The vision God is calling us to as an association of Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ here in Texas is worth repeating: to see disciple-making and church planting movements in and through our congregations. From this vision we define our mission simply as “Multiplying Disciples and Churches.” To support our congregations in accomplishing this mission, the Texas District is committed to working in three strategic areas: church planting, church revitalization, and leadership development.
As an association of congregations, it is vital for local congregations to be actively engaged in church planting if we are going to experience a church planting movement. The vision for church planting is not a top-down strategy where the District does church planting for us. Rather we believe that the best church planting comes from local churches raising up and sending out leaders to live on mission and establish new churches.
In San Antonio, Chuck and Azeneth Knudson are living on mission as they plant HeBrews 10:24. But where did the Knudsons come from? The truth is God called Chuck and Azeneth out of the congregation where they were nurtured and developed to be leaders and missionaries: St. Paul, New Braunfels. Through the years the congregation helped Chuck and Azeneth to grow in their faith and gave them leadership opportunities. Chuck helped to lead worship, taught Sunday School, led men’s ministry and even preached before enrolling in a ministry preparation program. God called them out of the pew and into the mission field.
While the Knudsons serve as one example, we envision their story being just one of many yet to come! We want to encourage you and your church to be intentional about raising up future leaders and sending out missionaries to plant churches and personally invest in reaching new disciples of Jesus. We hope that one day it will be normative for congregations to disciple and identify future church leaders and missionaries as an integral part of their day-to-day ministry. This is, after all, what we read about in the New Testament.
So how about you and your church? How are you investing in planting churches? How are you proactively seeking to disciple and raise up future church leaders? If you are interested in learning more about what you and your congregation can do, feel free to reach out. I am here to help you develop local strategies that you can apply in your congregation so that someday in the future we can experience God’s dream for us of churches planting churches.
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Pastor Bryce Formwalt is the Director of Mission Growth for the LCMC Texas District. Residing in Georgetown, Pastor Bryce is available to coach congregations on mission. Feel free to contact him with any questions or comments: 512-942-7776 or bryce@lcmctexas.org. Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/lcmctexas
