Is transfer growth always a bad thing for church plants?

I’m going to make an unusual argument here.  It’s unusual to overtly argue for churches being intentionally planted with the expectation that they will draw in existing believers.  Those of us in the church planting world, indeed, many pastors of long established churches will prefer to say that we are there to reach the unreached, that we are not interested in transfer growth.  Of course, the reality is that often, we are geared up to reaching the reached and the reality is that our growth is from transfer.

However, I wonder whether it might be helpful at different periods of time to say that “at this stage, we are focusing on gathering existing believers? When and why might this be a good thing?  Well, first of all, it comes back to the call of the Great Commission, our kjob is not simply to evangelise but to make disciples and teach them to obey all that Jesus commanded.  Central to those commands are the two greatest ones, to love God and love neighbour.

Now, think about what is often happening in lots of communities where there isn’t an established Gospel witness?  The answer is that the areas are not neccessariyl devoid of all Christian presence.  There are Christians living in those communities. And what are those Christians doing? Where are they going to church?  Well, many of them will be driving a distance to find an active Gospel church.

Part of discipling God’s people means encouraging them to gather with other believers in their community and part of it is about encouraging them to love the community where they live, to be an active witness to friends and neighbours.

So, part of their growth and discipleship may be about joining a church, either long established or newly planted that gathers in their local community and working with other local Christians to be an active witness.