Starting a church???

People needing a place to worship would be a good reason to begin a church.

I was part of one that kind of fell apart but it was started because there wasn't a brand "x" church in the area. Knowing the man that did it I'd guess a tad of pride might have been included. After we arrived to pastor the church we found that there were five solid evangelical churches within fifteen miles. There was really no "need" of a church. When the church officially formed from the Bible study there were only about 1/3 of the folks that were interested in a church. The rest were already churched, and just interested in a week day Bible study.

Personal opinion - to start one because there isn't one of your brand around isn't the best reason - be sure there is a need for another church and use that for a basis.

 

I have helped plant two churches and attempted to plant a church myself. What I learned is I love personal evangelism and one on one discipleship. I love watching the church take form and actually growing into a full bodied functioning church.
The next thing I learned is yearning is not the same as a call and that I do not have the heart of a pastor. I am a good teacher and I do a fair job of preaching ,I prosper in institutional situations(God blesses)and when I'm helping someone else plant a church.
There are many things to consider when planting a church.:godisgood:

 

Here's a couple of resources concerning church planting
http://www.churchplantingvillage.net/

http://www.namb.net/site/c.9qKILUOzEpH/b.222465/k.8D17/Church_Planting_Group.htm

Personally, I think the reason to plant churches is because God places a burden to reach the lost people of a particular ocmmunity on your heart. We have enough churches reaching the already convinced, what we need now is to reach area where the gospel is not preached.

 

I was an associate pastor of a church plant in NW Indiana for 3 years back in the late 1990s. The motivating factor of our church plant was that it was in a growing community that where one whole side of town was without a strong Bible based church. A man in our association that lived in that area and felt called to preach had a burden to plant a church in that part of town. He and I had an opportunity to serve together in some associational events and such and he asked me to prayerfully consider coming on board with the church plant. I felt the Lord was at work in the situation and agreed.

It was a great experience and a very hard experience all wrapped up into one. It was great being at the ground floor of something new, but it was also a great hardship not having any real resources and people to help carry the load.

Sadly, the church plant did not make it, and closed its doors eventually due to many factors. One of the major reasons I believe the church did not make it was no support from the "mother" church. The mother church talked a good game of supporting and providing help and resources to allow us to minister in the community, but that never really panned out and when times got rough they pulled away.

But with that being said, I think church planting is a great thing and critical to ministry of the Gospel today. I would love to be able to have the opportunity at some point down the road to be a part of another church plant either as the sending church or as part of the planted church.

 

Churches Needed?

BJU has a list of cities that have few Fundamental Baptist churches. Anyone here know how accurate this list is?

http://www.bju.edu/resources/cplanting/cities.html