I’ve been involved in the planting of two churches now and I’ve learnt a few things along the way, but I’m still learning. Here are some lessons from other church planters and then some thoughts on common themes.

• Tom O’Toole writes on 4 things to cut from your church budget and 3 to include
• Steve Vaughan shares 11 lessons from church planting in Dublin
• Dan White on 5 good choices he made in his first year of church planting
• Matt Simmonds discovers that church planting is all about hospitality

So, if you read them all you may spot some common themes. Here are the ones I noticed and some comment on each.

Bi-Vocational church planters

All of the writers either are bi-vocational or are advocating it. It is increasingly clear to me that the days of fully-funded church planters are over and that the norm will be for church planters to have a paying job while planting a church. Currently there is not yet enough training into this. You can find more on this from me here

MEET OTHER CHURCH LEADERS

Tom says buy a Starbucks card, Steve says network, Dan says get coffee and Matt’s post is all about hospitality as a result of talking to another church leader. Your church plant is not THE answer to the spiritual state of your city. Our church is not THE answer, but THE church is THE answer and we want to both be a part of that and take the time (as much as possible) to connect with other parts of the body of Christ.

SUSTAINABILITY

Steve opens with time management, Dan finishes with a rhythm to life and to make space for Tom’s Barbeque and Matt’s dinner plus remember that you’re working another job. So you have to develop a pace of life, an understanding that some things will develop slower. Your church plant will cook more like a slow cooker than a microwave. This is, I think, much better for your soul and reminds me that building the church must be a work of Jesus’ before it is any work of mine.