Success Factors in Fast Growing Plants

I highly recommend Steven Gray's new book Planting Fast Growing Churches. Stephen compared 60 fast growing church plants and 52 struggling church plants to try to understand the factors that enabled churches to grow larger than 200 in their first three years. Here are a few of the things that he found.

• 88% of the fast growing churches had church planting teams
• 63% of the fast growing churches had an initial core group of 26 or more
• 80% put ten percent or more of their budgets toward outreach and evangelism
• 63% of planters leading fast growing plants raise additional funding, compared to 23% of those that are struggling
• 57% of the fast-growing church plants teach financial stewardship during the first six months from public launch; by contrast only 40% of strugling church plants teach financial stewardship.

I would encourage every church planter to study Stephen's book. I would also encourage everyone to go to www.leadnet.org and download the church planting article "Improving the Health and Survivability of New Churches."

Do You Want More Evangelistic Effectiveness?

In the recent research conducted by Leadership Network, there are certain factors that correlated with higher baptisms/conversions in new church plants. These factors do not guarantee evangelistic effectiveness, but they do help us understand something about the mindset and the behaviors of the more evangelisticly effective church plants. A few of the factors were:

• conducting a new member class for church members
• conducting leadership training for church members
• engaging in ministry evangelism (e.g. food banks, shelters, drug/alcohol recovery, etc.)
• conducting a mid-week children's program
• conducting a block party as an outreach activity
• starting at least one daughter church within three years of the church plant
• having a proactive stewardship development plan enabling the church to be financially self-sufficient

I have also observed that when church planters make a focused effort to develop a "Missional Core" in the pre-launch stage, this also increases their evangelistic effectiveness. A Missional Core is different than our conventional "Launch Team" or "Start Up Team" concept. A Missional Core is a group of people who have been/are being discipled to be missionaries in the context of the church plant. I encourage every church planter to develop and mobilize a missional core to help gather and evangelize. It makes all the difference in the world.

Survivability: Indicators of Church Health

Size is a common indicator used to evaluate the health of a new church. Though size is not a complete measure of health, achieving a critical mass is essential for survivability. A surprising result of research from NAMB (Southern Baptists) shows that church plants are actually smaller than many imagined. The typical church plant does not pass 100 in attendance after 4 years.

Another indicator of new church health is evangelistic effectiveness. The number of baptisms or conversions has a strong correlation to the evangelistic effectiveness of new churches. The average number of baptisms or conversions is 10 the first year, 11 the second year, 13 the third year, and 14 the fourth year.

Many church planters envision their churches growing much larger, much faster. They also envision their churches having a greater evangelistic impact. This is possible with good training and good coaching.

Making Church Plants Thrive in 2008

A few months ago I had the privilege of compiling research conducted by Ed Stetzer and publishing it in a series of articles for Leadership Network. These articles grew out of the exhaustive research that Ed did last year on the state of church planting in the U.S. Ed's research was outstanding (as usual). These 4 articles are available for download at www.leadnet.org. or you can contact me directly at glenn@nciglobal.org.

One of the articles had to do with Health and Survivability of New Churches. Ed's research combined with Stephen Gray's new book Planting Fast Growing Churches gives us some great insight on how to make church plants thrive in 2008. Over the next few weeks that is what I want to write about.

To help us start thinking this week, here are a few of the findings:

• The chances of survivability increases by over 400% when the church planter has a "realistic" understanding and expectation of the church-planting experience.
• The odds of survivability increase by over 250% where leadership development training is offered in the plant.
• The odds of survivability increase by 178% when there is a proactive stewardship development plan within the church plant.

These are just a few of the things we have learned this past year and are incorporating into our training and coaching systems at NCI. Stay tuned for more!

Merry Christmas

This will be my last post this year! I hope you have a wonderful Christmas! Enjoy this video - it's my favorite Christmas video!

Church Planting Is The Happening Thing

Recent research from Leadership Network reveals some exciting new things in church planting. Over the past decade there were between 1,100 and 1,500 new churches started every year in the U.S. However, there were approximately 3,500 churches closing every year. We were obviously losing ground fast. However things are changing.

