Pioneering Strategies (Starting a church or ministry)

 

The Opportunity

As believers, we are called to “Go!” We start in our Jerusalem, which may be our local church. Then God takes us into deeper waters with our Judea and Samaria. But finally, He calls us to go into all the earth. For some, the Lord calls us to go and start a church.

As we look at America and other Western nations, the need for pioneers has not been greater. Years ago, when I wanted to start a church, I recall all the resistance, especially from many religious elites who felt there was no need for new churches. Sadly, we have many dead churches and very few powerful ones.

Today, less than 35% attend church. If you look, for example, where I live, there are around 100,000 people. If we add a few other suburbs, we can come up with at least 200,000 people. So, that means at most 70,000 people attend a local church. That means at least 130,000 within a radius of around 10 miles are not attending a church.

Now, if we look at the Spirit-filled or Full Gospel churches, the majority have fewer than 100 people, so the number of people hearing the Full Gospel is very small. Sadly, many pastors seek to protect their turf, claiming that they alone have been given the city, yet the reality is that they are reaching everyone.

Listen, believers may be willing to travel a distance to enjoy a good church, but sinners typically don’t. I have produced a video on the early church, how they met in house churches and in storefronts. In any city, there were many churches. In Ephesus, Paul called for the elders of the church at Ephesus in Acts 20. Many of these elders were pastors- “Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers…” (Acts 20: 28).

So, in Ephesus, many churches worked together and often gathered.

Jesus said:

“The children of the world are wiser in this their generation than the children of light.”

Luke 16: 8

The world recognizes the importance of identifying opportunities and developing effective strategies for them. Yet the church tends to fly by the seat of its pants and wonder why it fails.

Where Should You Pastor

If the Lord has called you to pastor and put a vision inside you to pioneer a church, we need to spend time in the Secret Place and let the vision grow on the inside.

“Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.”

Psalm 37: 4

We should never be ashamed of the desire He has put in us for the kingdom. Now, we must make sure that we walk with the highest integrity and be careful not to start a church right beside a full Gospel church. We are not seeking to compete with other churches but to reach new areas and expand the kingdom.

The Cost

If we know that we know He has called us to pioneer a church, then we must trust that He has given us a green light and we keep moving forward until He gives us a red one. This is why we must walk with ears to hear and eyes to see.

“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.”

Romans 8: 14

We want to be led by the Spirit and to be found pleasing to Him. We must continue to press forward and do the foundational work of learning and researching.

The wonderful thing about pioneering a church is that you can build it according to the vision the Lord has given you. However, pioneering a church is a lot of hard work, and it takes time and commitment. You must refuse to be moved by discouragements and develop a never-quit mind and heart set.

The Call

The most important thing in starting a new work is the call from Heaven. If Jesus calls, then He will open a door that no one can shut. Make sure you are clear on the call. If it is to start a new church, then:

1. Don’t be frightened to hold a fundraiser. We often tend to get nervous about money, especially when asking for it. But it will take money to start and run a church. People need to see the value of your vision and the call of God on your life.
2. Don’t seek to do everything immediately. A lot of pressure will be placed on you to have a children’s ministry, teen ministry, etc. The reality is, there is only so much you can do
3. Focus on building the core, the inner group of people who captured your vision and will help you accomplish it.
4. Focus on the unchurched. Today, the harvest is plentiful, and the number of those who are unchurched is large. You will find backsliders who left the church and unbelievers.
5. Launch Large. If you look at Kathryn Kuhlman when she started the church in Denver, she started large. Then didn’t have the budget, but to Kathryn they served a big God.

The Foundations

The three keys that can destroy a church plant are:

1. Lack of a divine call
2. Lack of strategy
3. Lack of funds

 One issue that must be overcome is the fear of launching. What do you mean? Well, you want to launch and have a big vision regarding a launch, but fear of failing hinders you. But remember, that where two or three are gathered in His Name, you have a church.

Starting a church is hard work, and the first year can be challenging.

