1. If you were thinking about church planting, what would you consider when thinking about a location?
2. What steps would you take to prepare for church planting?
3. How long should you take to prepare before being "on site" of the church plant?
4. How should one go about gaining the support of a local church or churches?
These are just a few things that I would love to talk about. Obviously I am thinking through this on a personal level, but I have no idea if this is where God is leading me. So I would like to hear some thoughts for church planters, whether myself or not.
2 comments:
I'll give some of my answers first. As far as location goes, I think it's important to look for a place that has a genuine need for a new church. That doesn't close the door on too many places since there are unreached people in just about every place. As far as preparation and gaining support, I am more convinced than ever that it is best (though God can do anything) to work through a particular local church that knows you, knows your strengths and weaknesses, knows your abilities, etc. If they will not support a church planter, he may not need to plant a church. As far as being "on site" my thoughts vary. I think it depends on where it is, whether it's a cold plant or core group there, and what kind of support is coming from the local church. That's a few thoughts, but I would still like to hear from you.
1. So much depends on how you church plant. Are you being sent by a Denomination (a group of cooperating churches), or are you being sent by a particular church?
As you know, I am a fan of the multiplying churches vision for church planting (though it has its weaknesses as well as strengths - where a portion of the congregation and eldership is sent across town to plant a new church, and they they eventually send a portion of their congregation and eldership a little futher away to plant a new church, etc. etc.
If I am being sent by a Denomination instead, then certainly need would help dictate location. I would want to go where there is the most need, and would perhaps contact some church planting specialists (ala Stetzer, Keller) to find out what places in the U.S. (or Canada, or beyond?) are most in need. The desire to have a big impact would probably dictate that cities would be preferable to rural areas, and larger cities to smaller cities. However, I imagine that most of the larger cities in the U.S. have Bible teaching churches, while there are many smaller cities that may not have a single Bible-believing, Bible-teaching church. If I were starting from scratch, I'd probably be looking at some of these smaller cities, most in the New England area. However, besides need, there is also the question of necessity - that is, we may not always have an open choice in where we plant due to a variety of reasons.
2. Education, training, personal spiritual development, lots of conversations with planters who have succeeded and planters who have failed. If you are using the Multiplying-churches strategy, you will want to invest yourself into the sending church and particularly into those who will be being sent with you to plant. If you are being sent Denominationally, then you will need to prepare by finding a core group who will commit to the church plant who live within your target area.
3. It all depends on so many things. In the Multiplying-churches vision, you would wait until it is a healthy time for the sending church to lose some of its members and eldership, and until those being sent are committed and share in the vision of the plant. If you are going denominationally, then it all depends on how long it takes to get your core group together and whether you are willing to risk moving to the target area before you have that core group assembled.
4. Obviously, in the Multiplying-churches vision, you should wait until the elders have effectively communicated the church planting vision to the membership and the membership is in agreement to support the church plant. In the Denominational way, you'll need a lot more money if you are planting in Manhattan, NY than if you are planting in SC - so you need to have a good idea of what the needed financial commitment is before you go to plant the church. If denominational financial support will not be enough and you need to go to individual churches for a commitment, then it takes as long as it takes and you have to be patient and trust the Lord as you meet with churches, share your vision, etc.
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