Seven Steps for Planting Churches: Partnering Church Edition

1. Seven Steps for Planting Churches: Partnering Church Edition A presentation by Dr. Tom Cheyney

2. Introduction Getting Ready to Plant

3. Prepare for Birthing a New Congregation • Do you understand the purpose of the partnering/sponsoring church? • Is the new church flowing from God-given vision? • Is the church ready for the changes that partnering entails?

4. Your Image of Church • The image of church is changing • Population in urban areas is growing faster than growth rate of Protestant churches • We need to see churches as “redemption centers” that build bridges to their communities

5. NAMB’s Goal for Church Planting • Double number of SBC churches by the year 2020 • Southern Baptists need to help start 2,400 new churches in 2005 • This is a God sized Goal • We must be willing followers of Christ to meet this goal.

6. Step 1 Casting a Vision for Multiplying “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (Prov. 29:18, KJV). “Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained” (Prov.29:18, NASB

7. The Church Planting Vision • Flows from the Great Commission • Requires making disciples among every people group • Demands that we go into the cultures • Most powerful motivation comes from knowing that this is what God wants us to do.

8. Receiving the Vision • The leader whose eyes are open to the needs of his community will be receptive to reaching people groups • Vision is not dependent upon current resources already in place • Vision for the new work sometimes originates with the planter.

9. Impediments to Vision • Vision Hijacking- members who join a new church following the launch impose their ideas upon the church, hijacking the original vision. • Apathy and Neglect- these two sins sneak in so slowly they go unnoticed.

10. Fear of Failure • Often the most voiced reason for not starting new work • Key to success is planning • Many failures are related to lack of support, lack of planning, and lack of leadership • Not everything we dig, or sow will be successful (Mat. 13:3-8)

11. Cost of Partnership • Accept the reality of the cost issues • Focus on God’s provision • New work partnership entails benefits and liabilities

12. Waiting for More Growth • How large should a church be before partnering to start a new church? • Many established churches share their facilities with immigrants and ethnic groups in an effort to give a hand to a new congregation • Partnering churches don’t need to be big- they just need to be willing.

13. Casting the Vision • Look to those who have recently and successfully parented new churches. • Effective leaders weave the vision for the new work into their messages and programs. • Effective leaders will use appropriate times and methods to cast the vision for church planting

14. Starting Points for Casting A Vision for Multiplying • Have I actively sought a vision from God for partnering with a new work? • What impediments to parenting are keeping the leadership from hearing and seeing the opportunities for involvement as a partner church?

15. Starting Points for Casting a Vision for Multiplying • Have I considered the fears and objections that may arise? • Have I talked to others whose churches have successfully partnered a new work? • Have I cast the vision for our involvement in a 30-second, 3-minute and 30-minute presentation?

16. Step 2 Identifying the Ministry Focus Group “For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may win more. To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law though not being my self under the Law, so that I might win those who are under the Law; to those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some. I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it” (1 Cor. 9:19-23, NASB).

17. Aim of Partnering Church’s Involvement • The vision for parenting becomes your road map. • Reduce the unchurched population through making disciples. • Identify the ministry focus group by developing a portrait of people who will reveal their spiritual aspirations, their needs, their values, their worldview, and their lifestyles.

18. How Church Partners and Planters Can Develop the Community Portrait • Build relationships with non-Christians. • Listen to the culture. • Read what (community) people are reading. • Collect and interpret demographic and psychographic data. • Develop and implement a community survey.

19. Importance of Community Survey • Planters should avoid temptation to skip the labor-intensive survey. • Partnering church should play supportive role by availing people and resources to assist planter in survey process. • Visit as many people as possible.

20. Sample Survey Questions • Why do you think many people don’t attend church these days? • What do you believe are the greatest needs in the community? • What kind of music are you most likely to listen to? • What kinds of ministries should a new church offer this community?

21. Sample Survey Questions • What would you identify as the most important, unresolved issue in our world today? • If a close friend invited you to church, would you consider accepting the invitation? • Would you be open to receiving information about a new church or home Bible study in your neighborhood?

22. Benefits of Surveying • Information obtained from survey will help planter and partner church understand the opportunities and challenges the people face. • Community members also provide helpful insights into the community. • Helps establish the spiritual condition of the community.

23. Missional Thinking • In places like the Jerusalem of Acts 2, where there is a well-seeded, pre-evangelized culture, the gospel can be communicated with relative ease. • However, in urban centers of America, Canada, and cultural groups of unseeded, unevanglized culture, we will most likely be required to answer the question, “What is this babbler trying to say” (Acts 17:18)?

24. Demographics • A common tool used to identify and understand the ministry focus group • Can be misleading if used incorrectly

25. The “Fallacy of Average” • Arises when the demographic study covers an area that includes people groups outside of the ministry focus group. • Can be greatly minimized by clarifying the area to be studied. • Generally, the only way to receive useful information is to have firsthand knowledge of the area for which you are requesting demographic information.

