NO CHURCH PLANTERS (Santamaria)

Did Paul Plant Churches?

Short answer: yes, in a sense—but not in the modern “professional church planter” sense.

1. Where Corinthians uses “planting” / “founding” language

Paul does use very explicit “planting” and “founding” metaphors about his own work in Corinth:

• 1 Corinthians 3:6–9

  I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
  So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.
  …For we are labourers together [of] God: ye are God’s husbandry (field), ye are God’s building.

Here the verb is ἐφύτευσα (ephuteusa, “I planted”). Corinth is a “field” God owns; Paul is the one who planted the seed of the gospel there, Apollos irrigated it by teaching, and God alone made it grow.

• 1 Corinthians 3:10–11

  According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon.
  For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Now the metaphor switches to architecture. Paul is θεμέλιον τίθημι—the one who “lays the foundation” at Corinth by preaching Christ. In that sense, he is the initial human instrument God used to start that church.

• 1 Corinthians 4:15

  For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.

Again, Paul was the initial begetter, through the gospel word.

• 2 Corinthians 10:13–16
  Paul talks about preaching the gospel “in the regions beyond you,” and not “boasting in another man’s line of things made ready to our hand”—he is consciously focused on frontier work, not building on someone else’s foundation.

All of that is exactly what later people would call “church planting”: preaching Christ in a new place, people are converted, a congregation is gathered, foundation is laid.

2. What’s not in Corinthians

What you do not get in Corinthians is:

• A title or office called “church planter.”

• A missiology of professional strategists whose role is permanently distinct from “pastors” or “elders.”

• The idea that “planters” and “God” are in partnership in actually causing salvation.

Paul’s whole point in 1 Corinthians 3 is the opposite of the modern hype:

“So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.”

He absolutely refuses to let the “planter” become the hero of the story. The verbs (plant, water, build, lay foundation) describe servant roles, not co-saviors.

3. How does this line up with Old School Baptist concerns

Old School guys like Trott and Beebe would happily grant:

• Yes, Paul “planted” (ἐφύτευσε) at Corinth.

• Yes, he “laid the foundation,” and others “built” on it.

• Yes, God uses men and their preaching as real means.

But they absolutely refused the modern missionary-board idea that:

• certain men, under certain boards and programs, are church planters in a technical, strategic, almost sacramental sense;

• or that God’s saving work is waiting on their ingenuity.

Trott’s whole 1 Cor 3:9 argument (“laborers together of God,” not partners with God) is exactly to keep this in place:
God alone saves and constitutes a church; men merely plant and water as His hired hands.

So:

• Does Corinthians speak of human “planters”? Yes: Paul calls himself one, in metaphor.

• Does it support the modern church-planting industry? No.
  It buries human bragging under the punch line: “neither is he that planteth any thing… but God that giveth the increase.”

In Paul’s farming picture, Paul “plants” and Apollos “waters”; they’re doing different phases of the same gospel work, not running competing franchises. If we take “planting” as the initial sowing of the word (Paul preaching Christ in a place where He wasn’t known), then Apollos' “watering” is the ongoing teaching, clarifying, strengthening, and nourishing of that same word in the same people. Paul scatters the seed of the gospel in Corinth; God brings people to life; Apollos then soaks that young crop with further instruction, refutation of error, and pastoral encouragement so the plants don’t shrivel. In other words, Apollos doesn’t come in as a second planter with his own seed or his own church-planting scheme; he works on the same field with the same seed, just at a later stage of growth. That’s why Paul immediately says, “So then neither he that planteth nor he that watereth is anything, but God that giveth the increase” – the whole point of mentioning Apollos is to smash the Corinthian party-spirit (“I am of Paul, I am of Apollos”) and show that both men are just farmhands; the only real cause of life and fruit is God.

