Fruitful churches, like fruitful trees, don’t usually spring up on their own. Someone-whether a Johnny (Appleseed) Chapman or a church pioneer-has to sow the seed.
What are the secrets of starting churches? LEADERSHIP brought four experienced church planters together in Minneapolis to talk with editors Dean Merrill and Marshall Shelley. The participants:
-Arthur Fretheim recently retired after planting six Evangelical Covenant churches in Minnesota, New Mexico, and Illinois.
-Victor Fry planted Missouri Synod Lutheran churches in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Maple Grove, Minnesota, before accepting a denominational position, where he has overseen the development of six new congregations.
-Kaye Pattison, who supports himself as a businessman, has planted four Conservative Baptist churches in the Denver area and is currently leading a Bible study he hopes will develop into number five.
-Robert Ross planted two churches-in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Austin, Minnesota-before going to his present congregation, First Church of the Open Bible in Waterloo, Iowa.
Leadership: Does church planting demand a special breed? What kind of person is cut out for pioneering a new church?
Arthur Fretheim: Anyone who intends to plant a church must have three things: (1) vision, the ability to visualize the future church, which will provide a goal to strive for; (2) enthusiasm, because as Paul said, “If the trumpet gives an uncertain sound, who shall prepare for battle?”; (3) perseverance, because there will be many lean days-lonely, small days. You have to remember those are God’s days, too.
Robert Ross: A positive attitude helps, too-being friendly and able to genuinely enjoy your people.
Kaye Pattison: When Jesus told his disciples that the greatest among you would be the least, I think he had church planters in mind. A church planter has to accept the humble, unglamorous role. He won’t be asked to speak to many missionary conferences; he won’t be recognized in denominational meetings. A church planter gets his strokes from doing Christ’s work.
He must be the servant of all-to minister, not to be ministered unto by a congregation. He must be imbued with power, Spirit-filled, able to encourage people to use their gifts of ministry.
Victor Fry: Another essential is that you must have the right spouse and, if there’s a family, supportive family members.
We started our second mission congregation when our children were in sixth grade, second grade, and kindergarten. They were involved delivering fliers and even got the neighborhood kids to help, too. They were caught up in the excitement of starting a new church.
Fretheim: You also need a special kind of laity to make a church go. They have to really want a church, because they’re giving up many privileges. You only raise your family once, and when you put them into a new church, you’re putting them with a limited number of people. Your children won’t make a great number of friends.
We’ve all lost families because they had a teenager, and our church had no other teenagers.
Leadership: Is church planting risky? People who have never done it say, “My goodness, I’d be scared to death.”
Ross: Sure, there’s fear. But that’s where our faith in the Lord comes in. He hasn’t given us a spirit of fear, but of power and a sound mind. You know you may not be totally capable, but God is, and you go on, and the job gets done.
Fry: Church planting isn’t a totally unselfish thing, however. Making calls on people, sharing Christ with them, seeing them folded into the kingdom, seeing a church beginning, and you a tool of the Holy Spirit-there’s no greater joy than that.
In fact, once you’ve tasted that challenge and seen something grow out of nothing, it’s hard to go back and pastor an established church.
Pattison: I can think of nothing more dull than going to an established church and taking care of Aunt Susie’s problems, though I suppose someone has to. I’d much rather be involved in a group of people struggling with more important issues.
Most church planting involves evangelism. Seeing people come to Christ and seeing the growth that results makes it all worthwhile.
Fretheim: I have a high view of visitation, and whenever I go out I pray that I’ll bear the presence of Christ into that home-in a sense “be Christ” in that place. To me, that makes the ministry alive and vital.
Pattison: When you have nothing to offer but Christ, it gets you back to basics. Churches down the street may have stained-glass windows, padded pews, youth pastors, buses-all the reasons people should go to church-and you have none of these. But to see Christ put it together, to realize God is at work-not those great programs-that’s the greatest seminary, the greatest training, the greatest experience anyone in the ministry can have. You learn God can be depended on to build his church.
Leadership: What’s been the reaction of your family when you’ve taken this risk?
Pattison: It’s been a positive experience for us. All of my daughters ended up teaching Sunday school and doing other things they couldn’t have done in a large established church.
