Seven Key Issues Church Planters Face Prepared by Exponential in partnership with Ed Stetzer Preliminary
Introduction Church planting is hard. Church planting is discouraging. Church planting is lonely. It is not for the faint of heart. Church planters are heroes of the faith. This new report highlights the top issues these risk-taking heroes experience. The findings strongly affirm how vital it is to put family support structures in place to inspire, equip, encourage and provide accountability to church planters and their families. The seven top issues highlighted in this report include: Leadership Development and Reproducing Culture Financial Self-Sufficiency and Viability Launch Team Development and Mobilizing Volunteers Systems, Processes and Cultures Casting Vision and Avoiding Mission Drift Evangelism and Discipleship Spiritual, Physical and Mental Health of the Planter and Family Approach The Top Issues identified in this report were based on several months of feedback from church planting leaders. Specific inputs include:! Over 30 seasoned church planting leaders each averaging over 20 years of experience provided their top 3 5 top issues that they see planter s face! Online survey asking church planters to identify the top issues they struggle with! Interviews with church planters! Feedback from church planters via Twitter! Feedback from Passion for Planting and Stadia project management staff who ve provided detailed project management services to over 75 church planters The additional key considerations provided after each finding are based on the feedback received and the experience of the authors.
Findings 1. Leadership Development and Reproducing Culture Leadership development is the most frequently cited challenge of planters. The context encompasses a broad range of topics, including recruiting and developing leaders; implementing teams; creating a reproducible leadership development approach; developing an elder board; hiring and leading staff; discerning changes required to facilitate growth; healthy decision making; and learning to delegate to and empower volunteers. Some key considerations: Many planters come from a previous role where a more established leadership development and volunteer mobilization process is in place. As planters, they are now responsible for implementing a new process from scratch and with little help. They are responsible for creating momentum where none exists versus maintaining existing momentum. Planting is lonely and messy. Amid the long hours and hard work, it is easy for planters to conclude that any warm body interested in helping is an answer to prayer. Planters often tend to prematurely put leaders in place because they are available where more established churches would be slower to vette and get to know the leader before delegating responsibility. Many planters lack a strong leadership team, elder board and accountability team for the first few years. This can result in increased burden of responsibility; a lack of ongoing encouragement; no one to watch their back ; lack of counsel and advice on key decisions; and a general lack of fellowship with peers. In the absence of experience and a proven staff selection process, planters can tend to hire too quickly (similar to the problem of putting unknown team members in leadership positions too quickly). Planters also often lack the experience to fully understand the pitfalls of hiring family members and friends. Dealing with bad hires then adds further strain and discouragement, creating setbacks in momentum. Assuming one full-time staff person can minister to and shepherd about 100 people, the senior pastor of the average size U.S. church (about 85 people) is at capacity. This average-size church then struggles with a chicken and egg syndrome as to when to add staff to grow. The church waits until they can afford a second staff person, but then hits leadership barriers that prevent them from growing and hiring more staff. Studies show the average new church launches with about 40 people, placing a huge financial strain on the planter and delaying additional staff hires. Most planters have a vision and dreams for being a reproducing church and developing a reproducing culture but find the reality of implementation elusive and discouraging.
2. Financial Self-Sufficiency and Viability The financial strains of planting represent one of the most significant challenges for planters. Many planters come from a relatively safe and stable job (including pay) into an entrepreneurial, risk-taking endeavor with an uncertain future. Often planters are thrust into fundraising for the first time in their lives with little or no training. Many plants take three or more years to become financially selfsufficient, relying on other churches and donors. The journey to financial self-sufficiency often places a heavy burden on the church planting family. Some key considerations: The financial realities of planting drive many planters to be bi-vocational. This presents a unique set of challenges and stresses for planters and their families. For many bi-vocational planters, a first priority becomes funding their full-time position, which diverts funds from other ministry expansion opportunities. Financial realities significantly impact (1) how planters spend their time (e.g. bi-vocational) and (2) how the new church allocates very limited resources. Finances significantly shape the approach taken by the planter. Most planters lack training and experience in budgeting. While many have been involved in preparing a budget for an individual ministry in a previous job (e.g. student ministry, worship ministry, etc), few have been responsible for an entire church budget including the process of turning vision into a financial plan. Some planters become paralyzed and have trouble moving forward while others blindly move forward without a budget. For bi-vocational planters, the budgeting process is largely allocating salary to their part-time planting work since there are little to no additional funds to be budgeted. Planters that do raise considerable funds for a large launch often face a common trap-- misunderstanding the difference between cash flow forecast (i.e. having the right funds at the right time) versus total cash commitments, which are not limited to a specific schedule. The result is that some planters over commit funds at specific times even though they ve raised enough total funds. Like many small business owners, planters often drain their savings and retirement accounts to pursue their dreams. This can create stress in a marriage and for the family. 3. Launch Team Development and Mobilizing Volunteers Church planters frequently cite building a launch team and mobilizing volunteers as challenges. Launch team size becomes more important in larger, well-funded launches where more defined ministries are offered at the start. Mobilizing volunteers is an issue regardless of size of the launch team. The well-funded, full-time planter and the part-time, bi-vocational planter expands their ministry impact through volunteers.
