On "Church Planting"

11/15/2002

Hi..... : ) Greetings in the Name of the Most High! The next paper I’ll send after this one will speak some of “positional truth” also, but I wanted to mention something. In Acts 2:42-47, it clearly says “ALL the Believers were together.” There were no churches being planted by anyone. ALL Believers were together in Jerusalem, with the eleven Apostles in Jerusalem, and the Risen Jesus. There may have only been 120 in the “upper room” because those were the most committed to that point, still PRE-Pentecost. Or perhaps it was because there was not space in that “upper room” for more than 120 of the 500 mentioned in 1Cor.15:6. We do know, however, that there was not anyone out “planting churches.” It was not until Acts 8:1, approximately SEVEN YEARS after Jesus’ ascension in the clouds, and then Pentecost... it was SEVEN YEARS until anyone left Jerusalem, other than perhaps some shallow wanderers that remain unrecorded in the Scriptures. But there were no “church plantings.” Zero.

Later in Acts 8, we find ONLY THEN (again SEVEN YEARS after Pentecost) that men are traveling elsewhere to any extent. Even at that point, we don’t hear of “far away missionary travels” by non-Apostolic men. Philip is on the road between Jerusalem and Damascus, and meets the Ethiopian. Saul was trying to find those who had “scattered” due to the persecution, in Acts 9. Peter is barely traveling out in the rural areas outside of Jerusalem, to Lydda and Joppa, in Acts 9. Philip is barely outside of Jerusalem, in Samaria, telling them FOR THE FIRST TIME of Jesus and post—Pentecost “conversion.” There could NOT, therefore, have been people out “planting churches” right after Pentecost, or even before that—since SEVEN YEARS after Pentecost, Philip (barely outside of Jerusalem in Samaria) is telling people who are hearing of the Church for the first time! Jesus had visited the woman at the well there, but certainly did NOT “plant a church”—nor did anyone else prior to Philip’s arrival, and then Peter and John’s arrival to solidify God’s Work there. (Philip was not an apostle, so he got help.) In Acts 10, Peter goes to Caesarea, and the Gentiles HEAR FOR THE FIRST TIME! This is SEVEN TO EIGHT YEARS after Pentecost. Previously, NO GENTILE ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD had been touched by the Good News of Jesus Christ and Born a second time. This was the first. There could have been no “Church plantings” prior to this by anyone amongst any non-Jewish person.

So, I could go on and on, but then finally in Acts 11, perhaps TEN TO ELEVEN YEARS after Pentecost, we see some (vs.19) “WHO HAD BEEN SCATTERED BY THE PERSECUTION” (Acts 8!)—not by “church plantings” by individuals doing whatever is right in their own minds and ambitions, but Christians who were there because they had been scattered by the persecution three to four years earlier. They are hanging together in Antioch, and in need of stabilizing by Barnabas and Saul (Paul) with Apostolic Giftings. But, they were there, NOT from rogue “church plantings,” but BY THE PERSECUTION, which happened SEVEN YEARS after Pentecost. In Acts 2:42-47, “ALL the Believers” were there in Jerusalem, UNTIL Acts 8, years later. No one was so arrogant as to run around randomly planting churches without working together with the Apostles, a few years later. Rumors got around, of course, because of travelers, about Jesus—but that is very different than “church planting!”

Hope this helps!

Love in Jesus,

p.s. RUMORS of Jesus certainly had floated around by Apollos’ time, BUT, #1 “He did NOT know the way of Jesus accurately” (Aquilla and Priscilla had to straighten him out), and the fact that he had HEARD of Jesus and the coming of the Messiah did not mean that there was “a church planting” somewhere. Rumors amongst travelers, and discussions of such things no doubt took place, but that is VERY different than “a church planting.” The Ethiopian eunuch was obviously a TRUE conversion (unlike the men in Ephesus, Acts 19, who had only heard rumors and didn’t know what they were doing and were NOT yet Christians, though they knew of Jesus to an extent). Even though the eunuch WAS taught correctly (seven years or so after Pentecost!) and “went on his way rejoicing,” that did NOT mean there was “a church planting” in Ethiopia when he went back. There was a CHRISTIAN in Ethiopia, but not a CHURCH, yet.

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  Do We Need "Church Planters"?