According to research, after four years of labor, the average size of a church plant in North America is 100 people (that s total attendance). Yet most Church Planters I have assessed, trained, and/or coached never start a church with the intention of being a church of 100 people or less. Very few churches are launched with the view that in five short years they will plateau or stagnate in their growth, becoming inwardly focused on maintaining their existing structures. My observation of church plants (since 1985) is that the majority of new churches that grow quickly and pass through the ordinary size barriers have done so by one of two ways: 1) they launched as a Hive Off from an existing mother church (usually launching with over 100 people) 2) they benefited from another local church s painful conflict and resulting split. In that scenario, the new church is a small mission one Sunday and then the next Sunday there is a large influx of previously churched people and momentum up flows from there. Rarely do I find new churches that are growing by an intentional, focused mission on reaching the spiritually lost unchurched. But healthy, living things grow and reproduce. Let s explore the dynamics of planting a church that will reproduce itself.
1. Motivational Realities of the Church Planter and Planting Team Pitfalls to avoid: Pride God isn t interested in helping you accomplish your vision and mission, even if it s to grow a church. He will not help you succeed in pursuing some false idol of personal security, the applause of man, or the comfort of having a thriving church in the heart of the city. He isn t about your glory. He s very jealous for his own glory. All of the recent church plants that have reproduced a daughter church see church planting as part of their DNA from the beginning, often having it written into their chartering documents or taught in membership classes. We also discovered that the more partners and service providers a parent church worked with, the more You must examine your motive for churches they planted wanting to plant a reproducing church. Your motivation can t be to have more (Ed Stetzer, Survivability and Health Study, people or to be able to have a bigger www.newchurches.com). offering. It can t be to make the cover of Church Planter Quarterly or be a presenter at Exponential Conference. Trust me, your motive is probably hidden deeper in your soul than you realize. Ask God to show you. Ask your friends what leaks out of your heart through your attitude, words, and efforts. Ask your wife what she senses is your motive.
Fear A Case Study: Carter was planting his first church. Like most Church Planters, he was so glad for every person who showed up on Sunday! For several Sundays, a newlywed couple attended. After the service one week they asked if they could speak to Carter. The husband said, We have a problem and need your counsel. To be honest, I like you pastor, but don't really care for being in a mission church. My wife wants to be here. She loves it. Tell us what we should do. And just so you know, we are also asking the same thing of the pastor of First Church (a large established church in their city). Carter said, Of course you are welcome here and I d love it if you both liked it and got plugged in, but I cant tell you where you should go to church. But I can tell you that the Gospel calls you to love your wife and be willing to lay down your life for her. And I can also tell you that you are to love your husband and to cheerfully follow him wherever God leads. He didn't see them again for several weeks, and then one Sunday they showed up. They were back again for the next few weeks and Carter finally ran into them. The man said, Carter, we have decided to make this our church. What you said was so freeing. You nailed us. We asked the other pastor the same thing and he said, Oh please, you must join our church. I would feel personally rejected if you didn t join us. Perfectionism Be aware of the false sense that we have to do it right before you can get started. Sometimes the leadership can say to itself, We have to be ready and have it all together before we can plant a church or add another congregation, etc. If every couple waited to have it all together before they had kids, the population would be a whole lot less than it is now!
Unbelief Gospel motivation is related to a love for God and His glory and a love for the city/others. Why do we need a bigger place? Why launch a second service? Why plant a daughter church? Because we are not here for ourselves. God s gracious work of redemption is so great, so grand, (the pearl of great price) that we must provide others with the opportunity to be here. We are compelled to create opportunities to have His Kingdom restore, renew, and revive the lives of people in and around our city. 2. Kingdom Centered Prayer Prayer is foundational to keeping the church centered on the spiritual nature of starting a church that will be reproducing. The leadership must continually ask God, the Lord of the Church, during each decision making phase, How will this promote and accelerate our church in the mission of reproduction? Planting a reproducing church for God s glory will be wishful thinking or fleshly effort without a vital prayer link with our living God. 1. Personal prayer. You must be praying regularly and privately for your church to reproduce. Schedule now for monthly half day or full day of prayer and fasting and ask God to reproduce your mission church or at least prepare it for reproduction. Recently, I found a folder with notes I had written during my third year of our second plant (we were averaging about 165 people). In the folder were prayer notes and I found that among my prayer goals were: to see at least one person a month come to faith in Christ; to grow to 275 people during the next year;
and to help plant a new church on the west side of the city. As the apostle Paul said, Follow my example in this. We eventually helped launch another church on the west side about 3 years later. Our little church saw 10 new conversions and we eventually became a church of 470. Trust me when I say it was God s doing, not our ingenuity or abilities. Hear this thought: God s blessings at times come to us through our labors and at times without our labors, but never because of our labors (Thanks to Martin Luther for this reminder). He is a wise man who wastes no energy on pursuits for which he is not fitted; and he is wise still who from among the things he can do well, chooses and resolutely follows the best 2. Corporate prayer strategy (for divine power, strength, and unity). There must be regular, intentional prayer in worship times that promotes, through (William Gladstone, 19 th Century British Statesman) prayer, the missional DNA of reproduction. During worship the people are engaged to pray for their city and to see themselves as missionaries placed there by God for such a time as this.
