Plant Churches through the Local Church
It was October 2021. We were days away from expecting our first baby. We were getting a number of things ready in our home and I had one job left on my list. An IKEA box was sitting there, looking at me, and I knew I needed to assemble the crib. I knew that I needed to. I knew why I needed to. But when I opened up to see 40 wooden dowels and a tiny little allen wrench. I had one problem: I did not know how. That little instruction manual had more stick figures than words so it took a lot of trial and error to finally get that crib assembled, and check it off the list.
The experience was a reminder of my need for humility as a dad. It showed me my need not just to know why, but to know how. In any task, why is the essential and most important question, but it is not the only one; it is also important to ask how.
Before we plant a church, it is essential for us to ask both why and how. Thankfully God is Word is sufficient for both, no stick figures required.
We are in our second week of a 3-week topical series on church planting, and before we seek to plant a church, we are grounding it all in God is Word. And we are asking,“What does the Bible say about church planting?”
Last week we considered why we plant churches, and this week we will consider how we plant them.
Putting them together, we plant churches for the glory of God—that is why—and through the local church—that is how. Last week, we looked from Genesis to Revelation, using a wide angle lens. And this week, we will zoom our cameras in. We will consider that how question, looking primarily at Paul is first missionary journey — Acts 13 and 14.
Now admittedly, this is a topical sermon, so I am coming to these texts with a particular lens. But as I take us from biblical example to biblical principle, I hope to go with the grain of the text to a particular set of applications around church planting.
So how do we plant churches, and how do healthy churches multiply?
Churches plant churches.
It is our big idea for today: Churches plant churches.
Not individuals or denominations, but churches plant churches; that is how churches multiply.
And we will consider how churches plant churches in 9 biblical principles. We will put them under three headings, with three principles under each heading: We send. We plant. We partner.
We send
Through the Church
Read Acts 13:1–3.
Now there is a lot to unpack in these first few verses, but I would like to begin here. Notice how Paul and Barnabas were sent. They were not self-declared or self-sent. They were not sent by a seminary or a denomination. Paul and Barnabas were sent through the church. Look at Acts 13:1 — “Now there were in the church at Antioch…”. The local church is the context for where sending begins.
And notice what the church in Antioch is doing in Acts 13:2 — “They were worshipping the Lord and fasting.” They are just doing normal, healthy church stuff — Worshiping the Lord Jesus, and being satisfied in Him.
Churches are welcome to use sending organisations, denominations, and associations to help them send. But sending is fundamentally the job of the local church.
So for us, dear saints, I hope we see that sending for the work of church planting is not a job for someone else. It is a job for the local church! This is our work to do!
So just like we see here, let us keep doing normal, healthy church stuff. Let us keep worshipping Jesus and being satisfied in Him. And let us remember that this is the context from which sending begins it is in the local church.
How do churches plant churches? We send through the church.
By the Spirit
Throughout the book of Acts, from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the ends of the earth. We see the gospel spread. This is God’s plan of salvation, accomplished in Christ and applied by the Spirit. So it is only fitting that in the context of this healthy church gathered together, glorifying God by the worship of His Son, that the Spirit speaks.
Acts 13:2 says, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Brothers and sisters, I hope we know that church planting is supernatural work. We cannot just make it happen. God must act, for the sake of His Son, by the Spirit.
So yes, it is good and wise to have plans and forethought, but it is foolish to rely on anything made by man; we must rely on God as Spirit. I said it last week, I will say it again. At their best, church planting plans are like sails. It is helpful to have them although they need a lot of adjusting. But our sails will get us nowhere, unless the wind blows.
I love how Luke ties these first two principles together for us. Church planting is the church’s work and the Spirit’s work. Churches send by the Spirit. And the Spirit works through the church. Remember Ephesians 2? This is why Paul says, Ephesians 2:22 that the church is “being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”
It is worth noting Luke’s emphasis on prayer. Healthy churches are praying churches. And I think that is why the church in Antioch was ready to hear and immediately obey. They laid their hands on their two top leaders — and “sent them off” right away. Talk about the cost of church planting – here it is!
They did not have a 5-year plan. They did not have a lot of resources. They just had a call, from the Spirit — they prayed.
Now, this was a special time in redemptive history, where the Spirit had not yet inspired the New Testament canon. So for us today, if we want to hear the Spirit speak as the gathered church. We hear Him speak by His inspired Word. That is why we pray before we hear God is Word. That is why we pray after, too. May God give us grace to hear and obey His Word.
