:: Keller On Preaching in a Post-modern City II
:: The Church Planter Spouse: Partner in Marriage, Partner in the Church
:: Church-Planter Spouse Competencies

:: You Can Spend Too Little, and Too Much Time With Family
:: Books: Urban Theology
:: Get the RCPC Church Planter Manual
:: Got Church Planting in You? Find Out!

YOU CAN SPEND TOO LITTLE, AND TOO MUCH TIME WITH FAMILY
And Other Insights From a Recent Church Planting Study
By Reyn Cabinte

Since 1996, the Southern Baptist's North American Mission Board (NAMB) has been developing a church planting system to prepare church planters for the field. Recently church planter and author Ed Stetzer (Planting Churches in a Postmodern Age, 2003 Broadman & Holman) conducted a study of 601 pastors in the NAMB system which yielded some insights that had direct impact on church attendance.

Here are four of the insights. Though not recipes for church planting growth, they may help you think through issues in your situation. Some may be intuitive, and some you may not have expected!

Greater Funding Does Not Necessarily Lead to Greater Attendance
Stetzer's study reveals that the amount of funding received by the church plants does not guarantee larger attendance when the church is in its third and fourth year.

"Church planters consistently complained that they were under-funded," says Stetzer in his survey. Church planters who received part-time funding wanted full-time salaries. Those who received full-time funding, claimed they could have done better with additional staff. The prevailing logic is that greater the funding, the more "full-time" a church planter has the ability to be, therefore the larger the church. Though Stezer says the data suggests that while churches with "full-time" pastors do indeed lead larger churches, it's not because they received more money.

The data? Unpredictable. Attendance in the church's fourth year was as likely to hover at 40 whether the church received $150 or $15000. And churches receiving $9000 in their first year were as likely to have an attendance of 280 as they were to have 100. Says Stezter, "If the [church planter] comments were accurate, greater funding should automatically lead to larger churches. But this cannot be demonstrated by the data."

Get a Church Planting Mentor
Getting working advice while in the field is a critical feature of church plants. Stetzer's survey revealed that across the 601 church planters, "there is noticeable attendance increase among church planters meeting with mentors." Compared with non-mentored counterparts, their churches are 12% larger in the first year of existence, and 25% larger in the fourth year.

The frequency of mentoring was also a factor in church attendance. Young planters that met with their mentors on a weekly basis lead churches that were roughly 25% larger than those who were mentored monthly or quarterly.

You Can Spend Too Little, and Too Much Time With Family
Finding family time is a frequent struggle for church planters. Can you have a church and love your family too? Managing that time is a critical issue for church planters in their role as supportive and loving spouses. But it is also important for the growth of your congregation. Says Stetzer, "There is some statistical evidence that either spending too much or too little time with the family decreases the mean attendance of the new church."

Worship attendance was greatest in churches whose planters spent 15 hours a week with their family (260 weekly attendance). Average attendance decreased predictably, the less time the pastors spent with family - about 160 in attendance for those who spent 10 hours/week with family, and 110 for those who spent 8 hours/week at home. Spending time at home with family is not only good for the family, but for the growth of the church plant as well!

But the survey suggests that if church planters spend 20 hours per week with family (just 5 more hours per week than above), average worship attendance drops to around 60. In those five extra hours with the family, your weekly attendance could be reduced by 70%. Spending too much time with the family may jeopardize your church growth.

Another significant factor in growth was whether or not the spouse was employed. If the church planter spouse was not employed, average church attendance was twice as great as those of employed spouses. None of the church planters surveyed were women.

Two Pastors Is Company (but Three Staff Is a Crowd)
Team church planting is a great way to spread out the considerable work load of pioneers on the field. While Stetzer admits that this is an issue that requires further study, he is comfortable saying that "in all cases, more staff is better than a single staff pastor." By 'better', Stetzer means that the average worship attendance doubles when there is more than one pastor. A "Lone Ranger" is only likely to be half as productive as when he has multiple "Rangers" with him.

More than two "Tontos" though, may be a problem. "It is not just the presence of multiple pastors that makes a difference, "explains Stetzer, "but this difference is most present when there are two staff members - but not three or more." Four-year-old churches with two non-pastoral staff members hovered at 250 at worship services, while those with three or four staff averaged around 100.

1. An Analysis of the Church Planting Process and Other Selected Factors on the Attendance of SBC Church Plants, A NAMB self study, May 2003.