The Greek of 1 Corinthians 3 actually fits very well with the view that “planting” is the preaching of the gospel and “watering” is further teaching, rather than some technical “church planting” office. In 1 Corinthians 3:6, Paul says, “ἐγὼ ἐφύτευσα, Ἀπολλῶς ἐπότισεν, ἀλλ’ ὁ θεὸς ηὔξανεν” (“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth”). The verb ἐφύτευσα is the aorist of φυτεύω (phyteuō), meaning “to plant” or “to set a plant,” a straightforward farming word for putting seed or a plant into the soil. The verb ἐπότισεν is the aorist of ποτίζω (potizō), “to give to drink, to water,” another ordinary agricultural term for irrigating what has already been planted. Then ηὔξανεν (from αὐξάνω, auxanō) means “to cause to grow”; God is the one continually causing growth over time. None of these verbs, in themselves, encode the idea of “founding an institution.” They describe ordinary agricultural stages: initial planting, continued watering, and God’s ongoing work of making things grow. This matches very naturally with the idea that Paul sowed the gospel in Corinth, Apollos nourished that same seed by further instruction, and God alone produced the spiritual life and fruit.

Paul then immediately identifies who and what is in view: “θεοῦ γάρ ἐσμεν συνεργοί· θεοῦ γεώργιον, θεοῦ οἰκοδομή ἐστε” (1 Cor 3:9). Literally, “For of-God we are fellow-workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.” The word γεώργιον (geōrgion) means “field under cultivation,” “tilled land,” or “farm.” Paul explicitly says “you (plural) are God’s field.” So the Corinthians themselves are the field; Paul and Apollos are the farm-workers; God is the owner and the grower. That picture fits exactly if Paul is the initial preacher of the gospel at Corinth (planting) and Apollos is the later teacher who instructed and strengthened the same people (watering). It also lines up closely with Jesus’ parable of the sower: the seed is the word, the soil is the hearers, and God alone makes the seed fruitful. Paul doesn’t quote the parable, but he’s using the same agricultural theology—preaching as sowing, hearers as a field, fruit as God’s work. The “planting” in 1 Corinthians 3 is first of all the act of preaching Christ in a place where He was not known, not the setting up of an institutional machine called “a church” as a project in itself. Does that result in a church being formed? Yes. When the word is sown and God gives the increase, believers are gathered, baptized, and organized; in that sense Paul is indeed the original founder of the Corinthian church. But that is the result of the planting, not the definition of the planting.

The syntax puts Paul and Apollos in strict parallel: “ἐγὼ ἐφύτευσα, Ἀπολλῶς ἐπότισεν” — “I planted, Apollos watered.” They are two servants doing different stages of one work on the same field. Paul’s action is the initial gospel proclamation in Corinth; Apollos’s action is the further instruction and confirmation of those already evangelized. This is the same pattern Paul describes when he shifts metaphor in the very next verses: “κατὰ τὴν χάριν… ὡς σοφὸς ἀρχιτέκτων θεμέλιον ἔθηκα, ἄλλος δὲ ἐποικοδομεῖ” (1 Cor 3:10), “According to the grace of God… as a wise master-builder I laid a foundation, and another builds upon it.” The verbs θεμέλιον ἔθηκα (“I laid a foundation”) and ἐποικοδομεῖ (“another builds upon it”) again present Paul as the first phase (foundation-laying through preaching Christ) and others as the later phase (building up through teaching, pastoring, etc.). This pairs tightly with the planting/watering imagery and shows that both pictures—field and building—are about phases of word-ministry, not special job titles like “church planter” as a distinct office.

Crucially, the Greek does not support making Paul and Apollos into co-causes of salvation alongside God. Paul drives the opposite point home in verse 7: “ὥστε οὔτε ὁ φυτεύων ἐστιν τι, οὔτε ὁ ποτίζων, ἀλλ’ ὁ αὐξάνων θεός” — “So then neither is he that plants anything, nor he that waters, but God that gives the growth.” The οὔτε… οὔτε… ἀλλ’ construction (“neither… nor… but…”) is emphatic: neither the planter nor the waterer is “something” in comparison; the one who really matters is God who gives the growth. So the Greek very naturally supports the reading that planting is the initial sowing of the gospel word in people, watering is subsequent teaching and strengthening of those same people, growth is God’s work alone, and the church is the gathered result when that word takes root. “Planting” itself is about preaching to people—seed going into soil—rather than a professionalized “church planting” role. Your instinct that this sounds more like the parable of the soils than a modern church-planting manual is exactly where the Greek points.