Does Boston Really Need 42 Church Plants

That was the question that came to mind when I first heard that Boston had 42 church plants, under 5 years old.  I thought, “surely there are enough churches currently.”  However as I have learned more about Boston I have come to realize that Boston actually needs many more than 42 church plants.  Here are some reasons for the great need.

1       Population growth has far outpaced the church growth.  Although Boston continues to explode with an influx of people moving into the area, a majority of the churches are either stagnant or declining.  Church plants are needed to keep up with ever increasing demand.

2     There are over 80 colleges and universities with students from over 140 different countries.  Boston desperately needs more ethnic pastors to reach into these ethnic populations.  Thankfully Boston has seen several Brazilian, Nepalese, Hispanic, Korea and Chinese church planting pastors.  However there are so many more people groups without a church in their native language.

3     Boston has a “towny” culture in which church planters must figure out how to reach into.  Although, Boston proper has 600,000 people, the Metro Boston area has nearly 5 million people.  This area is actually made of little towns.  These town range in sizes, from as small as 11,000 to over 60,000 each. Within these towns, their inhabitants stay primarily in their area for shopping, school, sports, and entertainment.  Most towns have their own schools, police department and fire department.  So to reach Boston, you have to reach the towns.  Currently North American Mission Board is focusing on 24 pivotal towns. 

Please continue to pray for Boston and for more church planting pastors to stand in the gap.  Lori and I are excited to go this summer to come alongside these pastors.  Please contact me if you are interested in coming to Boston to serve or would like to help support our efforts this summer.  Here is the link to our website http://msc.kintera.org/jablonskis