START:

“A church is a group of people who meet regularly for worship and to serve. There is more than one way to start a church or multiply ministry.  Not every church fits every community, nor does every new church resource fit every church planter. Let’s work together and find what works best for you, your context, and see where God leads.

Large Launch: Those who launch large have a passion to gather as many people as possible right from the start to begin reaching as many as possible in larger venues. This model typically begins with a church planter that spends many months recruiting a launch team and developing the infrastructure of a full-service church. The goal is to build up to a grand opening or launch day where the church begins to offer public worship gatherings, with an expectation that a couple hundred people will find themselves involved in the new church within the first year.

Fresh Expressions: Those who start Fresh Expressions” are passionate about becoming a part of the ebb and flow of the community, serving and loving the community, and establishing relationships with the people of the community. Fresh Expressions church plants may have people “belong” to the faith community before they “become” a follower of Christ as they serve the community and serve together. The goal is to disciple themselves into being a church (and not necessarily attending a Sunday morning program). These are highly evangelistic expressions of church (often led by lay people) designed to serve people who would never set foot by a brick and mortar church or by those who have suffered hurt as part of their church/faith history. Dinner Churches, sports churches, Micro Church, Home/House Church, etc. are all considered Fresh Expressions.

Common Space Living: Our district has the incredible opportunity to openly minister in common spaces across NorthEastern Indiana. Our vision is for every resident in communal living spaces across N.E.I. to hear the Gospel and become a disciple of Jesus. In order to accomplish that, we are looking for hometown missionaries. These are part-time positions that establish a partnership between a local Nazarene church and an apartment complex, condo development, or modular home community. Common space ministries will move into a common space facility and work to nurture a Christ-like community by loving their neighbors through programming, acts of service, and intentional relationship development.

Multi-Site/Campus: Those who start multisite and campus congregations have a passion to reach more zip codes for Christ by expanding the reach and building on the resources and model and name of an existing church. This model typically incorporates the startup dynamics of the large launch or missional/incarnational model; however, the new work is not an autonomous church (although there might be a plan in place for it to eventually become autonomous). Typically, the new site or campus shares the same mission, name, vision, values, strategy, budget, and governing structure of the parent church. The motto of the multisite church is, “One church in multiple locations.”