Dowand Malone said missionaries in Nigeria were surprised when they went to visit a small village church in the early 1990s.
The congregation had been struck by tragedy — militants had burned their simple mud-brick building to the ground, and the pastor’s family had barely escaped alive. The missionaries expected to find ashes.
Instead, they found the church meeting in a field under a tree — and three additional churches meeting in different parts of the village.
“The pastor told them, ‘When you stop building yourself and start building for Jesus, He takes ashes and turns them into altars,’” Malone told those present at the Alabama Baptist Pastors Conference on Nov. 10. “The flames that destroyed their structure only revealed what it was truly built on, and that was Christ Himself.”
Malone, founding pastor of Greater Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church in Sheffield, said Christ has to be the foundation of any church plant.
Preaching on the theme of The Preeminence of Christ in Church Planting, he shared from 1 Corinthians 3:4-15 that the Apostle Paul had seen the danger of churches elevating things above Christ. In this particular case, it was personalities.
“Their faith had become more about who it was that stood in front of them than Who it was that truly changed their life,” Malone said. “Paul reminds us that ministry is not about our name but His name … Christ alone must remain the foundation of our work.”
A Christ-centered planter knows the spotlight belongs on the Savior and not the servant, Malone said. “It’s not about who we have coming or how well we are able to articulate when we stand before our people, because the reality is if you stand and God does not stand with you, you are doomed from the beginning.”
Worth is measured by obedience, not visibility, he said. “When ministry becomes about outdoing rather than uplifting, we’ve lost sight of the One who calls us.”
God is the One who gives the growth, Malone said. The church planter’s obedience might provide the seed, but “His Spirit is the rain,” he said.
“Be certain that you are planted on a solid foundation, not your name, not the trustees’ name, not your board’s name,” Malone said. “There is a Name that is above every name so you’ve got to make sure that whenever you plant you make sure you keep His name big and your name small.”
He said the call is simple — plant Christ, preach Christ and trust Christ for the increase. “Pastors, planters, servants of God — build where God leads, not where people applaud,” Malone said. “Keep Christ at the center of every sermon, every strategy, every sacrifice because when the fire tests your work, only one name will matter, and it’s not your name, it’s not my name but the Name that is above every name.”
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