Sending To A Church Plant

By Pete Cornford

Pete & Nicky Cornford moved to West London, UK and planted The Crown Church in April 2002

Doing something new can be so exciting: visiting another country, exploring a city, tasting different foods or your first bungee jump. A fresh challenge can lead to emotional highs, an adrenaline rush, a sense of anticipation and excitement! For those involved in church planting there is also the opportunity to experience adventure and buzz. But should church planting just be a risky activity for a minority seeking a ‘spiritual high' whilst the rest of the church are spectators? Or can we all get involved?

A PRIORITY FOR ALL
Church planting was high on the agenda for Paul in the New Testament and is still vital today! Sandy Millar, from Holy Trinity Brompton (London, UK), oozes passion for church planting. ‘No ministry at Holy Trinity has been more determinedly pushed by Sandy Millar than that of church planting ... nothing has given him greater pleasure than when the plants themselves have planted churches'. As a family of churches, we believe that God has called us to plant churches:

‘Newfrontiers is a worldwide family of churches together on a mission to advance the kingdom of God by restoring the church, making disciples, training leaders and planting churches.'

As well as it being Biblical, there are many other reasons why we are committed to sending people:

1. Church planting is crucial to seeing the kingdom of God come on earth as it is in heaven. ‘The most effective way of expanding the Kingdom of God was by planting new churches. We still believe that' (John Wimber). (Steve Nicolson & Jeff Bailey, Coaching Church Planters, Vineyard)

2. Church planting is a radical tool for changing the world.
‘I have often heard it said, and I agree, that the church is God's plan A to evangelise the world and there is no plan B. If this is true then it is vital that we plant and establish churches according to the Biblical pattern' (John Hosier, Christ's Radiant Church).

3. Church planting is a means of growing the church. ‘The most effective means of growing churches today is planting churches' (Peter Wagner, Churchquake, Regal).

4. Church planting is essential for bringing the gospel, the good news of Jesus, to our nation. ‘Church planting is not easy but, if we handle it well, it is the most effective way of evangelising a new area' (Terry Virgo, A People Prepared, Kingsway).

Many organisations and movements have developed great tools to assist those who want to go and plant a church: boot camps, training retreats, coaching and many other helpful guides for those about to depart on a church plant.

Not all of us will be called to go on a church plant yet we will all be called to send people. So how prepared are we to send? Robinson and Smith in their book Invading Secular Space suggest, ‘It should be possible for every church in the world to plant at least three other churches in their lifetime. By lifetime I mean a span of ten to fifteen years.' This will mean having a big heart and a big vision.

A few years ago, following many prophetic words and the closing of the Stoneleigh Bible Week, the sound-bite you heard wherever you went was ‘Let's go!' This is a huge challenge for church leaders who can often fall into thinking ‘more people, happy people, more money and more programmes is what my job is all about - so why would I want to send people church planting?' I even heard of a church leader who preached a sermon ‘Let's Not Go!'

When people share that they are planning to go church planting we have a choice to make regarding how we send them: do we refuse (even prophesying they are to stay), do we resign ourselves to them leaving (and have little further contact) or do we release them the best way that we can?

SENDING - COSTS!
Releasing people to church planting can be very costly to the sending church:

Money: Some churches give generously to help those starting a church. This, coupled with sending some of your committed regular givers, can be a challenge and needs to be thought through so it does not cripple the sending church.

Gaps: Those who go are often energetic and enthusiastic people, leaving behind spaces on rotas and people needing to be trained in order to take on the responsibilities left.

Relationship: People leave whom we have got to know, have a history with and trust. Experienced friends who have stood with us in difficult times, babysitters we trust, those we have dinner with go, and the relationships that have taken time to develop feel severed.

Numbers: The way we measure success in our churches is skewed: our income, Sunday attendance, those at the prayer meeting. Following a new plant, the numbers may drop and this can feel like a blow to the remaining core.

Extra work: There is lots to do administratively to help those who are going, which takes time and does not help to grow the home church.

Momentum: Those staying can feel a loss of momentum as the energy that normally goes into outreach and mission, prayer and giving is directed towards the plant rather than the vision of the sending church.

Many of these areas will take time and energy to recover. To regain the ground in eighteen months is excellent but it can more realistically take up to three years.

SENDING - BENEFITS!
Releasing people to a church plant can also be very beneficial to the sending church:

Energy: The enthusiasm and excitement, the energy and motivation that the church planter possesses can inspire and rub off on others in the church.

