New Covenant Baptist Church
Ministry Plan
2015 - 2017
Background
In March 2015, the leadership of New Covenant Baptist Church (NCBC) undertook developing a
plan for the future ministries of NCBC. This process arose because Dawson Baptist Church in
Birmingham, Alabama has initiated a partnership with Southern Baptist churches in Maine to
help them reach more people for Christ and to help plant more new churches in Maine. NCBC
was chosen as one of the first churches for Dawson to work with.
Tom Thompson, a member of Dawson who has experience in helping churches develop
ministry plans, worked with the leadership of NCBC in the planning process. An ad hoc group
of NCBC leadership was formed to develop the plan with Tom’s facilitation. That group was Cliff
Foster, Joanne Foster, Ulim Derby, Eric Dubois, Alvin Goodrich, Tim Kezar, Brandon Morgan,
Judy Newton, David Upton, Jackie Upton, Becky Winsor, Donna Wyman and Joe Wyman.
The process included:
 Tom meeting individually with some members of NCBC to gather their input on what
they felt God is leading NCBC to do
 An open meeting for any church member to come give input
 A meeting of all church leadership to come give input
 A meeting of the planning group for prayer
 Two meetings of the planning group to discuss all areas of ministry and to make
decisions on each one
The ministry plan covers a three year period. Each year, the elders will be responsible for the
review of the plan and may include other members in that review. In that review adjustments
will be made as needed and an additional year will be added so that the plan always looks three
years into the future. The adjustments each year may result from the actual results of the work
that year or changes beyond the control of NCBC.
NCBC has been blessed in many ways. The strength of the church allows it to plan for how it
can increase its impact in God’s kingdom. Those strengths include:
 An outstanding worship experience each Sunday with strong Biblical preaching and
excellent music
 Unity within the membership
 A welcoming and friendly environment to all who come
 A strong, spiritually mature core of leadership
 Diversity of ages in the congregation
 A proven ability to work with other churches for the greater good of God’s kingdom
 An unusually large portion of the church budget going directly to missions
 Good community outreach activities
 No debt and financial stability
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Who we are
New Covenant Baptist Church is a multi-generational church family united through strong
Biblical teaching, Christ-like living, glorifying Christ, serving the community in His name, taking
the hope of Christ to the world, and making disciples.
Overall goals
Everything in this plan is designed to accomplish the following present and ongoing
goals.
1. Members of NCBC are making God’s kingdom known, giving the hope of Christ to
everyone they meet, and leading people to Christ
2. Each member is continually growing in grace and in their relationship with Christ and
their commitment to Him and living a life that is transformed by Christ
3. Each member is fully committed to serve to meet needs within the church, our
community and the world
4. Each member regularly worships God individually and collectively
5. The New Covenant community is unified and supports each other in every way
6. God is glorified in everything we do
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Broad strategies
Geographic focus
NCBC reaches people from North Berwick, Berwick, Sanford and other communities. However,
its community outreach activities will be targeted for North Berwick since that is where the
church is located. For activities in schools, because the middle school and high school serve
students from North Berwick, Berwick and Lebanon, those activities will obviously include
students from those communities. Because the food pantry serves North Berwick and Lebanon,
people from those communities are obviously included. Other community outreach activities
may attract people from outside of North Berwick and that is good, but the events and activities
will be designed primarily to attract and serve people from North Berwick.
Location of community outreach events
Events that are intended to reach people in the community will, to the maximum extent possible,
be held in locations in the community that are convenient to the targeted attendees instead of at
NCBC facilities.
Facilities
NCBC will use its building resources to reach people for Christ. It is not our intent to expand the
building facilities in this 3 year plan. We will expand our parking and pave the remainder of the
driveway in the next 3 years.
Balance of focus on members and the community
NCBC will seek to balance its ministries to serve both current members and the unreached.