The latest research shows that there is an increasing interest in church planting all across the U.S. Last year there were approximately 4,000 new churches started! Trends have definitely shifted. There are now an abundance of new books and resources available for church planters. In fact, a google search will reveal more than 1,000,000 web pages devoted to church planting. Interest in church planting is at an all time high!

Unfortunately there are still approximately 3,500 churches closing every year, but for the first time that anyone can remember, we are now planting more churches than we are closing.

Another exciting discovery is that the energy for church planting has moved from denominational structures to local churches and networks. It is estimated that there are now over 100 church planting networks across the U.S.

NCI is helping many of these churches and networks to develop their systems to increase the health and survivability of new churches.

Amazing stuff! If you would like the complete report on "The State of Church Planting in the U.S." go to the Leadership Network website or email me at glenn@nciglobal.org.

Also, if your church, network, or denomination would like help to plant new churches more effectively, our coaching and consulting staff is available to assist you!

Systems for Health - A Leadership Development System

Almost every church I know of compains that "We don't have enough leaders." The truth is that your church can become a leadership development machine! I mean that in the most alive, organic way. If you create a plan (or system) your church can be spitting out leaders on a regular and consistent basis.

The best example of leadership development that I've seen in the business/corporate world is G.E. They have been given the nickname of "The great producer of CEO's." The reason? More CEO's are developed at G.E. than any place else in the country. One example is Jack Welch.

Jack joined G.E. right out of college. He worked his way through their "leadership pipeline" and eventually became the CEO of G.E. However, while Jack was developing through their pipeline, so were numerous others. Now not everyone can be the CEO, so what happened to the others? Several of them became the CEO's of other major corporations such as Boeing and Home Depot. Where did Jack's successor come from? You guessed it, inside.

Why doesn't the typical church have a system for developing spiritual CEO's? Why doesn't the church have a system for developing senior pastors and church planters internally? Much can be learned about leadership development systems from G.E.

As I coach church planting pastors (post-launch), I guide them to create leadership pipeline systems. The only reason your church doesn't have an abundance of leadership (like G.E.) is because you haven't developed them! I guide pastors to create pipelines that develop people. They begin as committed followers of Jesus and move through a process (several steps) until they are leading at the highest level, e.g. senior pastors or church planters or campus pastors.

Do you have an effective pipeline? A good coach can help. If you would like to see a sample of a pipeline in a local church, just shoot me an email at glenn@nciglobal.org, and I'll send it to you!

Creating a System for Spiritual Formation

The Spiritual Formation System is the process designed by the leader to bring non-believers into a personal and vital relationship with Jesus Christ, and guides them to live transforming, missional lives.

As church planters we need to see that our role in the spiritual formation of others begins BEFORE they become followers of Jesus. They are seekers, curious, and willing to be in a relationship with us and our church. That's when the spiritual formation process begins - when they are willing to be in an ongoing relationship with us (e.g. once assimilated - see post on Oct 28th!) The process we design should effectively take them from this starting point to a maturing disciple of Jesus (see post on Nov 10th) who is reproducing and living a life on mission.

Most established churches do not have a well developed system such as this!

I have deep admiration for Willow Creek who recently wrote about their challenges in this regard in the book Reveal by Greg Hawkins and Cally Parkinson. Few churches seem to be willing to be honest about this issue. Thank you Willow!

My experience has been that spiritual formation typically takes place for a spiritual seeker when 3 factors come together:

1. The seeker experiences a meaningful (encouraging) relationship with one or more Christ-followers that leads to internal processing and accountability.
2. The seeker pursues an interactive relationship with God through His Word, prayer, spiritual disciplines, etc.
3. The seeker engages their natural talents/abilities in service to others to accomplish God's kingdom purposes.

On one hand this is very simple. On the other hand it may be totally new to think that this process can begin with a pre-Christian. We make a grave mistake compartmentalizing evangelism and discipleship. I see it as all one journey. These 3 things do not all happen at once. Many times a person will experience rebirth before experiencing all 3. But don't be afraid to bring seekers along side with you to just "do life" with you as you do it!

A very good resource and story can be found in Bob Roberts' book Transformation. Think about the T-Life Model that he has developed at his church.

