Sink or Swim Model of Church Planting

Question: Is there a more excellent way to do church planting? There are three common models of church planting which I will call the Sink or Swim, Mother/Daughter and Supportive Team models.

A brief definition of these models is in order. The Sink or Swim Model of church planting is sending a pastor out to plant a church with little or no financial, ministerial or member support. The Mother/Daughter method is a strong church (typically 300 members or larger) providing financial and ministerial support and a initial group of members (perhaps 100 members for six months or more) to launch a new church. The Supportive Team Model is a group of churches (a section for instance) cooperating together to provide financial and ministerial support and an initial group of members to launch a new church. The goal of the Supportive Team Model is to have at least 100 new converts become a part of the new church before the church planting process is completed (approximately three months). The new church will be ready to become involved in church planting within two years under this method.

The chart above demonstrates the length of time it takes under each of these three methods to become reproductive as a church. A typical pastor with a 40 year ministry is illustrated in each bar.

The bottom bar illustrates the Sink or Swim Model. If each church is growing at ten percent per year, it would take 25 years to grow from ten to 100 people. It would take another twelve years to grow from 100 to 300 people. In the Sink or Swim Model it would take 37 years for a pastor to see the church he planted grow large enough to plant a mother church. This would leave him the last three years of his ministry to plant churches.

The second bar illustrates that a Mother/Daughter church plant would begin with 100 members. It would take twelve years to grow to 300. This pastor would then have 28 years of his ministry to be involved in church planting. This is obviously a better way.

The top bar illustrates the Supportive Team Model. The church planted with 100 new members would be able within two years to assist other churches in the area to plant another church in the same model. The pastor then would have 38 years of his ministry to be involved in church planting. This is the church planting we are modeling with our students at East Africa School of Theology. We believe it is a more excellent way.