What is Your Strategy?

Without a clear strategy, you will struggle and most likely fail. Your plan describes what the Lord has called you to do and how you will get from where you are to the place where the Lord wants you to be. What steps will you take?

You need to look at how much you will invest in different exercises and the expedited results. The strategy or plan outlines what will be done, when it will be completed, who will be responsible, what the costs will be, and the expected results.

The plan needs to demonstrate to people the value of the church, its mission, vision, and the milestones along the way that will be used to evaluate performance. If you want people to invest time and money, they need to know the vision and see the bigger picture of what God has called you to do.

If you plan to start a business, you have to develop a business plan that includes several key components. Developing a business plan helps you fine-tune the vision and bring greater clarity. It needs to be written down so that people can read it and run with it.

If we look at a church, what will make this church different from those already in the area? Not that we speak from a sense of competition, but there needs to be a clear value statement regarding the church. Why would people want to come to this church and, even more importantly, become a member? If you can’t explain that, then it will be hard to persuade people to do so. This is something that should be a fire inside of you if you are called by Heaven.

“Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it.”

Habakkuk 2: 2

We are going to take you through a plan in a minute. But taking the time to develop one will help you develop your strategy, fine-tune it, address key issues, and get people to buy into it.

Your New Church Business Plan

I call it a business plan because it is classified as a non for profit business and as such there are legal components like a business plan to it.

Part One- The Executive Summary

This is usually the last part that is written, but is the first part in the document. It provides a short and to-the-point summary explaining the mission of the church, the goals the church will achieve, and an overview of the key and most important aspects of the plan. You must state what you will do, why you are doing it, how you will do it, when you will do it, the steps, and the results you will achieve.

Part Two- The Church Description

In this section, you will provide more detail on the church, including the mission of the church, the vision, and why the church is needed.

The mission statement shares the purpose of the church. This should be a short but clear statement that defines and separates the church from other churches. You should be able to define what you are going to do and the value you bring.

The Vision- this is not the same as the mission statement. The mission describes the church’s purpose and what it does in the present tense. The vision describes the aspirational future goals and aims of the church. The mission statement defines why you are here, and the vision declares where you are going.

Market Analysis- You want to do homework on the territory to understand the market. For example, how many people live within a certain distance of where you plan to have the church, and how many currently attend a church. Let’s say there are 100,000 people, and only 30,000 attend a church, and of that, only 20,000 attend a Christian church. That means there are at least 80,000 people not going to church that you can target. Now, let’s say you are a Full Gospel Church, you can then add how many Full Gospel churches are in a ten-mile radius and how many people attend those churches. You discover there is just one such church with only 200 people, so now you can see the additional value of the church.

Now you could add additional insight and say if you look at a larger area, what is he picture, and further show the value of your church. Sadly, in America, the harvest is plentiful and laborers are few.

What You Offer- Define what your church will bring to the table, and in light of the market analysis, the value of the church. Now, you may look and see that while there are several local churches, they all preach a compromised message, and your goal is to preach an uncompromised message.

Marketing Strategy- How will you make people aware of the church? One way of looking at marketing is how to deliver the church’s message to a target market accurately. Large companies want everything from their logo to their products, and their promotional material to reflect the vision. They will spend a lot of money on the name of the company, logo, and even the colors they use. You may not have this kind of budget, but you can ensure you deliver a consistent message, and you determine how you will reach the target market.

• Will you use flyers?
• Will you use a public event?
• Will you go door-to-door?
• Will you use social media?
• And how much will it cost, and what results do you expect?
• Will you have a website?

Organizational Structure: What is the leadership structure of the Church? How do people become leaders?

Operational Plan- What will the church do, by whom, when, and where? What resources will be required for these tasks? For example, will you have a building, rent a school, or a storefront? What about seating? Sound? Will you record services?

You can also explain the stages of how the church will develop over time. As I have explained to you, typically, you can’t do everything at the beginning, and you will need to add ministries over time. Identifying what ministries are important, where you will start, and how you will develop will help you with the church budget as well.

