Church Planting Numbers Low

The number of churches sinking money into planting new churches in other locations is quite small.

That was the assertion from a survey released yesterday by LifeWay Research. It’s poll of about 1,000 Protestant pastors that only 3 percent of churches were primary supporters of plants and only 14 percent gave help to other churches supporting plants.

By way of comparison, churches are much more engaged and run a wide scope of mission projects.

Data showed that half the churches sponsored short-term mission trips in the past year and that 85 percent had specific prayer times or services directed toward missions they supported.

“Although we see more church planting involvement, we need to see a much higher number of churches starting churches,” LifeWay Research President Ed Stetzer said. “It is widely acknowledged that church planting is the most effective form of evangelism. It should be of great concern that only 28 percent of our North American churches helped start new congregations at all, including only 12 percent of those who took primary responsibility.”

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