Regarding prayer. Some of you have asked about next steps toward the church plant. While this sermon series is more to lay down some biblical foundations for church planting, than to lay out a church planting plan, I will say that we have one plan for this year, and that is to pray.
Lord willing, we will have a couple of church plant prayer gatherings, on Sunday afternoons, later on in the year with more details to come. But we will not begin to do anything until we have prayed. So I would urge all of us, whether God may be leading us to send or to go, to gather together to pray.
Churches send by the Spirit. And the Spirit works through the Word and prayer.
In teams
In Mark 13:2, we read, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul…” Later on, they scoop up John Mark to assist them. They are sent as a team. It might sound heroic to be a solo church planter but it is not biblical. I cannot and will not do this on my own. Entrepreneurs can go start their own company. YouTubers can go start their own channel. But church planting is a team sport.
Sending starts in the church — not in isolation. And churches send in teams. Now, here in the immediate context, this is a missionary team. They would travel together to preach the gospel where Christ had not been named. So this was a small team. That kind of missionary work needs flexibility and a low profile that is better served by smaller teams.
A Core Team for a church plant — on the other hand — should probably have more than two or three people. They are not sent far to travel. But near, to stay. So you can pray that the Lord would raise up the right team for the church plant, that for all of us, whether we go and plant or stay and send, we would do it not out of comfort or convenience but conviction.
The Core Team should not be most of the church, or even half the church. As elders, we think sending out roughly 50–100 would be wise, aiming at some under-churched areas in the West with the Core Team comprising primarily, of members who already live in that area. And we will take lots of time to discern together who that group will be… Lord willing, that will be a gradual process over the course of next year.
For this year, as I said we are just going to pray. We are going to keep putting all of this before the Lord, to see who He might be setting apart by the Spirit. Because church planting is a team sport. We send in teams.
We Plant
With the word
Acts 13:4-14:23 records Paul and Barnabas’s first journey. They travel from Antioch, through the island of Cyprus, up to Asia Minor, over into Galatia, and then all the way back. And it is striking how Luke frames all of it.
At the end of Acts 12, the pompous king Herod is struck down dead by an angel of the Lord because “… he did not give God the glory. (Acts 12:23)” As we heard in God’s Word last week, God is rightly jealous for the glory of His name.
And just after this pompous king becomes worm food, do you see what happens in Acts 12:24? “The word of God increased and multiplied.” Herod is dead. But the Word is alive!
One verse later, Paul and Barnabas return to Antioch. Luke frames their journey as a ministry of the Word. The Word keeps increasing, and keeps multiplying.
Which is why we should not be surprised at all when they arrive at their first stop in Acts 13:5. They were sent to plant and they planted with the Word.
In Antioch Pisidia, the Word continues to increase and multiply. One Sabbath, Paul preaches in the synagogue (Acts 13:16–41). Immediately after, the people beg for more (Acts 13:42).
The next Sabbath, people were so eager, that “almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. (Acts 13:44)”. Luke sums it up for us in Acts 13:49 — “And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region.”
They are chased out of Antioch Pisidia (Luke 13:50), but they keep preaching the word in Iconium (Acts 14:3), in Lystra (Acts 14:15) and in Derbe (Acts 14:21).
And then they go back through those cities. Luke tells us one more time that they spoke the word on their way out, too (Acts 14:25).
Churches send. Churches plant. And they plant with the Word. If we want to see healthy churches multiply, the Word must multiply – from our pulpits and out there, in our evangelism. As Luke records, God’s Word kept multiplying, in the synagogues and the streets.
Church planting multiplies the Word. There is another pulpit, preaching the Word — week after week. And there is another church, multiplying the Word through its members in evangelism.
If churches plant churches with leaders, members, a budget, a building, a website, branding, with a parking lot, children’s ministry, with kopi and cookies and yet without the Word, that is no real church planting at all. At the end of the day, if we want to see churches multiply, the Word must multiply.
Churches plant churches with the Word.
Through affliction
Here is the thing about planting with the Word – It comes with affliction. To some, it is an aroma of life, to life. To others, it is an aroma of death, to death. When the Word is rightly preached, nobody is left neutral. On this journey, they planted with the Word and we see the dual effects of the Word. As the Word multiplies, disciples multiply but so do their afflictions.
