Date: Jun 30, 2003 [ 8: 24: 20]
Subject: Summary - When & Where to Meet
© 2003 BCP Harry Shelton Cole
Subject: Summary - When & Where to Meet
SUMMARY OF THE BAPTIST CHURCH PLANTING LIST
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Moderated and edited by Pastor Harry Shelton Cole
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Introduction: It was a good week for the list and the answers to the
questions of the week were all excellent. This is definiately one for the
Archives.
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How often should a church planter begin to meet?
Where should the church planter meet at first?
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Mike Holmes, a church planter helper in Colorado responded to the
question of the week with the following
Out west here many church planters start with Sunday AM and PM services.
They often have no sunday school or mid week services. They often use
the Wed. Nights to go out and raise support from other churches.
As far as meeting places go, hotels often work well, as do 7th Day
Adventist building and VFW halls.
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Dr. Marvin McKenzie began his church similiarly to the way we did here
in Great Barrington. My reasoning was simply because I wanted my family
in church as often as possible and to set the norm from the beginning
for the couple we started with. If I were to do it again I may not do
it the same way. We just started a new work in a town 35 miles away and
the man we have put there has Sunday Evening services because his job as
a state trooper has conflicted temporarily. He attends his home church
(us) when he is able. It is hard for a church planter to work a
full-time job and preach 4 times a week.
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Brother McKenzie wrote:
>How often should a church planter begin to meet?
I think you are asking how many times per week the church planter should
hold services.
I arrived in Astoria on a Saturday afternoon. Held two services the
next day, one the following Wednesday, and have kept them up ever since.
It wasn't until just a few years ago that I even conceived of the idea
of doing anything else. A friend of mine planted a church in our state
and began with only one service, that being an 11:00 Sunday AM service.
As he developed more of a nucleus he went to a Sunday Evening and then
a Wednesday service. The last to be added was Sunday School, something
like a year after he had begun. It worked well for him.
I see a few problems with that approach. The biggest being that you
have trained your foundational congregation that those services outside
the 11:00 service are not as important.
When we stepped out to plant a work out of this one down in Tillamook,
OR, we began with a Saturday night Bible study. Eventually we went to
Sunday Services ( all three of them) but we kept the Saturday Bible
study for a couple of years. We encouraged the pastor especially to
attend Bayview Baptist on Wednesday nights for his own edification. He
did so until just a few months ago, when the work in Tillamook had
gotten to a sufficient size to have a reasonable good Wednesday group (
around 20).
>Where should the church planter meet at first?
I was given a tape by a church planter one time where he used First
Baptist of Hammond, IN as an example. he said if a church could be
build at that location, in those buildings, a church could be built in
any location, in any building. We once planted a church in Colorado in
a building that had formally been the home of a store called "Fran's
Fantasies."
Our first services were in a home. We kept them there for about 1
month. We then moved to a rented facility. The one we got was a store
front (actually an abandoned gas station) The advantage we had was that
we had the building full time. We could hang out a sign that was there
all week. The disadvantage was cost. For us, it wasn't so much ($325.00
per month), I know guys now who are paying between $1400.00 - $2500.00
per month to rent a store front. I do not believe I could do that. Our
work in Tillamook is renting a Senior Citizen's center for $115.00 per
month. This church is seeing as much progress in that building as any I
know in our state in similar situations renting much more expensive
facilities.
I asked the fella paying $1400.00 per month if he could be full time in
the ministry (he works a full time job outside of his pastoring) if he
had a building rent of $325.00 he said yes. I think the trade off would
be worth it to have a poorer facility but a full time preacher rather
than a more adequate facility but have the preacher working another job
and the church strapped for money because of it.
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Eric is a graduate of BBC and is contemplating starting a church and has
generated some good discussion when questions arose. In response to
Mike Holmes from Colorado Eric points out that though they may let you
use their building, they are not very receptive to your doctrinal
differences.
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>Eric from D.C. said,
I would love to include my $.02 worth on many of your good questions but
unfortunately I do not have any good church planting practical
experience to bring although here it did bring me a little chuckle about
the 7th Day folks letting Baptists into their building. I am dealing
with a guy (7th Day) here at my job and he seems somewhat antagnostic
about us Sunday folks. <grin>
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Kirk DiVietro, is a veteran church planter and president of the MA
fellowship. He responded to the question of the week as follows.
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>How often should a church planter begin to meet?
>Where should the church planter meet at first?
When I started the church in New Jersey we started with Sunday Morning
and Evening preaching services and Wednesday prayer meeting. Within 6
weeks we started a Sunday School. Like you, I wanted my family to be in
church. I don't understand this modern mentality of taking Sunday night
off.
begun around the same time the electric light was invented. According
to the story, churches were some of the first buildings to install
electric lights and it was such a novelty that folks from the community
came more for the electric lights -- some old timers attest to the fact
that Sunday Evening service used to have the heavy evangelistic flavor
that most Sunday Morning services have now. I wonder if this is
true?>>>>>>>
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Brother DiVietro responded to the editors note below with some insight
into where the Sunday Evening Service came from. The mere question of
when to meet can smack at traditionalism that serves no purpose.
Brother DiVietro points out that there must be a purpose for what we do.
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>
>begun around the same time the electric light was invented. According
>to the story, churches were some of the first buildings to install
>electric lights and it was such a novelty that folks from the community
>came more for the electric lights -- some old timers attest to the fact
>that Sunday Evening service used to have the heavy evangelistic flavor
>that most Sunday Morning services have now. I wonder if this is
>true?>>>>>>>
Brother Divietro answered:
My understanding is that Sunday Night services began during the early
fundamentalist wars. It provided an opportunity for members of more
liberal churches to visit the fundamentalist churches without missing
their own services. According to this view, the Sunday evening service
developed as a true evangelistic opportunity. Today, the roles of our
services have reversed. The morning service provides our greatest
opportunity for evangelism. The evening service is where we do "family
business."
he will call you a fanatic>>>>>>>
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