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Becoming A Church-Planting Church
Posted by Roger Ferrell in Uncategorized
Sunday evening I got to experience a rare pleasure. Wearing my hat as the part-time Church Planting Strategist for my association, (no, I did not actually wear a hat in the sanctuary, I’m just speaking figuratively) I spoke at Providence Baptist Church in Loganville, Georgia, on the subject of church planting. This occasion was initiated by an email I received from the pastor there, Rusty Davidson. Here is an excerpt:
Roger,
I wanted to talk to you about something. I talked to Jim at GMBA last week about this and he reminded me that you would be a great person to talk to about it.
On September 2, I laid out the vision for Providence for the next 18-24 months. One of the things I believe God has called us to do is to plant either a satellite campus or new church plant by Easter 2009 (about 18 months away.) Even though we are currently a small church, I believe it is possible. This would serve as a foundation for something we hope to accomplish through Providence. We would like to use Providence as a base for church planters in the area. They can come and gather and train their core groups using the resources that Providence has.
The problem is, I really do not have any idea of where to start. Naturally, we are praying diligently about this, but I would like to discuss the process and idea with you. Also, if we could find anyone locally that might be interested in being the ‘guinea pig’ for this, it might help to sit down and discuss it with them as well.
So this humble pastor (how often do pastors say they have no idea where to start?) and I talked and met together, developed a process and Sunday night I taught on Becoming A Church-Planting Church to about 40 folks in their congregation. Now here is the interesting thing: there are only about 75 members at Providence. It is a little church with big dreams. Pastor Rusty is fired up about planting churches and reaching people, and so is the congregation. Sunday night they asked good questions, explored creative possibilities and considered what it would cost them in time, money and energy to start new churches. Please join me in praying for them in the days ahead as they become a multiplying church.
But I don’t get emails like Rusty’s or invitations to speak on church planting very often. And if a little congregation of 75 people can plant churches, then why aren’t most of our SBC churches multiplying themselves? NAMB estimates less than 10% of our churches have ever planted a church.
One of the questions I asked Providence was “are you ready to plant churches? If not, what would it take for you to get ready? What must you give up, change, or do differently in order to begin a ministry of church planting?”
So how about it. Is your church planting churches? If not, why not? If so, why?
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Roger,
My 5-year-old church has financially supported (through direct giving) two church plants. One was in Cornwall, Ontario. The other in Oak Grove, Kentucky. We attempted to plant a Hispanic church in our area, but the effort has failed thus far. We just entered into a four-year partnership to plant churches among the Panao Quechua people in the Andes Mountains of Peru. Our first of four teams in 2008 leaves in mid-January. We have worked diligently to build church planting into the DNA of our church plant.
Why aren’t most of our SBC churches multiplying themselves? Because most, regrettably, do not see or understand the need for more churches. I fear that much of our focus has shifted from “grow our army” to “build high the walls of our fortresses.”
Geoff,
I agree that many churches do not see the need for new churches, especially in their own area. But I think there are several additional reasons why churches do not plant.
Some churches are so discouraged they do not think they can help or that they have anything worth replicating. I talked with Providence about this: what in your congregation is worth “franchising” or replicating somewhere else? Not that a church plant would be identical or even similar to the mother church, but is there anything here that is so good that it should be shared? If the answer is no, that is one discouraged congregation.
Second, some churches think all the SBC wants them to do to plant churches is give lots of money. If they do not have it, they cannot plant. This is a miscommunication. There are many ways churches can help with church planting: loan out their building to another congregation, provide resources such as unused chairs or literature, send people, send teams of people out during the week to help on another side of town, do phone evangelism, pray, train planters and workers, etc. We need more programs to engage on these levels.
Last, some churches think they already are planting churches by giving to the cooperative program, so why do more? This is partly true. It is also true that the average church planter through NAMB and state convention funding alone has a monthly income of only $2200 with no health insurance, and that funding decreases after the first year. So the CP alone is not meant to support church planting completely. We must have direct church participation as well.
Do you agree with these? Can you think of more reasons why churches do not plant?
Roger,
I’m a small church pastor and I have been praying about this for some time. Upon presenting, just the thought of our church sponsoring a church plant, the folks looked at me like I had two heads.
Their primary problem was MONEY. It had nothing to do with capability, leadership, or resources; just money.
Our association is in an economically depressed area, so I suggested that we move it to the associational level. They were more amenable to that but were still fearful about how much they would have to contribute financially.
