Churches to Churches: The Church Planting Network
Working in collaboration with associational mission strategists around the state, the Georgia Baptist Mission Board is launching a new church planting network designed to meet the needs of our church planters. The demographic landscape of Georgia’s population has changed drastically over the last decade, and the percentage of lost people has increased, according to the Association of Religion Data Archives.
With frugality, accountability and deliberate strategy, one central piece of this joint effort is an intentional partnership among the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, the sending or mother church pastor, associational Baptist leadership, a regional missions consultant and the church planter. All of the partners will understand their interconnection and the goals of the network from the pre-launch to the celebration of the new church. They will covenant to share resources, offer accountability and coaching, create missional opportunities for sister churches and undergird the entire process in prayer.
This covenant will include a commitment to a code of conduct and adherence to Baptist beliefs. It will also foster a greater depth of understanding of our Baptist identity and purposes for missional giving and allow time for meaningful associational involvement with sister churches. And with partner churches taking mission trips to help the new plant, this collaborative effort does not have to be so lonely.
In order to build a greater church-planting pipeline in Georgia, ongoing recruitment, assessment and celebration will highlight the milestones in the new church’s birth. A primary tenet for this new network will be the understanding that churches plant churches.
Dr. Rolando Castro will serve as the Church Planting Network consultant. A native of Costa Rica, Castro has experience as a church planter there as well as in Maryland. Castro has served for the past year as the Northwest region missions consultant, which has given him experience working with local Georgia Baptist churches. His role will be to encourage the communication between planting assessment teams, mother church, association, missions consultants, sister churches and the planter. Castro will remain a part of the Missions team, which is a part of the larger Church Strengthening team.
Published April 6, 2021