Friday, May 22, 2015

Redeeming Your Building to Reach Community


Legacy church planting isn't limited to churches

at the very end of their lives. Many churches find themselves with buildings far larger than they need even as they struggle to impact their immediate community in a meaningful way.

They love Jesus and the Gospel. They love lost people, but they can't seem to crack the missional code of the people who live around them. They aren't ready emotionally to turn over their ministry to another entity.

But they live daily with the reality of a building that is far too big and a community that seems unresponsive. Sound familiar? Keep reading.

God has raised up an entire generation of bold, Gospel-focused young men who are planting Bible-believing, community-transforming and disciple-making churches all across North America. Almost 1,000 new Southern Baptist churches launch each year. One of the single greatest challenges for these new churches is finding a location in which to meet and from which to conduct ministry.

There are tens of thousands of Southern Baptist church buildings in neighborhoods throughout cities, towns and villages around the continent. At the same time there are tens of thousands of Southern Baptist churches that are praying for their cities, towns and neighborhoods to be reached. Maybe God wants to use a new church plant as the impact point to reach that community and to use part of your church building from which to launch that new church.

The new church could lead the way in pushing back the lostness of the community and the older established church can provide a building and a base of love, care and, most importantly, strategic and constant prayer. This model of legacy church planting is happening all across North America. Keep reading
Leaving behind a living legacy in the form of a new church is much better stewardship of kingdom assets than selling the building and dividing up the proceeds between the surviving members of the congregation or some unscrupulous judicatorial official pocketing the proceeds from the sale of the building. 
Photo credit: Pixabay, public domain

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