Dare 2 Share Ministries is dedicated to evangelism / evangelism training and has countless resources at www.dare2share.org

The first two thoughts that come to mind in regards to evangelism are these:
1) all believers are called to share their faith, not just the evangelists.
2) the biggest help in this area is training on how to clearly and confidently share the Gospel of Jesus Christ including the 4 basics aspects of the story: Creation, Fall, Redemption, Consumation.

1st: How successful is the attractional model at bringing new converts to Christ verses reshuffling the deck.

2nd: What are key steps in making the emerging service model a successful model for church planting?

Ed,

As far as evangelism is concerned, we have so distorted the gospel by making it about then and there (heaven/hell when you do) that we forget the powerful impact it has on the individual here and now, as well as all of creation.

Second, two years is not enough time to get a church up and running unless you are in the South (and maybe not even then). To be able to get up and running so fast you almost have to have an attractional model which requires lots of money. This can implant a consumer DNA into the church instead of a missional dna. Trying to change the dna of the church is almost impossible.

I am very concerned about what is being called "church planting" in my particular area. It seems to be that those interested in planting are interested in developing small groups, connecting them for a brief time and then disappearing. I am not seeing lasting, viable churches remain. It is a disturbing trend that I would like to see changed. To plant a church takes time, commitment, and staying power. I would love to have more interaction on this subject.

1. How can we learn from other organizations that seem to do a better job of assessing church planters. I know burn-out is an inevitability in some sense, but A29 and others have much higher rates of success on this.
2. How are we equipping the lead pastor and the church to think missionally about their community? An un-missional pastor = un-missional congregants.
3. What resources (funding or otherwise) are a priority to us in church planting? Our church, for instance, had very little left after the required 13% back in order to receive funding. It wasn't impossible, but our priority at the beginning was to stay afloat instead of putting resources into our own community.
4. Instead of having guys do the training that have 0 or very little experience in church planting, why not hire coaches (like what Etowah did) who are successful planters to aid younger guys. NAMB guys who teach or train planters should have higher expectations on them to tithe, serve and be active in the church they are members at.

Just a few thoughts, maybe not exactly what you are looking for - and I realize this makes me sound like a jerk, but it's definitely some needed discussion. :)

ED

First, I believe the research related to receptivity and the churches that have great success in retaining first time guest is key in these days of so few guest attending our fellowships.

Second, Let's focusing on building a Disciple Making process for each fellowship. Perhaps using a Coaching Teams approach to get each fellowship thinking about "What does a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ look like at _______First Baptist Church" Then build the Evangelism Strategies based on solid info.

Ed, how about looking at church-plants that are spinning off first-generation immigrant churches? There has been already some research on this area (cf. Peter Cha and et al's "Growing Healthy Asian American Churches"). This has long been a largely ignored area of research that church demographers and planters have overlooked.

Ed,

Thanks for all of your work on this. I am particularly interested in two things:

1) Which approach produces more baptisms and new churches: house type churches, or the more traditional types?

2) How much difference does it make for the planter to be living on the field versus working the field from a neighboring community?

Thanks and God bless you!

I agree with John H.
If North America is becoming more and more the mission field. We desperately need guys that will Stick around and STAY no matter what the results. Obviously that means different fundraising structures and a different work ethic. It also means that we have to raise up ambassadors/missionaries rather than just pastors/preachers. We need to teach young pastors that falling in love with the people/community is much ore important than falling in love with the 'church.'

Thanks again Ed for all you're doing to help leaders everywhere to ask the right questions and think well on these topics. Praying for your meeting tomorrow.

I would like to no more about intergenerational ministry and church planting. Our plant so far has a fairly narrow age band and I have been praying for older saints to come alongside us. Are there church plants that are doing this well and what are they doing

Just got back from NAMB Basic Training for Church Planters over the weekend. Great material!

The need to get your core group behind a clearly defined vision is the key.

And then building healthy relationships with and within the core groups is a nonnegotiable.

I would like to know...

What percentage of existing churches are personally involved in planting a new church, involvement being defined as prayer, personnel and financial support?

What are the major issues that keep more churches from being personally involved in planting a new church?

What is the percentage of SBC church plants that actually reproduce themselves?

