10 Ways Your Church can Partner in Church Planting

1.  Engage in Strategic Intercessory Prayer – Churches can pray for pockets of lostness, for church planting leaders and for spiritual breakthroughs.  Children, youth and leaders, and adults can pray in meaningful ways in existing small groups in prayer gatherings and in worship celebrations.  Prayer walks on the church planting field can give church members memorable encounters which can quickly turn into significant ministry moments.

2.  Adopt a Church Planter and His Family – You can encourage a church planter by inviting him to lunch, sending him to a conference or retreat or providing childcare for a planter and his wife as they go on a date.  You can recognize the planter on holidays and during Clergy Appreciation Month.  Invite him to preach or to share testimonies.

3.  Contribute to Their Financial Needs – Often church plants have significant start-up costs and ongoing expenses.  Through monthly or one-time gifts, individuals and churches can provide valuable funding streams.  Business leaders can help provide jobs for planters, their families and team members.  Churches can extend their insurance coverage to the new plant or provide medical insurance.

4.  Provide Materials and Equipment – Many churches can assist new churches by providing quality equipment such as sound systems, computers and office equipment.  Get your entire church involved with a “baby shower” for the church nursery or reuse of Vacation Bible School materials and props.

5.  Share Your Campus Facilities – Provide worship or office space for a new church in your current facility.  Open up homes for Bible studies and fellowship events.  Businesses can provide space for meetings and offices.

6.  Serve on a Church Planting Missions Trip – Youth groups, college students and adults can assist the church planting team on a mission trip in a day, weekend or weeklong setting.  Community surveys, block parties, back-yard Bible schools and neighborhood canvassing can all benefit the church plant and the partnering church.

7.  Discover Unreached/Under-reached People in Your Community – Your church can identify population groups that are not being reached by evangelical ministries.  Churches engage these groups with ministries by meeting community needs through ministries such as, gospel seed-sowing and development of leaders from the harvest.

8.  Start an Outreach Bible Study to Become a New Church – Bible studies are effective ways to lead people to Christ and then form a new church.  Gathering people thru starting evangelistic Bible studies in homes, apartment clubhouses, workplace break rooms, civic buildings and churches may promote the people gathering to form team for a new church.

9.  Send People and Families to Help – Encourage members to prayerfully consider serving with a new church for a fixed period of time.  Leaders of children’s, youth and music programs can provide new churches with experienced leadership, while influencing the development of their own new leaders.

10.  Mentor Church Planting Leaders – Pastors can expand their influence by mentoring church planters in pastoral, leadership and preaching skills.  Staff and program leaders can reproduce themselves by sharing their insights with members of the church planting team.

For more information, please contact the Church Planting & Missions Team at bdean@coloradobaptists.org or call 303-771-2480 ext 233.