Some key considerations: In his book, Planting Fast-Growing Churches, author Stephen Grey identified 21 differences between fast growing churches and struggling ones. Among these was the importance of healthy launch teams. Grey found that 88% of fast-growing churches had a launch team in place before launch compared with only 12% of struggling churches. For parachute drop plants where the planter has few existing relationships, team building and volunteer mobilization can be slow and difficult. Most planters are good at relationship building. However, planters report that they spend a disproportionate amount of time in the pre-launch phase focused on administrative details (e.g. facilities, marketing, equipment, legal issues, etc). These administrative issues compete with the time needed to build relationships and teams. The paradox is that strong teams can help with the seemingly endless details associated with launching a church, but the administrative details limit a planter s time available for relationship and team building. Having a team of volunteers in place before the planter arrives has its pitfalls. Often the team expects the planter to adapt his or her vision to fit the team s desires rather than submitting to the planter. Many planters report discouragement resulting from the loss of good friends on their team. It is not uncommon for planters to lose more than half their launch team within a few years of starting the church. Planting is hard work, and many volunteers end up searching out existing stable churches to call home. 4. Systems, Processes and Cultures Planters know the importance of creating healthy systems and cultures that facilitate helping people find their way back to God and the growth of the church. Almost intuitively, planters link church growth with healthy systems and cultures. They often interchange the concepts of system, process and culture. Most commonly cited areas of importance include reproducing leaders; generosity; externally focused, missional living; small groups; worship planning; strategic planning; and evangelism. Some key considerations: Healthy systems, processes and cultures enable and facilitate growth, but don t cause it. The Apostle Paul tells us that we cooperate with God in the planting and watering of the seeds, but that it s God who makes the seeds grow. Establishing healthy processes, systems and cultures is part of that cooperation. The silver bullet syndrome is one trap planters can fall into regarding systems and processes. Planters tend to ask good questions including, We are not growing, how do we reach more people? or We need to create momentum, but how? Although the answer may be one of the
areas commonly cited above, a narrow focus can lead planters down the wrong path when they conclude, If we just fix [fill in blank], then we will grow. Systems, processes and cultures will emerge from the pre-launch phase; the only question is whether they are healthy or unhealthy. Will they create leverage for growth and momentum, or will they create barriers and obstacles, adding to a planter s stress? The pre-natal phase in a mother s womb is vital to an infant s health after birth. The things a mother does and does not do during this time have lasting impacts. Likewise, the things a planter does and does not do during pre-launch phase have lasting impact for years to come. Planters either intentionally create leverage through the establishment of healthy systems, processes and cultures, or they risk creating barriers and obstacles. The Tyranny of the Now and the lack of accountability structures impacts a planter s ability to create healthy processes and systems in several ways: o When building a new house, most localities require an occupancy permit before a family can move in. A permit guarantees that the basic systems (i.e. water, sewer, electrical, lighting, etc.) are healthy and functioning. There is no equivalent standard or requirement in new churches. As a result, many new churches are birthed with the equivalent of no water, no electrical and no lights. o Planting is hard work and the workers are often few. Everything tends to fall on the planter s shoulders. Although he or she would like to slow down and do it right, a planter often gets caught in the tyranny of the urgent, living with unhealthy systems. Unfortunately, these unhealthy systems are partly contributing to a planter s workload burden. Many planters recognize the dysfunctional cycle, but get stuck in it, further adding to their stress and discouragement. o Leaders make daily choices to focus on production or production capacity. Production is all around us and does not stop. It easily consumes all our time. Production capacity is comprised of those things that build leverage to more efficiently and effectively accomplish production. Building healthy systems, processes and cultures is a production capacity function. Using the existing systems in our daily work is a production function. A planter s challenge is to find the time to invest in the production capacity priority of building healthy systems. o Time is a planter s most precious resource. Starting a new church involves hundreds of tasks. Most of these startup tasks do not involve interacting or reaching the lost people for which the planter is starting the church. Additionally, these seemingly endless tasks tend to not focus on building healthy systems, processes and cultures and instead focus primarily on the tyranny of production. As a result, the tireless focus on production tasks during the pre-launch phase can tend to drain joy from a planter and result in unhealthy systems, processes and cultures.
