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Here are some guidelines for churches in the Houston Metro Presbytery that feel like the Lord is leading them to plant a church. We want all of our church plants to be missional and strategic.

You can download our Church Planting Booklet here.

Missional
The church is God’s plan A for the expansion of His Kingdom. We desire that all of our churches and new works be centered on Christ and his message of grace. We want to follow Jesus’ words from Matthew 28, “18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Strategic
In order to encourage our church plants to be set up in the best position they can be and to see that all of our new works are moving in sync with the mission of the Houston Metro Presbytery, the following guidelines will need to be met before receiving an endorsement from HMP’s MNA Committee.

  1. Connection to the Local Church:
    1. For a mission church to begin, a local congregation will need to endorse the new work. This means they will support this new work financially and have at least one member of their current Session to serve on the mission church’s Session.
    2. Mentor: The pastor of the mission church will need to have a mentor from the Houston Metro Presbytery until the church is particularized.
  2. Connection to the Houston Metro Presbytery:
    1. The endorsing church and the church planter will need to communicate their interest to start a mission church.
    2. The HMP MNA Committee will consider the request and check to see that the guidelines have been met.
    3. We want to see churches planted driven by a desire for people to encounter Christ and to make the Houston Metro Presbytery a more beautiful expression of His Kingdom.
  3. Connected to the Presbyterian Church in America
    1. This new work will be part of the PCA: We desire to unite PCA congregations who hold common theological convictions but have diverse ministry practices, in order to expand the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ to multiple generations of people of “every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9).

      We long to join in cooperative ministry with other parts of the universal church to pursue God’s global mission. We hope to engage the culture with Reformed thinking and leadership, along with deeds of love, mercy, and justice to show the transformational power of the gospel. https://pcanet.org/about-the-pca/
    2. BCO 5-1, “A mission church may be properly described in the same manner as the particular church is described in BCO 4-1. It is distinguished from a particular church in that it has no permanent governing body, and thus must be governed or supervised by others. However, its goal is to mature and be organized as a particular church as soon as this can be done decently and in good order.”
    3. Defining “governed or supervised by others”: At least two Ruling Elders and one Teaching Elder will serve as a commission to govern the new work as their Session.
  4. Connection to the Mission of the Gospel
    1. We want to plant churches that are seeking to reach the unreached, nourish the faith of God’s people, and encourage the unity of the church.
    2. We want to plant churches that are part of the greater mission of the Houston Metro Presbytery to see Christ’s Kingdom thrive and develop a people who have a deep love of Jesus and those in their community.

Steps to Begin a New Church

Step 1: Internal Calling and Confirmation: We want church planters to be those who sense a call internally from the Holy Spirit and who have sought the Lord’s direction in prayer. Having the desire to plant a new church is essential.

Step 2: External Calling and Confirmation:

  1. We want each of our new works to have a local HMP church endorsement.
  2. Church planters should seek external confirmation for their desire to plant from the local church and pastor(s) first.
  3. Church planters should also ask trusted advisors in their church and life to confirm their desire to plant a new work.

Step 3: Communicate with HMP Mission to North America Committee

  1. Reach out to the chair of the HMP Mission to North America Chair for a discussion about your desires to plant a new work.
  2. The HMP MNA Committee will then give an endorsement to the church and church plant upon evaluating their meeting the “Guidelines of Planting a Church in HMP.”
  3. The HMP MNA Committee will require the church planter to attend MNA Church Planting Assessment for an endorsement.
  4. Having an endorsement will communicate you are in sync with the HMP MNA Committee and will provide opportunities for financial support.
  5. The church planter will need to communicate with local churches about the possiblity of this new work.

Step 4: Administrative Tasks

  1. Timeline: Come up with a timeline for your new work. Consider everything from now through your first three years of this new work.
  2. Budget: Create a three year budget for your new work. You will need to have 2 years of that amount committed to your work, and one year in reserves before you launch.
  3. Submit reports to the HMP MNA Committee for our presbytery meetings. This will need to include your financial status, prayer requests, and an update on your new work.
  4. Presbytery: The HMP MNA Committee will report to the HMP Presbytery about this new work once the guidelines have been met. At this point, the HMP will appoint a session per the BCO (Option A does not apply within the geographic bounds of the HMP per BCO 8-6):

    5-3. The mission church, because of its transitional condition, requires a temporarry system of government. Depending on the circumstances and at is own discretion, Presbytery may provide for such government in one of several ways:

    a. Appoint an evangelist as prescribed in with BCO 8-6.
    b. Cooperate with the Session of a particular church in arranging a mother-daughter relationship with a mission church. The Session may then serve as the temporary governing body of the mission church.
    c. Appoint a BCO 15-1 commission to serve as a temporary Session of the mission church. When a minister of the Presbytery has been approved to serve as pastor of the mission church, he shall be included as a member of the commission and serve as its moderator.”
  1. The HMP MNA Committee will continue to offer support and updates to the HMP.

Helpful resources (Church Planters will use these during the MNA Assessment Center)