FAQ's
Orchard Group Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is your typical funding plan for a new church?
2. Who governs your new churches?
4. While most of your churches use the name Christian Church, not all of them do. None of your congregations use the Church of Christ name. How do you choose the names for your new churches?
5. Many non-profit organizations have very high overhead expenses. How does the Orchard Group compare with other ministries?
6. How does your office operate?
7. How do you determine where you will expend your church planting energies?
8. How did you arrive at the name "Orchard Group," and why did you change your name from "Go Ye" Chapel Mission?
What is your typical funding plan for a new church?
While circumstances vary depending on the type of church being planted, we generally provide between $50,000 and $200,000 for start-up costs for the church during its first year of life. That covers moving costs for staff members, advertising, and all initial set-up materials from sound systems to nursery cribs. After the church actually starts, they must cover all additional expenses themselves.
We also generally provide (also through the generosity of our partners) a portion of the salary for the first staff positions of the new church. The team members themselves raise the remainder. As soon as possible, not later than the end of the first year, the new church picks up 25% of those salaries. At the end of year two, they begin paying 50% of salaries from the new church offerings, and at the end of year three, 75%. The church pays 100% of salaries after its fourth birthday. Since it has paid all other expenses after start-up, when it begins to pay 100% of salaries the church is completely self-supporting.
Who governs your new churches?
The Board of Directors of the Orchard Group has the ultimate responsibility for each new church. They transfer oversight to a Management Team created for each new congregation. The Management Team is comprised of the senior minister of the new church (after he is hired), the Field Director of the Orchard Group, and representatives from the major supporting churches of the new project. The new church adds internal members to the Management team, one or two at a time, over the first four years. This provides smooth continuity from outside management to local management. When the new church becomes financially independent, and stable with an internal leadership team, Orchard's outside Management Team members pass the baton to the internal Management Team. Elders are generally chosen sometime after the external Management Team disengagement.
You used to start smaller congregations with one minister. Now you start larger churches with a multiple staff of ministers. Why did you make that change?
As recently as 1970, thirty churches of fifty members each brought more people to Christ than one church of fifteen-hundred members. By 1995, however, that one church of fifteen-hundred brought twice as many people to Christ as thirty churches of fifty members each.
Most Americans find their introduction to Christ through a Sunday morning worship service. At this point in time, more Americans will choose to attend that service if it is a part of a large church with multiple programming options. As long as that is the most effective way to reach those searching for a spiritual home, we will focus most of our efforts on starting larger churches. If the trends move back toward what was experienced in the 70s, then we will change our methods to meet those changing needs.
There are some cultural signs of a desire of twenty-somethings to return to smaller congregations. We recently started one new church that is focused in this area, and we will likely start more.
While most of your churches use the name Christian Church, not all of them do. None of your congregations use the Church of Christ name. How do you choose the names for your new churches?
Choosing the name for the new church is ultimately a decision left to the staff of the new congregation. We do not consider the name of the church to be one of the essentials of faith. We do, however, make recommendations to the senior minister of the new church and to the Management Team overseeing the project.
Our preference is that new churches use the "Christian Church" name. We find it to be positively received in most environments. On the other hand, in the northeastern United States, the name "Church of Christ" is often equated with the International Church of Christ movement that grew out of the Boston Church of Christ. That movement of churches has received much negative press for its controlling and even cult-like practices. That causes the "Church of Christ" name to be less than ideal in the northeast.
Two of our churches have chosen the name "Christ's Church of . . ." Both made the decision based on the fact that the name accurately defines the congregation, and is positively received in the community.
Many non-profit organizations have very high overhead expenses. How does the Orchard Group compare with other ministries?
We have always worked diligently to keep overhead expenses low. Only three full-time and three part-time staff members oversee the entire church planting ministry of the Orchard Group. That has enabled the organization to keep a fifteen-year ratio of 85 cents of every dollar directly invested in church planting work, and only 15 cents of every dollar devoted to fund raising and administration. We are unaware of any similar ministry with a better ministry to fund raising/administration ratio.
The administration of Orchard Group remains lean. Over 90% of our employees are ministers in the new churches being planted. Only six people work in administration.
Paul Williams has been the President of Orchard Group since 1989, and works from the New York office the ministry has maintained since 1951. Paul also spends part of his time in Longmont, CO where his wife took a two year job in 2006. When in CO, Paul works from the office of one of our supporting churches.
The back office operations of the organization are in North Chelmsford, Massachusetts, north of Boston. Harbor of Hope Christian Church has graciously donated office space to the ministry in their building.
Brent Storms serves as President of Orchard Group, overseeing the operations. Brent was the founding minister of the Harbor of Hope church, although he now lives and works in New York City.
Danielle Dallaire is the Business Manager. Michael Sheridan, a certified public accountant, serves as the Accountant of the ministry. Danielle and Mike work in the Massachusetts office.
Dave Smith is the part-time Vice-President of Development for Orchard Group, working from his home in New York City. Dave also serves as a professor of church planting for Ozark Christian College. Over 50 Ozark Christian College students will be taking intensive church planting classes over extended weekends this semester.
Brent Foulke serves as a recruiting consultant. He helps identify, assess and place church planters with the new churches Orchard Group helps to start. Brent lives in Albany, New York where he served as one of the founding ministers of Christ's Church of the Capital District.
How do you determine where you will expend your church planting energies?
The Orchard Group is committed to a simple 50/40/10 church planting guideline:
Fifty percent of our energies are devoted to church planting in the metropolitan New York City area, a region comprising twenty-two million people.
Forty percent of our energies are devoted to church planting in the northeast. Those boundaries extend roughly from New York City south to Washington, D.C.; west to Pittsburgh; north to Montreal; northeast to Boston; and south to New York. Sixty million people live in the region, with very few Christian Churches.
Ten percent of our time is "tithed" to church planting in other environments, from national cooperation among church planting organizations, to teaching at colleges and seminaries, to occasionally consulting on church plants in other regions.
How did you arrive at the name "Orchard Group," and why did you change your name from "Go Ye" Chapel Mission?
The Orchard Group was begun in 1948 as the "Go Ye" Chapel Mission, Inc. For fifty years the "Go Ye" Chapel Mission name was synonymous with church planting in New York City.
By the 1990s, however, many in our new churches and supporting churches did not identify with the origin or meaning of the name. "Go Ye" was taken from the King James Bible, a version not commonly in use in new churches in recent years. The "Chapel" portion of the name referred to the little church building on wheels that the Mission used in New York City in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. "Mission" was commonly construed as a ministry to the homeless in New York City, which never defined the church planting work of the organization.
Therefore, the Board of Directors changed the name of the organization to Orchard Group Church Planting, or "Orchard Group," for short. The name was drawn on Revelation 22: 1-2: "Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations."
It is our desire to plant far more than one or two churches in New York. We want to plant orchard upon orchard of churches, all bearing fruit in New York City and the Northeast, as they play their part in the healing of the nations.