the proGnosis

Commonly known as the spider plant, this plant makes an excellent houseplant for the uneducated gardener. It’s tolerant of neglect and can survive well even  in very poor conditions. They’re even known to reduce pollution getting rid of those nasty carbon monoxide, formaldehyde and nitrogen gases in the air. They’re a bit like the church, but not for these factors even though they may be true too, but for how they reproduce, how they plant other Cholorophytums Comosums!

Spider plants reproduce in two ways, one you’ll probably be more familiar with than the other. The first (the less familiar) is by splitting the main rosette. You see, spider plants grow up from a central rosette made up of several shoots. This central rosette, when the plant gets larger, can be divided up into two rosettes very carefully and replanted in separate pots. I think it also does it fairly naturally, as my spider plant seems to already be essentially in two rosettes even though I’ve not encouraged it to do so and it has remained in the same pot.

This mode of reproduction is like when a congregation gets too big for its venue. By carefully dividing the congregation into two, you can establish two churches out of the one. Both can be kept in the same pot or venue, much like how a lot of American churches are doing, or one of the churches can keep the same venue and the other church can go off and find another venue. The benefit of this is that both congregations can be church effectively from the word go. There’s little transition period, not so much struggle in establishing itself and it can be self-supporting from the outset.

This happened when the Jerusalem church was scattered in Acts 8 and in Acts 11 you read a bit more detail how as they went not only was the Jerusalem church maintained but the scattering produced other churches in Anioch and other places.

The second way a spider plant reproduces is the more exciting of the two. When the spider plant thinks it’s Autumn, it may shoot off this little stem that grows away from the plant and produces a miniature version of the original plant at it’s base, hanging near to where there would in theory be soil (if it weren’t a houseplant that is). In time the stem is broken, or cut by the gardener, and the miniature grows in its own way.

This type of church planting is where a core and very small group move away to another area and start being a miniature version of church. They may still be connected and reliant on the existing ‘mother’ church for a time, but as the miniature grows to become a plant in its own right, so the connection can be cut so as to not be a drain on the ‘mother’. The beauty of this is that churches can be planted further afield where the need is, but establishing (and even finding) a core group is key. It’s a lot more ‘risky’ as there’s always the question as to whether the miniature will find soil and embed itself in. It’s also a lot more exciting as it’s much more pioneer; getting the gospel to where it’s needed.

This happened in Acts 13 and following when Barnabas and Saul are sent off to plant churches and over time they pick up a small team which becomes two teams of small offshoots.

Essentially, these are the two modes of church planting.