So the glowing stories of planting overseas, which we are all excited about, don't have much relevance to us here unless it's to encourage us with what could happen in our newer, less churched communities. Cooperative efforts in church planting In general, leaders feel that we haven't planted churches very well and they don't put all the blame on the church planters. There has also been justifiable criticism of some of the methods of church planters in this country. Unfortunately in all too many cases a denomination has decided to church plant into a local area without any consideration of preexisting groups. This has inevitably produced hurts and hard feelings and often considerably sets back possible co-operation.
Most leaders feel there is an integrity issue in church planting.
Church planting will produce the best result for the Kingdom of God when the planters have regard for initiatives other denominations are taking in the area. This, unfortunately, hasn't always happened in the past. We are also a very mobile community and people will travel considerable distances in search of a credible congregation, especially if they are looking for specialist ministries for children or youth. This puts further pressure on smaller struggling congregations. It seems that church planting in our country may not be the panacea many are hoping for.