What is the percentage of SBC Cooperative Program support of Southern Baptist Church plants AFTER five years?

What was the average baptism total for the most recent years per SBC church plant? Attender to Baptism ration for the same.

I think that some focus needs to be directed to some of the missions here in the US. Groups like XXX Church who help those who struggle with porn addiction. This addiction is killing families,pastors,men,women and children. Also organizations like Strip Church on the Vegas Strip where men and women are sharing the Love of Jesus in Sin City. There needs to be more outside the box thinking on US missions. With missions like these the church plants will grow. Just my opinion

Ed,

more information needs to be produced which advices planters who knowing when they should "constitute" on their own...and how they should work through the process of doing that. specifically...how to create a Biblicially faithful constitution/by laws.

I'd love to see what Mars Hill has or The Village for example...and to read about the process they went through in the development of those docs.

I would love to see a "Ridley's List" for core team members. We work so hard to screen planters and then take a "whosoeverwill" approach to the core team. What sort of screening process must be in place for the core team to launch a new church? Not that I am asking out of a apinfil experience or anything :)

I was thinking about this in church yesterday. At CONNECT the point was really hammered home that people want genuine depth and truth from the Bible. In the past I’ve thought “Well, we need to stay sensitive to the unsaved in the service.” While you of course don’t want to be spiritually arrogant, I think there’s an entire church hungry for meat but are getting the milk instead. So often we as Christians live the “we’re here, whenever you’re ready” mentality, instead of going to find those who need Christ. If the only time we evangelize is inside the walls of the church, then I think pastors and churches may feel tempted to soften the Bible. But, how is that even possible? It’s not. The “church” is us, not the building. I think so many people are too hung up on mission work as a “special project” or even like a reward when we’ve done our necessary “church time.” We are having church when we go minister to the homeless, or whatever way God leads us to pour into people. But instead, people say “Oh, they don’t want to come to church, that’s why they always want to go do mission stuff on church days.” We have “mission friends” and “RAs” and “GA s” to learn about missions, and that’s great, but what would be best is helping them to be mission friends, and growing through real mission projects, out of the box. I think when a group catches a passion for helping people, it pleases God.

I think you need to consider the area you are planting the church. Copying a model that worked well in one area will not necessarily work in another (i.e. New York vs. rural Texas). Also are you focusing in on a single people group or the community as a whole, in fact what is the makeup of the community. ALso look at what other groups and organizations are in the area and what are their strategies and goals.

What percentage of people attending a new church plant are unsaved or have been lead to Christ as a result of the new church plant? (vs. Christians that left their home church to attend the "new place")

Ed,

I am interested in case studies of church leaders who inspire others to have gospel passion.

Thanks man, love your work. You make me interested in joining SBC even though I have been a nondom indi for years.

Dan

1. clear stats on NACP success/failure rates. What are the trends/key issues that have led to failures.
2. role of the local church in NACP - should be expanded. Our cp'ers should be sent primarily by the local church and equipped in partnership with NAMB
3. how to get the bureaucracy actually working together for CP. NAMB, state conventions, local associations - everyone seems to pass the buck . . . until someone is successful. Then everybody wants to take credit.

Thanks for your work on this.

Ed,

Thanks for the chance to give input on this subject. I work for a church planting organization that focuses on college campuses (GCM). Not that I am speaking for the organization, but here is what I have learned beside all the obvious stuff (have good doctrine and rely on God, not yourself).

1. You must have a team. Church planting can't be a one man show. If you work in Biblical plurality it allows for an Ephesians 4 model of church and it helps to prevent burn out.

2. View your team as missionaries not just church planters. Especially on college campuses we are missionaries, we are outsiders. We have to work hard at knowing the culture and finding a way to bring Biblical truth to a pagan society.

There are a lot of guys out here. That are not on your radar. We planted Valleychurchva.com with $50,000 about 5yrs ago. We had the blessing of Geoff H when we started. I sure do miss the sbc. I really enjoy your blog Ed.

My concern with NAMB is that the current focus on church planting is that its one and done. We don't have anything that rewards practitioners. I'd like to see a Hub approach with intentional residence programs. We must focus resources on practitioners of church planting, not just first time planters. By focusing resources on key cities and churches that plan long term multiple plants we improve the success rate of impacting highly unchurched regions of the USA.

