Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Five Things Small Churches Can Do To Help Plant a Church

As most of my regular readers know, I am passionate about church planting. It takes a lot of work to start a church, and a lot of help. As I build coalitions of partners for new churches, pastors often tell me that their church is "too small" to help plant another church. No church is too small to help plant another church. Here is a quick list of things a small church can do to help:
 
1.       Get on the mailing list of a church planter and pray specifically in every church service for the new church plant. Cost: $0

2.       Ask a church planter to give a five minute testimony via Skype to the church on a Sunday morning. Cost: $0 (much cheaper than flying him in)

3.       Adopt a church planter and ask each family in the church to send him, his wife and his children, cards for birthdays, anniversary and Christmas. Cost: $1.99 for a card, .46 pennies for a stamp

4.       Gift card collection. Pick a Sunday and ask each family in the church to buy one gift card from places like McDonalds, Wal-Mart, Staples, or Target, and send them to the church planter. He can use some for his family and use some for buying ministry supplies. If each family puts a note of encouragement with their gift card, then it also becomes a great way to help a church planter feel cared for. Cost: varies, depending on how much a family wants to spend on a card.

5.       Encourage families in your church to vacation in the area where the church plant is and “tithe” one day of their vacation to help the planter with an outreach project. Cost: $0, since you are there on vacation anyway.

13 comments:

  1. These are excellent suggestions. No church is too small to be involved with church planting. Every small congregation I have pastored has in some way taken part in starting new churches.
    Terry Reed
    Small Church Tools

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Terry and I applaud your efforts to help small churches be on mission.

      Delete
  2. Your ministry shouldn't stop on where you are right now, whether it's a large or a small congregation. There's no such thing as a small church, just big hearts who want to reach out to lost souls. When you've just started planting another church, you can also ask for support and prayer from your senior pastors and mentors. Their encouragement and experience can help you. And don't forget to consult your Scriptures. :)

    Bee @ DeliveranceHealingMinistry.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. Good, practical stuff, I'll be passing along.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Awesome brother, would love to have that kind of help for our plant here in Pana Illinois. God bless

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. praying for the Lord to raise up an advocate for you in your local association or state convention who will invest some time in helping you find such partners.

      Delete
    2. Thank you. Thank you very much.

      Delete
  5. Great ideas Terry! I like how you broke it down and included the cost. Why? Because so many ideas that are thrown out there COST money that a small church doesn't have - and those are usually the only ideas that are mentioned. You show a real heart for the small church by giving them ideas that they CAN do. Honestly, I'd like to see that in EVERY area of church ministry from Sunday School to World Missions.
    And idea for #2 in case a church does not have access to Skype (we wouldn't - we barely get cell phone coverage in our area and only have dial-up internet access!!) A picture on power point and a personal newsletter would work as well - even tho the pastor would have to read it, it would still be effective.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, and yes, I love the small church.
      Yes, a picture on power point would be nice, but a church planter could also send a short video, done via cell phone the day before and emailed to someone, and that could be imported into a powerpoint and shown that way at church the next day. Most teenagers can figure out how (that is who I turn to for "tech" stuff) to import a video from a cell phone to a computer, and then it won't matter if the cell phone does not have service at the church itself. Not quite as cool as a live conversation via Skype, but still better than something taped in a studio six months before that is impersonal.

      Delete
    2. Great idea. What so many people don't understand, especially in rurual areas - technology is limited. We contend with that all the time if ever we have visiting ministers. They try to rely on their GPS devices to find us and it just doesn't work in our area. We ALWAYS send written instructions - we're ALWAYS told they won't need them - and we're ALWAYS told how thankful they were to have them because their GPS didn't work!

      Delete
    3. haha, my gps once tried to send me over a mountain in northern VT. The road kept getting narrower and narrower and finally I got to a road block saying it was closed for the winter. Had to drive 80 miles around the mountain to get to the church. Oh, the adventures of rural ministry!

      Delete