Financial Plan- To start and run a church, it will cost money. You need to count the cost before you start. If you are going to believe God for the money, then you need to know how much. In the financial plan, you describe what it will cost and where the money will come from. Additionally, you need to consider the costs associated with things like incorporation and state recognition.

Funding Plan- how will you raise money? You may need to set goals and the tasks on how you will achieve those goals.

While this is a lot of work and will require brainstorming and much prayer, as you develop it, the plan will help you achieve greater success. We want to make an impact for the kingdom, so let’s do it right and, through prayer, fasting, and acting in wisdom, develop winning strategies.

As part of your plan, define who you can go to for support because you will experience challenges along the way. You will need help.

In addition, you will need to think about how you will receive offerings and record them along with expenses. Doing this manually can be challenging, especially as you grow, but software can be expensive.

Please note that regarding credit card information, you can’t store this unless it is encrypted.

Communications

As you build your plan and strategy, make it simple and easy to understand. If we look at Jesus, He spoke is direct and simple language so everyone could understand Him. You are not building a plan for high-end businesspeople to understand, but regular people. You want them to see your heart and catch your vision.

As you spend time in the Secret Place, the Lord will reveal the plan to you. Also, draw on others who have started a church because they will share powerful insights.

Setting Goals

When setting goals, use the SMART strategy:

S- Specific, or state clearly what the goal is, and do not be vague. For example, we will raise $50,000

M- Measurable– there has to be a gauge to measure the goal. I recall when I managed, we were not allowed to set goals unless they could be specifically measured. So, is there a way you can measure whether or not the goal has been reached? Well, if it is $50,000 in donations, then we can look at whether we raised $50,000 or not.

A Attainable- You have to be able to achieve the goal, or it is not really a goal but a dream. If we set $50,000 as the goal, and it may well be $1,000,000 because the chances of us raising $50,000 are next to impossible, then it is unattainable.

R- Relevant- The tasks assigned to reach the goal must clearly relate to that specific goal

T- Time-Bound- You need to set a time period during which you plan to achieve that goal so you can measure whether or not you were successful. So, let’s say $50,000 within 6 months.

Use the SMART language as you set the goals for the ministry (this also applies to businesses as well). You may have several goals running at one time, and you will need to prioritize them accordingly. As the church grows and you add staff, you can use SMART goals to conduct job reviews. By providing SMART goals to each employee, they know what they are supposed to achieve, how, and when.

Budget

As I have explained, starting and running a church costs money. You will need to determine what the budget is for the ministry. There are certain regular expenses you may face:

Websites- setting up a website costs money, and maintaining it will cost money. You will be surprised just how expensive a website can be. Often, a Website requires many plugins that need to be renewed every year. For example, an SEO package or Blog Package will incur an annual cost. You may need to pay for the Website domain as well.

Salary- Will you take a salary? Will you have any staff? Part-time or full-time?

Marketing? Everything, from business cards and letterhead to brochures and promotional items, will fall under marketing.

Facility Costs- how much will it cost to own/ rent the place where you hold services, etc.?

Utilities?

Office and church furniture?

Software- for accounting, taking credit cards, etc.

Audio? Video?

And others?

You will need to look at all the expenses and ensure you have the budget for them. In your business plan, you will need to address these issues. You may not need everything, as some items may be provided by others or included in the building rental, etc.

Legal

In setting up a church or ministry, you will need to make sure you address all of the legal components. In the US, Churches need to be incorporated and registered with the IRS. They don’t need to obtain a 501(c) in order to provide a tax credit for donations. If you are recognized as a church by the IRS, you are able to provide a tax credit. Incorporation can be costly, as can be setting up a 501 (c).

While you don’t need a 501 (c) to give tax credit, some organizations, like Meta, will not allow you to receive donations without a 501 (c). If you do apply for a 501(c)  you may have to comply with government regulations that may be against the core values of the church.

