Nate Newell

The Infinite Value of Planting Churches Part 2/3

It is far too common to fall into the trap of thinking that we don’t need to plant new churches. Church planting is a lot of work, takes financial resources, and confronts our selfish, inward-looking, comforts of being part of an established church. However, there are 3 Reasons Planting Churches is of Infinite Value (see Part 1 here).

Reason Two: the Church displays the beautiful wisdom of God to the visible AND invisible world.
In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he is in the middle of explaining how the Gospel breaks down ethnic walls when suddenly he interrupts himself to talk about how God called him to reveal the mystery of the church:

“Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace…To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made know to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.”  (Ephesians 3:7-11)

Notice a couple important things Paul is teaching us about the church: 

1. It was the “mystery hidden for ages in God” meaning that it was not revealed in anything previously communicated by God in the Old Testament. The prophets didn’t know there would be a time called the “church-age,” which we live in now.  Jesus revealed it (Matthew 16:18 and 18:17), but Paul was given the stewardship to teach us what the church is to be.God’s multi-faceted wisdom is revealed through the previously unrevealed church. 

2. God’s multi-faceted wisdom is revealed through the previously unrevealed church. [read the full article here ...]