Church Planting

It is often said that planting new churches is in the DNA of Baptists.  However, during the twentieth century, more Baptist churches were closed than were started and this trend was only reversed in the 1990s when Baptists joined in the ecumenical drive to plant more churches during the Decade of Evangelism.  A Baptist Union consultation was held in 2004 to learn lessons from that experience and to consider the changing nature of church planting in today’s society.  Now church planting in a variety of forms is firmly back on the Baptist agenda, confirmed by the BUGB Council in March 2010 where the following resolution was agreed:

The Mission Department is tasked to help build a culture within the Baptist Union whereby church planting is expected and encouraged, with Incarnate as its valued church planting network. The Department should promote the planting of healthy, contextualised churches and congregations.

 In early 2011 we engaged in a mapping and survey of churches planted from 2005 - click here for the summary report of this research:  Church Planting Research

In partnership with the Incarnate Network, there is an annual houseparty for church planters and local networks for church planters are being formed.  The Mission Department is continuing to work out ways with the Associations and Colleges and other agencies to encourage and support new church planting.
Find out more at http://incarnate-network.eu

Click here for details about the Baptist Union church planters' network.