Help with Starting a Church

I have come to respect the opinions of those who post regularly on the SI boards, so I was wanting advice with starting a new church. It will be affiliated with Calvary Chapel, but it doesn't necessarily have to be one (though I don't think my vision conflicts with CC - and there is a lot of freedom allowed for local CC pastors to manifest their visions for the churches they are a part of.)Here are just a few of the goals/visions I have:* Teach the Bible verse-by-verse, precept-by-precept* Teach the people how to pray and evangelize* Have small groups within the church that will minister to each other, preferably with an elder over each* Understand that church is the barracks and that the enemy can come and visit, but he can't make camp unless he converts to OUR side* Have more prayer meetings than choir practices or such* In the spirit of James 1:27, we will focus our ministry on today's "widows and orphans" - those who are the modern-day equivalent of widows and orphans in James' day: those who are illiterate (cannot read the Word), those who are poor and financially dependant, those who are social outcast, those who suffer for the lack of charity in the world. This will be done, but we will also stress the latter part of James 1:27 by keeping ourselves unspotted from the world.* Keep the church doors open as much as possible and to be a haven for the sick, the hungry, and the poor, but we won't allow God's house to be mocked, for God Himself won't be. We will adopt God's policy of resisting the proud but giving grace to the humble (James 4:6, Proverbs 3:34)* Be of sound doctrine, but not be so dogmatic that we lose sight of the purpose of such doctrine. Ravenhill said, "Your doctrine can be as straight as a gun barrel - and just as empty!", but I like to modify it - "Your doctrine can be as straight as a gun barrel - and just as deadly!" We will strive to keep the main thing the main thing. We will rest in the simpler truths of God's Word but also pursue a deeper understanding through more than head knowledge.* Evangelism will primarily occur outside of church doors. As Ravenhill stated, "A man would be a fool to spend $100 on fishing equipment and only fish in his bath tub. But that's what we do - we preach the Gospel to the same people every week." (paraphrased) As mentioned, evangelism and prayer training will be essential - what army marches into battle without weapons or training?* There will be order in the service, for God is a God of order and structure - just examine nature for more than a minute and even a child can figure that one out. But we will protect ourselves from allowing order to be more important than the leading of the Spirit.* We will teach uncompromising holiness and in the spirit of Ephesians 5:10, we won't be lazy in service but we will find out what pleases our Redeemer and our Lord. We will do that which is pleasing in HIS sight, and if there is a conflict between what is pleasing in HIS sight and OUR sight, He must increase and we must decrease (John 3:30.)* Our sole existence is not to be another church, for the last thing our area needs is another church, but we will be committed whole-heartedly to raising our gates so that the King of glory may come in and reign. (Psalm 24)Got any advice?

Seek to establish Christ and Christ alone. Let Him truly be Lord. Let Him be truly the head. Let Him truly be the center. Of course, everybody will amen this and swear they are doing, but practically speaking, it seldom ever happens.

KingJimmy wrote:Seek to establish Christ and Christ alone. Let Him truly be Lord. Let Him be truly the head. Let Him truly be the center. Of course, everybody will amen this and swear they are doing, but practically speaking, it seldom ever happens. Amen! And may it truly be.

So, now with that said, are you willing to resign notion of being sr pastor? Are you willing to not worry about if people are not really respecting your "authority" and the like? Are you more interested in seeing others set forth in their own ministries and established than your own ministry, and hopefully seeing them surpass your own?p.s. I'm not trying to come across as some sort of grand-inquisitor or any such thing. I'm just trying to help you along in this :)

KingJimmy wrote:So, now with that said, are you willing to resign notion of being sr pastor? Are you willing to not worry about if people are not really respecting your "authority" and the like? Are you more interested in seeing others set forth in their own ministries and established than your own ministry, and hopefully seeing them surpass your own?p.s. I'm not trying to come across as some sort of grand-inquisitor or any such thing. I'm just trying to help you along in this :)Jimmy,When God puts fire in someone's bones to do something, I think it should be taken seriously. We live in an age where just about everyone says, "God's telling me to...." and "The Lord is leading me to....", and I think it's so common that it's beginning to not be taken seriously.I am getting to where I don't say that God is leading me to do something unless I am sure about it. It has to be just short of a burning bush talking to me before I say such things nowadays.I understand your concern and wanting to help because I think you know what I am talking about. There are so many things being done in the name of God that are really just good ideas in the flesh. We are living in days similar to Jeremiah. It became a common phrase in his day for just about anyone to say, "Hear ye the word of the Lord", and God put an end to it. I wonder if we are not on the verge of the same. The point is, I don't take it lightly when I say that God is doing a work in my heart and giving me a burden to do something.As far as whether or not I feel a "special annointing" to be the senior pastor, I cannot tell you, but what I can tell you is that I don't know if anyone else's heart is burning like mine for this, and I feel like I have no Aaron to place responsibilities upon. If someone else arises that God has obviously put more fire and burden upon to serve in that capacity, so be it. Who am I to hamper the will of God?Currently, I am trying to do what I am burning for and to do so without coming across as arrogant or one who has made grand assumptions is proving difficult. But so is the suffering of anyone God puts a fire and burden in.As far as seeing others being raised up from the church to grow in the Lord, that would be wonderful. I don't feel challenged by anyone nor do I ever want to be, but I will protect the vision God has given me and will continue to go before the Lord daily to see if the burden is lifted. Thank you for asking "hard" questions - it leads me to think about how to articulate what I am experiencing and where I stand. I thank God for you! -Chris :-)