They were so involved in ministry that even today, married and with their own families, they’re active in their local congregations. It became part of their blood. I’d love to have them in any congregation I was starting because they’re experienced and well trained.
I’ve even found being a church planter is easier on one’s spouse. It eliminates many of the rigors of being a “pastor’s wife.” If your spouse fears the limelight and always having to have every hair in place, church planting is a more relaxed alternative.
Church planters also have more time for family. If you’re in a church of five hundred, someone’s always calling, and the kids think Daddy loves the congregation more than them. That’s not a problem in the early stages of a church.
Fry: It does create family pressures, though, especially if you’re using your home for meetings and classes. Wives can feel like permanent hostesses.
But at the same time, it’s true-there isn’t that double standard so many churches have for “the pastor’s wife.” She can be much more like anyone else. And the flexible schedule does let you spend some mornings and afternoons with your family.
Leadership: Often the assumption seems to be that church planting is a job for young pastors. They’re hungry, brave (or foolhardy), and have less to lose. Is that true?
Fry: My first assignment out of seminary was to start a church in Las Vegas. There was no nucleus, no building, nothing. I survived, but I really lacked experience and knowledge of church structure and how to do things.
Pattison: Church planting can be devastating for a young man. If he fails in his first charge, it can damage his future ministry.
Fretheim: I agree. If you want to put numbers on it, I’d say church planters should be between thirty-five and forty-five, with ten years of experience.
Why? Because their personal spiritual lives will be severely tested, and they carry the responsibility for people’s immortal souls. In this kind of work, you often face individuals who have theological eccentricities (to put it nicely), and you’ve got to have the maturity to deal with them.
Leadership: If you are young, how can you overcome these obstacles?
Pattison: In our first church, we had a deacon who had been studying the Bible longer than I’d been a Christian. I learned to depend on him in some of the tough situations.
It also helps if you’re under the guidance of an older pastor or a “mother” church.
Leadership: Generally speaking, is the “mothering” strategy better than starting a church on your own?
Fretheim: I’ve done both, and to me the mothering concept is preferable because you have fellowship, which is so important, especially for young pastoral couples.
Second, you have a source of help. New churches don’t usually have adequate teaching staff or musicians, and mother churches can help. They can also help financially.
In addition, the mother church is blessed because often it has been around for fifty or sixty years, and they’re hungry for a new challenge. They’re able to get involved in a grassroots operation.
Pattison: You also get their prayer support.
Fretheim: I’m glad you mentioned that, because there’s nothing more lonely than hoping God will open up a work here and feeling you’re the only one praying. I’m definitely in favor of a mothering, or parenting, church.
Pattison: I’ve also done both, and I agree that a mothering church offers a lot. When a family with teenagers comes into your congregation, you can tell them you tie in with the youth activities in the mother church.
The only disadvantage in a mothering situation is if there are problems in the mother church.
Leadership: Why don’t more established churches do it?
Pattison: I suspect many are so involved in their own ministries they become short-visioned and think, What’s important is what I’m doing. To start a mission church might mean the loss of some people or part of their program.
Is the goal of ministry to build my church, or is it to reach the community for Christ? If we want to reach the community, it’s better to do it with many platoons than one centrally located army.
Leadership: Are there any advantages to pioneering without a mother church?
Fry: There is a spirit of adventure and romance in starting something where no one else has been involved. And there’s a tremendous need for each individual who comes to be involved, which can provide lots of excitement and motivation.
Ross: Being out there by yourself means you can’t pass off the responsibility. There’s no waiting for someone else to do it for you. You have to get the job done.
Fretheim: I suppose it’s possible for a mother church to exercise too much control, and that would be bad. They can support a new operation, but they shouldn’t dictate policies and programs.
Leadership: How strategic is door-to-door prospecting? Do new churches live or die by this? Or are there alternatives?
Ross: You’ve got to get to know people, and the best way is getting into their homes. You’re right where they live.
Fretheim: In a recent book, Lyle Schaller wrote that after twenty-five years of the church growth movement, we have found, in spite of all the new plans, the single best way to build a church is through personal visitation.
So many people are trying to find some other way, but I feel you must ring doorbells for two reasons. First, for your own information. You can’t drive up and down streets and learn much about the community; you have to meet people where they live.