You may need to submit an annual report to the state every year. The cost is minimal.

Money

As you have seen, running a ministry requires financial resources, so you will need to be able to accept donations and accurately record them. It takes money to raise money, and it takes money to run the church. Now you may not initially want to take a salary as soon as he ministry is able, it is recommended that you take some salary. This places value on what you do, and a worker is worthy of his wages.

You may also want to seek out partners, those people committed to regularly giving to the ministry. This will help provide a consistent source of income.

Ethics

We will look closer at ethics in another lesson, but it is important to note that many ministries fail because of failing in this area. As ministers, we must walk with the highest level of ethics and accountability.

Key Questions to Ask

As you move forward, as I said, you need to know that you know. So, here are some good questions to ask:

Has God called you to the pastoral ministry?

Having pioneered a church, you will make mistakes and face many Goliaths. If you look at the Temptations Jesus endured, the first challenge of the devil was, “If you are…” (Matt. 4: 3). Through experience, I can assure you that you will be attacked in this area.

Jesus was also challenged by the religious elites, who wanted to know under whose authority He was operating. Jesus had not gone to their Bible School or sat under one of their recognized theologians.

If you don’t resolve this issue, you will find yourself chasing your tail and hindered from being full effective.

If He calls you, He will equip, provide, and anoint you for the task. This does not mean it will be easy, but you will produce fruit that glorifies the Lord.

If he didn’t call you, then you open the door to a world of trouble, a lot of pain, and frustration.

What is the Name of the Church

Today, many churches spend a fortune to have a high-end marketing company do research and determine the best name. Why would they do this? There is power in a name, and the right name will help you; the wrong name will misrepresent your vision. I believe that as the Lord gives the vision, He will provide the right name. Ideally, the name reveals the vision and helps to draw the initial key people needed to carry the vision forward.

Where will you start?

If you look at the lesson on the Church, where we looked at the early church, we saw that many started in houses or storefronts. I have personally run services in houses, storefronts, hotels, schools, auditoriums, and other churches. Each one has positives and negatives.

Houses

House churches have the lowest cost and can help you focus on the core and the things necessary for the church to grow. Houses of churches enable you to build up funds, and you can get a team committed to your vision before you move forward.

Unfortunately, with house churches, there are several negatives:

• The owner of the house may not be comfortable allowing strangers in or advertising their house
• You are restricted in how much you can grow
• Parking issues, which may create problems with neighbors
• So neighborhoods will not allow regular church meetings in the house
• Some people become too comfortable, causing distractions or assuming authority that they don’t have
• Unless it is your own house, you don’t have an office with the church to meet and minister to people

Hotels

 

Hotels can be appealing for visitors and can present the vision more effectively than a house. Hotels can allow for growth and can allow various ministries, such as children’s ministry, to be run at the same time. You can also have more space than in a house. Costs for a hotel are typically moderate.

Disadvantages

• You are restricted to the times agreed on the contract
• The hotel may move you to different rooms, and not all rooms are conducive to services
• You may be restricted regarding noise levels, which will hinder worship
• You don’t have an office attached to the church
• You will need to rent or provide a sound system

Schools

Some schools are great for doing church services, though when numbers are small, it can look very empty and less appealing to visitors. In schools, you often can have access to several rooms allowing for children’s ministry, etc. Costs are typically a little more than a hotel. Schools are great for growing the church.

Disadvantages:

• Restricted to contracted time
• You may have to set up every service
• You will need to provide a sound system
• The office is not attached to the church
• Often hard to find a school that is available and willing to allow a church to use their facility

 

Churches

Using another church building can be a great way to have a church and potentially an office in the same building. The building is set up for a church service and will have rooms for other ministries, such as children’s. Depending on the agreement with the church owners, you may have more freedom about time and sound levels. Further, having a physical building helps with advertising, and again, depending on the agreement, you may have access to an office.