Plus, our churches tend to be very territorial. When I suggested a five mile radius plan of evangelism a few years ago, many rebelled because of the fact that “those people out that way go to Mt. Laurel.”
Fortunately we are trying to move past this, “Well, we give to Annie Armstrong, what else do we need to do?” attitude.
What do you suggest?
Roger,
What do you think about planting “house” churches? These types of church plants have several advantages over “brick and mortar” churches. Allow me to list a few.
1. The issue of money is not an issue in planting “house” churches. There are no buildings to maintain, no rent to pay.
2. House churches reproduce rapidly.
3. House churches increase by multiplication.
4. House churches are indigenous in that they multiply from within rather than without.
Perhaps the option of house churches is worthy of consideration.
Les
Tony,
I suggest you start with what you have. You do not have much money, so ask your folks to engage in church planting in other ways. Make up a response card of some kind and give them choices on how to participate: give money (one time gift), give monthly $, give time on the phone (cell phone prospecting is really cool), give time in prayer, mission trips, etc. Offer as many choices as you can think of that would be helpful. The point is to engage as many people as possible so the church gets a heart for church planting.
Where you plant is a big issue. You do not have to engage right where you are if that is threatening. Again, the point is to engage somewhere. We are planting a church in Hiawassee, Georgia (3700 people, 3100 unchurched) that would be a good cultural fit for your folks and we have many different ways to engage sponsoring churches. Look for an opportunity that effectively communicates and engages cluster sponsors, i.e., that helps small churches and first time planting churches to connect with church planting in a positive way.
Why so much flexibility? First time church-planting churches really need a win. If they don’t have a good experience, they may decide never to plant again. This was the situation at First Baptist Church, Taylors South Carolina, which attempted a church plant almost 150 years ago, had a bad experience and did not plant again until current SBC President Frank Page came to be their pastor a few years ago. Now they are planting multiple churches every year. (Way to go, Frank!) But it was that first bad experience that led them to rule out church planting for over 100 years.
So get an early win. Find a place or people group your folks will care about. Let them engage with what they have. Partner with folks who will help you help your folks to feel good about church planting. And let me know how I can help.
Les,
House churches are more than worthy of consideration. They are changing the world! Most of the churches in the world are house churches, and far more house churches are being planted these days than brick-and-mortar churches. And sometimes there are hybrids, like my church, which owns property but has an extremely simple structure and much of our ministry takes place in homes.
House churches require much discipline to insure that they do not become just a hang out, just as b&m churches require discipline to make sure they do not become institutional. House churches struggle with issues such as: who will preach/teach, what to do with children, how to collect and distribute tithes and offerings, how to do missions, goverance and decision making, etc. And they are harder for other, b&m churches to engage in and help plant. But all of the positives you listed far outweigh any challenges. Plus, many people feel they are more more attuned to the biblical model of the church.
I recommend Neil Cole’s book Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens and also Wolgang Simson’s Houses That Change The World. I am sure folks who are interested in house churches can find many more resources by searching http://www.churchplantingvillage.org, NAMB’s church planting resource site. In my opinion, every Christian and especially pastors should at least be familiar with house churches even if they do not decide to pursue that model.
One of the issues for noticing the harvest field for church planting must not be the location of people but the kind of people to be reached. I remember speaking in east Tennessee, in one of the most heavily (Southern Baptist) churched areas in the nation, encouraging them to plant new churches. (I should also note that not one county in the entire U.S. has a churched majority of population.) The response I got from this group in TN was an adamant, “We don’t need any more churches in this county. We have more churches than we know what to do with!” Across the street from my motel was a truckstop on the interstate highway. That morning I had counted eleven 18-wheelers in the truckstop parking lot. I asked the group, “Do you think any of those truckers will ever set foot inside of any one of your SB churches here?” They answered, “Probably not.” My response was, “You are right in that you probably don’t need any more churches like the kind you already have. But who will have a church for those truckers?”
Roger & Les,
From the standpoint of an international missionary, I think it would be a great thing if SB churches stateside would get more involved in house church planting. First of all, it would give us (SBC), as a sending base, a lot more of a background and learning lab, for what God is doing in other places around the world. Currently, there is a lot of disconnect between new missionary candidates’ church background, and what they are expected to do on the “mission field.” Also, it would add to the credibility of IMB workers on the field with national believers if they could point to how the house church model, and even church planting in general, were working back in the States.
Roger does a very good job of pointing out the challenges involved, though. I am a bit leary, personally of house church “groupies” who are too radical, and not flexible. Sometimes a hybrid model, such as a more cell-based model, as Roger mentions, is the best alternative. Also, it is important for house churches to maintain good fellowship with non-house church folks, and not feel they are in a world all to themselves, separate from the rest of the Body of Christ.
