Starting a new Baptist church will take any Godly advice.

A couple of items of advise.

1. Be sponsored by a great church with Godly men who will love you, keep you accountable, and prevent you from getting sidelined on various issues. Don't be a lone ranger without accountability.

2. Go with someone else. I think the model is at least two people going together. Don't be a lone ranger without on the field support.

3. Work out the four "C's" before you begin: confession (what you believe), catechism (what you teach your church), constitution (how you operate), and covenant (what it means to be a member).

 

First, I would enlist the sponsorship of a church that can support and help you. Go to your current pastor and talk to him about your plan. See if he supports you. If he doesn't, you better think long and hard. The NT pattern is church sponsorship, not individual initiative without church sponsorship. When you read through Acts, you see that Paul and the other missionaries were sent out by churches, sponsored by churches, and returned to give reports to churches. They were not operating on their own. A good church can help evaluate your gifts and calling, as is the NT pattern. You don't get to declare yourself qualified. They can also help with encouragement and resources. You will need people to pass out flyers and invitations for your services. You will need financial support for printing, renting, and the like. You will probably need some pastoral guidance for yourself, particularly if you have not done this before. Learning "on the fly" can be painful and often destructive. Many churches fail before they ever start because they don't know what they are doing and they are not humble enough to be sent out by a church and a pastor who knows what they are doing. So they waste a lot of time and effort.

Second, I would spend a lot of time actually looking around the area and talking to pastors of all the evangelical churches (even if they are not conservative fundamantal churches). I don't know exactly where you are at, but I don't think Milwaukee is that greatly lacking in good churches. There is a need for neighborhood churches. But remember that just because a church isn't exactly where you are at, it doesn't mean they are not a good church. I would be very cautious about moving into a community where a church is already preaching the gospel, even if they are a little different than you might be. Don't compete against the gospel.

Third, I would establish your doctrine and philosophy well. You will probably find very quickly that a modern version will be a much better choice than the KJV for planting a church of new believers. The chief advantage of the KJV is that you can get them cheap at the dollar store or something like that. But there are many disadvantages, particularly if you are going to reach new believers. The NKJV, the ESV, the NASB, is a much better choice for a new church, particularly when you don't have the baggage of tradition. It will be much easier to preach, to get people to read it and take it seriously, and to make disciples. It will be much easier to establish the Bible as the authority if they do not continually have to depend on you to tell them what it really means.

Fourth, you need a core group of at least 3-5 other families who will help you, move into the area where you want to work, pray with you, give to the church, fill roles of evangelism, teaching, ministry, etc. It will probably take a year to 18 months to gather this group and make sure you are all on the same page. That can go faster if your church will sponsor you and release people to go and minister with you. You can make a big mistake and cause great problems if you don't take the time to get people who are on the same page. It can create division, disloyalty, and dysfunction in the church very quickly. Do not rush this process. Do not be afraid to tell people, "This probably isn't a good fit for you." You will save yourself much heartache down the road.

Fifth, your core group prayer and training meetings should probably take six months or so to walk through the NT with your Bibles open talking about what a church is to believe and to do. These can take place in your house. When you begin public meetings, you need to have a public place, such as a school, a hotel conference room, a storefront, or some such. Get it in as central a location as you can, where a lot of traffic passes by, where it is easily visible and where you have plenty of room to do what you need to do (e.g., children's ministries, nurseries). Get some signs, some flyers, etc.

Sixth, work hard to develop a personal spirit of grace and love toward people. Many church planters are hard driven people who have very harsh personalities. Learn to love people, spend time with them. Making disciples is different than five minute encounters on the front porch and sermons in the pulpit. Learn to laugh and cry with people. Be accessible and known for your love and grace towards them because of God's love and grace towards you.

Lastly, I just picked up a book this week called "Church Planter: The Man, the Message, the Mission" by Darrin Patrick. It looks like a good one. I do not wholesale recommend Patrick, but I have flipped through it briefly (hoping to read it this week) and I think this would be a helpful book for you starting off. You will have to wade through some methodological stuff that might be contrary to your position, but overall I think the book will give a solid exposition of what you need to be.

Don't assume too much. Get some experienced pastors and beg for their honesty about your gifts. Do not be arrogant and presume that you know. If you have a pastor who will not tell your at least 5-10 weaknesses in your life and ministry, get another one. If a pastor won't tell you something that's wrong in your life, either he's not being honest or he doesn't know you. Neither will help you. You need honesty. Church planting is no place to go with an overestimated view of yourself. Hard words? Perhaps. But better hard words than a hard life because you got into something you were not prepared and gifted for.

 

Preach the Word of God. If God is silent- you be silent. If God is loud- you be loud.

Don't be consumed with issues. Preach Jesus Christ, Him crucified, risen from the dead and seated at the right hand of God the Father.

 

Most everyone has said what I would say, but let me add 3 ideas:
1. If you go with someone else have a clear idea of who is going to be the human leader of the church. At first, you both will agree, but over time and with more issues there will be differences of opinion and someone has to take leadership.

