An Interview with Four Baptist Missions Agencies

By Clare Jewell

Regular Baptist Church Planting is committed not only to raising up new Regular Baptist churches, but also to networking with existing missions and church planting agencies to maximize Great Commission effectiveness. In that spirit, Clare Jewell, national church planting coordinator for Regular Baptist Churches, sat down with representatives of four major Baptist missions agencies to discuss the state of church planting in America today.

How are you prioritizing church planting in the United States? What are you doing to show it is a priority?

Steve Little (Baptist Church Planters): We prioritize church planting in America by focusing on “mother churches” in a particular area. There are two or three types of churches involved in church planting: mother churches (which take on oversight of the church planting project), sending churches (which send the missionaries, but may not function as the mother churches), and sister churches (who come alongside and assist in the process with support). Our whole philosophy is centered around those three groups of churches. We also have a “Jerusalem” mind-set (Acts 1:8), meaning that we meet with like-minded churches within a 100-mile radius of the church plant to build local support for the project. As we like to say, “BCP doesn’t plant churches; churches plant churches. We facilitate the process for churches and the missionaries they send to fulfill the Great Commission.”