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Tell Us Who You Are and How You Got Into Church Planting
- David is from Dresden in the East of Germany.
- He is married to Jescharela.
- He has been working as a youth pastor.
- Initially, he wasn’t interested in working for a church. His dad is a pastor and David wanted to do something different.
- He went to America for a while, and God spoke to him about church leadership.
- He studied theology.
- God laid on David’s heart to plant a church in Dresden with young people that is modern and authentic.
What is Dresden Like?
- It is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe.
- It has a very distinct culture.
- There is a university with 50,000 students.
- The part of the city in which David is planting has lots of young adults, bars, etc.
- The city has a lot of history, including recent history – it is ex-communist.
Are There Many Christians or Churches There?
- East Germany has very few believers (around 0.9% of the population).
- There are some people who go to older Catholic churches, but these are dying out.
- If the harvest is pretty hard, this means that it is a good place to see God do a miracle.
Why Did You Start By Going For Students and Young People?
- They have lots of energy.
- They want to be part of something.
- They are spontaneous.
- They are flexible.
- When you work with students, it is much easier to see people bringing friends.
- It’s full of life.
- It can be crazy in terms of the things that students are living for.
How Did You Get the First Group of People For Your Church Plant?
- Be brave and courageous – you can’t do it sitting in your living room.
- Take some risks.
- Learn to trust God.
- Building relationships is key – especially with students.
- Invest time.
- Hang out with people and talk to them.
- They are not just team members, they are friends.
- Before launching their services, they have around 4 months of relationship building time, barbeques, etc.
“Most young people are not looking for a pastor, they are looking for friends.” (David Holey)
How Quickly Did You Try To Launch a Sunday Meeting?
- After this relationship building time, they looked for a venue.
- They had a couple of low key worship times and then did a grand opening.
- They debated how regularly to have their meetings, but decided to go for every week.
- When you build something, there is usually a cost.
At What Point Did You First Become Confident That It Would Work?
- When they had the grand opening and there were 55 people there.
- God challenged David, ‘what if next week there are just 10 people?’ David said he would still be grateful. The next week there were just 10 people, and he was.
- It made David realise that there really are people who are looking for that kind of church.
What Do You Do To Engage New People and Build Them Into Your Community?
- When there are new people, go and talk to them.
- Get contact details.
- Get people plugged into small groups.
- As a leader, invest time into people who you see as leaders in the future.
- Try to get them involved in things.
- Listen to them and ask questions.
How Has Planting a Church Affected You Personally?
- David has grown a lot in his relationship with God.
- He is seeing prophetic words from years ago fulfilled.
- He is learning to pray.
- You learn a lot about yourself.
Q&A
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How did you manage your time?
- David needs to get more structure into his schedule.
- He tries to get up early to spend time with God.
- He has asked a few friends to watch out for when he tries to do too much.
- He tries to set his priorities, and cancel some things that are less important.
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How have you financed yourself?
- The church plant is still linked to the sending church, who pay the rent on the building.
- They teach people right from the very start of the church plant to invest finances in the kingdom of God.
- Jeschi works full time.
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When you were networking, was this with Christians or non-Christians?
- Around 60% of the people were Christians.
- He wasn’t looking to recruit Christians that are disillusioned with their current churches.
- Even now, in the services, there are 30% non-Christians.
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What percentage of the people that you invested in relationships with actually joined the church, and how do you handle the disappointment when people don’t?
- About 10-15% of people joined the church.
- Often the people who didn’t join ended up leading to other contacts who did.
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How many people have been saved in the church?
- A lot of the people who had no Christian background are still on their way.
- Some people who came from ‘Christian’ background but didn’t know God have been saved.
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Practically, what does evangelism look like for you?
- Trying to do social events so that people can meet Christians and see that they are normal and fun.
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What is the meeting like, and how much of the preaching do you do?
- Quite a typical meeting – worship lead by awesome musicians and a preach.
- David does quite a lot of the preaching.
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What is your leadership team like?
- David didn’t worry about it at first, he just asked God to send some people along.
- Now there is a team of around 12 people.
- The next step for David is building a core team of 3-4 of them.
- Sometimes, you have a small window of time to draw people with potential into leadership.
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How do you deal with people who have a lack of vision?
- It is down to the leaders to bring vision.
- If people can’t go along with it, they need to leave.
- Be courageous in speaking about the vision.
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Given the value of building church across many generations, do you have a plan to build in people from different generations?
- Let God be the director.
- Students and young people is the step they are going for at the moment.
- It probably won’t be long until babies come along, and when they do that will be the next step to figure out.
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Do you have any final comments?
- Don’t forget about praying.