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!
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