Church planting leader suggests best way to launch a church is ‘START’_112204

Posted: 11/19/04

Church planting leader suggests best
way to launch a church is 'START'

By Teresa Young

For Texas Baptist Communications

SAN ANTONIO–Starting new churches is difficult–and often lonely–work, but a simple plan can make the process smoother and more successful, said Abe Zabaneh, director of the Church Multiplication Center of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

Zabaneh led a workshop on church-starting at the BGCT annual session in San Antonio, and he used the acronym “START” as an outline for church planters.

Seek a vision.

People called to begin churches must have a clear commitment to the task and conviction about the methods needed, Zabaneh said.

He believes church planters should commit to at least five years to see a church-start through to maturity.

At the beginning of the process, prospective church planters should complete a mission and vision statement and outline specific goals and a 12-month action plan, he recommended.

Target a need.

“After spiritual preparation, you have to decide where and what to plant,” Zabaneh said. He encouraged church starters to pray about a specific location in which they felt called to begin a church or a specific people they are called to serve.

The next step involves doing a survey of the area and obtaining a “ministry area profile” from the BGCT that provides demographic information such as ethnic makeup, household income and age groups, as well as psychographic reports detailing an area's spiritual habits and needs.

Church planters also should solicit support from sponsoring churches in order to get start-up costs for the mission.

Assemble a core group.

The core group may be a fairly large group of mature Christians from another church, which Zabaneh calls a “hot start.” Or the church planter may begin the new congregation with just his own family and perhaps a small ministry team–a “cold start,” he said.

Either way, the church must have a strategy for enlarging the core and raising up leaders within the group.

Ready for the launch.

Once the core group has grown to a sizeable and mature group, the church is ready for a launch, Zabaneh said. Launching too early, he warned, can stunt the group's growth.

Prior to the launch, the group must choose a name, detrmine a publicity strategy for the launch, plan for worship services and gather needed equipment for the new church. It also needs a plan to provide for future growth.

Train for multiplication.

“Starting new churches should be in the DNA of a church start,” Zabaneh said, adding that the BGCT urges churches to begin thinking toward new starts after their five-year self-sufficiency mark is reached.

He encouraged pastors of church-starts to share the vision for planting and to encourage their members to move in that direction.

Pastors also should be looking for potential church planters within the church body or outside it and encourage them to select a starting model and move forward to that venture, he said.

Zabaneh shared 20-plus models of church starting used across Texas, with the two most common being the “hiving off” and “colonization” models, in which a core group from an existing church moves out to form a new church in the same area or a different area, respectively.

Methods also were detailed that allow struggling churches to revive themselves with the help of other churches, including the “revitalization,” “reclamation” and “reinvention” models.

Zabaneh said larger megachurches are becoming active in church planting by using the “satellite” model of opening new campuses with a separate membership and budget but a shared pastor, as well as the “multiple campus” model where a large church has several campuses with a single membership, budget and staff.

Smaller churches are becoming involved in church planting by following the “cluster” or “networking” models, where smaller congregations join forces to support a new plant or several plants, respectively.