January 7, 2007
How To Start A Church? Hint: It Has Nothing To Do With Incorporation Or Tax Exemption
If you're starting a church, you may be thinking that all you have to do is incorporate and file IRS tax exemption forms. It's a common misconception that is perpetrated by many online vendors of "church-starting" products and services. What they won't tell you is that churches are not required to incorporate or file IRS tax exemption applications.
Why won't they tell you this? Because they've built an entire business on the illusion that this is what it means to start a legitimate Christian church. Nothing could be further from the truth. But that doesn't seem have stopped even presumably "devoted believers" and ex-ministers from spreading this misinformation. What would you do if you could charge an unsuspecting church leader about $900 to do these technical chores and call it a church? Hopefully you'd do something different.
A legitimate Christian church is nothing less that the holy vehicle God has chosen through which He can manifest His will on earth for His people. Of course, God can manifest His will any way He wants to because… well, because He's God. So, God can certainly work in an incorporated entity with tax exemption even if it's having trouble resembling the church that Jesus came to establish on earth.
But the truth is that if God has called you into the pastoral ministry and put it on your heart to start a church, He wasn't suggesting a mere corporation that doesn't have to pay taxes. Starting a church that will glorify God–and in your case, a local congregation that is a part of God's universal church–is meant to be a much more spiritual and profound undertaking. It's meant to be started by taking the "outreach" and "ministry" part of it and clarifying how it relates to people and their relationship with God and His church.
In other words, there are certain ecclesiastical, or uniquely church-related, aspects that are indispensible to a new Christian ministry. Pursuing them before the merely technical and voluntary chores of initiating a legal entity, is the beginning of biblical stewardship. I will be posting some of these elements of a church planting in the days that follow. We will be discussing them to some extent so we can be better informed church planters. For now, I'd like to know what you think about this issue and the fact that many out there would have you believe that the most important tasks of a church planting are paying for tasks that are not required. Please let me know your thoughts.
Why won't they tell you this? Because they've built an entire business on the illusion that this is what it means to start a legitimate Christian church. Nothing could be further from the truth. But that doesn't seem have stopped even presumably "devoted believers" and ex-ministers from spreading this misinformation. What would you do if you could charge an unsuspecting church leader about $900 to do these technical chores and call it a church? Hopefully you'd do something different.
A legitimate Christian church is nothing less that the holy vehicle God has chosen through which He can manifest His will on earth for His people. Of course, God can manifest His will any way He wants to because… well, because He's God. So, God can certainly work in an incorporated entity with tax exemption even if it's having trouble resembling the church that Jesus came to establish on earth.
But the truth is that if God has called you into the pastoral ministry and put it on your heart to start a church, He wasn't suggesting a mere corporation that doesn't have to pay taxes. Starting a church that will glorify God–and in your case, a local congregation that is a part of God's universal church–is meant to be a much more spiritual and profound undertaking. It's meant to be started by taking the "outreach" and "ministry" part of it and clarifying how it relates to people and their relationship with God and His church.
In other words, there are certain ecclesiastical, or uniquely church-related, aspects that are indispensible to a new Christian ministry. Pursuing them before the merely technical and voluntary chores of initiating a legal entity, is the beginning of biblical stewardship. I will be posting some of these elements of a church planting in the days that follow. We will be discussing them to some extent so we can be better informed church planters. For now, I'd like to know what you think about this issue and the fact that many out there would have you believe that the most important tasks of a church planting are paying for tasks that are not required. Please let me know your thoughts.
Spread the word
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