1) Role of the Parachurch in evangelism (like Campus Crusade and Bikers for Jesus). Effects on Missional churches?

2) Church Planting/Church Failure in Small Towns where Gospel is assumed and no really lived out.

3) Age specific ministries and effect on helping bring Parents to Christ?

To add to Regina's comment: "I think when a group catches a passion for helping people, it pleases God." Not only does it please Him, but it shows our obedience.

Research area: Church Postmortems: Did the dead church have a operational "The Least of These" (widow/orphan) ministry or ministry focus?

The most important decision we make is at the point of planter candidate assessment. I would like new research to help shape a new "planter profile" and updated approaches for planter assessment. Most of us are working off of an old model of assessment (Ridley).

I would really like to hear more about the effect of church planting on the mother churches - those that are sending people and money into a new church.

Church planting in different contexts requires different skills, what are those skills for: rural, urban, suburban, college, etc.?

I would also like to see some research on the success of church planters who spent time apprenticing in a church plant before leading one of their own.

Thanks for this chance to share.

What do we know about the role and impact of "Business as Mission"(BAM) on the US mission field related to church planting and evangelism?

I would love to see NAMB actually either fund church plants on a higher level or be honest with how they fund plants. Really frustrating when a church planter approaches a church looking for support for a new plant and over and over they hear "NAMB will fund you" "or go to NAMB they are the ones that fund church plants." When you brag and brag about number of missionaries and church plants it makes it look like you are the only one doing it and local churches are not responsible for partnerships. Also be honest with what level you are supporting these "missionaries". my 2 cents and you know what that's worth.

What you need to know about church planting and evangelism: It's scarcely done well on college campuses, and those who are doing it well aren't getting any attention.

I can't point you to any research in this area, but I think there's a tremendous research need on effective tactics on campuses; I think it holds the key to the next generation of church planting and evangelism strategies.

It's a communication gap...
DeathToSermons.com a rally cry. Not against churches or pastors, but against bad communication in church. Bad communication pushes people away. Bad communication is anti-viral and creates negative buzz. As the Church we are managers of the most important message on earth. Redemption and eternity hang in the balance. BUT… if people who have never been to church (the nochurched) don’t understand, can’t relate, don’t care, then WHY would we expect them to come to church? *MORE at www.deathtosermons.com

How about the role of prayer? Especially prayer for the least and the lost. Prayer for and in and even with the community ...

There is not enough emphasis placed on Planting Multicultural/Multiracial churches in America. 95% of our churches are segregated and we are not doing anything about that tragedy.

The key is "Intentionality". Whoever you display in your leadership will ultimately be modeled at your church plant.

So much time is spent on numbers, when we need to spend more time on Discipleship. It takes a while to see the fruits of a church plant, especially in a very difficult area like South Florida.

We must find very creative and innovative ways to do Evangelism in unchurched areas. What we have been doing is not working.

My suggestion is that we spend more time introducing Jesus Christ before actually asking individuals to follow him. Once we know and understand just who Jesus really is, it is much easier to obey him.

You cannot obey a God whom you do not love and you cannot love a God whom you do not know.

Thanks for allowing me to share Ed

Excellent and helpful input on research.

A little opinion, too, and I guess that is OK. ;-)

Any more research suggestions.

Ed

Would be interested in well researched investigations into the following:

1. What research has been done on the medium/long-term viability of home based churches as compared with traditional congregational models?

2. Are there any working models of Alpha courses being turned into church plants (as opposed to Alpha courses being used as part of a church planting strategy?)

3. Are salaried church planters more or less likely to draw un-churched people into the church compared to those who take on secular work?

4. What happens to church planters after they have planted? Any long term research been done on their progress or lack of it?

5. Examples of successful multi-racial and multi-language church planting models.

Thanks!

Ed - couple of things I would love to to see in authentic evangelism and church planting research.
1. Since the goal of evangelism is not evangelism but discipleship, can you measure the stickability of whatever approach you use. ie how many people are still around 3-5 years down the track from conversion in church planting.
2. Those who stick around and are growing as disciples, where are they from, churched, unchurched etc.
3. The ones who left, who were they churched, unchurched, came cold turkey, brought by friends.

