Why should churches plant new churches?

• The Church is God’s primary plan for advancingHis Kingdom in the world.• Eighty percent of ARP churches are on an at-tendance plateau or in decline.• Across American denominations, churches less than 20 yearsold are more likely to be growing churches than are churchesolder than 20 years (American Church Research Project).• The average new church doubles in size from year one toyear four, growing from an average of 40 people to over 80(2007 Center for Missional Research study by Ed Stetzer andPhillip Connor).• Sponsoring a new church plant usually has a revitalizing ef-fect on the sponsoring church (see Farmer article on page 2 ofthis newsletter).• The active support of the sponsoring church gives the newchurch a healthy start (see Gaston Community and CoddleCreek articles in this newsletter).

OutreachNewsletter

A Publication of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian ChurchBoard of Outreach North America

Inside this Issue...

• Gaston Community Church• Coddle Creek Plants Christ Church ARP• Dr. Jeffery Farmer:

Sponsoring new churches as ameans of church revitalization

• Churches Planting Churches in Catawba Presbytery

• News and

Notes from the Field

ona

Outreach North America

Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church

Gaston Community Church

Gaston Community Church (GCC) was organized this past De-cember and is a daughter church of First ARP Gastonia.Rev. Eddie Spencer, Pastor of First ARP

, wroteof the organization of this daughter church: “Itis a day worthy of celebration for our church;who along with GCC gives thanks to God; He hasindeed birthed a new congregation to build Hiskingdom, for His glory.”In the spring of 2007, the session of First ARPapproved a committee to do demographics, identify a location,make a preliminary budget, and to recruit people for a satel-lite worship service. By the time the session gave the go aheadin November 2007, the committee had done the demographic

work, had identied a place to meet, and had developed a

budget.With a core of 30 people committed, the church launchedthe satellite worship service in March 2008. The service beganto draw people through word of mouth and personal notes.

From the Director

Dr. Alan J Avera

Andy Holland was hired as the Music Leader and developed agood music team of instrumentalists and vocalists and has beenan excellent worship leader. The church supported the churchplanting effort as evidenced by 165 people in attendance forthe launch of the satellite services, and an average attendance

of 110 people over the rst two months. Senior Pastor Eddie

Spencer led the satellite services for two months and thenpassed it on to Associate Pastor Mark Tankersley (who was sooncalled as the mission developer after assessment through ONAand approval by the presbytery).Spencer observes that First ARP was “careful not to give thenew church a philosophical direction” before a church planter

was identied. It would be important for the mission developer

to help set the philosophical direction. But, the leadership ofFirst ARP wanted to lay the foundation for a healthy churchstart.“It was worth the cost to get a good healthy church,” Spen-cer said. The cost included the loss of some wonderful people

and the loss of a signicant number of people. “Giving has held

up well,” Spencer notes, “but it will take two or three years torecoup the attendance.”

Continued on page 2

GCC Organization Service

Expanding Your Witness for Christ to Reach More People

Spring 2010

Churches Planting Churches

Page 2 Outreach

people. This study actually showed theopposite. “Worship attendance increased

by 21.5% for the ve years after thechurch plant. This nding was a surprise.

Conventional logic would suggest thatworship attendance would decrease af-ter the sponsorship of a church plant dueto worship attenders moving to the newchurch plant.” The mission focus createdby church planting tends to increase at-tendance!Another concern churches often haveis that planting a new church would be

too great a nancial burden. Once again,

Farmer’s study shows an opposite effect.“An objection to sponsoring a churchplant has been that the church did not

have enough money to do so. The ndings

of this study suggests this objection haslittle merit. Not only did the church mem-bers give more to the sponsor church,

The following is based on Dr. Jeffery C. Farmer’s doctoral dissertation onChurch Planting Sponsorship: Statistical Analysis of Sponsoring a Church Plant asa Means of Revitalization of the Sponsor Churches.