Space: Space is created for new and fresh leaders to emerge and bring creative ideas. Those who would not previously have stepped up and been given an opportunity, now can grow into the space.

Vision: Sending people instils a bigger vision into the sending church; it's not just about me and my little patch, but about giving away, thinking about the advancing kingdom and not just home base. Those churches that are good at planting locally with big hearts and vision often naturally take on a vision for the nations.

Repeats: One of the greatest benefits of a sending church is that when you have done it once it becomes easier to do again!

Fruit: The thrill of church planting comes in seeing the fruit of more lives impacted than if people had stayed where they were. Church planting gets into the church's DNA. Churches that have planted once often go on to do it many times and are very generous though they are not always the biggest churches.

Here are two examples of churches and leaders in the UK that are generous in sending:

St Neots
The Open Door Church, St Neots began in 1995, as a plant from Brickhill Baptist Church in Bedford. Following rapid growth and with people travelling from the local area of St Ives they decided to plant The Bridge Church, sending out 35 people in 2001. In 2002, Tony Thompson, who was leading the church, was sent out to plant Hope Church Luton with another twelve people from St Neots. By now The Open Door Church had church planting in their DNA, and in 2005 they took up an offering of £80,000 towards the next church plant, New Life Church in Biggleswade!

Since then, St Ives have planted into Kings Lynn and Luton have planted into Dunstable - that's five churches in thirteen years!

This sounds exciting but has not always been easy, as within an eighteen-month period The Open Door Church gave away 49% of their givers!

Martin Tibbert, who now leads The Open Door Church, reveals the heart of a sending church leader, ‘It is better to give than to receive.' We all know that you cannot out-give God and to those He sees can be trusted with little, He will give even more.

Wimbledon
Queens Road Church, Wimbledon is a very different church from St Neots as it was planted in 1897! Yet the leader, Malcolm Kyte, who has been working full time since 1985, also has a very generous heart, and the church has in its DNA a passion to church plant!

Malcolm planted a church in Colliers Wood in 1990, and then another into Kingston in 1994. Queens Road planted another church in Wimbledon in 1998 and in 2003 planted 25 people into Sutton and gave eight people, an elder and family and thousands of pounds to another church plant in North London! Malcolm is acutely aware that sending people out unsettles others. Again it has not been easy to send so generously. It has taken four years to re-gather people and money. Apparently the first church plant was the scariest and now they have faith that God can do it through them - and He will do again!

Stories like this will be repeated again and again as we see God fulfil the prophetic promises that we will have 1,000 churches in the UK and that Newfrontiers will change the expression of Christianity around the world. Who knows how many church plants that will take?

SENDING WELL
I would like to suggest some practical points to consider when facing the challenge of sending people to church plants:

1. Vision is needed for the sending church, so that people do not feel as if nothing is happening at home base and they are just left behind. Instead, people staying should feel excited and motivated by the energy in the church.

2. Words. What we say as we send people is important. It is much better to ‘send people' rather than ‘lose' them.

3. Rejoice. It is good to rejoice with those who rejoice. Church plants often have exciting stories and momentum from a fresh start. Let's be those who get excited rather than feeling threatened.

4. Keep a close relationship between the planter and the leader of the sending church. This helps in dealing with conflict that could arise from a lack of communication.

5. Train church planters in the areas that they are weak in; make sure they have broad experience in finance, children's work and administration, as well as preaching and worship-leading.

6. People. Sending people is better than sending money! The people will get on and do the work. They will pray, reach out, serve and hopefully give their money generously as well!

7. The Best. Only send the people who want to go. Church plants are not an opportunity to clear your church of the frustrated, bored, difficult folk who demand a lot of your time. Send to a church plant only those people you would like to receive.

Surely there are really only two ways that we should send people to church plant - to bless them and be 100% behind them. We want to bless those going, talk them through the process, and pray with them and for them. The church is so much bigger than our local expression and we want people to go with our blessing. We will also want to get wholeheartedly behind some church plants - sending money, attending their first Sunday meeting, keeping in regular contact with them and being in the front row cheering them on as they attempt exploits for God!

Initially our sending will probably be to geographically local settings, but as we press on those areas will be filled and we will be required to send further and further away from our home base, giving us less control and less visible encouragement to keep us going.

We know that because of Jesus we have freely received and are freely to give. None of us can fully comprehend the generosity of God in sending His Son to die for us, so let us generously give to see churches planted across the world and His name glorified.

Sending To A Church Plant

By Pete Cornford

Previous issues

Printed copies