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Starting a New Church is a daunting task only because it is unfamiliar to most people. In fact it is not nearly so difficult as it seems. When it is broken down and shared among many people it is easily accomplished. Most new businesses that fail do so because of poor planning. The same is true for new churches. The good news is that our Lord wants new churches! There is also a great need for new churches. Here in the San Francisco Bay Area only 15% of the population is actively involved in a church. The harvest is thick and the laborers are few.
Starting a New Church is like being the lead runner in a relay race. The runner who starts with the baton is not the runner who crosses the finish line. Many people fear starting something they can't finish. Get over it. Trust that God who wants new churches will gather leaders around your efforts and that one day you will pass the baton on to the next leader. One of the most common errors church plants make it is to determine the leadership too early in the process. It is actually better to keep it fluid and organic until structure is needed to grow.
There are many different strategies for planting churches and they all work to some degree. All follow a similar path.
- Gather a Launch Team
- Prepare for first Public Service
- Launch New Church
There is much to be said about each step of course. There is also a tremendous body of knowledge available about each step. Best practices in church planting have been studied for decades. Common errors have been identified. None of this was known by the early church and that is a comfort. Most of the churches in the world were started by people who never went to a conference on church planting. At New Anglican Church we do pay attention to best practices. We are also committed to keeping it simple for people. We provide coaching and networking with other people attempting to launch a new church.
If you are interested in helping plant a new Anglican church in Northern California, we encourage you to register on this site. The registration process lets us know who you are and what community you live in. We can then help network you to others in your area. Our first mission initiative began in June of 2009 with two households who agreed to try to gather some others to see if there was enough interest in launching a new Anglican Church. Six months later they numbered seven involved households with several prospects. It typically takes two years to gather a launch team. Church planting is not a task for impatient people. It takes time. Many new churches start with too small a launch team. It looks easier to launch a small church and hope it grows than to launch a larger church. It is actually easier to start a church with an average Sunday attendance of 100 than it is to start a church with an average Sunday Attendance of 20 and grow it to 100.
The planting strategy we are using is to start a small group ministry and grow that into a Core Team. Participants enjoy Christian fellowship, grow in their knowledge and love of God, and worship together. When the first group grows large enough, a second group is formed. Once a month all the groups meet together for worship, fellowship, mentoring, and status updates on the effort. Members enjoy many of the benefits of church membership while growing the core team.
During the gathering of the core team and continuing through the preparation for the first public service we provide administrative support. Liability insurance is provided for all the small groups. Book keeping, banking, the issuance of charitable receipts, and database management are also provided. We provide all the necessary administrative supports so our mission initiatives can focus on gathering the launch team.
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