If You Could Tell A Church Planter One Thing…
I’m speaking at a The Velocity Church Planters conference this week.
Speaking on creativity and the like.
Lot’s of people about to and involved in the grind of starting a new work.
If you could tell someone who is starting a brand new community of His church somewhere ONE THING…
What would you tell them?
Los
RAIN IT DOWN
Do not sacrifice the vision that God gives you, for the opinions that people give you.
Don’t EVER sacrifice your family on the altar of the church plant. No matter how big and great your vision is.
Get an amazing Children’s Minister (staff OR volunteer) as quickly as you can because people want to know their children will be cared for and ministered to, or they may not stay.
Not “as soon as you can”, but before you even start. Have a team in place ready to “minister” not just care for. Parents will not be comfortable/relaxed, if they are worrying about their kids!
“Anyone who is available all of the time, isn’t available any of the time” Remember God is building HIS church…take a sabbath
KEEP IT SIMPLE!!! Don’t try to do too many things all at once. Great, application centered teaching, Great Music and Great Kid and youth options. And remember it’s your job to build into peoples lives, it’s God’s job to build the church.
It is not about the team around you. It is not about the technology. It is not about the website. It is about the vision God gave you. Don’t copy, create through vision God gave you!
As you strive for creativity and relevance, do not forget the 2000 years of Church history that has gone before you. True creativity produces new structures while incorporating the old.
Listen closely to people who have actually planted a successful church!
“You think it’s all about the show, but it really isn’t. People forget the show by the time their head hits the pillow. It’s about the Word & relationships. Put your focus there.”
It is a marathon. BUT, you have to be OK with it being a marathon. Resist the temptation to compare yourself with other ministries. God uses every ministry in different ways and calls them to different stories. Find your own story. Don’t ride the coat tails of another ministry’s. Don’t assume what works for another will work for you. Maybe it will…. maybe it won’t.
(can you tell i’m in the middle of Don Miller’s book? ha)
Fight for the Sabbath. Either do it from morning till night or sundown to sundown. Get 24 hours in of no work.
When you think Sabbath is an option, then you are going to treat it as such and you are not going to get the rest-y goodness that God wants you to experience.
Pack your work into the other six days. Lead your house well and declare that this seventh day is a day of rest, fun, relaxing, joy, eating (cooking the day before), swimming, video games, reading and nerf gun wars all to the worship of our great and sweet wonderful King.
Remember that other pastors are human beings and can have biases against certain people. Use your best judgment with people but don’t dismiss someone you don’t really know simply because someone else doesn’t like them.
- from Ed Young Sr. @ C3. “Its better to have no one leading a program than to have someone who isn’t above average in their abilities”. In other words, don’t use a volunteer for something they’re not good at! That ministry will suffer and hurt your overall effectiveness.
I couldn’t agree more!
Also, don’t use a volunteer just because you need * someone * in that spot. An unfaithful man, in a mission-critical position is also like building a house upon the sand.
Money won’t build your church, obedience will.
Listen to others. If you are going to make a decision about how to do something big, like baptisms or worship music, take a vote. If you’re the preacher, but you’re the only one who doesn’t like something, you might have to suck it up and do it the way everyone else wants it done. Andy Stanley had to do that with some things at NPCC. But in the end, he found that listening to others paid off. I can’t tell you how much I respected him when I heard about that before I joined the church.
There’s wisdom in giving up personal control in some things to show others you care about and respect their feelings on a matter.
Make sure you have a vision and are broken for the area. Dont take others’ visions rather seek God’s vision for you as a leader
Stop, pray, listen….if you are still sure about this, pray some more.
Don’t be manufactured. Be organic. Be real. Let the Holy Spirit lead.
And, if you’re not above shout outs… “Dan… you’re brother PJ is proud of you and who GOD is making you.” (He’s on board with a plant and will be there.)
the church is a spiritual thing…vision, facilities, strategies, websites, etc. will not compensate for the lack of God.
One thing, really? I’ll try.
How about this… Don’t do it alone… A prayer team is crucial. When we stopped updating and encouraging our prayer team, the plant went downhill fast. Prayer support is crucial!
Listen to Chad – “Stop, pray, listen….if you are still sure about this, pray some more.”
raise a $#!t load of money. shoulder tap every rich guy you know, every church in the area. get your planting org. to support you for more than just 2 years. you need more than that. 5 years is better. don’t be bashful about it. this is important, kingdom work, and it’s worth investing in. use the money aggressively. get help, advice, mentored, networked and spend it if necessary to do those things.
story: i was a part of a church that didn’t do this stuff. it ended up being poor, stuck, struggling, and isolated as quickly as 2 yrs from planting date. not an ideal Christian community at all! God’s church deserves better!!!
