Churches Start Churches

​“Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.” (13:1-3)
 
America is the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. The American Dream gives an individual the right to pursue happiness. Without question, the laws and principles of our society have advanced the rights of the individual far beyond what has often been the case in the history of the world (and even today). And though we all rally around such rights in the secular world, there is no question that such individual privileges have hindered our understanding of the church in America today. 
 
Uniting with a church is to join a group where there is to be instruction, support, encouragement and accountability. In a church environment, the only individual that is elevated above all others is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Head of the church and we are members of His body. Though we must all earnestly seek spiritual growth, we never advance in a church to the place of prominence. Jesus is the Hero of the church—we aren’t. And just as a reminder, He will be Heaven’s Hero throughout the ages to come. We won’t be.
 
Modern Christendom—especially in our very individualistic society—has skewed the idea of the church from the ground up. We have developed a culture where we seek out a church much the way we seek out a gym membership or choose a movie or buy a vacuum cleaner. We are looking for what works for us, or what is convenient to our home, or perhaps most often what they have for our children. I’m certainly not discounting the importance of living close to one’s church if you can find a faithful one—and I am a proponent of teaching the next generation of believers. However, that’s not the place to start when looking for a church. If the preaching in the pulpit is off, there is no need to check out the other benefits of the church. Our families’ spiritual growth will be stagnant at best if the sermons are less than Biblical. 
 
I say all that to say that our skewed view of the church these days includes the way a church should begin. The only clear examples we see in the Bible for starting churches is for a church (through some connection to itself) to make disciples through the preaching of the Gospel, to baptize them and to form them into a church so that they may be taught all things that Jesus taught—so they may be instructed in the apostles’ doctrine.  But why?  Is this just some legal hoop to jump through? Does God give us legal hoops for no purpose at all? I assure you, He does not. There are a number of obvious reasons why churches should start churches. I want to look at a few very briefly.  This article is in no way exhaustive of this subject. 

First of all, healthy churches start healthy churches. Understand, the church is God’s plan for this age. There simply is no such thing as a rogue Christian in the New Testament. Every single person—without exception—who was saved by God’s grace was baptized and added to a local assembly of baptized believers. The church is the place where the ordinances are administered, where preaching and singing and praying takes place, where discipleship and discipline are carried out and where individuals unite together as a corporate witness of the Gospel and the coming Kingdom of God. This is God’s plan for every convert without exception. This is the institution Jesus started as He was ministering here on Earth. To ensure that a church is doing the things outlined in Scripture, healthy churches in the first century started other churches in hopes that the new congregations themselves would be healthy. This is one of the reasons we see the church in Jerusalem send Barnabas to Antioch (Acts 11:19-26). After bringing Saul, they spent a year instructing this young church in the truths of God’s Word—instructing them how to live for Christ in this present evil age.
 
Secondly, churches start churches to ensure that local church leaders are fit to serve as church leaders (Acts 14:23, 2 Timothy 2:1-2). There simply is no accountability for an individual who leases a building and puts up a sign declaring himself to be a church. He can (and usually will) say and do all sorts of things contrary to God’s Word in order to grow his congregation. A rogue Christian is rarely if ever a doctrinally sound Christian. A missionary who cannot find support from an existing, healthy church is concerning from the get-go. It’s no wonder that we see such a plethora of heretical teachings in our world today. Men (and women) have left the Biblical pattern of church planting and started their own groups apart from sound teaching. When healthy churches start churches, there is at least some guard against such errors in the pulpit.   
 
Thirdly, when churches start churches, the ordinances are protected. Baptism and the Lord’s Table were given to the church in Jerusalem initially. Both of these ordinances are reminders of the Gospel—of the crucifixion of Jesus on the cross for sinners (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). Baptism is a profession of faith and a commitment to be a life-long follower of Jesus by the individual. As a church, when we baptize an individual, it is our commitment as a group to disciple that person as long as they are a member. Rogue baptisms miss the mark here by a long shot. The Lord’s Table is the united, corporate witness of the church to the Gospel of Jesus repeatedly. Baptism is to be a one-time act. The Lord’s Table is the repetitive testimony of a group of believers relative to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Both ordinances point to salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. When healthy churches start heathy churches, the purity of the ordinances is ensured. 
 
Lastly, when healthy churches start churches there is some assurance that the Gospel will remain pure. The very first question that must be asked of a prospective missionary or a group wishing to be formed into a church is how they view the Gospel. Do you believe Jesus is the only Way to God? Do you believe salvation comes to an individual by grace alone as he is brought through regeneration to faith in Christ alone? Do you understand that works play no role in getting you saved or keeping you saved? If the prospect has this wrong, no healthy church will see the need to move forward to any more questioning. Where there is no accurate witness of the Gospel, there can be no church. And if any group has a gross misunderstanding of the Gospel, they should not be formed into a church. 
 
As you can see, the Biblical example of churches starting churches isn’t just some legality. That isn’t how doctrine works.  When the Lord gives us instruction, it is for our benefit. If healthy churches had been starting healthy churches for 2000 years, we wouldn’t see all of the alphabet soup of doctrinal heresies we see today. We would see churches that preached the Gospel, carried out the ordinances faithfully and had faithful members serving the Lord with zeal because they had been properly discipled. This one (seemingly simple) instruction has been tossed aside and the result is what we see in Christendom today—mass confusion. Let us get back to the pattern laid out in the Scripture. The instruction God gives is good for us. This instruction is no exception.