A Church Planting Vision for Muncie and Delaware County

Pastor Bob O'Bannon

As Christians, we believe we are the light of the world — not because we think we’re something special, or because we’re better than other people. It’s because this is what Jesus says is true of his people — in Mat. 5:14, he says to his disciples, “You are the light of the world.” Where Christians are, there is light. Where Christians are not, there is darkness.

I think we’d all admit that there is a significant amount of darkness in our world. So if the world needs light, and the church is the light, then it would follow that in communities where the church is on the increase, there will be an increased amount of light shining into the darkness. And where there is light, there is direction, purity, wholeness, truth, hope.

Various statistics seem to be indicating the church is not increasing, but decreasing in its influence in the United States, even in the Midwest, which is regarded as being generally conservative. According to Ted Powers, the Midwest church planting coordinator for our denomination (Presbyterian Church in America-PCA), there is no place in the Midwest where more than 15 percent of the population attends church. Powers says it requires one church for every 50,000 people in order to have “presence” in a community; one church for every 5,000 people in order to have “influence” in a community; and one church for every 500 people in order to “saturate” a community (which Mormons have in some areas of Utah and Muslims have in the Detroit area).

Right now, the PCA has one church for every 350,000 people in the Midwest, which means we do not even have “presence” in this area of the country. We’re not even a blip on the radar.

Of course there are other healthy, Gospel-preaching churches in the Midwest, and I don’t mean to suggest that the PCA is the only church that can shine Gospel light into a community, but any way you slice it, there is a need for more churches in our area of the world.

If you doubt whether this is true, and wonder why more churches are needed when there seems to be so many already in every community, I recommend two articles: one by Mike McDaniel, director of Summit Network, and the other by Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer PCA in New York City.

As McDaniel says, we in the church often “overestimate our influence and underestimate the need.” We get comfortable and complacent. The darkness around us causes us no concern. Our friends might be Christians, but we overlook the fact that, in most cases, the people living across the street and on both sides of your house are not. We’re shocked and alarmed by the “moral deterioration” of the nation, yet we have no urgency to increase the presence of the church in our cities.

Here is my vision for Muncie and Delaware County — let’s “saturate” this area with Gospel-preaching churches. Imagine how Delaware County would change if there were one healthy, Bible-based, Jesus-centered, grace-oriented church for every 500 people in this community. Imagine the marriages that would be saved; imagine the meth labs that would disappear and the strip clubs that would close down; imagine the prosperity that could come to this place if God’s people were to actively seek it (Jer. 29:4-6); imagine the people who would be called out of darkness and into the wonderful light of the Gospel.

New Life currently has plans to plant our first daughter church in downtown Muncie in the next couple of years, but it will require many more daughter and granddaughter churches to fulfill this vision. It’s a lifetime of work. Will you join us in supporting this effort?

3 Reasons a Congregation Should Have Its Own Building

Pastor Bob O'Bannon

As a pastor of a church that is getting close to opening a new sanctuary, I’ve had to do some thinking about whether a congregation should even seek to have its own building. Maybe that sounds like a silly question, because you’ve assumed that it is the goal of all churches to own their own facility. But that would not be true. Many churches, especially new church plants, do not have their own buildings, and some have no intention of getting one.

What are some of the arguments against having a building? Some point out that the word “church” technically refers to the body of believers, not to a building, and that the New Testament never commands that we construct our own buildings. Others note that the early church did not meet in large buildings, but mostly in private homes. Still others will mention that buildings cost a lot of money – both to purchase and to maintain – and that this money could better be spent in other Kingdom-oriented ways.

There is truth to all of these points, but they don’t persuade me against having a building. Below are three reasons that a congregation, assuming it has the necessary resources, should consider having its own building.

1. A building gives a church visibility in its community.

Very often I will meet new people, and they will ask me what I do. I tell them I am a pastor. They ask what church. I tell them New Life Presbyterian in Yorktown. On many occasions, the next comment out of their mouths is, “Oh yeah, that building that sits up on the hill!” Sometimes new people will come to visit our church, and I will often ask how they learned about us. Very often the response is something like, “I drive by it all the time on my way to work, and decided I would give it a try.” A building serves many purposes, of course, not the least of which is a 24/7 advertisement to the community that you exist.

2. A building eliminates obstacles to the flourishing of a congregation. It is true that buildings require lots of money, constant attention and careful maintenance, but congregations without buildings have their own burdens to deal with: weekly setting up and tearing down everything necessary to conduct a worship service; finding a place to meet for mid-week activities; facing the possibility of having to move to another location for whatever reason. While some point to the growing house church movement in China as an example of why buildings are unnecessary, Kevin DeYoung points out in his book, Why We Love the Church, that the Chinese house church movement is actually an “organizational nightmare” (p. 180) and that Christian leaders in China are praying “for the day of owning their own church building and moving toward a large church model.” (p. 182). This is not a criticism of the Chinese church – just an acknowledgment that church without a building might not be as glamorous as some think.

3. A building gives emphasis to the Biblical doctrine of place. When God created Adam and Eve, he put them in a specific place (the garden). When God delivered Israel from Egypt, he announced his intention to lead them to a place (land of Canaan). When Israel finally settled in their land, God wanted them to worship him in a specific place (the temple). And when Jesus returns, he’s coming back to establish his reign in a place (the new earth). The church is not a collection of ghostly souls that simply float through the air of our communities; instead, the church is a collection of redeemed, but fully embodied, creatures. And one thing true of the body is that it needs a place – to stand, sit, sleep, eat and yes, even to worship.  In other words, “buildings matter because bodies matter.”

Certainly it’s possible for a congregation to overspend on a building, or to build at the wrong time. And by no means am I suggesting that a church without a building is less useful in God’s kingdom than a church with a building. But buildings are good, and we as a congregation can’t wait to enter into our new sacred space.