Baptist Church Planting

By Marvin McKenzie

This book is designed to introduce basic Baptist principles involved in church planting. The authority for church planting is the local church. We do not presume that our ideas are infallible or unchangeable. We offer this to help and give them insight should the Lord lead the reader into that work through their local church.

Within these few pages, the young preacher will also find bits of help for conducting church organization services, ordination services, weddings, funerals, and administering Our Lord's Supper.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Marvin McKenzie
• Release date: Apr 14, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201340056

Marvin McKenzie

Pastor Marvin McKenzie was saved at the age of eighteen. He has planted and pastored churches in Washington and Oregon. Involved in planting 10 churches[1] Executive Vice President of Pacific Coast Baptist Bible College, San Dimas, CA[2] and then Heartland Baptist Bible College, OKC OK.  Pastor of Bible Baptist Church in Puyallup, WA 19 years (December 1999-present) Celebrated 35th anniversary of ordination December 29, 2018 Published 65 books relating to Bible Study, Baptist History and Devotionals   Marvin and Anita have two sons; both serve in Baptist churches in Washington State. [1] I was a founding member of two of them, the co-founder of one, founder of one and sent men out of our church to plant the others. [2] I negotiated the sale of the PCBBC campus previous to the college’s move to OKC. I served as the first EVP at Heartland.

Book preview

Chapter One

THE BIBLICAL PRECEDENT

Since we claim to be, first and foremost, a Bible-believing and Bible obeying people, we ought to establish that our philosophy of church planting is Biblical.

Acts: The Church Planting Handbook

Many Bibles have as the title of the book of Acts, The Acts of the Apostles. But that is not accurate. It is really the Acts of the Holy Ghost through the Apostles.

The focus of the book of Acts is that of church planting.

The churches in Acts: Jerusalem

While Jesus established His church in the Gospels (not in Acts chapter two), it is in Jerusalem that we see the church empowered (Acts 1:8). This church had one task – that was to get the Gospel around the world, but they were to do it in a four-fold progression:

Jerusalem

Judea

Samaria

Uttermost parts

three quarters of the ministry Jesus gave the church in Jerusalem was in the home country.

Like any building, a foundation must be laid before the structure can go up. The foundation of New Testament ministry is the local church. We must therefore take much time and effort to build up this base.

The church in Jerusalem did make a mistake, however. They got so occupied in Jerusalem that they neglected the rest of the commission for a time. When they did get out of Jerusalem, they did not start hospitals. They founded churches

The churches in Acts: Samaria

Acts 8

It is evident that when Philip went to Samaria, he planted a church.

He preached Christ

He baptized converts

He somehow reported to the church in Jerusalem, who sent Peter and John to confirm the ministry there.

Philip did not begin a study group or a social group. Instead, he founded a local church.

Let’s look at several of the churches in Acts: Antioch

Acts 11:19-22

In a similar fashion to what happened in Samaria, those brethren who went to Antioch began to preach Christ (soul win), and it was not long before the need of a church in town became apparent. The church in Jerusalem sent Barnabas to establish the work there.

By Acts 13:1, there is an established and thriving church in Antioch.

This church then becomes the focus of the rest of the work in the book of Acts.

The churches in Acts: Apostle Paul

Acts 13:1-3

The church in Antioch sent out Barnabas and Saul (later known as Paul) for the work whereunto [God] had called them.

That work was church planting. During his ministry, Paul:

Assembled and trained a troop of fellow servants and future preachers

Raised money for poor saints

Wrote nearly one half of the New Testament

Took a medical doctor with him and was involved in many healing events.

Yet Paul’s work was always primarily church planting.

Chapter Two

HISTORICAL SUPPORT OF CHURCH PLANTING THROUGH THE LOCAL CHURCH

It must be understood that those who went organized new churches.

The Biblical precedence for church planting did not stop with Paul and the churches planted in Acts.

We know, for instance, that churches were planted in the Region of Galatia

but the record of their founding is not documented in the Word of God.

We know of a church in Babylon (1 Peter 5:13)

but find no documentation of its founding.

We know of seven churches listed in Revelation

We do not have the documentation of the founding of

all of them.

The Point?

The book of Acts is a model. Its record is not complete but only supplied to show us what was the typical work not only of the Apostles but of others who were being witnesses to the uttermost parts and, just as did Philip and those who went to Antioch, were about the business not only of winning souls but then organizing those who were saved and baptized into established churches.

Beyond Biblical History

While there is minimal history extant concerning the ministry of the earliest Christians (who did not align with Roman Catholicism), what we do know is that everywhere they went, they won souls to Christ, and they organized those who were won and baptized into churches.

While there is very little history extant concerning the ministry of the earliest Christians (who did not align with Roman Catholicism) what we do know is that everywhere they went they won souls to Christ, and they organized those who were won and baptized into churches.

Christianity survived the persecutions of the Catholics and later of the Protestant groups and bequeathed to those generations that followed them sound Baptist churches imply that they were church planters.

The fact that there was a church for Charles Spurgeon to be called to preach in implies that someone before him did the work of a church planter.

The fact that whole Baptist churches moved from England, Wales, and other old-world