Mistakes I Made In The First 6 Months Of Church Planting

I have come up with a list of 8 mistakes I have made during the first 6 months of church planting in Chicago. I am sure there are more, but this is what I am aware of so far.

1) Public vs Private Venue

Our goal is to gather 50 people into our core group before we do a BIG launch. We are actually not using monthly preview services as the sole strategy to gather a launch team. We'll use previews but for a different reason.

For the first 6 months we were gathering in a home environment. Over 60 people visited our weekly core group meetings during this time. However, I believe that gathering people to a new church, in a pre-launch phase and in a home environment is not a great approach unless they are all people you know really well. We are trying to gather together new people to join us. I believe that people find the home setting to be too awkward and base their decision on this rather than the vision of the future.

So we fixed this. We are now gathering at a Cafe to continue to build our core group. It's costing us more money, but people are sticking better and more people are visiting. I wanted to avoid the cost of rent but in this culture the church-in-your-home model is hard to win people to even if you tell them you are in a pre-launch phase.

2) Recruiting Core People Sooner

To be fair, we did have a list of people we wanted to recruit before we even moved to Chicago, but the politically correct way to approach these people is to ask their pastors for permission. Our list of about 15 direct invitations turned into a list of 1! We were turned down and somewhat crippled from gathering core group members ourselves. This is not a complaint because I know that God is ultimately in control of this. But it is definitely something I can learn from.

I wish 2 years ago I had started envisioning my circle of friends about my desire to start a church. I think that taking steps earlier to dream with friends about the possibility of planting together would have helped recruit more people ahead of time. Perhaps I was too insecure in talking about this, but if I could do it again I would have started a LOT earlier.

To make the best of this I've started exercising our new networks in Chicago and we've already attracted a potential worship leader from Minneapolis. In the end -- this is the way God wanted us to do it so I'm cool with it. But as a pastor now, I want to be more releasing to people who want to church plant. It would kind of be hypocritical if i wasn't!

3) Creating A Budget Sooner

We have a comprehensive budget now and our core people have pledged their giving over the next 12 months, plus we have a budget seminar this Saturday. However, I should have put this together before I hit the ground and got busy with immediate needs. We've fixed this, but I should have known better.

4) Not Starting Socials Sooner

Our strength and passion as a couple is having lots of people in our home and creating an environment for extravagant fun. But, it took us 4 months to start regular social events in our home. While this isn't totally bad, we needed a bit of adjustment and networking time, I wish we had done it sooner. We have now started building a strong sense of momentum and have been able to harness our new friendships and started gathering people more effectively. This also has provided a context for our core group to invite people into than just our weekly core gatherings.

We are consistently building friendships with people and gathering them into the community now. While these events are legitimately just for relationships, our hope, prayer and strategy is to bring people into the church.

5) Not Praying Enough

I have not been committed to prayer like I should have. I have seriously adjusted this aspect of my life. I am prayer walking, fasting and consistently asking for specific things on a daily basis now. I have always been good at praying in the moment but that is simply not enough. While it takes hard work to start a church is also takes a LOT of time in prayer. I just preached on this here. As a church we also only had a monthly prayer meeting. We've moved this to every other week now.

6) Sunday Afternoon vs Sunday Morning

Our core group was gathering on Sunday afternoons which has worked for many church plants but I don't think it worked for us. Other Christians who were looking in could keep going to their churches and simply visit us. This seemed good but in the end it hurt us. Since moving to Sunday mornings things are more black and white. Any Christian from another church who is considering joining us is now in the position to actively miss their church to visit ours. If they aren't willing to do this then they probably wont join anyway.

7) Telling My Mentors What Questions To Ask Me

I have some great men that I look to for mentoring and input. I have been on the phone many times since we moved to Chicago getting help with various things. This has been very important. However, I think I should have done a better job of telling them what questions to ask me rather than just presenting a situation for their input.

