Out of those alarming conclusions was born the Kentucky Baptists Connect initiative. Within that five-year ministry strategy was the emphasis on planting more churches throughout the state.
But with so many churches already, why start more?
“Those churches may be there, but they’re just going to continue to reach their own,” said Larry Baker, director of the KBC’s new work and associational ministries department. “Church planting is something that needs to be done.”
As Roy Fish, former interim president of the Southern Baptist North American Mission Board wrote in Richard Harris’ book, “Reaching a Nation Through Church Planting,” “There is no better way for us to enrich Christ’s reputation on earth than by planting new healthy churches that multiply disciples and purpose to start other reproducing churches.”
Church planting is nothing new for Baptists in Kentucky, but as Baker pointed out, since the 1950s, it has become a lost art.
“Before that, that’s what Southern Baptists did, they planted churches,” he noted.
Baker added that until the 1990s, Baptists forgot about planting churches and assumed that all churches were growing. He pointed out that the reality is only 12 to 14 percent of Kentuckians attend church on Sundays, according to the mission study committee’s report.
Out of the necessity to start churches in areas that need them most, the High Impact Church initiative was launched. The ultimate objective of each of the new churches is to seek the unchurched in a specific area, eventually start other churches, and reach an average attendance of 250 people in five years.
“The purpose is to help us be intentional and strategic in starting churches,” explained KBC Executive Director Bill Mackey.
Currently, the 11 churches are:
- Master’s Church, Lexington.
- The Journey, Murray.
- The Crossing, Louisville.
- thechurch@cedarcreek, Stanford.
- Cardinal Valley Iglesia, Lexington.
- Journey, Union.
- Mountain Community Fellowship, Paintsville.
- Lifesong Church, Ashland.
- The Baptist Worship Center, Mount Sterling.
- The Way, Crittenden.
- CrossPoint, Morehead.
The goal is to see 25 of these churches planted throughout the state by 2010, an average of five per year. Baker said it will be difficult to meet the goal of 15 by the end of this year, even though several potential church plants are on the drawing board.
“The potential for reaching our goal is there, but it may not happen this year,” Baker said.
What’s the difference?
Since January 2005, 117 churches have been planted in Kentucky, so what sets the high impact churches apart from the others? It all starts with the individual interested in planting the church.
“The expectations for the church planter of a high impact church are higher than what we would necessarily require for the other church plants,” Baker said.
According to the KBC’s High Impact guidelines, the prospective planter must demonstrate the ability to grow a ministry, develop resources and have a master’s degree in theology or equivalent training and experience. Another requirement for a planter is a four-hour assessment given to all planters and their spouses.
“This helps us weed out those that have some romantic idea about church planting and really don’t have the skills or the aptitude to do it,” Baker said. “It has been very effective and we have a very high rate of success in all of our church plants because we use this assessment.”
“Church planting is not easy,” Mackey added. “It is a tough job and it takes an unusual persistence and special gifts for a person to be able to do it successfully.”
If the potential planter successfully completes the initial assessment and a required basic training course, the next step is to find a sponsoring church or association. According to Baker, the responsibility of the church sponsor is to provide the planter with mentoring and commit to funding over a three-year period.
Baker pointed out that early on in the high impact process, planters with a vision sought partnering churches, but since word of the initiative has spread, he said churches and associations have contacted him seeking to get involved.
“Now we have about three strong KBC churches that want to be partnered,” Baker noted.
In addition to the churches, Baker said groups in Christian County in southwestern Kentucky are looking for two high impact church planters. They want to reach the military personnel in the area around Fort Campbell, as well as the African-American community in Hopkinsville.
Once the planter and the sponsor are in place, a prospectus is drawn up and presented to the High Impact Church Advisory Team, or HICAT, as Baker likes to call it. The team consists of several KBC staff members, pastors and laypeople from across the state, all of whom “understand church planting,” Baker said.
