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United Dioceses of Dublin & Glendalough

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14.01.2013

Seminar Tells of Elements of Church Planting

Invitation and mission are vital elements in church planting, a seminar which took place in The Exchange on Dublin’s Gardiner Street has heard. Over 50 people from various parts of Ireland gathered for the seminar on church planting which was delivered by the Bishop of London’s church planting advisor, Ric Thorpe. The seminar was organised by Andrew McNeile of the Diocesan Growth Team and Sean Mullen of Third Space in Smithfield.

Ric Thorpe addressed a wide range of topics which were raised by the audience. These included: how to start a church plant, how to reach young people and bring church in the 21st century, the make up of a church plant, church planting in industrial or workplace settings, how much of the original denomination must be held on to in the church plant, partnership, discipleship, crossing cultural boundaries, the characteristics of a church planter or leadership team, diocesan support, the transition from church plant to mature plant and the theological basis for church planting. Local church planting stories were contributed by the Revd Rob Jones of Holy Trinity Rathmines and Sean Kirkpatrick of Urban Junction in Blackrock. 

Church Plant Seminar
Church Plant Seminar

Ric Thorpe told of his experience of planting a church in St Paul’s Shadwell, a deprived area of East London in the borough of Tower Hamlets. He took 100 people from the parish where he had been a curate, Holy Trinity Brompton in London’s Knightsbridge (which had a community of about 2,500 people at the time) to the new church. Eighty of those already lived in east London while the rest moved there. Since 2004, St Paul’s has planted two other churches and are about to plant a third. Each time they send about 20 people to the new church. 

“It is very costly doing church plants. You have to give your best away and you are leading, preaching training and bringing in people all the time. But for the church plant to survive you need to give away your best,” Ric explained. He said that when they plant a new church, they aim to honour the past and try to keep the existing service going for the existing community to help them navigate the change for the present and build for the future. 

He then spoke ab out getting people to come to church and the importance of the invitation. It was necessary to find many different ways of inviting people. These could include courses, parties, services and leaflet drops. However, Ric said it was not enough simply to try to attract people to the church – only a certain amount would respond to your invitation. The next step was to get small groups together to become missional. “When you live in the community you have to bring the word of God to people,” he said adding that they were now planning to go into the housing estates and start prayer groups or coffee mornings – anything to gather people together.

Church Plant Seminar
Church Plant Seminar

The most important thing when planting a new church is to get a team together, he said. The leadership team should be made of:

·      A leader who needs to know they are a leader and take responsibility. This, he said was a spiritual gift which needed to be recognised. “You’ll know they are a leader because people will follow them,” he explained.

·      An assistant leader who can keep things going if the leader is on holidays.

·      A worship leader who is responsible for half the service as music is important if young people are to be involved.

·      Someone whose focus is on youth and children as the most successful long term plants have families in them and if children are not looked after in church then families will go elsewhere.

·      An administrator who can take care of operational matters and plan for the future.

The members of the team may not necessarily be paid staff but once the team is formed then they can gather people.

Ric said that an individual could only do a certain amount and it was important to release mission. He said that this meant training missional leaders or discipling others who would in turn disciple more people as St Paul did. He said that any leadership role that existed within the church should have an apprentice which was being trained up so that they can then carry out that role. He said it was also important to have a network for leaders to provide support and to create a learning community. The planter also had to ensure that he or she was accountable, he added.

 Photos show: Andrew McNeile, Ric Thorpe and Sean Mullen at the Church Planting Seminar in the Exchange in Gardiner Street.

Sean Mullen addressing the Church Planting Seminar.

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