Things I Wish I Had Known When I Planted My First Church

1
Things I Wish I Had Known When I Planted My First
Church

• By
• Dr. Tom Cheyney

www.PlanterDude.com
2
Naive Planting 101

• I was so naive when I first planted my first
  church now some twenty six years ago! The sheer
  tons of stuff I didn't know then that I know now
  could fill volumes of books. However, there are a
  few things that come to mind as enormous
  education I learned the hard way. Now having
  planted or sponsored a rather large number of new
  works my reflection might assist you in your
  church planting journey.

3
Need Isnt the Same as Calling

• Successful church planters will always have
  options! Just because there is a need does not
  equal calling. Your individual sense of Gods
  specific call will often be all you have to rely
  on some days. So be sure you are called to that
  specific place first!

4
Half Half Not the Creamier of Choice!

• Half of your core team will leave you in the
  first year. I heard other church planters say
  this, but I didn't believe it. Going into year
  two I had already lived it. In each of my plants
  I have seen only a small amount of original core
  group stay with it. Some moved out of
  town...others lost the vision... others never got
  the vision in the first place.

5
Develop Leaders Within

• Seldom pick staff from outside the church. I
  kept trying to bring in staff members from the
  outside. They were already "ruined" by other
  churches and just couldn't grasp the concept of
  what God called us to do. We have had much better
  luck by recruiting staff from within.

6
Stewardship Development

• Many new and yet to become experienced
  church planters are afraid to talk about money.
  They have erroneously heard that lost people are
  easily offended about talking about money. It is
  a must to teach and preach about stewardship in a
  new church right out of the gate! Perhaps one of
  the reasons they are leery of talking about
  stewardship is because they have not learned
  personally how to be a faithful steward and
  regular tither.

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Stewardship Development

• Stewardship is a biblical system and should
  never be taught as a crisis driven technique. It
  is comprehensive and should be a core value of
  all new churches. In reality stewardship
  development does not turn people off to the
  gospel and teaches the whole membership to be
  responsible for the new church right from the
  beginning. This eliminates the welfare mentality
  that someone else will take care of you.
  Additionally, teach your new church right form
  the start to give at least 10 of your
  non-designated receipts away to missions causes.
  The law of the blessing takes place when you are
  blessed by Gods faithfulness an you in turn
  display the same faithfulness through giving
  likewise to missions.

8
Dont Cash Promises!

• Never count on the money until the check
  arrives. We met with the pastor of a mega-church
  (the parents of one our core team went there) and
  he did the whole "dog and pony show" while we
  were there. He kept saying that the church "would
  help us out financially" to give him a call when
  we needed it. We called...no reply.

9
Dont Cash Promises!

• After a bunch of calls, emails and a few snail
  mail letters I finally got a note from his
  secretary telling me that they were tight on
  money and couldn't spare any. Two Sundays before
  she contacted me they had raised millions of
  dollars (it made the state denominational paper)
  in a single day to fund several satellite
  video-venues in order to perpetuate the pastor's
  "personality".

10
Realistic Expectations

• As you begin your first plant having realistic
  expectations is a must! Many a church planter has
  caused future challenges for the new work in the
  future as a result from unrealistic expectations
  at the launch. Attention during this time should
  be given to assimilation, gathering, budget
  control, outreach, discipleship and small group
  procedures. It will help you later.

11
Releasing the Laity

• A lot of novice church planters have not
  learned how important it is to release the laity
  for the work of the ministry. It is easy to
  think that it could be detrimental to the
  building of a core group. The opposite is true.
  Church Planters need to learn how to release the
  laity into the work of the new church plant
  almost right from the start. The work takes gift
  sets that others possess so give the work away!

12
Run with the Runners!

• My friend Dr. Fred Hewett (Exec. Dir. SBC
  Montana) reminds us also that as a planter you
  must run with the runners! All of us quickly
  realize that it is much healthier to shepherd
  sheep instead of herding goats. Work with the
  ones who will help you grow the church. Pastor
  everyone but draw along side of you those who can
  help you achieve Gods goal for that work.

13
Placing Family Before Church

• Somewhere during the development of our
  personal internal systems we have begun to think
  that nothing short of total commitment to church
  planting every waking hour of the day will do!
  While there are many families who are very happy
  in the cause of church planting, there are also
  some who are not. Nothing should take the place
  as a Christian father over the well being of ones
  family. A church plant should never be placed
  ahead of your children. Make the time and take
  the time to be there for your kids. Then they
  will not resent the work of church planting.

14
KnockKnock, Whose There?

• We live in a day where planters and pastors
  are looking for the quick fix and the easy
  solution. There are none! Here is one
  (successful solution) that works. Going door to
  door still works and is part of becoming part of
  any community! Do not listen to planters who
  have not done it and say it doe not work. Pray
  the Lord of the Harvest!

15
Gather Now Preach Later

• While the goal is to move a new church towards
  preaching and weekly worship, it is advisable to
  gather as long as possible on the front end as
  you target a strong number of adults. Once you
  begin preaching weekly your time for gathering
  will be cut to less than 30. Gathering a
  significant core group of perhaps 85 adults will
  enable you to move more quickly towards a growing
  plant once you begin corporate worship.

