Church Planting Issues

tfelice · #1 (**permalink**) 12-03-2007, 04:32 PM

We have been laboring with the process of planting a church here in our growing community. However, we are at a crossroads and I wanted to bounce some ideas off the forum here.

I have tried through several means (personal contacts and mass promotion) to build a core group and meet weekly in our home, however, we have only been able to get two families on board willing to do the work in those early stages. Those two were close friends from our neighborhood. I think one of the reasons this has failed is because there has not been any church planting activity in this area for 25 years, so the concept of meeting in someone's home is quite foreign.

The good news though, is that there have been a lot of interest via phone calls & emails from people who want to visit the church once we start meeting publically. However, getting these same people to come to our home for core group meetings has been a bust. Additionally, our website has been getting quite a bit of traffic (over 200 hits in November) so there obviously is some interest. Finally, the need for a church of our type (Reformed, Traditional, Baptistic) in this area has been confirmed by many. I have been very pleased with the response from the promotion done so far. But discouraged that we cannot convert these interested parties into a core group.

So, we are at a point where we are not sure where to go from here. Do we continue doing the same things we have been doing with the hope of very slowly building a core group of people? My business instincts tell me no, since we have tried several means of reaching out to people to establish a group, but have had little, if any success.

We were thinking of taking a different approach by simply rolling the dice and begin holding Sunday services in a rented facility. We have a great facility available to us, and my marketing background gives me confidence that I can publicize our charter service well enough to bring people in the door. From that point, I would then begin to work on pulling in people from our Sunday attendence into a "core" for the purpose of implementing the ministry goals of the church.

One reason we are eager to get things moving is that we don't want the work already done to be for nothing. I don't want to lose these interested parties if another year goes by before we start meeting publically. Also, there is a situation in a large Evangelical church that is causing some of its members to seek out other churches. While I don't like taking advantage of that situation, I think God has put us in the right place and right time regarding that issue.

So my question is, does anyone here have any experience or reference to this type of planting technique (ie opening the doors without an established core group)? Also, if anyone has comments or advice they would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!!

JBaldwin · #2 (**permalink**) 12-03-2007, 10:27 PM

I went through my preteen years in a church plant. I was involved in a church plant 18 years ago, and we are in a church plant now (We started worship services in early October.). In each case, we had a core group. In the first church, all but two families were members of the sponsoring church and the core group was unified and strong. That church is still strong today.

In the second church, the core group consisted of members of the sponsoring church and a number of members from the community. The core group was not strong, not unified, and as I look back on it, I wonder if we had any vision for what the Lord was going to do in that community. The church split and fell to ruin in less 2 years. Most of the people who joined that group were dissatisfied with their previous churches and were looking for a place to start over.

The current church plant where we are now has an interesting history. Nearly ten years ago, we left an horrible church situation and were looking to be part of a church plant in our area. Many of the people in the church where I was wanted to be part of a reformed work in the community. We called the presbytery's church planting people and asked if there was any interest in starting a church in our area. We were told no. Six months later, we met a group of people from another church in our presbytery, and they were trying to get a core group started to plant a church in the same community. My family joined that core group, and we met regularly for almost two years. The church plant idea gradually fizzled, and the group disbanned. During the years that followed (I learned later) attempts were made by two churches in the presbytery to plant a church in that community, and the efforts came to nothing. A lot of prayers were said over the years. My family and I got involved in a church in the presbytery that was a good distance from our home, and we continued to pray and wait on the Lord. Honestly, I had all but given up on the idea, and my prayers were reduced to faint wishes.

Over a year ago, we found ourselves in a position where God was leading us away from the church family we had grown to love so much, and we ended up without any place to fellowship for nearly 4 months. When we prayed and considered what to do about a church home, we felt the Lord was telling us to wait until January of this last year. In December, we were invited to a party in the home of a professor who works with my husband. At the party, I talked to a woman, a believer, to whom I had only spoken to twice before (both times at the annual party). She and her husband belong to a church in our presbytery. When I began to share some of my heart for the church and my desire to see God plant a church in our area, she shocked me by telling me of two families who were praying about planting a church in that very area.

In less than a month, the representatives of 6 families were meeting together for prayer and Bible study. In October, we had our first worship service.

I am sorry for the lengthy post, but I felt I needed to share that experience because I can now see the difference between the first group who who tried to plant a church and the core group that started our current church, and I think they could have been said for the success and failure of the two church plants I was involved with earlier in my life.

Here is what I see in the core group of our current church which I did not see in the other core group.

