This Sunday, “Restoration” our church plant in port Orange held their first Sunday morning preview service! There were around 90 folks total who showed up for worship and childrens’ ministry. Pat Altes took this picture during the worship set. This is a great start to a new work. There was good energy all around. But the team felt the weight of all the set-up work. Let’s pray for them to hang in, work hard, and believe in the cause.

In an article titled Why Plant Churches, Dr. Tim Keller, writes:

The vigorous, continual planting of new congregations is the single most crucial strategy for 1) the numerical growth of the Body of Christ in any city, and 2) the continual corporate renewal and revival of the existing churches in a city. Nothing else–not crusades, outreach programs, para-church ministries, growing mega-churches, congregational consulting, nor church renewal processes–will have the consistent impact of dynamic, extensive church planting. This is an eyebrow raising statement. But to those who have done any study at all, it is not even controversial.

New churches best reach the unchurched–period. [T]he average new congregation will bring 6-8 times more new people into the life of the Body of Christ than an older congregation of the same size.

One leading Missiologist, C. Peter Wagner, writes:

“Planting new churches is the most effective evangelistic methodology known under heaven.” C. Peter Wagner, Strategies for Growth (Glendale: Regal, 1987), p. 168.

Established congregations provide many things that newer churches often cannot, but they have not been able to match the record of new churches for reaching new people. There may be several reasons for this.

John Piper says,

[E]xperience has shown, and the Bible would support, that new churches are one of the most effective means of evangelism. Leith Anderson, from across town at Wooddale says, “New churches are flexible, open to newcomers, entrepreneurial, outreaching, and not burdened with servicing old internal relationships and demands.” Older churches “tend to become so burdened with budgets, buildings, and pastor and people problems that they no longer have the energy for outreach.” We will fight with all our might to keep that from being true at our 135-year old Bethlehem. But there is no doubt that new churches have new energy for evangelism. Their life depends on it. That is a good thing. (Introducing All Nations Christian Fellowship, A Church Plant of Bethlehem Baptist Church By John PiperFebruary 5, 2006)

Every study done has led to the same conclusion. New churches are the most effective way to reach new people. A strategy of church planting is both biblical and practical.

I was reading a blog tonight about a book titled “Total Church”. By the way, I’ve read the book and I am reading it again but I just came across the blog which covers some of the same material. (http://theresurgence.com/series/Total_Church?page=2 )

The following resonated with me. It reminded me of experiences I’ve had in the past band encouraged me to be thankful for where we are now.

The author writes:

The guy I first started church planting with used to tell the story of the first time he attended a church business meeting. He’d recently been converted and was looking forward to plotting the downfall of Satan with the other members of the church. What a letdown! They spent the meeting talking about the restrooms in the church building. Somehow churches have a tendency towards maintenance mode.

Over the years I’ve often seen this pull toward “maintanenance mode”. I’m happy to say our leadership and elders have always tried to resist that. Recently I’ve been recharged by several aspects of our ministry at Christ Community that have helped us keep our mission in the forefront.

First of all the church plant. We’re close to the launch of Restoration, the new church we will be planting in Port Orange this October. Already our commitment to church planting and to Restoration in particular has kept a healthy focus on our mission alive at Christ Community. That isn’t always easy in a church that’s been around over twenty years. I’m not sure that missional dynamic has been deeply felt by everyone in our church community but it has affected many. May it continue to do so.

One of the powerful affects of church planting is that it “puts mission at the heart of the church”. When you have twelve people meeting in a room at The Day’s Inn you have to think a lot about how you will reach out to new people. But the other cool thing about church planting is it puts the church at the heart of mission. Evangelism, reaching out to people far from God is too often disconnected from the life of the church as a community. That’s not the New Testament pattern.

Acts 14:21-28: They (Paul and Barnabas) preached the good news in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, 22 strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said. 23 Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.

They didn’t just win people to Christ, they gathered them into local churches and appointed leadership and structure. “Mission is at the heart of the church and the church is at the heart of our mission.” The church-plant is a great expression of both aspects of this Biblical focus.

Another thing that has been helpful in keeping our missional/evangelistic focus has been the addition of new staff. Bradley Robinson as Worship Leader, Casey Johnson for outreach and church-ministries, and Alex Kirk as a pastoral apprentice. I’m encouraged by all these guys. Casey’s position was especially designed to help us develop our outreach and to sustain our missional focus including church planting. This has the potential to be a huge factor for our future. Most churches, once established, continually add new staff whose job descriptions keep them focused on caring for the present congregation. Of course we want and need to care for our congregation but Casey comes to us with a job description designed to also help us stay on course with respect to our mission. That’s not really something different than caring for the congregation it’s an important way to help care for the congregation by keeping us from falling into maintenance mode.

