United States: Church Planting Effort Seeks College Students

As the trend of planting Seventh-day Adventist Churches in Texas grows—17 new churches last year, 25 in the works for this year—a new initiative is inviting college students to move after graduation to an area specifically for the purpose of planting, or establishing, a church. Church administration will assist them in finding work in their field. The objective is to put Adventist churches where there aren’t any, and to reach people who haven’t been touched by existing churches.

The initiative, called Total Employment (totalemployment.org), is first focusing on Southwestern University, in Keene, Texas. Coordinator Marti Schneider says there are core values being set up for the churches to be established, but students will be the ones with the ideas.

“The young people are going to run these churches,” says Schneider. “We’re not telling them what it’s going to be; we want the young people to come out and experience the joy of church-planting and leadership.

“They’re not going to be asked to just play the piano.”

Although young professionals have been involved in church planting, this is the first time church administration is recruiting those still in school.

Total Employment is sponsored by the Adventist Church’s Global Mission, Adventist-laymen’s Services and Industries (ASI), and local church administrations.

Tom Evans, church planting coordinator for the Adventist Church in Texas, believes church planting is the most effective method for church growth. He says the statistics are seen across all denominations.

In 1998, North Dallas had 415 Adventists worshiping in one church. Now there are 1,450 members in six churches. Across the state, Texas spawned 17 Adventist churches, including five English, six Spanish, two Brazilian, one Zimbabwean, one African, one Vietnamese, and one Korean.

Other plans for church planting are aimed at the areas of San Antonio and Austin, including the University of Texas at Austin. Two Total Employment recruiters will spend time at Southwestern Adventist University this year planning for a summer of 2004 launch. Southern Adventist University in Collegedale, Tennessee, is partnering with the church in Georgia to develop Total Employment in that area of the country.

“I’m of the opinion that there’s no one way to plant a church,” says Evans. “Certainly there are a few principles. Typically we’ll start with a core group.”

And typically the core group approaches him with the dream. “I don’t have to recruit people to plant—people come to me,” he says.

Many times a church grows from another church. Victor Jaeger, senior pastor of the Richardson Spanish Adventist Church, started with a group of 14 people two years ago. They met in the Richardson English Church choir loft. The group grew and moved to the fellowship hall. After more growth they rented a Methodist church. Now, after raising $100,000, the group of 390 moved into its new church building last year.

Jaeger puts most of his efforts into Bible studies and setting up small groups. “Then we bring the small groups together. That’s how we planted a church,” says Jaeger, who only preaches one Sabbath a month, letting church elders do most of the preaching.

“I believe in church planting,” says Jaeger. “The only way you can do that is by empowering others. If it can happen with me, it can happen with anybody.”

He says Total Employment is a good idea and that there are a lot of good theories about how to plant churches and grow membership. “First though you have to start with your own spiritual experience…the best experience you can get is with serving,” says Jaeger.

He says along with the vision of church planting come many benefits: people are more active in the church; tithe increases; there is less internal conflict; and the pastor doesn’t have to feel like a “babysitter.”

However, it may be a challenge to let those in leadership positions step aside.

Richard Peterson, pastor of the Scenic Hills Church in San Antonio, Texas, and area coordinator for Adventist pastors, says his members are sometimes afraid of church planting.

“Some of my church members think this is going to hurt the church,” says Peterson. He acknowledges that there are some losses. “That’s just a fact. But…I’ve been pastoring long enough [that] I’ve learned that when you lose members to church planting, the Lord makes up for what you’ve lost,” says Peterson, explaining that it provides for new people to move into church leadership positions.

In the long run, Peterson says, it’s a healthy thing, and he wants to see more churches involved in planting.