John Piper On Church Planting

John Piper shared his thoughts on church planting back in November 11, 2007. Here are some excerpts that I found interesting, to which my comments come afterwards in blue.

1. Each year 3,500 to 4,000 churches close their doors forever; yet only as many as 1,500 new churches are started. This is based on a book in 1988 – almost 20 years ago. New accurate data is needed now as church plants have flourished since then.

2. “Today, of the approximately 350,000 churches in America, four out of five are either plateaued or declining.” This data comes from the same 1988 book as above. New accurate data is needed now.

3. Hence the claim of many leaders: “The single most effective evangelistic methodology under heaven is planting new churches” (Peter Wagner). I’m sure C. Peter Wagner may be correct, but knowing his theology, I just shake my head in disapproval whenever I see Reformed guys quote Wagner for anything. I’d like to see some fresh data from a reputed Reformed source rather than recycled data from this heretic.

In writing his article, Piper got the statistics from Dave Earley’s 2006 church planting report.