Planting a new church, with all its ups and downs, is an incredibly exciting endeavor. Every prayer, possibility, hope, and certainly a few fears lie before you.
When I think of the church plants I know and their leaders—including some I count as dear friends—I am instantly encouraged by their deep desire to bless and establish themselves in their communities. Many have left the comforts of well-established congregations and familiar places to reach the unreached with the gospel. One of the beauties of churches is to model the generosity of the Lord Jesus—to bless and serve those around them with freedom and love.
In a practical sense, this is a very exciting time in the life of the church, deciding exactly how to go about this work. As almost anyone who is a semi-aware citizen of his or her community can attest, the needs are great everywhere. While it can be daunting to know where to begin, community engagement should not be an overly complicated process. Even in today’s climate when trust of churches is often low, great opportunity remains for churches to contribute in significant and meaningful ways to the flourishing of their neighbors and communities.
Start Where You Are
One of the simplest and best ways to pursue local partnerships as a new church is to begin with your own people. Don’t overthink it! If there is even one set of parents with kids in school at your church, engage them on how the church might help meet educational needs. If you’re in a college town, you likely are within driving distance of a large international student population. This is a great opportunity to reach out to a college or university and simply offer to support students, perhaps by sponsoring meals or offering to drive students without cars for errands and shopping trips.
Sometimes we think each new initiative needs to be fully fleshed out, branded, and explained in three talking points fit for Sunday announcements before we can begin. While organization does matter and clarity is a marker of excellence, the emphasis in the early days of church planting should be on just going for it. Start by taking stock of your congregation and seeing what is already happening. Is there a hand serving in a yet-to-be noticed space? Support him or her, come alongside with resources, ask questions, and discern whether the church can more fully partner.
For example, a family at my former church founded a non-profit organization when their very young son was battling a serious form of cancer. They desired to serve families with children who faced life-threatening illnesses or disabilities, offering support for those who often felt alone and forgotten by the community at large. At first, our church desired to support these members with their efforts, but we quickly realized we could contribute much more and help these efforts grow to bless many more. Today, their organization is fully functioning and serving hundreds of families in the city, many of whom have entered the doors of the church, heard the gospel, and found support as a result. Not everyone’s passion will materialize into a formal community partnership, and that’s okay. Still, as the old saying goes, “Start where you are.”
See and Meet Needs
By nature of their life phase, new churches have a unique advantage in establishing community partnerships—they have the constant need to get creative and innovate. Budgets are low, leaders may be inexperienced, and just about everything is uncharted. But this also provides a clean slate from which to work. New churches aren’t tied to much—nobody’s saying, “this is what we do, not that.” At my home church, the first way I served inside the church was by helping paint the walls of our newly acquired warehouse (the church plant life, am I right?). But the first way I served outside the church as a representative of the church was in a concession stand at a varsity high school football game. Perhaps not where one might expect, but let me explain.
If you asked me how a church might best serve a local public school, I would say what most people would probably say: tutor, mentor, donate school supplies, provide breakfast for teachers. These are all good and needed, and I know many churches who do exactly these. In the very early days of our church, though, we became aware of a unique challenge. Through connections with faculty and coaches, a few of whom were part of the church too, we learned that many of the parents of football players had never really been able to watch their kids play. They were busy each game running the concession stands, which funded the booster program, which expanded opportunities for their sons through the athletics program, which in turn provided scholarships and opportunities beyond high school. The church stepped in and had volunteers sign up to run the concession stands for all home games, allowing parents to, well, be parents. The parents were able to be present and support their children doing the thing they loved, which helped them grow as young men and connected them in deeper ways to the community around them.
At the same time, this partnership served our church by providing a low-entry way for people to serve outside of the church walls and foster friendships through a shared, very fun activity. Manning a small, hot, over-crowded stand in the rush of halftime forges bonds that are slow to be broken. This partnership continues to this day and has expanded to the church initiating a kick-off lunch for all high school football programs, backpack drives, mentoring opportunities, and Bible studies hosted on campus at various times over the years. Starting with one thing and committing to it with dedication and excellence led to true partnership: mutual commitment to serving a community within the city to contribute to its overall flourishing.
Start Small and Be Consistent
New churches must remember that it is okay (and probably even better) to start small and slow in cultivating partnerships. This doesn’t mean people should hold back their generosity or eagerness to serve. If a need exists and it can be met, meet it. In the same way, churches shouldn’t overthink getting started. They shouldn’t overthink strategy. There will always be more needs, which is why a plan is helpful and why you can start just about anywhere. However, young churches should focus on doing a few intentional things very well in their early days while they are figuring out how to grow together as a united body.
Leaders should be clear about partnerships. It is better to choose only a couple of opportunities for the church to officially support while still encouraging church members to pursue their own individual ways of serving and supporting the community as representatives of the body. This allows church members to know that their church is actively engaged with purpose and intention to serve and bless the community in meaningful and effective ways, while also equipping and freeing people up to find their own ways of loving mercy and living justly within their spheres of influence.
It is good for churches to be involved in their community, to bless the people around them, and to contribute to the flourishing of society. Even as orthodox Christianity moves toward the margins, churches must be beacons of light through joyful generosity and real presence. They must enter the lives of the people whom they hope to reach. This is not always easy, but it is also not negotiable. The forms and approaches will look different, but the call is the same: to seek the welfare of the city, to give generously without expectation, to model the reality of incarnation. The Lord will bless these efforts, both within and without the church.
Ashlyn Portero | Director of Groups and Partnerships, Redeemer Queens Park, London, England; Director of Operations, Alliance for Transatlantic Theological Training