Kevin,
Agreed. I should have mentioned that planting among different ethnicities or people groups can also remove the “threatening” aspect of sponsoring a church. Since those folks would probably not come to your church anyway because of language differences, cultural or socioeconomic differences, then there is no way anyone can complain that you are competing against your own fellowship for people. You are simply expanding your mission by reaching out to people who you could not reach any other way. That said, I am surprised there are not many churches in East Tennessee where truckers would be comfortable!
David,
How would you recommend existing churches get involved in planting house churches? So far as I know, we do not have any programs or processes for that in SBC life. But someday when Christianity is illegal here or only state-sponsored churches are legal like in China, we will all be planting house churches. So I guess we’d better learn how to do that!
Roger,
Your question to David Rogers is one I would like to hear answered. I recently read and reviewed a wonderful book entitled, “Starting House Churches,” which kind of got me to thinking about how my “traditional brick and mortar” church could plant house churches.
David’s observation about how traditional churches planting house churches in the USA could develop into learning labs for future missionaries is one of the best ideas I have ever heard.
Les
Roger:
Good question, and thank you for asking.
Actually, I’m thinking that your question (why aren’t more SBC churches planting churches?)can be answered on several levels.
When it comes to what’s the real “hot button” in SBC churches, the answer usually boils down to a focus of the believer and Jesus…our personal relationship to Him – which is obviously critical. But a focus also needs to be on Kingdom advancement… i.e. what are “we” collectively doing as church to see the Gospel radically penetrate the darkness? Which is to say, when it comes to the focus on evangelism, most of our efforts are pointed toward personal evangelism (FAITH, EE, The Net, etc) and not as much on duplicating the faith through new plants.
Another reason for sluggishness on the part of churches seems obvious – we’re so intent on filling the pews, paying the bills, etc at the local church level, it doesn’t make sense to commission blocks of people to leave the church to plant a new one. Or, in a time when we’re maxed out on cooperative giving, it’s a challenge to give MORE for sponsoring a new church. In short, starting a NEW church is going to hurt the sponsor church.
Jeff Farmer published a great research paper on the topic of “The Effect of Sponsoring a Church Plant on the Sponsor Church.”
Link = (copy and paste)
http://www.newchurches.com/mediafiles/the-effect-of-sponsoring-a-church-plant-on-the-sponsor-church.pdf
Rather than hurting, planting a new church HELPS the sponsor church. Farmer’s study of 160 churches indicated that sponsor churches actually GREW in worship attendance, Sunday School attendance, and total baptisms.
In the end, I think church families are called into faith and obedience, even as individuals are. Church planting / multiplying is just one measure of hearing what the Spirit is saying to the churches and then obeying Him.
The early church, with her focus internally on Jerusalem and surroundings, needed some prompting in dispersing to the nations with the Gospel. And so there was persecution. The Lord may very well rearrange church in our culture to accomplish the same. Fasten your seatbelts!
Roger,
Check out:
http://www.house2house.net/
http://www.cmaresources.org/
Also, Dr. Allan Karr, with the Nehemiah Project of NAMB and Golden Gate Seminary, is doing so interesting things with house church planting in Colorado.
http://www.churchplantingvillage.net/site/c.iiJTKZPEJpH/b.787633/k.A56E/Nehemiah_Project.htm
I have not yet read the book that Les recommends, but it sounds interesting too.
Thanks, David and Les.
Sounds like I have some reading to do.
Mike,
Thanks for the insight. I am looking forward to our Church Planting Strategists retreat next week, my brother!
I will read Jeff’s study, but I already agree with his research. Planting churches does bless the sponsoring church. But I wonder how many pastors, state convention CP guys or DOMs explain it that way? Perhaps we should learn to talk about it in those terms.
Also, I have had great response from saying “I guess if we really want to reach a lot of people for Christ, we’d better start planting churches!” Folks generally do not make that connection themselves.
Another motivator is legacy. “Just think, there could be a church preaching Christ in that town because of our commitment to see it started.”
But as you said, the greatest motivator is the Holy Spirit. He is the one who stirs our hearts to reach the nations, and empowers us to do it. May we hear his voice, and say “yes”!
I am led by God to plant a church in Texas USA I need like minded people that will surport this vision those who will pray for me and suport me in any other way they can
in case you are moved by God please mail me thruoght my e mail address.
God bless you.