Adventures in church planting
If I had a few things I could tell a person who was wanting to plant a church, this is what I'd say as of right now:
1. Make sure you know without a shadow of a doubt that you are called to this thing. Because there are seriously days when you will think to yourself that you made the wrong move. You will feel like quiting because things aren't going the way that you planned. The only thing that will keep you going is the fact that you are called. If you aren't called, you'll more than likely quit when stuff starts to suck.
2. Don't start solo. I can never imagine doing this. Our launch team was phenomenal. We only had 4 couples but every person on the team has a vital part in what we do. Will everyone that was on the launch team stick around? I hope so but I have no idea. All I know is that they are awesome people that have given a lot of themselves to get this church off the ground. It now gets a little messy now that we are going to be meeting every week. Not everyone on the launch team is a part of the leadership team so they won't be a part of the weekly meetings any more. However, they continue to play a huge part in what we do. The biggest thing is having people on the team that are first bought in the vision completely and then also have a certain level of competence in some area of the church.
3. Don't let money be the determining factor with you starting. I know some people that say you shouldn't start until you have $100,000 raised. Ya, that would be nice but I'm not sure how realistic it is. I wouldn't argue with anyone if they gave me that money but so far we haven't had that happen and we are starting a church. We have support from our Sending Church and that has been a huge blessing for me personally and for the church as it has allowed us to use other money that we bring in to use for church expenses. It hasn't been an easy ride either. I've racked up a fair share of credit card debt that I'm sitting on and paying the interest on until we bring in enough money to pay it off...but I'm okay with that. Some people will totally disagree with this and that's okay. All I know is that I have this insatiable drive to plant this church NOW. Originally we were supposed to plant in Jan. '08. Well things changed and now we're planting a year earlier. I'm prepared to do whatever I need to in order to be obedient to what I believe is God telling me to plant this church now. With that comes the responsibility of financially going all in. If you aren't willing to do that, you shouldn't plant.
There is so much more I could say but this is what is popping into my mind right now. I absolutely love this ride. I could never imagine doing anything else. It's the freakiest thing I've ever done and yet the most exhilarating. We went to a very traditional church yesterday and there was nothing in me that wished it could still be in it. It was just the opposite. I was reminded of how much I actually love this. The fact that we are creating our own highway through the forest. The options are limitless. There is no-one creating our ethos for us or demanding we do things a certain way to make them happy. We can choose a direction and just go for it with everything that we've got. Is it easy? No way. But easy is boring. Bring it on.
1. Make sure you know without a shadow of a doubt that you are called to this thing. Because there are seriously days when you will think to yourself that you made the wrong move. You will feel like quiting because things aren't going the way that you planned. The only thing that will keep you going is the fact that you are called. If you aren't called, you'll more than likely quit when stuff starts to suck.
2. Don't start solo. I can never imagine doing this. Our launch team was phenomenal. We only had 4 couples but every person on the team has a vital part in what we do. Will everyone that was on the launch team stick around? I hope so but I have no idea. All I know is that they are awesome people that have given a lot of themselves to get this church off the ground. It now gets a little messy now that we are going to be meeting every week. Not everyone on the launch team is a part of the leadership team so they won't be a part of the weekly meetings any more. However, they continue to play a huge part in what we do. The biggest thing is having people on the team that are first bought in the vision completely and then also have a certain level of competence in some area of the church.
3. Don't let money be the determining factor with you starting. I know some people that say you shouldn't start until you have $100,000 raised. Ya, that would be nice but I'm not sure how realistic it is. I wouldn't argue with anyone if they gave me that money but so far we haven't had that happen and we are starting a church. We have support from our Sending Church and that has been a huge blessing for me personally and for the church as it has allowed us to use other money that we bring in to use for church expenses. It hasn't been an easy ride either. I've racked up a fair share of credit card debt that I'm sitting on and paying the interest on until we bring in enough money to pay it off...but I'm okay with that. Some people will totally disagree with this and that's okay. All I know is that I have this insatiable drive to plant this church NOW. Originally we were supposed to plant in Jan. '08. Well things changed and now we're planting a year earlier. I'm prepared to do whatever I need to in order to be obedient to what I believe is God telling me to plant this church now. With that comes the responsibility of financially going all in. If you aren't willing to do that, you shouldn't plant.
There is so much more I could say but this is what is popping into my mind right now. I absolutely love this ride. I could never imagine doing anything else. It's the freakiest thing I've ever done and yet the most exhilarating. We went to a very traditional church yesterday and there was nothing in me that wished it could still be in it. It was just the opposite. I was reminded of how much I actually love this. The fact that we are creating our own highway through the forest. The options are limitless. There is no-one creating our ethos for us or demanding we do things a certain way to make them happy. We can choose a direction and just go for it with everything that we've got. Is it easy? No way. But easy is boring. Bring it on.
