How to Start a Church: The Ultimate Guide to Following Your Faith
Has God placed ministry in your heart? Do you feel called to begin a church that takes your faith and multiplies it for God’s glory? If these are true for you, there are great works ahead. Before your ministry flourishes and reaches outward, there are steps you must take to ensure its success. Ultimately, the success of any church isn’t in its attendance, number of volunteers, or profits, but in its ability to be the hands and feet of Jesus. Here are a few tips to start a church that thrives.
Start with the Basics
Before you can dive into the ministry aspects of your church, be sure to set the necessities in place. Aside from the obvious decisions like location, building space, and parking, there are some must-haves that you might not have considered. Hire staff members to whom you can delegate various responsibilities. You may feel a need to control each aspect of your new church, but even Jesus had disciples to entrust with his ministry. Your full-time staff is there to ensure day-to-day operations run smoothly, new team members are trained properly, and behind-the-scenes roles are covered. To keep track of your church’s finances, consider hiring a certified public accountant (CPA). As someone keen on accountability, fraud protection, and loan requirements, they’re invaluable. Let them manage your tax return folders, bookkeeping, and everything in between.
Pour into Your Team
Your full-time staff and volunteer team shouldn’t experience burnout. Be sure to set clear expectations and encourage them to set boundaries on the time they give. Your volunteers should be attending services just as often as they serve. The idea is to maintain an equal flow of filling people with God’s word and pouring it out. Create small groups led by trained members of your staff and volunteers to meet throughout the week. Work with your graphics team to create study guides that correlate with the message of the month. The availability of these resources ensures that your congregation’s walks with Christ don’t just start and end at the doors of your church.
Speak to Every Generation
One of the major breaking points in today’s churches is the gap between generations. Today’s youth are drawn to visuals, modernization, advances in music, and life-application studies. Earlier generations prefer traditions, consistency, and direct biblical messages. Bridging this gap is not an easy feat, but it’s not impossible. Speak to your congregation on their unique roles. Encourage the elders of your congregation to share their experiences and testimonies with the youth and guide them in the ways of faith. Acknowledge your young adults’ passion for continuing God’s work in a new generation. Raise them up so that when their time comes to lead, they’re prepared and encouraged. Opportunities for each generation to support and pray for the other are key to reaching every member of your church whether they read the King James Version or the New Revised Standard Version Bible.
Stay Focused
Ministry can often overextend itself in an attempt to solve every troubled area of the world. Focus the efforts of your church on specific areas in need. Choose a passion whether third-world adoption, water wells in Africa, or building schools in South America. Lend your fundraising, outreach, and efforts to one area of focus and you can make a great impact. This is not to say that you can’t also engage in local outreach programs or other charitable causes. The choice to support one global cause simply creates a consistent outpouring of financial and physical support rather than scattered basic aid to various places. Attentive passions lead to long-term impact.
