we don’t begin with the church’s demise in mind. Our focus is on its beginning and growth, not its death. Another way to think of the process of church planting is focusing on the life stages of a church. Every church works through five stages: conception, development, birth, growth, and reproduction. Here the process is evident, beginning with conception—the idea of starting a church—and continuing through the stages, with the ultimate goal of reproducing other churches or church plants. The plan