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 Church Planting StrategiesSome insights from veteran church planter Ed Stetzer.
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Promotion is important because the first service, typically called the launch, is a big deal. Stetzer compares it to a store's grand opening, saying it's much easier to get the public to attend the first of anything. "Getting them to come to the first thing is a key thing and making a big deal about the first day is a big thing," he said. The best time of year to start a church is the fall, generally between two weeks after Labor Day and mid-October. Stetzer likes it better than the spring. Not long after Easter attendance fades when people return to their "native" church for Mothers Day, followed by summer vacations, he said. While summer is generally a poor time to start a church, he said the exception is a resort area, where vacationers flocking to the area swell the potential attendance pool. Relying on GodAlthough Stetzer spent a good portion of his session discussing planting tools, he included the admonition that a church should never start until it has its theological approach in place. He also reminded attendees that the most crucial element of the process is God's involvement. To illustrate, he concluded with the story of his second church start in Erie, Pa. A core group of 25 to 30 people had overseen the mailing of 50,000 pieces of mail and calls to several thousand homes, with about 200 expected for the launch service. The day before the launch, Stetzer lost his voice. He asked for members of a church from Virginia who had come to help to lay hands on him and pray. It didn't work. The next morning he could still only speak in whispers. After arriving at the site, Stetzer asked, "God, what are you doing? I don't understand." Then, five minutes before the start time, as he was ready to tell other members to go on without him, God healed Stetzer. Not only was he able to preach, but ultimately more than 230 showed up for the service. Afterwards, people went outside, where the core group had set up a tent with refreshments. As they milled around, a TV reporter approached to ask, "What do you think about the first day of your new church, reverend?" When Stetzer went to answer, his voice was gone. Today, it trembles when he shares what God did that day. Stetzer thinks that God wanted to remind him that you can do everything right and plant a church that's a monument to self, or trust God and let Him do far more than you think is possible. "I thought I knew that going in, but I learned that God wanted to humble me and remind me it's not by might and not by power, but the Spirit of God that the church needs to be planted," Stetzer said. © 2009 ChurchCentral.com |             |
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