Church Planting 101b by Bill Walden

This was originally posted on Bill Walden’s Blog: http://pastorbillwalden.wordpress.com/

 

Just a few thoughts here…

The reason for the 101“b”, is that there is a difference (at least to me) in planting a church you are going to stay at versus planting a church that you are planning to step away from. The differences aren’t huge, but they are there.

101a: plant and stay. 101b: plant and pass it on to someone else.

Church planters may gain some insights out of this. All Believers can probably unearth a few nuggets.

We planted Cornerstone in October of 1991, with the intention of staying. It has been different with St. Helena Community Church (SHHC) in that for a while, I thought I might pastor at two locations. I have been with this group for two years. The Lord finally made it very clear that I was not to be their permanent pastor, and my thought processes began to change. Here are a few things that I learned or was reminded of…

1. Foundations are non-negotiable. 1 Corinthians 3:5-10 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. 7 So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. 8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building. 10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it.

The foundation of any Christian ministry has to be Jesus, the Word of God, and the ways of God. Without the foundation, one is building on sand. I thank God that He placed me in the Calvary Chapel movement, where we have been taught to teach the Word, love the people, pray, trust God with finances, and be flexible to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. That is a foundation which will allow for growth and longevity.

2. Emotions versus God’s leading. The two are not always in agreement. God has made me a pastor. That means I love to teach the Word and see people grow in their faith. I love that. I feel that. It moves me. It was a joy to share the Word with the SH folks, but that did not automatically mean that I was supposed to stay there permanently. Those same sentiments existed regarding evangelism, equipping folks for ministry, seeing people encouraged and healed, etc. All the stuff that a pastor is supposed to feel, I felt…deeply. But we are not to be led by our emotions. It took a while for me to realize that God was not going to have me stay. Emotions can lead you to make nice suggestions which are not Spirit inspired. Emotions versus God’s leading call for a lot of prayer and patience.

3. Hold On To The Vision. When I first met the SH folks, I asked them what they wanted. Their response: “We want a Bible teaching, Bible believing church, with a pastor that lives in our community”. That is a very Biblical goal, and absolutely reflects the heart of God. I and they believed that this was what the Lord wanted. That conviction kept us all moving forward, and gave needed perseverance to our souls.

4. How “far” do I lead? This was tricky. When I realized that I wasn’t to be the long term pastor, I wondered about how many of my fingerprints should be on this church. Every pastor has his particular way of doing things. If I overdo it in making it “my” church, then the next pastor might have to make big changes to make it “his” church. If I pull back too much (which I did for a short time), then there is a vacuum in leadership, and the church begins to stall out. I finally concluded that I needed to move forward, and whenever called for, do things the way that God would lead me, trusting that the permanent pastor could build on that, and not need to change things too much.

5. Don’t feel guilty about “double duty”. We can be attacked when we are busy with extra ministry responsibilities. We can think that perhaps we are failing at our “primary” ministry. My primary ministry isn’t Cornerstone Ministries of Napa Valley. It also isn’t my wife, my kids, or my friends. My primary ministry is to obey Jesus, wherever He leads me, and to be there for however long he has me there. Regardless of what else might not be getting done in other areas, I need to obey the Lord, and believe that He will take care of other things that I cannot get to.

6. Passing the baton. One of the sad incidents at the 2008 Olympics was watching runners drop the baton in the relay races. Their timing was way off, and they didn’t pay attention to one another. If you drop the baton, it doesn’t matter how well you ran. My portion of this race is ending, but it’s not done yet. I need to be careful to pass the baton well. For those of us who might be transitioning out of a ministry: you are not done until you are done. Don’t quit early. See it through ’til the end.

 

Launching Ideas

Launching Ideas

By Daniel Fusco

 

No two church plants are alike.  Each new work has a unique set of circumstances.  Some church plants are what I like to call ‘cold plants’.  You have a church planter starting in an area where they don’t know anyone at all.  Others are a bit warmer.  Sometimes a church planter will move within their state.  Sometimes they will be sent from their church because there are a few families who want to see a new work start.  Other church plants entail a church sending their Assistant Pastor with a number of people to the next town to start a church.  As I said, the circumstances are always different.  But one thing remains constant: each one needs to start.  They need to begin meeting in some way and some time.  No way is better or worse than another.  The only thing that matters is what the Lord’s will is for a specific work.  The purpose of this article is to give you some ideas as to the various ways people start meeting.  I’m also going to mention a few ‘cons’ to each method to help facilitate your thinking.

 

The Home Bible Study

 

This method is the least expensive way to launch.  It simply entails beginning a Bible study in a home.  The idea being that as people begin to congregate together around the Word of God and as relationships are built, you are laying the foundation for a potential church plant.  This is often how existing churches plant new congregations.  They begin a home fellowship and see if they will develop into something that can be launched at some point.  The main con to this method, in the 21^st century is that people often will not come to the home of people that they don’t know.  So in order to grow a home bible study (especially in a ‘cold’ plant situation), it can take a very long time.

 

The Non Sunday Morning Public Meeting

 

Many churches are started with a public Bible study at a time other than Sunday mornings.  Often planters choose either Sunday evening or a Wednesday or Thursday night as these are traditional times for worship services.  This is beneficial because you can have a worship service with teaching and you are not bound to have a full program (children’s ministry, nursery, ushers, etc).  By having it on an alternative time other than Sunday morning, you have a lowered expectation.  You really only need a Bible teacher and a worship leader to accomplish this.  The biggest con is that often you will get many members of other churches who come and if/when you want to go to Sunday mornings, you will either lose many folks or force a decision by people who are already committed at other places (neither of which is very much fun).

 

Presentation Services

 

This is a very interesting method.  The presentation method can take on innumerable characteristics but the basis of it is this: a church is going to get started so there is over the course of a few months, events designed to create a buzz about a new ministry.  Let’s use an example.   Let’s say that you wanted to plant a church in a town.  Your target Sunday service launch date is January 1.  So beginning in November, you decide to do outreach for the entire weekend culminating in a presentation worship service on Sunday evening.  The whole focus of the outreach is to let your community know that who you are.  Then you decide to do 2 more presentation services in December with corresponding outreach all of it culminating with the January 1^st Launch service.  This method is great because you have the potential of meeting many people before you really get going.  The greatest con to this method is that you need servants and money to execute the outreaches and services, which is often in short supply in a church plant. 

 

Sunday Morning Service

 

This is simply finding a public place to meet on Sunday morning and simply launching the church.  As I described in the article entitled, ‘The Big Three’, it is important to remember that there are certain expectations that people have about coming to a church on Sunday morning.  I recommend having the Big Three (pastor, worship leader, and children’s ministry) when you begin a Sunday morning service.  The biggest con to this method, like the Presentation Services, is that you need resources and man-power to launch a Sunday morning service.  And as the old proverb goes, ‘You never get a second chance to make a first impression.’

 

In conclusion, this is not an exhaustive list, only the most commonly used methods of getting a new church going.  Don’t forget, these ways are not mutually exclusive.  You can use a hybrid methodology in getting started.  As was stated earlier, really the only thing that matters is what the Lord’s will is for the church that you are starting.