Now your challenge is to think through all the steps that need to take place between assimilation (connected in relationships) and mature disciple. Keep it simple, but design experiences (not just classes) for people to plug in that challenges them to the next step. Finally, measure everything! A good coach will help you design, implement, and measure the effectiveness of your system! IT'S A MUST!

Systems for Health - A Spiritual Formation System

Another system that needs to be in place for a healthy missional church is a spiritual formation system. Sometimes church planters are so consumed with "gathering" that they forget what they are gathering people for. Our mission is to make disciples, not just gather people. So how do we do it?

The place to begin is to focus. What does a real disciple look like? Dallas Willard calls this an "Apprentice of Jesus." What does he/she look like? I like to guide church planters through a Biblical study and personal reflection process. You can download my worksheet at http://www.newchurchinitiatives.org/essential%20experiences/documents/EssentialExperience6.pdf.

Steven Covey tells leaders to "begin with the end in mind." This is critical if we are going to have an effective spiritual formation system. Begin there and then work backwards.

After a church planting pastor completes the worksheet he typically concludes that you can't work on everything all at once. So I suggest that you identify the top 4-6 qualities that need to be focused on in your congregation over the next 12 months. Then refine your qualities by stating them on very concrete objective statements. Once you get your spiritual formation objectives clarified, identify 3-5 measurable behaviors that will give indication that these objectives are being achieved.

Remember, if you can't measure it you can't manage it. A good coach will help you with this. Your coach should be able to guide you and help you define with clarity what it is you're trying to achieve. Next post = how to create the system!

Systems for Health - An Assimilation System

Once your new church is launched and you have begun creating a sense of community among the new people, it is important to start developing your essential systems for health. There are three critical systems that every new church needs to develop:
1. An Assimilation System,
2. A Spiritual Formation System, and
3. A Leadership Development System.

What is an Assimilation System? This is your process for connecting with people who are far from God, and bringing them into "connection" with your faith community. Of course this involves everyone in your church! Everyone should be establishing and building intentional relationships with people who are far from God. I encourage every believer to have an "Impact List." These are people who God has place in your path who you will be praying for, investing in, and seeking to have spiritual conversations.

Think now for a moment - what steps does it take for someone who is far from God to become connected with 2 or more people in your church (other than the one who invited them)? These steps make up your assimilation system.

But when is someone connected? I think it requires at least 2 things. First, the newcomer feels mutual care from 2 or more regular attenders. Second, the newcomer feels like they make a meaningful contribution to the group.

We must think of ways to make these two things happen. Be sure to design your assimilation system for results, and then measure its effectiveness at different points. A good coach will help you think these through. They will help you design an assimilation system that connects many new people every month.

Need Help Gathering a Following?

Most church planters have a difficult time with their initial gathering of people. Conventional marketing strategies work in newer communities that have lots of traditional families who have a Christendom worldview (typically in suburbs). It's usually easy to find a lot of church shoppers unless these communities have been over-marketed by other churches! So how do you gather a following?

We have found that "prospecting" is always effective, even in difficult communities. However, beware, difficult areas where there is high resistance requires time and patience and much prayer. But the approach to prospecting is still the same. We teach on this in our Essentials training.

Don't miss our next training coming up in 2 weeks, Nov 1-2. For more information about our next training go to www.nciglobal.org and click on "events."

For some tools to help you with prospecting see our "Essential Experiences" #4, #4a, #4b, #4c, and #4d at http://www.newchurchinitiatives.org/essential%20experiences/EssentialExperienceIndex.htm.

One Pure and Holy Passion

Possibly my favorite song these days is "One Pure and Holy Passion." It's my prayer almost everyday. You can find it on the One Day Live CD.

I've come to realize the nobody pursues God with passion, no one follows hard after God until they have become thoroughly convinced that there is absolutely nothing else in this world worth pursuing.

The song says "Give me one and pure and holy passion. Give me one magnificent obsession. Give me one glorious ambition for my life, to know and follow hard after You." I so much want this to be true about me. But I'm realizing that it will never be true as long as there is something in this world that I think is worth pursuing. There has to be nothing else in my mind or heart that is worth being ambitious for.

I pray that more than anything else, that the churches we start will produce this kind of disciple.

Do You Value Your Values?

