Planting a new church is a significant step and one of the questions that needs to be answered is where to plant.
Often planters will look to the community that they are in with a desire to reach into that community. But not always. Other church plants may take place in an area as a result of a denominational or mother church strategy. And sometimes planters and even their teams will have a community on their hearts that requires them to shift location and “parachute in” to a new area.
Romans, chapter 15 describes how the Apostle Paul planted this way when he said that there was no place left for him to plant and so he was going to head to Rome.
Whichever way a person or team plants, prayerful discernment is required as is research. As they say, “facts are your friends!”.
Following are six critical issues that planters should embrace before they plant:
- Start with Prayer and Discernment
This is important to seek clarity about the actual call to plant and who the church is to reach and minster to.
Discernment can include sensing whether you have a burden for a particular demographic. It’s also good to explore whether there is a particular community or type of people you keep thinking about.
Prayer walking around possible planting locations is key to help develop a sense of burden, God’s calling and also to gain an idea of both obstacles and opportunities that may be present.
It’s important to also seek the prayerful discernment and wisdom from wise mentors to seek confirmation or adjustment about not only where to plant, but other issues that include when to plant.
- Identify Areas of Need
Areas of need will typically form into two areas: practical and spiritual. The Great Commission addresses the spiritual and the Great (and New) Commandments address the practical. As Rick Warren is well known for saying, a great commitment to the great commission and great commandment will build a great church!
One of the great needs in our nation now relates to loneliness. There are some useful and thought provoking thoughts in papers on the Publica website. An antidote to the problem of loneliness is healthy community. Churches are well placed to provide practical solutions as well as spiritual answers to issues such as loneliness.
Other factors to consider are whether there is strong population growth and whether there are few churches in an area.
- Understand the Community
The Bureau of Statistics and Local Council Profile Reports are good starting points to help understand the community but they aren’t the only ones. Community Surveys and meeting and talking to people can provide powerful insights.
Before choosing a location, study the demographics and culture. The culture question is a big one that is sometimes overlooked. When going into an area with a culture that is not native to the church planters, a missionary mindset as well as a church planting mindset really is required.
Typical questions to ask to better understand the community include:
- Who lives there? (age groups, families, migrants, students, workers)
- What rhythms of life shape the community? (i.e a local surf or sports club may play an important role here)
- What worldviews or beliefs are common?
- Consider Your Calling and Strengths
It’s important to realise that not every planter will be suited to every context. I have heard of people planting a church and struggling and then relocating and thriving.
I got a rude shock when I first planted. I thought that we could attract young business-people like me. But instead, we largely collected people from 12 step groups. Looking back, I see that this was a demographic that suited my wife Sharon who was a social worker.
Factors to consider include whether the proposed location matched your profile in terms of whether:
- the better location is city, regional or rural,
- the ethnic make up of the area is a good match,
- you match the age and familial demographic
- you match the socioeconomic make up.
- Pay Attention to Practical Factors
Practical issues are not irrelevant. While discerning a sense of calling is critical, practical realities also matter.
If practical issues make the successful planting of a church in a particular area more of a dream than a reality, then consideration needs to be given to the practicalities of the area, the model of the proposed church – whether bi-vocational or co-vocational – needs to be considered and the proposed timing of the plant.
Consideration needs to be given to issues that include cost of living, housing and venue possibilities.
- Availability of Team Members
The strength of a church plant team is a critical factor in determining the survivability and future health and growth of a church plant as well as that of the church planter!
When my wife and I planted our church, we made the mistake of planting with a core team of only four persons. It is only by God’s grace that we survived. I have seen first hand as well as with other plants how critical it is to commence strong; to give birth to a healthy baby church plant.
With this in mind, some locations may make it hard to start with a healthy, strong team unless a team is prepared move to the location of they aren’t already there.
A good location will match the availability of a strong team that will be needed to match the model of church that will be planted there.
These six factors are critical in helping identify where you are to plant. And when you do, it’s critical to begin building relationships in the area. This will generally take time as you meet and listen to people living in the area, become involved in local organisations and events and develop relationships with key people in the community who may be people of peace.
Discerning the right location to plant in will be critical to the success of any plant!
