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CHURCH DEVELOPMENT
A Formula For Strong, Healthy New Churches
By Charles W. CourtoyExecutive Director of Church Development
In my mind there are
similarities between giving birth to human beings and giving birth to new United Methodist
churches. We now know that good prenatal and postnatal care enhances the chances of many
more healthy babies growing up to be productive adults. Because of this good care the
infant mortality rate has declined significantly in recent decades.
In my early ministry years, I used to hear elders talk about “blue baby”
churches, new churches that did not get a healthy start and were often carried for years
on subsistence from the district and conference. Hopefully, we are addressing some of
those “prenatal” and “postnatal” factors in order to produce healthy
churches.
A key factor is pastoral leadership. My first full-time appointment fresh out of seminary
was to start a new church. The strategy used was “sink or swim,” with no
coaching on how to proceed. I had no prior training, nor did I receive any special
training later. Almost without exception all new church starts during that time received
neophyte clergy because they offered minimum salary with no health insurance, vested
pension or accountable reimbursement plan.
Today we are implementing “The Discernment Plan” to select and train potential
new church pastors in advance. Twenty-one Florida Conference clergy have completed the
two-year discernment process, which included testing and a week’s training at the
Duke New Church Institute Training. Of those, 11 are current new church pastors. Now, the
Cabinet has a pool of 21 pastors from which to choose new church pastors. Additionally,
the Annual Conference New Start Apportionment provides compensation for new church pastors
up to the denomination’s average compensation, enabling the Cabinet to appoint more
experienced pastors to new churches.
We used to start a new church in almost every new residential subdivision on three or four
acres of land. Today we use guidelines that place most new church starts at least five
miles from existing churches and on visible 10-acre sites. Data from utility companies,
schools and an organization called Percept is used to determine if there are enough people
living in the area to support a church of 1,000 or more members. A rule of thumb is that
within a five-mile radius there must be, or projected to be, at least 20,000 persons. At
least 5 percent are expected to attend the new church. Our emphasis is on winning new
disciples for Jesus Christ, not simply transferring existing members from other churches.
As a new church pastor 36 years ago I had to beg, borrow and beg some more just to get
enough supplies and hand-me-downs to launch the new church. Today in our partnership with
districts we ask that they have at least $150,000 to support the ministry (rent, office,
musicians, etc.), allocated in decreasing amounts over the initial three years. We believe
it is critical that the new church focus more on reaching new people than on securing the
essential materials and resources of survival.
Our vision is that “Every person in the Florida Conference Area has a vital United
Methodist congregation reaching out to him or her.” For this to happen, we need
healthy, self-sustaining congregations that reach a size within three years that allows
them to proceed without further subsidy.
Our formula offers no absolute guarantee for success. However, I believe God will bless
these efforts in producing many strong, healthy churches.
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