The concept of church planting - starting brand new congregations - is becoming a reality in Southern Illinois as new churches spring up and others work to establish spin-off congregations in other areas.

There are many reasons for the interest in planting churches. A 2008 study by The American Church Research Project reported a decline in average attendance of churches which were started before 1990, yet it said churches established in the years since have seen phenomenal growth. Experts point to new churches as a way of reaching people who do not attend church.

"The single, most effective evangelistic methodology under heaven is planting new churches," Peter Wagner, formerly of Fuller Theological Seminary wrote in his 1990 book "Church Planting for a Greater Harvest."

Area planters agree.

"The reason is simple," said Roger Ferrell, executive director of Clear Creek Baptist Association. "Church planting is the best method we have to see people come to a relationship with Christ. We want people to have that opportunity."

Ferrell's organization, which works with 43 Southern Baptist churches in Southern Illinois, has plans to establish six new churches in the region this year.

"I noticed that we as an association had not started any churches since 1980," he explained. "So, we did a church planting probe to see where there were people-groups and geographical needs for churches."

With established Southern Baptist congregations serving as sponsoring churches who provide encouragement and financial help on a short-term basis, the group plans to establish a Spanish-speaking congregation near Cobden, a college student-focused church in Carbondale, a church offering contemporary-style services in Anna, a multi-cultural church in Cairo and a new church near Olive Branch. A sixth plant is near Lake of Egypt.

"They're already meeting every couple of weeks with a few core families," Ferrell said. "The estimate is that there are about 9,000 people in the area, but only three or four churches."

He said that besides population statistics, church planters need to consider the lifestyles of people in those areas.

"This church probably won't meet on Sunday mornings; they're probably going to meet some evening for people who might work on Sundays or be on the lake those mornings," he added.

Area churches are finding other reasons to plant, too, as well as a variety of techniques and models to establish new churches. Carbondale's Vine Community Church, itself slightly more than a dozen years old, considers church planting to be one of its core beliefs. Lead Pastor Sándor Paull said his church's plants so far have been in places with large numbers of students.

"We really love planting healthy churches in university cities where students can hear clearly about Jesus and become disciples," he said. "It is amazing to hear stories of how their lives are being changed."

The church currently has plants in Seattle, St. Louis, Bloomington and Bloomington, Ind. Paull said the leaders of future plants are now being trained.

"We've identified our next few planters and are working on getting them ready," he said.

He said Vine Church's method of planting involves sending a full-time pastor who has been on staff at the local church for several years, as well as initial financial backing for the new church.

Church plants also include a team of people who relocate from the "mother church" to the new city. For the 2004 church plant in Seattle, 50 people from Southern Illinois, including a university professor, a cardiologist and Vine Church's founding pastor, all moved to the Pacific Northwest. A group of 24 moved to establish the Indiana church two years ago.

"We believe it takes a team of people who are feeling that God is asking them to go," Paull explained. "It means relocating, selling houses, finding new jobs. It requires sacrifice, but what happens in these people and through them is very special."

Being part of a new church plant can be difficult, said Tony Marseglia, pastor of Hope Church in Carbondale. Marseglia moved to the area from California to start the church in 2001. His congregation, which now averages almost 100 each Sunday, started with a few people attending a bible study together.

The church initially received support and "loaner families" from a church in Anna. Within a few years, Hope Church was self-sufficient and holding Sunday services each week.

"I had an office in downtown Carbondale and we began having worship services there," he said. "Then we moved that fall out into the atrium of the building. Several months later we started having services at Carbondale Community High School."

Since then the congregation has continued to grow and has moved into a facility of its own on Murphysboro Road, west of Carbondale. Marseglia recalled the challenges of starting a new church.

"I've described those first years as some of the worst of my life. It was very difficult, but looking back it was absolutely worth it. On the whole, I consider it one of the richest experiences of my life. I have been completely blessed."

He said that church planting, for him, is all about reaching people.

"More non-believers and non-Christians tend to show up to new churches. There's a certain safety for them, especially in those churches that meet in places that don't have the ‘high church' feel. Many people, including our current worship leader, came to Christ through the whole process," he said.

Reaching non-believers in Southern Illinois is the strategy behind church planting activities of Cornerstone Church in Marion. Lead Pastor Michael Nave said his church is using a multi-campus approach to establishing new congregations.

"The angle that we have taken is what many call a multi-site approach," he said. "Each campus has its own pastor on-site and autonomy, but we all have an agreed-upon structure, budget and direction."

Beside the Marion location, Cornerstone has established a campus near Johnston City and is planning on more plants.

"Last Saturday we made a commitment to get the next campuses going. Our specific long-term vision is that we feel led to put a campus in every rural high school district south of I-64," he said.

Nave explained that his church feels smaller congregational units have advantages.

"We believe that discipleship happens better in smaller communities. We want people at church seeing one another at the gas station, at the grocery store and at school functions. We want them to do life together."

He added that church planting is working.

"The numbers show that church plants are more effective in reaching a community. They are more limber, adaptable and are highly motivated."

Clear Creek Baptist Association's Ferrell said it is not just the new churches that benefit from church planting.

"It's a church health issue for me," he said. "I don't think you can call a church healthy if it's not reproducing itself. It's good for the churches that do it."

Paull of Vine Community Church said that church planting comes from a Biblical tradition.

"It's really the template that the Book of Acts provides in terms of the Kingdom expanding," he said. "I'd say it is one of the primary ways that the great commission is fulfilled. We have to remember that all existing denominational churches all started as a church plant at some point."