The Refinery

[mattrose]

I recently planted a church (kind of)

8 years ago I was asked by my district of the Wesleyan Church to serve as 'pulpit supply' for a church that was near extinct. The church had about a dozen attendees. Since then, I've been preaching there almost every week. Some of those dozen people passed away, others moved away, new people came, and the church stayed afloat.

But a couple years ago a lady in the church wanted to make an investment in the church building. She believed the church could have a long-term future, so she wanted to take care of some of the facility issues (leaky roof, drafty windows, etc). Slowly but surely, the building became more usable.

Nevertheless, I still felt it would be hard to GROW the church. Due to my Sunday morning schedule, the service was at 8:45 in the morning... not great for young families. I started to think about starting an additional Sunday evening service at this facility. When I shared the idea, the congregation was excited (worth a shot... they figured).

Last Fall, God seemed to bring some key pieces together to make this potential service a reality. As I shared the idea with several people from my home church, they were very interested in ministering at this new service (in addition to their other ministries). Before I knew it, a solid team was assembled and we were ready to plan for a launch of "The Refinery" (the name we picked as a team).

On February 28th, we held our 1st service. I was expecting maybe 20 people. But we had over 60. I was surprised how many people from my home church came in support, but I knew my main goal was to disciple un-church and under-churched people. Over the last two months, I've been glad to see the ratio of attendees transition more and more toward people who aren't worshipping elsewhere Sunday morning. We're averaging about 50 people and people really seem to be enjoying it.

Personally, I'm very glad my own sister is attending faithfully. None of my 4 siblings have been regular participants in a church.

At The Refinery, we are trying to do some 'out of the box' things. For instance, any time there is a 5th Sunday in the month, we cancel the worship service and serve the community together in some way (maybe a few different way, in teams). Additionally, we offer free dinner for everyone half an hour before the service begins. I'm also considering giving the more mature members $10 coffee shop gift cards each month so that they can take 2 or 3 less mature members out for coffee to discuss their spiritual life.

Just wanted to share what I've been up to. I sense God is doing something, but I also sense a burden to try to build a discipleship process into the very fabric of this new congregation.

[steve]

Matt,

That sounds wonderful! Praise the Lord for your vision and gifts. While I never wished to be a pastor, I always thought it would be a great adventure to plant a church and grow it from scratch, avoiding a lot of the traditional things that I dislike in most churches. You have a great opportunity!

[Singalphile]

That sounds very good.

In my view, the traditional music/sermon service should probably be replaced with what you're (sometimes) doing there. Music and sermons can be heard 24/7 nowadays, but person-to-person encouragement, discussion, prayer, and community service is something that still can only occur in group, social settings. I would consider doing that more often and having the traditional sermon only once a month (if ever). You can of course put sermons or lectures online so that people can listen anytime and repeatedly if desired.