God Provides for His Church Plant

So you're starting a church from scratch? You will need a meeting place, sound equipment, nursery and children's supplies, possibly a trailer to store the equipment, a place to store the trailer, coffee supplies, folding chairs, projectors, screens, a bunch of stuff you’ve not even thought about, and by the way....you're going to need people!

When we set out to plant Life Community Church we had an idea of what we would need for the journey but we didn't know everything that we would need. In retrospect, I'm thankful that I didn't know every piece of equipment that was needed before we began planting the church (it probably would have freaked me out). Nevertheless, we stood in amazement as we begin to see God providing the materials that we needed for the assignment that God called us to.

I've always been a fan of 1 Thessalonians 5:25 which reads...

"The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it."

The Lord teaches us that He will always provide where guides. God provides, God does it, it’s His task, His Church, not ours. This was very true in our situation. God had called us to plant a "purpose driven" southern Baptist church. We intended to use the Rick Warren structure for planting and the Preview service format to launch our church. The one kicker with PD churches is the need for resources up front. PD church planting teaches the idea of launching large through preview services, gathering a crowd, assimilating the crowd into a regular attendees, and then trying to win the regular attendees to Christ and into maturing fully devoted Christians. Again, this takes resources up front. Where did they come from? God provided.

As a testimony to the Lord I just wanted to share with you what God provided (as much as I can remember) before the church was launched. I write this also to remind myself that God will continue to provide the needs for our congregation (that has not chartered yet and is only 8 months old since launch).

To begin with, we were very fortunate to have our Kentucky Baptist Convention invest $100,000 into our plant. In year one they gave the first 60k which allowed us to use 10k for startup and to help with salary cost. This was a major blessing! We did have to go before a team, present our prospectus, defend our ministry location, and explain how we intended to use the funding. Both myself and Taran were in the hot seat as we answered all the questions they threw at us, but we were very grateful to have our Pastoral Advisory Team behind us for support. We were so blessed and encouraged when they shared with us that they would award us the church planting grant. This was a tremendous blessing.

We did not want to frivolously spend this money. We were fortunate enough to have some church plant training through Woodstock Baptist Church's Church Planting School. They helped us set up reasonable goals for our money and how to budget it. We have always desired to be responsible and good stewards with what God gave us.

In addition to the church planting grant awarded to Life Community church, word began to spread that the Ragers were planting a church! We were overwhelmed with those who voiced prayer support and offered help. Even though we had 60k in the bank (that was quickly depleting), it still was not enough. We needed more supplies and resources....again God began to move!

We were overwhelmed when my friend Trent Holbert, Pastor of Epoch Fellowship in Owenton Kentucky (also a KBC high impact church) notified me that his congregation was giving LCC their trailer. We have used this trailer to transport our equipment every Sunday our church has had worship gatherings.

On the day I resigned from my previous ministry I was also contacted by a man who desired to give us a mini-van! It was a 2002 Town and Country Mini-van...pretty nice! I thought God gave us this van to transport people, what I would soon discover is that it would actually be for the purpose of carrying and transporting the overflow of the trailer. This van is critical to what we are doing. Not to mention we plastered it with logos and people see it all over town.

Sound equipment! God blessed us through Taran's dad as he searched ebay and craigslist for our sound equipment. He found good and affordable equipment for our church. On top of this, Severns Valley Baptist in Elizabethtown gave us lots of additional sound equipment that was vital! Including a projector!

Other stuff continued to come in. Friends gave microphones, stands, nursery toys, tubs, coffee pots, and more! One great gift was the gift of a Macbook Pro! A computer we use every Sunday for worship. In addition to this, our mother church gave us a great crew of volunteers who manned our preview services and mission projects! God gave us what we needed.

Perhaps one of the biggest things happened with our house. The housing market was not moving (anywhere). We placed a for sale sign in our yard on the day we resigned from our established church. I was quickly contacted by a pastor friend who shared with me that he knew someone who was interested. The first person who looked at our house bought out house. One month, one week, and one day from the day we resigned we closed on our house. God is good! I share this with you because God is going to provide for you too. He will open the doors and He will give you what is needed for your journey. Your journey is unique, with its own needs and own story (it may look nothing like our journey), but nevertheless God is going to do it! He has promised. You don't need "stuff" to build a biblical and evangelical community of faith, you need the Holy Spirit. You need Jesus. You need The Father. The key is understanding that He provides for the journey He has called you to. It's all about Him anyway.

As you are preparing for your journey, cry out to God. List your needs in a prayer book. Pray that God will provide what is needed. When God does provide for your needs, mark it off your list and write down the day he answered it. We still have current needs, lots of them, and I know God is going to provide. Looking back, we see God gave us so much to begin this journey. Now it seems that we may even have greater tasks ahead of us (chartering, self sustainability, locations, etc), but if God provided then He will provide now. He is Faithful.

In closing I would like to share with you my list of "unexpected gifts" from our prayer journal in no particular order. To God be the glory!

Mini-van, trailer, 32 channel sound board, website design and hosting, logo design, chairs, sound equipment, music man headset, nursery supplies, trailer locks, discount on Graceway media website, the sale of our house, retirement gift from North American Mission Board, macbook adapter for projector, screen, coffee supplies, various checks, light bulbs for mission projects, volunteers for block party, and He is still continues to move!

The Mother Church and Prospectus

God had a lot to teach us before we were ready to plant Life Community. As mentioned in an earlier blog post, the waiting game is actually a way that God uses to help develop us (especially through learning and growth). It was during this time of waiting that I tried to read as much as possible about church planting. As I read, I quickly discovered that there were differing ideas and theories about how to exactly plant a church, but there was one common thread that ran through all of them...a mother church.

