New Congregation Plant Benchmarks

From the session this morning...
There are benchmarks that are going to help discern whether a new congregation is going to be viable or not. These are tangible benchmarks that can be quantified within eighteen months of the launch of public worship. Some of these are:
Presence of a formal stewardship plan - The way that a person uses possessions and wealth is a sign of transformation in a person’s heart. This does not necessarily mean that the congregation is financially self-sufficient.
Growth in numbers - Gather the worship attendance of only adults for the first ten Sundays. Throw out the high number and low number and average the remaining eight. This will give a bench mark number for worship. Within eighteen months the number in worship will need to have grown significantly. New congregations are started to bring new people to Jesus Christ. If growth is not happening what happened was the start of a new small group, not a growing congregation.
Formal plan for helping people grow in Christian discipleship - People need to be growing in their faith and they need to have the opportunity to seek out and find assistance in that growth.
Existence of multiple small groups - This is a sign that people are connecting to each other, not just to the pastor.