I have had NewChurches.Com for ten years now. Its been a labor of love... I have never made any money on the site, though I have dropped a lot into it!
I actually started the site in February of 1998, when I was a pastor of Millcreek Community Church in Erie, PA. We had started the church, it grew to 350-400 people over three years, and then we announced we were starting two daughter churches: LakePointe Church and New Hope Church.
We had NO earthly idea what we were doing, but people kept coming and we wanted to keep starting churches. And, other pastors and churches started to ask us for advice...
Our advice was pray hard, tell people about Jesus, and start more churches. But, they wanted some examples... so, we started putting stuff online at NewChurches.Com in March 1998.
Other church planters also began to share their materials there. Five years later, I would write a book from some of the resources we gathered there (and update it a few years after that).
I kept the site after I became a seminary professor and used it some for the SBTS Church Planting Center. I took it with me to NAMB but did not use it for work as NAMB has a great site called The Church Planting Village.
I always kept it separate from my job so that all kinds of denominational (and non-denominational) folks could share data there.
NAMB is a denominational missions agency, so their focus is (appropriately) on helping SBC planters. NAMB can't be promoting, for example, the good materials that my friends at the Assemblies of God church planting site... but I can.
NewChurches.Com was eventually, and may still may be, the largest repository of free church planting materials available.
When I left NAMB, which has more of a church planting focus than LifeWay Research, I did not want the site to lose it helpfulness to church planters. So, I partnered with Passion for Planting and Church Plant Media to continue to run the site.
Todd Wilson and the people at Passion for Planting do great work. It is a non-denominational church planting ministry with a heart for planters. They also run the National New Church Conference (now called the Exponential Conference).
I have met only a few leaders with Todd's level of character and excellence, and I have turned over day-to-day operation of the site to Todd. It feels like giving away your baby, but there are few people I trust as much as Todd.
Also, Dustin Stearman owns a web company with a unique niche: they work with church planters. I think Church Plant Media is the leading resource for church plant web sites. Dustin and his team have put in many hours revamping the site... and they have done it so that we can give away resources for free.
Here are some new features:
There is a Getting Started page.
We have over twenty featured bloggers... and it is a who's who of church planting. Click here for the list.
You can find world class podcasts here.
Upcoming events are listed here.
And, you can use the Converge strategic management tool here.
I love church planters... and, if you are a planter, I hope this site will help you focus on the things that really matter.
As I started giving church planting advice ten years ago, it is still applicable today: pray hard, tell people about Jesus, and start more churches.
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