The Importance of Church Planting

I know that many of you have read books by Dr. Tim Keller, senior pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City http://www.redeemer.com/ . He has a big passion for urban ministries and for church planting. He says: 

“The vigorous, continual planting of new congregations is the single most crucial strategy for the numerical growth of the Body of Christ in any city and the continual corporate renewal and revival of the existing churches in a city. Nothing else – not crusades, outreach programs, para-church ministries, growing mega-churches, congregational consulting, nor church renewal practices – will have the consistent impact of dynamic, extensive church planting. This is an eyebrow raising statement. But to those who have done any study at all, it is not even controversial.”

As you pray for Minneapolis (or for your city), remember to ask God to raise up church planters.  And hey, maybe God is calling you to be one of them!