On Starting Five New Congregations

I want to ask you a simple question. You do not have to answer it out loud or raise your hand—just think about it. I will put it on the screen: How many of you have, in any way, been impacted for good by McLean Bible Church? If you have, then your life—whether you realize it or not—has been impacted by the person I am about to put on the screen. His name is J. Albert Ford, and he, along with five families, almost exactly sixty-five years ago, decided to start McLean Bible Church.

This comes from a press clipping dated April 1, 1961: “The McLean Bible Church will hold its first services at 9:30 a.m. Sunday in the Chesterbrook School on Kirby Road in McLean, Virginia, beginning Easter Sunday. And every Sunday thereafter, there will be a weekly service, a nursery at every service, and a heartfelt welcome.”

That was almost sixty-five years ago. Let me ask: How many of you were not yet born sixty-five years ago? Raise your hand and keep it up if you were not born. Or how many of you have moved to metro D.C. sometime in the last sixty-five years? That is most of us.

Do you realize that God was at work through his people, starting a church sixty-five years ago in a city that would one day impact your life and mine for good? A church where many of you have come to know Christ—along with countless others over the years—under the leadership of J. Albert Ford, then Pastor Allen Gardner, then Pastor Lon Solomon, and so many other leaders and members. A church where so many of us, myself included, have grown and are growing in Christ in ways far beyond what those five families and that pastor could ever have asked or imagined.

Praise God for his grace in them and through them.

Here is the beauty: this is not just about you and me. This is the story of every follower of Jesus—every Christian in the world. We all came to know Jesus because, at some point, people went out and planted churches that spread God’s love in Jesus to us. This has been the story of every Christian in history.

Turn in your Bible to Acts 1. It all started when Jesus looked into the eyes of eleven disciples and told them, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Right after he said this, Jesus ascended into heaven.

These eleven disciples gathered with about one hundred other followers of Jesus and devoted themselves to prayer. In Acts 2, the Holy Spirit came upon them just as Jesus had promised. They began speaking the gospel in different languages. Peter—the same fisherman from Luke 5, whom Jesus had told he would fish for men—stood up and shared the gospel. In Acts 2:41, we read that about three thousand people put their faith in Jesus, and a church began in Jerusalem that day.

Now turn to Acts 8. By this point, the only known church was still in Jerusalem—until Stephen was stoned for sharing the gospel. Acts 8:1 says, “And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem. And they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Those who were scattered went about preaching the word.”

The gospel spread to Judea and Samaria, just as Jesus had said in Acts 1:8. Then in Acts 9:31, we read, “So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.”

In Acts 11, those scattered traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch. Some began preaching not only to Jews but also to Greeks. “And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord” (Acts 11:21). Barnabas was sent from Jerusalem to Antioch. He rejoiced at what God was doing, encouraged them, and many were added to the Lord. He went to Tarsus to find Saul, brought him to Antioch, and for a whole year they taught the church. In Antioch, the disciples were first called Christians.

Then in Acts 13, while the church in Antioch was worshiping and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. Then after fasting and praying, they laid hands on them and sent them off.”

Some might say, “The New Testament commands us to make disciples, but not to multiply churches.” Yet multiplying churches is the story of the New Testament. In Acts 14:21–23, after preaching the gospel and making many disciples, Paul and Barnabas returned, strengthening believers and appointing elders for them in every church. Churches were planted in city after city.

This is how the gospel spread throughout the known world in the first century: followers of Jesus went out from churches to start new churches. And this story has continued for two thousand years—to lead to this church. This is how the gospel came to you and me.

So will we let the gospel stop at McLean Bible Church? Or will we let it spread through McLean Bible Church?

We live in a city of about six million people, depending on how you define metro D.C. According to recent research, more than 87 percent are not connected to a church. That is nearly five and a half million people. Is there a need for more churches to reach more people? Absolutely.

Our aim is not brand expansion or market growth. Our aim is multiplication—Acts 9:31 multiplication. As part of our 2030 vision, we are committed to starting five new congregations in the DMV so more neighbors are within reach of a gospel-centered church family.

This relates directly to your life. You cannot experience life if you are dwelling in the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea has no outlet; it only receives water, which stagnates and becomes lifeless. Life requires an outlet. If we only receive and never give, we miss God’s design for his life to flow not just into us but through us.

Imagine being in that prayer gathering in Acts 13, hearing the Spirit say, “Set apart Barnabas and Saul.” You gather around them, pray, send them, support them, and later hear reports of cities reached, governors converted, churches planted. Would that not be life-giving? Of course it would.

Your life is God’s to spend for the spread of his church.

To be a Christian is to trust Christ with your entire life. We have all sinned and are separated from God. Jesus lived without sin, died for sinners, and rose again so that anyone who turns from sin and trusts in him as Savior and Lord will be forgiven and restored to God. That is the gospel.

When someone becomes a Christian, they no longer call the shots. Jesus is Lord. “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23).

So when we gather, our posture should be, “Here am I. Send me.” It makes no sense to trust Jesus with eternity but not trust him with the next few years.

The success of a church is not measured by its seating capacity but by its sending capacity. Not by how many come in, but by how many go out.

That prayer meeting in Acts 13 helped launch a movement that, within centuries, spread across the Roman Empire and, over time, around the world. Only heaven can measure what God might do through gatherings like ours if we say, “Spend us, God, for the spread of your church and your glory.”