Why Is Planting New Churches Important?

Apostolic Life in the 21st Century

David K. Bernard

Theology, Oneness Pentecostal, Religion & Spirituality, Apostolic Pentecostal, United Pentecostal Church International, Upci, Christianity, David K. Bernard

5 • 870 Ratings

🗓️ 24 March 2025

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Why do we need more churches in North America? The United Pentecostal Church International currently has more than 5,000 congregations in the United States and Canada. Is there really a need for more? On the eve of the annual UPCI North American Missions Launch Conference for church planters, Dr. David K. Bernard explains the importance of church planting and why we need more UPCI churches, especially in heavily populated regions. He shares his own experiences as a church planter in Austin, T...

Transcript

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0:00.0	On today's episode of Apostolic Life in the 21st century, we are going to talk about church planting and why it's important.
0:13.2	And we chose this subject because later this week, North American Missions is hosting their launch conference in the Houston, Texas area. Dr. David
0:23.5	K. Bernard, who's with us, as always, is going to be one of the speakers at that conference.
0:28.3	And for those who don't know, many of you probably already do, he is a, I guess we could say,
0:33.5	former church planter, although maybe this is like the Marines where there really are no
0:37.0	former in this
0:38.6	case. Dr. Bernard, the United Pentecostal Church, quite frankly, we were thankful. We have a lot of
0:45.1	churches across North America. And maybe I'll set up the question by sharing just a very quick
0:50.0	story of something that happened to me. A long time ago, my wife and I were involved in a church
0:54.6	plants, and I specifically remember I was at Walmart, and I invited this lady to church, and she took
1:01.0	my invitation card that I had, and I distinctly remember she rolled her eyes at me, and she said,
1:05.5	just what this town needs, one more church. So maybe in that spirit, you could answer that question. Why is church
1:13.2	planting important? Why did you go plant a church? Why is North American missions hosting this
1:17.7	conference? The United Pentecostal church has like 5,000 churches in North America. Why do we need
1:22.1	more? The church is God's idea. So I've in a previous episode talked about why it's important to have a local church.
1:30.0	So let's just start with the very basics. First of all, God wants us to evangelize the world.
1:36.2	The Great Commission in Matthew 28 says we're to go to every nation, every ethnicity, and we're trying to make disciples and baptize converts and teach him to follow
1:46.8	Jesus Christ. So obviously, trying to evangelize and disciple souls is God's plan. But then from there,
1:55.3	what do you do with those people who are evangelized and how can they be disciples? It has to be in the
2:00.5	context of a local
2:01.9	church the Bible does not know of just a generic Christian who has an individual
2:07.8	relationship with God that's not associated with a local body and a pastor and
	...

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