They were opposed by an evil magician (Acts 13:8), by Jewish leaders (Acts 13:45) and angry crowds (Acts 13:50). In Acts 14:19, we read, “But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead.” Talk about an affliction – they thought he was dead!
But Paul gets up, goes to the next city, and keeps preaching the Word immediately after this. This is the same guy who would later call afflictions “light and momentary” — in comparison to the glory of God. This brother did not just talk like that – he lived like it too.
Church planting comes with affliction. Satan hates God’s Word. He hates God’s church. So when churches start multiplying and multiplying the Word, he plots and schemes to snuff it out.
I have talked with pastors here in Singapore who have planted churches and this is a consistent warning I have heard from them. If you are getting ready to plant a church, get ready for war. Satan will be coming for us. So we got to stand firm, in our Ephesians 6 armor, and fight with faith and valor.
And as it is with Satan, so it is with the world. The world has no problem with Word-less churches. The world is not against churches that just offer moral lessons, some feel-good stories and pats on the back. But when we plant churches with the Word with pulpits that proclaim the exclusivity of Christ and evangelism that calls for repentance, the world will be against us.
Oh let us take heart with those precious words from our Lord in John 15:18–19, “If the world hates you, know that it [hated me first]. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”
So we must plant, not around affliction, not avoiding it or running away from it, but we must plant through affliction.
There is no other way.
We see it right there in what Paul said in Acts 14:22, “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.” The road of church planting is paved with affliction.
Autonomous churches
As the seed of God is Word is sown, it produces a crop of disciples forming churches. So the church is a creature of the Word.
But notice that Paul and Barnabas’s task is not finished until they have raised leaders and released authority. Look at Acts 14:23 – “And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting, they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.”
Now in just a little bit, we will see how these autonomous churches still work together in so many ways. But for now, let us simply observe that each of these church plants had its own membership and its own leadership. The sending church in Antioch did not add to their church, they multiplied. Churches plant churches.
This is why in all our missions work, we want to work toward church planting. Here we see a local church sending a missionary team to cross gospel barriers proclaiming God’s Word, making disciples, establishing churches, raising up leaders and releasing authority before returning home.
That is the missionary task.It is grounded in the church. Its goal is the church. It is churches planting churches that plant churches that plant churches, establishing glory beacons among peoples and places where Christ has not been named.
That is the missionary task.
And whether it is far or near, crossing borders to another country… or crossing districts over to West Singapore, the missionary task and the church planting task share the same DNA.
Churches send. Churches plant. Churches plant churches.
But it does not end there. That is just the beginning.
We Partner
In the work
Look at Act 14:24-26. Remember what the Spirit said back when they were sent from Antioch in Acts 13:2? “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”
So they were sent for this work, and the work is not done until they come back to Antioch to partner the work of the church plants with the sending church. Luke brackets this journey for us from Acts 13:2-14:26 from sending to planting to partnering showing it all as one unit of work. This is the work of church planting and how churches multiply for the glory of God.
This is the first journey, and in the next journey, the church in Antioch sends Paul by the Spirit, with a team to go back to these churches to strengthen them, to support them, to encourage them. They had their own elders and Paul was not trying to take control or anything.
Look at Acts 15:36 – “He says… “Let us return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are.”
This is church-to-church partnership where we ask, "How are you doing, do you need anything, and how can we help?" It is hard to fit that verse into a spreadsheet as it does not seem easily quantified. But it is easy to imagine that verse around a dinner table, and in a home with prayer and with love – “Let us see how they are.”
Church planting is not merely church-birthing. It is church-nurturing too. Churches plant churches and water them as they grow.
What I love about this — as we see later on — is that it is not one-sided relationship. It is not all “give” from the sending church and all “take” for the church plants. As these church plants grow, they partner in the work too. In fact, they start partnering right away!
In the second journey, Paul returns and look at Acts 16:1-2 – “Paul came also to Derbe and Lystra. A disciple was there, named Timothy… He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium.”
At this time, Paul needed help. He needed a teammate. The church in Lystra had raised up Timothy. The churches in the region had affirmed him and they sent Timothy to go with Paul!
These young church plants were partnering in the work! They multiplied! They sent leaders and also resources. Later on, we see these same church plants sending relief back to Jerusalem, too (1 Cor 16:1).
