Starting (and growing) a brand new church isn’t easy. I’ve made a ton of mistakes since we launched 6 months ago and aired some of my dirty laundry for you by sharing a big ‘ol list of mistakes here. However hard you expected it to be, plan on it being much harder. Some people say it like this, “If you could (or want to) do anything else, do that.”
Sounds harsh, but church planting, while fulfilling to the core, is just hard. I can’t say it any simpler than that.
Here is a quick list of 10 things about starting Courageous Church that have been much harder than I expected. They are not in any special order.
Over the course of this week, I’ll be breaking down a few of these areas in more detail. Let me know in the comments section if you want me to expound on one in particular.
If you are a church planter, do any of these resonate with you?
1. Fostering Real Diversity
2. Raising Money
3. Finding and Managing Good Musicians
4. Following Through on Lofty Promises
5. Training New Leaders
6. Not Bugging People about the Church
7. Pushing the Creative Envelope
8. Balancing Church Work, Family Life, Education
9. Informing People of Tough Decisions
10. Sticking to Our Mission/Vision
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These are exactly the right things that you should be finding hard. It indicates that you are staying focused and doing the right things.
I will share a quote with you, that one of our pastors at 12Stone had on his FB page….
"Leadership is exhausting, but lack of leadership is devastating".
I am so thankful to my leaders at 12Stone and I am SURE that the people at your church are VERY thankful to you as well!
Thanks for this post, Shaun! I would love (LOVE!) to see a series of posts going into specific examples or greater explanation of why each of these is harder than you thot (or maybe you're top 5) – This great post is leaving me wanting more! I want to learn what you learned thru this difficulty!
If you are not having uncomfortable conversations with folks trying to jijack the vision and mission of your church plant, then you are not planting a church, you are creating a chaplaincy for somebody else's vision. Sounds just like Stever Hayner said: This list shows you are focusing on the right things… praying for you Shawn.
As a part of the core group that helped start a church eight-ish years ago (including being the "church administrator" for the first three years), I resonate with most of this. We've always had great musicians, so not that part. I look forward to hearing more about your work and commend you for your honesty and transparency.
My thoughts/advice even though you didn't ask for it and even though all of it is probably already on your radar…
1) Recruit some older folks who are willing to be in this with you and who, because of their age, have probably been through some crazy stuff with other churches and have seen redemption from some ruins. Old people=good.
2) Spend most of your time/vision-casting energy with your leadership & encourage them to love and shepherd your congregation. Encourage your congregation to love and care for each other. One man can't do it alone. Twelve men can't even do it. Eventually something is going to hit the fan, so the more help and buy-in you have from your leadership from the beginning, the better. The more your comfortable your congregation is with caring for each other the better. Talking about developing leadership and actually doing it are two very different things. Talking about community and actually fostering it are two different things.
3) You will inevitably be worshiped by many in your congregation. Unfortunately that's the nature of the whole thing. So, I think it's crucial for you (and all pastors) to be intentional about having some people in your life who view themselves as "equals" and who aren't afraid to talk with you and your wife about your sin, your relationships, & how the gospel is working itself out in you personally and in your family.
@ Charlotte: Thank You. What great comments and suggestions. They also seem to be important and pertinent to ANY ministry, especially #2 and #3.
I would say this would be the same list of a new pastor at a church that is 50 years old. These are issues that we all find when interacting/leading with fallen people.
I look forward to you next few post. Keep it real.
I say Amen to your list.
I set out to have a radically different type of church. We had service on a day other than Sunday, decidedly did not have childcare, and a few other things. After a while you begin to realize . . ."Ohhhh, thats why traditional churches do it that way. Because it works better that way." I have to many of those moments.
We can throw stones all we want but sometimes it does not pay to re-invent the wheel.
@ Carl: Amen and Thank you. I really appreciate your honesty.
Hey bro, thanks for the insight! As a church planter in the making, I really appreciate that you are helping forge the pathway to the next generation of successful church planting! You are a legend in the making and I am honored to get all you your *many* tweets on my text messages!
Most of these hit home with me, but currently I am working through the training leaders. Identifying the right leaders and equipping them with expectation and vision is a large burden. It's very time intense, but so important.
That's just where I'm at right now.
Thanks Shaun.
Yes to 10 power
Are these issues more evident when Church planting is done without a headquarter Church or does it still exist whether it is an independent Church Planting or Organizational driven
One other thing I found harder than I thought was building up a youth group. Our church seems to draw in the 20-30 year olds, but no youth. If a family comes in with a couple of teens, they don't see any in the service and we don't see them a second time. We are focusing on outreach to the 5th-7th grade population throughout the summer by bringing extreme sporting events into the park every Thurs eve. Our hope is to come into the fall with a core group of 10-12 youth who will continue to meet on Thurs eves. Start-ups are very hard work indeed….but I love it.
