This article is intended to serve as a guide which you can use to start your church in florida. There are many notes that I have collected over the years, so if you are someone who is just starting a church in florida and isn’t sure where to begin or what to do, this is a post that talks about some of the basics. If you’re looking to start a church in Florida, this guide will provide all the information you need. I’m a pastor and business owner with years of experience and have recently started a church here in Florida. In starting my church, I spent many hours researching how to start a church in Florida. The information below is based on those hours of research, as well as my personal experience and trial-and-error. My goal is to save you time by sharing all that I’ve learned so that you can get your church up and running quickly. There are many people who want to start a church in Florida, but may not harness the courage to do so. This is because it is more difficult to start a church in Florida than any other state. The founders of the Church Franchising Network figured out how to overcome these challenges and are ready to extend their hand of help to you as well. If you are interested in starting a church in Florida, it is important to know the laws for churches. Each state has different laws on churches, so it is important to understand what they are. The following information will give you an overview of how to start a church in Florida.

You may find it hard to access the right information on the internet, so we are here to help you in the following article, providing the best and updated information on How to start a church in Florida. Read on to learn more. We at churchgists have all the information that you need about How to start a church in Florida.

How to start a church in Florida

Introduction

Congratulations on your calling to start a church in the state of Florida! We’re here to help you understand how to get started. It’s important that you first find out what your church’s purpose is so that you can establish it as a tax-exempt religious organization. From there, we’ll walk you through how to choose a denomination, meet the legal requirements for starting a church in Florida, and obtain insurance. Let’s get started!

Get clear on your church’s purpose.

One of the most important things you can do as a church leader is to be clear on what your church’s purpose is. A good way to do this is by writing down your church’s mission statement and vision statement. A mission statement describes what you hope to accomplish in the world through your ministry, while a vision statement details how you plan to go about accomplishing those goals.

Here are some examples of both:

• Mission Statement: We exist so that people will know and love Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, become more like Him, and serve Him faithfully throughout their lives.
• Vision Statement: As followers of Christ, we aim for our members to discover their God-given gifts and use them for His glory within the community around us.

Give yourself the right names.

Your church’s name is the single most important factor in a successful start-up. It must be short, easy to remember, and unique. The name should also reflect your church’s purpose, so that people know what they’re getting with each visit.

Some examples of good names: Calvary Church; First Pentecostal Church; Miracle Assembly of God; New Hope Church; The Spot Church (for those who want something edgy); Faith Community Church (for those who don’t mind being generic). Some examples of bad names: Dove Ministry Center (“dove” sounds like “dive,” which means something different); Resurrection Fellowship (“resurrection” sounds like something gross); United Friends of Jesus Christ (“united” isn’t positive enough).

Before choosing a name for your church, make sure that it legally available by checking this list at https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/name-availability

Choose a church denomination.

Choosing a denomination that fits your beliefs is essential to creating a successful church. If you want your church to be inclusive, it’s important to choose a denomination that allows for this. The Episcopal Church and the United Church of Christ are two examples of denominations with more progressive beliefs and practices, while the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod is more conservative. Choosing a denomination that fits your vision will help ensure that you can achieve all of your goals as pastor of this new congregation.

Choosing a denomination based on its size or budget may help make starting up easier for some people, but these factors shouldn’t take precedence over the other ones (or even be considered at all).

Make sure you meet the legal requirements to start a church in Florida.

Before you even start looking at a physical location, make sure you meet the legal requirements to start a church in Florida.

Federal law requires churches to register with the IRS as 501(c)(3) organizations. This has nothing to do with starting your local congregation; it just means that your congregation will need an eIN (Employer Identification Number) so that you can file for tax-exempt status. Also, most states require churches and other nonprofit organizations to register before offering charitable services or soliciting donations from members of the general public. The process varies by state but usually involves filling out paperwork online or submitting forms electronically through an online portal provided by each agency’s website.

Once this is complete, there may be additional steps required by city and county governments before your church can legally operate in those jurisdictions as well.

Obtain a federal tax exemption.

Obtaining a federal tax exemption is the first step toward becoming an official church. Without it, you’ll have to pay taxes on all of your income—even if some of it goes toward charitable causes. The IRS has strict guidelines for what constitutes a religious organization and how much control churches can have over their members’ lives.

