Planting Churches - Part 1

Planting a church is hard. There, I said it. There is so much to do, so many people to love on, and visions to share. It can become so consuming. It can consume you. Not to mention the disappointments along the way. People will let you down. They will make empty promises. They will bail on you. They will be human. Someone asked me the other day for some advice on planting a church and three things came to mind immediately:

1. Don't do it if God hasn't called you to it! If God has not welled up within you a passion, a desire and a calling to plant a church do NOT go down that road. Birthing a church is painful. It's labor intensive. It drains your spirit. If God isn't in it you will crash and burn.

2. Protect Your Marriage. The last thing that the evil one desires is for a missional church to be birthed. It's the most dangerous kind church. It's alive. It's living on mission. It's becoming a refuge for the lost. So the evil one will do whatever it takes to destroy God's leader so that the birthing never happens or dies soon after birth. We all know that the evil one hits below the belt and there is nothing more devastating to a baby church than a marriage that is crippled. Guard your marriage. Make it a mighty fortress.

3. It's not for the faint at heart. Birthing a church is not for the squeamish. It's like walking among hungry lions at feeding time. It's the most treacherous roller coaster known to man. It take "kahunas" to give birth to a church. Make sure that you've got what it takes to survive the ride.

That's my top three. My good friend Hal warned me of each of these. I thought he was crazy. two years later I can say with absolutely no hesitation he was definitely right! Thanks for the warning bro!

Jesus told his followers to consider the cost to roll with Him. If your contemplating giving birth to a new church - no matter what it looks like - you might want to consider the cost now rather than later.