With joy
In Acts 14:27, Paul and Barnabas return back to Antioch – “And when they arrived and gathered the church together they declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.”
I love the joy of partnership brimming from this verse. When they arrive, the church immediately comes around them.And they declare all that God had done with them. I do not know how long a typical members meeting in the church of Antioch would have been but I bet for this one, this missions update was rather long. So they are eager to be together, and to hear what God has done!
And that is why there is so much joy leaping out of this verse. It is all aimed at God! Paul and Barnabas declared not what they had done but “all that God had done with them!” … “How he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.”
From Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the ends of the earth, the gospel keeps advancing, healthy churches keep multiplying. Now, with joy, they report that unreached Galatian Gentiles are believing in Jesus as the Messiah.
As it is with every conversion, this is something only God can do. Luke makes that very clear for us. Look at Acts 13:48… “When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.”
God appointed them to eternal life. God granted them repentance. So it is only right that when Paul and Barnabas come back and share, Acts 14:27 said that they “declare all that God had done with them… how he opened a door of faith.”
When God is at the center of church planting, when His glory is the center of gravity around which everything orbits, it makes us more humble because God must do this work. And it makes us more joyful because we can rely on Him!
Partnership in church planting is fueled by God-centered joy.
Leading up to the church plant and after the church is planted, I pray our Members’ Meetings would sound like verse 27. I pray God would give us grace to partner with joy.
Over time
I love that sweet note Luke gives us there in Acts 14:28 – “And they remained no little time with the disciples.”
This was true for Paul and Barnabas, as a missionary team, returning back to their sending church. So when our missionaries come back to us, it is good for us to receive them with joy, and to spend time with them. Whether we are talking about missionary or local church planting, healthy churches multiply by partnering together over time.
If we are going to see Singapore sounding forth the gospel throughout the region it is going to take churches planting churches and partnering together for “no little time.”
Brothers and sisters, this is why Emily and I have no other plans for our lives. This is our Plan A and we do not have a Plan B. As the Lord wills, we desire to serve here in Singapore for the rest of our days. We know healthy churches multiply and gospel partnership deepens over time. So sending, planting and partnering is not just a task for the next few years, but the task of a lifetime.
As we look ahead to the church plant, I pray we would not just look at 2027 or 2028, but at 2047 and 2068. So whether we go and plant, or stay and send, for all of us, if the Lord tarries, I pray we would be looking at decades of gospel work ahead. And I pray God would grant us a holy dissatisfaction until His glory fills the earth as waters cover the sea.
One church planting story to close.
In 2012, in an Asian city, a church was born. They were a small group of believers, gathering together with their Bibles and folding chairs, meeting in the living room of a city flat. They were small but they were healthy. So as the Word increased and multiplied, so did their church.
One of the members owned a restaurant, which he closed on Sundays, so by the time they could no longer fit into a living room, they began meeting there. Pretty quickly, they outgrew the restaurant, so they found a hotel ballroom, and began meeting there. And over four years, by God is grace, that little living room church had grown to about 200 souls.
They kept increasing and now, it was time to multiply.
It was 2016. The church had four elders so they sent two elders and a big chunk of members over to the West side. Many of those members already lived over there and they planted another church, even sending out their lead pastor!
Both churches kept growing, and three years later, they planted another.
Over the years, these healthy churches have kept sending, planting, and multiplying. And now there are 13 of them, partnering together… to see more churches multiply!
They pool money together to help young church plants get off the ground. They share a pastoral traineeship, spread throughout the churches, coming together for training. They translate good books together — more than half these churches are Chinese-speaking — but they all work together to see good resources spread to different language groups. And they host conferences together — strengthening one another, even through afflictions and checking in with each other to see how they are.
They send, they plant, and they partner; that’s how they have multiplied.
I gave this pastor a call a few days ago to make sure I had all my facts straight with this. He told me, plainly, that they are not any more special than us. They have just been doing normal, healthy church stuff – worshipping Jesus, proclaiming the Word, and in a number of these church plants, affliction actually forced them to multiply. But these churches have been ready for it because this has been their DNA from when they were first planted.
They send, they plant, they partner.
Because healthy churches multiply. That is how churches plant churches. It is through the local church.
It is what we saw in Acts. It is what we see in this account. And it is what we hope to see a whole lot more of here in Singapore too.
Let us pray.