“The purpose of the study was to de-termine whether or not the sponsorshipof a new church plant had an impact onselected church growth variables in thesponsoring churches.” Churches were

studied for two time periods: the veyears before and the ve years after

sponsoring the church plant. Monetary

variables (with adjustments for ina

-tion) and worship attendance were bothevaluated.One of the concerns that people of-ten have in planting a church is that thesponsoring church will lose too many

Continued from page 1

Ernie Summey, the clerk of the provi-sional session

for the mission, saw many

benets to the parent church model. The

greatest advantage is the “natural sup-port that you wouldn’t have” starting achurch alone. Eddie Spencer was instru-mental in providing the initial leader-ship and direction for the mission. Theleadership group from the mother churchprovides the “beginning management”for the church. Some of the men fromthe leadership team are now elders atGaston Community. In the case of Gas-ton Community, Mark Tankersley (as theassociate pastor at the mother church)“knew the mother church and her com-mitment to the mission. He also provid-ed strong and dedicated leadership forGaston Community.” First ARP was at apoint of maximum capacity before plant-ing Gaston Community. There was a needfor another ARP church in this fastestgrowing residential area of Gastonia. “In

...Gaston

they gave signicantly more. Designat

-ed gifts increased 77.4% and tithes andofferings increased 48.4%.” Apparentlythe focus on giving to a church plantstimulates other giving as well.A conclusion that Farmer draws fromhis study is that planting new churches

is benecial to the heath of established

churches. “An implication of the studysuggests that plateaued or decliningchurches should seriously and prayer-fully consider sponsoring a church plant

every three to ve years in order to cre

-ate a missional atmosphere in the localchurch... The result will be a revitalized

local church, the expansion of the king-

dom, and the glorication of Christ.”

the beginning it was a step of faith. Thewhole process was God’s will. It couldn’thave happened if He wasn’t in it.”

Mark Tankersley Planter and Pastor of GCC

God gave me a desire forchurch planting when I wasin Statesville in the mid1990s. However, this op-portunity in Gastonia was

the rst realistic one for

me to plant a church. God began sendingpeople from First Presbyterian (PCUSA)to First ARP. Most of the families whohelped us begin the mission with the in-tention of staying were strong evangeli-cals from First Presbyterian who had azeal for God’s Word and a love for JesusChrist. Of the families who were a part ofthe original mission, 16 were from FirstARP via First Presbyterian Church, 9 werefrom other churches, and 6 were longtime members from First ARP.In God’s providence, one of the uniquefeatures is that I was one of the pastorsin the parent church for 4 years beforeplanting the mission church. This cre-ated a strong kinship to both the parentchurch and the mission, and a true lovefor both. I know, without equivocation,that many people at First ARP support-

ed the work nancially, and the leaders

agreed to support me personally for overa year because they wanted me to suc-ceed just as much as they wanted themission to succeed. Some of the greatest

In the begin-ning it was a step of faith. The whole processwas God’s will. It couldn’thave happened if Hewasn’t in it.

support and encouragement I had for themission has also come from Alan Avera,John Kimmons, Outreach North America,First Presbytery, and from an elder, ErnieSummey of First ARP, who was the Clerkof our Provisional Session.While the parent church model has

many benets, there have also been mo

-ments of disappointment and hurt alongthe way. There were times of uncertaintyas to whether or not the work would growas people who originally came out to visitfrom First ARP began to drift back to thecomforts and familiarity of the motherchurch downtown. There was the pain ofhearing that some people were wonder-ing why we were planting this church.There was also the pain I felt in leavingthe people I had helped shepherd thosefour years. And yet, God prevailed.I hope to see Gaston CommunityChurch commission ministry leaders toleave the nest in God’s timing to moveout and plant another church. This iswhat I hope for, and I know it will takeGod’s grace to accomplish it. And yet, I

am more condent than ever, that God

will prevail… again.

Youth Sunday GCC

Dr. Jeffery Farmer:

Sponsoring new churches as a means of church revitalization

Coddle Creek Plants Christ Church ARP

Winter 2010 Page 3

Tom Patterson, Chairman of the Anniversary Committee at Coddle Creek

The planting of a new church is anexciting adventure. Every congregationshould have the privilege of being on thefront lines of starting a new church.Coddle Creek Church dates back to1753. With such a long history, it couldhave rested on the laurels of the past and

been satised to maintain itself, but God

had bigger plans for Coddle Creek.It is believed that around 1871 a groupof black members from Coddle Creekformed the Bethesda AME Zion Church afew miles away. This was Coddle Creek’s

rst church plant – as far as we can tell.