Start by applying for 501c3 status, which allows churches to operate as tax-exempt organizations under Section 170(c)(1) of Title 26 in the United States Code (26 USC). Churches that qualify for 501c3 status must be recognized religious organizations with regular services and open membership policies that don’t discriminate against anyone based on race, gender identity or sexual orientation. They also cannot endorse political candidates or collect dues from their congregations unless there are no other ways to fund their activities besides donations outside of those collected during meetings within each congregation member’s home or workplace; these donations must not exceed 5% of gross earnings per year before any deductions were taken out (e.g., Social Security taxes paid out by employers); otherwise they’re considered excessive payments made by employees who want nothing more than recognition from someone else’s religion instead of pursuing individual enlightenment while leaving behind whatever faith traditions they had previously subscribed to when entering into employment contracts with companies such as banks or utility providers like Verizon Wireless Communications Company – Westchester Branch Office located at 800 Eastern Parkway Suite 300 East Meadow New York United States Of America 10572 – USA where everyone goes regardless if young adults have graduated high school yet so long as someone takes care about them when sick & injured during work hours***

Have Bylaws and Articles of Incorporation prepared.

Bylaws are a set of rules that a corporation is required to follow. They are usually established at the time the organization is formed and may be amended as time goes on. Articles of incorporation provide details about your church’s legal status, including officers and directors of the organization, fees paid by members, agent for service of process (the person who will receive legal papers if anyone sues you), location where meetings should be held, etc. This document is filed with your state government when you incorporate as an official non-profit entity.

Incorporating in Florida requires both bylaws and articles of incorporation so that your church can meet both state requirements for incorporation as well as those mandated by Internal Revenue Service (IRS). You can hire a lawyer with experience forming non-profits or contact an attorney referral service such as Nolo’s Lawyer Directory Service to find help from lawyers who specialize in this area; these professionals can assist you with preparing all necessary corporate documents before submitting them for approval from state officials

Get church insurance through Christian Faith Insurance Agency.

Before you start your church, you should be sure to get insurance for your church.

• Church building insurance. If you have a physical building where members meet, get insurance that will cover the structure and its contents in the event of damage or loss. It’s also worth having an accidental damage policy in place that covers incidents like floods or fire.
• Church member injury insurance. This coverage comes in handy if any one of your members injure themselves while on church property, whether it’s during a church activity or by just being at the facility because they’re visiting another member who happens to be at the same location when an accident happens.
• Church property coverage: Because many churches rent space for their meetings but don’t own any buildings themselves (or own very little), it’s important for them to get this type of insurance so that if something does happen on rented property, the landlord can still make repairs without worrying about how he’ll pay for them himself!

Starting a church can be difficult, but we’re here to help make it easier for you!

The first step in starting a church is to get clear on your church’s purpose. You have to know what you want out of the relationship between God and yourself, or between God and others. Once you have that, then it’s time to give yourself some names! If you’re going for something catchy or religious sounding, try using words like “church” or “cathedral” in your name. Those can make people think of faithfulness unto death – which will help them relate to Christ’s sacrifice for them on the cross. Next, choose a denomination that matches up with what kind of faith community you envision; this will help ensure that everyone has similar values and goals when coming together in fellowship with each other!

If becoming an official 501(c)(3) organization isn’t important enough yet (for some reason), then consider getting started with Bylaws instead…or better yet – both!! This way there are fewer chances for mistakes down the road because everything has been written down clearly beforehand instead of guessing at what rules might apply later on down the line when things start getting difficult for reasons we don’t even know about yet!

Conclusion

It’s clear that the state of Florida has a lot to offer for churches. For those interested in starting their own church, we are here to help make that process easier. Because there are many requirements, laws and regulations involved in the process of starting a new church, it may be best to seek out help from an expert who can guide you through all of these steps safely and efficiently.

How to start a church legally

When starting a church, you need more than a statement of belief, a set of church bylaws, and a cool website. You need key growth strategies that will help you advance the Gospel, whether you’ve got five people, 50 people, or 5,000 people. Of course, all those strategies will be based on Biblical principles: love others, worship God, and walk in Truth. 