It is common to talk about "core values." Most church planters list their core values in their initial church planting plan. That is important because our values will shape our new church. However, what I see is that most church planters do not go back and evaluate or re-visit their values. As a result, their values cease to be a directional tool and just become words on a piece of paper.

I think it is important, at least once a year, to conduct a "values audit." Every new church (and established church) should step back at least once a year and ask "Do we really value our values? Are we really running hard after what we say we value? Are these things truly important to us, and do they really shape our church culture?"

In my church (www.crossbridge.cc) we state that we value 4 things that are core to who we are and who we want to become. Our 4 core values are:
1. Christian Spirituality,
2. Authentic Community,
3. Sacrificial Living, and
4. Faith Sharing.

These were not our original core values when we planted Crossbridge. They have emerged as we reviewed and evaluated over time. Now we must faithfully ask ourselves, "Are we running hard after these things? If not, why not? Are they really core? Do we really value these values?" I would encourage you to do the same!

Keep Your Head Clear

One of the biggest challenges that each of us face is keeping our heads clear. Every week we tend to become consumed by non-essential stuff, what I call "clutter." It's easy to get overwhelmed and distracted by details and low-value, low-priority activity. BEWARE!

Don't waste your time and talents on the wrong type of work! This is one reason why a good coach is important. Your coach will help you evaluate what you are doing with your time. Often we get so "busy being busy" that we lose sight of what's most important in our day and our week. As a result, our lives as pastors & church planters become complex, cloudy, confusing, and stressful. We start to lose focus, we miss opportunities, we develop bad habits, and we make excuses.

I must take the time each week to stay clear, stay focused, and stay organized. I must also take time every day to meditate on God's unfailing love (Ps 48:9). This is required to overcome anxiety and to be effective.

Rediscovering Ourselves as Exiles

Recently I have been challenged by Michael Frost and his book Exiles. At times I feel like he takes some unfair shots at the Western church and the U.S.. However, I like reading him because I believe he has a good heart and an important message for believers.

Frost is especially valuable to church planters. He calls us to think and live like "exiles." He equates the Western church today to the Israelistes during the Babylonian exile. He draws some very powerful insights that we need to wrestle with today.

It is very important for church planters (and all church leaders) to think of our ecclesiology in terms of a journey, not a destination. We must see ourselves as "pilgrims" passing through this world, not homemakers. If we do not view ourselves as pilgrims (or exiles), we will assimilate into culture and will have little or no transformational impact on the world. Unfortunately, I believe this is the state of the church in much of the Western world.

As we create new churches, we must emphasize this! We will never be missional unless we see ourselves as pilgrims, aliens, and/or exiles. We will not be the "salt" and "light" that Jesus spoke of in Mt 5. To create a missional community it requires us to have this mindset. Are we training our missional core groups to see themselves as pilgrims, aliens, and exiles?

Many of the Israelites became so accustomed to life in Babylon that they refused to return to Jerusalem even when much later there was an opportunity to do so. In many ways, the experience that faced the Jewish exiles mirrors the church's experience today. We are now exiles from Christendom and we are grieving its loss and struggling with being marginalized in society.

So how do we live? How do we disciple our people? How do we think and act? It calls for abandonment to Jesus and to His way of life! It calls for us to live like Daniel did. This is absolutely essential if we are going to truly make missional disciples.

It's a Work of Faith

Church planting is a work of faith. We do prospecting and "farming". We develop systems and processes for outreach & discipleship. etc. But at the end of the day, we are utterly dependent on God to do the work that only He can do. This is what leads me to believe that the most important task in church planting is prayer. Earnest, fervent, desperate prayer. That is why these verses mean so much to me:

But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose HOPE is in his unfailing love; to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine. We wait in HOPE for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love rest upn us, O Lord, even as we put our HOPE in you. Psalm 33:18-22

We're Making a Difference

Last month I wrote an article for Rev Magazine telling the story of one church in Austin, TX that was making a difference in their city. The article also showed that there were approximately 3,500 new churches started in the U.S. in 2006 while approximately 3,000 closed.

This is the first time that I can remember in my lifetime that we opened more churches than we closed in a year. We're making a difference in cities and the nation.

