We're just over two weeks from the launch of the new church. Tips??

Our new church/campus plant will be having our first service on September 12th and I'd like to ask any of you who have planted churches if you have any last minute tips for us. We've done a lot of advertising and will be going out next week with door hangars to let people know about the new church. We're meeting in a hotel and we have most of our equipment purchased and ready to go (sound system, projection system, nursery/Sunday school supplies, etc.) but is there anything that you can think of that we might forget or need to know before we begin?

Oh - and I covet your prayers a LOT. It's so exciting to see this happening one year now after hubby was called by God to do this work.

 

I'm sure we do but I'll check with hubby anyway.

 

Got that. We're also putting together a package for new believers with a Bible, a beginning Bible study and a brochure on "Welcome to the Family" kind of thing.

The only other room is the children's ministry room and we'll have the information for the parents along with the security measures we have in place.

LOL!! We actually met with some of the other pastors in the area assuring them we're not looking to sheep-steal. Honestly, the closest churches to us really have nothing to worry about since one is VERY Pentacostal and the other is VERY IFB. So no big overlap there other than the Gospel and we all agree that we can use more workers to spread that!

 

Awesome stuff!! Thanks! I'll respond to the different items:

I hope we're not weird. I do know that those outside the church who know us say that we're totally not weird so I think that's a good thing. We have a great bunch on our launch team and I do think that they will be warm and welcoming without being in your face, so that will be good. Good word though!

GREAT idea! I'm going to pass this one on to hubby.

Another great admonition. We'll definitely mention this at our next pre-launch meeting (I think we have one more with the whole team before we start).

I know we'll have a sign at the front door with directions to the meeting room and children's ministry room. I THINK the hotel is actually putting our church on their digital sign which will be really cool.

www.ichristianc.org Fortunately hubby is the webmaster AND host. The only thing that is not up to date there is the blog because it kind of fell off the radar. I just realized that and need to get on him to get a new post up there.

Yep - we'll have it recorded. Not sure about transcripts as that would most likely fall to me and I'm not sure I'm up to another job at this time. Maybe we can find someone else to do that job....

Hmm - nothing yet on Facebook but I'm sure hubby is thinking of that. I'll double check on that.

Fortunately, one of our pastors of our home church who is assisting in the start of this new plant was formerly in marketing so he's doing a LOT of stuff to prepare for the opening. My husband has also been in the community a lot just even sitting in Starbucks or a diner and has had lots of opportunities to get to know people and personally invite them to the church. They've also used the local community resources to advertise as well - fairs, local papers, etc.

One thing we did this summer was to have a number of backyard Bible clubs in the area because most of our launch team lives in the very near vicinity of the church. We also had a parenting seminar and small groups to follow up with that so we already have about 20 new people to the church even before the church has opened. I do know that we've been working hard to make a physical presence in the area especially since we don't have a physical "church" that would make our presence known.

Yep - we need to sow broadly and see what sprouts. We do have a plan for the gospel (the first few weeks are going to be spent going over the "essentials" of the Christian faith to get that basis in there and since we're most likely looking at either the unsaved or brand new believers as being the core of the church in the beginning, we definitely are working on what to do to let them know the Gospel, get them saved and disciple them from there. It's exciting because there really aren't a lot of churches in the area and certainly very few evangelical churches. Just down the road is a Kingdom Hall, a Mormon tabernacle and a mosque!! We're definitely going into a battleground and I pray that we're ready.

Will do! Thanks for the prayers!!

 

There are two things that will help us to not try to have every program an older church has: #1 being that we're meeting in a hotel and only have it for a few hours on Sunday mornings. Any other times we meet has to either be paid for or done outside the hotel. So we're approaching church right now as "simple church" where we have the Sunday celebration and then small groups in the home. #2 is that we still have our "parent" church that has a lot of programs and is just 30 minutes away from the plant. So if one wants a good youth group or adult classes or recovery ministries, they can go right over to NBC.

I greatly appreciate the prayers!! They're always needed.

Oh I didn't tell you? We're all about PDC!!

Thanks for the website! I'll pass the link onto my hubby.

 

love it!!!