It takes 5 key things to start a church. Here they are:

• Start a small discussion group
• Turn your small group into a launch team
• Start your church legally
• Consider affiliation with a network or denomination
• Grow by being excellent in love

As you start out, you might be tempted to think….

I shouldn’t start a church.

It will be embarrassing if (when) I fail.

It’s hard work.

Everybody’s already got a church.

There are bigger churches out there.

There are better churches that already exist.

I couldn’t possibly create something meaningful by planting a church.

But …

Has God called you to start a church?

Is your community missing something?

Are there more unbelievers you could reach?

Are there more believers you could encourage in a fresh way?

Has God called you beyond your limitations to build the most important thing in this world—the institution he founded to share Christ with the world?

If he has, then forget about the naysayers.

Ahem, I mean … invite them to come to your church to hear you preach Christ’s saving message.

But you just have to build it first.

You need to know how to start a church.

When is the right time to start your own church?

The truth is, there will always be excuses for not starting a church. The church planting process will be challenging–maybe more challenging than you ever dreamed possible.

At the same time, you’ll want to have a few things established before starting your own church.

These include:

– A set of core beliefs 

– A form of worship that’s sustainable

– Establishment of your legal existence as a nonprofit organization

– A decision on what type of church you’re establishing. Church denominations are important indicators of what people can expect from your Sunday services, leadership team, and more. 

– A decision on the ecclesiastical government and leadership structure of your church. Will your church include pastors, deacons, church elders, and so forth?

– A form of religious instruction for children. How will your church educate children?

– A way to host church online. A tool for hosting church online is essential in the 21st century. 

– A few committed church leaders and a handful of like-minded people who are excited and committed to starting a church with you–your church-building team! Your actual launch team will include people who have the time and resources to help you with some of the “heavy lifting” of church planting 

– Finally, a NAME. Try to avoid a commonly-used name and come up with something creative.

There will always be hurdles to cross when starting your own church. But taking these crucial steps first will help you grow a stronger, healthier church family from the get-go. Joining a church planting network can also give you critical support you need to grow your church. 

Differences between starting a church and starting a ministry

There are key differences between starting a church and starting a ministry. Starting a church requires you to have a more comprehensive strategy that covers all components of a Biblical church. How will you provide service, teaching, and room for growth for all members?

A ministry may have a more specific mission–such as helping the homeless, serving single moms, or reaching a specific set of people with the Gospel (such as athletes, artists, or inner-city kids). That being said, the entire process for starting a ministry may look very different than the process for starting a church. 

In both cases, however, you will need to take steps to attain non-profit status, create a donation process, and decide on leadership structure. 

Handling the church finances

Handling church finances can be a sensitive topic. Poorly managed finances in a church or non-profit can result in a bad reputation–and worse (legal issues, member churn, and dissolution of the church).

Donation platforms such as Tithe.ly can help you manage finances and run your church online more efficiently and transparently. Tithely, for example, also helps with the church planting process by providing tools for marketing, communication, event management, and contact management. 

What’s the difference between church revitalization and church planting?

The church planting process involves starting a brand-new church “from scratch,” typically as part of a church planting network. Church revitalization involves an effort to change processes and protocol–often in more traditional churches–to bring in new members and renew service and ministry. 

Here, I’ve included a comprehensive protocol to take you from concept to community in the church-building journey. I will teach you how to start a church or religious organization as a 501c3 nonprofit legally so that you can start your own church legitimately. Don’t cut corners. Don’t get excited about the exciting parts and neglect the logistical elements. Follow the protocol, and you will have everything in place.

Follow the steps below, and you’ll have started a legitimate church to which you can bring people.

1. Start a small discussion group

Before you can “start” a new church, you must have a community of people who are committed to growth. If you just have a few friends committed to growth, that’s not a church. If you just have a large spiritual meeting of people who are satisfied without growing, that will never become a church.

You must first start a spiritual meeting or prayer meeting of people with a common vision for the Christian life, who want to grow that vision by sharing it with other people. Once you have this meeting in place, you have to do something very important.

Before writing a doctrinal statement, before buying a building, and before organizing a leadership structure, you must hone your message.

