Lessons Learned from a Year of Church Planting
Photo by adrianna geo on Unsplash
About a year ago, I accepted an executive pastor position at a small church plant. The church was barely a year old and had a good thing going. My second Sunday there we baptized 13 people. Over the next year I learned a lot.
I’ve never been a part of a church plant before. The youngest church I’ve served in before was 20 years old. So being at a church that was only a year old, and less than 100 members was a big change. I’ve studied church planting in the past. I’ve even attended ARC’s church planter boot camp. As much as I’ve prayed about it, I’ve found peace with the fact that I’ll never start a church.
However, my senior pastor had already done all that work. He had a congregation that loved him, good systems to build community, and a newly remodeled building that was all ours. He brought me on to bring systems and strategies to take us to the next level.
I began working to streamline our assimilation process, expand groups, formalize our serve team, and more. Along the way, I learned far more valuable lessons.
1. The team that started with you might not finish with you.
I’ve heard this from pastor after pastor over the years. I knew it was true in theory, but had never seen it play out. As we implemented our systems our lead team of volunteers went along with the changes. They didn’t complain and were happy with the growth we saw.
However, as the year went on my pastor and I could see the strain. Our volunteer leaders were great, but we needed more from them. But they couldn’t give it for various reasons. So, one by one we said goodbye. Most of them are still in the church and serve at a high level. However, we needed a different kind of volunteer. One who could serve at a staff level of commitment. Thankfully, God sent us the right people at the right time.
As you grow, you may think that the people with you right now will be with you forever. And they may be. But more than likely 10, 15, or 20 years from now they’ll all be gone. That’s life. People are sent into our lives for seasons. Revel in the joy of having them there. Mourn when they move on. But don’t be surprised when that day comes. We’re all stewards of the ministries we lead. One day someone else will lead it and that’s ok.
2. Salvation work is messy
The church I served in before was filled with life-long Christians. Some of them I swear had been saved since birth. That’s an exaggeration of course. But my point is the excitement and joy that’s found in a newly saved person had long waned. I totally understand. I became a Christian when I was 4. We know all the right words, the right traditions, the right clothes.
Fast forward to my current church. Many of our church members are radically saved by Jesus. They were freed from addiction and the hurt of broken families and relationships. Spending time with them has been a breath of fresh air. Especially after the hard 6 months I’d gone through before.
However, having a bunch of newly saved people is messy. Just like having a newborn is messy. These new Christians have issues and questions. People in my last church dealt with them years before. The people in my church now have stories that are eye-opening and heartbreaking. As a sheltered life-long Christian, I’m so thankful for them.
Do I wish we didn’t have to keep moving the outdoor smoking section? Yes. Am I glad that imperfect people still feel welcome to smoke by the front door instead of hiding in the parking lot? Also, yes.
Having new Christians in your church will create chaos. But it will also bring life and vitality. These people know what Jesus has done for them and are excited about it. Their passion and earnestness are infectious. I wish every church was full of them.
3. Do the best you can with what you have
I’ve served in big churches and long-standing churches. They’ve had multi-million-dollar budgets. At one church I served my kidmin budget was 30k. That didn’t include my salary. However, a small church plant doesn’t have that kind of capital. The church I’m at now and the church I served before were about the same size. But they were on opposite ends of the church growth lifecycle. The biggest difference was cash. The older church has a lot more money than the newer one.
The result is we have to make do with what we have. Our lights aren’t the best. We still need a kids’ pastor. Our facilities need work. But that’s ok. We may not have the money to make all this better. But we do have incredible people with time, talent, and treasure.
Just this past week, we needed to make a new small group meeting room. The room was in disrepair and was basically a storage closet. But our church rallied together, cleaned out the room, remodeled the place. It was a completely different room in less than 48 hours.
At other churches we would have hired someone to do all this work. As a result, we would have missed out on the opportunity for people to do something incredible. We will eventually fix all the things I listed before, but in the meantime, we will trust God and serve him faithfully.
Serving a church plant has been an absolute joy. It has its challenging moments. But when you see whole families getting saved and baptized it makes it all worth it. It’s easy to celebrate the big churches with the large staffs and even bigger facilities. But don’t forget the little guy doing something new. Studies show churches under 5 years old see far more salvations than older ones. They’re making a difference every day expanding the Kingdom. And that’s what it’s all about.