Ed Stetzer: Church Planting 101

so there you are you're a seminary student got to figure out what you're gonna do it's not the easiest path you might want to be a planter could I be a crazy idea I'm gonna be on a planting team you've sat down with your your husband your wife and said what do we need to do maybe you're single you've been talking to yourself into the Lord here's I would say here's what I would encourage you to consider first church planning not for everyone to do though I think it's for everyone to support so if God doesn't call you to be a church planter let me encourage your honest or splaying team let me encourage you to take some time and get your church involved in sponsoring churches according to some research we've done a life wave research only three percent of churches and a given year are sponsoring daughter churches and we will not see the world as our parish if basically we say we're going to reach the people here and we're not reaching them particularly frequently but we're gonna have to say we're going to be involved in church planting because because we want to we want to plant churches that plant churches that plant churches but then it's you so you are you supposed to be on a planning team where you supposed to be a lead planter or a pastor so how do you figure that out well let me just share with you that over the years what we found is there are processes to help with this this is actually a passion of mine I actually wrote my PhD dissertation on this topic the development of church planting systems that would assist church planners in being effective I actually for later on for a research project for leadership network I read all the all the books in the English language all the doctoral dissertations anything this language publishes the 50s on church planning and one of things we found is this is before the 90s pretty much all church planning was here's how your church sends out people to start a church but something shifted in the mid 90s it became less about church planting and more about the church planter and I think that was a helpful shift because I saw a lot of church planters I planted my first church in 1988 I saw a lot of church planners kind of rush up against a brick wall fail it impacted their marriages and impacted spiritual life it was detrimental at times and so I don't want you to be a church planting casualty I don't want you to be in the church planting graveyard because it impacts everything impacts the kingdom the reputation of the church in the community but probably importantly for you as you're considering church finding it impacts you and your in your marriage and your family in your faith so here's what I would do first I would get around some mentors if you're in a seminary program I'm recording this at Asbury seminary that is right now has some some good ambitious and encouraging goals to to begin their church planning program I would get around some people who know church planning let them speak into your life let them hear from you and you hear from them and and I think that that's exceedingly helpful because it lets us have kind of a realistic estimate of who we are and how we're wired but then I would begin something a little more formal I would do training has Barry offers courses on many summers offer courses that will give you kind of first step so I would begin to take some training if you're not instant remember that's watching this online you can take online courses I have online courses that you can find in just google my name in church planning there others and and got to get a feel because when you begin to hear people talk about church planning something's gonna happen in either you're going to be like oh yeah it sounds pretty awesome you were like oh no and so that's going to help me that's going to be a self assessment of sort but then I enter a more formal process I would probably as a kind of a preliminary indicator I would take the church planner candidate assessment that's a tool that we actually developed at LifeWay research first research validated tool of its kind and we tested it on successful church planners to look for characteristics that they had that were measurable on an online test and it's it's it's a pretty good instruments reliable and so you may take that and say you know what I I look at these graphs and I don't line up at all you might find it say you know I do and then that's then you go on to the next step right you can google just church planter candidate assessment life way you can find that no problems are my name it Stetzer but then I would go through and I would sit down and I would sit down either with your denomination or someone at the seminary some of the seminary may refer you to some of them denomination and say I need to get a more formal assessment that will typically be an hour interview some times more robust ones for hours sometimes it's a several day church planter assessment weekend or assessment several days I will tell you you know our church I've planted a church couple years ago we're sending out a church planter that we sent we sent them to a three-day assessment cost us $1,000 to do this why because if I'm going to send out the mill John and Amy Mills to go plan a church I want to make sure that they're successful our investment of them is wisely stewarded that they are cared for and encouraged and III want eyes other than mine to say that they're right for church planning and by the way they were they're going to be planning to church so it's good so I would go a pre-assessment preliminary assessment the church planner candid