We’ve enjoyed about a months time of “soft opening” at the new church site.  These pre-opening services has given us time to iron out the kinks of the PA system and has given Pex a valuable time of practice and preaching before this weeks opener and dedication service.  This Sunday the 20th of September, Compass Baptist Church will host its “grand opening”.  Within just a few days 60,000 flyers will make their way into the surrounding mailboxes.  I’ve encouraged our people to invite all their friends.  The only thing left to do is pray and ask the Lord to bless the work that He has commissioned.

Our pre-opening phase has proved to be a wise use of the time, and I plan to implement the same strategy in future church plants.  Our pre-oepning was only a little over a month before our dedication service, but in some contexts, it would not be unwise to extend that to as much time as you needed. Here are a few strong points of a pre-opening period for your new ministry/church plant:

• It gives the men you are training time to practice formal services and prepare them for the big leagues.
• It gives time for you to get comfortable with your locations logistics, especially if you are in a major city where parking and transportation is an issue.
• It gives time to ground the few people you have and prepare them to invite their friends.  In turn when you have an opening day, they will be instrumental in providing a friendly comfortable atmosphere.
• It gives time for you and your small group to plan a comprehensive evangelistic strategy, such as passing out flyers and implementing activities that will continue to draw contacts.  It also gives your group time to plan the next several weeks following the grand opening day to help people find their way back to church.
• For those ministries starting in foreign lands like ours, it gives valuable time to preach in the foreign language with friends who are willing to help you to improve.  Because of this, I feel I can now manage my nervous fears of preaching to large crowds in Chinese.
• As I mentioned, it gives time for the kinks in your technologies to be ironed out and improve for the big day.

Thank for reading, if you have any comments or tips to add of your own, please do so.  Contact me about coming to see us, or doing an internship with us if you are considering full time ministry!  God Bless.