Church Planting 101

A while back we were asked if we wanted to be a part of a new church plant and it has been a rewarding experience and a hard one. There are some things that have come up that we have learned in the process. We just wanted to write an article to share them with you.

Some of the things we needed to know could have helped us ahead of time when our pastor first asked us to be a part of planting a new church. One was how much time it takes. We get up at 6:00 AM and get out at about 1:00. We have leadership meetings and personalities differ so we have to remind ourselves of why we are doing this. It is to love on the community like Jesus did and bring people to Christ with the help of the Holy Spirit. It is not to boost our ego or feel better than anyone. When a bunch of broken people come together, you need a lot of prayer in the process and every person is broken to an extent. Even with the healthiest people there will be power struggles. This we did not even consider.

Another thing to know is boundaries. When to say no. We have been pretty good at it. We have watched our friends burn out serving and this is when attitudes can come across sharp or mean spirited. We are human and do not want people to feel this vibe, especially in a church, so another tip is to stay in-tune with emotions. Be careful of clicks too. It can make people feel left out and this becomes like a high school get together with hurt feelings and drama so it is very important to be kind and love everyone equally, even when it is hard to do so.

Now that we got the inner part, the attitude part out of the way, we have learned to let God lead and be flexible with what is happening organizationally. We use a fractal system and break our teams into four groups with subgroups. For example operations in in charge of leaders who are in charge of clean-up, supplies etc... another subgroup is offering and on and on it goes. When starting a church we have to wear many hats. When we do it in love for the community it is rewarding.

I guess the biggest aspect of serving is the back scenes of things. It is different than going to a service for an hour or so and just getting fed. It takes time and patience to be used in the serving of the food. We can only do this with Gods help and we would encourage people to take a step out in faith and see what God can do to grow a church and use us all to love people and help our communities.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/6281640

san antonio weather allegra mary tyler moore llama jay mariotti katharine hepburn daughtry