Disadvantages

• Low to moderate costs
• You may be restricted to holding services at unusual times to avoid any conflict (such as Saturdays instead of Sundays or Sunday evenings)
• You are restricted to the quality of the sound system and the condition of the church
• The church you are using may hold values you disagree with, and it could impact the church’s image

Storefronts

A storefront offers the ability to make the place look closer to your vision, and if large enough, offers additional rooms for various ministries and an office. Furthermore, having a fixed place means you don’t have to set up before each service and then take it down. A good location and storefront can aid in church growth.

Disadvantages

• Costs can be high as you will need to pay rent and utilities
• You are often tied into a contract that may be multi-year long
• The pastor may have to take responsibility when signing the contract or with the utility companies to ensure payments. This means that if anything happens to the church or funds are insufficient, the pastor may be held liable even if the ministry is incorporated

Obviously, other places can be rented or purchased, and the pastor will need to prayerfully and with wisdom make the best decision for the church.

Legal and Governmental Requirements

It is important to understand the legal and other requirements that need to be addressed based on the country or location. In the United States, a church needs to be incorporated and an EIN obtained. If it is a church, it should be registered with the IRS as a church, which makes it exempt from taxes. However, there are still reports that are required, for example, the state demands an annual report.

In the United States, at present, a church that is recognized by the government as a church is able to provide a tax credit for offerings. A ministry that is not a church would need to obtain a 501C. Churches can also apply for 501 (c) (3) status. Many organizations refuse to accept a church as a nonprofit that can receive donations unless they have a  501 (c), for example, Facebook. So, not having a  501 (c) can restrict a church’s ability to receive donations. However, the government can impose requirements on organizations with 501 (c) (3) status, which may not align with Christian beliefs.

 

Finances

Just like starting a business, it takes finances. Now the reality is a part of the ministry is a business and must be run like one, for example, the accounting side. You will need to keep good records of donations and expenses.

But to start a church, you will need to determine how much money it will take to get the church started and in a good position. The costs will include the rent, supplies, marketing, advertising, equipment, and potential salaries.

Typically, a part of these initial finances will come from the pastor. However, if you share your vision with friends and family, they may sow into it to help cover the initial costs.

 

Business Plan

When you start a business, you need to put together a business plan. The plan comprises several key components. In the same way, it helps to have a plan for the church or ministry. It starts by doing some research and identifying the opportunity. You would define what you will do, why you will do it, how you will do it, and what success looks like.

If you are to gain critical initial support and build a core to assist you, having a clear vision and mission will help.

Advertising and Marketing

For many in ministry, market is an evil term, but if you understand marketing, then you will know it is about effectively communicating the right message. For example, everything from the logo to the location, to the brochures, to the advertising, must present a consistent message.

Now, a church should never use research to be the authority regarding what they do and how. The Holy Spirit must be Lord, and we must follow His leading. Research and marketing are just tools.

Now you will need brochures to provide information to visitors, you may want to advertise, etc. All this requires money.

You will need to determine how you will advertise, where, and when. But good advertising can help you achieve your goals.

Leaders and Helps

To get the ministry going and to grow you will need a helps ministry, which will include a worship team, greeters, nursery workers, etc. This will mean you will need leaders, and we strongly caution you to do your due diligence on those in the helps and be slow to appoint leaders.

It is worth determining what you really need to start with, for example, we decided that we would have a very simple nursery but no children’s ministry.

Make the Vision Clear

If you are to draw people and keep them, you need to have a clear vision and purpose with which the people align. Focus on building the inner core of people who will play a critical role in helping you grow the church.

Intercessors

If you study the heroes of faith and look at the ones who started successful churches, they understood the power and importance of intercessors.

Train and Model the Behavior You Need

One of the major reasons visitors don’t come back is the lack of hospitality. Remember that if you don’t walk out the behavior you want to see in your leaders and members of the church, it will never happen. Create an environment where people matter and are loved.

Commitment

Remove the word quit from your vocabulary. Secondly, be fully committed and remove excuses. Whether you get a crowd or not, you preach and minister like you have a full house.