Community Support Is The Success Factor in Church Starts
MACUCC Gives Green Light to Mashpee Church Start
by Marlene Gasdia-Cochrane, Editor
June/July 2005
When an existing church helps a new church start, statistics show, the work energizes the older congregation to rekindle, rediscover, and reach out in the community. As a result, not only is the Gospel spread in a new place, but the older congregations are revitalized as well.
“A new church in the area is not a threat. We are all working on evangelism and as we help a new church, it renews and strengthens all of us,” said Dale Hempen, Associate Conference Minister for the Southeast Area. “It makes us rethink the critical needs of our own church, what it means to us and our lives and how we can give back to others.”
Paul Nickerson, Associate Conference Minister for Evangelism, Mission & Justice Ministries adds: “Not only does a new church make the Gospel alive, but it makes the churches within the Conference alive.”
Nickerson said that many of our congregations in Massachusetts were new churches formed by existing congregations as populations shifted and grew.
That is why Hempen and Nickerson and the Massachusetts Conference Church Development Task Force have been working hard to encourage Southeast Area churches to support a proposed new church start in Mashpee, where they believe conditions are now right to start a church.
According to Nickerson, Mashpee has grown rapidly, yet there is no mainline Protestant congregation. In 1990 there were just fewer than 8,000 year-round residents. By 2008 that will have doubled to almost 16,000. Many of the new people are age 55 or older and many are moving into active adult communities. With a growing population, there is a great untapped mission field. Like many of this age group they have needs for fellowship, a common concern about health issues, and a desire to be active. A congregation that can reach out and meet these needs can grow and thrive.
“There has not been a new church start on the Cape since 1927 when the West Barnstable Finnish Congregational Church was formed and there has not been a new church start in the Southeast Area since the Norwell
congregation was planted in 1966,” comments Nickerson. “We are long overdue for a new church start.”
According to Hempen, the response from the surrounding communities has been positive and overwhelming. Five of the six neighboring churches have welcomed the opportunity to be involved in a Mashpee church start. One church, although not resistant, was concerned it didn’t have the extra resources and apprehensive about the time it would take away from expanding its own small congregation.
“We are actually trying to re-plant a church in Mashpee,” Nickerson said. “In 1670 the Indian Church was founded by our Puritan forebears. This church continued until 1840 when it became a Baptist congregation. So with a new church start, not only will we be reaching out to a new community, including the Native American people of Mashpee, but we will also be re-claiming a tradition of a church that existed for 170 years.”
Why don’t new churches start popping up wherever and whenever there is a need? Unfortunately, the answer comes down to money and commitment. Although it is a worthwhile investment, starting a new congregation is an expensive proposition. Nickerson explains that it takes a pool of $150,000 to $200,000 to finance a new congregation over a 4-5 year period. Most of the initial funding goes to support a new church start pastor and renting space in a building; the financing decreases as the congregation grows and begins pledging and supporting itself. The goal is to have a new church self-sufficient within five years.
An important step in the process is to raise enough money to call a pastor. Financing for a new church can come from a variety of sources. Existing churches from the surrounding towns play a major part in the launch and growth of a new church. Right now, the Massachusetts Conference is working with Mashpee’s surrounding congregations of Waquoit, First Falmouth, North Falmouth, Sandwich and West Barnstable as the core leadership for this project.
Individual donations from members, pledges of local mission dollars from church budgets, organization and fellowship monies, designation of portions of capital campaign funds, and special fundraisers all add up. In addition, there are limited seed grants available from the national setting of
the UCC and the Massachusetts Conference.
After almost two years of research and planning, the Southeast Area recently launched its first fundraising program for Mashpee. A packet of information was sent to all 78 churches in the Southeast and each congregation was asked to designate May 15, May 22 or June 5th as their New Church Start Sunday. Both individuals and congregations were asked to make a three-year pledge towards the new start. Churches that are doing capital campaigns were also encouraged to make the new start a mission effort of their campaign. (As of press time, Central Square Congregational Church, UCC, in Bridgewater has already pledged from their campaign for the Mashpee Church.) If the funds can be raised, final approval will be sought from the Massachusetts Conference Board of Directors, and a search process will begin in the fall for a new church start pastor for 2006.
In another effort, “Wellesley Congregational Church UCC helped fund half the cost of Hope Church in Jamaica Plain through a 10% mission designation of their capital campaign,” explains Nickerson. “Two years later, Hope Church is now over 100 people in worship and is well on its way to financial independence. More importantly, Hope Church is transforming the Jamaica Plain community with a powerful message of healing and new life. In the meantime, Wellesley Congregational Church discovered that being involved in a new church start has brought new life to their long-standing congregation. “It is truly a ‘win-win’ situation,” he says.
How you can make a difference in a new church start:
• Serve as a greeter for a month
• “Loan” your musical skills.
• Pray each day for the new church start.
• Offer secretarial skills.
• Find out if your church office can help with materials.
• Loan or give office equipment, paper, etc.
• Pay for a flyer or advertisement in a local paper.
• Visit the new church often.
• Write letters to first-time visitors, welcoming them to the new church.
• Bring youth groups or other organizations to a worship service.
• Invite the new church pastor to a gathering at your church.
• Give a weekend away to the new pastor for some renewal time.
• …and many other ways limited only by your imagination.
--Paul Nickerson,
Associate Conference Minister for Evangelism, Mission & Justice Ministries
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