At these meetings, the planter and sponsoring entities share their vision and prospectus for the church. But it is not your typical boring board meeting, according to Baker.
“It’s like a revival service,” he declared. “You almost come out of there shouting because it’s so exciting to see the way God has moved when you hear the testimony and the vision.”
“The attendance of this committee is probably the best of any committee that I work with,” Mackey pointed out.
After the committee has met with the church plant candidate, the team makes its final recommendation. It must then be approved by Mackey; the chairman of the KBC business and finance committee, Jerry Tooley; and the chairman of the Kentucky Baptists Connect initiative, Charles Barnes.
Upon approval, the high impact church hits the ground running, but not without continued help from the convention. The KBC provides each church with $100,000 over a three-year period, but no more than $60,000 in one year. Baker said that most churches opt to take the maximum amount the first year to help get the church off the ground.
The High Impact allocation “has really made all the difference for us,” said Dustin Neeley, who is pastor of The Crossing in Louisville.
But as Baker pointed out, despite the financial support, the KBC is not looking over the planter’s shoulder.
“We trust the partnering church to be their supervisor,” Baker said. “We expect that local sponsoring church to give that planter as much freedom as possible. … He’s the one with the vision. We don’t want the partnering church to steal the vision.”
Even with that freedom, high impact churches are expected to contribute to the Cooperative Program and support their local associations.
Highs and lows
With the High Impact program in its third year, Baker said he considers it a huge success. But it has come with its share of criticism.
“Some churches in the areas where these new churches are planted don’t really see the need for another church,” Baker said.
Keith Menshouse, who is pastor of Lifesong Church in Ashland, said his church has been a somewhat unwelcome addition to some members of the surrounding Baptist church community.
“We’ve not been really well received in circles that I expected to be; we’ve been seen as competitive,” Menshouse said.
Another criticism of the high impact churches is the names that the planters have chosen. Of the 11 churches started thus far, only one includes the word “Baptist”—The Baptist Worship Center in Mount Sterling.
“There are some that get real upset with that,” Baker acknowledged.
But Menshouse defended his church’s decision not to include the word “Baptist” in its name.
“To put that in our name would be an unnecessary stumbling block in somebody’s way,” Menshouse noted. “Let’s get here first of all, see what God does in your life, then we’ll work out the details of who we are and how we do things.”
Neeley agreed.
“Younger generations in every study that I’ve seen, the loyalty that our parents’ generation had to any denomination is not there,” he said. “People are not committed to the home team like they once were so it doesn’t necessarily help attract anyone in that regard.”
Despite the negatives, Baker said the positives have far outweighed any concern about the High Impact program. And he said he frequently receives positive reports about the work being done in the churches.
The first high impact church was Master’s Church in Lexington, which launched in October 2004. It recently reached a level of giving to the Cooperative Program that surpassed the $100,000 investment made by the KBC.
In less than two years, The Crossing has sent out several of its members to start other churches, one in New Orleans and another in Cleveland. Plans are in the works for a third church plant next year “probably out west somewhere,” according to Neeley.
Baker said he is excited about the work that The Journey in Murray and CrossPoint in Morehead are doing by reaching unchurched students at Murray State and Morehead State. In Lexington, Cardinal Valley Iglesia has been successful in taking the gospel to the local Hispanic community.
The future is bright for the High Impact Church program, Baker notes, adding that now that the word is getting out about these church plants, the need has shifted to finding more church planters.
“As people hear about (High Impact), they’re starting to get in touch with us. Now our problem is finding the church planters,” Baker said.
Baker has been pounding the pavement seeking to identify individuals with a heart for planting. In June, he did some recruiting at a church planting conference at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., and will be leading sessions in church planting classes at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary this fall.
Baker said he believes the High Impact Church initiative is crucial to reaching the unchurched in Kentucky, but pointed out that all church plants all important.
“High Impact has become a trademark for this particular group of churches,” Baker said, “but it really is a definition of every church plant.”
Western Recorder issue date: August 7, 2007
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