Preparing A Church Planting Site

As you’ve watched the stories of Tennessee Valley Presbytery’s church plants, the question might have crossed your mind: How do we pick where we plant?

Sometimes, the start of a plant comes after years of prayer and preparation, but other times, God brings the right pieces together much more quickly. In both situations, the presbytery follows a detailed checklist that helps ensure we pay attention to the Holy Spirit’s guidance and notice where the Lord is paving the way forward.

It all starts with conversations. For example, one pastor might say to Travis Vaughn (TVP’s executive director of church planting), “What if we planted a church in the town over? Some people at our church are driving 45 minutes to come to church.” Or, someone might say, “This neighborhood in Chattanooga or Knoxville is growing like crazy. Could this be a place where a plant could gather newcomers and young families?”

Working through the checklist then helps all involved parties confirm that God is opening these doors, that key players are all in agreement, and that the process is done with discernment and wisdom.

Although not always followed in an exact order, the checklist phases can be split into four categories: site related, planter related, finance related, and core team related.

Much of the early work goes into assessing and preparing the planter (through recruitment, assessment, examination, calling, and approval), but concurrently, the presbytery pays attention to sites.

The leaders of the PCA churches surrounding a potential planting site must be in agreement about the idea. If a local church body, pastor, or session wasn’t on board, that would give the presbytery pause. Support from established churches is essential for a healthy, connected, long-term church planting movement, so the presbytery listens to nearby churches.

As Travis says, “We’re presbyterian for a reason, because of connectionalism. We don’t make unilateral decisions; we work together. We do things by committee, by presbytery, and because of the connectional nature.”

Travis gave some insight into specific presbytery-approved sites. Before he came to the presbytery, Ringgold, GA, had been identified because there isn’t a PCA church in Ringgold. Nearby pastors and sessions were contacted and were in favor of pursuing a plant here, so it’s been on our list for a while.

Similarly, the presbytery has been looking at Cohutta, GA, this year because although it has a long church history, it is not a PCA history. There are a number of churches that the presbytery will want to hear agreement from before moving forward. 

Hardin Valley, Austin East, and Fountain City—three communities in the Knoxville, TN, area—were decided upon as planting sites thanks to input from every PCA church in Knox County. Although it’s a big county, there are just a handful of PCA churches, all of which agreed that more PCA churches are needed in the Knoxville area.

Then, the churches decided which among them was best suited to invest in which community. As Travis said, “Churches’ readiness to plant churches varies. We want everybody to be invested in some way, whether that’s prayer support, financial support, or participating in a provisional session, but there was a strong desire among some to invest in a particular area.”

As for which approved planter goes to which site, this also comes back to conversations, planters’ desires, and then confirmation through assessment and recommendation.

For example, Travis explained that one pastor (Rob Herron) had a desire to plant in Fountain City, so his family began familiarizing themselves with the area. He went through assessment with MNA, got a full recommendation, and is now planting Mercy Presbyterian in Fountain City.

This came about relatively quickly, but other sites, like Ringgold, have been on the presbytery’s approved list for years.

A couple expressed interest in Ringgold this year, and preliminary conversations with friends and TVP leaders indicated that they would be a good fit for the area. First, they had to complete the assessment. Next, they might complete a church planting residency before planting in Ringgold.

At the end of the day, we might pick out communities where we think we should plant, but the Lord directs our steps. Sometimes He closes doors unexpectedly, and other times He opens doors that we hadn’t initially considered.

You can see the sites where we hope to plant one day on our website (tnvalleypres.org/church-plant-list), and here are some ways to pray for these communities.

• Pray that the Holy Spirit will stir up a spiritual hunger among the current residents in these towns.

• Pray for families that are moving into these communities and may be looking for a church home. Pray that our plants would be ready to welcome them with the good news of Jesus.

• Pray for the schools in these communities as the new school year begins. Pray for the school leaders to seek God’s wisdom as they influence not only the future generation but also all of the teachers and staff within their spheres of influence.

• Pray that the presbytery and potential planters will build relationships and connections in these communities. Pray that existing churches and Christians will be ready to partner in gospel work.

• Pray that the planters we are in the midst of sending out would be filled with bravery and trust in God’s path.

• Pray that the presbytery’s church planting leadership would remain humble and reliant on discernment from the Lord.