10 Observations on Church Planting
Posted on 19. Oct, 2009 by joshuacarroll7 in Insight
This list of honest observations of the “ups and downs” of church planting was originally posted by Dan Taylor (Edmonton, Alberta – Canada). I couldn’t help but smile when I read a the bullets as I thought about how my wife, team and I have lived out all of these at some point. Even though it’s a tough road, keep moving forward – the end will be worth it. Keep on fighting the fight.
Here’s the list…
1. It’s harder than you think – but not in that ways you expect. I expected it to be a lot of work and I expected there to be discouraging times and I expected there would be times I would want to quit, but I didn’t expect that I would spend most of my time doing stuff that I don’t love and doesn’t excite me.
2. It’s more fun than you think it’s going to be. Strap on your helmet, but it is fun. You’re building something from scratch and fighting and winning and failing.
3. There are people who don’t want you to succeed. Identify these people and ignore them.
4. There are people who desperately want to you to succeed. Identify these people and seek them out.
5. It is not easy to figure out who are #3 people and who are #4 people.
6. Weather will beat you up. There’s not much you can do but be ready for it.
7. You will schedule something no one will show up for. (I laughed as I thought of our first “outreach” where it was just 4 of us leaders. A woman baked until the wee hours of morn with enough food for an army, we rented our apartment complex theater, set up the sound and……NOT ONE PERSON CAME!)
8. This is not the church you built in your head. Trying to be the church in your head will kill your joy for the church you have, so kill the church in your head.
9. Don’t take anything personally. People will come to your church and go, and friends will choose to be a part or not … If your confidence and self image depend on the “success” of your church, you are going to be messed up as a pastor and will be a terrible person to live with.
10. Settle the failure question before you start.
EX10
