Tips for New Church Starts
by Craig Kennet Miller
Here are key resources, ideas, and themes that should be worked on in developing a new congregation:
Key Contacts
- General Board of Discipleship
Staff in the area of congregational development are a resource for training and equipping leaders for new congregational development. Working with annual conferences of The United Methodist Church, they focus on the areas of developing small groups, generational studies, new worship services, and the development of a discipleship system. Contact staff by phone at 1-877-899-2780, ext. 7081 or e-mail at cmiller@gbod.org.
- General Board of Global Ministries
Staff in the area of congregational development specialize in demographics, loans, and building design. Working with annual conferences, they give key leadership in identifying and developing a process for starting new churches. Contact staff by calling 212-870-3860.
- Joint Committee of Congregational Development — www.umcncd.org
The Joint Committee of Congregational Development of The United Methodist Church is made up of congregational development staff from the General Board of Discipleship and the General Board of Global Ministries. The Joint Committee offers a number of opportunities for leadership training for new church developers, conference staff, and district superintendents.
Before Starting
Attend at least one seminar for new congregational development and read books related to the topic.
Visit new churches and talk to new church pastors and leaders to learn the processes they used to start their churches. Attend as many worship experiences as possible from a wide variety of churches to get a feel of what speaks to people and what makes for an effective worship experience.
Start at least one new small group. Better yet, start a small-group system in the church you currently serve. Be part of an accountability group that helps develop prayer life, study of the Bible, and the development of healthy relationships between you, your family, and those in the group.
Start a new worship experience, or be part of a group that plans ongoing worship that focuses on reaching new people in the community.
Work on your artistic side. Learn a musical instrument, paint, sing, dance, participate in a drama. Most successful church developers are able to think from an artistic viewpoint. Remember that art speaks to the heart.
Pay attention to your health. Physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health are vital tools for the new church developer.
Self-Care
- Notify your congregation of your day off and the day you do sermon and worship preparation. Hold to these days, and people will respect your time.
- Develop a weekly and monthly calendar that shows how your time will be spent. Share it with your family and accountability group.
- Develop an accountability group.
- Create a prayer group outside of the local ministry that will keep you and your ministry in prayer.
- Find a mentor — someone who has started a church in the past — who can be called on for advice and support.
- Protect your family time.
- Pray daily for guidance and wisdom.
First Steps
- Get to know the community. Use the following survey as a way to learn about the people who live in your community. Pick out a neighborhood and go door to door. Or set yourself up in front of a grocery store and invite people to take the survey. Plan to do as least 100 of these surveys yourself. This is about the only way you will begin to see who will be part of your future congregation. Robert Schuller, Bill Hybels, and Rick Warren all started their ministries in their new communities by conducting a house-to-house survey. One denomination gives the new pastor of a new church a pair of shoes and instructs him or her to knock on 1,000 doors.
The Survey
- Are you active in a local church? (If yes, go to the next house or person.)
- Why do you think most people do not go to church?
- What is the greatest need in the community?
- What advice would you give to me as a pastor (or new church starter)?
- Would you be interested in finding out more about our church? (If he or she says yes, write down the address for future contact.)
- Visit other churches in the area to see what kind of worship experiences are being offered. Look for what is working, what is not working, and what is not currently being offered.
- Get a demographic printout of your community. Your annual conference should have access to this kind of information. The Office of Research at the General Board of Global Ministries offers churches a demographic survey. Call 212-870-3840 for information.
- Do a drive-around and a walk-around survey of the area to see what fits or does not fit with the demographic picture.
- Talk to key leaders in the community. Find out where future growth will take place, what is happening in the school system, what are the most important needs, and what opportunities are available to be in service.
- Check out traffic flow on work days and at the time you are planning to offer your first worship experience.
- Design your discipleship system. Develop or find a resource for developing the core group of the new congregation. Develop the ongoing classes or experiences that will help people grow in spiritual maturity.
Gather the People
- At first meetings and events, start everything with prayer.
- Design first gatherings as the first part of the discipleship process.
- The first goal is to establish a healthy core group. A healthy core group is a Christian community that supports one another and that prays and works together as a team.
- Make sure the core group reflects the people group or groups seen as the future make-up of the congregation.
Sites
Decide on the space needed for gathering and what you need for the office and small groups.
For large gatherings, consider the following:
- Schools: A high school or middle school is preferable because youth in middle school or high school may feel that they are going backward if they meet in an elementary school.
