Church Planting Part 4

Whenever someone is going to start a new church a lot of research goes into the process. Some of the things that are commonly studied are: size of area, median income for area, educational breakdown of people in area, past growth pattern for the area, ethnicity of area, business growth of area, new home construction, how many similar churches to what you're doing, ect. A lot goes into studying an area because you want to make sure that this is the right area for you personally because you're committing a lot to the project. One of the most recent things to come out is research on church planting accross the board in America. This new information is so helpful because it draws correllations between things that happen in a church plant and its likelihood of thriving.

Recently Dr. Ed Stetzer (Lifeway Research) and Dr. Warren Bird (Leadership Network) co-authored a paper on the state of church planting in North America. I have read this paper and found it to be incredibly helpful in understanding what are some of the key components to church plants that not only survive but thrive. What I'd like to share with you is some highlights from this paper (if you'd like the whole paper please let me know and I'll email it to you) so that you can better understand what typically is needed for a church plant to thrive.

Background: This article summarizes salient findings from existing literature(multiple church planting studies, 54 doctoral dissertations, 41 journal articles, and over 100 church planting books and manuals), giving particular attention to a 2007 study by Leadership Network, which itself involved fresh research among more than 200 church-planting churches, over 100 leaders from 40 denominations, 45 church planting networks, 84 organic church leaders, 12 nationally known experts, and 81 colleges and seminaries.

Key Points:

*research indicates that a passive approach to ministry is prone to failure; however, church planters with an aggressive strategy for penetrating the community and gathering those who would be leaders for the kingdom more frequently results in successful church-plants

*proper site location for both the city and facility is necessary for success

*Spousal support is a must

*The importance of casting vision cannot be overemphasized

*Material resources are less important than one might believe

*Coaching plays a significant role in the life of the planter

*Have a plan for both developing leaders and involving them as soon as possible

*Church planters need to be sure of their calling

*research revealed that around 68 percent of church plants still exist four years after having been started

*When there is a proactive stewardship development plan within the church plant, survivability is increased by 178 percent

*The expectation is that the mean number of baptisms or conversions would have a strong correlation to the evangelistic effectiveness of new churches. The mean number of baptisms or conversions of the participating groups was 10 baptisms the first year, 11 the second year, 13 the third year; and 14 the fourth year

*The typical church plant does not pass 100 in attendance after 4 years

*In successful (over 200 people within 3 yrs) church-plants: 88% had church planting teams; 63.3% had a core group of 26 to 75 people; 75% used a contemporary style of worship; 80% put ten percent or more of their budgets toward outreach and evangelism; 16.8% had a higher rate of full-time pastors than struggling church-plants; 63% of fastgrowing plants, compared to 23% of those that were struggling, raised additional funding

*78.3 percent of fast-growing church planters were full-time rather than bivocational

*Only 8.8 percent of fast-growing church planters were given salary support past three years. On the other hand, 44.3 percent of struggling church planters were supported past three years

*75 percent of fast-growing church planters were given additional financial support from a sponsoring agency

*While receiving additional funding, a majority of fast-growing church plants received from $1,000 to $25,000 extra over a one to two-year period

*63.3 percent of fast-growing church planters raised additional funding for the church plant

*Planters leading fast-growing church plants were given more freedom to cast their own vision and choose their own target audience, and they had more freedom in the spending of finances

*88.3 percent of church planters involved in fast-growing church plants were a part of a church planting team

*Fast-growing church plants had multiple paid staff. Two paid staff members was a majority among these church plants

*A majority of fast-growing church plants utilized two or more volunteer staff as part of the church planting team prior to public launch

*Fast-growing church plants had a larger number of individuals involved in the core group prior to launch. While struggling church plants had twenty five or less in a core group, fast-growing church plants had between twenty-six and fifty.

*Fast-growing church plants utilized more seed families than struggling church plants

*Fast-growing church plants used both preview services and small groups to build the initial core group

*Fast-growing church plants that used preview services used three or more of these services prior to public launch. A large contingent of these churches used over five

*75 percent of fast-growing churches had over 101 attendees at their first service. By contrast, 80.4 of struggling church plants had 100 or less.

*Fast-growing church plants had children and teen ministries in place at time of ministries and offered at least three ministry opportunities to first-time attendees

*56.7 percent of fast-growing church plants taught financial stewardship during the first six months from public launch. By contrast only 38.5 percent of struggling church plants taught financial stewardship

*80 percent of fast-growing church plants gave 10 percent or more of their monthly budget toward outreach and evangelism