If you would like a copy of this article from Rev Magazine email me at glenn@nciglobal.org and I'll be happy to send you a copy.

Building a Missional Core for a Church Plant

Most of the church planters I work with plan to develop a "Core Group" to help them launch their new church. I affirm this. I believe it is a much healthier and more effective approach to launch with a good "team." But what is a good Core Group?

Most planters are thinking of a Launch Team, a small group of workers to run the Sunday morning program/event. However, I think that is a small part of what you need for a Missional church plant. I like to refer to the core group as the "Missional Core."

What I mean by "Missional Core" is that this is a group of people who see themselves as missionaries, thus they do the work of a missionary in an unreached context. They engage non-believers and unchurched people. They build relationships. They do research into the culture. They think and strategize about how to make meaningful connections with people who are far from God. They draw these people into a friendship and over time, they create a new community of faith explorers.

The most important role of the Missional Core is not running a Sunday program or event, although many of them may help do this. The most important role is to be a missionary & evangelist, to be a pursuer and a gatherer. Their job is prospecting, and they do this by entering the world of the unchurched, by networking, by serving the community, and by building relational bridges. Research, outreach, relationships, prayer, and evangelism are the focus of a missional core.

Yes, you probably need a launch team (depending on your model). But don't settle for that. Build a missional core!

Raising Up Your Own Church Planters

One of the missional practitioners that I admire and respect is Hal Haller in Port Orange (Daytona) Florida. Hal not only teaches and coaches, but he lives church planting everyday. A few months ago Hal launched his 3rd church plant. Here is what Hal recently shared with me:

Birthing, Developing, and Sending out leaders is at the very heart and passion of our church. For us, success is not measured by how many people attend or how much money you take in or how slick your marketing campaign might be. Rather, success is measured by the people we invest in and mobilize out for the sake of the gospel.

One of the things I do at Church of the Highlands Port Orange is constantly scan the people that God sends in our gathering. I’m consciously looking for people who seem to be open, teachable and faithful. I then make time to get to know each one of them. I spend a lot of informal time around meals or golf and my goal is to share with them the things I have learned in ministry and to discover the passion, gifting and desire they have for God. My ultimate goal is to help set their life on God’s mission, infuse enthusiasm for His work, and to show them how they can make strategic investments in the lives of others.

The best way I know to reproduce yourself in others is by simply giving people access to your life. So that at the end of the day, I can hopefully say to each of them like Paul said to the believers at the Philippians church: “Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing.” Philippians 4:9 (NLT) This is at the core of reproducing disciples that eventually reproduce churches. Hal

Gathering Your First 50 People

It has been said that the most difficult thing in church planting is gathering your first 50 people. Of course, the second most difficult thing is gathering your second 50 people. It is also vitally important WHO those first 100 people are because they will shape the culture of your new church. Keep that in mind!

The question is, "How do you gather new people?" This requires a lot of intentionality for most planters. A few have a unique gift for drawing people to themself, but most of us have to work at it. We have to think through who we're trying to reach and start attracting people like this. Usually like attracts like, so if you can start gathering the people you are attempting to reach you will be more likely to be successful in reaching your mission focus group. (I have a firm grasp of the obvious!)

Recruiting a group from an existing church can be helpful (given that the existing church is OK with you recruiting people from them). However, be very careful. This is often times counter-productive because the people from the existing church are usually not missional, not evangelistic, and are typcially looking for a new church that is more convienent or more suitable for themselves. You must only recruit MISSIONARIES from existing churches. If you recruit "consumers" they will usually suck the life out of you, and eventually leave because you're not "meeting their needs."

I don't mean to sound harsh or critical, it's just that church planting is hard and requires a lot of sacrifice from a core of believers. Western Christians are not accustomed to a sacrificial lifestyle (which in itself is sad.) While every church planter needs a few "missionary" believers to help them, I encourage planters to look to the harvest to build your initial critical mass. Seek to build relationships with non-churched, non-believers whom you can encourage and disciple, and hopefully assimilate into your new church plant. I hope to talk more in the days ahead about some specifics regarding how to do this. Just remember for now that the first 100 people will shape the culture of your new church. Make it a missional, new life culture! If you already have your first 50 people, ask yourself what kind of culture they are creating!