AMR believes in sharing different views on how to approach the challenges facing the church today. In this post, we share a roadmap for producing healthy church planters, from Dean Faulkner, who himself has planted multiple churches in the PCA and currently serves as the Director of the Center for Church Planting at RTS-Charlotte. Dean also helped start and currently leads the Carolinas Collective Church Planting Network as the Executive Director while partnering with Anago Partners Cohort ministries for pastors and planters.

Matthew 9:37-38 “Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.’”

Let me begin with a simple question: What is the number one reason the PCA struggles to plant healthy churches? It’s not a lack of money. Pound for pound, the PCA is one of the more affluent denominations in the United States. It’s not the lack of strategic locations from churches and presbyteries. There are churches, presbyteries and networks waiting in line with plausible planting locations.

The number one reason we do not plant as many churches—in our growing cities, in our struggling small towns, and in our increasingly post-Christian context—is that we don’t have enough called, trained, and healthy church planters. Church planters are the “gate” to missions in our backyard. The problem is not new. Jesus himself observed it in first century Palestine when he looked over the crowds full of lost sheep and saw the need for shepherding laborers (Mt 9:35-38). Like the disciples, we ask today, Where will laborers for the harvest come from?

For years now, leaders of the PCA’s church planting initiatives have been talking about developing pipelines to raise the standard and number of future planters. Some churches, a few presbyteries, and even a few networks have done a good job of reproducing pastors and planters. However, the PCA as a whole lacks momentum for developing missionary-minded pastors. For too long, we have relied on the “cherry-picking” method of planting—waiting for men to raise their hands to say they’re interested in planting, rather than intentionally developing the next generation of pastors and planters.

How do we engineer a pipeline that actually develops called, trained and healthy church planters? We follow our Lord’s example in the gospels who focused on the identification and training of the disciples in front of him, and then calling them to develop others. What follows is a roadmap of how we might participate in the discipleship and development of planters. While each section is worthy of an article of its own, let’s explore real steps churches, presbyteries, networks and even MNA can take to build an ecosystem of planter reproduction.

Prayer for Laborers

We start with our Lord’s own command in Matthew 9. The Lord Jesus had been preaching and teaching around Capernaum and Galilee for a time and, as the crowds grew, he looked upon the lostness and brokenness of the people with deep compassion (Mt 9:36). The very next thing he tells his twelve disciples is to pray to the Lord of the harvest “to send out laborers.” Here is our fundamental starting point. It’s not coming up with the next discipleship program. It’s asking the Sovereign Lord for help. Jesus starts here because prayer opens our eyes to see both the need and the potential laborers.

I recently told my home presbytery, as well as other presbyteries I speak with in my role as a network leader, that finding laborers for church planting is our greatest challenge. We can and should look to our seminaries for laborers. We can and should recruit church planters from across the country. But the truth is, we already have the planters we need. They are in our churches right now, but we haven’t seen them because we haven’t had our eyes opened through prayer. If your church or presbytery is struggling to reproduce pastors and leaders take the first step. Pray to the Lord persistently asking Him to open your eyes to those who are right in front of you.

Prayer for a Change in Discipleship

Leaders and planters are made. They don’t rise up magically from our ranks. They must be intentionally trained with a pastoral and missional purpose. By the time he told his disciples to pray for laborers for the harvest in Matthew 9, Jesus himself had already called them. He had been teaching and training them for a season. He had invested his life in them with intentionality and with a missional purpose that is evident in Acts. Likewise, Paul followed Jesus’s example, instructing Timothy, whom he had personally discipled, “What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also” (2 Tim. 2:2). Biblical discipleship assumes that leaders will raise up future leaders who, in turn, will do the same.

We need a change in discipleship that redirects pastors and elders to identify potential leaders and then reproduce themselves. Pastors and elders spend far too much time on maintenance work. It’s time to rededicate ourselves to discipleship. Look among your ruling elders, your rising young leaders, your campus ministers and, your youth for emerging missional skills like faithful gospel preaching, culturally-agile evangelism, and entrepreneurial leadership.

