Boot Camp

We survived Church Planting Boot Camp. There were no push up exercises; however, considering the amount of food we had, we probably should have done something along those lines. Instead, we met early until late for most of a week and learned about how to, and how not to, start a new church. The primary presenters were Jim Griffith and Don Smith. Jim got his church planting start with Bill Hybels. He went on to plant six churches, and then he started generally consulting with various denominations on new church starts. Don planted Stonebridge United Methodist Church, a very successful church in the Houston area, and later began working with Jim. Both serve as coaches for new church start pastors and both have “autopsied” failed church plants. In short, these guys know their business.

There must have been 75 people at the conference. New church start pastors and their teams, including the senior pastors of the parenting churches. There was time for us to discuss what we were learning and both Jim and Don encouraged questions. Our team was really busy. Not only were we at camp, we were also finishing the planning of our first neighborhood event in our new church start area. That Sunday, we were going to host a “Blessing of the Back Packs” out in the mission field; the only problem was that we did not have a place to hold it. Not quite, anyway. We were waiting for the “go ahead” from the management group of the homeowner’s association to use the local pavilion area and that was a process. The nice folks at the subdivision sales office had put us in touch with the right people, but getting the final permission took more time than we had planned for. Praise God, by Tuesday we had the needed permission and our team back in Seguin got the door hangers out, the food prepared and all of the detail work that goes into planning an event. It was a wonderful success.

Boot camp is actually divided up into two major parts. The first was advice for the planting church. Jim and Don stressed how critical it is to take care first of the needs of the parent church, keeping it healthy and informed. Just like any good parenting relationship, the goal is to nurture the daughter church and bring it along with support, prayer, resources, encouragement and love. We talked about transparency in finances, proper reporting procedures, spiritual development and the mission mindedness that is required to plant a church. The second part of boot camp was the nuts and bolts on how to get it done. How to establish a reasonable time schedule, put the funds together, meet and learn from the folks in the mission field, find what is needed and present the most excellent worship opportunity that we can. Not surprisingly, the music and child care has to be absolutely top notch. The preaching has to be relevant. The worship experience has to help people build a sound relationship with God. Worship has to be exciting and motivating.

The last afternoon we were given big sheets of paper and pads of those little sticky notes. Based on what we learned, we were to each write down critical things that had to be done as we moved towards the church plant. Things like signage, parking attendants, hospitality, equipment, personnel, facility rentals, small groups, making contacts, dress rehearsals, preview services, stewardship, greeting, hiring child care, launch team meetings, etc. We made at least 100 little notes and then we all went around to the other churches and saw what they had written. That accounted for at least 50 more things that we had forgotten. If you go by Pastor Diana’s office, she is organizing those little notes into an action plan.

We surely learned that we have a great deal of work to do. Joyful and exciting work that allows us to be in mission as we tell people the Good News and build a new worshiping congregation. Church planting is an awesome work done in a blessed partnership between clergy, laity and the Holy Spirit. There are certainly opportunities for our lay speakers and certified lay ministers to serve. Our education and training in planning worship, leading worship, leading prayer, teaching classes, helping with the care ministry and coordinating program ministries not only takes a load off of the new church start pastor, but also helps set a standard of “excellence” for the new church.

Please add your prayers for Clear Springs United Methodist Church. The baby has not yet been born, but God has plans. Wonderful plans to prosper a new ministry.

Joy!

Bill