16
Recruit People to Do Tasks, Not Titles

• Service is much more than a title. It is a
  place where one finds significance in the cause
  of Christ. It is always wise to recruit
  individuals towards significant task of service
  instead of a title. Clearly empowering people to
  places of service rather than positions of title
  is always a preference.

17
Build on the Stable

• You can't build a church on college students.
  Our first year we had almost 75 college
  students...almost all unchurched. They were
  great....they worked hard...they grew
  spiritually...they developed into good
  leaders...they left town when they graduated.
  Christmas and summer got pretty ugly the first
  year! College students are wonderful folks to
  have on a church plant team...just know they are
  temporary at best.

18
Love Your Spouse More!(AKA Cheryl Had Blue Eyes
First!)

• You can always plant another church... you
  can't always have another family. As much as I
  love church planting and shepherding people...I
  love my wife Cheryl more. Nothing...especially
  ministry...should ever get in the way of your
  family. That also reminds me...if
• your wife is not on board with planting a
  church....don't plant!!!

19
Investing in My Wife

• Like placing family above the plant, remember
  to invest time and experiences with your wife.
  Many wives of church planters feel a
  disconnection during the first few years of a
  plant while friendships are being formed and a
  niche within the new work is developed. Spend
  time, tell your stories, take her with you, and
  invest in the journey together. Remember, happy
  wife happy life!

20
Birds of a Feather Flock Together!

• Recent church planters are your best resource.
  The greatest advice, financial gifts and
  friendship I have ever received is from guys that
  planted within the last several years. They will
  cry with you, rejoice with you and sacrifice for
  you. As long as I live I will remember the day
  that the pastor of local church plant handed me
  their last 250 because another church didn't
  come through and we couldn't pay rent (God bless
  you Bruce Allen).

21
Walk Within the Pages of the BIBLE!

• Spend more time reading the Bible than other
  books. Church growth, church planting, church
  strategy and church leadership books are
  great...but I spent way too much time pouring
  into them (at the beginning) and not enough time
  in God's Word. The best church practices,
  strategies and leadership ideas can be found
  within the pages of the Bible.

22
To Place Spirituality Over Strategy

• It is so easy as a church planter to get so
  busy doing that you forget to be! I
  personally know that more is accomplished by ones
  walk with God than ones slick strategy or
  impressive new work proposal. One should work
  now while it is still day but most church
  planters at the end admit that a large portion of
  their success had nothing to do with them and
  everything to do with God.

23
Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder!

• Get out of the pulpit every once in a while.
  Pastors have this idea that the world will fall
  apart for their church if they don't preach every
  Sunday. I got to tell you...preaching week after
  week without a break will dull your abilities.
  Taking a break every now and then gives other
  leaders a chance to step up and you a rest to get
  fired back up. Nothing makes me preach better
  than being out of the pulpit for a week or two.
  Nothing grows our leaders like me being out of
  the pulpit for a week or two.

24
Having a Heart for a City and Not for a Great
Church!

• I hear a lot of novice church planters talk
  about the great church they will build. What
  does it for me is when I hear a planter talk
  about the great need within their city or target
  area for Jesus Christ. That tells me that it is
  more about reaching an area than raising up an
  edifice to an individual. Have a heart for your
  area so intense that it keeps you up at night and
  down on your knees before the Father.

25
Decide Early What You Want the Community to Say
About Your Church

• Most new churches are not known by the
  community in which they are called to serve.
  Therefore it is a great idea to decide early what
  you would want the community to say about your
  church. Careful messaging at the beginning will
  help people sense what God is doing in your
  launch. While you might not have buildings and
  budgets what you do have is a cause worthy of
  joining.

26
Focusing on Sending Capacity Not Seating Capacity

• At the end of the day it is all about
  missions! Sending capacity is a stronger witness
  than seating capacity. I love churches and
  pastors that realize they can be both a growing
  local church while staying active in the
  missions efforts that are so vital to reaching
  our nation with the Gospel. It is truly
  missional churches that bear the name or label of
  a Sending Church.

27
Focusing on Sending Capacity Not Seating Capacity

• There are only two ways for us to respond to
  the truth about the supremacy of God in missions.
  We must either go out for the sake of His name,
  or we must send and support such people who do,
  and do so in a manner worthy of God. Ultimately
  it is our sending capacity that counts.

28
It is Better to Send Out than to Split Up!

• Sometimes an apprentice needs to be cut loose
  to grow and take flight. A wise church planter
  will send out and commission rather than let ones
  own plant split and go splat!

29
Planting Trees You Will Never Sit Under!

• Everyone thinks I am crazy when I say this but
  hear me, please. You are planting trees you will
  never sit under as a church planter so a wise
  planter invests in his craft and seeks even
  deeper skill. If you are a catalytic church
  planter you will plant trees again! But watch
  God, seldom will you do it the same way you just
  did!

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Things I Wish I Had Known When I Planted My First
Church

• By
• Dr. Tom Cheyney

www.PlanterDude.com