1. Unified vision of spreading the gospel in the community.
2. I strong love for Christ among all the core members.
3. A willingness give up personal preferences (not core convictions) for the sake of reaching the lost in the community.
4. Maturity in the leadership and core members.
5. A clear calling of the Lord among the core members.

I am sure there are other things, but this is what comes to mind.

As I look back at how I longed for God to plant a church in my community, and my continued desire to be a part of it when it happened, I marvel at how God's timing was so different from my own. God has gone before us in ways I cannot even begin to tell, and it is a joy to be serving Him with those of like mind and reaching out to the lost in our community. I see now that if that first group had pushed the Lord, we would have fallen flat on our faces.

We will pray that God will give you wisdom. If He has put it on your heart to plant a church, it will happen.

JBaldwin · #3 (**permalink**) 12-03-2007, 10:35 PM

One more thing: though I am no expert in church plants, I can't imagine starting a church or taking on any financial responsibilities (like renting a facility) without a strong support group. Also, our teaching elder said this recently, "If numbers are the important thing and not the pure gospel of Christ, we will eventually dilute our message for the sake of numbers."

Raj · #4 (**permalink**) 12-04-2007, 03:40 AM

After my seminary education, we had a meeting, and I was asked to go to Nepal with my Nepali friends. The intention was that I will learn from their (Nepaleese) daily life and ministry experiences. I stayed in the organized church for about 6 months, worshipping with other believers, learning language and same time going on visitaton and street preachings.

I was just preaching as I was given opportunity almost every week in different congregations ( small gathrings). But same time, one of my another Nepali speaking friend Indian had been praying for a few years that they will extend the ministry of the church to another city and its sourrending villages.

After about six months of prayer and survey that particular city, I moved out to that with my belongings in a rented room. There was no contact before, and no one to identify with us. But people knew that we are Christians.

So I started meeting people and inviting them to our room, I directly told with my another local friend, "we will have worship (satsang, singing religious hymns, Bible reading etc)." We did not have members, we did not have our own building, we did not have music instruments, nothing to show but we just asked people to gather on Sundays, And there we met first time in 1998. The first gathering was six people sitting on the floor. That was the begining.

After getting familiar with the locals, I became friends of most of them but mostly to the children of our sourrendings. I gathered them for singing and Bible stories but also taught them A, B, C, D and 1, 2, 3, names of the week etc all in English, to get the attraction. And I was successful. In a 4 weeks of staying, I was able to get 20 regular children. The friendship began to extend through the children to their guardians.

So now onward every Saturday we had first our Sunday School afte that I cooked my food and prepared for the Bible study. The Lord was graciously gave us some contacts as me and my friend went on foot and cycle village to village (we covered 10) litrally.

There was no one to compete with us. There was no one to guide (giving instructions all the time) But the Church where I stayed before helped me in my foods, room renting, untensils, bedding etc) and with prayers. But the missionary God was helping us in all the ways.

I was far away from my family in North India, but God prepared another family and friends there too, to care for me. I did not have original plan (really) to plant a church but as we procedeed God guided us. And today we got thirty regular worshipper, some time more, all fresh people, no xtian Background at all.

And they help us now to reach their families and friends. The Lord provided after 4 years our own worship hall for about 100 people, and the group continue to grow.

If you start it, the Lord will make it grow. This is my experience, and we are using it in other parts of Nepal. Same thing happend with my own coming to the Lord. Our own village had no believers, only one person used to be in Christian contact, when my pastor arrived in our village, he had no believer friends etc but now there also we have small gathring to worship the LOrd including my family.

In Philippines, I am going with a local friend to a family, after about one year now we have 10 people gathring together on Friday nights (7-9pm), We are having the same intentions to make this group grow. I believe the Lord will do His work if we proceed.

You are in a Lord's business, Try it with His help. He is with the "going out" disciples. One day we will hear your testimoney.

Praying for you in this regard. Please pray for me also as I plan to engage more in the same activities as soon as I'm done here.

tfelice · #5 (**permalink**) 12-04-2007, 06:01 AM

Thanks for both replies. Your stories are encouraging.

Would you have any suggestions on how to enlarge the core group? Personal contacts of all involved have been pretty much exhausted. And reaching out to the community at large has generated alot of interest in the work, but not in any joining us for the core group. The stumbling block seems to be getting people to committ and join us for our home meetings.

