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Nov 10

The Why and How of DSC’s Church Planting Plans

2011 | by Trent Hunter | Category: Church Planting

If you’ve been around DSC for a while, you should know that we are laboring to be a church that plants churches that plant churches. In fact, just this past Monday, Carlos Griego signed the lease on a meeting place for Redemption Rio Rancho, DSC’s first local church plant.

With 2012 just around the corner, now is a good time for a refresher on why and how we’re going about church planting. Clint is DSC’s Missions Director, and he was happy (as you would imagine!) to answer several questions for us on the subject:

Can you explain to us again why we want to be a church planting church? 

For the long answer, visit our Church Planting Page, especially the FAQ section, and read Pastor Ryan’s Ten Reasons to Plant Churches Now. The bottom line is this: God sent His Son into the world to save sinners. Once Jesus accomplished this work on the cross, he came back to life and sent his followers out to proclaim the good news. Then Jesus instructed his followers to disciple believers in the context of the local church. We believe that the most Biblical and effective way to reach people and people groups is to plant churches that multiply. In light of this, we want to send folks out to North Africa and across our region to plant churches. We also pray that God will use this spirit of multiplication to awaken DSC to reaching our friends, family, and neighbors with the gospel.

Church planting is obviously a major undertaking  and at a number of levels. What are the costs involved for us as a body?

Comfort and coin. It’s going to cost us relationally as well as financially. Folks we love and find deep friendship and fellowship with may uproot from DSC and go with the first church plant (Redemption Rio Rancho), a future local church plant, or even sell all they have to move to North Africa to plant churches. And as a body, we must prayerfully serve them as they count the costs and step out in faith. It is also going to be an expensive endeavor. We hope to send out multiple church planters both locally and globally. Local church planters need temporary financial support from DSC, where as global church planters will likely need perpetual support from DSC. Either way, we are calling all of DSC to prayerfully consider starting by giving $1 per day for a year to church planting above their normal offerings. Then, as each year comes to an end, ask God in faith to provide through you to give another $1 per day to church planting. Our hope is that families and individuals will continue to increase from $1 per day, to $2 per day, to $3 per day, and more. The question shouldn’t be when can we stop, but rather, how much farther will God take us!

Giving is obviously, then, a big part of this. How can I get started or increase my giving?

The absolute best way is to set up both your regular giving and your church planting giving online here. If you’d prefer, you can use a missions envelope to designate your gift to “Church Planting.” Then, once you’ve made the commitment to give to church planting on a regular basis beyond your normal giving, you can send an email to missions@desertspringschurch.org in order to receive bimonthly updates on our church planting efforts via email.

For more information about DSC’s church planting strategy or how to set up your online giving, visit DSC’s Church Planting pages.