• What are we about?
• What’s the story of why we exist in 500 words?
• How can we invite people into that story in 10 words?
• What makes us unique? Is it geography, doctrine, denomination? What is your message and why should people listen?

Answering these questions should be your first conversation about starting a church.

Don’t front-load any of the sexier list items like branding or website building before you’ve answered these basic questions about messaging.

2. Turn your small group into a launch team

It’s important for you to properly conceive of how your small group will serve to start a church.

They are more than just the “first members.”

Your small group is more than a group of “early adopters.”

They’re even more than just future “church staff.”

They are the actual launch team you’ll roll with when starting a new church.

These are people who are invested in starting a church.

This is the difference between a home church and a launch team. You should understand that when starting a church. Your launch team functions as a kind of informal small business in starting your church. Each person has a role and responsibility.

Once you’ve honed your message and built  your small group as a launch team, you can put your launch team to work doing all the details work of starting a church.

Let’s take a look at the work involved.

a. Define the scope, membership, location, and doctrine of your church.

When starting a church, your launch team needs to answer the following questions:

• Who do we want to reach in our community?
• Who do we want to join our church community?
• What area are we serving?
• What are the towns and cities in which we are willing to buy a building?
• What are towns and cities in which we are not willing to buy a building?
• What is our doctrinal statement?
• Do we need to write our own doctrinal statement, or are there historic creeds and confessions that better define what we believe than our small group?
• Is our belief statement or doctrinal statement open to addition, modification, or change? If so, why? And who has the authority to make changes? If not, why not?

b. Assign corporate officers and structure (Congregational? Elder-led?)

There are a variety of ways you can structure your church’s leadership.

Some churches are governed by the church members through direct voting on issues at regular meetings.

Different churches are led by elders who are held accountable to act ethically by other churches.

Some have a board of directors.

And other churches are self-governed by electing officers who serve as elders of the church.

You must determine what your organizational structure is, and ultimately what small body of officers will represent your church as leaders. Don’t skip this last step.Your church board will later serve to fulfill the requirements of a non-profit entity registered with the United States federal government.

c. Name your church

This might be the most difficult stage for a new church to reach a consensus.

You’ve got three options for naming: Location + Doctrine, Tree + Water, or Theology + Point.

• Church of the Redeemer in Chicago
• Hyde Park Presbyterian Church
• Lancaster Baptist Church
• Grace Church in Fishers

OR:

• Oak Stream Lutheran
• Aspen Creek Episcopal

OR:

• CrossPoint
• NorthPoint
• GracePoint

In all seriousness, you can name your new church whatever you want. Don’t follow trends or fads. Just pick something memorable and meaningful with no double entendres as you start your church.

3. Start your church legally

Forming a non-profit entity with the IRS is a way of being tax-exempt and that’s important when starting a church.

This means that:

• None of the capital which accrues to the institution can be inure to any private shareholder or individual
• It may not attempt to influence legislation as a substantial part of its activities
• It may not participate in campaign activity for or against political candidates
• Contributions are tax-deductible for donors

This is the most important step in how to start a church legally.

As far as the government is concerned, it’s the only action you need to take to opening your church. However, it is wise to break this action down into several sub-points to start your church legally.  

a. Consult a lawyer

Don’t try to start a church without legal counsel.

Many lawyers who specialize in a simple non-profit and tax exempt status will charge you around $1,500-$2,500 (averaging $500 an hour) to double-check your non-profit documents.

b. Organize according to tax-exemption rules

The IRS provides online training for those submitting an application to become tax-exempt. You definitely want to take this training on tax exempt status.

Again, this is the IRS’s official page explaining what you must do in order to properly become and remain a legitimate non-profit entity, which is referred to by the IRS as a 501(c)(3).

To become a non-profit, and thereby become eligible for receiving tax-deductible donations, including online giving and mobile giving, you must apply for 501(c)(3) status with the IRS.

c. Ensure your 501(c)(3) status

Once you have completed the 501(c)(3) application, you can request confirmation of its approval by filling out the IRS’s 1023 form. A must for tax exempt status.

d. Fill out SS4 form to get Employer Identification Number (EIN)

Once the IRS grants you 501(c)(3) status, your church will be an official tax-exempt entity.

