AEC2001
The 2000 Anabaptist Church
Planting Survey
Survey Results
Part 4 - Reasons and Strategies for Starting the Church
Angela Zizak
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The church planting process involves identifying
the church’s mission, answering the call, planting strategies, initial
training, denominational guidance and affiliation, and evaluation. Each survey
respondent was asked to share the church’s vision or mission statement. There
are many common themes that these churches share. They seek to reach people
for Christ through vibrant, reflective worship; help themselves and newcomers
grow always in their faith; and discern, equip, and encourage people to use
their gifts not only to serve God but especially to teach others, in turn, about
Jesus Christ. They also strive to maintain an atmosphere of close
family-like relations, and the "community of believers" is continually
emphasized. These visions accurately reflect the trends we see: generally, these
churches are self-supportive, urban or small town, small in size, cell-based,
are open to the community, multi-ethnic (not typical "Anglo"
Anabaptist), and resolve their dilemmas mostly through internal communication
and prayer. What is most interesting is that, despite the fact that all are
under 10 years old, a majority are already working to realize their visions of
planting more cells and churches within the next few years, particularly when
they reach a specific attendance mark (100 or 200, for example). Also, a
majority are preparing to establish more community-oriented outreach ministries,
such as supporting overseas missions or operating their own recovery programs,
homeless shelters, small cafes/restaurants, and educational and vocational
training centers (such as English as a Second Language).
As
shown in Figure 4 titled "Reasons for Church Start," over half of the
ministers initiated the process to plant a new church because they felt a call
from God. Others were started by members or ministers from an existing church.
Twenty-six percent were initiated by the denomination or district/regional
executives. Other reasons for starting the church include outreach to new
people, identifying a geographical area or cultural group without a church, and
experiencing a split in a church.
Objections that were raised about planting the church
include being competition to other churches (25%) and lacking an experienced
core group (20%). A few commented that other church leaders or onlookers thought
they would fail because they were small and lay-led.
Several different groups were involved in the initial
planning process. Half had the original pastor and either new or existing cell
groups involved. Sixty-eight percent received help from conference mission
committees or denominational executives. Only a few sought the assistance of an
outside consultant (13%).
For
a majority of churches (63%) the planning process took several months. Many who
helped start the church had lived in the area where the church was planted,
especially the pastor. In order to obtain information about the area in which
the church was being planted, several strategies were used. Figure 5 labeled
"Strategies in Planting Process" identifies these strategies,
including prayer (82%), spending time in the area (51%), obtaining demographic
information (49%), formulating a philosophy of ministry (47%), having
discussions and debates (39%), and employing surveys in the area (27%).
Besides personal experience with the local area and
people, churches sought information from census data, newspapers, and local
government agencies about the community or neighborhood in which they wanted to
plant a church. Most churches (68%) felt that the community in which they were
founded was either somewhat or very receptive to the idea of a new congregation.
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