Okay, so I started this series and called it "5 Bad Reasons to Plant a Church", but the real question my friend asked was, "Give me 5 reasons I shouldn't plant a church?"
So since I'm the author of this thing I thought I'd change the series to "Five Reasons Not to Plant a Church". (Hey if you don't like it...don't read it) ;) - yes I just used a smiley in a blog post...you want to make something of it!
Reason #3 - You Lack Courage
Now I'm not talking about being scared by the thought of starting something new. I'm not even talking about worrying about if it will work or not.
What I'm talking about is lacking the courage to call for commitment, deal with conflict, and battle church trolls.
If you're going to plant a church you'll have to regularly challenge people to commit themselves to Jesus, to participate in the life of the church, to sacrifice their personal preferences for the good of others.
If you're going to plant a church you'll have to regularly address conflict, shut down gossip, protect the mission and vision of the church, and ensure that the church is led by people who love Jesus more than themselves (it's harder than you'd think).
If you're going to plant a church I promise you will find yourself in a battle with a church troll at some point. What's a church troll? It's someone who attempts to use their power, position, time of service, money, or other means to bully you into doing what they want you to do. If you're not ready to fight that battle, I recommend you save yourself the pain, stress, and sleepless nights and go get a nice quiet job where you can keep your head down, collect a paycheck, and hopefully retire someday. (fortunately there are not many of those jobs out there, so you'll likely get the chance to suck it up and learn how to lead at some point)
http://daleschaeffer.blogspot.com/2010/10/five-reasons-not-to-plant-church-3-you.html?showComment=1288638136783#c774779541194701966'> 14:02
"What I'm talking about is lacking the courage to call for commitment, deal with conflict, and battle church trolls."
As a pastor who has served existing, established churches (including one failed church-plant), those are issues ALL pastors must face and have the courage to work through...
Maybe the title of this particular post could be "#3 Reason Not to be a Pastor." :)
Love you, brother!
Mark
http://daleschaeffer.blogspot.com/2010/10/five-reasons-not-to-plant-church-3-you.html?showComment=1288665864580#c6832758663496906899'> 21:44
Mark,
I'd definitely agree with you. I mention it here because I've talked to several people who are considering planting because they think it will keep them from having to address conflicts like these. That somehow if they can start with a group of people who "get it" they will never have to do the tough work that so many pastors of existing churches face every day.
One of the misconceptions planters sometimes have is that those kinds of things only happen in established traditional churches.