Church Plantology Quotes

“On this rock, I will build my church” (Matt. 16:18 ESV, emphasis mine). Many church planting books quote this passage but fail to point out that planting churches is what God does, while we engage in the Great Commission. Paul reinforces this concept by stating that he and Apollos engaged in gospel work, leaving the results to God: “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow” (1 Cor. 3:6 ESV). Further, when Jesus sent out the seventy-two, he was teaching them to focus on the cause; he focused them on mission. Jesus didn’t ask them to plant congregations during either mission trip; he gave instructions that focused them on mission itself. When church starting becomes the mission, the real mission has been lost.”
― Peyton Jones, Church Plantology: The Art and Science of Planting Churches

“The fact that it is not possible to find a defined concept of ‘missions’ in the New Testament does not alter the fact that early Christianity was controlled by the missionary task in their entire existence and in all their activities.”
― Peyton Jones, Church Plantology: The Art and Science of Planting Churches

“Ralph Moore once remarked to me in conversation, “If you plant churches, discipleship may or may not happen. Yet if you devote yourself to making disciples, churches will inevitably be planted.”
― Peyton Jones, Church Plantology: The Art and Science of Planting Churches

“Focusing on the church to be planted leads to church starting, whereas focusing on the Great Commission itself leads to church planting. One of the biggest criticisms leveled at the resurgence of church planting books and conferences is that God never commanded us to plant churches.”
― Peyton Jones, Church Plantology: The Art and Science of Planting Churches

“There were three principles at work on my church-planting journey that I retroactively discovered were also in Acts:
1. Paul infiltrated the marketplace. (I was bivocationally working as a barista at the Starbucks.) 2. Paul’s ministry was often infiltrating a public venue where people were already gathered: “He went to the synagogue, as was his custom.” 3. Paul had learned to master gospel discussion as he “reasoned with the Jews concerning Jesus.”
― Peyton Jones, Church Plantology: The Art and Science of Planting Churches

“Johannes Kepler is credited with saying, “Science is the process of thinking God’s thoughts after him.”
― Peyton Jones, Church Plantology: The Art and Science of Planting Churches

“Ben Franklin said, “An ounce of experience is worth a ton of theory.”
― Peyton Jones, Church Plantology: The Art and Science of Planting Churches

“Resources can be good and helpful, but “Instachurch: Just Add Water” doesn’t work. Cultivating the art of planting––by answering the call, understanding our giftedness, recognizing the wind of the Spirit, and prayerfully depending on the Spirit’s empowerment––means that we are in tune with where God is moving and what he is doing. Like Isaiah, we exclaim: “Here I am! send me.” We hunger to be part of God’s mission in the world.”
― Peyton Jones, Church Plantology: The Art and Science of Planting Churches

“Ginger Rogers said regarding her dancing partnership with Fred Astaire, “Just remember that everything Fred did, I did backwards, and in high heels.”
― Peyton Jones, Church Plantology: The Art and Science of Planting Churches

“If your people are going to reach the ones nobody is reaching, they’re going to have to go where nobody is going and do what nobody is doing. Whitefield commented on visiting the poor, “It is remarkable that our Lord sent out his Apostles on short term missions before they were so solemnly authorized at the day of Pentecost. Would the Heads and Tutors of our Universities follow His example . . .” Whitefield urges the students to be sent to poorhouses and prisons to jumpstart their ministries.”
― Peyton Jones, Church Plantology: The Art and Science of Planting Churches

“The real work of church planting is gospel penetration, gospel saturation, and gospel maturation.”
― Peyton Jones, Church Plantology: The Art and Science of Planting Churches

“According to studies on human dynamics, the ideal interpersonal group tracks at eight to twelve people.”
― Peyton Jones, Church Plantology: The Art and Science of Planting Churches

“Only scripture, we dry up. Only Spirit, we blow up. Take them together, we grow up.”
― Peyton Jones, Church Plantology: The Art and Science of Planting Churches