Relationship with First Baptist Church and other Churches in North Berwick
NCBC will, to the maximum extent possible, work with First Baptist Church of North Berwick on
activities to reach people in the community. Other evangelical churches will be invited to
participate as well but the desire is to increase our collaboration with First Baptist. We will seek
to find ways to present ourselves as one body of believers to the community.
Church planting
NCBC has no intention, in this three year planning cycle, to initiate activities to plant another
church, but will work with the North American Mission Board and the Maine Church Planting
Catalyst in areas where needed.
Discipleship
Sunday Bible study for adults will be the primary focus for discipleship efforts for adults, but
small groups at other times may be created to supplement Sunday Bible study. Also Sunday
School for children from birth through high school will be the primary teaching arm of the church
for those ages. All adults will be encouraged to participate in service opportunities as a way to
help them desire to grow spiritually and therefore participate in discipleship activities.
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Tactics and objectives
In this section, for each year of the three year plan, specific plans for activities, events and
tactics are given, along with the time for each to be accomplished and the objective to be
achieved.
2015
1. Vacation Bible School
Working in partnership with First Baptist Church, a Vacation Bible School will be held June 22 –
26, 2015. In addition to providing an important opportunity for children from NCBC and First
Baptist, the objective is to reach children from the community who do not attend church and who
otherwise would not likely have this type activity during the summer. This will be an “all day”
type activity, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., and a 2 hour extended care (to 5 PM) in order to meet
the needs of parents. This week is immediately after school finishes for the year but before
community center activities start for the summer. Dawson Baptist will provide support by
sending people to help with all aspects of VBS. There will be a structured follow up process
with the children and their families to encourage ongoing involvement with one of the churches.
The objective is for 80 children from the community to attend and for contacts to be made with
20 families.
2. Community Bible studies
Bible studies will be started in the community in the common areas of community living
centers/Noble High School. Two to three people from NCBC will commit to be part of each
study to be the core. This is being done to reach people in the community, not as a Bible study
for members of NCBC. Two such Bible studies will begin in the fall of 2015 each one reaching
at least five other people by the end of the year.
3. Sunday School and Sunday Bible study
Sunday School for children of all ages and Sunday Bible study for adults will be re-launched on
Sunday September 13, 2015. Sunday School for children from birth through high school will
focus on age appropriate Bible learning activities. Sunday Bible study will include time for
fellowship and prayer but the primary focus and the majority of the time will be for direct Bible
study. Two new groups of Sunday Bible study will begin in order to give more options for adults.
The adult options will include different Bible study approaches and different curricula to appeal
to different levels of current Bible knowledge and different preferences. There will be significant
publicity about the re-launch throughout the summer to ensure that all members are fully aware
of why regular Bible study is important and what happens in Sunday School and Sunday Bible
study. Sunday School and Sunday Bible study will be a primary outreach and evangelism
ministry for NCBC. Members will be encouraged to invite un-churched individuals to come.
New volunteers will be recruited to teach Sunday School and Sunday bible study to
accommodate the growth. All leadership will be trained on how to teach the Bible and how to
administer Sunday School and Sunday Bible study. The objective is that by the end of 2015
there will be 40 children attending Sunday School and 40 adults attending Sunday morning
Bible study. As a complement to Sunday Bible study, gender based small groups will be
created based on the desires of adults in the church to provide further Bible study opportunities.
These will meet at various times and in various locations as desired by the participants.
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4. Internal communication
A comprehensive plan to communicate to all members will be initiated in the fall of 2015. There
will be one primary point for the flow of communication in order to ensure the completeness and
consistency of the content. The communications will cover all discipleship, ministry and
missions activities and events. It will include regular financial information. There will be a
monthly calendar of events and activities in hard copy and on the website. The website will be
used as a primary means of communication for both members and the community. Someone
will be identified and assigned as the webmaster to have a single control point for the content of
the website. There will be a process for communicating this plan to members to ensure every
member understands the elements of the plan. There will be regular highly visible
communications of the measurements as given in this plan. A phone tree will be developed and
used to communicate urgent information to members. Before each worship service,
announcements will be shown on the screen.
