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Here’s the 8th and last installment in the Church Planting with Small Groups posts. This one’s longer, since I’m putting the wrap on the series. If you’ve made it this far, congrats! Feel free to add your own suggestions re: small groups as well–I’d love to hear from you.

_See also Intro, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6 & Part 7_

Find training, support networks and financial resources for the church planter.

Planters who try to start a church without the encouragement and advice of other planters and leaders face a greater chance of failure and burnout. But add a solid support network and the picture changes dramatically: “The church planter who meets with a group of church planting peers at least monthly increases the odds of survivability by 135 percent.”[1]

A leader who pioneers a new church plant starting with small groups might fool himself into believing that, “It’s only a dozen people-when we start growing, I’ll look for some counsel and support.” In reality, the task of church planting starts long before the initial core group begins to expand. Challenges and obstacles will not wait to appear until the church hits a certain numerical goal, so the planter should not wait to find people who are willing to invest in him.

This could take the form of a peer group that meets for prayer, fellowship and accountability. Ideally, coaching (focusing on skills and strategy) and mentoring (focusing on character and personal health) would be involved as well-services that are often provided by a church planting network. Additionally, when a lead planter receives continued training in the form of “boot camps” and seminars, the likelihood that his church will flourish increases.[2]

Within the small group structures, the lead planter should recruit or identify mature believers who can assist him with leadership, men who would make excellent staff members when resources become available. Not only are multiple leaders able to support each other and compensate for each other’s weaknesses, but the sooner multiple qualified staff members are present in a new plant, the better its chances of survival.[3]

In addition, the lead planter should make every effort to secure financial backing for his family. As the apostle Paul noted, “The Scripture says, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,’ and, ^‘The laborer deserves his wages’” (1 Timothy 5:18). The biblical wisdom in this statement is apparent, as a planter with adequate funding will be freed up to know his community and grow his church rather than deal with basic needs. While there is a rise in bivocational church planters, churches that survive and grow quickly are more frequently are led by a full-time planter.[4]

Today, planters discover funding through a combination of denominational support, relational networks, partnering churches, and church planting networks. Wherever the money comes from, several things are certain: The planter will need to major in vision and relationships: “People give to vision. Resources always follow vision,” and, “More than anything else, fund-raising is about relationships. Whether the source is the denomination, a network or organization, a mother church, a partner church, bi-vocational work, the early launch team or other individuals, the key to soliciting support is through authentic relationships.”[5]

Raising money is not a highlight for many planters, but, like peer groups, training, and mentoring relationships, financial backing is a significant factor that will empower the planter to focus on multiplying the church’s small groups to the point where larger services are possible.

Conclusion

These seven practices are by no means comprehensive, but in terms of big-picture vision and strategy, they will help a prospective church planter keep the planting dream alive while he is in the trenches, building the first small groups. A motivating thought for planters who adopt this “launch small” approach is that God is certainly not prejudiced against small beginnings. In fact, many of the kingdom metaphors deliberately employed by Jesus-yeast, a mustard seed, a pearl-are remarkable for their smallness, but also for their latent power as God employs them in the shaping of his kingdom.

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[1] Research Reflection: How Many Church Plants Really Survive-and Why?, 3.

[2] State of Church Planting USA: Improving the Health and Survivability of New Churches, 6.

[3] Ed Stetzer and Phillip Connor, Research Reflection: 10 Factors For Higher Attendance in Church Plants (Alpharetta, GA: North American Mission Board, SBC: 2007), 3.

[4] State of Church Planting USA: Improving the Health and Survivability of New Churches, 3, 5.

[5] Ed Stetzer and Dave Travis, State of Church Planting USA: Funding New Churches (Leadership Network, 2007), 6.

This Planting w/ Small Groups “series” has kinda faltered, due mostly to a preaching class that drained my time and energy like a Christian vampire. The class is over (and I’m officially a graduate now, ha!), so my plan is to wrap up this series in short order. Look for Part 8 in the next day or so–that’ll be the final installment.

_See also Intro, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 & Part 6_

Keep small groups relationally connected so that corporate services can happen.

When fast growth is concerned, small groups (35 percent) are a better strategy for planting churches than preview services (10 percent)-but when both are used together, the likelihood of growing fast rises to 55 percent.[1] Healthy small groups multiply, and three or four groups (roughly 50 people) will likely be necessary before the church plant has the personnel to develop a preview service.

However, such services wnot be possible unless the groups are convinced of the legitimacy of the “church gathered,” aware of each other, and prepared to pool time and resources to make the service a reality. Such cooperation would be aided by steady visioneering by the planter and regular “mixer” events where cross-pollination between groups would occur.

If the various independent small groups will eventually act as a united corporate body, the expectation will need to be built in while they are meeting separately. When the church grows, this strategy will also pay dividends in the relational health of members, as the stage will be set for the plant to become healthy, networked, “church of small groups” rather than a “church with small groups.”[2]

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[1] Stephen Gray.

[2] Donald D. Owens, “Building a Church of Small Groups,” Missiology 32, no. 1 (January 2004): 106-107.

Here’s the next installment in the Church Planting w/ Small Groups series.

________See also Intro, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 & Part 4, & Part 5_______

Multiply leaders and small groups regularly.

If a weakness of small groups is their tendency to become inward-focused, the contrasting strength is the potential to give participants numerous opportunities for discipleship and growth. Nowhere is this more true than in the case of leadership development, where the very nature of multiplying small groups promotes the rapid development of new church leaders.

