Next month, our church is planning to sponsor our forth church-start in as many years. They are Westwind Church (2008), Veritas Church (2010), New Heights Church (2012), and Cornerstone Church of Ankeny (September 2012). Each one has a similar style and model of church life but with slightly varying approaches. Together, these new churches represent nearly 1000 worshippers gathering weekly. It’s time to stop and reflect on some of the lessons learned, however, some of th0se lessons won’t apply to other church starting models. This series will have five posts for church planters and five for sponsoring churches.
Five lessons learned for sponsoring churches, Lesson 3: Coaching the launch team
- Advice to sponsoring church from church planters: the new church isn’t yours anymore. The interim elder team is the final authority, work through them. See yourselves as consultants that give input rather than decision makers. Leave those to the local leaders.
- Interim elder team should get updates, hear of plans, discuss problems, and see financial reports. We’ve found that monthly is about the right frequency for this group.
- Be sure to get updates on the elders-in-training and stay on track to turn leadership authority over to them. Have dinner together or have a weekend retreat to help train them and develop relationships. We try to make sure that the elder teams have less than 50% church staff.
- If you have any non-negotiables for the church start, make sure that you communicate them early in the process. Don’t surprise church planters with new “values” in the middle of the start-up process.
- Schedule regular time with key leaders, but also informal time with others. Show up from time to time at worship services. Offer feedback if asked. Tactfully give feedback if not asked.
What would you add or modify?
See also:
Lessons learned from sponsoring four churches in four years, Lesson 1: before you start
Lessons learned from sponsoring four churches in four years, Lesson 2: pre-launch milestones
Lessons learned for sponsoring churches, Lesson 1: Selecting the church planter
Lessons learned for sponsoring churches, Lesson 2: Selecting the church location
Lessons learned for sponsoring churches, Lesson 3: Coaching the launch team
Lessons learned for sponsoring churches, Lesson 4: Providing for the new church
Lessons learned for sponsoring churches, Lesson 5: After the launch
Related posts:
- Lessons learned for sponsoring churches, Lesson 5: After the launch
- Lessons learned from sponsoring four churches in four years, Lesson 4: after the launch
- Lessons learned from sponsoring four churches in four years, Lesson 5: The first year
- Lessons learned for sponsoring churches, Lesson 4: Providing for the new church
Do your church plants share a common statement of faith, creeds, or confessions with the “mother church”? Once the new church is established does it have any accountability to the mother church or “sister churches”? Is there any accountability beyond the individual churches? Is the authority in the individual churches held by the elders or the congregation? Who elects the elders? A lot of questions, I know!
The statement of faith is identical in our multi-site, but not necessarily with our church starts. However, we know of no significant doctrinal differences. Once a new church is established, they are accountable to their local leadership team (elders) and not our church. Though we don’t have a formal position of authority, we have a close relationship. The elders are nominated by the current elders and affirmed by the whole congregation. Did I miss anything? Let me know.
I am a member of Providence Reformed Church in Des Moines. It is a part of the United Reformed Churches in North America. We were a church plant of a church in Pella. While we were a church plant our elder (we only had one) and Pastor were on the consistory (group of elders) of the church in Pella. They would drive to Pella for the meetings. Pella would have at least one elder in all of our services (we had one on Sunday morning & one on Sunday evening). Some other members of the Pella congregation would usually sign up to attend services in Des Moines, too. The Pella congregation also gave a fair amount of financial support. Eventually Providence “organized” and had it’s own consistory and council (elders and deacons together). The financial support from Pella eventually was phased out and the Des Moines Church supported itself. Now the Pella church and the Des Moines church are peers in the same classis (group of churches in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, and South Dakota). Authority lies in the individuals consistories and elders are elected by the congregation after being nominated by the council. The Classis examines new ministers and concurs on matters of church discipline. A Synod (meeting of alll of the churches in the whole Federation) meets every other year. There is a lot of wariness of giving too much power to larger bodies, however, given the history of a lot of our churches coming out of the Christian Reformed Church. That denomination (as opposed to federation) was “captured” by liberals and put things like women in office into effect. It’s good to have the accountability of other churches but dangerous to give a larger body too much authority over your minister and congregation.