5. Fellowship
To enhance the unity of the fellowship, small groups will be created for discussion and sharing.
This will include a structured approach for dining groups with rotating participants as a way to
help members develop new relationships with each other. Members will be encouraged to
serve together as a way to build relationships.
2016
1. Community Coffee House
A monthly community coffee house will begin in the spring of 2016. The purpose is to create an
environment for un-churched people to come so that members of NCBC can develop
relationships with them. It will be held at a location, such as the American Legion, that will be
non-threatening. There may be some entertainment to attract people.
2. Middle School and High School Bible clubs
Bible clubs will be started in Noble Middle School and Noble High School in September 2016.
These clubs will meet on a weekly basis. Students who are believers in each school will be
identified and invited to help create the clubs and play a leadership role in them.
3. External communications
In the summer of 2016, an external communications program will begin. It will include
advertising in the Sentinel and other print media, advertising on radio, and placements on the
community bulletin board. A brochure will be developed that could be placed in many venues
for people to pick up to learn about NCBC.
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4. Visitor follow up
NCBC has a very welcoming environment but needs better follow up with visitors. All members
will be encouraged to proactively greet and talk to visitors to learn about them and members will
have a way to give information about visitors to church leadership. A structured way to contact
visitors will be started in early 2016. The method of collecting information from visitors will be
enhanced to increase the likelihood of their giving their information. On a rotating basis, one or
more members will be responsible for contacting visitors within one week of their first visit. As a
visitor comes multiple times, an Elder or other church leader will contact them to discuss church
membership. If a visitor who has come multiple times stops coming, they will be contacted to
invite them back.
5. New member assimilation
In early 2016, a structured process will be developed and implemented to help new members
become fully involved in the life of the church. This will build on the current process in which
Elders meet with new members. There will be a new members class that will cover the basics
of the faith and all aspects of NCBC. It will be optional but new members will be strongly
encouraged to attend. Members who become irregular in attendance or stop attending will be
contacted by an Elder to find out why they are not coming and how the church can help them
and pray for them.
6. Accountability and mentoring
By the fall of 2016, a process for mentoring young adults will be created. Using volunteer
mentors, connections will be made with younger adults to develop relationships. One person
will be designated to make the connections between potential mentors and young adults.
These relationships will be gender specific or between couples. The mentoring relationships will
become accountability relationships with accountability in both directions.
2017
1. Neighborhood block party
In the spring of 2017, a block party event will be held in a park to give an opportunity for unchurched people to come to a fun environment where relationships can begin. The event will
have a variety of activities to attract people of all family situations. There will be some way
(such as door prizes) to get information about attendees. There will be a structured follow up
process to contact attendees.
2. Sports events
In the summer of 2017, some kinds of sports events will be held at the community center to
attract un-churched people to a non-threatening environment. This will be some sort of
competition, such as people forming groups to compete. For example it could be a three-onthree basketball competition. There will be a way to gather information on all attendees and
there will be follow up with them.
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3. Retaining young adults
In the fall of 2017, a process to better retain young adults will be implemented. This can include
a specific group for them to meet for fellowship, conversation and fun. High school students
and recent graduates will be more integrated into the life of the church. Specific activities to
attract recent high school graduates and college students will be created.
4. Full time pastor
By October 2017, the Pastor will become full time. This will be accomplished through increased
giving due to growth and greater giving by all members.
Measurements
There will be continuous measurements to know whether the plans are having the desired
results. These measures will be prominently communicated to all church members. Following
are the measurements to be tracked.
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The number of children attending Sunday School
The number of adults attending Sunday Bible study
The number of people of all ages attending worship
The number of people who accept Christ
Total financial giving
The number of high school graduates who remain as Christ followers
The number of specific connections made at community events
The number of members serving in the community
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