Planting Churches among the City's Poor - Volume 1

84 • P LANTING C HURCHES AMONG THE C ITY ’ S P OOR : V OLUME 1

begun by the church planters during community cultivation should be encouraged to continue once the church is established. This will strengthen the connection of the new church with other groups and will broaden its vision for the city. Inter-Church Relationships The goal of World Impact missionaries should be to pray and work toward the creation of a network of World Impact-planted churches, both locally and nationally. Rather than establishing isolated individual churches, teams should work to create an association of churches. Some newly constituted churches may choose affiliation with an established denomination. Many denominations are presently seeking to establish urban congregations and are open to accepting World Impact-planted churches into their folds. The advantages and drawbacks of such association must be carefully weighed by church leaders. Others may choose to remain as independent community churches. In either case it is important that churches maintain supportive networks with other churches and with World Impact whenever possible. Many missions experts advocate such networking. Melvin Hodges warns, “Small groups of individual believers that are cut off from all contact with other churches tend to become discouraged and inactive.” 174 Shenk and Stutzman argue, In order for young congregations to thrive, it is usually wise to cluster new congregations together. Paul did not plant just one church in Asia minor, he planted a cluster of congregations. . . In each case, Paul trained a younger man to become overseer of these clusters of congregations after he left. 175 In addition to networking between the newly planted churches, there is also a place for the churches to continue their relationship with World Impact. Hesselgrave comments that,

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174 Hodges, p. 85

175 Shenk and Stutzman, pp. 168-169