New Churches Podcast | Season 1 | Episode 742

Connecting to Your Community as a New Church Planter

Noah Oldham, Vance Pitman & Mark Lee

Episode 742

What does it look like to connect with your community? Noah Oldham and Vance Pitman talk with Mark Lee about best practices for engaging your community as a new church planter.

In This Episode, You’ll Discover:

  • The best place to start connecting with your community
  • How to be seen as a partner, rather than a parasite
  • What foreign missions can teach us about being a missionary
  • The principle of living your life with your eyes open to God’s activity around you
  • How to mentor your core team to reach out to the city

Helpful Resources:

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Sharable Quotes (#NewChurches):

When we begin to be viewed as partners in our communities and cities, we create relational bridges that allow the gospel to walk from our lives into the lives of those we’ve been called to serve. —Vance Pitman

The way we connected with the community was that I just wanted to connect with my street, to just be the pastor of my street. Sometimes we can make it too complicated: Who do I need to reach out to? Where do I need to go? I just started where I lived. —Mark Lee

The greatest church planting class I took in seminary was actually on foreign missions. It taught me about these principles of being a missionary. And one of those principles was finding a person of peace. —NoahOldham

Find ways you can build relationships with the people in your life. For me, a lot of it had to do with what my kids were doing. The first 13 families I led to Christ, I led to Christ coaching Little League baseball and NFL flag football. —Vance Pitman

Once we have followers, disciples and a core team, how do we mentor them to reach out to the city too? For my core team, I provided a framework: prayers, conversations, table fellowships and invitations. —Mark Lee

When we started, we created what we called the Personal Touch Tip Sheet. It was 40 examples of how you could connect with someone. Like, for example, when somebody moves in on your street, bake some cookies or bread, make a meal, and take it to your neighbor. —Vance Pitman

Keep being faithful and trust the Lord to build His Church. —NoahOldham

Published on April 27, 2023

The Heart Relationships Mission The Nations Pre-Launch Growing
About the Podcast

New Churches Podcast

The New Churches podcast offers practical answers to your real ministry questions. We aren’t going to provide lofty pie-in-the-sky theories. Instead, we are going to help you in your real ministry context, with your real thoughts, questions, and issues.

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Meet the Authors

Noah Oldham

Executive Director Send Network

Noah Oldham is the Executive Director of Send Network. He served as the founding and lead pastor of August Gate Church for 15 years and the Send City Missionary to St. Louis for almost 10. In both these roles, he led his church and dozens of others to plant churches throughout the St. Louis region and beyond. He holds master’s degrees in Biblical Studies and Christian Leadership and is a certified personal trainer and nutrition coach. He writes, speaks, and trains in the areas of two of his greatest passions: the local church and physical fitness. Noah and Heather have been married since 2005 and have 5 children.

More Resources from Noah

Vance Pitman

President Send Network

Vance Pitman is president of Send Network, founding pastor of Hope Church, and author of UNBURDENED: Stop Living for Jesus So Jesus Can Live Through You and The Stressless Life: Experiencing the Unshakable Presence of God’s Indescribable Peace. As a seasoned church planter and now leader of the largest church planting organization in North America, Vance seeks to inspire people to join in God’s eternal, redemptive mission of making disciples, by multiplying the Church all over North America, that the nations may come to know Him.  Vance and his wife Kristie have four children and four grandchildren, and live in Georgia.

More Resources from Vance

Mark Lee

Lead Team of Church Planters Send Network

Mark Lee planted VantagePoint Church in Eastvale, California in 2008. Since then, the church has helped plant 10 other churches around the country. Mark also serves on the Lead Team of Church Planters for Send Network.

More Resources from Mark
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