Church Planting

Chapter 2 is intended to be a primer for laypeople on a number of basic dynamics of church planting. As this book is less about church planting than it is about church planters themselves, this chapter provides a brief introduction to the contemporary history of church planting as a phenomenon. Drawing primarily on secondary sources, the chapter will give context to the issues raised in the rest of the book. Some of the basics of church planting—why denominations do it, forms church planting takes, the various customer bases for new congregations, and how new church plant locations and names are chosen—are described as well.

Church Planters

Starting a new organization is a risky business. Most startups fail; half of them do not reach the five-year mark. Protestant churches are not immune to these trends. Most new churches are not established with denominational support—many are actually nondenominational—and, therefore, have many of the vulnerabilities other infant organizations must overcome. Research has revealed that millions of Americans are leaving churches, half of all churches do not add any new members, and thousands of churches shutter their doors each year. These numbers suggest that American religion is not a growth industry. Yet, more than 1,000 new churches are started in any given year. What are the forces that move people who might otherwise be satisfied working for churches to the riskier role of starting one as a religion entrepreneur? In Church Planters, sociologist Richard Pitt uses more than 125 in-depth interviews with church planters to understand their motivations. First he uncovers themes in their sometimes miraculous, sometimes mundane answers to the question “Why take on these risks?” Then he examines how they approach three common entrepreneurial challenges—recognizing opportunities, marshaling resources, and framing success—in ways that reduce uncertainty and lead them to believe they will be successful. The book combines their evocative stories with insights from research on commercial and social entrepreneurship to explain how these religion entrepreneurs come to believe that their organizational goals must be accomplished, that those goals are capable of being accomplished, and that they would accomplish those goals over time.

The Construction of Permanent Church Halls for effective Church Planting: A Model of the Lighthouse Chapel International

The construction of permanent church halls for effective church planting is one of the many models and ideals employed by Bishop Dag Heward-Mills, founder of the Lighthouse Chapel International to rigorously drive its church expansion efforts across the nations of the world. This article accentuates the benefits and significance of the construction of permanent church halls on church growth and expansion and especially its apparent contribution to engendering confidence and commitment of congregants of new churches planted and overall ensuring stability of church membership. The multi-level model, known as the Anagkazo Church Planting Strategy, has been systematically developed by Heward-Mills, and implemented by LCI church planters worldwide. Using a qualitative research approach, the study analyses the use of the Anagakzo church planting strategy model. Data was gathered from relevant literature, interviews with key informants, views from focus group discussions as well as the use of qualitative questionnaires. The study’s findings indicate that within a relatively short period of implementing the model, the LCI has successfully undertaken church planting both nationally and internationally. It is being recommended that charismatic churches in Ghana endeavour to make the usefulness of permanent church halls in promoting church planting as part of their mission strategy. This can be achieved by pooling financial resources from all the churches within the particular denomination towards building projects. This would fulfil the biblical injunction for equitable distribution of God’s blessings among Christians (2 Cor 8:13-15). The study contributes to research knowledge on Church expansion through church planting.

The Early Religious History of France: An Introduction for Church Planters and Missionaries

Church planters and missionaries in France may not have any idea how important the early religious history of the country is to modern day residents. This survey of France’s religious history up to the year 1000 A.D. demonstrates that many of the beliefs that developed during this time are still quite relevant to twenty-first century France. By understanding these various currants, pastors and missionaries can build upon felt-needs experienced by the French in order to more effectively proclaim the gospel in a persuasive manner.

Finding Still Waters and Green Pastures: Understanding and Reducing Stress in Urban Church Planting

The work of urban church planters is often hindered by high levels of stress. Stress may be viewed as a process that involves stressors and an individual’s perceptions of both the level of threat and his or her ability to deal with the threat. The long term and the short term consequences of stress can be attenuated through appropriate coping strategies such as problem solving, prayer, and seeking social support. Recent empirical evidence indicates that exposure to nature is also very effective, a strategy that might be especially beneficial to urban church planters and their ministries. Several practical applications are suggested.

