Jen and I are starting a church with Midwest Church Planting a ministry of the Midwest Baptist Conference. The head of Midwest Church Planting has just assigned me a coach for the church planting process.
Now, I have someone to talk to about all things church planting!
My coach is Richard Wollard who is the founding pastor of Meadowland Church
Hey Jeff. It’s nice to see this group taking church planting so seriously! It has only been in the last 3 or 4 years that my own fellowship has began to once again take church planting serious and begin putting major programs together again.
It has seemed over the last 8-10 years that each year we are shutting more church doors than we have been opening. I don’t know how exact this number is, but I heard last month that if every church in America had every seat filled on a given Sunday, that less then 4% of our entire population would actually be in a Church. Even if that number isn’t exactly right… wow!
It is great to see young families like your own making the huge step of faith to go out and start a Church. Having guys like a coach are priceless! We tried to get that setup out here where I am in California. Our goal was to try to get an older/retired pastor who’d been at it his whole life matched up with some younger/newer pastors as coaches. Sadly, our District Office wouldn’t fund it. Beyond sad, actually.
Anyway, remain sharp and always prepared!
Yeah, there are a couple of guys in the BGC who really started the whole coaching movement within our denomination and it just flourished until now it is the predominant method of church planting in the denomination and will soon be a major method employed in strengthening established churches and their pastors as well, and not just in our own denomination but across lines as well!
I’ve been so impressed with the BGC over the past couple of years that I can’t even describe it. The heart passion of the denomination still beats for the Kingdom more than the denomination or even any local church, but the leadership is still thoroughly practical in guiding us into the future. It’s a great combination of spirit-leading and practical wisdom fused into one.
Also, in the area just south of Lafayette, where we will be planting a church, there are roughly 30,000 people and the total capacity of all the churches in the area is roughly 3,000!