New Church Developments in Pittsburgh Presbytery

Why New Church Development?

By Vera White

Feb. 13, 2011

You can read about New Church Developments in Pittsburgh Presbytery here.

In the fall of 1999 we were the most clueless of presbyteries when it came to new church development. We had to learn how.

At first we thought we could learn how to do NCD from other presbyteries but soon found out that process was unlikely to work in Pittsburgh. What this presbytery did not need was new church buildings.

So if learning from other presbyteries was out, what else was there? Oh yeah – pray! Maybe it was a good thing that we knew so little 12 years ago because we didn’t know how to do anything except pray. This is the Gospel message that has guided our prayers for 12 years:

Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Matthew 9:35-38

This morning I would like to share a few things we have learned about NCD and particularly why NCD matters to the whole body of Christ, even old churches like Hiland.

Prayer comes first.

We learned that prayer comes first and is the most important part of new church development. Prayer is recognition that church planting is God’s job.

When the Hot Metal Bridge Faith Community seemed like an impossible dream, a handful of young adults gathered in the basement of a tattoo parlor on Carson Street on the South Side. They prayed 24 hours a day for a week, not for the success of the new church but for the community of the South Side and the city of Pittsburgh. They asked God to show them how they could provide meaning and hope to one particular neighborhood. Instead of a church building, God provided relationships with students and young adults and street people and community developers and young urban professionals -- out of which a church has grown.

The African Christian United Fellowship, a congregation of African immigrants, many of them refugees, speaking many languages, meets every Friday evening to fast and pray all through the night. They pray for the congregation, for the people of Pittsburgh, and for the people of Africa.

The Upper Room NCD began when two seminary students started walking around neighborhoods of this city praying for those neighborhoods.

NCD begins with prayer, but so does any ministry. I wonder what each of our congregations would look like if we took this passage from Matthew seriously and prayed for God to send laborers into God’s harvest field.

Following Jesus is missionary work.

Our God is a sending God. This passage marks a shift in the direction of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus is about to send the disciples out on a missionary journey. New church development is at its very essence missional activity. We worship and serve a God who wants to be a blessing to the nations and who goes looking for lost sheep, coins, and people calling them back into communion with God and one another and the world.

Reaching communities with the love and the justice of Jesus, of course, is not just the job of new churches. However, new churches are all about community outreach and evangelism. They are fragile entities which cannot succeed without being 100% committed to reaching new people for Christ. That can only happen by finding ways to matter to the community.

The Open Door PC created a community garden in Garfield that provides fresh produce for that community and a place for children to hang out. The HMB Faith Community invites the whole South Side to dinner every Tuesday evening. New church developments bless the communities where they live.

We need new church development.

Still, times are tough right now. NCD costs money. Maybe church planting was a good decision for our presbytery twelve years ago when our economic situation was more promising, but is it really essential to who we are as a presbytery? Can we still afford to do new church development?

I have come to believe that we as a presbytery need new church development if we are to choose life and faithfulness and a future -- not because we need to add to the number of churches on our roster or because we need to make up for a loss of members or because it enhances our cool factor. New Church Development is an essential part of a healthy ministry. It provides the wider body of the church an opportunity for trying new things – new forms of worship, new ways of being the church, new faith expressions. It revitalizes existing congregations and builds new leadership for the whole church. It is entrepreneurial and evangelistic in essence, qualities that enrich the church as a whole.

Church Planting has the power to transform. It requires doing things that have never been done before, in ways that have never been tried. Not everything works – in fact NCD can yield some spectacular failures. But permission to fail is actually a gift that new church development gives to the body. NCD is hard work – nationally only one in four new churches succeeds. The ones that last are financially vulnerable for many years.

But the risk is worth it. It is God’s harvest. I urge you to enjoy the harvest – find ways to get to know some of these amazing young pastors and church leaders. Invite them to lead worship for this congregation. Develop a partnership with a new church. Could this congregation consider becoming a parent church to a new church development? There is no better way to participate in the mission of God than to plant new indigenous churches.

The harvest is plentiful. Choose life and a future. Thanks be to God for God’s amazing abundance.