Why Start New Churches: A Biblical Mandate

In what may go down as one of the most eternally significant, yet momentarily ambiguous commands of all Scripture, Jesus, before his ascension, directs his disciples simply to “go and make disciples…”. He gives no help regarding the “how” other than to instruct baptism and the relaying of his previous commands to all they would reach. Then He was gone.

Little did the disciples know that this command would birth a movement that would change human history for all eternity. Following the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20), we’ve seen billions of people come to saving faith in Jesus Christ and hundreds of thousands of individual churches come into existence with the goal of reaching others with His gospel. Yet the command still hasn’t been completed. For as long as there are those with “ears to hear,” the command to make disciples persists. As long as we have friends and family members, co-workers and teammates who have yet to meet Jesus, we are called to be faithful to Christ and be his witnesses “in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to all the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).” It’s for this reason that we must continue to not only reproduce our faith one-on-one, though personal evangelism, but also reproduce healthy churches worldwide.

One of the first examples of one gospel community birthing another is found in Acts 13. The early Christian leaders at the church in Antioch were worshipping the Lord and fasting when the Holy Spirit spoke to them by calling them to “set aside” Barnabas and Saul for the work to which they were being called to. And what was this work? To be faithful to Christ’s command and expectation that His followers be faithful in making disciples who in turn, make more disciples. So this is exactly what they did. The leaders continued in fasting and prayer and then sent the men off to preach in Cyprus and beyond. It was during this time of preaching and planting gospel seeds that the influence of the early church spread, grew, and developed. This pioneering gospel community would set an example for how followers of Jesus could put hands and feet to the formerly ambiguous command to “make disciples” of all nations for centuries to come.