- Warehouse
- Strip mall
- Movie theater, dinner theater, or playhouse
- Office Space: Strip mall or an office building. Make sure there is meeting space for music rehearsals and a room for childcare when there are meetings.
Obtain Equipment
- Computer with color printer
- Phone answering machine
- Music System:
- P.A. system that can handle electric keyboards, guitars, and bass as well as vocals.
- CD player or tape deck for playing music as people enter or for solos.
- Keyboard with MIDI — MIDI means you can connect your keyboard with another keyboard or a computer. A professional keyboard can play organ music as well as piano and a wide variety of instruments. Look to spend about $1,000 or more for a professional quality instrument.
- Drum set — This is for a church that will have a praise band. The best bet, if affordable, is an electric drum set because the volume can be adjusted to fit the size of the room. A drummer is more likely to be found if you provide a drum set.
- LCD Projector and screen. LCD Projectors now run about $3,000, although their costs are going down with more widespread use. LCD projectors connect to computers and can project PowerPoint presentations for singing or showing announcements. They also can be connected to a VCR for projecting videos.
Obtain Licenses
- Church Music License for printing or projecting words of songs: www.ccli.com
Also check out the General Board of Discipleship's Worship Website at www.gbod.org/worship for an updated list of companies that provide licenses.
- The Motion Picture Licensing Company allows you to show videotapes in worship: 1-800-515-8855
Staff
- The music person is primary. The kind of music offered will determine who comes!
- Look for an administrator who will help coordinate the growth of groups and ministries in the congregation.
Money
- Develop a budget for the first two years. Plan to share this budget with the core group and with denominational staff working with you.
- Develop a process for receiving funds. In The United Methodist Church, ask the treasurer of the district or the annual conference to handle and process funds until the new start is well enough established to have a treasurer.
- Look for opportunities to share the vision for this new ministry with people who may be interested in helping fund the work. Ask other churches or people to buy specific pieces of equipment for the project. Develop large donors who will begin to see the new congregation as part of their giving ministry.
Launching the Public Ministry
- Have a discipleship system in place before beginning.
- Plan the first ten weeks of worship. Lay out the themes and Scripture.
- Start the first worship service when you know that you will have at least 150 to 300 people committed to be in worship. Some congregations develop a small-group system of eight to ten groups and bring them together for the first time at the launch. Others do phone marketing or mass mailings. Many do a combination of the two.
- Style of worship is key. Who are you trying to reach?
- Determine the dress code for people in leadership (musicians, greeters, speakers, liturgists, and ushers). Communicate what is acceptable.
- Have people in front who are in the same people group you are attempting to reach. Take into account gender, ethnicity, and age. Leadership for the worship service (musicians, liturgists, and speakers) should model those who are welcome in the worship experience.
- Have a dress rehearsal of the service the week before it is offered at the site.
Children and Youth
- Offer quality child care and church school for children. The United Methodist Publishing House offers free church school material for new congregations. Call 1-800-672-1789, ext. 6167.
- Develop a system for checking in all children who are in church school. (One idea: Laminate number cards that parents take with them after they have checked their children in. Make the cards small enough to fit in a shirt pocket. After worship, children are released to the person who has the card. Or use a beeper system similar to those restaurants use.
- Develop a discipleship system for children and youth.
People Show Up, Now What Do I Do?
- Follow up with a letter from the pastor and a visit or phone call from a lay member or pastor of the church. Develop a system to determine if visitors are returning. If they are not coming back, try a different way of following up or change the people who are making the contacts. Keep careful track of people as they attend and respond to your ministry.
- Develop a registration card that includes a spot to identify if a person is a visitor, an attendee, or a member. Have a section for prayer concerns and for interests in classes or ministry opportunities. See Rick Warren's book, The Purpose-Driven Church, page 261, for a good illustration of this.
- Develop a newsletter to keep visitors, attendees, and members informed.
- Have on hand business cards with the name, address, and phone number of the church on the front and a map of where you worship on the back.
- Invite people to small groups, Bible studies, and ministry opportunities.
Recommended Resources
• • • •
Craig Kennet Miller is Director of The Center for Evangelism Through New Congregational Development and a Specialist in Generational Studies, General Board of Discipleship, Nashville, Tennessee. For more information, e-mail him at cmiller@gbod.org.
|
