Why Plant and Not …?
Our elders have shared about our desire and plans to plant a church. It has been heartening to see that many members agree with these motivations and have been prayerfully considering this. Some have also wondered about alternatives to church planting. In this article, we seek to address some of these alternatives and options. This has been adapted from Pastor Eugene’s sharing at the recent 12 January Members’ Meeting and the information booklet put out by the elders.
In our previous article, we shared that we are seeking to plant in order to grow the gospel, and in doing so, obey the Great Commission’s call to make disciples. This biblical pattern for gospel growth involves proclamation (includes evangelism) and planting, because biblical disciple-making happens through local churches.
We also recognise that the work of the gospel is bigger than one church and our church. Other churches can reach other places and people, and each church can express its life together according to its needs and context, as shaped by its leaders and members. Thus, we seek to grow the network of like-minded churches in Singapore. We desire to establish other churches of like faith and doctrine for gospel partnerships and cooperation.
We also seek to grow gospel workers. Working towards a church plant certainly stretches our faith and also encourages us to step up and serve, as fellow workers for the truth. An endeavour like this opens more opportunities for us to train, equip, affirm and send faithful men and women out for the gospel.
These are the heart behind our move to plant a church, and it is heartening to see that many members agree with these motivations. But, as a natural followup, we might also wonder about alternatives to church planting. In this article, we seek to address some of these alternatives and options.
What about starting multiple services or congregations?
Top of the minds of many members might be the possibility of starting multiple services or congregations. Over the last three years, the Elders have explored whether a second English Congregation would be appropriate. We searched the Scriptures and sought God’s will in prayer about this.
The elders hold to the view that a church should be one assembly.
The elders hold to the view that a church should be one assembly. The biblical word for church: “ekklesia” means assembly. By definition, what makes a group of Christians a church is that they gather regularly. For this reason, most uses of the word “ekklesia” in the New Testament refer to distinct assemblies of believers in different locations, i.e. local churches.
In particular the biblical pattern for the church describes an assembly of Christians meeting in one place on the Lord’s Day (or the first day of the week). In fact the earliest Christians were known for worshipping on the Lord’s Day to commemorate Jesus’ resurrection on the first day of the week, which set them apart from the Judaizers who worshipped in the temple on the Sabbath (last day of the week). Consider also these three Scriptures: in Acts 20:7, the believers met “on the first day of the week, when we were gathered together”. The apostle Paul spoke in 1 Corinthians 14:23 of how worship takes place when “the whole church comes together”, and from 1 Corinthians 16:2, that an offering was collected for ministry on the “first day of every week”.
The church is defined by this act of assembling together. In Acts 2, we see the earliest example of how such an assembly, or a church functions. It consists of people who devoted themselves to fellowship. They knew one another. They broke bread together, indicating that they took the Lord’s Supper together. Taking the Lord’s Supper together signals our spiritual unity in Christ. They also had all things in common. Thus, we see that meeting together regularly and doing life together is a key part of being members of one church.
Maintaining multiple English congregations in the long term could see the unity of the one body gradually weaken, as members in different congregations do not regularly meet with one another. Face-to-face meetings are necessary for our unity (1 Thess 2:17, Heb 10:24-25, 3 Jn 14).
By having multiple services and congregations, we inadvertently redefine what the Bible says about church. How so? Consider the following.
As a church, we are committed to obeying the Bible’s “one-another” commands and seek to love our brothers and sisters in the local church. This presupposes knowing one another in the regular gathering. Such one-anothering should take place through diverse relationships across the church, not merely in a sub-set of the church.
Fellow church members share a responsibility to disciple one another. This loving commitment to the spiritual good of the whole body of Christ is the heart of meaningful membership. We live this out in practice by receiving and seeing out members, church discipline, and appointing leaders, etc. We do this as one gathered church, because knowing those whom we have covenanted with in membership is crucial for building up the whole body of Christ.
Gathering regularly in one assembly fosters deeper relationships and pastoral care for God’s flock.
As one assembly, the elders will be better able to know and pastor the members, for whom we have to give an account to the Chief Shepherd. Conversely, the members will also be better able to know their elders, whom they see weekly. Gathering regularly in one assembly fosters deeper relationships and pastoral care for God’s flock.
Remaining one assembly will help us to focus outwards on church planting and strengthening other local churches. Praise God that the work of the gospel is bigger than one local church. As such, we will actively seek out opportunities to plant and partner with other churches. This is consistent with the pattern that we see in the New Testament: The gospel advanced as churches invested in other churches (Acts 14:21-23, Rom 16:1, 1 Cor 16:1).
Why not expand our space?
In light of how full our sanctuary is on Sundays, some may ask about expanding and renovating our building to cope with this increasing need. This is a viable and ongoing discussion as we are looking into ways to increase our capacity and improve and intensify how we use our present space. But, while the space constraints are real, it is not a primary driver for why we are planting. We are certainly not planting for pragmatic reasons.
What about strengthening other churches?
We do desire to do so, and continue to actively seek out such opportunities in Singapore and beyond. Over the years, we have had opportunities to send out men and women from GBC and in recent times are thankful that God has allowed us the chance to befriend, train and send Yanadi to the Fisherman of Christ Fellowship, and Samuel to East Asia. Pastor Oliver was also sent out temporarily to help with Acts Baptist in the second half of 2023. Our Weekender was held in 2024 with this goal too.
We continue to pray that God will provide and raise from among us men and women with the desire and this can also coexist alongside our desire to plant a church.
These are some of our considerations and motivations behind taking some initial steps to planting a church. We thank members for all their questions and invite all members to a Prayer and Sharing session this Sunday, 19 January from 11.15am to 12.15am. There will be a time to interact with and share with the elders your concerns and questions during this session. Above all, we invite all members to pray and continue to ask for God’s direction for the days ahead.
Members with questions can continue to speak with any of the pastors and elders, or write to them at plant@gracebaptistchurch.sg.