Second, the best way for them to learn about the church is by seeing a face and hearing a voice say, “We’re here to serve in the name of Christ, and God bless you whether you come or not.”
Fry: I’m not sure Lyle Schaller is necessarily referring to door-to-door canvass. Personal visitation is necessary, but door-to-door contacting isn’t always productive.
At one of my churches, I made twenty-three hundred door-to-door calls before we began the ministry. All we gained from those calls was one family. And they didn’t come till two years later.
I think there are better ways of publicizing your ministry, and then you personally follow up those who show an interest.
Pattison: I would concur. Door-to-door visitation is an excellent method, but we never have time to use it. You make better use of your time developing your nucleus. They have better contacts in the community than you’ll ever have. Then, as the church begins to function, you spend your time visiting those who come because of the nucleus.
If you scratch where people are itching, you’ll be surprised how much free PR you get. People will begin to respond to that.
Fry: They have to see you in action in their community. Of course, you need to know the needs of the community, and door-to-door is one way to find out what those needs are.
Pattison: That’s where my approach as a “tent maker” has been especially fruitful. I learn the community the same way the congregation does-not as “the minister” but by my part-time work.
Fretheim: Admittedly, in some communities, because of condos, apartment buildings, and locked doors, you can’t go door to door. You must use direct mail or newspaper ads. But I do think door-to-door visits are important even if the payoff is slim. One of our church planters says he averages one solid contact in two hundred calls.
Ross: I agree cold-turkey calling nets very little . . . initially. What you have to do is note the people who aren’t committed to a church and follow up on them, maybe four or five times.
That’s worked for me, especially with a busing ministry. As we continued to visit the parents of a child attending our Sunday school, sooner or later we would see a majority of them in church.
Fry: One of the best ways to establish rapport and reach out to a community is through a Vacation Bible School, and then following up on parents of the children who come. Those are key prospects: people concerned about having a church in their community.
Pattison: You’re best off “farming” those people you have contacts with-whether through the nucleus, Bible school, youth ministries, or whatever.
In the beginning stages, however, if you haven’t got anything else to do, you might as well go door to door.
Leadership: How do you decide where a new church is needed?
Fretheim: We look for an area with seventy-five thousand population and growing, and which has no church of our type. (Not our denomination, but our type. We’re not anxious to compete with spiritual cousins.)
Then we bring in a nucleus builder who gathers names from our denominational periodical’s subscription list, the alumni directory of North Park College, and other Covenant churches in the vicinity. He tries to assemble a nucleus, a fellowship group that meets and prays together about starting a new church.
After six to eight months, if the group concludes they want to launch a church, that’s where we begin, and we assign a developer/pastor.
Pattison: The best areas for planting churches are (1) those with no other ministry of your style, and (2) those with population growth.
Some communities have decreasing populations. That’s probably not a wise choice for a new church. The strategy there is to revitalize an old church.
Planting a church in a growing area allows the church to grow with the community. You can discover where a city’s growth will be by asking for studies by the planning commission, the state government, county government, and chamber of commerce.
Fry: We’ve found you can get good demographic information from the school districts and corporations like McDonald’s. They work hard at knowing the population trends. If a McDonald’s is going up somewhere, it’s almost certain lots of people will be moving into the area.
Pattison: Land developers often want churches in their subdivisions, and they’ll offer you a tract at reasonable prices-but be careful where they stick you. They may offer an out-of-the-way corner they can’t use for anything else.
One way to get an advantageous location is to approach the developer and explain your church would like to start a day-care center. Then you’ve got his attention.
If you’re in the inner city, where apartment towers are rising and traditional churches are leaving, you may have to be creative, perhaps by using the community room of a high-rise. A cluster of high-rises may have two hundred families; that’s more than many towns that support several churches.
In Colorado, we’ve also had industries move into rural areas and create a boom town. There you can move in with a trailer chapel and start a ministry immediately.
Fry: Once you’ve decided on the general proximity, then location is important. The church has got to be visible and accessible.
Leadership: In picking your site among other churches, how close is too close?
Ross: In my case, circumstantial factors helped determine the church’s location. In Tulsa, I went where the nucleus families were already located. You build a church near your nucleus.
