- Don’t start a public service until you have at least 30 of your own people and, ideally, 15 more that have given you an 18–24-month commitment from a stable, parent church. Although this was not part of the counsel we received on the front end, it has become convictional. I first heard it from a seasoned planter who was part of a well-resourced network of churches in the southeast that had planted several healthy churches. His words of wisdom and their model were further highlighted by our final eight-month struggle trying to sustain public services with anywhere from 3- 15. Our thinking had been “build it and they will come” or “we need this pressure on to get us to the next phase.” Neither of these thoughts turned out to be true or helpful, and—candidly—in retrospect, they were naïve. If I had to do it again, I would start with one small group and when this group grew to 15-20 people, I (or another leader) would start another. Only after that second group got to 15 would I develop a plan with a parent church to launch public services in a larger space.
- Celebrate your efforts, and make sure your partners are part of that celebration. This is one thing I did as much as possible. Writing a weekly blog helped as it provided a disciplined structure to share testimonies, an important discipleship focus (key research, a book review, etc.), or even a summary of a particular week’s message with discussion questions. The weekly blog structure also made it easy to send out bi-monthly ministry updates with prayer requests.
- There will always be Monday morning quarterbacks. People will always have their opinions, and many who voice them know little about your group’s story or what church planting is actually like. Moreover, no one will ever know this side of heaven what sacrifices your spouse, other members of your core group, some of your investors, or you made. My counsel is to listen humbly to your critics (there is always something to learn!) and answer genuine questions. Spend little time, however, defending or justifying yourself. Instead, take comfort in the God who sees: “For God is not unjust. He will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him by caring for other believers, as you still do.”[1] Always remember, just because you struggled, had to piece things together, or didn’t have the money or numbers our culture tends to lionize, this doesn’t mean your efforts were “less than.”
- I would never want to do this apart from a healthy denomination. My overall experience as a planter in the EPC has reminded me often that we were all in this together, struggling to address our culture’s rapid, stealth secularization—a challenge that involves uncharted territory and adaptive leadership. Each year, the resources that were provided—both nationally and at the presbytery level—reflected a humility that said: “’I don’t know what to do,’ and then goes about the hard work of leading the learning that will result in a new faithful action… leadership learned in the doing and by reflecting on the doing.”[2] Moreover, in the end, when Pam and I decided to discontinue (a decision that denominational leaders spoke into and supported), there was no judgment, only affirmation and tangible support for extremely helpful transitional coaching and counseling.
- We can’t control but we can contribute, and maybe participate is the best word to describe our role with God. We began this series talking about origins and the cards each one of us is dealt. Although we can and should make choices to seize the day, trying to maximize what God has given us, God is clear that we can’t control the times (Eccl. 3:1-11). We can contribute, however, knowing God’s ultimate purposes will prevail regardless of what you or I do or don’t do—including whether we plant or uproot, build or dismantle. Fleming Rutledge says it well:
- “In Christian proclamation, there can be no suggestion that the outcome hangs in the balance, dependent upon how human beings behave. Rather, the way human beings behave is determined by the mysterious grace of God that justifies the ungodly (Rom. 4:5)… If there is one foundational truth that I have learned… it is this… God doesn’t need us to help him make his ‘dream’ come true; God is on the march far ahead of us, bringing his purposes to pass… The right word for the connection between the purpose of God and human activity is ‘participation.’ We are participants in what God is already doing, but this is by grace alone; we should always beware of sermons that sound as if God is standing back waiting for us before anything can be accomplished.”[3]
[1] Heb. 6:11, NLT. See also the story of Hagar and Ismael in Gen. 16.
[2] Tod Bolsinger, Canoeing the Mountains (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2015), 21 of study guide from 2018.
[3] Fleming Rutledge, Advent: The Once & Future Coming of Jesus Christ (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2018), 18, 26-27.