People Spots
Online
Produced by James W.
Moss, Sr., and Church Consultants
Provided as a service by New Life Ministries
Churches Practice Infanticide
by James W. Moss, Sr.
I pastored a small rural church near Mt. Victory, Ohio. Occasionally, a farmer would have a sow that would turn and eat her piglets. If the sow escaped a quick trip to the market, she would be placed in a specially designed pen where the piglets could suckle and not be harmed by their mother. I had a friend who raised tropical fish. He had a special cage where the pregnant female was placed. It had slits in the bottom large enough that the baby fish could get through but too small for the parent. So when the babies were born they slipped through the slits to escape being eaten by their parent. Infanticide occurs when a parent kills the baby.
Infanticide at the conference level
For a conference, new churches are the babies. The natural tendency, especially in the beginning process of beginning new churches, is for the conference to turn on the new churches and consume them. A variety of statements provide a clue:
 | “We don’t need any new churches; we can’t take care of the one’s we have now.” |
| “We need to spend more time taking care of the churches we now have than starting new ones.” |
A pre-existing church will say, “Give us the money it would take to start a new church, and we will have growth too.” Then various people begin picking and finding fault with the new church until it is effectively killed. Then they stand back and say, “I told you so.”
For new churches to survive, especially in the early days of a church planting movement, a very strong person or committee needs to stand between the new church and the parent body until the baby is strong enough to stand on its own. That person or group may be the supervisor of church planting or the committee on church planting. A conference can’t experience significant growth without the birthing of new babies.
Infanticide at the congregational level
A mother church gives birth to a new baby. Many times the mother expects the baby to look like her. We have five children. None of them look or behave as either parent. In fact, they are remarkably different in looks and personality. That is okay. It is okay for the babies to be different. However, for many mother churches, a baby that takes on a different look will result in the mother disowning the baby and sometimes destroying it by force. I think of the New Providence Church of God, which gave birth to the High View Church of God. Then the High View Church of God gave birth to the Living Faith Church of God. All three are good churches. They are very different and reaching different people. The kingdom has been expanded and that is okay.
For a local church, new small groups and new worship services are the babies. The term small groups is many times misunderstood. I believe there are five basic kinds of small groups: Sunday school classes, support groups, care groups, task groups, and athletic teams. A very healthy church will have all five kinds of small groups. A local church that wishes to grow must birth new small groups. The local church is the mother and the small groups are the babies. Especially in the beginning of a growth movement in a local church, there will be the strong tendency of the mother to consume the young. A church was going to begin a new adult Sunday school class. One of the pre-existing classes decided to thwart the effort. On the first Sunday the new class was to begin, one of the pre-existing classes showed up at its meeting place, thus killing the effort. Some will say, we don’t need any new groups. Any new people can fit into the groups we now have. It is a fact, that most new people will have difficulty fitting into an adult group that is more than two years old.
Eugene Weidman was a respected elder at the Central Manor Church of God. He understood the need for new groups and took upon himself the role of founding teacher of new Sunday School classes. He knew that few would oppose the group if he was leading it. He was the strong person that stood between the mother and the new group until the new group was strong enough to stand on its own.
New churches and groups are essential to the health of a body. It will be the natural tendency of the mother to turn and consume her babies. Be aware of this and protect the babies until they are strong enough to stand-alone.
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November 29, 2004. Volume 7, Issue 21. People Spots Online is prepared by James W. Moss, Sr., and Church Consultants. It is provided as a service by New Life Ministries, www.NewLifeMinistries-NLM.org. Articles may be duplicated and reproduced in any way with proper credit. A new article is produced about every two weeks. To be added to a list to receive these messages directly by e-mail, send a request to churchconsultants@yahoo.com.