Church planters reach for the sky
Goal in next three years is more than 1,000 churches
By
Linda Haist
Special to ChristianWeek
BRAMPTON, ON–It’s a tall order.
Some would say it’s pie-in-the-sky. But organizers of Pray, Plan, Plant 2000, Canada’s first inter-denominational church planting congress, are convinced it is possible to mobilize Christians of all people groups to start 1,078 new congregations across the country by the year 2000. That’s one biblically orthodox church for every 3,163 Canadians. They also hoped that by the year 2015, there will be 10,000 new churches.
According to Murray Moerman, chair of Church Planting Canada, which organized the October 27-30 congress, if evangelical churches planted a new congregation every five years, there would be one church for every 500 to 1,000 people across Canada in 25 years. Moerman stressed that this wouldn’t require the construction of thousands of new buildings but the organization of new cell bodies that could meet in a variety of locations, including homes. He said these churches would offer the majority of Canadians, who are unchurched, an opportunity to hear the gospel through a personal relationship with a Christian they know and trust.
Background material handed out at the congress included the results of a 1996 Angus Reid poll that indicated only 68 percent of Canadians identify themselves with Christianity. Another study, "An Initial Survey of the Harvest Field and Harvest Force in Canada," reported that only 21 percent of people who claim to be Christians participate in worship at least twice a month or read their Bible regularly.
"The issue is not numbers but to reach all people groups in all neighborhoods for Christ; to see Christ incarnate in communities so people have a genuine opportunity to hear the gospel," said Moerman.