Greg,I wanted to include a few more points, and, yes, church discipline and small group edification were to be included, but I had to cut the list short b/c my kids needed attention. :-)I will continue to meditate and pray about the direction God wants the church to go in. I continue to accept and appreciate any further advice as well as some things SI members would like to see implemented into their own churches. I trust the opinions of those here at SI enough to know that they won't suggest selfish things like, "make sure the praise team sounds good."Guys, I have to admit the thing I worry most about is whether or not my area even wants such a church, but it's more of my flesh bothering me than a genuine worry, because I really am leaving it up to God and the fire He's placed in me to attract people, not some fancy worship team or "fun" youth program.More than your advice and comments, I welcome your prayers - specifically that that which God has burdened me with will find direction and that I won't quench the fire by lacking in faith.

Sounds like you are on a good start :)

Are there some people in your area that are following you as a pastor? Are you planning on starting from scratch.. ie when someone you preach to gets saved, you disciple them? My pastor started out with just his family and a few others. I think it started out being around 10-15. It's been alittle over 3 or 4 years and now we have a new building and about 130 or so on sunday morning. There have been some here and there from other churchs start coming to our church but the majority are people that have been saved under my pastor and stayed. EDIT: By the way my pastor is around 35 or so.

How it started it with one person getting saved, and then their whole family seeing a difference in them. And eventually their whole family getting saved! It's amazing! I wish I could have seen it from the begining! I have only been saved about 2yrs 1/2.

Maybe I should just colect my thoughts next time instead of making so many posts.... sorry!They started renting this old, old community building, then from there renting a hotel conference room, to building a building!

I would add one more point: let the people sing! All of them. Concentrate on congregational singing. If they do not know how, teach them! (Perhaps you can tell I enjoy singing!)My two cents worth....ginnyrose

Parsly - I have a Spanish wineskin hanging in my house to remind me that new wine and old wineskins. I am battling with going under the official Calvary Chapel banner, though I really agree a lot with their doctrine and such (let's put it this way - I haven't come across another denomination that is as close to my own convictions.) My pastor (Calvary Chapel as well) has been working with me a little, though he lives 40 mins. away. I don't really want to start afresh because most denominations were created that way. I am open to being independant (many pastors I respect operate within churches that aren't associated with any denomination), but I also am not too keen on re-inventing the wheel if it can be avoided. I am trying to keep my burdens, my convictions, and my passions in check with prayer and waiting upon the Lord.Regardless of whether we go with Calvary or not, we will grow the church out of our Bible study, which has about 6 consistent members, though we get a lot of visitors and usually have 10-12. After Thanksgiving, we will be moving it from my house to a local radio station that has a small stage for performances (the owner wants to support our efforts and offered the space free of charge.) We will also be advertizing it through the local CSN (Calvary Satelitte Network) radio station. I was leading the Bible study until about 2 months ago when we officially aligned the Bible study with my home church, and the pastor there has been coming up to lead it, with me filling in when he cannot make it. I do need to disciple better - some of the people coming to the study I only see at the study. There is one guy in particular that lives down the street. I need to meet with him outside the study regularly to disciple him - I am not even sure if he is born again. Thank you for giving me clearer vision on that. :-) I will be turning 30 in a few days, and I have been saved for about 1 1/2 years now (since March 2004.)Ginnyrose - I happen to have a two degrees in music, but I learned piano b/c I don't sing that well (I can sing on pitch, but the quality of my singing voice isn't that great.) I actually thought God would use me in the music ministry field when I first got saved, but there is no burning in my heart for it, and I quit doing music stuff in the church once I settled that matter with God. I now realize He has different plans for me.There is hardly anything more beautiful to my ears that a church full of people singing with passion to the Lord, and we know that music is important to God - there were 4,000 Levite preist/musicians set aside for temple worship. I think nowadays, though, too much emphasis is being put on music. We're singing so loud that the cries of souls going to hell are muffled. I don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, though.Thank you all so much - please keep it coming!-Ephesians 5:10Chris

www.allathisfeet.com

bump - would like more advice/suggestions etc.