Church Planting: The Whys, The Ups and Downs, and The Rewards

Why would anyone leave the security of a paid position at an established church in order to go into church planting? The obvious and possibly only valid answer is that they are called to it by God. If they are not called by God, they most likely will not last very long. However, there are often other underlying reasons. Some of these could be that:

1. they don't like the design of most established churches, which are based on the traditional model of congregational control, or even worse, committee control with a few key individuals  holding all of the real authority of the church;
2. they fell in love with a hurting community that has no real evangelical church;
3. they are tired of working with a senior pastor that is focused more on caring for the needs of the members rather than reaching the community around them (for reasons why senior pastors do this, see number 1 above);
4. they have a vision for something different than what they are currently doing;
5. they don't fit in with the typical church member who thinks that suits and ties make you holy;
6. they cringe when they overhear a member of an established church shush a guest because their baby is fussy, see an usher stop someone from bringing their coffee into the sanctuary, or observe a senior lady telling a visitor, "You are in my seat";
7. they see and understand that new churches reach more lost an unchurched people;
8. they cannot remember when they last had the opportunity to speak to an unchurched person because they are always at church for those unending meetings designed to determine how best to create additional meetings to discuss the exact same thing over and over and over;
9. they really like the idea of using a coffee shop as their office; or
10. they have a real desire to reach the unchurched, but doubt that those people would ever be welcome in their current church.

I obviously do not have all of the reasons why other people go into church planting, but I can tell you my reasons. I was called. Not like Abraham who heard God and followed in faith. Not like Moses who heard God and begged for another to take his place. Not like Paul who was struck blind in order to get his attention. I was called like Jonah who heard God's voice and ran.

God called me to be a pastor, not just a music director. I was always looking for ways to expand my ministry beyond just music. Most of my ministry years I tried to grow disciples in one way or another. We often opened our home to small groups of people in order to study some current discipleship material while at churches in 3 different states. I took every evangelism course I could from EE to CWT to FAITH and often taught these at our churches. I worked to create homeschool music programs or co-ops at our church in 2 states. I worked with associational and state offices in 3 states to design worship seminars.

After 30+ years as a pastor in the music ministry I knew that God was calling me to another area of ministry, but I did not want to go. God did not cast me into a big fish as he did Jonah, but I believe that He allowed my asthma to get to the point that it did so that music was a major effort. I had to quit playing the trumpet because it hurt to use the air support necessary to play. The last 3 years I led worship I was in pain every Sunday, often struggling just to get enough air to sing through one service (and we had 3 services each Sunday until my last year).

Finally, from deep inside the belly of my big fish, I cried out to God, "Enough! I can't take this anymore. What is it you want me to do? Just tell me and I will do it." The God said, "Get up! Go to the great city of Annapolis and preach the message that I tell you." So here I am.

Church planting is not easy. The first six months we were in Annapolis we questioned often if we had done the right thing. I had talked with many people and had not seen one person accept Christ or commit to participate with us for bible study. Every day I got up and went back out into the community praying that today would be the day. Everyday I went home wondering what I could do differently to reach our community.

Then all of a sudden we started to make our first real connections through relationships we had with people who knew people in our area. It was another Jonah moment for me. I sat under the plant that God had sprung up and wondered why nothing happened the way I thought it should happen. (No, I didn't want God to destroy Annapolis. Sheesh! Some of you people just have to take every analogy too far). I thought that God would use me and the words I spoke to excite people and draw them to Him, and yet people were coming in spite of me.

For the past 3 months all of our connections have been the result of another person in our church or someone outside of our church. Wendy connected with a woman who invited 3 additional families to join with us. I arrived at the coffee shop one morning and the baristas asked me to talk to a man that was in need of some help. A mom was dropping off her boy at bible study because he was invited by his friend. As I was asking her to fill out the forms for her son, a woman attending our bible study started telling her that she needed to stay also. So the next week this woman came back with her husband and they started attending regularly. Her husband then connected me with a couple that are their neighbors and they accepted Jesus.

My calling is definitely the largest reason why I went into church planting. I also had many other circumstances that led me to the point of accepting the calling. For years I had felt like Sisyphus pushing his boulder up the hill. I was getting tired of trying to lead traditionalists to follow God's Word rather than their own model for church leadership. I had grown weary of office politics. I was feeling out of place where I was and had no desire to go to yet another established church with the same issues and problems. Always the one who wanted to try something new and exciting at church, I was now ready to try something new and exciting in my own life.

Church planting has lots of downsides. There is no guarantee of a salary because I have to raise more than 80% of my own funding over three years during the planting process. This means that I may have to be a bi-vocational pastor (working a secular job and pastoring the church at the same time), especially if we do not get enough financial support from sister churches. If God had not given me a heart for the Eastport community, I definitely would not have chosen this site for a new church. More than likely the people we reach in this community will not be able to financially help our church become a self sustaining body. Most of them are barely making it by themselves or they are relying on government programs in order to make it.

Another major downside is that we have very few discipled Christians that can help us in the work. We started with just my family. Most of our people are new Christians or pre-Christians. This can also be a positive as it means we do not have people coming from unhealthy church backgrounds carrying all of that luggage with them. Most of our people have little to no experience with church prior to our church plant.

There are many days when I still wonder if we will survive as a church. Many church plants, like new businesses, do not succeed. God does not call a church planter to a short term fix, but rather to a long term process.

Regardless of the problems and uncertainties, there have been many wonderful moments. Seeing people come to Christ and baptizing new believers are on the top of the list. Listening to an 11-year-old ride by on his bike and yell, "Hey, Pastor Steve." Hearing a man attending our church telling someone from the community about "his church" and how we currently meet at the pastor's home, but that one day we will have our own building (not sure about that last part, but at least he has a vision). There is something special about running into one of our people in town and hearing them say, "See you Tuesday, Pastor," or the text message I got from someone telling me that she is bringing the snack this week, or when someone from our bible study stopped by our home to share about a friend that lost a baby and I could tell that she was really looking to me for some comforting words for herself.

These are rewards that money can't buy.