2. Work very, very hard. Get out door to door daily. Be a kind, loving witness every where you go. Lift up Jesus and no one else, not even America.

3. Observe Rule number 2 again and again.

 

I think this is an excellent reminder that "goes without saying." Unfortunately, like many things it doesn't "go without saying." Recent conversations remind me that there are a lot of people who simply don't believe this and so it is a good reminder no matter who it comes from. It is not enough to say that Scripture is sufficient and is our authority. We actually have to believe it and live like it. That's one of the core bedrock foundations of my personal commitment. We cannot be intimidated away from the completely authority of the Bible. If the Bible is going to be our authority then it has to be our authority in everything, not just in the convenient and easy things, as some tend towards. We cannot just pick and choose parts of the Bible that we like or parts that fit into our current understanding. We have to be serious about the Bible and everything it says.

We should also recognize that much of church planting is practical in nature. They are wisdom issues that years of experience help us to see best practices. So while particular things may not be biblical mandates, they are wisdom issues in which we have no need to "reinvent the wheel." Let's learn from the mistakes of others.

 

Short of sinning, do whatever you can to get the gospel out there and build bridges with the unreached.

At a local campground, we gave out bottles of sunscreen with tracts attached. We have given out water at local town festivals. School supply giveaways. Handed out coins at laundromats. Bought all the Sunday papers at a Gas station and handed them out there free. Community meals where any can come and eat free. Bought donuts and handed them out in the offices downtown.

At each of these, the gospel is shared on a one-to-one basis and you also have the church doing something the church should be doing any way - doing good to all (Cf Titus 3).

One local church started as a support group for grief sufferers. They planned on having 8-10 at the first meeting. They had 22.

Do something-anything, short of sinning, with the gospel at the center.

 

Hello Living4God21, and welcome.

So far some very pointed and blunt suggestions have been posted and that’s good.
The ministry is not easy, especially if your going to be “God’s man”.

You need to always follow the Lord’s instructions, regardless of what ANYBODY says.
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Pastor Larry suggested..........

If you are convinced that the KJB is God’s Word for English speaking people, don’t be deterred from using it.

Sure, it may be more “popular” to use modern versions, but our #1 goal, is to please the LORD, not men..........
Galatians 1:10
“For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.”

 

Great advice!

 

I suggest that if you are going to plant a new church, plant one that will reach people that no other church is reaching.

Let's face it, most of our baptisms in Baptist churches come as a result of children of church members being saved. We should want that group to be saved, and even expect them to be saved.

What about the people in our communities who are the most unlikely to respond to the gospel? This is a good opportunity for you to plant a church that will focus on those people.

 

Stick to the word of God as it is given, not as it is interpreted today!

 

Pastor Larrys post (#4) on this is full of wisdom and win !!! But he is right, when teaching youth and new Christians, a modern translation will get better results.

My church started out with the KJV, but had to switch within about 3 months. The Pastor was giving a sermon on day and had to stop and explain about 12 different words in the few verses his sermon was about. He felt that having to stop and explain words CONSTANTLY hindered the message, and he was right. So he asked me for advice one day about changing translations to preach from. His heart was heavy on this issue. Now he preaches from modern translations and no longer gets dumbfounded looks when preaching.

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
Which is all for nothing if they can't understand it. Would you read a Spanish Bible to a group of Germans? No , you read Spanish to those who speak Spanish and German to the Germans. The same with modern English vs Jacobean middle English.


Oh, on the practical side, save up as much money as possible for the first year. At first meet somewhere cheap or free. Before you rent, save up enough money to pay the bills for few months to give yourself a buffer and so you will have money for ministries right off.

 

The best translations are those closet to the original texts in the language of the people. The argument thta we would not use german or spanish for english speaking people is lame at best. Modern translations are fine unless they dumb down or water down the truth which most do in my experience. God forbid that a pastor might have to stop and explain some words while preaching which should be part of any expose' even with modern translations. This lazy attitude is one reason why the church today is in such trouble. We are in too big of a hurry to get done instead of getting it right. By the way no message is hindered by explanation. Getting the proper understanding to those who are listening is the heart cry of any real teacher and that takes explaination.

 

The original poster hasn't posted anything at all since September 12, so I am not sure he is really still reading this.

 

I grew tired of this argument long ago. It does about as much good as this :BangHead:

 

Glory

Always nice to hear someone that still preaches from the KJV. I will pray that God will rein many blessings upon you and your "church to be".

 

Do your homework concerning zoning issues. You do not want an unnecessary fight with the city or county commission over location. The Lord can open doors and close them. Pray and make sure of your meeting location.

Praying the Lord's guiding hand upon your work.

 

Whatever translation you preach from or where ever you start off at should be a secondary concern next to prayer.

Any Church whether new or 200 years old, should make prayer of the highest importance. Rely more on God and less on yourselves.