So please be encouraged and pray for this new season we’re facing with end-of-summer ministry initiatives, Church-Planting, ALPHA, MOPS, Porterbrook, Connections, there’s a lot to do in a church that is on a mission.

Christ Community Daytona is going to be offering a special week of free ministry training open to everyone the week of May 10th -the 14th. The event is an onsite Church-planting Boot Camp. It consists of five days of training designed to equip church-planters, core team members, and other interested church-leader in a wide ranger of ministry related issues and skills. You can come for the entire week of free training or choose particular sessions that interest you. For instance on day two there is an afternoon session or prayer, on day three there are several sessions on sharing our faith and reaching people evangelistically, on day four there are multiple sessions on discipleship and disciple-making and on day five there is a session on assimilating new people into the life of the church. This is a great opportunity to learn about ministry in general and church planting in particular. Feel free to invite friends.

What is Boot Camp?

The start up boot camp is an intensive five-day training experience that covers the start-up issues church planters face in their first year in starting a new church. The best use of a boot camp is to come as a church-planting team with your spouse, lay-leaders, and coach.

What Others Say

“It took me five years to learn on-the-job what is taught in one week of boot camp.”

“Boot camp gives you the tools and motivation to get out there, plant a church, and reach the world with the gospel.”

“Feeling overwhelmed? Find answers and hope at Boot Camp. Boot Camp has brought all the ideas, plans and information together in a comprehensive way that makes sense of the process.”

Trainers and Training

Our trainers have been tested on the front lines of church planting and provide hands-on training during the boot camp.

Tested Principles

Boot Camp will handle 30 start-up issues every planter faces.

Day 1
Six Preparation Questions
Stage: Lifetime Preparation

1. Basic Preparation?
2. Planter Profile: Who?
3. Apologetics: Why?
4. Biblical Foundations: What?
5. Missional Framework: Where?
6. Church Design: How?

Day 2
Six Dream Team Dynamics
Stage: Conception
Clarify the dream
Build the Teams

7. Your Mission: Ministry Compass
8. Your Core Values: Ministry DNA
9. Your Vision: Ministry Blueprint
10. Funding Team: Financial Resources
11. Prayer Team: Spiritual Resources
12. Startup Team: Human Resources

Day 3
Six Gathering Strategies
Stage: Prenatal Development
Gather the Core

13. Viral Evangelism: 90% Factor
14. Lay Networking: Do the Math
15. Bridging: Community Penetration
16. Sneak Previews: Working the “W”
17. Small Groups: Expanding Network
18. Marketing: Beyond WOM

Day 4
Five Stages of Discipleship
Stage: Prenatal Development
Build the Core

19. Disciple Making DNA & Process
20. Evangelism: Win Lost
21. Spiritual Formation: Build Believers
22. Lay Ministry: Equip Workers
23. Leadership: Develop Leaders
24. Intentional Reproduction: Send Missionaries

Day 5
Six Critical Start Up Ministries
Stage: Birth (Public Launch)
Launch Healthy

25. Growth & Health
26. Worship: Front Door
27. Children’s Ministry
28. Assimilation: Back Door
29. Technology: Side Door
30. Intentional Living

Registration and logistics

The entire Boot Camp will be held at Christ Community Church 329, North Williamson Blvd. Daytona Beach, Florida. Click here for directions. If you would like an info sheet with recommended lodgings and restaurants please request this when you register.

This event is free of cost but if you want to come please register. Just call or email Christ Community Church, Daytona Beach, Florida,
Email: ccc@cccdaytona.org. Phone: 386-238-1956

I recently came across this picture and it reminded me of both the challenges and beauties of starting new churches. This is the baptism of my middle son, Adam a little over ten years ago. He’s wearing a swim cap because he had had an ear operation and wasn’t allowed to get any water in his ear. But what’s more interesting is he is being baptized in the rented gym of the Seventh Day Adventist Church.

We held services at the Seventh Day Adventist Church Gym  for several years before we could buy land and build our present facilities. In the picture above Adam is being baptized in a galvanized horse trough behind the little screen that says “He is Lord”.  Church planting requires flexibility and creativity.

Why go through the challenges?  Ultimately the only answer is love for Christ and obedience to God. But why does church planting express both? Here are some quotes that give part of the answer.

