Church Planting Boom

When asked about the current state of church planting in the FEB Central Region, I am so encouraged to tell the story of what God is doing.

Currently in FEB Central we have 37 churches in “church plant” status and we have an additional 19 churches at some point in incubation. That is a big change for us and it has taken years! Today the majority of our churches when they approach capacity are asking “where and how do we plant?” rather than, “where and how big do we build?” There have been a number of contributing factors that were and are intentional.

First, we communicate the need for church planting at National and Regional events. I remember the first President’s Address that Steve Jones made. He said, “We need to become a church planting machine!”

Second, we celebrate our church planters and their wins. It doesn’t take long before what you celebrate takes root in your DNA.

Third, we have established good systems for recruiting, assessing, equipping, and coaching church planters. These help us to direct people into ministry roles that fit and to avoid many potential pitfalls.

Lastly, we relentlessly pursue the vision to see all of our churches engaged in church planting in some way in order to reach the millions of lost people in our region. Church planting is one of the three main focuses of FEB Central, along side church health and leadership development.

— Tom Haines is Director of Church Planting for the FEB Central Region.