Three Models of Acculturation: Applications for Developing a Church Planting Strategy among Diaspora Populations

Cross-cultural church planters often work with individuals from several cultures or with immigrants from one specific culture. These church planters can develop a more effective church planting strategy by understanding three models of acculturation, the process of how individuals respond and change when coming into contact with a new culture. The melting-pot one dimensional model describes how immigrants acculturate as time progresses, from one generation to another. The two dimensional acculturation strategies model describes what can be expected to happen to members of a diaspora population due to their views of both their host and home cultures. The social identity model of acculturation predicts immigrants’ desire to be member of a group based on what group membership contributes to their identity. All three models can be used to help choose an appropriate church planting strategy according to the context.

Mission in Evolving Cultures: Constructively Managing Music-Related Conflict in Cross-Cultural Church Planting Contexts

The choice of music, an essential element of worship and church life, mustbe addressed in cross-cultural church planting contexts. As culturesevolve, church planters are faced with choices about musical styles thatmay lead to interpersonal conflicts within the church. The purpose of thisstudy is to empirically examine factors that may enable cross-culturalchurch planters to constructively manage music-related conflicts when theyarise. Members of church plants, like all people, have various goals whenentering into such conflicts. They are concerned about the content of theconflict (i.e., the musical style) and thus have content goals. They arealso concerned about social elements of the conflict (e.g., theirrelationships, their identity and values, and the process used to resolvethe conflict) and thus have social goals. The results of this study of 276evangelical Christians indicate that achieving both content goals andsocial goals contributes to overall satisfaction across various conflictoutcomes. Moreover, the evidence indicates that achieving only a socialgoal leads to greater satisfaction with the conflict outcome than achievingonly the content goal in music related conflict. This implies that churchplanters, when faced with music-related conflict, should strive to meet thegospel-congruent social goals of people with whom they are in conflict inorder to maximize satisfaction with the conflict outcome._______________________David R. Dunaetz, PhDAssistant Professor, Leadership and Organizational PsychologyAzusa Pacific University

Mentoring, modeling, and mandating Leadership influences on the perceptions and activities of church planters in West Africa

The rapid growth of Christianity in Africa in the last three decades is attributed to the aggressive activity of local church planters in their efforts to evangelize and missionize their contexts. Key factors represent important leadership influences serving as catalysts for the rapid increase in the number of new faith communities. Research data in the contexts of Anglophone Nigeria and Francophone Togo demonstrate that leaders serve a vital function in motivating church planters through mentoring, modeling, and mandating church-planting activity.

Personality Traits of Church Planters and Other Church Leaders in Europe (II)

In search of a renewal of their mission in the secularized West, an increasing number of (Protestant) churches have embarked on the creation of new faith communities with a strong missionary purpose. This entrepreneurial approach of mission raises a number of questions, among which the issue of leadership is paramount. Currently, however, very little reliable empirical research has been done among faith entrepreneurs, or ‘church planters’, in Europe. In this article the personality dimensions of 215 church planters are compared with 307 ‘regular’ church leaders (pastors), based on the so-called ‘Big Five’ personality test. Independent samples t-tests showed that church planters are significantly more extravert, open to new experiences, and conscientious than ‘regular’ pastors, and significantly less neurotic, while scores on agreeableness are more or less similar. These results are discussed with a view to existing literature on church planting and entrepreneurship in the West.

Crisis and Resilience among Church Planters in Europe

Church planting – the creation of new Christian communities for missionary reasons – is becoming increasingly accepted among the larger churches and denominations in Europe. As church plants in the secular parts of Europe are usually under-resourced, and remain small, the normalization of this entrepreneurial approach of church and mission raises the question of its sustainability. Part of the answer to this question lies in the resilience of church planters; that is, those who lead these enterprises. In this paper we present the results of a qualitative study of European church planters, with a view to their coping with what often appears to be a mixture of high expectations, unclear structures, and a difficult “market.” This research shows the particular nature of crises in the life of a church planter, while identifying sources of resilience. Its results are relevant both for the assessment of church planting projects, and for the training and coaching of church planters.