In June of this year I wrote a post I called "Get In My Mind And Pray With Me". On the right of my page I titled it "Unmet Expectations". Among various thoughts I discussed how I felt that there was a right way and a wrong way to launch a church. Ours was the wrong way. We had a total of 5 months from the time I went to my Pastor and said "Hey, I believe God may be calling me to launch a church" until the day we started.
It wasn't that I had 5 months of planning with a core... no... just 5 months from realizing God was speaking a new thing into my heart. So by the time we launched I had barely even started to wrap my mind around the task let alone truly develop a core, cast vision, seek out proper funding, get a team of talented people, etc. Unfortunately I think my story is relatively common. Fortunately however there are some people and organizations who take the proper time to get their act together. Tadd is one of those guys. Look at what I wrote about the issue back in June:
"Then there are the best church plants from what I can tell. These are plants who take their time to gather the proper core, visit other ministries, really observe their target and become one with their community before launching out. These plants are strong in leadership before the first service ever begins. The leader is able to build confidence in his team and a cacoon has time to develop which will be useful later in protecting that team from the challenges and attacks of planting. Ultimately a launch of this church is MUCH healthier than the quick launch or what I call "parachute drop" churches. I honestly believe my friend Tadd's church, Pine Ridge Church will prove this planning and development time to be an AMAZING asset to any new church."
Tadd's church and his team at Pine Ridge are another in a line of churches who did it right. WestRidge, Elevation, Revolution and now Pine Ridge all started with a team and some funds (Revolution partly with $25k of borrowed funds). A Vision, a team and resources at launch. What a novel concept. Do not misunderstand me. These leaders aren't knocked for this.... in fact I elevate them for these (among other) wise decisions they made from the beginning. That's my whole point. They are wise for taking their time and doing it right. If you read each of their stories you will see three examples of guys who took time to pray, learn, see their vision mature, gather the team, gather some resources and go.
These guys were smart enough to see that there was a right and a wrong way to plant a church.
So am I a prophet? I don't think so. I think I'm just a veteran who's seen the worst, bad, good and best options out there.
When you get out of the gate the way we did, you find that you're always trying to patch holes. When you can get out of the gate with a larger opening day and the systems and teammates to keep the momentum going... there are many things you can skip and get on to making ministry better week in and week out.
Sadly, I think a lot of plants are more like us and less like Pine Ridge. We're an average church plant doing a so-so job in our community.
For us, patching isn't an option any more.
So where to go from here? I already know but I'll keep you posted.
1 comment:
Great post Tally...as I have looked across the landscape I have observed that those that take a slower approach and build have less hurdles to go through. Not that they don't have problems or that it is easy going. You are right it is because they have better momentum when they start.
I learned that well after leaving the church plant I was just at (long story). After starting one month after leaving another church we were in constant sprint mode from week to week.
Learning from that I am now on an approach more like Tadd's.
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