4 Things I Would Have Done Differently Planting New City Church

Pictured above is what our auditorium looked like on launch day.

As with everything in life, you learn and grow as you go along. No matter how much you prepare for something experience is sometimes the only way to really figure out certain things. Now that New City Church is almost two years old, it's easy to look back and see what I would have done differently as we prepared to plant. While there are quite a few things I would have changed, here are four in particular.

1) Set a clear launch date from the beginning

While there are certain dangers with saying right away when you expect a church to launch (for example, if you have to significantly push it back), I think the pros outweigh the cons. We initially aimed for the fall of 2016 but were never concrete about it. Then we aimed for January of 2017, but still weren't concrete about it. Then we couldn't find a space to meet and finally launched in April of 2017.

The problem is, not having a clear timeline makes it difficult for people to see the finish line. Granted launching a church is the beginning and not the end, but you get the idea. People need to know what they are working towards, and ambiguity makes it hard to build momentum. It also makes you work hard to ensure by God's grace you can make it happen. We weren't clear in the beginning about when New City would actually get started (and some of that was based out of fear). If we were from the beginning, it would have taken away a lot of headaches.

2) Begin weekly gatherings sooner

For awhile we had what we called monthly launch team meetings. Those never became what I hoped/thought they would. A big reason is that once a month is too infrequent for gathering everyone together. People can't build relationships and work towards starting a church only meeting once a month, even if you have various events going on here and there.

Going back, I would have started meeting in our home on Sunday mornings much sooner. Not weekly gatherings that were essentially church services in a home, but more vision casting, team building, and preparing for what is ahead. It wasn't until we started gathering on Sunday mornings in our home (in November of 2017) that our team really became solidified and everyone got to know each other. Being more clear about our launch date (point #1) would also have made it easier to know when to start our weekly gatherings.

3) Be super clear about giving and financial needs

One night Christina and I were having dinner with a couple from our launch team and we shared with them we were going to start weekly gatherings in our home on Sunday mornings. Mind you, this couple had been with us from the beginning of the process. As soon as we mentioned that, one of them state "oh ok, I guess we should start giving to New City now."

I couldn't believe it! I thought we had been really clear about our financial needs, after all, we were raising funds and building a team to start a church. But apparently, I wasn't clear enough. Going back, I would have updated/shared our financial needs much more often with our team. I have found that often people want to help (financially or otherwise), they just need to know what the need is. I should have been more clear about that.

4) Do more research before picking a church planting residency

When we initially started the process of church planting, I wanted to do a church planting residency at a local church in the Raleigh area to gain some more experience and training. But I was also pretty young for a typical church planter and I was just excited about starting the process.

If I could go back, I would have taken more time to look at and find out what a helpful church planting residency looked like, and what churches would be the best fit. Because I was raising my entire financial support, I would have had more options than I realized at the time. Instead, I just went with the first thing that came up. But don't worry, patience is still something I'm trying to work on :).

In the end, God has been more than gracious to me and New City Church. Even if I would have done a lot of things differently knowing what I know now, I am thankful for how God moved in spite of me, and I look forward to see what else he is going to do.