I have now asked for these questions to come my way when I call them:

1. What new contacts have you made?
2. How are you following up with them?
3. What are you procrastinating on?
4. What can you delegate?
5. Have you initiated and protected time with the kids and with Heather?
6. What have you spent money on this week?
7. What time have you been going to bed?
8. How are you handling sexual temptation? (I am already accountable for this but it's good to include the question again!)
9. Is there anyone in the church you need to personally encourage this week?
10. How are your devotions? How much time have you spent in prayer and the scriptures?

8) Expecting More Gathering Fruit During The Summer

During the summer we surveyed close to 600 people in the city. We attracted about 8 of them to 2 events we did on a Saturday afternoon. I thought that response was a bit lame, although still something to be thankful for. I now realize we made some BIG mistakes. We blew our invitation on an event which we called a 'Presentation', not the perception we should have given it, which was on a Saturday afternoon -- during the beautiful Chicago summer.

The topic of the presentation was 'Encouraging Community'. While community is part of our vision and a real need in the city, most people think that Chicago has a good community. In the end we only incorporated 2-3 people from this outreach. Not bad, but not great. The summer is a good time to sow but the reaping should be expected in the fall. Reaping in the summer was very hit and miss for us.

I had kind of pinned a lot of hope on building our core group from the massive amount of surveying we did during the summer. Since this didn't have the return that we had hoped for I lost my personal emphasis on networking. Having realized this in myself I have already started scheduling more coffee appointments again and working to connect new people I am meeting into our socials.

Conclusion

It is essential to evaluate and consider what could have been done better. I have been wrestling with God in prayer over the past few weeks as I felt that we should be seeing more fruit by now. Really, what we have seen is great and to be prized. Every new person we have won over is a HUGE blessing and a validation that God has called us to be doing this.

The biggest lesson for me is that growth comes from God so that he can get the credit and that my personal level of readiness in ministry and persistence in prayer CANNOT be overlooked. It has to be central. It doesn't rest on me, but God will never grow this thing beyond where I am at. I feel like we are right on track with the adjustments that have been made and I have faith for God to build our core group up to 50 people.

I've realized that church planting is much harder than I ever thought but I am encouraged that to launch this bad boy we just have to persist. It is going to take time but, God said it would happen and so we are leaning on that a lot right now.

Please continue to pray for us.

Church Plants in Chicago New Web Site

Check it out! Our brand new Chicago church web site to help new people to connect with us: DestinationChurch.org

We have a number of cool things on the new site. Firstly, visitors can take a short survey and have the chance to win $100 of meat for a cook out. We are simply trying to encourage community, and serve the people of the city by stimulating deeper connectedness. If you know anyone in Chicago, please forward the web site link to them and encourage them to take the survey. I know some of you reading this will think, oh, that doesn't mean me, but yes, it means YOU. Please send your Chicago friends to the site to take the survey and have the chance to win $100 of serious meat!

Destination Church now has it's own official blog that has just launched. If you are interested in keeping up with how and what we are communicating to our people then go ahead and subscribe, you can sign-up via email or RSS on the homepage.

Our prayer partners section is still available for new people to sign up. It's under the "Get Involved" section. If you still haven't signed up, please join the dedicated team of over 200 prayer partners that we currently have!!!

We have a lot of information on the site about a campaign we are launching in Chicago called Encouraging Community. We are giving away 5,000 bottle openers and telling people to share a drink with a neighbor. We are also giving out 3 prizes of $100 of meat and asking people to host a community cook out. To top it all off we are offering a short presentation about the importance of community involvement, the reason human trust and relationships have broken down in society, some solutions to fix it and the vision of Destination Church.

You can read the full article here which explains in more detail.

My apologies for not having blogged for a while, I've been trying to meet 20 new people a week and it's INSANE! Keep praying for us, especially as our Summer Evangelism Interns are arriving today. Orientation kicks off at 1pm, so I'll have 8 guys sitting in my living room and I'm sure some of them will wet their pants at some of the things I am going to ask them to do!!! WAHAAHAHA!!!!