assessment and then a formal assessment then what I would do is I would take training again if you take horses you're a seminar like Asbury take the courses if you're not at a seminary like Asbury or even if you are you can take something like a bootcamp or a basic training or some sort of short course they're available all over denominations do them networks do them and you'll basically take two to three days and what you want to you don't want go to an inspirational one well that's not true I mean it's good to go to inspirational church planting things but you need one that's going to say here a six steps to build a core group here are five ways to find a facility here are nine ways nine systems you need to have in place before you start public worship so it's it's not you know all these inspiring stories about these implausibly fast growing churches that's great for another day what you need is you need vegetable training you need to know what you need to plant the church effectively so the next step would be all right so you got your preliminary assessment you've got your Hughes Church mark and an assessment or something like that you've got a formal assessment you've got a bootcamp or basic training they're called different things and then following that you enter into some sort of coaching relationship you're in a network they'll often have coaching if not a denomination will often have coaching if not find a coach ask somebody will pour into your life and say can you help me can you guide me and can you coach me through this process in in my research this is was this seven years old now so but I'm guessing it still holds to some reality when we compared church planners who had gone through seminary and gone through training and then got coached to those who've gone through seminary and got training and then didn't get coached when we compared the two compared to no coach compared to weeding me quitte coach the attendance was double after four years between the coach church planner and the not coached church planner so you are missing a huge opportunity blessing if you don't take the time to get coached and this is the tricky part if you're a church planner you're probably a little bit averse to coaching because yourself starter you're a maverick you're a pain sorry I didn't mean say allowed but I'm one right I've planned six churches and so but but what I would say is is you need that because you're not as wise discerning and gifted as you probably think you are have someone speak into your life get a coach I would also get a next I get a learning community with others maybe your denomination or network is too small to have one in your town but there's almost certainly one in your town there's there you're in Cleveland well usually we don't have a group in Cleveland why I tell you the the Baptist's ever grew up in Cleveland the the Presbyterians have a group of New York City the the the Pentecostals have a group in Seattle and so find that group hang with them if you're not of them you can still you're still in the same body of Christ right so so get and learn because you're going to find that you're going to suddenly find yourself encountering situations that normal churches and normal passengers don't you know normal pastors normal churches aren't dealing with well the movie theater is giving us a problem about there want to show movies earlier and we got to get out sooner yes it's all do how do you do it you got to have friends who are in the church planning journey can help you on that on that pathway and so so so we've got pre-assessment we've got assessment we've got boot camp we've got coaching and then the end result is fifthly fifthly is i would say and i wanted to consider this is that you would have a reproduction plan from the beginning in other words you're planning to plant and within three years to year one year to year i don't know but but for us on the first sunday that our church started we started to have years ago first sunday i said and we will be planting a church i announced it the first sunday why because we want to be born pregnant we wanted the first day we began to be born pregnant so perfect just a couple days ago we planned our mission team to cross-cultural mission team know the continent and so we're intentionally building in reproduction in our church we want to plant churches that plant churches that plant churches if you're a if you're a pastor and watching this thank you if you're a church planter either way don't let your church become a cul-de-sac on the great commission highway plant churches that plant churches that ultimately plant churches so the journey of church planning is a it's a challenging one what's a worthwhile one i wouldn't trade it for the world i i'm not just a church funding I do research I write books on Church of oscillation I've let some churches through it but I love church planning I love church planners and so I want you to succeed I want you to bring glory to God I want you to preach the gospel I want women and men to hear the gospel and to be changed by its power and I want your church to grow and then plant churches that plant churches that plant churches so I pray for you literally I pray for planners regularly I pray for you on this journey that God would guide and that you would follow and ultimately he would receive his reward

Channel: Seedbed

Views: 28,257

Rating: 4.7268291 out of 5

Keywords: Seedbed, Christianity, Asbury Theological Seminary, Ed Stetzer, Church Planting, Church

Id: n5xsqrCjAMA

Length: 9min 30sec (570 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 06 2014