Missionary Toolkit #3 Church Planting Online Resources

Once I confirmed that the Lord was changing the direction or our ministry and that we would be going into a church planting work, I know I would have to reeducate myself in the brave new world of building churches from scratch. I had pastored and worked on staff for over 30 years but never tried to grow a church from the ground up.

My first stop, since it was the cheapest and most accessible, was the internet. Say what you want to against it, the web is a powerful tool for resource gathering and research. I found several good places to begin.

First locating churches to call is a necessity. None of the independent Baptist online sites are perfect and I would suggest confirming the initial address and phone number with a look-up on the web itself though Google or another search engine but getting the initial name is a real help. Just don't get upset when the info is old and the pastor listed is no longer there or the phone has changed or even the name of the church. The very nature of these site means the information is always changing and unless someone at the church updates the entry it will be outdated very quickly.

I personally use Baptistinfo.com at http://www.baptistinfo.com/index.shtml which is maintained by Doyle Welborn who I personally know is a member of a good unaffiliated independent Baptist church in East Texas. Welborn has done a great job of hosting the site for years and has now established a presence on Facebook as well. His site usually is the most up to date in my experience. Other sites which I use to confirm BaptistInfo are Independent Baptist Church locator at http://militarygetsaved.tripod.com/texas_ibcl.htm, Baptist411 at http://www.baptist411.com/index.php and Independent Baptist National Roll Call at http://www.21tnt.com/roll/index.shtml. From my own and others experience with these lists you should be prepared for all manner of Baptist churches not just unaffiliated ones. You may even find some Southern Baptists on some of these lists. Just take my advice and do an internet search to see if they are listed elsewhere and especially check for their own website which should contain the most updated information.

After you locate the churches and gain support you will be on the field and starting the work. This is much more complicated than it once was and it would do you well to prepare by researching both online and through books on the subject of Church Planting.

Here are some of the online sources I have found useful.

The American Church Project at http://www.theamericanchurch.org/. David T. Olsen has written, The American Church in Crisis” which has been very influential in rekindling a vision of church planting in America. The site contains free PowerPoint presentations which summarize the need for new church plants both nationally and state by state. These can easily be incorporated into you own presentation to show the vision you have and the need for churches throughout the United States.

The Pew Forum at http://religions.pewforum.org/ also contains great information on the state of religion in the United States today. It’s scope is broader than just church planting but it has a tremendous amount of resources for you to know your community before you begin your church.

Church Planting Resources at http://www.churchplantingresources.com/ contains lots of links to place for you to get free or low cost tools to help with your new church plant. New Churches at http://www.newchurches.com/tools--resources/free-resources/ is also a good place to pick up ideas, software and web tools for your new church.

One of the most important internet tools you can use if of course Facebook. Facebook is a social interaction website which now has over 400 million people worldwide. It is surprisingly clean, completely free and very useful. You can set up your own personal page which allows you to connect with other Facebook users. The real power of Facebook for your church planting vision though is the ability to set up a “Fan Page” for you future or new church. This allows you to have a place for news, events, discussion, pictures and videos all easier to post and maintain than a regular website. You can connect it to your regular website as well as to a separate blog or just use the Facebook notes application to make a blog right there. People can see your page, personal or church but can only interact with it if you give them permission. This provides a great deal of safety. You can always hide or remove a “friend” if they turn out to be a problem. Facebook give you a world wide outreach at the same time it is as exact as your neighborhood or church family.

Next Missionary Tool Kit I’ll discuss some of the books that I have found the most helpful in getting ready for planting one of the Lord’s churches.