Peace

How To Choose A Church Name

In my last post, 119 Cool Church Names, I explained my philosophy for selecting a church name. This last Sunday I announced the name to our core group. We surveyed Christians and unchurched people to find a name that would be attractive and acceptable to both. We wanted a one word name with the word "church" following it, and we wanted something original, hard to do these days. 

I had a number of people ask their friends which church they would be more likely to attend if they were invited by a friend or saw an advertisement. The four names we presented to our friends were:

1. Message Church
2. Crimson Church
3. Destination Church
4. Celebration Church 

Here are the results:

Message Church

Christians really liked this name. I personally liked it too. I got the idea when I glanced at my bookshelf and saw the Message paraphrase of The Bible by Eugene Peterson. Christians liked the simplicity and the theological strength of this name. It appeared to be a winner. However, nearly 100% of the unchurched and nonChristian people we asked about this name HATED it! It sounded preachy and redundant. Of course, those outside the church expect a church to have a message, and so, because it's in the very title of the church they felt like we REALLY had a message, perhaps a LONG and hell-bent message! This was eye opening. What Christians thought was a sound name with good meaning, nonChristians found repelling. This means Message Church is a poor choice if we want to attract unbelievers. 

Crimson Church

Christians were split on this name. Half the Christians we spoke to really liked it and half really didn't. It has some merit to be fair. It's artsy and young sounding, to help attract a new generation, and also has some strong theological meaning to it. Crimson is the color of blood. It represents the blood of Christ. Personally, I thought this could have worked well. However, most nonChristians disliked this name and found it suspicous. They didn't understand it. It gave them the feeling of being mystical and unclear. They felt immediately disconnected because it appears to be a name that Christians would understand, but they are somehow lacking in understanding. It is a barrier creating name. Some unchurched also felt that this sounded like a name for a TV Evangelist show! Yikes! That is a definate one to avoid. 

Destination Church

Over all this was well accepted. It was the second most popular pick among nonChristians. Christians also liked this name. There was a small percentage that thought it was a little bland or that the word had been overused, but this was a small group. It is true, tt has been used in some regards as a branding word, but it is not often used as the name of an organization. It still has originality. It has great theological meaning. Our destination is Jesus. Everything ultimately finds meaning in him. It speaks of purpose, clarity and goals. Most Christians thought it sounded strong and had lots of marketing potential. NonChristians shocked us with their opinion of this name. 90% of them really liked it. They understood it. It made sense to them and they thought it sounded pretty cool actually. Some even commented that they would expect to encounter spiritual truth at this church! Crazy! People from a relativistic society expecting truth! Amazing! This was the most favorable name for both Christians and nonChristians. 

Celebration Church

I personally disliked this name a lot. I thought it sounded happy clappy and weird. Nearly all Christians we surveyed thought the same thing. This name would potentially repell lots of new area Christians, which would not be a wise decision. However, and most surprisingly, this name was the MOST polular among nonChristians. Shocking! They liked it because it was positive and upbeat. They felt like church should be uplifting and so this name captured something good. They didn't really have the hangups that Christians had about it. In the end I felt it would not be smart to chose a name that Christians hated and nonChristians loved. We needed a cross over name. 

The Name?

The Newfrontiers Chicago Church Plant name will be Destination Church. There doesn't appear to be any churches in the world with this name, so it is highly original for a church name, and it is clear and attractive to both Christians and nonChristians. We feel it will be helpful for attracting city people, young families, students and young professionals. 

In the end a lot of this comes down to opinion. But the fact that this name doesn't turn people away is a positive. 

What do you think? 

119 Cool Church Names

In the process of trying to think through a name for our new church in Chicago I brainstormed an initial list of 156 names. Some were so ridiculous that I had to remove them from this list, which now contains some less ridiculous names. 