Today, the Bethesda Church continues

to maintain a signicant ministry in our

community.In 1885 and again in 1896, the min-isters at Coddle Creek were instrumen-tal in establishing the Mooresville ARP

Church. The rst attempt lasted about

four years, and in 1896, a second attemptwas successful. Now in its 114th year, theMooresville Church continues to ministerinside the city limits of a growing town.In 1985, Coddle Creek decided tosponsor services on the eastern side ofLake Norman. Members of the congrega-tion supported the initial evening worshipservices until a core group was gathered.

The Coddle Creek pastor lled the pulpit.

The Lakeside Fellowship Church is cele-brating its 25th anniversary this year.As Coddle Creek’s 250th Anniversaryapproached in 2003, the congregationwanted to once again see something sig-

nicant accomplished for Christ and His

Church. It seemed logical to establish adaughter congregation. A fund was estab-lished with a goal of $115,000 that wasmet and surpassed by the end of the An-niversary Year. We looked at the possibili-ties of establishing a church on the westside of Lake Norman. This time, a missiondeveloper was called to plant the church.Again, the Coddle Creek people investedtheir time in supporting this service whilea core group was gathered. Christ Church

in Denver has done well and is now ap

-proaching the time it will be organized.What does the future hold for CoddleCreek? Will there be other church plantsestablished by this old congregation? Godhas a plan for Coddle Creek.What does the future hold for yourchurch? Might your church become in-volved in planting a new congregation? Itmay be as simple as starting a satelliteworship service in another community. Itmay involve partnering with several oth-er congregations and jointly sponsoring anew mission. Coddle Creek is not a largecongregation, and it is not a wealthy con-gregation. Yet God has multiplied it four

times. Does God have a church planting

plan for your church?

Rev. Jamie HuntPastor Coddle Creek ARP

What are the advantages of “daugh-tering” a new church? There are severalwhich Coddle Creek has experienced:1. Our congregation has enjoyed in-volvement and the sense of ownership andresponsibility with this new church. TheCoddle Creek committee, with the helpof ONA and First Presbytery’s Church Ex-tension Committee, entered into a searchfor a good location for a new church. We

chose Denver because some members ei

ther lived in Denver or had family there.After being called as the Mission Devel

-oper, Morrie Lawing worshipped with usfor a number of months. Two of our el-ders served on the provisional session.A prayer time was established each Sun-day morning for the express purpose ofpraying for the work. Far more than justsending money, Coddle Creek has beenengaged in planting and developing thisnew church.2. With such deep involvement, Cod-dle Creek has to some extent been able

to inuence the values and ethos of the

daughter church. Morrie interacted with

Coddle Creek ARP Church

Far more thanjust sending money,Coddle Creek has beenengaged in planting anddeveloping this newchurch.

our congregation and was able to under-stand the commitments of the motherchurch in terms of our theological andprogramatical purposes. Consequently,there has been no disappointment orsense of surprise in the character of thedaughter church. Good support continuesfor the church.3. The two elders who have servedon the provisional session have grownconsiderably. They are better elders atCoddle Creek than before because theyare more aware of the importance ofoutreach and of vision for the future.4. This model of church planting savesthe presbytery and synod time and re-sources while offering some more intensesupervision of the work. The presbyteryand synod agencies still participate infunding but are relieved of the basic un-derwriting of the ministry.

Rev. Morrie LawingMission Developer, Christ Church ARP

What is the best way to start a newchurch? I have had the privilege of plant-

ing two ARP churches. The rst was a

“parachute” drop, and now I am plantinga daughter church. What a difference itmakes for me as a church planter to havethe support, encouragement, and prayersof the people of Coddle Creek!From the beginning our family wasreceived into the Coddle Creek congrega-tion with open arms. We worshiped with

them when we rst moved to the eld.

What a blessing to get to know thesedear people! We discovered that a groupof saints had been praying for the futurechurch planter and his family for twoyears prior to our arrival and is still pray-

ing for us and our edging church ock to

this day- seven years later!

In addition to nancial support, there

have been so many additional blessingsthat our mother church provided: Mem-bers helped convert a store front facilityfor worship, a Sunday School class givesmonthly to our building fund, Pastor Ja-mie Hunt has times of prayer and encour-agement with us, and even an elder pro-vides us with fresh vegetables from hisgarden.The blessings to me, my family, and ourchurch family are too numerous to count.We will forever be grateful to CoddleCreek. I encourage your church to starta church to extend the Kingdom throughyour support and encouragement!