By Kyle Tubbs

People often ask me as a church starter: What do you need? Here is a list of my honest answers:

1)      Relational Support
We church planters can get lonely. Scheduling varies from day to day with no set office hours. Take time to take a church planter to lunch, ask her or him about family life, or give encouraging phone calls.

2)      Resources
We need to pay staff, rent, promotional materials, missional activity and a variety of other bills like any other church. We honestly need money, but we can use other items that might be unused around your church: Offering plates, instruments, hymnals, chairs, trailers and tables.

3)      A Meeting Place
Does your church have extra space where a small church plant could meet? A large classroom? A fellowship hall? This can be an incredible way for you to help fill a need for a new body of believers.

4)      Attendance
Have you ever sat in a small church and wondered if every sound and movement you made would be picked up by others in the space? A room saturated with people can help drown out individual sounds. Put yourself in the shoes of visitors and imagine anxieties they might have sitting in a new church with others they don’t know. Consider volunteering a month or so of your time to attending a new church. Your presence can help make a corporate worship atmosphere more comfortable. For example, your voice while singing can contribute to helping hymns sound fuller.

5)      Prayer Partners
At some point, your church was nothing but a dream and a prayer. Commit to praying for a local CBF church start. Need help connecting to a church start? Contact Andy Hale at ahale@thefellowship.info to get plugged in with a church in your area.

The following post is by Kyle Tubbs, a CBF church starter and pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Williamson County, Texas. Read more about Kyle and Grace Baptist in a recent fellowship! magazine feature titled “CBF church starters use creativity to build community.“ Kyle is writing as part of a monthly blog about church starting. Read his other blogs here: October, November, December, January, February, March, April.