by Eddie Lyons
When our Fellowship began, there was a great focus and passion for church planting. When my parents, Boyd and Donna Lyons, left BBC in 1956, they were off to start a church in New York state. Listening to their stories as a kid, it was apparent this pioneering church planting fervor had been carefully instilled in them. That emphasis was not so strong when I graduated from BBC in the 1980s. It has been great to see this emphasis return in the last decade. Many young men have gone out with great vision, passion, and energy to start churches and they are succeeding.
I recently got a call from Sean Sears who planted a church in the Boston area in the spring of 2005 with six people in his living room. In that conversation he said they were going to add a fourth service on February 15 because they have averaged over 900 in attendance for the last ten weeks. They have also started two more churches out of their church with plans to launch a third this September.
The church planters of our Fellowship are great men doing some great things. I love being around them and hearing from them. They inspire me. I learn things from them. Recently, one of these church planters asked me what my budget for direct mail advertisements for the year was. I was embarrassed to tell him that it was almost nothing. He encouraged me to be more aggressive and spend some money to reach out. He told me how this has worked for him and described the families God brought to the church through this investment. I went to our deacons and presented a plan to be more aggressive to reach beyond the immediate group of people we have coming by utilizing direct mail. We adjusted our budget. The first two mailers have been sent. We are passionate about reaching people with the Gospel.
Our church planters can inspire and teach us all. Watching God develop their stories and seeing the people reached in real time is better than reading a book. We need to rub shoulders with these men and hear their stories.
I recently had lunch with a leader of a large denomination. A critical part of what he oversees is church planting and church revitalization. He said, and I summarize, that if you don’t have new churches being constantly planted, a fellowship will die. Growth will come from the church plants. Younger pastors in younger churches will attract a younger crowd and more effectively reach this generation. The importance of church planting in our Fellowship cannot be overstated.
Our meeting February 15-18 in Orlando, FL, will be all about church planting. I am asking our church planters to join us because we need you. All of us can and should learn from these men.