Beginners Guide to Church Planting – Part 3

Preparing for your first service. Lets look at some practical things that you can do to help get your ministry started and moving forward.

Set up an office. In the beginning stages you will often have to set up a home office. As soon as possible you should lease an office space until you find a permanent facility for the church or ministry. Try to set regular office hours so people will know where and when they may contact you. You will need to get a computer if you don’t already have one, and design your stationary, business cards, and flyers for the opening service. Also make sure you have a local phone number and a post office box.

Prepare a support Letter. Usually when starting a new work finances are really tight. It’s sad to say but the more money you have to work with the better the chances are of getting off to a good start. Unless you have a group of people starting with you who are willing to support your ministry with their finances, you are going to need to raise some money. I would suggest sitting down with your spouse and/or group and making a list of every church that you are familiar with, along with every individual believer and couple you know. Once you’ve put together your list, then begin the first draft of your support letter.

Make sure it’s both professional and personal. Let them know that you would appreciate any help they could offer, and that God will bless them for their generosity. Suggest they give a one time gift to help you get things going and/or a monthly commitment of support for six months which will give you a chance to get the new work established. Pray over it and mail it out. I would call the people on your list to let them know the letter is coming, and also to explain what your vision is. You will need to be BOLD! Remember you are building something for God.

Solicit a core group. If you are starting the new work in an area where you know people, make a list of anyone you think might possibly be interested in being a part of your new ministry. Write, call, and visit them. Let them know your vision and challenge them to get behind it. Be positive and excited. Be careful about soliciting people who are already committed to a local body. If you can get just a few people who are even remotely interested, set up an organizational meeting.

At this meeting you can pray, allow them to get to know one another, and make plans for your first service. Don’t be discouraged if no one seems to get behind you. Often God wants you to take leadership and just start, exercising your apostolic authority. I have never had the luxury of beginning with a core group of people. Even if it’s only you and your family, you can go on to build a strong work. It will just take time, hard work, persistence, prayer, and determination. Regardless of who you have with you, proceed with with faith in God that He will do what your believing Him for (Romans 4:18-21).

Advertise. You will need to do as much advertising as possible. If you have the money to pay for newspaper, radio, and television ads, do it. Most people don’t have very much money to work with in the beginning. If that is the case you will need to tap into any free publicity that you can get. Most Christian radio and television stations offer some free church news or public service announcements. Local newspapers will also give you free news releases for a new church and for all of your special events.

You may also be able to get an interview on the Christian radio and television stations. For instance, I have hosted the local TBN (Trinity Broadcast Network) program in my area, and know that they will almost always allow a twenty to thirty minute interview for a new church plant. You should also print up flyers and post them anywhere people will allow you to.

If you can raise enough money, it’s a good idea to purchase a mailing list that will target your area, and then send out flyers or post cards. You will need to get your bulk mailing permit from the U.S. Post Office, which will greatly reduce the cost of your mailing. You will need to give yourself plenty of time before you plan on doing the mailing to apply for your permit.

There are also Christian companies that will print the post cards and put every thing together for you which is a big help if you can afford it. One really good company is Outreach Marketing. They have some very unique post cards, door hangers, etc. We once did a mailing by purchasing our own mailing list through an Internet company called Acculeads, and then printed 6,000 post cards on our personal printer. We saved money, but we put in a lot of hours working on them!

Find workers. If you can have ushers, greeters, and children’s workers for both nursery and children’s church it will really help. Of course, if you don’t have a core group of people to start with it makes it a little more difficult. You will also need to have some type of worship, but having a full worship team from the beginning isn’t always possible.

I would suggest taking advantage of the advertising ideas listed above to also solicit people who might want to be involved in the ground floor of a new church plant and list the workers that you need. You can also advertise the need for workers by putting flyers in Christian bookstores, all of the music stores that you can find, and any place of business that will allow you to place your flyers. The Internet is also a great source to find workers. Try Christianet.com. They will allow you to place a free add for workers for several months.