Three hot shots from 20 years of conversations

For nearly 20 years, I’ve spent much time with church planters and would-be church planters. When Cindy and I began exploring the possibility of planting, I talked to several to try to understand a sub-culture of ministry leadership that seemed mysterious and ethereal. When it became undeniably clear that our future involved planting a church in Buckeye, Arizona, I contacted every church planter I knew and asked them for an hour of their time so I could learn something about what I was about to undertake.

From my earliest days as a practitioner to a vocational investment in serving church planters in a catalytic role, I’ve had hundreds of conversations with dozens of church planters. Even today, though my work involves a broader scope of para-church missions mobilization, I occasionally find myself in the company of church planters.

Some of those conversations were responses to many and varied questions from those exploring the early steps of church planting, as I did in 2004. Some involved aiding a church planter as they refined their calling and settled on a specific community in which to invest their lives and efforts. Some conversations were painful. Many of those centered around the news that our mission-sending network would soon end funding for their work.

Reflecting on those hundreds of conversations, here are some leadership principles that, while specifically applicable to those who might plant churches, are generally applicable to other leaders.

Lead those who will follow. More than once, I encountered men who wanted to plant a church in a community of people who would not follow them. While not exclusively so, it was often a case of a guy who wanted to plant in an affluent community filled with people of significantly higher socio-economic strata.

More than once, I had to have a difficult conversation with a guy to warn him that people there would not follow him. During our last two years in Chicago, we worked to plant a church in the South Loop. Yet, after about 20 months of varied efforts, it became undeniably clear to me that the people of our neighborhood were not following. I had to take the advice I had given to several others.

Lead leaders. In our earliest days of church planting, I was green, ignorant, and clueless. We were diligent and persistent but often uncertain about how Crosspointe would take root and shape. After seven months of hard work and nothing substantial to show for it, I was thrilled to see anyone with a pulse show up for a Bible study. Thankfully, we eventually had some capable, credible leaders move into the Tartesso, express some interest, and ultimately invest themselves and their leadership abilities in making the vision of Crosspointe a reality. At the time, I wasn’t smart enough to look for those leaders and pursue them. But they found us.

Since then, I have noticed that church planters who can cast a compelling vision for a new church and have capable, credible leaders take ownership of that vision and invest themselves in it are fruitful and effective. Those who gather only followers have always struggled. And I know of none of those whose church plants are still gathering or functioning.

A leader cannot be content with leading followers. They must be able to lead other leaders.

Learn to discern the difference between adjusting our strategy and abandoning our mission and vision. Many tactical efforts we made in planting Crosspointe showed no fruit. Some things we tried and only tried once. However, we never abandoned our mission and vision to lead others to be transformed, ever-maturing followers of Jesus. Our leadership team protected me from being distracted and forsaking it.

Since then, I have seen too many church planters get distracted by good things or seemingly great opportunities that led them to abandon their mission and vision. A friend who was planting a church in another state once called me and shared how a nearby church pastor pitched the idea of their churches merging into one. After hearing him explain that opportunity with the same giddiness of a fiance who has just gotten a ring from her future husband, I warned him that doing so would mean that the vision of one of these young churches would have to die. And I asked if he was willing to invest himself in bringing the vision of the other church to fruition. “If you’re unwilling to abandon what you set out to do, I’d advise you against it.”

Making adjustments in our strategy to fulfill the mission is reasonable. However, leaders must be wise enough to know when a great opportunity is, in reality, a temptation to abandon what we set out to accomplish.

What about you? Are you attempting to lead people who will not follow you? Who can help you determine if that is the case? Are you leading followers or leading leaders? How can you learn to lead leaders? How can you develop leaders among the followers you may have today? What adjustments do you need to make to your strategy? What temptations do you face to abandon your mission and vision?

Enjoy your weekend.

The views and opinions expressed in my Thursday Thoughts on Leadership are my own. They do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or policies of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina or any affiliated churches.