3. Commitment to Gospel-Truth We never get away from our ongoing need for the Gospel. All our attempts to grow the church have elements of doubt, anxiety, and frenzied activity (idolatries or results of idolatrous living). You must be careful not to focus ministry models or programs as the means by which you will grow the church. Lifting a program or practice of one church in some context and adopting it in your context (because it worked for them and grew them by 150% in 1 year) isn t a commitment to the Gospel, but to programming. It can be a subtle form of idolatry; some sense that this new program will save our church! We should be less focused on measurable growth size goals and being much more open to smaller or slower growth situations. The biological schema (I Cor. 3:6) means we cannot make a church grow any more than a gardener can make tomatoes grow. The gardener honors certain principles of biological nurture (fertilization, irrigation, pruning, planting), which releases the natural growth power in the seed. The amount of growth depends on many other factors utterly out of the gardener s control the weather conditions, the richness of the soil. If that is the case when a church grows slowly, we don't necessarily expect that the proper response is a new technique, or trying harder. Growth is complex it is not a simple matter of technique on the one hand, nor is it simply a matter of one s spiritual/prayer life on the other (Tim Keller, Article: Natural Church Development s New Paradigm). A key to a healthy church is working the Gospel truths into the life rationally and experientially until they transform our lives and relationships.
Obstacles to Growing a Church that Reproduces 1. Character Obstacles. Fear and anxiety of the Church Planter and/or Leadership team Tiredness of the Church Planter/Family and/or Leadership team Prayerlessness of the Church Planter or Church Unwillingness to address the blindspots of the Church Planter Spiritual issues (such as hidden sin or lack of spiritual dynamics in life) 2. Skills Obstacles. No strategic thinking or continued planning is scheduled Lack skill of vision/mission casting lost the vision of the horizon Lack ability to change leadership style or role to accommodate new people Lack good time management or lack personal discipline in use of time Limited communication skill (not working on regular improvement and being coached) Lack of healthy conflict management 3. Knowledge Obstacles. Lack of knowledge on financials, budgeting, and business organization Lack of knowledge on how systems operate Lack of knowledge on human resourcing (how to hire the right people) Lack of knowledge on facility, land, building etc. Lack of knowledge on how to make disciples
ACTION ITEM: Personal Inventory. Ask your coach to ask good diagnostic questions on the three obstacle arenas.
ACTION ITEM: Assessing Your Church s Potential to Reproduce to the Next Level 1. Our average Worship attendance is growing by what % during the first three years: 1% 2% 3% 4% 5% (I don t know) 2. Our Conversion ratio is: 20:1 25:1 30:1 50:1 No conversions yet 3. People are giving: At your annual budget Above your budget Below your budget 4. Our church is contributing to Church Planting 0% 5% 10% more than 10% 5. Our ministry staff or ministry team (volunteers) is on board in owning our Mission: (Not sure) 1 2 3 4 5 (100%) 6. We have a systemic training for new elders/leaders for the Church in place: (Not sure) 1 2 3 4 5 (100%) 7. The percentage of people who are in some means of formal discipleship is: Not started 3% 10% 25% 50% 8. We have an intentional process and people commitment to our Visitor Integration/First Impressions: (Not sure) 1 2 3 4 5 (100%)
When you re finished answering the above questions, check back to see if you scored in the following ranges: 1. Should be no less than 5% 2. 25:1 or better 3. Giving must be above budget 4. 10% or more is devoted to church planting 5. Don't settle for mediocre levels of ownership 6. Must be a four or above 7. Anything above 25% 8. Answer must be Yes both people in place and a written intentional process This ebook simply scratches the surface of how to plant a reproducing church. If you would like to read more about how churches of different sizes grow and thrive, Cultural Diversity, creating a clear ministry design, how to understand facilities and budgets, and the C.R.O.S.S. method of Gospel Coaching, you can download the full chapter Planting a Reproducing Church for $5 at www.cmmnet.org. You can also read the entire chapter in the NEW book Church Planter Field Manual: Fishing. Order the book on Amazon today!
Planting a Reproducing Church Church Multiplication Ministries, Inc. 2015