At Send Network, we’re inviting churches to join in God’s activity to expand His kingdom by planting multiplying churches together.
Part of that work requires the diligent training of planters.
So, here at Send Network, we develop planters in nine essential qualities that we believe are necessary for faithful and effective ministry.
One of these essentials is a church planter’s teaching and preaching: In other words, does he handle the Word of God faithfully?
The importance of proclaiming the gospel and explaining biblical doctrine cannot be overstated.
You don’t have to read very long through the book of Acts to see that throughout every season of a church plant…. prayer and the ministry of the Word are at the heart of our work as pastors.
So how does a church planter demonstrate that he handles God’s Word faithfully?
- He knows how to explain and apply the Bible skillfully.
- He can speak to both believers and unbelievers from the Word.
- He seeks to grow in the skill of preaching and teaching.
- He can teach the Bible faithfully in small and large settings.
- He understands the centrality of Christ in Scripture and exalts Christ in every message.
- He uses the Word to guide corporate prayer when gathered with God’s people.
When I planted the Austin Stone, the cultural norm was not to preach the Word of God.
I planted in 2002, right in the middle of the “Seeker Friendly” movement.
The idea was that you had to get non-believers comfortable with church, teach them something applicable about their lives, then teach them the Word later on in their journey.
I had people coming out of the woodwork saying: “You can’t move into a hip, cool city like Austin, Texas, preach verse-by-verse, and expect to grow a church.”
But there were a couple of things that didn’t sit right with me about that.
First, I came to Christ in college sitting under the teaching of a verse-by-verse expositional preacher.
As a matter of fact, my entire college career, he taught verse-by-verse the Gospel of John.
Every Sunday, the first words out of his mouth were “Open your Bibles to the book of John,” and the Holy Spirit-inspired Word of God started doing a work on my heart.
I was just a pagan college student, but I experienced first-hand the power of the anointed teaching of God’s Word.
And it changed my life.
Here’s the other thing that didn’t sit well with me.
The words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 2. He said:
“When I came to you, brothers, I didn’t come, proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or man’s wisdom.
But my preaching and teaching was not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.
So that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”
Did you catch that last part? Paul said that the reason he came to them, not preaching man’s wisdom, but God’s Word—so their faith would not rest on the wisdom of man but on the power of God.
I didn’t know much, but I knew enough to know that I wanted my people’s faith not to rest on my wisdom.
I wanted my people’s faith to rest on the Power of God.
So, on the first Sunday of the Austin Stone, the very first words out of my mouth were, “Open up your Bibles to the book of John.”
And I preached verse-by-verse for four years.
And You know those people that said you can’t preach the Word of God and grow a church?
They were wrong.
As the New Testament church was born, we see the story of the Word of God increasing and multiplying across geographical and cultural barriers by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Church planters today get to stand in this grand tradition and continue in the greatest mission in the history of the world.
Let’s preach the Bible faithfully… and exalt Jesus continuously in our churches for His glory…until He takes us home.