Three Great Questions About Church Planting in Oklahoma by Randall Adams
Because Oklahoma Baptists start about 50 new churches each year, we are often asked important questions about church planting. In this article, I will address three common questions, the answers to which are vital for a proper understanding of how Oklahoma Baptists plant new churches. The questions are:read more from Baptist Messenger...
• Who can start a new church?
• How are priorities established for church planting in Oklahoma?
• And, do we need more Baptist churches in Oklahoma?
The 2010 census and Oklahoma Baptists: some lessons by Randall Adams
In this brief article, only a few issues and situations could be addressed. But I encourage you to look at your community and your church. Develop a plan to pray for the churches and to reach the lost. Your plan should include starting a new church, beginning new small groups and praying for the unity of the Body of Christ. Don’t pray for your church only, but for each Bible-preaching, soul-winning, mission-sending church in your town. We need each other, and we need many more to join us.read the full article from Baptist Messenger...
2011 Oklahoma Church Planting Conference: Coloring Outside the Box
KJ Jackson told the group four years ago, he was sitting where they were, not wanting to plant a church. Yet just a few years later, he is pastor of a growing congregation, New Beginnings Community Church in Tulsa.read more from Baptist Messenger...
Why Reach Oklahoma?
(click on the images below to view larger)
Oklahoma Counties Percentage of Population in 2000 at Christian churches on any Given Weekend
On a scale from 1 to 10 NAMB (North American Mission Board)
has ranked all the counties in the U.S. -
has ranked all the counties in the U.S. -
13 counties in Oklahoma ranked a 5 or above in the need for churches.
Oklahoma Counties Population Change 2000-2005
Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma Church Planting
At first the need for new churches in Oklahoma may not be obvious. For quite some time Oklahoma has been known as the “buckle of the Bible belt” with a “church on every corner.” Yet, those descriptions are misleading and they do not truly reflect the realities of Oklahoma’s present spiritual climate. Consider these facts:read more from BGCO.org...
- It is estimated that as many as 80% of Oklahoma residents do not attend any church.
- In 1900 there were 27 congregations for every 10,000 residents. Today, that number has dropped to 11 churches for every 10,000 residents.
- The population of Oklahoma grew by over 300,000 residents between 1990 and 2000. During that same time period Oklahoma Baptists shrank by nearly 5,000 resident members.
Meet Oklahoma Church Planters click here for more...
Andrew Burkhart, http://www.loveandjusticechurch.org/#/home
Jim Stratton, http://www.rivetedchurch.com/
Why Did We Change? -- Dr. Cruce of Tulsa Metro Baptist Network on why the association restructured in 2005 (written in 2006). The following excerpts are related to church planting:
From the section THE THREAT TMABC FACES (p. 3): According to a study conducted in 2004 by David Olson and TheAmericanChurch.org, from 1990 to 2000 attendance in all churches in the Tulsa Metro area decreased by 10%. The study also concluded that only 20% of the population attends church on a regular basis in the Tulsa Metro area, which is 2% above the national average of 18% and 2% below the state average of 22%. Now we are halfway into the next decade and we have to ask ourselves, have those trends continued? More than likely, they have with 75% of our member churches in a state of decline at the present time.
From the section Q & A (pp. 16-18): Q: Why include planting more churches as one of our four priorities? Didn't we have enough churches, especially here in the Tulsa Metro area? A: Another of the four priorities upon which our strategy planning team felt we should focus was planting new churches. It is only reasonable to respond to the question of "why church planting," because if we want to be a part of the future that God has for our region, we have no choice but to include the planting of new churches. It will only happen, however, with kingdom-focused churches and leaders who are led by God . . . willing to put it all on the line for Him.read the full article from TMBN.net
As mentioned earlier, nationwide, there are approximately 64 "Neotribal" groups (groups of people having a similar culture or "way of living" that provides common activities, interests, and opinions from which emerge similar values, attitudes, and belief systems). Our own Tulsa Metro area has 46 of the 64 neotribal lifestyle segments appearing in our 383,016 households! Obviously, Tulsa and the surrounding communities are formed from diverse neighborhoods and communities. Our association's mission challenge is to identify and understand the social identities around which these "neotribes" gather. We must then work together and create customized approaches to reaching and bringing these people into God's Family. Existing churches can only do this to a point because one church cannot reach everyone in its community. A church tends to connect and reach people of the same, or slightly different, culture as its members.
The most effective way to reach the growing and complex diversity of our communities is to plant new churches. Associations, regardless of their size, that do not plant churches today, will cease to exist tomorrow.
Church Planting can change our present reality, but it will take the thinking and collaboration of Kingdom-minded people. Please hear my heart: turfism, jealousy, and competition among our churches and pastors will have to fall by the wayside. For example, God has given the pastor of one of our churches a kingdom vision and he is leading his congregation to give a tithe of their Building Fund for one year towards the planting of new churches in our association. Such decisions are kingdom decisions birthed in the heart of God! Trust is one of our association's core values and it will need to be the order of the day!
The need for church planting has never been greater in Tulsa Metro Association! From 1990 to 2000 there was a net gain of only 18 churches for all denominations in the Tulsa Metro area. However, to keep up with the population growth in the Tulsa metro area, there would have needed to have been a net gain of 126 churches. If the present decade is to rectify that, 108 more churches must be started in the next five years. Those statistics speak volumes about where things are.
Reality check: As existing churches go through a life cycle, many of those churches simply cannot turn around and, eventually, cease being the church of their geographical area. Approximately seventy-two North American churches cease to exist at the end of every week! This scenario is happening in a number of our own churches. Survival will no longer be an option for some of them, but they can finish well and with the blessing of God. Some churches will need to end their ministry and cease to exist because they simply cannot
continue due to their present location, their structure, or their mindset. But here is the good news - churches can come to the end of their journey with a legacy that continues advancing the Kingdom of God. Viable options exist that enable a congregation to come to the end of the way and finish their journey with a sense of dignity, knowing their labor "was not in vain in the Lord." Those possibilities include turning their facilities over to a new church start or choosing to merge with existing congregations...Historically, Tulsa Metro Association has seen the importance of church planting and for us to neglect planting new churches would be to abandon part of our heritage as Baptists. In an article in SBC Life, C. Peter Wagner of Fuller Seminary was quoted as saying that the “single-most effective evangelistic methodology under heaven is planting new churches.”...If we are not careful, fear will drive us to conclude that starting new churches is unnecessary or a waste of valuable resources. But the evidence is overwhelming in its support of church planting - and God's Word undeniably affirms its importance. The fact of the matter remains that if we want to have a viable witness and presence in the future of our region with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we will have no choice but to start new churches. There is simply no way to describe how desperately we need new churches.
Tulsa Metro Baptist Network Church Planting Priority Team
Purpose and Function: The Church Planting Team will cultivate a decentralized church planting movement within the Tulsa region where a growing number of network churches are involved in the creation of new churches.read more from TMBN.net about the team...
TMBN March 2011 Church Planting Newsletter
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