Not everyone can effectively lead a small group, but believers with leadership gifts should be identified and empowered, intentionally given authority within specified boundaries while an established leader maintains responsibility for the ministry.[1] Small groups provide an ideal workshop for the development of emerging leaders-which has been identified as a vital contributing element in the survival of church plants. A study conducted by the North American Mission Board discovered that, “Of those church planters that provided leadership training to church members, 79 percent of their churches survived compared to only 59 percent of church plants survived among those who did not provide leadership.”[2]

While this factor isn’t exclusive to the small group context, small groups certainly do provide opportunities for hands-on involvement in an array of leadership roles: Teaching, mentoring, facilitation, discipleship, prayer–there are few aspects of ministry that don’t surface in the small group microcosm.

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[1] Aubrey Malphurs and Will Mancini, Building Leaders (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2004), 40.

[2] Research Reflection: How Many Church Plants Really Survive-and Why?, 3.

Before reading this, see Part 1 and Part 2.

Start the first group immediately after selectively recruiting a core team.

Your founding small group needs to be composed of the right people. Perhaps equally important, it needs to be kicked off at the right time. Ed Stetzer writes, “After field cultivation comes the time for small group design. The planter or team should locate interested members and then follow up immediately by involving them in a small group. Taking too much time between contact and involvement may squander good opportunities because some prospects may lose interest if not followed up quickly and appropriately.”[1] Therefore, the interim between recruiting team members and forming the first small group should be as brief as possible. When a threshold of eight to twelve invested adult members is reached, the first small group should be launched.

Related to this goal is the necessity of “being picky” when selecting invitees for the first small group(s): “The prospects of survivability in a new church plant diminish if in the early stage the church attracts too many nominal or hurt Christians who are unwilling or unable to change (i.e. church hoppers, burned out leaders, the chronically hurt, etc.). Also, if those initial members are unwilling to actively seek and welcome those who are different from themselves it can also reduce the health and survivability.”[2]

Therefore, founding small group members should be humble, teachable, others-focused people who love the gospel. The strong desire to recruit new members may tempt the church planter to take anyone he can get; this impulse must be resisted.

I’m currently working to build our core group–while also canvassing for potential sponsoring churches/networks–so this reflects where I am right now. Question, if anyone wants to take a shot at it: How did you find the people your plant needed to get off the ground? Did they come primarily from a sending church (not an option for us right now)? Were they new friends from new relational networks in your target area? How did you go about identifying those core members?

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[1] Ed Stetzer, Planting Missional Churches (Nashville: B&H, 2006), 321.

[2] Ed Stetzer and Dave Travis, State of Church Planting USA: Improving the Health and Survivability of New Churches (Leadership Network, 2007), 5.

________See also Intro, Part 1 & Part 3_________

Here’s the first of 7 “best practices” that can contribute to building a healthy church plant via small groups. I noticed that because the “Part 1″ post was “Background,” the 7 best practices won’t correspond to the series numbers… Oops. But here we go.

1. Cast a unifying vision that includes the expectation of struggle and perseverance.

When church planters underestimate the difficulty of their task, they fail. On the other hand, “When the expectations of the church plant meet the reality of the church planting experience, the chances of survivability increases by over 400 percent.”[1] In other words, what’s between the ears trumps what transpires on the ground.

When the core group embraces the necessity of the Spirit’s involvement, they will find themselves prepared for obstacles and praying with greater fervency and hope.

Therefore, a wise leader will educate himself on the risks and hardships of church planting and convey a realistic picture of the challenge to his people, affirming that “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain” (Psalm 127:1 ESV).[2] A study carried out by the North American Mission Board concluded, “It is evident that a realistic picture of the joys and difficulties surrounding church planting is beneficial for both the church plant and the church planter.”[3]

When the core group embraces the necessity of the Spirit’s involvement, they will find themselves prepared for obstacles and praying with greater fervency and hope: “[Not every] every successful small-group meeting has to end with an earth quake. But we must realize the potential that exists when we gather. The same Lord who shook that upper room and shook off the chains of death is in our midst!”[4] Identifying the obstacles to planting a new church will pave the way for members to own their identity as the people of God incarnated in a specific time and place for the purpose of living out the gospel. What people fight for, they learn to appreciate.

One way to solidify this commitment is to have new group members sign a church covenant, signifying that they take their commitment to Christ and the church plant seriously. The covenant would cover topics like core beliefs, character, and conduct, and emphasize that the church is primarily a gospel endeavor focused on seeing lives transformed by Jesus.

Blog content: How have you gone about (or how do you anticipate) casting a unifying vision that’s both realistic and joyful? What do you mention? What do you omit? What would you add to what’s said here?

________See also Intro, Part 1 & Part 3_________

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[1] Ed Stetzer and Phillip Connor, Research Report: Church Plant Survivability and Health Study 2007 (Alpharetta, Ga: North American Mission Board, SBC, 2007), 19.
[2] All subsequent scripture quotations are taken from the English Standard Version unless otherwise indicated.
[3] Ed Stetzer and Phillip Connor, Research Reflection: How Many Church Plants Really Survive-and Why? (Alpharetta, GA: North American Mission Board, SBC, 2007), 2.

[4] C.J. Mahaney and Greg Somerville, ed., Why Small Groups: Together Toward Maturity (Gaithersburg, MD: Sovereign Grace Ministries), 42.