“To clarify if you are planting more for ego or impact, ask yourself: • Would you plant exclusively in developing nations? • Would you take the gospel to a nation where you’d be persecuted? • Would you plant if nobody ever learned your name? • Would you invest your life leading a movement for which you would never get any credit? • Would you plant churches if you still had to work another job and nobody paid you? If your answer to any of these is no, then you probably shouldn’t be a planter. Bernard of Clairvaux’s maxim may be true of you: “He thinks only of what he wants and he does not ask himself whether he ought to want it.”
― Peyton Jones, Church Plantology: The Art and Science of Planting Churches

“Hirsch notes that Paul’s use of master builder “is loaded with notions of design, innovation and strategic craftsmanship.” God’s house is neither a Craftsman prefabricated home ordered from of the Sears catalogue, nor a flat-packed vision to build an Ikea church. Paul learned from experience that each church plant would incarnate Christ differently depending on the gift matrix of the community in which he planted it. What many call vision is actually the strategic organization of the gifts of God’s people.”
― Peyton Jones, Church Plantology: The Art and Science of Planting Churches

“Hirsch identifies the anatomy of a pioneer: 1. An ability to invent the future while dealing with the past 2. A willingness to break with traditional ideas and methods 3. An ability to play multiple roles at the same time 4. A high tolerance for risk 5. A need to be different despite supporters wanting the pioneer to stay the same 6. An understanding that many want the pioneer to fail.32”
― Peyton Jones, Church Plantology: The Art and Science of Planting Churches

“To be true to the apostolic function, those who plant apostolically will not be able to resist the urge to preach the gospel, but will echo the apostle, “For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1 Cor. 9:16 RSV). You may plant a church without being evangelistic, but you can’t function apostolically without being evangelistic. To claim this would be contrary to the makeup and gifting of the apostolic function, not to mention Paul’s description of his role. For this reason, many advocates of APEST have been mistaken for being apostolic, yet they are merely teachers who have discovered how to talk the talk of APEST. They are not apostolic if proclaiming and heralding Christ is not at the center of what they do. How could they be? How would it serve a missionary function if Christ’s proclamation were not central to being apostolic like it was for every apostle in Scripture? Claiming the apostolic gift for yourself as an entrepreneurial teacher who popularizes APEST cannot replace actually being an apostolic practitioner.”
― Peyton Jones, Church Plantology: The Art and Science of Planting Churches

“Jesus didn’t ask them to plant congregations during either mission trip; he gave instructions that focused them on mission itself. When church starting becomes the mission, the real mission has been lost.

Here is the pattern that Paul repeatedly followed: • sowing the gospel • watering it with a sustained presence and a gospel lifestyle • reaping converts • discipling them for greater multiplication.”
― Peyton Jones, Church Plantology: The Art and Science of Planting Churches

“To truly define church planting, start by answering one of the first questions I ask planters as part of their training assignments: “If you were not allowed to start a Sunday service, describe what your church looks like.” Once you can answer that question, you’re beginning to crack the code to defining what church planting is. This book works from a central premise: If at any time you’re focused on the church you’re going to plant, you’re focused on the wrong thing.”
― Peyton Jones, Church Plantology: The Art and Science of Planting Churches

“The focus on church starting is a component of our twenty-first century church-centric approach based on Western Christendom that has gotten us into the current problems the church faces. The church still sees itself as the center, the hub of all activity, and as we’ve seen, the frontier was the focus of the apostles. The proclamation of Jesus as Lord is central to the book of Acts. Church planting is not. As Schnabel observes in his two-volume tome on early Christian mission, “The oral proclamation of the gospel is the central action of missionary work.”27”
― Peyton Jones, Church Plantology: The Art and Science of Planting Churches

“Eckhart Schnabel quoted Ferdinand Hahn, saying, “The early church was a missionary church. The proclamation, the teaching, all activities of the early Christians had a missionary dimension.”
― Peyton Jones, Church Plantology: The Art and Science of Planting Churches

“If you plant churches, discipleship may or may not happen. Yet if you devote yourself to making disciples, churches will inevitably be planted.”
― Peyton Jones, Church Plantology: The Art and Science of Planting Churches

“The first lesson of church plantology is that planting a church should never be our focus. Christ never commanded his disciples to plant churches, because it’s not what He wanted them to focus on. Focusing on the church to be planted leads to church starting, whereas focusing on the Great Commission itself leads to church planting.”
― Peyton Jones, Church Plantology: The Art and Science of Planting Churches