A new generation of church growth

By Catherine Hoffman
New Times Editor & Communications Officer

Posted Nov  2, 2016 in Leadership

Ten new churches in five years. That’s the bold of goal of the new Uniting Church SA initiative, Generate 2021. But, as Rev Dr Graham Humphris explains it, this goal is one that the Church needs to meet.

“‘Studies show that if a denomination wishes to reach more people, the number of new churches it begins each year must equal at least 3% of the denomination’s existing churches’,” Graham says, quoting the Effective Church Group.

“This means that, to stop decline, we should be planting about nine new churches a year.”

After stepping down from his former role of General Secretary/CEO of the Uniting Church SA in 2014, Graham made his way back into congregational ministry. But now he’s back in the Synod office, working two days a week over 18 months as the Church Planting Project Officer.

Through his new role, and in collaboration with other teams and leaders within the Uniting Church SA, the Generate 2021 initiative was created.

“We want to have 10 churches planted by 2021 – that’s where the name comes from,” Graham explains. “And we wanted an action word that describes the kind of growth and community connection of the project – ‘generate’ worked to encompass all of that.”

The name is also a reflection of John 20:21, where Jesus sends the disciples out to disciple others:

“Again Jesus said, ‘Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.’”

“I actually looked up all of the 20:21 verses in the Bible to see if they would fit,” Graham admits with a laugh. “And John 20:21 works perfectly for this project!”

Generate 2021 will look at three main models of church planting, although Graham is quick to say these are not restrictive.

The campus model sees an established church send a group of people to a new location, often following the same model or using the same resources.

The start-up model is when a person or group feels called to start something completely new.

Finally, the replant or regeneration model is used when a declining congregation asks another group to replant in their church building or location.

The initiative is also working with Mission Resourcing to explore the possibility of planting with migrant or CALD (culturally and linguistically diverse) communities. Graham also hopes to have conversations with the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress about church planting.

“I think church planting is a strategy that can help us grow the Uniting Church– but far more importantly, it is an opportunity to reach people in South Australia with the Good News of Jesus,” Graham says.

“With each of these communities, our hope is that they’ll grow through conversion, rather than attracting people from existing Uniting Church communities. We want them to make disciples, and to go out and plant more churches themselves.”

Discipleship and church growth are two key aims of Generate 2021 – and for the people looking to plant new churches. Rev Mike Wardrop is quick to identify these as two of the main goals of a church plant project he is currently working on alongside other Uniting Church leaders. This new church will be a part of Generate 2021, although the seed for the project was planted much earlier.

“There are a lot of statistics to show that church planting can help the church to grow and reach people that the church is not currently reaching. These were some of the driving factors in our decision to plant a church,” says Mike.

Both Graham and Mike note that studies in Australia and the United States have shown new churches grow faster, reach more non-Christians, grow more through evangelism, mobilise more people, and reach different people to existing churches.

Graham adds that churches that plant other churches also tend to experience growth themselves.

“We have high hopes that Generate 2021 will help us to bring more people to the Uniting Church and to Christ, but we’re aware of the challenges we will face in this project,” he says.

“The Uniting Church in South Australia doesn’t have a great history of planting churches. In the past, we’ve done a lot of amalgamations – and done some of them well – but this is a new direction for us.

“As we begin, the biggest challenge we face is how to find the right leaders.”

As a first step towards finding the right people to lead new church plants, Graham is working with Rev Tim Hein to establish a training course to be run through Uniting College for Leadership & Theology. The current plan is to offer this training early in 2017 as an intensive course run over a week, with some ongoing elements.

An elective will also be offered at the November Presbytery and Synod meeting to be held at Adelaide West Uniting Church from 3-5 November. The elective will be run on Thursday 3 November, 7-9pm, and Saturday 5 November, 11am-1pm. These sessions are open to anyone who wants to know more about church planting and Generate 2021; they are not restricted to members of the Presbytery and Synod.

“This is a really exciting project. It’s the kind of thing that keeps me awake at night – but in a good way,” Graham says. “We really hope the wider Uniting Church community will be just as excited about it and want to get involved.”

For more information about Generate 20:21 or the church planting elective being offered the November Presbytery and Synod meeting, please contact Rev Dr Graham Humphris on 8236 4235 or email Turn on Javascript!

An elective on church planting will be led by Graham Humphris at the November Presbytery and Synod meeting. The elective will run on Thursday 3 November from 7-9pm and on Friday 4 November, 11am-1pm. All Uniting Church SA members are welcome to attend these sessions. 

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