Signs your church might be pregnant: Church Pregnancy Test How do you know if your church might be pregnant with a new congregation? Signs your church might be pregnant: After prayer, your church senses God wants a person(s) sent to evangelize & church plant. Acts 13:2-3 Your church has a person called to preach/pastor/ minister that doesn’t have enough opportunities or doesn't fit in your church. Acts 9:29-30 There are Individuals moving far enough away from the church that it’s difficult for them to attend church regularly and be involved in its ministries. Acts 8:4 A group of people feels the church should transition into a style of ministry or develop a ministry that the rest of the congregation doesn’t feel comfortable with. Acts 18:6-8 A new people/language group that is moving into the church’s community/neighborhood that would be hard for the church to reach with its current ministries. Acts 6:1-6; Acts 10 Groups of people are living in places (multi-housing especially) where it would be hard to extract them and involve them in your church. Acts 16:23-36 You have fringe people in your congregation that may be different (language, country of origin, ethnicity, lifestyle, socio-economic, where they live/work, age group) from the central core of your congregation. Acts 8:26-39 Your church has more equipment, finances, building space, or gifted people than it can/should use right now. Phil. 4:14-19 A person/new congregation asks for help or to be adopted. Acts 16:9-10 There are false positives, God could be calling your church to develop new ministries, become more diverse, or change in some other way and start a new church. How do you determine what God is saying to the church? PRAY! If you suspect that your church might be pregnant, please feel free to call the Church Planting Center at (847) 348-1408 for a free consultation. Disclaimer: is not an exact science – God’s ways are far beyond our ways. Isa. 55:8-9

Be careful that you don’t abort a new congregation that God wants birthed! It’s easy if you don’t know the signs of church pregnancy It’s easy if your church is just too busy to get pregnant It’s easy if your church doesn’t want to be bothered with children It’s easy if your church feels threatened by children It’s easy if your church feels like its life would be endangered It’s easy if your church believes that it can reach everyone in its community by itself   Good prenatal care can prevent miscarriages but some will happen that are beyond our ability to prevent. Don’t let the pain of a miscarriage prevent you from attempting to birth another congregation. Principles: Healthy churches (in love with their Husband) reproduce Often churches find themselves pregnant before they feel like they are ready for parenthood Reproduction is all about vision & responding to God than it is about how petite a congregation is or about readiness There are many different kinds of reproductive/church plant models A church doesn’t have to use only one kind of reproductive model Not all reproductive models will work for your church