Planting Churches among the City's Poor - Volume 1

P ART I: D EVELOPING U RBAN C ONGREGATIONS • 67

the apprentice leaders for their roles. The site should be as attractive as possible and appropriate to the lifestyle of the community. The starting date should not conflict with holidays or other scheduling competition. Publicity for the inaugural service, if desired, should be arranged ahead of time. 124 A final step of preparation is prayer. Planning and prayer go together. The discipling groups should make prayer for the move to Celebration a major part of their activity in the weeks preceding the first service. Once Celebration has begun the leaders must be careful not to schedule too many additional activities in the early stages. The discipling groups, however, should continue. Redford argues, The chapel should continue the [discipling] fellowship program. The units should not be discontinued abruptly but should continue as an evangelistic penetration group. Such groups help the congregation to cross more cultural and socioeconomic barriers within the same fellowship. The groups can serve as feeders to the Sunday morning activity and will accelerate growth if conducted carefully. 125 Develop Goals for the First Three Years The Celebration stage of church planting is a time of consolidation and growth for the emerging church. It allows the church to focus on study, fellowship, worship, stewardship and witness. It is helpful for church planters to set goals for the church to reach during this stage prior to complete independence. 126 One goal crucial to the success of the emerging church is to add new members. 127 Redford advocates an

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124 See Towns, pp. 117-156 for complete list of details to consider.

125 Redford, p. 78

126 See Towns, p. 139

127 See Wagner, pp. 126-138. Wagner argues that the new church must decide early if it intends to remain a small church (under 200) or become a large church (over 200). The “200 member barrier” is the number of people who can maintain a face-to-face social solidarity. To grow larger than 200 requires a different kind of leadership than that required by the small church. The small church pastor is a “shepherd” who visits and counsels each member. But a large church pastor is a “rancher” who enables others to shepherd the various flocks that compose the congregation. The church that wants to assure rapid reproduction may need to begin with a “rancher” type pastor. In the inner city we will most likely encourage small face-to-face units, especially in a multicultural church. But a “rancher” type pastor could encourage unit and congregational reproduction. Also see Hesselgrave (1980), pp. 284-288 for a further discussion of optimum church size.