I am at a point where I don't see the core group growing any time soon, which is why I am thinking that it is time to start meeting publically. We do have sister churches in the area and other friends that we can utilize for support (borrowing people for ushers, greeters, etc) until we get established. And funding is not much of an issue either. My thinking was that if we began meeting publically, we would bring a lot of new people into our services, and from those who attend we can extract those who feel led to join us in forwarding the mission of the church.

markkoller · #6 (**permalink**) 12-04-2007, 10:01 PM

Sometimes it takes a while to build a core group. We usually think it proper to start with the core group and go forward from there. If everything seems to point toward going forward with the church plant but the core group is too small, perhaps you could consider committing a full year or even two to simply building a core group.

Though a strong core group is ideal, this is not always what God ordains. Patience and prayer will be in order to build the church over a longer period of time. I think it wise to remember that we are building the church for our children and grandchildren, not just for the immediate gratification of it all.

At the same time, a formal worship service may be in order if you are intending on being there longterm. Even with just a few families, worship can be a beautiful thing to draw your interested parties together (If I understood correctly that you do not have a worship service yet?). In the past, I have been involved with church plants that involved longterm meetings with no worship and they were not successful in meeting the needs of the people.

Calvibaptist · #7 (**permalink**) 12-04-2007, 10:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tfelice

We do have sister churches in the area and other friends that we can utilize for support (borrowing people for ushers, greeters, etc) until we get established. And funding is not much of an issue either. My thinking was that if we began meeting publically, we would bring a lot of new people into our services, and from those who attend we can extract those who feel led to join us in forwarding the mission of the church.

My initial thought was to ask you about sister churches who might be able to help you. I am not talking about finances. I am talking about people. People from these churches who might, with the blessing of the church, be willing and interested in joining your core group. You might consider talking to the pastors. I know this is a hard thing to ask: "Hey, can I have some of your members?" But if they are willing to help, it would be the ideal answer.

When we started our church 7 years ago, our sending church also sent a few families with us. Honestly, when we started, we visited in the community and started a Bible study in a home with 4 families. We had plenty of financial support and knew that we would have a lot of families from our sending church come for at least a few months to help us get off the ground. We rented a school because it was the least expensive option and didn't require a time commitment. What we found was that some of the families that came for a few months from our sending church ended up staying, Bill Brown (BaptistInCrisis) being one of them. We've gone through a huge turnover the last 7 years and our core has remained strong. But, the interesting thing is that the only family that remains from the original 4 families that met in that home is mine. The others have all moved away.

I would say that, if the rental situation would not lock you into a situation you couldn't pay, and if you were sure you could get assistance from other churches with some of the logistical aspects of running a worship service, planning a public meeting might be a good idea. You have to think of things like setting up sound system, chairs, etc. You have to plan for nurseries and children's ministries (if you will have those). You have to have ushers in place. BTW, our first Sunday, we had 76 people. Seven years later, we have grown to a whopping 65! But we've been through a lot in 7 years.

Pergamum · #8 (**permalink**) 12-05-2007, 05:29 AM

Please get a core group before beginning and make sure you all have a unified vision.

Without a core group I would not begin.

Once a core group is established and with a clear unified vision, then opening it up for public services is okay, but without a core group you will be tempted to not be strong on the main issues in order to retain the few that trickle in at first. You hate to see people come and then go so without a strong core group you will be tempted to fudge on essentials to retain people that do not share your main distinctives.

By the way, God bless your efforts and I will pray for you during these challenging times.

tfelice · #9 (**permalink**) 12-05-2007, 06:43 AM

Thanks for the replies from all.

Regarding a public service, we are in a pretty good situation. The facility we are looking at has a piano, PA system and chairs already there. The only thing we would have to show up with to get going are hymnals (already have them), a microphone & podium (easily obtained), and bulletins (cheap at Staples). We even have storage available on site, so set up each week would amount to putting out the hymnals on the chairs. We also have enough people to manage a nursery for the youngest of kids.

Pergamum, while I agree that a strong core group would be the best case, what would you do in our case, where attempts to increase the core group beyond my small circle of neighbors has been futile? With most, if not all, of our personal contacts exhausted I am at a loss as to how to grow this group. My concern is that we are going to be spinning our wheels trying to get some folks to meet around my kitchen table. We have been at this for quite a while now.

As far as straying from our vision, I pray that does not happen, but understand the tempation may be there. However, my concern is not with numbers but with quality. The goal here is to plant a midsize, traditional, reformed & baptistic church. Not only would straying from that be undesried, it would actually be "bad business" as this town is littered with "purpose driven" clones. Looking at it purely from a marketing standpoint, we would be an alternative to what is already out there. Essentially, we are the only chinese restaurant in a town with 10 pizza parlors.

