My First 5 Lessons Church Planting
My First 5 Lessons Church Planting
So, I have spent many years of my life preparing for the day that I would plant or pastor a church. To name just a few things I have done, I took classes through a bible college, worked for many Christian ministry jobs like a Christian camps, Christian schools, and was on staff at a church for about 3 1/2 years. I’ve read numerous books and even tried to be very intentional about learning all I can about leadership and pastoring from an incredible mentor. (Check out his blog (https://www.stevehuffman.org/) Since stepping out, I have been flooded with lessons about leadership that I have learned at this point in my journey.
An Idea is Better Than No Idea: I tend to be a processor and try to have things be the best they can be. So, it is easy for me to overthink things, trying to be improve them and seeing flaws or imperfections in them. During this process as I was moving ideas forward, either in creating mission statements, vision, a logo or a sermon series there were times when I had to go with the idea I had instead of the perfect idea I was looking for. Of course, in some cases we improved those things along the way, but I was amazed at how often my first instinct either worked or was at least a reasonably good idea. Sometimes you just have to take the idea you have and run with it. Give it permission to change overtime and the freedom to find out if it is a good idea.
Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for Favors: While I have a tendency to try and be self-sufficient, church planting is not something I can do without a team of people. I can’t do everything and don’t have the ability. I have some incredible team members who, week after week, make sure that we are putting on gatherings that our welcoming to newcomers. I have also had people outside of my team contribute to the plant. It is so amazing to me how many people want to offer their gifts and resources, something I am very grateful for. Just know this: the more you have your act together and the clearer your vision, the more you are going to be able to recruit help from others to push your vision forward.
Preaching Every Week is a Challenge: This one came as a surprise to me. I enjoy the topic of communication. I have probably put the most amount of effort into growing as a communicator. I have read multiple books, taken multiple classes, and spoken in multiple venues. I have tried to put effort into preparing as a communicator. I don’t think I have ever turned an opportunity to speak or teach down, even though for many seasons of my adult life I had some type of communication to prepare weekly, I am convinced at this point: there is a unique challenge to preparing captivating messages on a weekly basis. This is why I think many churches who can are moving towards having a teaching team. Now, go and give your pastor a hug for preaching weekly!
God Will Provide: I must confess, there were times when this was just an idea, where this was hard for me and also hard to sell. The first 5 people that I asked to be on my team all turned me down and that was deflating. Not to mention we needed, you know, things like money, space, musicians, and on and on I could go. I have put significant worry into each step of this journey along the way. It has been amazing to me, the people who have joined this team and the contributions I have received whether in favors or finances. While as a smaller plant right now I would love to have more team members or a fancy soundboard, knowing where I was versus where I am at now, I know God will provide!
The Value in Partnership: Since my journey in church planting began, I knew that I wanted to be sent and that I wanted to belong to an association of churches or denomination. It did not take me long to figure out that Vineyard USA (https://vineyardusa.org/) was the tribe that I was uniquely wired to be a part of. My observations seemed to be that the resources and support that one gets from being part of a larger body of churches is good for that church. For me, one of the main benefits of working with Vineyard USA is the other ministers that it connects me to. This has allowed me to call on them at times to ask what has worked or didn’t work when they were planting. There was also a part of me that did not want to start a church out of some kind of unhappiness or discontentment towards the church I was leaving. So, I worked to be sent from The Vineyard church in Mishawaka (https://www.thevineyard.org/). While I knew these partnerships would be valuable, I did not really know how valuable they would turn out to be. I was able to put a launch team together fairly quickly. This happened because I had been in the church serving. So many knew me and the approach that I would take to the ministry, so it was easier for my launch team to see where we are going and what we are trying to do. Since my team came from my sending church, many of them already give and serve and that helps push ministry forward. Not to mention, there are those from my sending church that have volunteered hours helping me establish the church plant even though they did not join the team. I think I am a year or more ahead of schedule compared to what would have been if I did not have these partnerships.
I still have a lot to learn, but this church planting journey is an exciting one. If you are reading this, especially if you are planting or plan on planting a church, I’ll pray that your journey is a fruitful and blessed one!