|
Darcie,
We started our church here in Jackson with just us and one other family not quite six years ago. It has grown unbelievably, due to God's grace. He has blessed us so much and sent us hundreds of great people.
The one thing I would say is not to get frustrated in the early years because you cannot offer everything that you're used to. We left a church we had pastored for over 20 years and we had every department imaginable there. It was hard to then start a church and have young families coming, knowing that you had nothing to offer their kids or teens at first. But if you can get them to catch the bigger vision of where you're going, they will hang on until you can have everything you need. The very first thing we did was to have a nursery available, because that was our biggest need besides a sanctuary space. We have always hired nursery workers, even when we first started, rather than use mothers in the church. It just comes across as more professional to visitors. We also invested in a good nursery paging system right from the start.
We always strive for excellence. We have tried to make every building look first class, even when we were very small.
We are now pastoring the six year old church, plus we have just started another work in Savannah, TN, less than a year ago. We hope to start more in the next couple of years until we have all of W. Tennessee covered with Love & Truth Churches. Right now we have five.
__________________
Missions is my Passion!
|