Brian was disappointed, but not surprised. “It was not totally unexpected,” he told Trip. “When I was pastor of another congregation where we talked about launching a new congregation, we got the same first response.”
Trip was not yet rational about it. “I could not believe what I heard expressed in that room!”
“It was an uninformed response,” Brian said, “but it was the first time many deacons had thought about this. They had no background for the discussion. If we want to revisit this, we will need to set a foundation for it.”
Still unsettled about what happened with the deacons, Trip asked, “What would that mean?”
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Trip and Brian brainstormed several approaches. One held great promise.
Igniting spiritual passion
Annually, the deacons as a group engage in a missions project. They help a struggling congregation or a smaller membership congregation do things they cannot do for themselves. Often it is some type of repair or renovation project. At times it is to help them conduct an event for which they do not have enough people to serve as volunteers.
It can be something for children, youth or adults. It can be as simple as handling the meals for a church event, such as a retreat, homecoming or senior adult banquet.
But they have never done something with a new congregation during its preparation and launch phases. Thus, many of them did not know what it was like to experience the spiritual passion present in people launching a new congregation. They did not realize it can be positively contagious.
Trip and Brian both thought engaging in a hands-on experience with a launching congregation might be the perfect next step.
Brian suggested Trip contact the missions strategist for their association and see about the possibilities. At the last association executive board meeting, the missions strategist had talked about launching one new congregation each year in their association of 42 congregations. The thought was to select a setting where the population was steadily growing.
It turned out when Brian contacted the associational leader, an opportunity was coming up the next month. A core group for a congregation ready for their public launch had secured a temporary meeting place.
However, it was going to take a lot of volunteer work to get the facilities in shape: cleaning up, some repairs, painting the entire building inside and out, decorating the worship center and classrooms, setting up furniture, landscaping around the building and many other things.
Enlisting volunteer help
The dozen households launching the new congregation needed a lot of volunteer help, including prayer walking the community and organizing community events in the four weeks before the first worship service.
It was a rush to get the deacons to approve the project and get organized for this missions effort. The deacons included people with exceptional skills needed by the new congregation. Many of their spouses also got involved.
The best part of the experience was the people they met. Several deacons and spouses commented they had never seen a group of people so spiritually passionate about the good news of Jesus.
Hearing this, Trip and Brian looked at one another and smiled. They could not wait to hear the deacons debrief this experience at their next meeting.
EDITOR’S NOTE — George Bullard spent five decades in Baptist congregational and denominational ministry. His ministry roles included three churches, three associations, three state conventions and one national entity. He began as a columnist for TAB Media Group’s publication The Baptist Paper in 2022. Bullard now serves as a strategic thinking mentor for Christian leaders through his ForthTelling Innovation ministry. TAB Media Group published his new book “Soaring with Faith: The Difference Maker for Congregations” — available on Amazon.
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