Wesleyan Pastoral Ministry, Evangelism, and Global Missions — Unit 9: Church Planting and Multiplication

Key Verse

"And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also." (2 Timothy 2:2, NKJV)

Learning Objectives

When you finish this unit, you should be able to:

1. Describe the New Testament pattern of planting churches and raising leaders, and the idea of multiplication found in 2 Timothy 2:2.

2. Explain how Wesley's system of classes, societies, circuits and lay preachers multiplied Methodism.

3. Explain how Asbury and the circuit riders applied this pattern on the American frontier.

4. List practical steps for planting a new congregation from a mother church, in a Wesleyan way.

5. State the main objections to rapid church planting and give the Wesleyan answer.

The Voice of This Course

This course is written from inside the evangelical Wesleyan tradition, for pastors who belong to it or want to understand it. We hold that the Bible is the inspired and final authority for faith and life. Where historians or other Christians raise hard questions, we state them fairly and then give our answer. Church planting is not a trick or a technique. It is part of obeying the Great Commission, and we give it the same seriousness as preaching and prayer.

Why Plant Churches?

Evangelism wins people. A church keeps them, teaches them, and sends them out. Where there is no church within reach, new believers have no place to grow. They have no Lord's Supper, no baptism, no teaching and no fellowship. In many parts of Latin America and Africa, a village or a neighborhood may have no evangelical church nearby, or no church that teaches the new birth and holy living. A new congregation is a lasting witness in that place.

Jesus used pictures of growth. The kingdom is like a mustard seed that grows into a great plant, and like leaven that works through the whole lump (Matthew 13:31-33). Both pictures point to something small that becomes large. A church that does not reproduce is like a fruit tree that never makes seed.

The New Testament Pattern

The book of Acts shows churches being planted and leaders being raised.

The church sends. In Acts 13:1-3 the church at Antioch, while worshiping and fasting, heard the Holy Spirit say to set apart Barnabas and Saul. The church laid hands on them and sent them out. Mission begins with a church that prays and sends.

The apostles preach, gather and appoint. On their first journey, Paul and Barnabas preached, made disciples, and then went back to the same towns, "strengthening the souls of the disciples" and appointing elders in every church (Acts 14:21-23). They did not plant a church and leave it without leaders. On a later journey, Paul left Titus in Crete to "set in order the things that are lacking, and appoint elders in every city" (Titus 1:5, cited by reference).

Cities and homes. Paul often went to important cities, such as Philippi, Corinth and Ephesus. Churches met in homes, as in the house of Lydia (Acts 16:40) and of Priscilla and Aquila (1 Corinthians 16:19). In Ephesus the word spread so that all who lived in Asia heard it (Acts 19:10). From a center, the gospel moved outward.

Four generations. Our Key Verse describes a chain: Paul teaches Timothy, Timothy commits the teaching to faithful men, and they teach others also. That is four generations in one sentence. Multiplication is not adding one church after another by one person's labor. It is training people who train people.

Wesley's System of Multiplication

John Wesley was not trying to found a church. But the way he organized his movement became one of the most effective systems of multiplication in church history. It had several parts.

The society. Converts were gathered into societies. In Bristol and London in 1739, Wesley acquired meeting places, the New Room in Bristol and the Foundery in London. The society was a place for preaching, prayer and fellowship.

The class. Each society was divided into small classes (Unit 3). A class met weekly under a leader who watched over the members, collected their offerings and helped them grow. This meant that every convert was known and cared for from the beginning. The class is the key to Wesleyan multiplication. A new society could begin wherever a few people could meet in a class.

The lay preacher. Wesley used lay preachers, ordinary men (and later some women exhorters) who had gifts for preaching and good character, even though they were not ordained. This was a bold step. He met criticism for it, but he believed it was needed for the work. He did not accept just anyone. He looked for grace, gifts and fruit: a changed life, real ability to speak and teach, and evidence that people were converted under their ministry.

The circuit. Preachers were assigned to groups of societies called circuits and moved from place to place. This is called itinerancy. It meant that few societies were left without preaching, and that no preacher became attached to one place.

The conference. From 1744 Wesley met regularly with his preachers in a conference to discuss doctrine, discipline and the work. The conference was a place of accountability, planning and shared decisions (see Course 4, Units 1 and 2).

Standards of doctrine. All of this was held together by a shared teaching: Wesley's Sermons and his Notes on the New Testament (see Unit 10). The preachers did not each invent their own message.

Taken together, this system allowed a small number of ordained clergy to oversee a movement of many thousands. The movement grew because the system was suited to growth: it identified converts, trained leaders and sent them out.

Asbury and the Frontier

When Methodism came to America, this system moved with it. Francis Asbury (see Unit 7) sent preachers on horseback across the colonies and then across the growing nation. They rode large circuits, preached wherever people would listen, formed classes and appointed local leaders. Local preachers and class leaders kept the groups together between the visits of the traveling preacher. Camp meetings, held in the early 1800s, also gathered large crowds to hear the gospel and gave a place for people to make their commitment (see Course 1, Unit 7).

American Methodism grew rapidly in these years. Historians have discussed the reasons, and we should be fair to their views.

A Question of Explanation: Why Did Methodism Grow?

Some historians stress social causes. They point to the movement of people to new territory, the lack of established churches on the frontier, and the way that Methodist organization fitted a mobile population. Others say we must also take account of revival, preaching, prayer and the work of the Spirit.

Our answer. We welcome the work of historians. Organization, mobility and opportunity were real, and Wesleyans can learn from them. Scripture itself shows that God works through means. Paul planted, Apollos watered, "but God gave the increase" (1 Corinthians 3:6, cited by reference). We do not choose between the Spirit and a sound method. A method is the way a church prepares the field and gathers the harvest, but only God gives life. We therefore pray first and plan second.