Acts 13 clearly demonstrates a clear picture of church planting. The church at Antioch must have been a pretty amazing place. Both Paul and Barnabas were on staff at this church, the Jerusalem church followed this church closely, and a constant state of revival seemed to be present. It was during a worship experience that God spoke to the leaders in this church to commission Paul and Barnabas for their first missionary journey. Antioch sends out these missionaries who plant the churches and it continues to remain a prominent mission church. One clear idea emerges from Acts 13, the mother church.

Not everyone would agree with my statement that a Church plants need mother church. I am aware that in some environments and situations this simply may not be possible, especially in the case of parachute church planting in an area without any churches. Nevertheless I would hope you would agree with me that this is the best route. Church planting outside of the mother church could open the church up to several dangers that a new congregation may not be prepared to handle in addition to this the planter is working outside of the established church which God is already moving through. The joy of a mother church gives not only it's blessing on the new congregation but offers resources and prayer support in the early days. I would highly encourage you to plant only if a mother church is in the picture.

While we were waiting we simply had no idea who our mother church was going to be. My conviction on the need for a mother church was very strong and I could not press forward without one. But who, when, and where was this Mother Church? I simply didn't know.

As I waited on God to reveal the mother church I still remained proactive in my church planting planning. It was during this time of waiting that I began work on my church planting prospectus. A prospectus is a document that outlines the "how" of your particular church plant. It's a document that strategically maps out your game plan for making this church come into reality. I was very grateful for all those church planters who showed me copies of their prospectuses and for my church planting class that made me write a hypothetical one. My Prospectus seemed to evolve and change as I continued to learn and grow, but the whole time it was a labor of love.

It was during the formation of my prospectus that I discovered that many models for church planting existed. Everything from starting the church as a Bible study to launching large with lots of funding. Though I may argue for the need to have a mother church I will not argue for a particular model. I believe your model will be given to you as you pray and seek God's face. For us, we sensed God calling us to the Purpose Driven model of planting and launching large, which I will focus on more in a future post. It's just important to know what model you have as you work on your prospectus. Your model will dictate how your prospectus will flow.

Again, we knew that The Lord called us to plant a church, we just didn't know when and where. We also knew the kind of church that God had told us to plant (in this case a Purpose Driven Southern Baptist Church), but again we waited for our mother church to surface. In time, God brought us the right mother church which actually identified the specific area we were supposed to plant in.

Little did I know that God was also working on the heart of Pastor Tom Webb of Buck Creek Baptist in Calhoun Kentucky. Buck Creek is a member of the Daviess Mclean Baptist association, which my previous church was a member. The Lord had burdened Tom's heart on a specific neighborhood in my hometown of Owensboro Kentucky. Interestingly enough, I too had noticed this neighborhood and often felt that a new church would benefit this particular community. Tom went to see the association's Director of Missions to express his desire to plant a church in this area. A week later I too went to see the Director of Missions (DOM) and shared with him my burden for planting. It was then that the DOM connected me with Pastor Tom Webb and both the mother church and the location was revealed. The prospectus that was written over a year ago helped Tom and his deacons understand how the plant was going to be planted. I'm thankful I didn't run ahead of The Lord, even though I wanted to. It was God who ordained these steps.

Future posts will talk more about God's provision and the actual structuring of our church planting journey, but I do want to say that God also opened the door for us to be funded by our state convention. There was only one catch, our state convention informed us that we had to act immediately which meant we needed a mother church and all the formal paper work and documentation such as Prospectus. We had a mother church, we were just waiting for the right time. Also since I had been crafting a prospectus for a couple of years, we were able to move with speed and press forward with God's mission. The Prospectus that I presented to the church planting committee of the Kentucky Baptist Convention and the Mother Church was the same prospectus that I had toiled over (without ever really knowing if it would come into being or not).

With that said, make sure you seek out a mother church that wants to plant. Remember God will connect the dots! Here are some practical reasons why you need a mother church.

1.The New Testament- Again the Bible seems to teach that Churches plant churches. Keep this in mind. God has and always will work through the local church.

2. Prayer Support- No church can be planted by human flesh. Church planting is a supernatural act which requires intercessors crying out to God on your behalf. You need this in your plant.

3. Resources- Finances and Team members are available in the mother church. Not to mention copy machines! Have you thought about how many copies you'll need to make? Church members can also help with the launching of the church by sending greeters, nursery workers, and more. Even if your mother church is miles away they can still send mission teams to help.

4. Tax Umbrella- A mother church allows you to operate under their non-profit tax exempt status. Very important! Filing for your own 501c3 in the early days can be costly and unnecessary when you can just fall under the mother church umbrella.

5. Accountability and Credibility- This church plant can't be a one man show. If you build this church it will fail. Instead we must allow Christ to build His Church. Likewise accountability both spiritually and financially is critical to the church plant. This gives the community the idea that this church plant is not a cult but a real church. We actually had people come to our church simply because we said we were sponsored by "Buck Creek Baptist". When asked why, they said because sponsor church demonstrated credibility.

In addition to the Mother Church information, I also want to list some tips on preparing a good prospectus. Our document ended up being over 30 pages. These tips are from a Kentucky Baptist Convention handout on creating a church planting prospectus.

"The Church Planter must be a strategic and missional thinker. As an aid to the Planter and to help others understand the nature of the proposed Church Plant, the prospectus should include the following elements...

1. Vision, Mission, Core Values

2. Beliefs

3. Demographic and other information about the church plant site and the target group of the church plant.

4. List of Sponsors/ Partners for the Church Plant

5. Budget Proposal

6. Strategy Plan with first calendar and actives and events

7. Team descriptions with resumes"

Hope this post was helpful. Remember Churches plant Churches and you need a good prospectus!