I will not reveal here what the new churches name is. I'll be sharing that with the core group in a few weeks. In choosing a name I wanted to keep these things in mind:

1. Something simple. One or two words with the word "church" after it. People need to know we are a church, so having "church" is important to me. Some exclude this, but I personally think that is a mistake. I wanted one or two words because some church names are so long it's hard to say them. I want things to be simple in this regard. 
2. Would the unchurched be more or less likely to visit purely based on the name?
   
3. Would the name connect with Christians?
   
4. Be certain no other churches in close proximity had this name.
5. Something that would work in different locations around the city.
6. I felt that it was important to find something non-traditional, because we are targeting a younger urban crowd, yet something not too wacky that would turn away Christians who are looking for a church. 

I went through the process of having a number of Christians present 4 possible names to their unchurched friends in Chicago and pose this question: Purely based on the name, which church would you be most likely to visit if a friend invited you or if you saw an advertisement? This process was VERY eye opening and SHOCKING to some degree. Christians and unchurched people had widely different reactions to the names. I could not have predicted how our unchurched friends would have responded to the options. 

After hearing both sides, we have chosen a name. We'll reveal it soon, so checkout the brainstorm list and watch this space ... 

119 Cool Church Names (some aren't so cool!)

1. ONELOVE church
   
2. Recreate church
   
3. Eklesia church
   
4. Connect church
   
5. CHURCH CAST
   
6. The Race Church
   
7. NewGlobe Church
   
8. NewChurch
   
9. Restorer Church
   
10. Defender Church
    
11. Rescuer Church
    
12. Giver Church
    
13. Act Church
    
14. The Overture Church
    
15. The Endeavor Church
    
16. First Act Church
    
17. Venture Church
    
18. Great Endeavor Church
    
19. The Exchange Church
    
20. Truth Church
    
21. The Source Church
    
22. All Things New Church
    
23. Pitch Church
    
24. The Launch Church
    
25. OutSetChurch
    
26. Link Church
    
27. Encounter Church
    
28. 24 CHURCH
    
29. First Love Church
    
30. Replenish Church
    
31. Global Church
    
32. The Center Church
    
33. CONNECTION CHURCH 
    
34. Epic Venture Church
    
35. The Root Church
    
36. DANGERMOUSE Church (added for tobiwan)
    
37. Renewal Church
    
38. Renew Church
    
39. OneWayChurch
    
40. Landmark Church
    
41. Century Church
    
42. Central Church
    
43. CleanSlate Church
    
44. TombStone Church
    
45. Kinetic Church
    
46. Movement Church
    
47. Motion Church
    
48. Activate Church
    
49. Dynamic Church
    
50. Rhythm Church 
    
51. Pulse Church
    
52. Beat Church
    
53. Sound Church
    
54. New Music Church
    
55. Portal Church
    
56. Music of Life Church
    
57. Rhythm of Life Church
    
58. Reactivate Church  
    
59. TheCause
    
60. LIFECAUSE Church
    
61. BeTheCause Church 
    
62. Motif Church
    
63. Designers Church
    
64. ThePattern
    
65. LifePattern
    
66. PatternOfLife Church 
    
67. TheDesign
    
68. Redesign Church
    
69. TheSketch
    
70. Objective Church
    
71. CityBeat
    
72. Fresh Church
    
73. Start Church
    
74. TheFigure
    
75. TheCrux
    
76. TheCore
    
77. Guardian Church 
    
78. Keeper Church
    
79. Director Of Life Church
    
80. One Church
    
81. The Messenger 
    
82. Messenger Church
    
83. Message Church 
    
84. Stream Church
    
85. Streaming Church
    
86. LIGHT CHURCH
    
87. VIBE Church
    
88. Verve Church 
    
89. Manifold Church
    
90. Home Church 
    
91. Open House Church
    
92. Propulsion Church
    
93. View Church
    
94. Vision Church
    
95. Honor Church
    
96. Celebration Church 
    
97. Churchopolis 
    
98. Churchopia 
    
99. Star Church
    
100. Jesus Church
     
101. New Tribe
     
102. Kin Church
     
103. Commit Church
     
104. Change Church 
     
105. Resolution Church 
     
106. Enthuse Church 
     
107. Overflow Church
     
108. Drive Church
     
109. Enter Church
     
110. Embark Church
     
111. Purpose Church
     
112. Multiply Church 
     
113. Reproduce Church
     
114. Celebrate Church
     
115. Access Church
     
116. New Deal Church
     
