Planting Pitfalls: How we support church planters
Kerstin Bowsher, Union’s Network Developer, encourages us to think well about how we prepare and support those going into church planting to avoid some of the most common pitfalls that can cause new plants to struggle.
If you regularly read blogs like this one, you will recognise the drive to share good news and success stories.
The proliferation of good causes competing for donors’ attention also drives us to demonstrate impact … In this post, I’m inviting us to mull over together the effect this has on men and women involved in church planting. Does it end up with a culture that is less than Christ-shaped?
Dan Steel serves as the senior pastor of Magdalen Road Church in Oxford, England and has first-hand experience of church planting as well as being part of the Acts 29 network. He has been doing some illuminating research into some of the factors that can cause ‘failure to thrive’ in church plants. His conclusions are based on input from 80 diverse church plants from 26 different countries that all see themselves as struggling. Dan’s insights put some challenging and productive conversation starters on the table.
“Remember, we have an enemy devoted to the destruction of our churches. Let us beware of these pitfalls from within the church that, left unchecked, can have a disastrous impact on a new church plant.” Dan Steel
Here are the 6 headline pitfalls that Dan’s study identified from within the churches he engaged with. (They account for 60% of the problems and are listed in descending order of prevalence.)
Gifting – these problems were most pronounced when the focus was on an individual leader rather than a complementary core team. No-one is fully rounded and God designed church as an inter-dependent body (75%)
Unity – sometimes theological and cultural, division is always relational and costly in a fragile situation (63%)
Root character issues in the church planter (44% evident from the beginning and 24% knock-on effects)
Impact on family life (26%)
Prioritising the wrong things for success – living as though growth will come fundamentally as a result of our strategies and activities rather than the gospel (26%)
Here are 6 further factors from outside the churches (accounting for 40% of the problems, again in descending order).
Unmet ‘needs’ (65%) – ranging from money, manpower, and premises to COVID restrictions
Expectation gap (28%) – over-optimism about the speed of growth coupled with not feeling able to be open about struggles
Parent church relationship (25%)
Opposition from outside (25%)
Strategy driven by ‘tribal’ priorities rather than local knowledge (22%)
‘Copy and paste’ syndrome (7%) – lacking careful contextualisation
Why should we take time to think about and highlight potential church planting pitfalls in a world that looks for the next success-story?
“This conversation will help those who are preparing to plant and those who are currently struggling.” Dan Steel
It is also vital that those of us at Union and elsewhere who are preparing future leaders and supporting them financially have our eyes and hearts open to make sure the culture we are shaping is in tune with the gospel we hold out. We urgently need to be honest about the hardships and challenges of planting. Let’s wrestle with the reality that is church planting as in the rest of our Christian lives, “we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” (2 Corinthians 4:7).
Here are some questions that Dan encourages us to be asking ourselves and one another:
How much has the gospel shaped who you are as a planter? Do you know your besetting sins? Does anyone else?
How much of a team player are you? Where do you find it hard to collaborate in leadership or ministry?
Who can you invest in, that they might go on and surpass you in your ministry?
Which issues or perspectives have the potential to divide within your church plant?
How will you prioritise your spouse and children, if you have them? How will you model the joy of gospel service to your family?
What tempts you to seek to grow the church though something other than the Word of God?
How does your calendar each week reflect your priorities?
Who has shaped the vision of your plant?
What do you want for the church plant (desirable) and what do you think you need (essential)? Why have you made these decisions and distinctions?
How resilient do you think you are as a church planter?
How do you cope with conflict and opposition? What areas of conflict are especially difficult for you?
How proactive have you been in reaching out to other local churches? How can you, as far as possible, model gospel unity?
Watch out for more from Dan in the next months on the Union Mission blog.
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