In the last 10 years, the Lord has grown our fragile little denomination in remarkable ways. There are external factors which have contributed, but in the kindness of God, we are now 25 congregations, with 13 of these being church plants. In these past few months we have seen three IPC congregations begin in Salford, Carlisle and Lincoln.

There are times and seasons in church life as well as denominational life. We are now in a period of needing to see church plants grow and become sustainable. In many ways the crying need of the UK is strong churches, and so I thought it would be good for us to think about how we can be praying for these church plants using 5 points starting with P.

People

It is easy to be obsessed with numbers in church life, but we do need to see that God’s ordinary way of working is of adding to his Church. We are to be praying that our congregations would come to spiritual maturity and grow in depth of love and insight, and that as churches we would become more and more conformed to Christ. It is also right to pray that the Lord would bring people to our church plant. That people would be converted and added to the church, and that Christians who move into the area would join these churches. There is a strength in numbers. As a congregation grows it is able to reach more people, have different ministries, support other congregations, and see more churches planted. There is a reason why in the book of Acts numbers are recorded so that we can see and rejoice over how Christ’s church has grown.

It is true that many churches in the UK have stalled at the 40-50 people mark. It means that the church is always on the borders of viability. Vulnerability and fragility can be good things in a church’s life. There is a sense in which it can cause us to cast ourselves on the Lord. But for the sake of the gospel, for the establishment of new churches, for the work of the kingdom, churches that grow and have more people in them are able to often have a greater impact.

There is something in the British Christian mentality that is very nervous about churches growing big. I wonder how we might have felt on the day of Pentecost?

Pounds

To plant a church takes considerable expense. There is the Church Planter’s salary and accommodation, a decent website, the hiring of premises, the expenses go on and on. Our church planting committee estimates that it takes £100,000 for the first year. This means that our church planters as well as being Preachers and Pastors have to become fund raisers. Our church planting fund at Presbytery has been a brilliant thing in being able to give grants to enable plants to get going. We normally give grants for 3 years of about a third of what the planter has to raise. It would be wonderful to see this fund able to give more and see more churches planted and established.

Presbyters

Elders are a precious gift of the Ascended Christ to his church, to be able to share in the work and governance in our churches. The Church planter is not able to do all the work and is extremely vulnerable on his own. The pattern we see in the New Testament is of a plurality of leadership. We well know the danger of power in the hands of one man corrupting that man. The testimony of the whole of Scripture bears this out.

“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil.  For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!” Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 

“Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed.” Proverbs 15:22

It is for the health and safety of Christ’s flock that we believe elders are needed. Please pray that our church planters would see elders raised up in their congregations to shepherd Jesus’ church.

Properties

‘The church is not the building’ is of course true, but it is also equally true that buildings serve churches. Our experience is that a building enables you to be more established in a community, to have a base from which you can do ministry and mission. It says to the transient community around us ‘this church will outlive you’. Our church plants which are renting find themselves very vulnerable to the whims of their landlord. Some of our church plants have found themselves under attack for holding to a biblically faithful position on sexuality and been told they are unable to rent the space any longer because of that. Others of our church plants in places where space is at a premium, are paying thousands of pounds for two hours on a Sunday morning. Enormous amounts of energy can be taken up in church plants with set up and take down with only a very small number of volunteers.

I realise it is naive to think that having one’s own building will lead to growth, and yet we need to realise that seeing churches established for the next 100 years necessarily means having your own building. We need to have a long term mindset in planting. We are going to have to be creative in seeing how churches can get established in their own buildings. Please pray that those church plants which are struggling to buy properties would be able to purchase a building. Is there a way that you could financially support one of our church plants in obtaining a building?

Planters

We have been blessed in the last 15 years with men who have come forward with their families willing to sacrifice and give themselves to Church Planting with the IPC. We realise that the needs are enormous and that church planting does take a certain type of personality. It isn’t for everyone, and so it is right that men’s gifts are tested to see whether it is a good fit. Pray that the Lord would sustain these church planters and their families, who are often in isolated situations. The pressures in a church plant, where one is beginning from scratch, are significant. Pray that we would care well for those men and their families.

There are also more opportunities than we can currently meet. We are in need of more church planters. Jesus tells us, “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” (Matthew 9:38,39).  Pray that the Lord would raise up church planters. Pray for those considering planting with IPC.

As a denomination, we have so much to be thankful for. We recognise that unless the Lord builds the house, we labour in vain. Pray that the Lord would continue to build his church through us.

* I think I got at least 3 of these P’s from Jonty Rhodes in a Presbytery report he gave.