Why plant a new church?
And Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:18-20
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Biblical
After Jesus commissioned his disciples to go into all the world to make disciples, we find them in Acts proclaiming the gospel and planting new churches. The command to go and make disciples (Matt 28:18-20) is lived out as the apostle proclaim the good news of Jesus and gather new believers in the church (Acts 2:42-47). The New Testament pattern is for the local churches to be the vehicle for making disciples.
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Effective
New church plants have been shown to be more effective at reaching the unchurched. Tim Keller reports, “Dozens of denominational studies have confirmed that the average new church gains most of its new members (60-80%) from the ranks of peole who are not attending any worshipping body. . . the average new congregation will bring six to eight times more new people into the life of the body of Christ than an older congregation of the same size.”
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God-Honoring
Our ultimate goal is to glorify God, and he teaches us in his Word that his plan is “that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places” (Eph 3:10). God has given us the church for our growth in Christ and for his glory. Our distinctive love for one another in the church testifies to the work of God in Christ and by his Spirit in our lives (Jn 13:35).
Why Hickory?
Hickory has been identified as a ‘Pocket of Lostness’ by the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina. While there are good and healthy churches in Hickory, the need far outpaces the resources and capacity.
70%
Nearly 70% of households in our community have no meaningful relationship with a local church. 11,676 of 16,883 households in Hickory are unchurched. Our community is living on the fumes of cultural Christianity and is rapidly secularizing.
14
Hickory is home to 14 unreached people groups. The nations have become our neighbors. These people groups are made up of less than 2% evangelical Christians. We pray that we might reach, disciple, and send some from among these peoples.
Hickory is home to 7300 college students at Lenoir-Rhyne University and Catawba Valley Community College. We pray that we would reach, disciple, and send these students as faithful followers of Christ into the world.