117. Joy Church
     
118. Crimson Church 
     
119. Red Church
     

Check out the ESV Study Bible

200 Prayer Team for the Chicago Church Plant

One of the most common mistakes that new churches make is to underestimate the level of spiritual warfare involved in church planting. Therefore, it is our desire to gather a BIG team of prayer partners who are willing to pray through a monthly (or sometimes weekly) itemized prayer list. Basically, if you are breathing and if you have an email address, you can sign up for this!

Our goal is to gather 200 prayer partners. As of a few minutes ago we had 67. I'm hoping that after this blog post we can bump it up quite a bit more! I'm counting on you! Here is how you sign up and pray for us:

1. Visit http://www.churchplantchicago.com/
2. Click "Join the prayer team" on the black box on the right
3. Fill in your name and email address (please make sure you spell your email correctly!)
4. CLICK THE LINK in the confirmation email. (VERY important step)
5. As you receive prayer requests please take time out of your week to pray through them.

The process is very straightforward. When you are on the site please checkout the other things we have going on. Post a comment and share it with others who might be interested. 

Signing up for the prayer team will also be a good way to stay on top of our news and developments. 

Please visit: http://www.churchplantchicago.com/ and become a prayer partner!

Innovative way to fund church planting

Church planters either have time and no money, or money and no time. I think it is designed this way on purpose to keep us on our toes and trusting God. Having both time and money would not however increase the chance of a successful church plant. Money is not really the issue when it comes to church planting, although you still need it. So, in continuing to trust in Gods provision, I am going to reveal to you an innovative way to fund church planting that I have created. 

God's calling on our lives is the real foundation to being successful. If the calling is there, the money will follow. It doesn't magically follow, it comes when you ask people for it, work for it and pray for it. And, just to let you know, I've been working hard on something I believe God spoke to me about. In an attempt the lighten the load of freelance work, utilize my skills, focus on my calling and generate additional support I have just launched a multi-author blog which I'd like you to check out.

First, please watch this 60 second video to get a grasp on the purpose of the blog.

But how does it generate funding?

Before I give away the secret I want your help. Once you visit the new site (eatjesus.com), please do as much as you can from the list below. Every action you take adds value to what we are doing and increases our support:

1. Comment on the first post
2. Subscribe via email or RSS
3. Join the Google Friend Connect (on the right)
4. Follow updates on twitter
5. Become a fan on Facebook
6. Share it, Blog it, etc ...
7. And, keep an eye out for the free ESV Study Bible competition coming soon 

By the grace of God I managed to convince 6 other church leaders and church planters to become authors on the blog for 12 months. I chose guys who have a track record of writing good quality stuff and understanding the value of leadership blogs. This will provide me with 1 years worth of high quality content from men around the world who are engaging their culture and building God's kingdom. Authors can renew their blogging commitment or pass the baton to someone else. 

The purpose of the site is to resource all levels of church leadership so that people can become self-feeders. Our church culture unfortunately reflects our worlds culture in many ways. We have become consumeristic about church life and have lost our desire to take responsibility for our own spiritual growth. EatJesus.com will be an ongoing resource to share and promote ideas, stories, principles, techniques and much more about how to develop maturity and self leadership in the people God has called us to lead. 

The blog offers related products, like study Bibles, which will be promoted using various online marketing methods (it's rather handy being an expert in search engine marketing). That's it. Pretty simple, right? The quality content from an array of authors will attract interest and boost the chances of selling some Bibles and study Bibles -- seems like a pretty honest business to me. 