Yeah, it sounds like you're struggling with many of the same things that fellow church planters are facing. We're in the early pre-launch stage but those are definitely things I'll be watching out for.
Like Jesse, I'd love to see you develop this post further and go into the specifics on why each of those ten things are difficult and what you have found out helps.
Michael-our church was planted by a church in our denomination & had all of these issues. Maybe some of our issues could have been avoided/less severe if more of the elders from the planting church were more involved. And if our pastor (who's no longer our pastor) had been thinking through all of these things.
Carl—AMEN! I moved to Atlanta 7 years ago, and my husband and visited LOTS of churches trying to find where God wanted us to be. I guess I had previously led a sheltered "church life" in the mid-size IL town I'm from, but I have never seen so many churches trying so hard to be so "contemporary" and "different". It seems that they've thrown the proverbial "baby out with the bath water". Some of the attempts at being different have been down right humorous, but many I've seen have been dismaying. Not EVERYTHING is wrong with the traditional church.
Oh my, the same applies in every way to starting new video venues. Every week, we need five full bands to pull it off. Lord send more musicians is our constant prayer.
I'd love to hear more on Fostering Diversity and also Sticking to the vision!
I would like to hear from you on the fostering diversity.
This is a big one to me and it seems that the least diverse place is in the church.
A lot of the arguments I have heard is that the area you live in has to be diverse for the church to be diverse. But it seems like this is a cop-out.
There seems to be a lot of big questions that come from this as well.
What kind of service do we do?
How do we create community in a diverse community?
i would love to hear your perspective on this issue.
As well as sticking to your mission.
This seems to be another great issue that seems to be very difficult to do.
Not only sticking to it, but finding a mission.
How do you do this? Do you do it with your core volunteers (come up with your mission)
Do you do it yourself and then give it to the church?
How do you follow the mission if it doesn't seem to work and not revert back to what you are comfortable with?
Hey Shaun,
Although I am not a church planter (at least not yet anyways), i find that in starting and developing (and even revamping a ministry, a lot of these issues come into play. I remember being given the charge the middle of my sophomore year to lead the most dynamic (at the time) campus ministry (the college gospel choir), and thinking to myself, "What the #3!! did i get myself into?" Even as someone who was/is a leader in ministry, a lot of what's on your list resonates with me, but I agree with Charlotte's post, spend time developing those that leader, and then train them to do the same (that's what's going on with me currently). And take a note from your sermon on Sunday…. "If any man lacks wisdom…… "
talk to you soon dude!
ten for ten shaun.
you nailed it.
experienced them all.
Thanks Steve! We'll keep pushing forward man. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. We're giving it everything we have!
Awesome quote! I will remember that one. Tell the 12 Stone crew I said hello!
Thanks Jesse! I am going to be posting some details about them soon and already started with my thoughts on diversity. Hope all is well man!
Thanks a ton Fred! Keep praying man!
Charlotte!
This was awesome advice. Every single piece of it was timely for me. God bless you.
Shaun
Hey Carl,
I wanted to send you a quick note to thank you for your honesty man. It meant a lot to me to read your reflections on how we try to reinvent the wheel!
Hey Judson! I'll be praying for you and your church planting success man! Keep praying and preparing!
I'll write more about this one this week Patrick.
Hey Darlene!
We're thinking creatively along these lines too. I'll keep you posted on what we do.
Hey Brad!
Check out the blog throughout this coming week and we'll really lay out some thoughts on the topics. Praying for you and the crew man.
Shaun
I will try to discuss these things on the blog this week my friend. Did you read the post on diversity? I am about to hop into the comments there too.
Talk to you soon man! Email me @ shaunking@courageous.tv if you will be available any Sunday's this month to play keys.
I have been camping all week, but am going to dive into the convo as well. Looking forward to it.
thanks for writing these post.
Hi Shaun – well it took me a few weeks to read this but after 2 1/2 yrs – I have to say Yes – Yes – Yes – it is harder than I thought – while so fulfilling at one level it just is so hard! Here it is 1:30 AM in AZ and I find myself reading this because tonight I am wrestling with how hard this is to plant a church..building the team and letting go of the details – so hard. Thank you for sharing your heart and I look forward to an ongoing dialogue about this – Your freind – Scott Helsel – Oasis Life Church – Maricopa AZ