A huge thanks to Leila Disburg for sending me to a Church Planting 101 conference at the East Ohio conference. Some of the highlights:
Affinity is everything. How & where did you grow up? What’s happened in your life that God’s redeemed and now others will relate to you through that? Bad plants are usually a mismatch between a planter and their affinity/mission field
The #1 responsibility of a church planter is to put people in seats
Don’t launch until there’s critical mass – have enough people to run a service week in and week out
Attraction is the old wine skin – that worked when church & culture were identical – we could build something and they’d come
Now, relationships lead to invitation
In church planting, no matter how good your vision is, people don’t hear it the way you want them to
By 2050, there will be no majority population
Most churches don’t reflect their mission field
The people right outside the church aren’t reflected inside the church
As a church planter, you have the blessing & responsibility of being the DNA and mission field that connects most to you
Every church casts a shadow in its community (in a good way!) – how far does your shadow reach?
Are you a pastor who plants a church…or a church planter who pastors a church?
One of the best learnings:
Pastors have to develop a tough skin because they have so many difficult decisions – they lose vulnerability with others – many end up losing vulnerability with God