A New Kind of Church Planting Checklist

Hugh Halter, Author The Tangible Kingdom

In the past, the Christendom report cards measured numbers in attendance, number of salvations, number of small groups, number of new churches, or budget numbers. Essentially “numbers.” Even though we all felt as though this can’t be God’s measurements, we found it hard to break free and find other thing to look at to see if we were being good leaders for God.

Without getting into too much detail, let me throw out a few ways we evaluate our faithfulness to God’s call. Because most of us are dysfunctional westerns who can’t count movement, I’ll guise it in the idea of numbers. These will be in no particular order of importance.

1) Number of new relationships formed where I know their names and they know mine.
2) Number of people who have been uniquely blessed by me and my community.
3) Number of people who invite me to be with their friends who don’t follow Christ.
4) Number of ways, my street, neighborhood, or community are more livable because of my influence.
5) Number of Christians that are actively confronting their consumerism and making adjustments at the life level.
6) Number of Christians that I ask or persuade NOT to go on mission with us.
7) Number of incarnational communities that commit to form around benevolent action instead of just a bible study.
8) How long people remain at our weekly gathering after the formalities are over.
9) Number of community-based initiatives our people are supporting with their time or money.
10) Number of young leaders we’re intentionally developing.
11) Number of people baptized: Still is a great guide to judge a persons commitment to follow Christ with the community.
12) Number of Bibles purchased because someone asked for one.

There are twelve quickies that work well for us. You’ll notice we don’t count “professions of faith,” church attendance, church budget, or number of churches started. We don’t think they historically measure anything real or transformative.

Toy Store Outreach

Roosevelt Community Church wanted to reach out we held our second ever RCC Toy Store. This is a very innovative and successful model of felt-need ministry with an accountability component to the charity. RCC collected new toys for an entire month and on the day of the toy store, we sold the toys to “families in need” for 70% off the sticker price. This allows parents to choose the toys their kids get while maintaining the honor, pride, and dignity of providing for their kids, versus getting for free what church’s and small groups go out and buy for them. Last year the toy store made $300 and served about 10 families. This year we brought in over $800 and served over 35 families. There were 10 different ways people found out about the toy store—one of which was an advert the Bellingham Herald did. There were 4 different churches involved, besides RCC, in an official capacity of doing toy drives or shopping for toys for the store. The money raised goes in equal parts to The Whatcom Dream, Rebound of Whatcom Co., and Brigid Collins. To bring in $800 dollars means that almost $3,000 in new toys were donated!

<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/OjvuOtRl4YI&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/OjvuOtRl4YI&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>

To Live is Christ - To Die is Gain

Church Planting is a risky business. My friends Bill and Jeanie Clem took the risk, stepped out in faith to plant a church. Just as they took the first steps to form a new congregation they also recieved the word that Jeanie had cancer. Not knowing what would be involved with treatments and believing that God had called them to plant a church, they stepped out in faith to start Doxa in Seattle.

That was seven years ago. Here's the current story on video. Be prepared to take a bigger step of faith as you make plans to plant a church with Lord's help.

To Live is Christ - To Die is Gain.

Church Planting Movements - Garrison

In the book Garrison identifies ten common elements found in every CPM taking place around the world.

1-Extraordinary Prayer (we are talking about a lot of serious praying going on)

2-Abundant Evangelism (the idea of sow abundantly=reap abundantly; sow sparsely=reap sparsely)

3-Intentional Church Planting (not just evangelism, but planting new churches with the new converts, not trying to get them into existing churches)

4-Authority of God's Word (not only in doctrine, but in church practice)

5-Local Leadership (locals "call the shots" not so much the foreign missionaries)

6-Lay Leadership (not seminary trained professional pastors, but everyday lay people in leadership positions)

7-House Churches (no church buildings, instead many small home-based churches averaging 10-20 per house)

8-Churches Planting Churches (the idea of multiplying new groups rather than adding numbers to existing groups)

9-Rapid Reproduction (they multiply very quickly and in short time)

10-Healthy Churches (rapid reproduction in no way means lower quality, deficent teaching, or unhealthy church life)

Dowload the booklet for free.

Servant Evangelism - Impressions

This testimony comes from Servant Church in Lynnwood, Washington... They do a quarterly serve event at a local Women's Shelter and provide tangible help in between. The church came together to buy them a new vacuum cleaner. Here's what one of the servants heard from two women about their impression of Servant Church.



"(The women at the shelter) mentioned that they really enjoyed the events we have done there. What an awesome thing to have Servant Church be associated with good gifts and positive interaction! I also talked to one of the residents and she said that she liked us because while we aren't shy about saying we are part of a church we also don't push our beliefs. Our actions are making a big impression on the people there."

Church Multiplication Feels Good

Pastor Rob Link from the River in Kalamazoo stopped by to inspire the crowd at Thrive. He stated unequivocably, "Church Multiplication feels good." His rationale was impecable. You had to be there. Here are his other points:

Seven Things I learned about reproduction...

1. It's Messy

2. It's Expensive

3. It's not an Option

4. It's Opposed

5. It's Impactful

6. It Blesses the Reproducer

7. It Feels Awesome

Three Cheers to OPPOSITION...

YEA GOD... for the blessing!

Who else agrees that multiplying churches feels good?

THRIVE - Grand Rapids 2007 - Welcome!

Tim Vink, National Coordinator for Church Multiplication indicated that church attendance has declined in America at the same time that the population has increased by more than 50 Million people since 1990.

Vink said, "In other parts of the world Church Multiplication movements are growing at 7x the population growth rate. The only hope for the American church to keep up with the increase in population is to begin Multiplying churches."

What do you think?

Are there other options?

What kind of people will be needed for a Multiplication Movement?