11 Mistakes that Church Planters Make
11 most common mistakes of a church plant
by Jim Griffith
jim@griffithcoaching.com
Jim is a very experienced church planter and coach.
1. Planter takes spiritual warfare too lightly. When it is illogical or irrational — it is demonic.
2. Attempt to plant a church that reaches everyone rather than a specific target.
3. Pre-Mature Launch — church is born before it is fully formed.
4. Recruiting stops after grand opening.
5. Have no plan of the other 6 days of the week.
6. Fear of talking about money with people until it is urgent.
7. Not differentiating a church plant from an established church. "Remember act your age"
"You will not get everyone who comes in the door – do not start a ministry just to keep one
family."
8. Formalize leadership too early — i.e. create a board. Instead introduce and empowerpotential future leaders by saying something like this, "This is John and he is going to behelping us with this task for a while/few months."
9. Once project is up and running, planter fails to adjust and tweak to match people coming.
10. Planter relying on the advice of experts.
11. Church does the right thing at the wrong time
* Good idea but timing is off
* Coach should triple time line to project implementation
* Ask: Who needs to know this and how long will it take to get info owned by those
people?
Never Eat Alone
Just came across a new networking book that is worth a look for church planters. Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi is not your usual book on networking. It focuses on building relationships and developing a community of colleagues, contacts, friends and mentors. What have been your experiences with building relationships in your community? What tips for other planters do you want to share? Doug McClintic
NCD
Most of our conversation, and this blog, has been built upon the 8-Quality-Characteristics found in Natural Church Development. To learn more about available resources, you can visit their website [here]
Empowering Leadership
- Key Question: Is the ministry of the Leaders focusing on equipping other Christians to serve?
Gift Oriented Ministry
- Key Question: Are the tasks inn the church distributed according to the Spiritual Gifts of the believers in that body?
Passionate Spirituality
- Key Question: Is the Spiritual life of the members characterized by prayer, enthusiasm, and boldness?
Functional Structures
- Key Question: Are regulations/forms of the church designed to be useful for the development of the church?
Inspiring Worship
- Key Question: Is visiting the worship service an inspiring experience?
Holistic Small Groups
- Key Question: Are the small groups dedicated to meeting the real needs of its members [in a holistic/multi-dimensional way]?
Need Oriented Evangelism
- Key Question: Are the evangelistic activities related to the needs of those you are trying to reach?
Loving Relationships
- Key Question: Are the relationships of the church characterized by a high degree of love [belonging] and affection.
Welcome
Early in the week one of the presentors (Tim?) suggested that somebody create a blog for this event…and I’m a webaholic, so here it is.
On the right are some links that have been mentioned during our teaching sessions and maybe a few others that seem relevant to our conversation.
Rules: Love God and the rest of us….then, if your thoughts are still relevant, share.
Thrive! 