The Well by the Sea

A Non-traditional Church in the Anglican Tradition

Our Mission and Purpose

Master Plan for New Church Plant

Why Plant a Church?

Concerns

  • We can’t fill existing churches…why plant another?
  • Starting a new church will cause division in our existing church.
  • The church we come from can’t afford to give up people.

Answers

  • Research shows that new churches are more effective in reaching lost people than established churches.(Christianity Today)
      • Evangelical churches that are:
    • 0-3 years old win 10 people per hundred members per year
    • 3-15 years old, 5 people per hundred members per year
    • Over 15 years old, 3 people per hundred members per year

New churches reach NEW PEOPLE!

Established churches reach ESTABLISHED PEOPLE!

One American denomination recently found that 80% of its converts came to Christ in churches that were less than 2 years old. (Ralph Moore)

Existing churches (4 out of 5 in America) are usually “plateaued and/or declining.” (Win Arn)
Of the 15% of these churches that are growing, 14% of the growth comes from transfers. Only 1% comes from new converts.

3500-4000 churches die each year.

  • No county in the U.S. has more churches than 10 years ago.
  • No county in the U.S. has a greater church population than 10 years ago.
  • The U.S. is the 3 largest unchurched nation in the world.
  • There are roughly 200 million unchurched people in the U.S.
  • In the last decade the combined membership of all Protestant churches in the U.S. has declined by nearly 10% while the population has grown by 11.4%.

Since new churches are built around evangelism, they grow faster than established churches. By contrast, powerful internal institutional pressures tend to encourage long-established churches to allocate most of their resources to the care of members. (Lyle Shaller)

New congregations carry less “institutional baggage.”

  • Trail-Blazers go where no one has been before!
  • Pioneers take risks!
  • Settlers build fences and stake out territory!

Purpose, Vision, Values and Strategies of The Well by the Sea Church Plant

Purpose Statement (Mission): To bring families and individuals into the fullness and love of the abundant life in Jesus Christ.

Vision: To be an Anglican Church in which the Bible and complete gospel are taught unapologetically, the lost are led to Jesus, the believers brought to maturity, families nourished, the sick healed and the gospel shared outside the walls of the church.

Core Values

  1. Jesus loves every person in creation
  2. Jesus cares more about people than He does form and process.
  3. Jesus has a plan and purpose for each individual and desires a living, loving relationship with him/her.
  4. A dynamic relationship with Jesus will lead to abundant life and the discovering of God’s plan for each life.
  5. The Christian family is important and should be nourished through dynamic programming for parents, children and youth.
  6. Each Christian is given at least one spiritual gift according to God’s plan for their life.
  7. Spiritual gifts are the tools that empower each individual to have a purpose in life and do their part in leading people to abundant life in Jesus.
  8. Spiritual giftedness of the laity and clergy should be utilized to its fullest extent in the church.
  9. The church is a family in which we may not always agree, but where we are bound together by Christian love that supersedes disagreements.
  10. Families stick together through the good and the bad, celebrate joy with one another, mourn with one another, challenge one another, hold each other accountable and look out for the interests of one another.
  11. In sharing the abundant life of Jesus with others, we are committed to building other church families beyond our walls, that spring from our church family.
  12. The scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are our final authority and contain all things necessary for salvation and abundant life.
  13. We are committed to the authority of the Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina and are intent on assisting him in carrying out his ministry to the people of our community.
  14. As a church, we are dedicated to being constantly renewed in order to keep our focus on saving the lost as well as nurturing the saved.

Strategy

  1. To provide Bible-based teaching powered by prayer for the purpose of transforming lives.
  2. To provide dynamic worship experiences that are centered on Jesus and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
  3. To allow the utilization of the spiritual gifts of the laity in fulfilling the purpose and vision of the church.
  4. To provide resources for teaching of evangelism and opportunities for evangelism of the lost including outreach to the underprivileged and marginalized population.
  5. To provide programming that leads individuals and families into spiritual maturity and abundant life.
  6. To seek to bring healing to minds, bodies and spirits through the ministries of the Holy Spirit.
  7. To remain simple, straightforward, true to our purpose, prayer-driven and Jesus-centered.
  8. To never allow form to trump substance. To make the love of Jesus and the grace of God foremost in every situation and decision.
  9. To trust that God will provide and make room in our minds for Him to move unexpectedly and outside of our paradigms.
  10. To actively embrace newcomers and devote ourselves to nurturing them into full membership in the Body of Christ and the family of our church.
  11. To actively seek constant renewal in the church by a process of self-evaluation, prayer and discernment so that we may keep the mission and vision of the church alive and focused.