In Austin, Minnesota, we were able to purchase a building a Lutheran group was vacating. So again, circumstances and the availability of land helped determine our location.
Fretheim: As a general rule in an urban area, I’d say half a mile is a good, safe distance from another church. If you get any closer, you hurt your own cause, too, because the area is already serviced. That’s foolish if there are other wide-open areas.
Fry: There are thousands of Lutherans in Minnesota. So why do we keep planting more Lutheran churches? Because the styles of ministry vary, and our style will reach some while another style will reach others. If our goal is reaching people with the gospel, we can’t be concerned about professional jealousy.
Leadership: With people often driving twenty minutes to church these days, do churches really have territorial claims? If style of ministry is what distinguishes churches, theoretically you could be next door and not cut into another church’s ministry.
Pattison: That depends on what happens to our economy. If we ever have another fuel shortage, one of the first things to stop running will be church buses. Next will be the people driving ten miles to church-they’ll find one in their community.
It is true, however, that in rural towns you’ll find four churches on the same corner. That’s all right if they have four different styles of ministry.
A friend of mine started a church in Colorado near several other evangelical churches. Yet he aimed his ministry at the tremendous number of unchurched people in that area. He wasn’t sheep-stealing; there were people yet to be reached.
Fretheim: Last year, we ran a house-to-house survey in our area trying to determine who was churched and unchurched. By our results, the community was 60 percent Catholic. We took our list to the Catholic priest and checked it against the parish records, and we found only 50 percent were bona fide Catholics. Ten percent were just using the name to get rid of Protestant doorbell ringers.
Pattison: We have something like 80 million people in the United States who do not go to any existing church. That’s a larger mission field than almost any nation to which we send missionaries. Church planters need to see themselves as missionaries reaching the lost.
Leadership: How do you keep your sanity in rented facilities?
Fretheim: Recognize the benefits: they’re cheap. We met in a school for $44 a Sunday. Now that congregation is paying $5,000 a month for its own building.
Also, be honest and deal in good faith with those you’re renting from. I still shudder when I think of a school we used in Minnesota. Another church had preceded us in renting the building, and they had a clever way of leaving tracts throughout the building so on Monday the school personnel would be evangelized. All it produced was ill will.
Pattison: I’d suggest: (1) hire a custodial service-either from the school, the landlord, the community, or even from within the congregation to solve the problem of what’s left on Monday morning. (2) Try to secure storage space in the building you’re renting so you don’t need a caravan of station wagons to haul equipment every Sunday. (3) Get into your own quarters as quickly as you can.
Fry: We’ve used gyms, cafeterias, even a lodge hall with a moose head gazing down from the wall. We found it helped to use banners-items that were “ours”-to enhance the visual effect that this is the place of God for us.
Leadership: What are the financial facts of life in a new church?
Pattison: Don’t lay a financial burden on a small congregation if you want it to grow. That’s essential. People struggling with the family budget don’t want to come to church to hear about more financial problems. Take positive action to dispel the fear that all this church wants is my money.
What we have found as a workable solution is to not take an offering; we simply let people know where the offering plates are located and remove the fear that all we want is their money.
Ross: The only emphasis I’ve ever put on finances is to preach about tithes and offerings and then give people an opportunity to respond.
I was speaking at a religious school one day, and a young boy asked, “Why do you make people tithe?”
I challenged him, “Just try to make people tithe. You can’t do it.” I explained that when it’s presented properly, tithing doesn’t offend; people respond.
Pattison: Two other things are important. First, don’t neglect missions. People in a small church especially need to give to something besides themselves.
Second, establish rapport with a lending institution that will eventually finance your building. Start your savings account there. Let the banker know about your assets, that you have twenty-five families and they all have savings accounts, that you’ve been able to lay aside funds in excess of your needs, and that as soon as you construct a building, figures indicate you’ll double in size. That talks to bankers, and they’re willing to help you.
Fretheim: What I stress is information and confidence. In financial matters, one breeds the other. Keeping people informed about the needs and the status gains their confidence. That’s why we make clear financial reports available every month.
Our church also tithed its income. We felt if we preached it, we should practice it, so a tenth of our income went to causes outside the local area.
