Eighteen Ways to Keep Your New Church from Advancing

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Eighteen Ways to Keep Your New Church from
Advancing

• By
• Dr. Tom Cheyney

www.PlanterDude.com
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There are all types of seminars informing us how
to grow a new church. We attend the majority of
these experiences hoping that something that is
shared will help our new church plants! It is
high time the other side of the issue be
considered. While I dont guarantee these
easy-to-apply steps will always keep your new
church from Advancing and keep growing, they will
with proper application, certainly increase the
chances.
Eighteen Ways to Keep Your New Church from
Advancing
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Eighteen Ways to Keep Your New Church from
Advancing

• Trying too reach out only to people in
  secure situations and established churches.
• Many a church planter wants what another
  church planter or pastor already has! The idea
  of a stable launch right from the start is
  something we all as church planters desire. Yet
  nothing could be more dangerous than launching a
  new work with people who have not bought into
  your vision as a planter but actually have a
  vision of their own and seek to make you fit into
  their former ideal of a church.

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Eighteen Ways to Keep Your New Church from
Advancing

• Emphasizing quality not capacity.
• New churches that are just beginning to
  emerge from the soil need to have such a desire
  to reach new people for the cause of Christ that
  quality is developed as you go and during the
  launch time perhaps your best is not going to be
  the final quality you would expect once your new
  work gets up and running. Gathering is your
  highest priority and reaching some level of
  gathering capacity is essential. If you as a
  planter spend all of your time trying to develop
  materials that are the equivalent of your mother
  church you are wasting valuable time that could
  be used for developing relationships with those
  who need Christ! Great resources and nice
  handouts come later!

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Eighteen Ways to Keep Your New Church from
Advancing

• Insist on using only evangelistic methods
  that were used in the past.
• If you do what you have always done, you
  will get what you have always gotten is the old
  adage. Today we have certainly the tried and true
  methodologies of the past that have worked for
  decades. Yet we are still in great need for new
  methodologies for reach the various generations
  ad people groups within our land! Wise church
  planters know that it is essential to continue to
  reach a lost world for Christ. New methodologies
  are coming on the scene everyday and it is vital
  that church planters keep current when it comes
  to giving an evangelistic witness for Jesus
  Christ.

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Eighteen Ways to Keep Your New Church from
Advancing

• Try not to be friendly to visitors and
  your returning guests!
• If you want to remain small just keep
  making your guests feel like they are intruding
  on your close knit family! I am always amazed
  when I see a church planter that is blind to his
  in ability to build a crowd. If you are in need
  of a small close knit group you might not be able
  to keep your new work growing and constantly
  expanding. Planters who need a small group of
  people gathered around them often are not able to
  stretch their group to include new people coming
  on a weekly basis.

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Eighteen Ways to Keep Your New Church from
Advancing

• Never invite new people to join the
  church.
• All of us at one time or another have
  failed to invite an individual to church! When a
  church planter does this on a regular bases it is
  a quick road map towards failure. Inviting and
  tell people about your story and the exciting
  things that are happening in your new work is key
  to growing a church plant.

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Eighteen Ways to Keep Your New Church from
Advancing

• Make growth entirely dependent on the Holy
  Spirit.
• I believe the Holy Spirit goes ahead of
  you as a witness and as a church planter to
  prepare the field. Yet it is amazing to me today
  that there is growing number of church planters
  who do not believe that being an active witness
  brings results anymore. They just sit back and
  forget that they need to do their part for the
  growing of a church plant. Church planters who
  can grow a new work understand that they have a
  part in this effort of growth and that they
  should actively be seeking how to reach their
  communities for Jesus sake.

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Eighteen Ways to Keep Your New Church from
Advancing

• Dont set goals for growth.
• One way to remain the same is to not set a
  goal for tomorrow today! I agree that most of
  us who have grown a church are not totally sure
  how it happened short of Gods anointing, yet a
  clear vision for a preferred future is vital. I
  use to say this little ditty all the time
  Always more than the year before! Some
  planters dont like that phrase but it is a good
  one to remind us of the need to set goals for
  growth. Declare it. Declare it early. Declare
  these goals often! Set a personal goal and set a
  goal for you and your leadership. Then get
  moving.

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Eighteen Ways to Keep Your New Church from
Advancing

• Dont pray for growth.
• It is sad that most pastors and planters
  do not pray for real growth. I always did. As I
  journeyed along it was critical that I prayed
  individual for growth. It is critical that
  others on your staff as a planter pray for
  growth. Furthermore, you ought to keep this
  before your people to pray for growth. In a time
  with church planters a while ago one pastor who
  was attending shared he was scared to tell his
  church that he was praying for a certain number
  of new believers to be baptized and join the
  church. He voiced fear of what the church would
  think. I told my story of how when we were
  serious about reaching people God would show up
  and more often than not do even greater things
  than we had set as a goal and began to display
  His power. Much of that I still feel would not
  have happened if it were not for us first praying
  for growth and then publicly declaring it! Keep
  it regularly before you and your people.