New churches best reach the unchurched–period. [T]he average new congregation will bring 6-8 times more new people into the life of  the Body of Christ than an older congregation of the same size. Why Plant Churches, T. Keller

“Planting new churches is the most effective evangelistic methodology known under heaven.” C. Peter Wagner, Strategies for Growth (Glendale: Regal, 1987), p. 168.

[E]xperience has shown, and the Bible would support, that new churches are one of the most effective means of evangelism. Introducing All Nations Christian Fellowship, A Church Plant of Bethlehem Baptist Church By John PiperFebruary 5, 2006

I am thankful that Tim Rice from Trinity PCA in Lakeland can come to Daytona and speak at Christ Community Church about church planting in Acts 13 and also about his church’s journey down the church planting path.

There is more that could be said and we have a number of materials at our website. Here’s the link:  http://www.cccdaytona.org/church-planting/

If you haven’t already seen it check out the video on church planning in America here. Hit this link and then click ”play” to watch the video: Church Planting in a post-Christian U.S..

Be sure to give it time to load after you hit “play”. On my computor it takes about twenty seconds. Check it out and let me know what you think.

We’ve brought a lot of good books and hope to find a rhythm between reading, resting and playing. 

I’m sorry I’m going to miss hearing Tim Rice at church on Sunday. He’s the pastor of Trinity PCA in Lakeland. He’s known as a speaker who is Scriptural, Christ-centered and honest. Trinity PCA is about the same size as Christ Community and they have already planted three church basically using the same model that we are using. He’s going to speak from Acts 13 about churches multiplying through church planting and share some of their lessons learned and experiences gained in the process. This is a great opportunity for us to hear from someone who has been there and is excited about continually planting churches, which is exactly what we believe God is leading us to do. 

I was thinking about “the word of His grace” that we spoke of in the last sermon and the recent post on preaching the gospel to yourself. Here’s another quote along the same lines by Tim Keller who speaks of the gospel as the “A-Z” of the Christian life.

Christian Schwarz, with Natural Church Development, led the most comprehensive research project of the causes of church growth ever undertaken. They looked at over 1,000 churches on six continents. At least 30 members of each church were surveyed regarding 170 variables relating to church life and health. Since then the same research has been carried out with over 45,000 churches and all the initial results were consistently confirmed. When asked what surprised him most in his research he said this:

That, on average, the smaller churches are the better churches. To say it in a simplified way” ‘The larger, the worse.’ This pattern is so significant that it is difficult to see why no one else has come across this pattern. Instead some authors even proceed from the opposite thesis, namely “The bigger, the better.” The Implementation Guide to Natural Church Development.

He wrote:

Those familiar with church growth literature regularly encounter the names of a number of large churches, which are held up as models to be imitated. The presupposition is that large churches are by definition good churches. Is this thesis tenable? Our research revealed for the first time that the opposite is probably true.

The original study looked at these eight indications of church health.

1.) Empowering leadership, 2.) Gift-based ministry, 3.) Passionate spirituality, 4.) Effective structures, 5.) Inspiring worship services, 6.) Holistic small groups, 7.) Need-oriented evangelism 8.) Loving relationships.

Smaller Churches were consistently evaluated as better on all but #5! I guess there’s nothing like hundreds or even thousands of people singing together but isn’t it interesting that smaller churches were evaluated as so much more effective in most areas? Take the evangelism for instance; one interesting observation in this study was that two churches with 200 in worship on Sunday will win twice as many new people to Christ as a church with 400 in attendance.

I believe Scripture and the Holy Spirit are our primary guides when it comes to how we go about the work of the church and the cause of Christ. However I’m not against careful research. I think it can serve us well, even though I tend to be somewhat skeptical of “church growth” studies that are heavily into statistics. What made an impression about this study was that it seemed well researched, very thought provoking and probably for most people, a little surprising. Is it just better to multiply than to supersize?

I came across an interesting video that was put together and posted by Drew Goodmanson from Kaleo church in San Diego. The video is brief, I think it’s around four minutes long, but Drew is able to present a lot of information from a variety of sources such as Planting Missional Churches, Christianity Today, Barna, stuff from Tim Keller and other books. It is a powerful call to the church to support church planting. If you are interested in the statistics, they are all located at Church Planting Resources: (The State of the Church in the U.S.)

Hit this link and then click “play” to watch the video: Church Planting in a post-Christian U.S..

Be sure to give it time to load after you hit “play”. On my computor it takes about twenty seconds. Check it out and let me know what you think.