A few things I wish every POTENTIAL Church Planter knew - Part 1.

If I had the opportunity to sit down with every potential church planter there are a few things I would say to encourage them, to alert them and to challenge them. First of all I say POTENTIAL church planter because I think many times in my interactions I come in to contact with guys that are SOLID ministers of the gospel - fueled by a passion to reach the lost and affect great change in their city - who are CALLED to do so but are not necessarily called to do it via church planting.

OK - so if some potential church planters or even some current planters are reading this I know I already have your attention and probably have you a little ticked off right now! So what do I want you to know

1- Why are you doing this? Ask yourself this question ALL OF THE TIME. Ask before you even finalize the decision to plant. Ask before you have a core team meeting. Ask before you try to cast any vision. Ask before you launch your first service to the public. And then ask it over and over until you die!! Because your true reason for doing this will at some point be revealed. The pressure will mount, a new opportunity will present itself to move on and you NEED TO KNOW why you are doing this because that and that alone will dictate whether you stick it out or run when it gets to hard. Seriously read - James 4:3 - A lot of church plants fail for just a few reasons and it all comes down to MOTIVE. What are some of the WRONG motives -

• "Rolling Stone Magazine" Planter - WHAT?! There are too many young guys in my generation that think starting a church is a cool way to attain notoriety. "It's hip and happenin' all the cool kids are doing it so... why not me?" They will swear it's all about reaching the lost and changing a city but in the end they just want someone to notice them. There is NOTHING hip or happenin' or cool about church planting. It's REALLY freakin' hard. Some days you are going to want to jump off a building and some days you are going to want to push someone off. And truth be told most of the attention you are going to get is going to be from people who don't want you around!

• "I Can Do It Better" Planter OR the "Pissed at my own Pastor" Planter- I run in to these more than any other. They are frustrated with how things have been done in the church they currently serve so there idea of a solution is "Start my own church and do it right". So here is the problem with that one. First of all you have an HONOR issue. And if your justification for starting a church is how WRONG your pastor gets it then you are already heading down a slippery slope! I know, In know you have all the answers but the truth is once you plant your church it won't take six months before someone else starts thinking of YOU the way you once thought of your Pastor. Tough luck - but what comes around goes around. Jesus even said that in Luke 6:37-38.

• "NO ONE IS GETTING IT RIGHT!" This one differs slightly from the previous because a planter doesn't just plant because he feels his current church is failing but because ALL CHURCHES are failing. The danger here is that as a planter and as a church you can develop a Messiah complex that you are God's answer and His only answer to the problems of the city. That is narcissistic, arrogant and annoying and while a few people might come for the show it will NOT draw anyone to Christ! In reality - there is no such thing as any ONE church that gets it ALL right but in every city there are multiple churches getting A LOT right - More in regards to this tomorrow.

Since this is getting longer than the original SINGLE post I had planned, I'll come back with a few more thoughts tomorrow...

~PN