Why Plant?

Over the last several months, the leadership of East Hills has begun to think, dream and pray about the prospect of planting a second church in the Kelso/Longview area. Dating back several decades, East Hills has had a vision for planting a church but the timing has never seemed right to make this idea reality.

We believe that the right time may be now. Here are the top 5 reasons why we are considering planting a second church:

More churches are closing each year than opening.

Each year, between 3500 and 4000 churches in American are permanently closing their doors, while only 1100 to 1500 new churches open. We need to plant churches just to keep up with population growth!

Kelso/Longview is not as “reached” as we think.

Not only is the Pacific Northwest regularly referred to as the “least reached area” of our country, but our cities are also in need of more churches. If every single church in town was filled to capacity twice a weekend, there would still be 20,000 people in our cities without a seat in the building.

Church plants are effective with evangelism.

More people are coming to Christ in America in church plants than in any other environment or gathering. Over 80% of churches in the country are plateaued or in decline, while church plants continue to reach the lost and grow.

A church plant creates leadership opportunities.

As churches become established and continue to age, leadership becomes more static with a small percent of the congregation involved in leadership. Church plants create leadership opportunities on multiple levels and encourage people to move from by-standers to fully-engaged participants.

God is blessing East Hills.

We are a time like never before for our church. The leadership is strong and united. The church body is filled with peace and unity. Our financial picture is incredibly healthy with no outstanding debt. Why has God blessed us with so much? We believe it is so we can give it away and multiply ourselves.

We would love to hear your thoughts and ideas about church planting! Please email or contact Pastor Nick directly and let us know what God is stirring up in your heart.(nick@easthillsalliance.org) It is only by God’s grace and strength that this will happen, so we are relying on Him each step of the way.