The 2000 Anabaptist Church Planting Survey:

Reflections and Practical Implications

Steve Clapp

I have two wonderful young adult friends with whom I will be sharing supper this evening. Although Holly and Michael are brother and sister, there are ways in which one can’t help being surprised that they came from the same gene pool and shared essentially the same childhood environment. . . . They are both deeply loved by their family and friends, they are both professionally successful, and they both make significant contributions to the improvement of life for others. But they are very different.

As we look at the results of our study of fifty-one of the churches planted by Anabaptists in North America over the last decade, it is important for us to recognize the extent to which each of these new congregations is unique. While some have the same "parents" in terms of denominational family and even some key elements in the planting process, they have grown in very diverse ways. 

*     *     *

In his talks to us and in his very fine book, Church Planting: Laying Foundations, Stuart Murray has urged us to think carefully about the kinds of churches we are planting and about the ways in which we are doing so. Here are a few reflections that seem important for us to consider as we look to the future of Anabaptist church planting in North America:

1. It is very important that we think carefully about the link between our denominations and the new churches that are planted, whether that planting is initiated by the denomination or at another level. . . .

Are we doing enough to strengthen bonds between our denominations and the new churches? While 61% of the pastors in this study did feel supported and encouraged by their denomination or regional judicatory body, 31% would like more support and encouragement, and 6% did not feel they were supported or encouraged. While all fifty-one churches were identified through denominational lists, some of them did not indicate any denominational affiliation on the surveys!

*     *     *

2. We need to think carefully about the target size of the churches that we are planting. . . .

Our study suggests that church plants tend to become as large as we intend for them to be. There is a very close link among the expected attendance at the first worship service, the actual attendance at that service, and the future rate of growth of the congregation. Figure 11 below shows the hoped-for initial attendance for the churches in our study. Over half of them anticipated 50 or fewer persons at the first worship service. Those which targeted a larger number for the first worship service generally had a larger number and also had more persons year-after-year. Waiting long enough for the first worship service to build a larger core of people results in a church with more volunteer strength, a better core size for attracting new people, more options in class groupings for Christian education, and stronger financial support.

*     *     *

We’ve looked at the good news which we can celebrate about Anabaptist church planting in North America, and we’ve looked at some issues which merit reflection. What are the main practical implications for future church planting which we have gained from this study? I would suggest the following:

*     *     *

2. The more training and orientation the initial planter and others on the planting team have received, the more likely the church plant is to be strong and successful. Those who have received training and orientation know better what to expect and how to plan. We did not find a single model which clearly correlated with strong church plants, but we did find that those leaders who are better prepared for the planting process are more likely to succeed.

*     *     *

5. Healthy new churches are more likely to be started by a team than by a single individual. There are certainly instances of one person, generally a pastor, starting alone and developing a successful new church; but those instances are the exception. The size of the initial team (or core group or cell group, depending on the terminology most comfortable to you) can vary considerably, and an employed pastor may well be the clear leader of that team. The presence of a team, however, makes a tremendous difference. The team brings a larger number of gifts and a larger support base than any individual or couple alone can have.

This past year, I have had the pleasure of discovering the writing of Anne Lamott. She offers a delightfully non-traditional view of the spiritual life and wonderful descriptions of the small congregation in California, which transformed her personal life. She has written eloquently about that congregation both in her book Traveling Mercies and in Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son’s First Year.

She had enormous problems with alcohol and cocaine addiction when she first started coming to that small Presbyterian congregation. It was located close to a favorite flea market of hers; and she would slip into the sanctuary on Sunday morning, staying far enough back and leaving quickly enough to avoid actual contact with people – especially the hugs which people were fond of giving. Most in the congregation happen to be black; Anne Lamott is not. Over the course of time, the love and acceptance of the congregation pulled her in. She describes it this way in Operating Instructions:

When I’d first started coming to the church, I couldn’t even stand up for half the songs because I’d be so sick from cocaine and alcohol that my head would be spinning, but these people were so confused that they thought I was a child of God. Now they’ve seen me sober for three years, and they saw me through my pregnancy. . . . Toward the end of my pregnancy, people were stuffing money into my pockets, even though a lot of them live on welfare and tiny pensions. They’d sidle up to me, slip a twenty into the pocket of my sweater, and dart away.¹

That small congregation transformed her life, and her writing has transformed the lives of many others. That’s part of what church planting is about – finding the strategies to reach those who have been missed by more established churches. Yes, it is partly about numbers. Yes, it is partly about finding ways to link people to our denominational heritage. But it is primarily about the power of Jesus Christ to change lives – and the willingness of our Lord to work through us and the church in that process, to make us part of the mission of God.

_________________

1. Anne Lamott, Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son’s First Year (New York: Ballantine Books, 1999), 28.

 2000-2008 New Life Ministries (www.NewLifeMinistries-NLM.org). All Rights Reserved.
(see information on our copyright policy)

Top of Page