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How church planting stimulates disciple-making
Ric Thorpe, Bishop of Islington, believes it is impossible to separate church planting and disciple-making.
By Bishop Ric ThorpeJune 2025
Church planting and disciple-making are two sides of the same coin, two aspects of God’s mission among us. We see this most strongly in the Great Commission in Matthew 28.19-20, when Jesus says, ‘Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.’ He commands us to go somewhere new, make disciples, baptise them, and teach them. For some, that means welcoming newly baptised disciples into existing church communities; for others, it means planting something new where they can be taught how to follow Jesus where they are. To plant a church you need to be making new disciples, and if you make new disciples in a new place, you’ll soon be planting a church!
It is essential that when you are preparing to plant a church, you develop a discipleship plan. CCX recently commissioned research on discipleship, which highlighted that there are many good ways to go about making disciples; from building healthy community to helping people choose to grow, read scripture, spend time with God and respond to his call on their lives. Whatever approach you take, I encourage you, put a discipleship plan into place.
In the church plants I’ve been directly involved with I have seen Jesus lead people on the most amazing journeys of discipleship, transforming their lives. One story comes from Imprint, a thriving church that began in Leicester and planted into London. Imprint London started as a ‘crew’, a small group of eight people looking for a place to meet for prayer, Bible study and fellowship. From the beginning they put discipleship at the heart of their emerging church plant. As we have seen time and time again, prayer and reading scripture in community transforms lives. They grew in their love for Jesus and began to live holy lives.
Over the weeks and months that followed, they very naturally invited others to join their crews to study scripture and pray. When their crews grew too big they planted new crews. These crews developed into gathered congregations, and now Imprint London has over 400 young adults meeting every Sunday across three locations in the Bank area of the City. Through a simple discipleship pathway of prayer and reading scripture, they have planted new congregations and made new disciples.
Another story is from St Paul’s Shadwell, a church I was invited to revitalise by the Bishop of London in 2005. When we started we knew that if we wanted to see people grow in their faith, Sunday service attendance would not be enough. We encouraged people to find a place to meet with others, where they could be part of a loving community, who challenged and encouraged them to follow Jesus in every part of their lives. I also discovered that as a church planter, I needed to be a disciple and a discipler. I regularly met with a few people one-on-one. We prayed and read scripture together, we spoke about our lives as disciples, and I offered what guidance I could.
We found that those people who immersed themselves in these midweek groups and those who were invested in one-to-one meetings flourished in their faith. It was these people who saw their faith strengthened, some emerging as leaders, many of whom were then sent out to plant other churches.
These stories highlight what we see in Matthew 28, that church planting and disciple-making are inseparable. Who, then, are you discipling? How are you enabling your planting team to be disciples and to disciple others? What is the model in your sending church and in your church plants that will stimulate ongoing discipleship? It is the hope of CCX that you will encounter fresh ideas and new thinking at Multiply 2025, both what is shared in the room and within this magazine. And remember, Christ is always with us, to the very end of the age!