These men don’t need to be excellent in everything. Give them a vision for becoming pastors and planters. Even current church planters should be asking the Lord to raise up church planters from their congregations because church plants are well-suited to reproduce church planting pastors. Read Robert Coleman’s Master Plan of Evangelism as a Session. Explore Randy Pope’s Life on Life Missional Discipleship as a training resource. Invest your life in the next generation of pastors and planters. Let me be clear: I’m not adding another line to your job description. I’m suggesting a reprioritization of what elders do. Disciple leaders to reproduce.

Prayer that Longs for Evangelism

Behind Jesus’ compassionate gaze on the crowds in Matthew 9 is a longing to see them saved. The primary work of his mission and, therefore, our mission now, is to share the gospel of grace. In Matthew 10, immediately after Jesus calls the disciples to pray, he sends the twelve out to preach the gospel; to do evangelism in a “go out” model echoed by the Great Commission (Mt 28:18-20). Most PCA leaders want to see the gospel go out from their church and into their communities. Most of us want to see more people come to Christ. But most of us are tied to a “come to” model of church which doesn’t work in an increasingly secularized environment. The key for all of us is praying for laborer-planters, praying for conversions, and, praying for a longing for conversions if our churches lack that vision.

These days I am asking a question of PCA leaders that we all need to ponder. Could you imagine Peter or Paul ordaining young pastors who have never led someone to Christ or who spent little intentional time reaching out to unbelievers? To reproduce pastors, and particularly planters, with an evangelistic and gathering bent, the PCA must develop a culture of evangelism led by our pastors. Why would our people and disciples do something their pastors aren’t doing? A simple step to this end could be presbyteries to institute a Great Commission clause for our candidates and interns. That clause would ask them in front of the presbytery about how they are sharing the gospel with the lost. Seminary cloistering is no excuse. Jesus sent his disciples out while he was training them. Future planters (and pastors) need to learn to prioritize time with the lost.

Prayer that Calls and Trains toward Health

In Matthew 10, Jesus proceeds to call his disciples to preach the gospel in more towns and places. He invested his life in men, sent them out to reproduce his ministry, and then processed what happened with them. Luke’s gospel (Luke 9:1-6 and 10:1-12) similarly records how he sent out the seventy-two, to reproduce his ministry and then processed with them. As Jesus called and trained disciples, he reminded them to pray about what matters. Jesus then the joy of things that last—like heaven—not just “mere results” (10:20). This is gospel health straight from our Missionary Christ.

Training with the gospel for pastoral health, not just in competencies, is the pathway to reproducing healthy planters and leaders that last. Healthy planters normally plant healthy churches. That means we must step out and wisely call and assess men to mission. At MNA, we have one of the best assessment processes around.

Then, as we invest in the next generation of pastors and planters, we also must circle back to gospel-driven soft skills and competencies. We need to help planters develop soft skills like navigating relational dynamics in church, “reading the room” contextually in a mission field, understanding one’s limitations as a pastor, sharing in the sufferings of Christ, and regularly choosing one’s wife and kids over the siren call of ministry. We need to give the rising generation planters opportunities to develop their competencies by preaching more frequently in our pulpits, by starting new ministries with a sustainable team, and by learning the rhythms of trying (and sometimes “failing”) in evangelism efforts.

This entire roadmap starts with prayer that raises our eyes to see the big picture. We don’t just want our pastors and planters to get the job done. We don’t just want more church plants. We want pastors and planters to finish well in the challenges of mission. Living in an increasingly post-Christian context, prayer for church planters who are reproduced and called out of our own churches, who are discipled to do mission, and who are urged toward eternal thinking and health may end up changing us as established church leaders. That’s the surprise of following Jesus like his disciples. Following his path of evangelism and discipleship brings transformation to all of us.