of church planting in Richmond and beyond. Research shows that a church is most likely to plant a church within its first 10 years of existence. City Church has missed that window. The time is ripe for us to focus on church planting.

We see an opportunity to share from our experiences over the last fifteen years and from the surplus of resources God has given us to help more churches get started. The Metro Richmond Church Planting Network has the stated goal of planting one new church a year. In 2022 the network planted New Creation Presbyterian Church in Chester. In 2023 River Run Presbyterian Church started in Amelia. We have yet to identify the church we will start in 2024. To meet this ambitious goal will require investment from many local churches.

In addition to our ongoing support of other church plants within the Richmond network, by 2025, City Church desires to take a leading role in planting a church in the Richmond area. We believe this process starts with prayer. Then, we must increase awareness of the centrality of church planting within City Church. Then we’ll need to give sacrificially of our resources (financial and human) to seed the work of church planting. 

To take a leading role this work, we expect to give a lot of money (like $100,000-$150,000 over a 3 year period) to a new church plant. Additionally, we expect to send out members of City Church to be part of the core group committed to launching a new church. And we expect to share staff resources and the wisdom of our experience with a new church planter through support, coaching, and mentorship.

We don’t know yet where City Church will look to plant a church or exactly what that new church will look or what the cost will feel like. But we’re in the process of getting ready. It’s like we’re a farmer tilling the soil before sowing the crop. Or like an expectant mother preparing for the birth of child. It’s a time of preparation and planning and anticipation. It’s a time of faith and hope.