Give it all to God no matter what. Church planting is a big walk of Faith.
Ask for specific help. People want to help they just need some direction of where you need them. Always love and do special things for volunteers!
Starting a new church is like riding a wild tiger. It’s fun as long as you don’t fall off and get chewed up.
Seek out Ben Arment and pick his brain until he either punches you for bugging him or you no longer can take any more information in.
Do the counter-church cultural thing and build a discipling culture and not a consumer culture.
[For a "how-to" introduction read Building A Discipling Culture by Mike Breen and Steve Cockram available at http://www.3dministries.com Their insights and coaching process are the bomb!]
dont ever forget the people your building. Yes frustrations of limitations grow big with new ideas,But building the people are …
Start one where there aint one.
Be You.
Forget what is popular. Stick to the basics. Love people. Stay centered on the bible. Forgive. Pray. Speak truth in the most graceful way possible. I know that is what would draw me in.
Check your intentions. If you want it to be YOUR church, then it won’t be God’s. His ways are not yours.
tru
You don’t need money to do ministry. You need love. Get out in the community and serve people out of love not as a marketing scheme.
Don’t give up…
Sorry to be so churchy, but:
1. Love the Lord with all your heart – It’s not about you, it’s about Him.
2. Love others like you love yourself – You’ve got to love people, more than you love what you can get out of them.
AGREED!
lots of good advice on here though. As complicated as we like to make things the bottom line is if you do it in love it will not fail. 1 Cor 13:8 “Love never fails”
Unless God calls her to it, don’t ask your wife to hold a key position on staff.
Don’t confuse your voice for God’s
read the bible & follow Jesus.
amen. sometimes we neglect the foundation and everything in our life can collapse.
submit to some kind of authority in your life? who has authorized you to plant this church? Jesus taught with perfect authority because he lived in perfect submission. Who is authorizing you to plant a church?
Don’t be a goober… ask for help, lots of it. Learn from as many people as you can, get a mentor, be accountable to people… include other people in the process. It helps.
I’m going along with Kyle, but I’m suggesting you buy Ben Arment’s new book as it will have some unique thoughts on church planting:
http://www.amazon.com/Church-Making-Breaks-Before-Starts/dp/0805464735/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266870250&sr=8-1
and: Don’t do a regular church in a regular old building. That’s not working, IMHO. Don’t measure how successful you are by church attendance – measure it by life change, increased obedience to God, increased love for your neighbors by the people in the Church. Meet in a coffee shop & sell coffee during the week to subsidize the church. Engage your community by doing stuff in your meeting space. Don’t waste money on a cool stage & lots of staff – use money to love & serve your neighbors.
God loves you like crazy. If you’re obeying Him and attentive to his voice, you are successful. Rejoice even if the whole thing tanks, because you followed your Daddy the best way you knew how. No one could ever ask for more.
Preach Jesus. Not relevance.
Preach Jesus. Not application.
Preach Jesus. Not prosperity.
Preach Jesus. Not name and claim.
Preach Jesus. Not business practice.
Preach Jesus. Preach Jesus. Preach Jesus.
NEVER create a program for the sake of having something new. Only create a program if it answers a question – directly. If it doesn’t directly answer a question, kill it before you like it too much. Thanks to Andy Stanley for that piece of info. Hugely helpful to our 5 month-old church!
He’s never gonna give you up
Never gonna let you down
Never gonna run around and desert you
Arrgh! We’ve been RickRolled!!!
Make the vision clear but keep the structure fluid. Don’t over-commit to a way of doing things that is difficult to undo. Your perspective after 12 months will undoubtedly be different and much more informed than when you launch (no matter how good your leadership skills). Don’t build systems that end up dragging your vision down the road behind them.
Hike the ball and see how the defense opens up. You don’t have to have everything figured out on day one.
Follow Jesus…and if you notice that he is not amongst your kindred and acquaintances, plans, activities and programs, don’t assume or conclude that he is lost, or unable to keep up with your modern, enlightened self. STOP, turn around and find him before you take another step. The Bible is your constitution–and bylaws. FOLLOW JESUS.
Seek a true community that has a crapy harmony instead of a false community with perfect harmony
Spend 5 years trying to revitalize a church first. Church planting is the easy way out. Church revitalization separates the men from the boys.
You have the monopoly on useful inoframiton-aren’t monopolies illegal?
g1brLI xkgepmicxmsd
ngZshP eaweibzjeavn
DOOOOOOOON’T DOOOOOOO IIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!!!
Just kidding! Sorta…
Really… don’t do it if you’re doing it to be the next star or if ANY of it has to do with you… because it’s HARD GRUELING work that may or may not show any results.
With that… back to praying and planning for the church we’ve been planting here.