Then, you will be eligible to apply for an Employer Identification Number (EIN) with the IRS’s SS4 form.

e. Open a bank account with your EIN

Once you have your EIN, you can do two things.

First, you can use that EIN to open a bank account which belongs to the church.

Second, you can hire and pay employees out of that bank account.

Oh, and you can also start a free account with Tithe.ly once you have your EIN.

4. Consider affiliation with a network or denomination

After you’ve completed your due diligence with the IRS, you can consider joining a church planting network or denomination when starting a church.

There may be other parachurch organizations (or church denominations) who have a very similar vision and mission as your church.

The benefit of joining a network or denomination is that you often receive infrastructural support in providing spiritual, health, and economic benefits to clergy. Likewise, joining a network or conference can increase your access to networking and growth resources.

The potential liability of joining a network or denomination is that you will be obligated to the theology and internal workings of that group. In other words, the benefit of being an autonomous church is that you have the ability to make decisions on your own.

Whether you choose to join a network or denomination, or choose to remain an autonomous church, it comes down to your own theology. But recognize that there are pros and cons to both.

5. Grow by being excellent in love

Starting a church might be the easy part. Once you exist, you should continue the work of the launch team and seek to grow the church into weekly services. Here’s how you grow your church into weekly services.

a. Be organized.

Write down a service structure on which the launch team can agree:

• Does the service start with worship?
• When is the sermon?
• How long is the sermon?
• Will we give communion weekly, monthly, or quarterly?
• How will we decide what the sermon series is?
• How will we communicate with the church corporately?

b. Get Tithe.ly’s ChMS

Before you can answer any of these questions, you need to get Tithe.ly’s ChMS church management software.

This software will help you to smoothly manage your church, empower your volunteers, and enable digital giving, and as a pastor, you will be able to manage visitor/member check-ins, organize events, and see tithing trends.

If you don’t use Tithe.ly’s ChMS, you could be left spending hundreds of dollars a month on unique, “one trick pony” services that only provide email lists, only provide web hosting, only provide sermon archives, and only manage group contact data. Tithe.ly does this all for you.

If your church plant is raising money, the first thing you should do as a responsible 501(c)(3) is consolidate all your giving to the Tiithe.ly app so that there isn’t one cent given to the church that doesn’t go directly into the church’s bank account.

c. Be friendly.  

Hold outreach events, cook-out events, and small group meetings.

When you host these events, have people register through the Tithe.ly ChMS App and check in at the mobile kiosk you can also set up with your Tithe.ly app.

Use these events to grow your church by inviting people in your community to attend the church and offering some kind of give-away — an iPad, tickets to the movies, etc.

The psychological payoff of giveaways is that they help people overcome their subtle bias against trying new things.

But the important takeaway here is: put on weekly events as a church that aren’t the service.

d. Be collaborative.

Collaborate with other local churches. Don’t compete.

If you have honed your message (Step 1), then you already know how you’re different.

You don’t need to worry about stealing people from other churches.

Work with other churches, support them, and ask if you can help out in their community service projects. It’s a great way to network your church into the culture of the town you’re in.

If you’re too competitive at the start, other churches will be hesitant to work with you in the future, and you’ll get a bad reputation. This is the exact opposite of what you want.

Over to you

My final piece of advice is a generic piece of marketing wisdom:

Interesting people are interested in people.

If you want to grow as a church, visitors must get the sense that you care about them.

If people get the sense that all you care about are numbers, getting bigger, or your theology, they will sense it and move on to another church.

Seek to add value to people’s’ lives, and the community’s word-of-mouth will work for you.

There is no better plan for long-term sustainability than excellently adding value to a community.

Be a light for Jesus Christ in your town as well as you possibly can. Shine his light in dark places. People are attracted to churches that are attracted to them.

Be attracted to the lowest of the low.

And remember:

• Hone your message
• Turn your small group into a launch team
• Form a non-profit entity
• Manage your church with Tithe.ly’s ChMS (important!)
• Consider affiliation with a network or denomination
• Grow by being excellent in love

Following these steps will help you ensure that you have a healthy church and thriving leadership team.