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Eighteen Ways to Keep Your New Church from
Advancing

• Change the planter or the pastor every few
  years.
• You will not have to worry about where you
  are going to put new people if you keep switching
  out the planter every two or three years. People
  will not stay around a new work long enough for
  you to change out the parts. You usually only
  get one chance as a planter to grow a new work so
  take it seriously, stay in place and wait on the
  Lord to pour out His blessing in His time. My
  personal testimony is that if I had run when I
  wanted to, I would have missed Gods miraculous
  blessings in my life and ministry. Your victory
  is just around the corner so enjoy the ride.

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Eighteen Ways to Keep Your New Church from
Advancing

• Keep your new constituents from serving
  on the leadership and ministry organization.
• New people want to belong and feel they
  are contributing towards something they believe
  in! If you keep them out of your ministry group
  or leadership group you will watch them come for
  about six weeks and then quietly disappear in
  search of something significant that is more
  inclusive. Put your new people to work. Even a
  brand new believer can give out a worship guide
  the following Sunday of his conversion!

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Eighteen Ways to Keep Your New Church from
Advancing

• Split up your affinity groups regularly.
• There was a time when splitting up
  affinity groups helped a church continue to
  advance. People today are searching for
  significant relationships amidst their hectic
  schedules and churches that are keeping natural
  affinity groups together today are more
  successful. For a time it may appear that this
  is not so, but in a world where we are crunched
  with schedules finding a set of friends to do
  life together is significant. I even know of
  couples who choose a church who are interested in
  keeping groups together instead of splitting them
  up.

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Eighteen Ways to Keep Your New Church from
Advancing

• Building undersized structures on small
  acreage.
• It hurts your plant to saddle it with
  undersized facilities placed on small lots. It
  may appear logical but if the new church is going
  to grow, new property might not be available when
  you are ready to expand. You can always wait
  later to build a building but you cant always
  buy more acreage. Another challenge is when a
  new church builds its first phase building in the
  best place on the property. You have just
  handcuffed future leaders and budgets that will
  have to discover creative ways (Expensive as
  well) to build around your mistake.

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Eighteen Ways to Keep Your New Church from
Advancing

• Dont send your planter to church planting
  and church development seminars.
• Always try to display generosity towards
  your church planter as a new church leadership
  group. If you have the resources to send your
  church planter to a conference or seminar it will
  not only help your church but it will encourage
  him as well. Try to budget at least one training
  event of his choice each year and pay for his
  wife to go along as well. Remember to give him a
  little spending money for purchasing resources so
  your church will also profit from his experience.

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Eighteen Ways to Keep Your New Church from
Advancing

• Dont encourage him to read church
  multiplication and reproduction materials.
• Give your church planter a book allowance!
  His reading will aid the new work by stretching
  him personally and advancing your church
  publically. The more you can afford the better
  opportunity you will have to watch him lead your
  new work further and with greater effectivity.

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Eighteen Ways to Keep Your New Church from
Advancing

• Trying to win every person in your
  community.
• When you try to win everyone you usually
  win no one! New churches that view the whole
  population of an area as theirs is not realistic.
  Planters who assimilate well gather in pockets
  and fishing pools desiring to catch those who
  there is already an affinity. As God continues
  to advance the work new opportunities will open
  up and then you can enlarge your scope.

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Eighteen Ways to Keep Your New Church from
Advancing

• Dont advertise your work in various media
  formats.
• Most new churches are not known so
  anything they do to advertise is a plus. Just be
  careful not to waste funds on formats that bring
  you no return on investment.

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Eighteen Ways to Keep Your New Church from
Advancing

• Dont staff for expansion and dont make
  financial provisions for growth.
• Failure to plan for growth is dangerous.
  While there is a time to add staff and a time to
  wait, you need to begin planning for additional
  staff right away. Caution should be given
  towards not bringing on staff in areas where
  volunteers can still function. Far too many
  planters are looking for a pal when they need a
  key contributor. While laity are serving in
  areas where one day a staff member will serve,
  begin saving towards that first two years of
  expenses. You will be glad you did and the church
  will not feel a crunch in services due to being
  broke.

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Eighteen Ways to Keep Your New Church from
Advancing

• Act like God doesnt want the church to
  grow!
• God desires your church to grow. He
  blesses those churches with a heart for reaching
  the lost of this world. Evangelistic churches
  work while there is still time to touch
  individuals with the saving Gospel of Jesus
  Christ.

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Eighteen Ways to Keep Your New Church from
Advancing

• By
• Dr. Tom Cheyney

www.PlanterDude.com