I've written several times this year on the problem of church pirates who disguise themselves as church planters. Let me vent one more time. These are the staff members, be they pastors or some other staff, who rob their church to start a new one. The problem is usually that the disgruntled pastor/staff wants to follow the contemporary model while the church they're in does not. He leaves, takes a 100 or more folks with him, and starts his church, leaving the established church to lick her wounds.
Leaving the established church and starting a new one down the street is bad enough. Often the new church is not satisfied. The new church continues taking advantage of the relationships formed through the years in the established church to fill various ministries through stealing sheep. The new church continually calls on people from the established church to "fill in" in various roles. The established church is supposed to take the high road and just grin and bear it.
The above scenario, played out every day in churches all across the SBC, is a primary reason established churches have a problem with church planting. Most of it is not planting; it is pirating. If a man feels led by God to leave his estblished church and start a new one let him leave the town he's in, go to another state, and plant a church. Let him not, however, split a church to start a new one. That is wrong on every level.
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