4. Establish clear lines of communication.
“Without communication, you travel alone” (John Maxwell). You must develop a plan for how you’re going to communicate to at least six different groups of people: (1) Support network—including sponsor churches, denominational entities if applicable; (2) Prayer partners; (3) Core Group/Leadership Team; (4) the Unchurched Community; (5) Community Leaders; (6) Disciples in the making.
There have never been better tools available for communication than there are today.
Some that I’ve found helpful:
• Mailchimp, Constant Contact or Vertical Response
• Facebook Groups—open and closed
• Facebook Page for the church
• Email—don’t neglect regular email because people are more apt to reply and create conversation.
• Snail mail—never been easier and more affordable to do direct mail than it is today.
• Personal notes—get some personalized stationary. The more personal the touch, the more personal the follow-up response should be.
• Texting—many Church Management tools will have mass texting tools available.
The cliches about communication are true! “You can’t over communicate!” “People are down on what they’re not up on.” And you’ve got a great story to tell, so plan on communicating with intentionality.
RELATED: How to Make a First Year Plan
5. Start Your First Year of Church Planting With Integrity.
Don’t wait to establish a framework for integrity in financial, personnel and other matters of integrity. Don’t mix personal and church finances. Get a partnering church involved in oversight. Seek accountability. Establish job descriptions. In matters of integrity, you can’t hope so. You must do all that you can to protect yourself and others from temptation and accusation.
To get started:
• Open a separate checking account. A partner church might be able do this for you at first, but get a separate place from which money can be received and spent.
• Use a Counting Sheet for donations. Helps keep track of cash and checks, and records gifts for year-end contribution statements.
• Get a Cloud based Church Management System. Popular ones are Fellowship One, The City, ACS, Church Community Builder. These are costly but worth it. You sponsor church may allow you to use theirs for awhile. Starting out from scratch they may be overkill. Our new church has used ChurchOfficeOnline.com. Designed with smaller churches in mind. Very functional. And not near as expensive or training intensive.
Design a strategy to reach your community and DON’T NEGLECT these five things. What else would you add to this list?
Note: “5 Things You MUST Do During the First Year of Church Planting” originally appeared here on the Louisiana Baptists site.
