# Solid Reformed Church Planting?



## N. Eshelman

Brethren (in the old sense... ladies too):

I preached at a wonderful church plant in the Housatonic/Stockbridge area of Massachusetts on the Lord's Day. They are a small but solid group of Reformed Presbyterians. 

They had a lot of questions about ideas, etc. that would/could be used in a church plant.

I was thinking that it would fun, encouraging, and helpful to list as many ideas for them to reach out to the community as well as books to encourage and help with a small, struggling plant. 

On your mark, get set, go!


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## jaybird0827

Two forms of outreach by our congregation:

1) Afternoon services at a nursing facility on the 1st Lord's Day each month. We use an abbreviated form of our regular worship. We include two Psalms from a limited repertoire that includes examples like Psalm 100 (Old 100th), Psalm 23 (Crimond), Psalm 1 (St. Peter).

2) Semi-annual public Psalm sings, usually held in March and September.


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## N. Eshelman

3. Host a conference
4. Door to door introductions of the congregation, ministries, etc. 
5. Free biblical counseling (advertise this in newspapers, etc)


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## Pergamum

1. newspaper piece (if free or very cheap, otherwise perhaps a waste unless it is a small town paper),
2. Spot on local Christian radio
3. A good sign,
4. A good spot in the phone book,.
5. website
6. a good location.
7. the individual members' word of mouth (most effective).
8. Nursing home ministry and prison ministry (but those won't add a lot of members).
9. Small group bible studies in homes of elders, invite neighbors and friends.
10. Email Fred Greco and see his post.


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## ADKing

Pergamum said:


> 7. the individual members' word of mouth (most effective).



Many of these items are good advice. But I agree that word of mouth is by far the greatest. If the people are not involved in their community and do not bring others through their existing relationships, all the other approaches will be exceedingly more difficult.


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## Casey

As far as I know, this is one of the only books (well, it's a booklet) on planting Reformed churches: _Planting an Orthodox Presbyterian Church_. That's more or less how things operate in the OPC, but you can adapt it for use in different denominations. It's also available in booklet form, and I think it's even being revised right now.


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## Pergamum

Yes, this OPC booklet has much good advice. They also mention out door or open air meetings, but those do not seem effective in a US context.


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## Reformed Covenanter

Pergamum said:


> Yes, this OPC booklet has much good advice. They also mention out door or open air meetings, but those do not seem effective in a US context.



We have open air services four times a year in Dromara on Sabbath nights (Dromara is a small village with a village square as the central point in the village). However, a couple of years ago we decided to move two of them to Saturday nights in the hope more people would be about. Yet, there were probably even less people to hear. But if even only one person hears the gospel it is worth doing.


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## Josiah

nleshelman said:


> Brethren (in the old sense... ladies too):
> 
> I preached at a wonderful church plant in the Housatonic/Stockbridge area of Massachusetts on the Lord's Day. They are a small but solid group of Reformed Presbyterians.
> 
> They had a lot of questions about ideas, etc. that would/could be used in a church plant.
> 
> I was thinking that it would fun, encouraging, and helpful to list as many ideas for them to reach out to the community as well as books to encourage and help with a small, struggling plant.
> 
> On your mark, get set, go!



I would urge you to check out the Building Old School Churches Blog run by Andy Webb. I Have greatly profited by reading and listening to audio he has posted on such subjects as paedocommunion, polity, churchplanting etc. In my humble opinion (besides the OPC pamphlet) this is one of best places I can think of for ideas on church planting


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