Let's face it; new church pastors can be lone wolves in a dangerous land. They often want to plant churches because they have new and fresh ideas, because they have an entrepreneurial spirit, or because they have a deep passion for lost people and believe with Peter Wagner that "planting new churches is the most effective evangelistic means under heaven" (Peter Wagner, Church Planting for a Greater Harvest: A Comprehensive Guide. Regal Books, 1990). These very characteristics often clash with the pastors and laity of established churches. So why bother with established churches when planting a new church? I will not try to establish a theological framework or philosophical perspective in this short article. I will, however, present the following commonsense reasons for new churches to work with established churches:

1. It broadens the vision for new church plants.
2. It garners prayer support from faithful Christian people.
3. It allows laity from established churches to experience a portion of the blessing that the new church core team experiences.
4. It teaches laity from established churches to dream and to have faith in God for the future of their church.
5. It presents a good witness to unchurched, dechurched, and nonbelieving people in the community by teaching them that churches are not competing against one another.
6. It unifies the body of Christ.
7. New churches need the support of established churches.

There are three ways that established churches can work with new church plants: prayer support, financial support, and volunteer support.

Prayer Support
Almost every established church has laypeople who would jump at the opportunity to pray for God to work through a new church plant. These may be the blue haired saints who would never come to a church with contemporary worship, small groups, and experiential mission opportunities, but they will pray that God will use your leadership and the leadership of your core team to bless and reach people in the name of Jesus.

Gaining prayer support from an established church is a win-win situation. Bob Logan says, "Prayer is not the preparation for the battle; it is the battle." The new church will gain prayer warriors who will help carry it through the good times and bad times. When we work we work; but when we pray, God works. It's that simple. The established church will gain vitality and will take pride in the new church's accomplishments. The established church might even gain a new passion for its mission upon seeing the successes of its own prayer warriors.

Financial Support
Many established churches will take a special offering or make a place for you in their mission budget if you will only ask. There are a couple of bits of advice worth mentioning.

One key is to ask for something specific. A congregation — especially a smaller one — rarely takes pride in giving to a general budget; but it can take pride in buying one hundred new chairs, a new computer, or parts of a sound system. The earlier you get specific, the better. Established churches have helped our new church, The Orchard, with nearly $20,000. Looking back, I should have been more specific with my budget requests.

Another key is to present your needs in such a way that established churches can understand them. Do not try to cast a vision for your creative and fresh ideas about how to do ministry. Instead, explain to them that you need chairs that are not rusty or bent or stained or covered with food.

Finally, it is almost useless to spend time working with established churches unless you have the full support of the senior pastor or the missions chair. The leaders of the established church need to embrace your new church, or the people of that church never will — especially when it comes to financial support. If an established church is going to be helpful to the new church plant financially, then the pastor and/or missions chair needs to announce the needs, ask the congregation to meet those needs, and follow through. Anything less than this commitment will produce minimal results. During the preparation stages of The Orchard, I spent many hours traveling to meet with pastor after pastor in my district and outside my district. Only those churches with a specific commitment from the pastor have given more than a minimal amount of financial support.

Again, this can be a win-win situation for the two churches. The new church will gain needed financial support, and the established church will become part of God's mission through the new church. Every established church can gain vitality, new direction, and increased passion when it helps a new church succeed in reaching people for Jesus.

Volunteer Support
This may be the most effective way to involve laity in the mission of new church plants, while also producing the best results for established churches. There is nothing that will raise the passion of an established church like helping to start a new congregation with hands on, face-to-face missionary ministry involvement. The Orchard was able to involve established churches in two very important ways.

1. Established churches brought teams of people to do servant evangelism projects before the core team even began meeting. Nine different established churches brought teams of people to our local area to complete twelve different projects in the name of The Orchard. Teams from established churches gave away soft drinks and washed cars for free as an illustration of God's love. The cards we handed out were simple. On the front, the cards said, "We hope you will accept this free gift as an illustration of God's love, no strings attached." On the back, we had a little information about The Orchard. With the help of these nine churches, we were able to make approximately 3800 servant evangelism contacts in the local community before we launched.


2. Established churches brought volunteers to help with set-up, childcare, and hospitality during the first eight weeks after the launch. We asked churches to bring teams of eight to ten people to help. When the volunteers arrived, we prayed with them and paired them up with Orchard core team members to work in different areas.

Volunteer involvement from these established churches also turned out to be a win-win situation. The churches that helped with servant evangelism projects gained laypeople with a renewed vision for local evangelism and mission. They saw it work 15, 50, and 75 miles away; and they wanted to take it back home with them. The Orchard also received a special blessing. By the time I asked the core team to do a servant evangelism project, that had already become a norm for us. The established churches helped me show the core team that servant evangelism worked in our local context.

The churches that brought volunteers during the weeks after launch helped us in a tremendous way. One of our principles going into the launch was that we would not ask newcomers (especially the dechurched or unchurched newcomers) to help for at least six weeks. We did not want them to feel that we were going to use them to achieve our institutional goals. The established churches helped us accomplish this goal.

The people from established churches gained a whole new perspective and appreciation for their church when they came to help specifically with set-up. Meeting to unload a trailer at 7:30 in the morning and loading it back up by 12:30 p.m. will make any established church member thankful for the building that he or she often takes for granted. The established church members also gained greater passion for ministry and mission as they came face-to-face with the core team members of The Orchard and the people they were reaching in our local community.

As you begin the planting process, do not miss the opportunity to help established churches become involved with what God is doing in new churches all across America by asking them to help with prayer, financial, and volunteer support. The church you are planting will gain needed support, and the established churches that really do help will gain increased passion for ministry.

Ben Cathey is the Senior Minister at The Orchard United Methodist Church in Loganville, Georgia.