» Church planting lessons from the Southern Baptists

One thing the Southern Baptists have in common with the Pentecostals is they love to plant churches.

A few years ago Ed Stetzer surveyed 600 Southern Baptist church planters and corelated their growth over four years with their answers.

His study hasn’t become a best seller despite it’s catchy title: An Analysis of the Church Planting Process and Other Selected Factors on the Attendance of SBC Church Plants

Here’s a few insights:

• Planters who had been through a Ridley church planter assessment went on to plant churches that were on average 25% larger after four years. Even better, they saw 100% more conversions.

• Planters who had weekly—yes weekly—mentoring or supervision, led churches that were 25% larger than those who had none.

• When the planter had a parent church that sent a core group, the new church was 25% larger after four years.

• High expectations of members in the new church—tithing, membership class, membership covenant, ministry involvement, small group involvement—resulted in larger attendances.

• The new church was less likely to grow if it relied on special speakers and big events as its main strategy in evangelism. New churches that relied totally on prayer or on “letting the Holy Spirit do the work” were smaller. Looks like God needs us after all.

• If training people in evangelism was the main strategy in evangelism, the church plant was smaller.

• Surprise! Those who consider “Unchurched Relationships with Church Members” to be the key factor in evangelism were significantly larger than those which do not.

• “Seeker sensitive” services helped with evangelism but only if they were a contributing factor rather than the main strategy in evangelism.

• Stetzer found that leadership is key. What kind? The best church planters are suggestion-oriented: they lead by making suggestions rather than issuing commands. They dream big dreams. They are knowledge-oriented: they lead by knowledge and understanding rather than just example. They are task-oriented: they make things happen and get things done.

The great thing about the report is that if you don’t like the findings you can always say, “Those Southern Baptists are different!”