Nonetheless, any idea on how to expand that core group? We have worked through personal contacts, and have also held public information meetings which were publicized in the local papers and through some "flyer" advertising. While we got a lot of interest, follow up with these contacts has resulted in a common answer of "let me know when you start meeting publically I'd love to check you out". I think I may have stated before that I think one of the reasons for this, is that it has been 25 years since a new church has come into this area, so the whole "core group" concept is foreign even amongst seasoned Christians.

Pergamum · #10 (**permalink**) 12-05-2007, 10:59 AM

A suggestion on how to expand core group (not sure if this fits or is even good advice, but I have seen it done successfully twice):

Ask for a "loan" of people from other likeminded churches within an hour or two drive.

For instance, if you are "Reformed Baptist" and there are other churches in the same state, appeal to them to loan you a few couples. Or talk to a local PCA church that always has a few baptist brethren in their waiting for such a plant.

You wouldn't be after their sheep, but you would be contacting the leadership directly and would be giving their church bodies as well an opportunity to take part in an evangelistic opportunity - an opportunity to open a new church with the help of the sending of a family or two from out of their own midsts.

I have seen neighboring churches pitch in and loan a few families to a new start up to give them that ideal number of a core group.

There does seem to be a numerical point at which visitors stop feeling creepy and weird when they show up to the "new church" and only 5 people are there. If 20 or so could be gathered, then visitors seem to "stick" better.

One church I know has written it into their constitution to intentionally "split" and form separate congregations in nearby towns once their numbers reach 200. This gives each new church plant a ready made core group.

Just a note: Church need not be in a building, but a building sure seems to help when starting up a new work. Meeting in a church building rented from another group during their "off hours" seems most comfortable to people, a hotel meeting room is second best, followed by a restaurant. House churches are still looked at as cultish or lacking in authority.

Finally, it seems like a good strategy would be to advertize how your church is different. There seem to be a lot of people weary and leery about the Purpose Driven gimmicky churches.

JBaldwin · #11 (**permalink**) 12-05-2007, 11:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pergamum

A suggestion on how to expand core group (not sure if this fits or is even good advice, but I have seen it done successfully twice):

Ask for a "loan" of people from other likeminded churches within an hour or two drive.

For instance, if you are "Reformed Baptist" and there are other churches in the same state, appeal to them to loan you a few couples. Or talk to a local PCA church that always has a few baptist brethren in their waiting for such a plant.

You wouldn't be after their sheep, but you would be contacting the leadership directly and would be giving their church bodies as well an opportunity to take part in an evangelistic opportunity - an opportunity to open a new church with the help of the sending of a family or two from out of their own midsts.

I have seen neighboring churches pitch in and loan a few families to a new start up to give them that ideal number of a core group.

There does seem to be a numerical point at which visitors stop feeling creepy and weird when they show up to the "new church" and only 5 people are there. If 20 or so could be gathered, then visitors seem to "stick" better.

One church I know has written it into their constitution to intentionally "split" and form separate congregations in nearby towns once their numbers reach 200. This gives each new church plant a ready made core group.

Just a note: Church need not be in a building, but a building sure seems to help when starting up a new work. Meeting in a church building rented from another group during their "off hours" seems most comfortable to people, a hotel meeting room is second best, followed by a restaurant. House churches are still looked at as cultish or lacking in authority.

Finally, it seems like a good strategy would be to advertize how your church is different. There seem to be a lot of people weary and leery about the Purpose Driven gimmicky churches.

A huge AMEN! Our "sister" church is sharing elders and in addition to the core group (which totals about 30 when you include the children), other folks from the church drop in once in awhile for our worship services. That has been a special blessing to us. Also, you could find out how many people are committed to the work once worship services start. We had several people who were committed elsewhere, but joined us on the first week or two of worship and have stayed with us.

tfelice · #12 (**permalink**) 12-05-2007, 07:59 PM

Thanks for the advice. I am meeting with a representative from our (potential) denomination next week and this is something I plan on bringing up with him. We have a sister church close by, so having some people volunteer to fill seats and hand out bulletins should be an easy thing for them to provide. I also have contacts who would be willing to do the same, although they are comfortable within their existing churches.

Regarding the advertising, that is someting we are definitely doing. I have a sales & marketing background (20+ years) so I am using our distinctives as a major "selling point" to bring visitors into the church.

The building we are looking at is the old fire company/community hall. It is presently being used by a music academy. It is an excellent facility for us. I don't think we could ask for anything better and the price is right too.

Keep us in your prayers.