"The Dichotomy of Church Planting and Discipleship!"

"Church Planting" (CP) is purely based on "economic empowerment" and has fallen away drastically in the area of discipleship!

The Institutional Church (IC) can posture all its wants to about how planting churches translates into "winning souls" for Christ; but at the end of the day, all it translates to is more "butts in the seats" and more money for church leaders.

Theoretically, you would think that creating more churches would attract the "lost" to Christ, however, since Christ is NOT in the equation, who is the IC trying to attract? It certainly isn't the poor (their is no room or need for poor people in today's IC), the homeless, prostitutes, drug addicts, homosexuals and other disenfranchised segments of our populations. Many CP initiatives have devised elaborate MS Excel Business Plan metrics and formulas to determine how many "giving units" are required to make a profit! After all, this IS a BUSINESS!

In my mind, I see a strange paradox.  If I was looking through the lens of an "unbeliever" I would be able to create a compelling argument AGAINST church planting or expansion. These are the "enemies" of CP for the following reasons:

1. INCREASED "DEBT" through acquisition of new properties/leased or purchased. The IC continues to assumed more debt.  The pastor is not going to pay the debt. The congregation is going to pay the debt.  ALL DEBT has a 30 year shelf life! The banks know this and exploits it!
2. OUT OF CONTROL SPENDING: Banks love preachers because they are their best customers! Why? Because preachers LOVE to spend money! A bank will fund a preacher over a rich person because they know the preacher will fight to keep the building, car or home, whereas the rich person will just turn their "stuff" in and get something else.
3. LACK OF RESOURCES: The more stuff the IC acquires without managing debt and spending, its resources, both financial and human, will be depleted leading to overall ineffectiveness. Christians are always taught to GIVE; very seldom are they taught to SAVE!
4. UNMONITORED GROWTH: The IC has to be aware of where its strengths and weaknesses lay. "Bigger is NOT always better!'  Everybody wants to be MEGA! The sad truth, is that the IC is not even biblical; it is man-made!  Our Lord Jesus was totally immersed in "marketplace ministry", He never paid or collected one tithe or voted on the selection of a deacon or elder; yet He embraced the afflicted, was a skilled craftsman (had a job) and "retired" from ministry. God told Gideon, "Your army is TOO BIG", if I deliver the Midians into your hands, Israel would boast against Me [the people will say that it was because of your strength that you won the battle]." (Judges 7:2) In other words, "TRIM THE FAT!"
5. STAGNANT MINISTRY: Adding more people to a train that is not moving leads to over crowding and chaos. If your ministry is stagnant, planting another church is absolutely the wrong thing to do! Seek the face of God, hear Christ and actively pursue the vision He has for you in the territory you have been assigned. You don't need 2,000 people to make a change in the earth; God has demonstrated to us on countless occasions that He only needs ONE man to BELIEVE! Are you that person?

What this all boils down to is this, "do Christians want more buildings or more souls?" A building has never won a soul to Christ! Discipleship (one who learns from the Father) leads to Apostleship (one who has the authority and the desire to teach) which leads to Discipleship and so on and so forth.  This is God's plan for the organic growth and expansion of His beloved Kingdom!