Great Commission Church Planting Society Partnerships

The Lord Jesus Christ Commands Christians to Plant New Churches

         Jesus Christ commanded the Apostles to plant new churches all over the world.  By giving them this command, Jesus commanded the church to continually start new churches.  If a church or an individual Christian is not actively involved in starting new churches, the church or individual is not fully obeying the command of Jesus Christ. The Great Commission Church Planting Society (GCCPS) seeks to help churches and individual Christians do just that, fully obey the command of Jesus Christ.

          In the Gospel of Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus tells the Apostles,

"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” 

This is first of all a command to "go" or to "travel".  This means that the Lord Jesus Christ commanded the Apostles and the members of the first church in Jerusalem to travel outside Jerusalem and to make disciples by baptizing them and "teaching them to obey everything" He had commanded them, which included observing the Lord's Supper.  Now, baptism and the Lord's Supper cannot be properly observed outside the church.  So, this is a command to go and establish churches where baptism and the Lord's Supper can be properly observed.

          Jesus did not give this command to only the Jerusalem church — Jesus gave this command to the Apostles, consequently the command applies to all true churches and to all Christians.  Unless a church is actively involved in starting new churches, in some way, and unless individual Christians are actively involved in starting new churches, they fail to fully obey this command of the Lord Jesus Christ we find in this Great Commission.

          However, the great majority of churches are not able to plant new churches.  They do not have the preachers or the experience or the financial resources needed to plant a new church.  The individual members of these churches do not have an opportunity to participate in planting new churches.  While the churches can make disciples, they cannot fully obey this command without active involvement in starting new churches.

          The GCCPS provides both churches and individuals an opportunity to participate in full obedience to the Lord's command.  By becoming a Great Commission Church Planting Society Partner, a church or an individual can actively participate in the work of planting a new church.  Planting a new church requires much prayer, because it is the Father who hears our prayers and works through the Lord Jesus Himself who actually plants a church by the Holy Spirit.  Planting a new church requires encouragement from other Christians — those attending the new church and those who are leading the work really need to be encouraged by other churches and other Christians.  And planting new churches requires money. The Great Commission Church Planting Society enables churches and individuals to meet these needs.

          Such partnerships for spreading the truth about God's grace of salvation in Jesus Christ occupy a prominent place in the history of the church.  The Apostle Paul dramatically benefitted from such partnerships as he embarked on missionary journeys throughout Asia and Europe.  He famously recognized the church at Philippi for its participation in his work of planting new churches (Philippians 1:3-6).

          Also, twelve pastors in England established the Baptist Missionary Society (BMS) in 1792.  The BMS sent its first missionary, William Carey, to India, and became the flagship for worldwide evangelism for over two hundred years. It was through the writing and the preaching of William Carey that many Baptists were convinced of the continuing application of the Great Commission to churches today. This early society was modeled from contemporary economic projects that would allow for participation in enterprises through subscriptions of various amounts. Without assuming the same structure, we seek to allow for a similar cooperation of churches and individuals.

          Similarly, in the United States, societies for the planting of churches were organized, most notably the American Home Mission Society, later the American Baptist Home Mission Society (ABHMS). This allowed for the support of church planters and the propagation of the Gospel in the Mississippi River Valley which up to that point was dominated by the spiritualism of Native American tribes and the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. The activity of the men supported by the ABHMS was used by God for the expansive progress of the Gospel in our country.

          We acknowledge that there were difficulties and dissensions that arose in these societies, and we are not trying to recreate them but rather to remind ourselves that Baptists working in concert have been used greatly of God in the past.  These societies also provide an example of how the GCCPS can model this cooperation while avoiding the pitfalls of the past. One of the single greatest contributing factors to the difficulties these previous societies experienced was the fact that these societies existed apart from the oversight of local churches. The GCCPS specifically operates under the oversight of the local church sponsoring the church plant while at the same time allowing others, who are interested in participating in the work of church planting, to join with a local church and support the labor of planting congregations of the Lord Jesus Christ in obedience to His command.

          We invite you to become a Great Commission Church Planting Society Partner.  We offer two different partnerships — one for churches and one for individuals.  These partnerships are described below.  If you have any questions, please email us at redeemerrbc1689@gmail.com, or call or text us at (737) 314-0950.