Spoken like a true church planter. xoxo
Remember that it is really hard work. Yes it’s exciting and scary and amazing and wonderful. Yes, if you seek Him and follow His will it will be successful. But it is HARD WORK. Expect it. Be prepared for it.
Don’t plant your church, or do anything for that matter, until you have the help you need to do it well without you having to be involved in every little detail. Lack of support, and poor planning, is what kills church planters.
The first thing a church planter needs is a Minister of Getting Crap Done (good advice I heard from Steven Furtick). I am part of a team that just planted a church in Southlake TX and without our team the church plant would not be where it is today.
Also an experienced church planting coach is a good thing to start out with. Get someone who will encourage you to dream big but also provide a guide viewpoint of reality and contextualization.
Church is not a building but a community of believers interacting, serving and growing. Don’t let the walls hem anyone in or keep anyone out. Jesus walked among the people. If the church body functioned by walking among the people, what a difference it would make in our society.
DO NOT DO IT…unless you are certain it’s God’s calling for your life. It’s a tough journey that is hard on all those involved. If there is an ounce of the church plant that is ‘you-driven’ it will only make that journey that much harder and painful for everyone.
I’d probably caution that there’s a fine line between using your new congregation (as sweet as they’ll be) as helpers sent from above, and using them as slaves in the name of “difficult, but rewarding ministry.”
Sometimes, right or wrong, attendees of a church plant don’t know when to say “no.” That may be their fault, but as a leader, you should also be prepared not to ask them every time.
Just my two cents…
Don’t plant in Georgia! Other places are DYING and need fresh life in the churches. Plenty of places in NC need it!
Listen. Listen to God, listen to your wife, listen to your kids, listen to your community, listen to those in authority…then repeat.
it’s not so much about hair gel and cool black frame glasses but about loving people.
As a hopeful church planter…..THANKS!!
you better be called!
Amen to that more than anything else on here!
have fun. every moment you have is a gift from God.
Lots of people have advice… all I can say is… it is really messy… and it exposes who you really are real fast…spiritual warfare at a super high intensity and there is really no rest for the weary… there is never enough volunteers.
Over all it is the worst experience you will ever enjoy!
Perfectly spoken.
ok…Amen to this too! I commented earlier before reading all the way down. Sorry. Great stuff here.
No matter what experiences you’ve had or what you think you know, be prepared to lay many down to roll with your new environment. Besides prayer, be willing to dive deep into your creativity and your ability to think… for the mission and methods. In humility (and for a season) be eager to listen carefully to the natives of your new land… they get the people of their city!
“Go to the hungry ones
And fill them with His bread.
They’ll leave the darkness
As you shine the light He shed.
Point to His promises
Believe in all He said.
And His joy will be manifest in You.
And the lost will be found by the things you do.”
Kieth Green
build mentoring into whatever you do – from the ground up.
got someone giving the message? have them mentor someone that wants to teach – start small, but do it NOW. leading worship? raise up a new worship leader. running sound, getting coffee ready, setting up chairs? bring ‘em in to learn… then shock them by laying hands and praying for them.
so much more biblical (and logical) than the norm.
I assume the “one thing” part of the title means “one thing at a time.”
Let’s just say I could write a book…
– You’ll rarely end up with the people you start with. I’ve seen our ‘church body’ change over about three times now (in two years). Only just a few of the original people are still around. People at the beginning may all have the same vision, but as time goes on, the way it’s played out doesn’t look like they thought it might. So they leave.
– Avoid the Sunday Show for as long as possible. Avoid. For as long as possible. For as long as possible. Avoid it. As soon as the church plant has a weekly service, 95% of the energy of the staff goes to that. At the beginning (always!), the church people/leaders need to focus on growing the church (organically). The Sunday Show seems to attract consumers, and consumers aren’t so helpful at growing a church. They come. And go. Emphasis on the “go.” The old phrase “what you win them with, you win them to” is very true. (Read “The Tangible Kingdom.”
– Focus on training your people to grow the kingdom. New converts, ya know? Does anyone do that anymore?
– The benefit of avoiding the Sunday show is that all the money that goes towards rent and sound equipment (which is a lot, as you no doubt know) can be spent on ministry. Imagine taking that cash and investing it in the community. Hello, community–we’d like you to see what Jesus looks like, and this month he looks like _______ (insert need that was met). (“When Helping Hurts” is a good book to read to make sure you aren’t just dumping money, either.)
– Speaking of money, I dream of a church where more than 50% of the outgo goes towards local and global needs. But this is the kind of thing that has to be decided up front before a bunch of monthly expenses pile up.
How’s that for one thing? *SMILE*
Leadership is a stewardship (Andy Stanley)…You are responsible for leading those under you and their families. be a good steward. If you lack integrity what is your ministry really worth? or If you have not love…