Planting a Church in the Wesleyan Way

Here are practical steps. The order may vary with the place, but each element should be there.

1. Pray and seek counsel. Fast and pray as the church at Antioch did. Speak with your district or conference leaders. Planting is a church action, not a private project.

2. Choose a place and people. Look for a community with no evangelical witness or no church that teaches new birth and holiness, as Paul looked to places "where Christ was not named" (Romans 15:20, cited by reference).

3. Send a team. Do not send one person alone if you can avoid it. Send a leader with a few committed members who live or can travel to the place.

4. Share the gospel and gather seekers. Begin with friendship, service and a simple home meeting. Preach Christ, call for repentance and faith, and pray for the sick and troubled.

5. Form classes quickly. As soon as there are a few believers, gather them in a small group for weekly prayer, Bible study and mutual care. This is the heart of Wesleyan discipling.

6. Raise local leaders from the start. Look for the person with grace, gifts and fruit. Train that person in the Scriptures and in Wesleyan doctrine, as Paul did with Timothy, and let him or her lead.

7. Provide the sacraments and order. Baptism and the Lord's Supper should be provided by an authorized minister, in line with your church's practice (see Course 4, Units 7 and 8). Choose stewards or other leaders for the work.

8. Teach doctrine and holiness. A new church must learn what it believes. Teach the plain truths of the gospel, the way of salvation and the call to holy living.

9. Plan to reproduce. From the first year, teach the new church that it too will send out the gospel. A church planted to plant is healthier than one planted only to survive.

Questions Critics Ask

Question 1: Is Wesleyan growth just a matter of counting numbers?

Wesley kept careful counts of members. Some critics say that talk of multiplication encourages a church to chase numbers and to measure the Spirit's work by statistics.

Our answer. The danger is real. A congregation can grow in size and shrink in holiness. But Wesley counted because every number was a person. And he did not count only attendance: members were known by name in the classes, were asked about their lives, and were removed from the society if they would not follow the rules. Counting was a way of caring. We want to know how many are being reached, but we ask even more how they are growing in love.

Question 2: Is it safe to use lay leaders who are not trained?

Some Christians, including many in the Anglican and Reformed traditions, say that the church needs trained and ordained ministers, and that quick leadership leads to error and weak pastoral care. They point to groups that spread quickly and drifted into false teaching.

Our answer. The concern is just. Paul told Timothy not to lay hands on anyone hastily (1 Timothy 5:22, cited by reference), and he gave strict qualifications for overseers and deacons (1 Timothy 3). Wesley did not send untested people out alone. He examined them for grace, gifts and fruit, supervised them in the connection, and expected them to hold to the standard teaching. Faster leadership requires better training, not less. This is why a seminary like CTS exists, so that pastors who cannot leave their work can still study. Lay leadership supported by training and accountability has been a strength of Wesleyan churches.

Question 3: Does church planting only take members from other churches?

Pastors of older congregations sometimes feel threatened by a new church nearby, and they accuse planters of stealing sheep.

Our answer. We should not plant churches by drawing believers away from healthy congregations. Wesley did not start his societies to attack the churches around him. The best planting is among those who are outside any church. Paul's ambition was to preach where Christ had not been named. Where there is already a faithful gospel church, we can pray for it, work with it and plant elsewhere. In places where existing churches do not teach new birth and holy living, a new congregation is not an attack, but an offer of fuller truth.

Pastoral Application

Pastor Marcos leads a church of about eighty people. Five of his members live in a village a long way from the church. They have asked him to start a meeting there. He is tempted to say, "I am too busy," and also tempted to rush and rent a building.

He can proceed in steps.

First, he prays and talks with his board and with the district superintendent. The church agrees to send a small team.

Second, he starts with a weekly meeting in the home of one of the five members. They share a meal, read Scripture, pray and invite neighbors. He does not begin with a building.

Third, within a few months he forms a class, with one of the five as leader. He chooses a person with grace, gifts and fruit, and trains her each week, using 2 Timothy 2:2 as his guide: what he teaches her, she must teach others.

Fourth, on certain Sundays the whole team travels to the village for worship, baptisms and the Lord's Supper, with a licensed minister present.

Fifth, after a year, he and the district decide whether the group is ready to be organized as a church, with its own leaders and offerings.

Sixth, he tells both congregations that the goal is not just one new church but a church that will plant another. The village leader is asked, "Which village next?"

Summary

Church planting is part of the Great Commission. The New Testament shows churches sending workers, workers gathering believers, and leaders being appointed in every place. Second Timothy 2:2 describes multiplication through four generations. Wesley's system of societies, classes, lay preachers, circuits, conferences and shared doctrine allowed rapid growth with care. Asbury and the circuit riders carried it across the American frontier. Historians point to social causes as well as the Spirit's work, and we hold that God works through both prayer and sound methods. A Wesleyan church planter prays, seeks counsel, sends a team, forms classes quickly, raises local leaders with grace, gifts and fruit, provides the sacraments, teaches doctrine and holiness, and plans to reproduce. We answer critics who fear numbers, untrained leaders and competition by showing that Wesley counted people because they mattered, tested his leaders, and sought those outside the church.

Further Reading

• John Wesley, "The Nature, Design, and General Rules of the United Societies" (1743).

• John Wesley, Journal.

• Francis Asbury, Journal.

• John Wesley, sermon "The Character of a Methodist."

• John Wesley, Notes on the New Testament, on Acts 13-14 and 2 Timothy 2.

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