Involvement - How We Resource Churches

Congregations throughout the Covenant are adding church planting to their range of outreach efforts through a collaborative effort we call Churches Planting Churches. Church planting in the Covenant is a three way partnership between sponsoring churches, the regional conference, and the denomination. There are two ways in which an existing church can help underwrite a church plant.

Household Support:
This model is similar to supporting a child on a monthly basis through World Relief. The vision and logic of the planting project are communicated to the entire church, and then individual families are challenged to commit in the areas of prayer, service, and finance. Financial commitments are requested for twenty-four months and are remitted to Covenant Offices for accounting, receipting, and distribution to the local plant. All dollars committed are invested in the conference/region where the existing church is located.

Capital Fund Campaign:
Many of our existing churches are undertaking capital programs to buy land; build or expand facilities; reduce/eliminate debt; or expand and strengthen staffing, programming, or missions. Rather then paying fee dollars to an outside organization, Churches Planting Churches will facilitate the capital emphasis by asking that a portion of the over-and-above giving proceeds be invested in church planting in the local conference. This approach allows the existing congregation to accomplish their vision and simultaneously re-direct fee dollars into a nearby mission field. Perhaps into a field that they helped to identify!

Church planting is a Biblical pattern for reaching more people with the hope of Jesus Christ. Your own Covenant church is evidence. It was planted at one point in time. It has already touched your life and the lives of untold others.

Congregations throughout the Covenant are adding church planting to their range of outreach efforts through a collaborative effort we call Churches Planting Churches. Church planting in the Covenant is a three way partnership between sponsoring churches, the regional conference, and the denomination. There are two ways in which an existing church can help underwrite a church plant:

PROCESS

Preparing the Seed:

Jesus uses the analogy of the mustard seed that grows into a crop thirty, sixty, or a hundred times what was sown. Sponsoring churches provide that all-important seed. This is done through various combinations of the following:

• an intentional prayer focus
• the sending of people, if applicable
• referring possible contacts in the new area
• financial support for the new church in the early stages - typically individual households providing monthly support for two years
• providing a short term hands-on ministry support - occasional help in greeting, music, children's ministry, nursery, etc.
• assistance with material and equipment
• use of facility or office space
  

Preparing the Soil:

The Conference and Covenant work hard to make sure the soil for that seed is well-prepared. Each project is prepared and supported by the Conference and Covenant through:

• recruitment and training of qualified church planting candidates
• strategic planning
• on-going coaching to the church plant
• fund-raising assistance to sponsoring churches (including receipting support and materials for education and publicity)
• additional financial support for the church plant in conjunction with what is generated by sponsoring churches

Cultivating the Harvest:

The church planter and the core group then have the main responsibility for the hard work of farming the field and cultivating the harvest brought by God. Ongoing involvement by sponsoring churches contributes to the result, and those churches are often energized themselves by the missional focus it reinforces. The Conference and the Covenant also remain intricately involved through extensive ongoing coaching, training and other timely resources.