As I grow in my role as the Coordinator of Church Planting, I’ve spent a considerable amount of time thinking about how movements begin. Movements happen at local, state and national levels. There are social movements and then there are movements that God brings about in our world. As I think about a movement of church planting in our denomination, I’m drawn to pray, hope and anticipate that God will move like he’s moved in the past.

A few decades ago, sociologist Herbert Blumer and Charles Tilley developed four stages of social movements. While these stages highlight social issues, I see many parallels to the movement of church planting in our denomination.

The Preliminary Stage. In the preliminary stage, individuals become aware of needs and leaders begin to emerge. Advent Christians are well aware of our need to plant churches, most importantly to see the lost come to know Christ. Through the years, we’ve seen church planters emerge with varying levels of success. 

The Coalescing Stage. In the coalescing stage, individuals join to raise awareness and heighten conversation in response to need. ACGC’s strategic plan in 2017 identified planting as a critical need that led to the creation of my current position.

The Institutionalization Stage. In the institutionalization stage, the movement is no longer driven by those with passion or interest, the movement has become part of the organization. As a denomination, I believe we’re in this in-between time of coalescing and institutionalizing. It’s one thing to recognize the need and to bring voices together on church planting, but it’s another thing for church planting to become what we do. My hope, my prayer is that our belief in the imminent return of Christ will become the mechanism through which people enter the kingdom through church planting.

The Decline Stage. In the decline stage, change has been accomplished or people become disinterested or dispassionate. While some might be quick to put our denomination as a whole in this stage, remember that new movements are birthed every day.

God is not done with the Advent Christian Church and the coalescing that’s been happening regarding church planting makes me hopeful. As we continue to unify around this movement with our eye on institutionalizing, I encourage you to do the following:

1. I’m convinced that spiritual movements are rooted in prayer. Pray that God would birth a movement of church planting and that it would be evident that it came from him.
2. Not every candidate we take through the Converge Assessment will be greenlighted to plant. Not every church we plant will survive. However, if we’ll be faithful to the task of sowing seeds in church planting, I believe we will see a return 20, 50, 100-fold.
3. Wait Expectantly. As a father of three, I recognize that my kids aren’t maturing overnight. As we see church planters being assessed and churches launching, let’s do what Advent Christians have been doing for the last 150 years – wait expectantly.