The Role of The Local Church In Training Up Church Planters

Networks don’t plant churches. Denominations don’t plant churches. Churches plant churches. This is the pattern we see in the New Testament, and it should be the model prescribed to the church today. And the most primary way a church can give effort to future churches being planted is by being dedicated to raising up pastors and planters. I say that with such clarity because when the apostle Paul, the world’s greatest church planter, was giving his final Holy Spirit inspired instruction to his young protege, he told him to give his time to raising up faithful men (2 Timothy 2:2). 

But how can your church do this? There are a number of practical things a church can do to raise up leaders and plant new churches, but what I want to focus on is not a shift in logistics, but a shift in perspective. Because I’m convinced that if a church catches a hold of this vision, the logistics will work themselves out. 

And here’s the perspective shift: aim to become a teaching hospital.

But what is a teaching hospital and how is that connected to a local church? Well in a teaching hospital, a young physician is finishing up his training by getting hands-on clinical experience under the supervision of experienced physicians and faculty members.

Take that environment and then impose it onto your church. An aspiring church planter is brought onto staff with the stated hope of raising him up and sending him out. While he is at your church, he is finishing his training by getting hands-on ministry experience under the supervision of church leaders and staff. Sure he will likely make some mistakes a more seasoned minister might not, but the hope is that the vision of planting healthier churches supersedes the congregation’s desire for more “professional” or “polished” leadership.

But if a church gets excited about the impact that can be made outside of themselves then these moments of immaturity are not only forgiven, they become embraced as they are the training ground for development and the launching pad for church planters and future churches.

How this looks in every church is different but it requires the Lead Pastor to champion this vision and bring the congregation behind it. After that, it could look like starting a residency at your church (we use this language to be able to clearly link it to medical residencies as we talk about wanting to be a church that is like a teaching hospital) or it could look more organic but having a culture where you are always raising up your best staff and encouraging them if they express a potential desire to plant. Regardless of the logistics, it has to start with vision.

And once the vision is embraced, then you have to put feet to it. Budget for it. Recruit for it. Pray for it. And then once you find the guy, give him opportunities to lead. Mark Dever has called this “advancing trust.” Give the man opportunities before he has had the chance to earn all of that trust yet. You will see him make mistakes, but you will also see him grow. Stay committed to his development. This means that part of your senior leadership will now be focusing less on other issues and more on this future planter. But again, if a church is bought into the vision of being a teaching hospital, then this naturally plays itself out. 

And as you give the future planter real opportunities to preach and lead, people will be able to see themselves more clearly as potentially being able to go with him and continue to grow under his ministry. If he only gets one or two times to preach, people may not have enough data to make that decision to join him when he plants.

Which brings us to the final point, you must encourage your people to go. After you have given this man opportunities to preach (we aim at 10-12 times over the course of a 15 month residency), then when the time comes to plant, encourage your people to join them. We celebrate not how many people are seated, but how many people are sent. What you celebrate is what will shape your church culture. If you’re a church leader, don’t be stingy with your people. They're not yours anyway; they’re God’s. And if you’re a member at a church that is planting another church, genuinely pray to see if God might be leading you to support this new work. It will be hard, there will be a lot of transition, but the end result is a new lighthouse for the gospel in a community that so desperately needs Jesus. And you could play a huge part in that.

So how can a local church play a part in raising up church planters and planting new churches? Become a teaching hospital and stay laser focused on the centrality of the local church and church planting in the fulfillment of the Great Commission.