Writing a Church Planting Proposal
I will always remember the words of the late Jay Kyle to us at the 2012 Redeemer City to City International Intensive-Asia:
‘If you cannot vision cast, you cannot church plant.’
This simple yet profound statement has stuck with me over the years. It has shaped my own thinking about gospel ministry and how we have a huge responsibility as church planters and ministers to show our people where we are headed and how we intend to move forward, God helping us.
Write everything down
One of the best advices that a good friend and mentor of mine has given me in the early years of church planting was to do the hard work of dreaming and putting one’s dream down on paper. Much of what we initially write down will still change and get revised and that’s okay. The key is to start putting pen to paper, as it were, how we envision the church planting project to start, to take shape, and to continue to grow and thrive, by God’s grace. When should a church planter start this process of thinking, and dreaming, and writing? Right now. It is never too early to do so. If you wait to start writing things down only after you’ve taken steps to do actual ministry work you’ll quickly find that you’re having to make things up on the fly, playing catch-up, instead of simply adjusting and revising as you go.
The church planting proposal as a vision casting document
According to Antoine de Saint — Exupery, author of The Little Prince,
‘If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.’
The aim of our church planting proposals is to infect our readers with the same excitement and zeal that we have to penetrate the darkness with the gospel in places and among people where Christ is little known, loved, and believed.
In what follows below, I have put together an alliterative outline of the main parts of what I presently think a good church planting proposal should have. Hopefully, as our church thinks more seriously about the much needed work of planting faithful and healthy churches in the coming years, this template can help us to be more intentional about writing things down, casting the vision, and embracing the vision for God’s glory.
Church Planting Proposal
Primer: Give a brief overview of the proposal.
Planter: Introduce the church planter, credentials, education, experience, family and church situation, etc.
Place: Give a brief snapshot of the relative location where the church plant will be conducted. What is unique about this place and what are the stories that residents tell and believe? What are their hopes, dreams, fears, aspirations? Have you done your own preliminary demographic and ethnographic study and research? Share your findings here.
People: Talk about the people who will be joining this church planting effort. Who are they and what are they committing to do to help this project?
Pesos: How much will this project cost to run for a year? Where will funding be coming from? What is the roadmap to becoming self-sustaining?
Plan: Draw up a projected outline of how you intend to proceed with the project. What would things look like after: one month, six months, twelve months, and eighteen months. What is the roadmap to launching publicly?
Partnership: Are there existing gospel-centered churches and ministries in the same place with whom you could partner in the work of the gospel? What would partnership look like between the planter and the sending congregation?
Problems: Identify potential problems and challenges and how you intend to address them. What other kind of help and support do you think you will need?