Leadership: What’s the pastor’s role in a young church’s finances? Are you personally involved?
Fretheim: In budgeting and policies, yes. But I’ve never seen the financial secretary’s books. I don’t want to know what anyone gives. When I preach, people know I haven’t looked them up in the book.
Leadership: How many people do you need to start a church? Traditionally, the old Jewish custom required ten heads of household before establishing a synagogue.
Ross: That’s not a bad rule of thumb.
Pattison: We’ve started ours with five families in the nucleus, approximately twenty-five people. When it grows to ten families, you know it’s established. And it usually grows pretty quickly.
If each of those five families, who are really enthused, can bring one family, suddenly you’ve doubled in size, and you’re the fastest-growing church in the community!
Fretheim: There are two times when you really grow: when you begin the Sunday program and when you enter your own building. So you want to begin the Sunday program as soon as you can, even if it’s only with five families.
Fry: You need something to which you can invite people.
Leadership: What can new churches offer that established churches can’t?
Pattison: In searching for a church, most Christians look for what a church can do for them. In church planting, however, the people who are willing to commit themselves have a higher level of spiritual commitment. They’re asking, “What can I do for the Lord?”
Pioneer churches give laity an opportunity to minister that they don’t get in larger congregations.
Fry: In addition, mission churches have higher percentages of new and/or reclaimed Christians, which produces a different vitality.
Fretheim: A new church has a very clear goal in mind: to build a congregation and, eventually, a building. That provides remarkable motivation.
Leadership: Should the founding pastor move on when the church is established? If so, when do you know it’s time?
Fretheim: For me, I feel my job is to gather the congregation, build the building, and install the program. Then my phase is finished, and it’s time for someone else to integrate the people into the program-and to wrestle with the debt I’ve incurred. (Laughter) A new voice at that time is good.
Leadership: Did you announce that in advance?
Fretheim: Yes. In Illinois I said, “I’ll take you through the building program,” but I was sixty-five when I began. And I stayed two years longer than I’d planned.
Fry: Congregations reach certain plateaus, and new leadership is important. We also need to make use of those gifted in church planting, freeing them to go out and do it again.
Pattison: I think that was Paul’s ambition when he said he didn’t want to build “on someone else’s foundation” (Rom. 15:20).
Fry: On the other hand, some plant a church and feel no need to do it again. They stay with that flock forty years.
Leadership: What should the founding pastor do to prepare the church for his successor?
Pattison: Emphasize the ministry, not the minister. Let them know the goal is reaching the community, and that the next pastor will do things differently.
I’ve found it’s best to let a young congregation go for a while without a pastor, which means you have to leave them in sound financial shape. But that six months or so with an interim is important for them in finding the first pastor of their choosing.
Leadership: How do you handle discouragement? Have you ever felt like pulling the plug on a failing new church?
Pattison: If the need is there, you never pull the plug-you correct the problem. That’s an area where small churches have the advantage over large ones: it’s easier to turn a rowboat than an ocean liner.
Christ will see his body grow. If the initial reason for planting the church is still there, then fight through the problems and go on with the ministry.
Also, recognize the problems inherent in a small congregation. There are twelve Sundays in summer, for instance, and most people will be on vacation for three of them. So, at best, a fourth of your congregation will be gone on any given Sunday. Don’t be discouraged. We don’t need big numbers to keep us going; encouragement comes from seeing people respond to Christ.
Ross: I agree. If you go by your emotions, you’re always facing the question “Will this make it or won’t it?” But if you’re determined to hold on, to keep fighting those spiritual battles, things have a way of working out.
Your encouragement comes in retrospect as you look back and see how far you’ve come since you started. Even a little progress makes a big difference in church planting, and seeing that helped me through the rough places.
Fretheim: At the beginning of my ministry in Cottage Grove, Minnesota, we were very, very small. One day I met the local Catholic priest, who asked me, “How many people will you have at church next Sunday?”
I wasn’t proud, so I admitted, “Oh, maybe a dozen.”
“Don’t feel badly,” he said. “I know a man who had twelve followers, and he did all right.”
That insight helped me, and it’s stayed with me ever since.
Copyright © 1984 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