If you read the last post and you feel the Lord tugging on your heart to directly support us then please review our pledge page. If you don't sense the Holy Spirit directing you in that way, then please visit www.eatjesus.com and subscribe, follow, comment, join, blog etc ... and financially support us without giving us a penny. 

It is people like you who will make EatJesus.com a success. 

An Important Message To All Our Blog Subscribers

God has spoken clearly that we should plant a church in Chicago. We have almost completed our Church Planting Training program in St. Louis and are aiming to arrive in Chicago at the beginning of April. We would like to ask all the subscribes to our blog to pray for us and to consider participating in the joy that we have ahead of us. Let's do a recap first ... 

So how did we arrive at this decision?

• Leaders throughout my life have validated my leadership calling and gifting. In one way or another these men got me here through varying degrees of verbal confirmation and life input: Steve Whittington, Bob Hollway, Andy Back, Chris Jarvis, Pete Brooks, Steve Horne, Terry Virgo, Joel Virgo, Tommy Stanley, Dan Evans, Carl Herrington, Rick Hein, Curt Mccutchan, John Lanferman and Bryan Mowrey (I know I missed a few people).
  
  
• When Heather and I first met we discovered that God had clearly spoken to us about a BIG calling on our lives. I shared a vision God had given me about my future and it almost identically matched something Heather had received as a young girl. God joined me with the perfect mate to support and encourage me through my adventures in leadership.
   
• I grew up in Newfrontiers, a church planting movement, and have always had church planting on the map. I didn't know if I would lead a church plant, but I sure wanted to. Because of this we both undertook 3 years of Newfrontiers-USA leadership training through the Trilogy Project.
  
  
• Life in Kansas City was getting frustrating. I had a successful marketing career, leadership positions in the ONEBLAZE Midwest Christian youth camp and at Grace Church in Lee's Summit had opened up. But I wasn't satisfied. God was disturbing me deeply and life didn't seem right. We had to go. 
  
  
• In 2008 Jubilee Church in St. Louis started a Church Planting Training program. God spoke to me one day at work and said "I'm with you all the way!" It was broad and open ended but it was all the confirmation I needed. We left everything behind to pursue the call. I now have a plaque in my kitchen that Heather made with those words plastered across it! 
  
  
• During the last worship gathering at ONEBLAZE in St. Louis 2008 God spoke to Heather and said "Chicago is yours for the taking". I had already been feeling that we needed to be in a big city and was strongly drawn to Chicago. So that was it -- Chicago! 
  
  
• This year has been full of miracles which further validate His calling. God miraculously zeroed out a medical bill worth $2500 -- sick, I know. For Jones we only ended up paying $25 of medical bills. He gave us the most perfect apartment in St. Louis for this year of training. God moved David and Emma Hosier from London to Chicago in the midst of an economic downturn. God provided freelance work right at the moment of financial collapse. He instantly healed a man I prayed for at the gas station. God safely brought our son into the world. And the list goes on ... 

All of this was done in God's providence. He has also connected us with a small group of pioneering Christians in Chicago. He sent amazing people like Tim & Chloe Steinke ahead of us to get things ready. I can hardly believe what God has done -- without us doing anything. It is the continual working of His salvation. He does ALL the saving. His grace is sufficient. 

With all that history in mind, and some seriously cool history in the making, we would like to ask all our blog subscribers to prayerfully consider financially supporting us for the next 12 months. We know this is no small thing to ask especially in our economic climate. We are confident of Gods provision for us because He has already laid it on the hearts of others to serve the new work in Chicago. 

Please seek the Lord in prayer about a monthly or onetime gift to support us. If you do feel impressed my the Holy Spirit to partner with us go ahead and submit the pledge form here. Please also continue to pray for us. 

In Christ,

Matt, Heather, Jones & Macrae Sweetman