5. Casting Vision and Avoiding Mission Drift Report respondents expressed vision casting and avoiding mission drift in several different ways, including eliminating pressure from churched people; navigating distractions from good ideas that get in the way of allocating limited resources and energy to the critical growth path; making disciplined decisions consistent with mission; clearly defining priorities for getting unstuck and growing; and overcoming challenges of finding the right balance between evangelism and discipleship (leadership development). These factors appear to be amplified by the challenges of the other key areas in this report. Some key considerations: The concept of drift implies a standard or expectation from which you drift has been clearly defined and understood by everyone. Planters should not assume that because their expectations are clear and compelling in their minds that they are clearly understood by the rest of the team. Most planters have a strong sense of mission and vision that drives them and influences their thinking. These same planters often have less clarity on their core values that shape what they do and how they do it (the compass that guides their north direction). The pre-launch phase and early post-launch phase are vital to establishing core values that create a strong foundation for the future of the new church. Although not explicitly articulated in their responses, it appears planters tend to confuse or interchange the concepts of vision, mission and values. Vision, mission, values and leadership culture form the foundational elements of a plant s philosophy of ministry. Ideally, a planter s ministry philosophy is clearly defined before starting. However, for many planters, it becomes a work in progress during the formative years. As a consequence, the philosophy of ministry can be more influenced by negative shaping factors such as scarcity culture, church people on the team and peer comparisons. Most planters do not have the capacity, financial resources or team needed to develop a comprehensive integrated strategy. Instead they must narrow their focus to 3 to 5 table banging priorities that they will be mean about in the early days of the church. Having clarity on these 3 to5 priorities and being disciplined to use them as a primary filter for saying yes and no are vital for avoiding drift. Similar to the philosophy of ministry that becomes a work in progress and can be more influenced by negative factors, the same holds true for strategy or priorities.
6. Evangelism and Discipleship Most planters start new churches to reach lost people (those far from God) and to grow disciples. In citing this as a top issue, planters highlighted several challenges: (1) their desire to put increased focus / time on evangelism and discipleship (as noted in several of the other key issues, planters are pulled in many directions away from their core passions); (2) discerning how to put theology into practice in a way that represents the broader movement of God s Kingdom; (3) how to live incarnationally and be relevant in today s culture; (4) how to best implement a deliberate and consistent evangelistic and disciple-making strategy; and (5) whether small groups still work. Some key considerations: The challenges cited by planters in this area appear to be examples and outcomes of the other key issues discussed in this report. Specifically, weaknesses and challenges of developing leaders, mobilizing volunteers, building teams, having adequate financial resources, and building healthy systems, processes and cultures all tend to divert a planter s focus and time to things other than evangelism and discipleship. The desire to engage people incarnationally and build relationships is often met with reality of the things discussed above that tug on the planter s time, energy and focus. A nagging sense of falling short of the dream in the area of evangelism and discipleship can significantly contribute to a planter s discouragement. This is somewhat analogous to parenting. When our kids accept Jesus and live for Him, it s easier to put in perspective and deal with discouragement in other areas of their lives. Evangelism and discipleship are core for most planters and bias the internal scorecard more than many other factors. 7. Spiritual, Physical and Mental Health of Planter and Family The six key issues listed above create a heavy burden for planters and their families. Most planters indicate that planting is the hardest thing they ve ever done. Those who survive are quick to highlight how discouraging and lonely it can be, but also how rewarding it is. Planters cite the following struggles in these areas: (1) the internal battle to overcome pride, selfreliance, drivenness and an uncoachable attitude; (2) loneliness and isolation; (3) mistrust; (4) lack of rest; and (5) maintaining joy. Although most planters understand the importance of making personal development, soul care and family nurturing top priorities, these things often get lost in a planter s busyness. The result is a fragile foundation for dealing with the discouragement and loneliness of planting. Eventually, any unresolved family of origin issues or weaknesses in the marriage will surface, often in the midst of the planter s other struggles. The integration of the six key issues listed above paint a good picture of the environment in which planters pursue their calling and dream--an environment that takes a planter on a journey through discouragement and loneliness, and is guaranteed to challenge their faith. These are ingredients God can use for good or Satan can use to bring them down. The six issues above paint this picture for the average planter:
Planter is called and a dream emerges. Excitement builds and plans formulate. Fulfillment and pursuit of the dream requires an expanding team of people to join the planter in the journey. Team members are harder to recruit than anticipated, and the team formulates much slower than intended. Often, the new church births with a smaller team than planned. Additionally, leading the team of messy people takes more time and energy than the planter ever conceived. With a smaller team, the more responsibilities fall to the planter and their spouse because there are fewer people to delegate to. The burden of responsibility can be intense, especially when a planter comes to grips with the fact that his or her commitment to the cause is higher than anyone else s. Finances seem to always be short, limiting ministry opportunities. The average planter wakes up wondering whether the funds will be available for their next paycheck. At the same time, guilt emerges that things are stuck and not growing. Fundraising can take significant time, competing with the other ministry demands that seem to be vital to growth. The tyranny of the urgent with so many responsibilities falling to the planter makes it difficult to invest measurable time in capacity building. As a result, systems, processes and cultures tend to reactively define themselves rather than the planter proactively shaping them. The result is inefficiency and ineffectiveness built on unhealthy processes. This further adds to the burden of responsibility for getting everything done (i.e. weak processes require more hours to accomplish the same results). A crisis of belief emerges. The planter s dream seems so distant from reality. Comparison with other leaders, discouragement and loneliness set in. Things seem to be shaped more by circumstances and other people more than by the planter s dream. Adding more fuel to the fire, the planter continually questions the new church s effectiveness at reaching lost people (versus transfer memberships) and senses the discipleship process isn t really changing the scorecard of those calling themselves Christ followers. Planters typically have a big vision and dreams when they are called to plant. The euphoria often gets muted after launch as the planter hits a number of walls, including the key issues listed above (lack of leaders, lack of volunteers, difficulty building a launch team, lack of funds, etc). The lack of (scarcity environment) is discouraging and can feel like the death of a dream, especially when no relief appears in sight. The disconnect between the planter s dream and his or her reality further amplifies the discouragement. Spiritual warfare kicks into full swing, including comparisons with other success planters. Many planters lack fellowship with other peers and coaching, resulting in a scenario that leaves a planter with no one to share burdens. In many cases, lanters avoids sharing with their spouse in an attempt to protect them. However, the spouse is often the first to sense something is wrong. Many families find themselves asking, Should we quit or should we persevere?.
Conclusions / Observations The report highlights the following: Discouragement and loneliness are understandable amid the challenges of planting. The obstacles, barriers and challenges in planting are significant, highlighting the importance of the right and called point leader. Through spiritual warfare, Satan can easily leverage discouragement and loneliness as footholds to further discourage and even paralyze the planter and their family. Highlights the need for a solid foundation of faith and trust in God, a surrendered life and a relatively healthy marriage and family. Highlights the importance of a rigorous assessment process that includes a trained clinical psychologist review. Affirms the importance of the key pillars of most organizations support systems: assessment, training, coaching. These are vital. Highlights the benefits of other emerging services like project management and spousal support systems that are positioned to become future pillars of support. Highlights that most planting organization support structures target the pre-launch phase with less emphasis in the post-launch phase. Significant opportunity exists for serving and ministering to planters in the post-launch phase. Highlights the need for peer-to-peer relationships and fellowship. This will help the planter see they re not alone in their struggles. Highlights the advantages of waiting to launch until a number of milestones are in place, including (1) clarity of ministry philosophy (vision, mission, values, leadership culture); (2) solid team of leaders committed to the cause; (3) fundraising support for the planter s family in place for the first few years of the launch; (4) several non-negotiable priorities that shape the initial ministries of the church and create a filter for saying yes and no ; and (5) solid core processes and systems in key areas such as discipleship, evangelism, leadership development, planning, etc. Highlights the importance of having people around the planter who speak into the planter s life on a regular basis with encouragement. Highlights the difficulty in discerning between whether to quit or whether to persevere and continue when things get difficult. Top 7 Issues does provide a framework through which existing church planting ministries can assess their strengths and weaknesses in providing support to planters.