Very little stuff on evangelism seems to track people and their origins long term

The first thing that comes to my mind is the Power of God unto salvation, which we know from Romans 1:16 is the Gospel. My concern is the watering down of the gospel, "compromising" if you will. In our current endeavors to plant churches and evangelize the Muslim community there are some, with excellent intentions, mind you, that are willing to compromise the Gospel of Christ, the power of God.

As the Senior Pastor of a Midwestern church that has planted 11 churches in our 54 year history, the most recent being two years ago, I think we need to remind folks of the basic statistics. Those include: the ratio of lost won by new churches versus established churches; the lostness of America as a whole; the segmented needs of various sub-populations & communities within the US.

As to a research suggestion, Ed... I'd like to learn more--statistics & stories--about the value of partnering to plant churches & win the lost. Both of local partners & those from around the nation.

I have talked with several church planters who are struggling to raise money or are struggling in an existing church plant. The common thought among them was that NAMB was more interested in starting churches in Washington State than in the bible belt. They will help churches that are starting multicultural churches start but others are left to their own devices. If 30% of churches won't be here in 30 years shouldn't church planting be a priority everywhere?

1. Is the Engel Scale still relevant?
2. Are there other scales/tools that can be used and how does it affect or is affected by the Engel Scale
3. What are the profiles of successful church planter and their teams and what kind of interventions can be done to make sure that future teams have these kind of profiles
4. How is Dunbar's number related for a church plant? The Bernard-Kilworth number/median?

I would like to see more research and insight on the challenges and pros & cons of planting out of a parent church...sending core teams. How to avoid church splits when the intention is to plant. What proper ethics can pastors teach congregations to prepare them for proper church planting? Once a split occurs, many churches get turned off the idea of planting any more. Also, how to better teach these new core teams to stop being inward focused and focus on the lost once sent to a new plant.

Thanks Ed!

I'm a former church planter and now a strategist with denomination.

In both roles I have seen what is called 'attractional' bring many to Christ-but not without the incarnational as well.
Here is what we need to know: Incarnational is atractional and attractional is incarnational. Let's quit debating them. Jesus drew a crowd and didn't apologize for it -but he knew a crowd wasn't a church. When Christ lives through us individually and as a church body (incarnational) people are drawn to him (attractional)and that can be throwing a block party, buying down gas prices, or feeding the hungry and homeless. I've been a part of starting suburban churches that would be labeled more attractional and they reached many who didn't follow christ-and I've been a part of helping start city churches where they emphasized social ministry more and reached many for Christ (both those who needed that ministry and unchurched who joined them in doing the ministry). I've also watched as both 'models' didn't reach many unbelievers because they OVEREMPHASIZED their own philosophy rather than just doing what Paul did- become all things to all people to save some.

With all respect, I disagree somewhat with Dave. First of all, the south as a bible belt is a myth. Our society is so transient and post christian that there is no more bible belt. I plant churches in central texas, the supposed bible belt. No area I work in other than tiny towns is more than 45% churched, most 25% -35%. Also, the supposed idea that churches that 'attract' aren't missional and create consumers is a myth-I have been involved with numerous ones (including a plant as a lead pastor) that now have many former non-followers of Christ who now live missional lives because they were ATTRACTED to Christ and the Church. The problem is an overemphasis either way. If you inist that you are going to hyper emphasize missional to the extent of starting there with lost people, you have a recipe for 35 in attendance after 4 years (if you last 4 years). There are many churches not in the south that have grown by being Jesus ((incarnation) and like Jesus did, attracting a crowd. Lives are really changed in both the south and the north, and around the world, by the church being Jesus and lifting up Jesus in their culture and context.

Ed
It seems like everything out there is the same just worded by different people. I would like to have someone who has not numericly "hit the big time" but is changing individuals and families with the Gospel have a voice. Maybe someone who doesn't have the education or popularity of some but they have invested their lives in Podunk,KY and have been faithful to their calling. How did they stick with a small church plant and continue to evangelize despite
1. low numbers
2. no noteriety
3. doubt
4. financial hardships
3. long-time investment not much security