Recentering the Goal of Pastoral Ministry to
Cultivate Christ-Treasuring Church Plants: As churches rapidly
expand, Christians risk viewing the church with an entrepreneurial
mindset. Church planters can be tempted to fixate on gaining numbers and
achieving financial stability as their only metrics for success. They
fail to focus on lifting up Christ’s people within the church. In
Planting by Pastoring, author Nathan Knight challenges our view of
church planting and centers the goal of pastoral ministry on a basic
biblical foundation: a church plant is in fact a church, and a planter
is in fact a pastor. A healthy church plant is not measured by size,
speed, or level of self-sufficiency but by good pastoring that produces
faith, fruit, and a flourishing community. Once pastors and church
leaders redefine their plant as a church, their ministry will begin to
align with Jesus’s mission to shepherd the flock and bring glory to God alone.