26. Starting Points for Identifying Ministry Focus Group • Ensure that the vision for church planting partnership is focused. • Gather demographic and psychographic data from your state or Canadian Baptist convention or NAMB. • Consult and initiate partnership with associational director of missions or (in Canada) area church planting catalyst. • Enlist workers to help with the community survey and execute survey. Use as an opportunity to promote vision casting.

27. Starting Points for Identifying Ministry Focus Group • Assist the church planting team in establishing a budget and calendar for the survey work. • Provide clerical help in the gathering and analysis of the survey data. • Help the planter to use gathered data to create a “portrait” of his community and then now to sue that portrait to develop a ministry strategy that will lead to relevance. • Give prayerful consideration to sending out members who share the vision and fit the ministry focus group profile to join the new work. This is especially helpful if the partnering church is in close proximity to the new work ministry focus group.

28. Cooperative Relationships • State Baptist Convention church planting leaders • Associational Directors of Missions • Readiness Team, Church Planting Group, NAMB • Research Team, NAMB

29. Step 3 Enlisting Planters and Partners While Clarifying Roles “ Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up. Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; but how can one be warm alone? Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken” (Eccl. 4:9-12, NKJV).

30. Successful Partnership • Essence of successful partnership is synergy- the theory that the outcome of the whole is far greater than the sum of its parts. • Partnering is the effective leveraging of assets, abilities, and strengths. • Each participant must be working toward the same vision.

31. Steps to Developing Partnerships • As of July 2001, only 5.2 percent of Southern Baptist churches are partnering new works. • More churches want to be involved but are not familiar with the processes for involvement. • Partnering church leaders feel unclear about their role.

32. Multiple Church Planting Partners • Requesting partnership is biblical. • Partners can share the load • For smaller congregations, becoming a copartner or partnering church can be a great entry point into the Great Commission mission work.

33. Power in Partnership • Can we share Christ by ourselves? • Partnership gives us more power for sharing Christ. • Look at POWER as an acronym

34. Perseverance • The strength gained in teaming with other Christians also gives us endurance. • Alone, our fear or other factors may cause us to give up when things get hard. • Teaming with other Christians helps us to keep pressing on.

35. Opportunity • Other Christians and my church can open my eyes to faith sharing opportunities • Sometimes on my own I don’t see al the open doors.

36. Worldwide impact • Partnerships take me beyond my normal sphere of influence. • Through prayer, financial support, and by helping to educate others, we can support believers who are ministering in places we’ll never see and impacting people we’ll never meet.

37. Encouragement • Partnership energizes and helps build momentum • Fellowship with other believers gives us strength for our mission.

38. Resources • Christians partnering together can support each other with money, ideas, communication, materials, and our time. • We are more effective and productive when we band together.

39. Enlisting the Right Church Planter • Where can a mission-minded church discover the right church planter?

40. Enlisting the Right Church Planter • As the church leadership begins to cast a vision of participating in a church planting movement do not be surprised to have laymen step forward. • After the local church, the local association is a great place to look for church planters.

41. Enlisting the Right Church Planter • North American Mission Board: The Church Planting Group coordinates the training or church planting networks throughout North America. • Southern Baptist Colleges and Seminaries: The state conventions and NAMB have partnered with seven Southern Baptist Convention seminaries in North America and Canada, creating the Nehemiah Project.

42. Is the Planter a Match? • Do they fit the community we are attempting to reach? • The objective is not to have a perfect match. • The objective is to avoid so many areas of difference that the new church is stillborn.

43. The MCN: Connecting with Other Churches • One potential outcome of the MCN is for churches to partner together in planting new churches. • Presents an enjoyable, easy to follow plan that encourages the natural development of partnerships through relationships that already exist among the churches.

44. Clarifying the Roles • Understand the Roles of the Parties Involved. • First, Build the Relationship. • Next, spell out the Roles and Expectations.

45. The Church Planter Needs to Know… • The length of the partnership • The faithfulness of the prayer support • The level of the missions team support • The amount of financial commitment

46. The Length of the Partnership • Needs to be more than one year to enable all of the partners to share the excitement of growth. • The church planter needs to have the sense of stability multiple year partnerships provide. • There must be a phasing out of support to help the young church develop into a healthy self-supporting body.

47. The Faithfulness of the Prayer Support • Specific and fervent prayer is the most important contribution the partnering church can make. • The planter must know that his partnership churches are interceding on his behalf.

48. The Level of Missions Team Support • The church planter needs to be able to plan his strategy knowing that the partnership church will provide a certain amount of missions team support. • The plant and partnering church will be blessed by the missions trips.

49. The Amount of Financial Commitment • Annie Armstrong Offering • Cooperative Program Dollars • NAMB assistance • State Convention, Local Association • Prayer expecting great things from God

50. The Partnering Church Needs to Know • The church planter is a person of doctrinal integrity. • The church planter is a person of moral integrity.