National Leaders Participating in the Report Brett Andrews, Veteran church planter and Senior Pastor Mark Batterson, Veteran church planter and Senior Pastor Marc Bigelow, President of Stadia New Church Strategies Brian Bloye, Founder of Westridge School of Church Planting and Launch Network Nick Boring, Vision 360 North American Church Planting Director Phil Claycomb, Founder of Nexus Church Planting Artie Davis, Founder of Comb Network and Director Sticks Conference Dave Ferguson, Founder of New Thing Network Jon Ferguson, Co-Founder of New Thing Network Brent Foulke, Director of Church Planting Assessment Center Doug Foltz, Director of Project Management for Stadia New Church Strategies Pat Furgerson, Director of Passion for Planting Stan Granberg, Director of Kairos Church Planting Bob Harrington, Director of Church Coaching Solutions Tom Herrick, Director of Titus Institute Billy Hornsby, Director of Association of Related Churches (ARC) George Johnson, Executive Director of Christian Evangelistic Association Ron Johnson, Director of Accelerate Alliance Debbie Jones, Director of Bloom Ministry (spousal support ministry in Stadia) Tom Jones, Executive Director of Stadia New Church Strategies George Klippenes, Director of Church Planting, Evangelical Free Church of America Mac Lake, Director of Launch Network Shawn Lovejoy, Co-Founder of ChurchPlanters.com Will Mancini, Founder of Auxano Eric Metcalf, Director of New Thing Network Tom Nebel, Director of Church Planting, Converge Worldwide Larry Osborne, author, veteran planter, Senior Pastor Darrin Patrick, President of Acts 29 Steve Pike, Director of Church Planting for Church Multiplication Network (Assemblies of God Church Planting) David Putman, Co-Founder of ChurchPlanters.com Mark Reynolds, Redeemer Church Planting Center and City to City Alliance Gary Rohrmayer, President of Converge MidAmerica Jim Sheppard, Founder of Generis Ed Stetzer, Veteran church planter, author, Founder of NewChurches.com, Director of LifeWay Research Brent Storms, Executive Director of Orchard Group Greg Surratt, Veteran church planter and Board Member of Association of Related Churches Ron Sylvia, Director of Next Church Planting Scott Thomas, Director of Acts 29 Gailyn Van Rheenen, Founder of Mission Alive Craig Whitney, President of Emerging Leadership Initiative
Paul Williams, Chairman of Orchard Group Todd Wilson, Director of Exponential John Worcester, Veteran church planter and Director of San Diego Church Planting Alliance Authors Ed Stetzer has planted churches in New York, Pennsylvania, and Georgia and transitioned declining churches in Indiana and Georgia. He has trained pastors and church planters on five continents, holds two masters degrees and two doctorates, and has written dozens of articles and books. Ed served for three years as seminary professor at the Southern Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, and has taught at 15 other seminaries. He is currently the Director of LifeWay Research and LifeWay's Missiologist in Residence. He has written the following books: Planting New Churches in a Postmodern Age (2003); Perimeters of Light: Biblical Boundaries for the Emerging Church (w/ Elmer Towns, 2004);Strategic Outreach (w/ Eric Ramsey, 2005); Breaking the Missional Code (w/ David Putman, 2006); Planting Missional Churches (2006),; Comeback Churches (w/ Mike Dodson, 2007); 11 Innovations in the Local Church (w/ Elmer Towns and Warren Bird, 2007), and contributed a chapter in The Mission of Today's Church (2007). Todd Wilson is on staff as the Church Planting Director at New Life Christian Church in Centreville, Virginia. New Life has planted over 75 churches and is actively involved in a number of national support ministries for church planters, including Passion for Planting, Church Marketing Solutions, and PlanterApp.com. Todd has also provided leadership over the startup of several multi-site campuses of New Life. Todd is an entrepreneur at heart and loves dreaming about and starting new things to advance the Kingdom. He serves as the Director of Exponential. Exponential is a non-profit organization that seeks to serve the church planting community as a national advocate. Exponential seeks to attract and inspire Kingdom-minded leaders to engage their time, talent and treasure in catalyzing a movement of healthy, high-impact faith communities. Exponential oversees the Exponential Conference, the largest gathering of church planters in the world, and the Exponential Book Series in partnership with Zondervan and Leadership Network. See www.exponential.org for more information.