Churches: Start new or renew existing?

Last week, I received an email and several questions from Trish, a woman from the Resurrection community. She was responding to the post Will you start a new church? Trish, thank you for your interest and your questions! I hope that you find these responses helpful.

Who decides / what is the process to start a new church?

The procedure for starting a new church is outlined in the Book of Discipline (the governing document for The United Methodist Church) paragraph 260. I have summarized the steps below:

1. The bishop is responsible for naming the location for a new church start and the District Superintendent of that location is responsible for moving the process forward.
2. The bishop appoints a pastor to launch the new church or an existing local church or group of local churches may work to launch a new church.
3. The Annual Conference sets a minimum number of members required for the organization of a local United Methodist congregation.
4. When that number has been reached the district superintendent officially charters the congregation through a worship service and process of filling the requirements for committees.

In Kansas, Rev. Kent Melcher is the Area Superintendent for New Church Development. You can find more information on him and new church starts on the New Congregations Plan page at Kansas East Annual Conference website. Kent leads the process of identifying and researching locations for potential new church starts. This is done in conversation with demographic consultants, local church leaders and others.

While the above are the formal steps to organize a new congregation, there is a long process of gathering, taster worship services, meeting in small groups, developing a discipleship process, gathering a leadership team and other things that need to happen before public worship is launched and then the continuity of all of these things that happens between steps 2 and 3 above.

How is the decision made between a new church start and renewal of existing congregations?

Great question. My hope is that the decision does not need to be made between these two things. I think that both are important in the ongoing revitalization of the mainline church and spiritual revival in the state.

Realistically there is not always an equal balance between the two. These decisions incorporate a lot of input including, but certainly not limited to:

• Are there existing congregations present?
• What is the health of any existing congregations?
• Is there an area of population of growth where there is not an existing congregation?
• Has the context of a particular congregation changed significantly? (i.e. surrounding demographic, worship attendance, leadership, etc.)

In both starting new churches and renewing existing congregations, the hope is that we will be a part of God’s continued work in the world. What has your experience been of efforts to start new congregations and / or renew existing congregations? Are there additional distinctions that you would make?