Church Planting

Why plant a new church? After all, doesn't America have plenty of churches already?

If you’ve ever asked these questions, the truth might surprise you. In the United States alone, more than 3,000 churches close their doors every single year. But it’s not because America is oversaturated with available church congregations. The country’s fastest-growing religious affiliation is “none.” In a world that’s obsessed with individualism and self-reliance, many people don’t see the need for God or for gathering together in a community of believers. So, in some areas, that community has altogether vanished—the Body of Christ has grown quietly absent.

You’ve heard it before: Connecting people to Jesus and one another is what Southeast is all about. We believe that there’s no greater news than the Gospel, the life-changing truth that we’ve been reunited with God and adopted as His children. There’s nothing better in the world than to have God as our Father and to walk in His love. And in the family of God, we now have new brothers and sisters.

Following Jesus can only fully happen in the context of community, in the reality of relationships. The Church is a people, not just a building or a set of beliefs. And as a redeemed people, we’re being sent into the world to find even more sisters and brothers, bringing them into the adopted family of the blood-bought people of God. In this family, everyone’s welcome, nobody’s perfect, and anything is possible.

So, why do we plant new churches? Because the world is filled with spiritual orphans, and many of them can’t even begin to imagine the joy of being welcomed home, invited into their Father’s loving arms. But this invitation is one that goes out to everybody.

Jesus loves His family, His Church. He promised He would build it (Matthew 16:18), but not without our cooperation. So together we’re stepping up, committed to planting new churches in the least-reached areas of the country and the world. Throughout America’s West Coast and Northeast, in the villages of South Africa and Kenya, we’re building new places of hope and worship where the orphans of this world can receive the Good News of Jesus for the very first time, finding a family that will walk with them as they can grow together in faith.

We’re raising up disciples who can go on to disciple others. We’re planting churches that have a passion to launch new churches themselves. Walking in Jesus’ footsteps, we’re building His Kingdom with the strength He provides, and we’ve already seen great fruit.

Through strategic partnerships and support, Southeast is helping a wave of new churches start off on the right foot. In the last decade, we have helped launch dozens of new churches in cities throughout the United States—from New York to Seattle, Los Angeles to Miami. Half of these congregations have already developed strong local leadership, and all of them are growing. One church in Providence, Rhode Island, has already grown to 350 in attendance, and this family of faith saw 72 baptisms in its first year. Every one of these plants sets aside some of its weekly offering to fund even more church plants in the future. In this mission of multiplication, 11 of our church plants have already partnered with us to launch more churches worldwide.

God is faithful to His promise. He’s building His church and His family is growing. But there’s still so much work to be done. We won’t rest until everyone has a place to call home, until all the orphans find rest and belonging in the loving arms of Jesus Christ.

To learn more about our partners and church plants, and to discover how you can pray and help, CLICK HERE.