Showing posts with label Coaching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Coaching. Show all posts

1 8 Reasons Why Church Plants Fail (part 3 of 8) - No Plan

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Reason 3. No Strategic Plan

The idea of an entrepreneur starting a business without a strategic plan is clearly a recipe for disaster.  While that might be true, church planters have been starting churches without strategic plans for decades.  With the printing of "The Purpose Driven Church" and "Unchurched Harry and Mary" in the 90's, as well as several strategic books on the nuts and bolts of church planting, the need for strategic planning in church plants became obvious.  Even with the obvious need for creating a strategic action plan, few church planters were equipped or intelligent enough to create a plan on their own.

One of the most common questions I am asked is, "Did you ever think that BridgeWay would become everything it is today?"  While it might sound slightly arrogant, my answer is yes.  Yes. I had no doubt that BridgeWay would become the church it has become today.  The biggest reason is that even before we met with the launch team for the first time, we already had a picture of what God had called our church to become.  This picture was so clear that on our Grand Opening Sunday I shared a vision statement for our church.  Reading the statement today, it sounds very much like the church that we have become.

One thing I can tell you is that it didn't happen by accident.  It happened as people prayed.  Sought God's direction.  Read tons of books.  Trained like crazy. Put the plan on paper.  And then began to execute with intensity.

If you're planning on planting a church.  Please don't do so until you've created a strategic action plan.

So how can a church planter learn how to create a Strategic Action Plan?

1. Pray.  I'm not just saying this to get it out of the way.  I truly believe that lack of a unique God inspired vision is a primary factor in church failures.
2. Read the Bible.  Study the gospels and look at what Jesus did.  Read the book of Acts and witness what a Holy Spirit filled church looks like.  Consider the letters of the New Testament and uncover the essence of Christian community and ministry.
3. Read Church Planting Books & Blogs.  Read like crazy.  Absorb everything you can on church planting and ecclesiology.  In another post I'll share some of the best books and most helpful blogs for church planters.
4. Attend a Church Planter's Boot Camp or New Church University Event.  These events are designed to give you the basic skills needed to create an actionable strategic plan.  You can check for upcoming New Church University opportunities here.
5. Visit Other Church Plants.  Get an up close insiders look at what goes on inside of an existing church plant.  We've had several people check out BridgeWay on a weekend, and some who've even taken an entire day to spend with our staff.
6. Get a Qualified Coach.  I know I beat this drum a lot. But one of the greatest benefits of a qualified coach is that they can help you refine your action plan, and hold you accountable for implimenting it. 
So what about you?  Have you seen the benefit of having a plan?  Have you seen the danger in moving forward without a plan?

0 8 Reasons Why Church Plants Fail (part 2 of 8) - No Network

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8 Reasons Why Church Plants Fail 

Reason 2. Lack of an Established Network

The most common form of church planting, at least until the 1990's was the "parachute drop" church plant.  Much like the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan, the church planter would be dropped into a hot zone with little hope of survival.  Typically the planter and their family would move to a target area, and begin trying to establish some sort of a beachhead, usually with little outside support, and with no preexisting relationships established in the community.  As you can imagine the survival rates were not good.

The same thing is still largely true today.  Many well meaning planters move their families hundreds of miles, into communities where they have no established network, and expect to be able to develop a great church from nothing.

One common factor that I've seen in successful church plants is that they have a preexisting network, a platform if you will, within the community they are planting.  We've definitely seen this to be true in planting BridgeWay.  While Steph and I had no established network when we moved to Illinois, we lived and worked in the area for 3 years prior to the launch of the church.  During that time we were able to develop relationships within the parent church (another critical factor I'll address in another post), within the community, and with other Christians who were interested in planting a new church.

Recently, Harvest Bible Chapel out of Chicagoland launched a church in the Peoria area.  They had a strong network of interested Christians, and a great platform in James MacDonald's "Walk in the Word" radio broadcast.  The results have been a strong new church.

So what can a church planter do to establish a network prior to launching a new church?

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2 8 Reasons Why Church Plants Fail (part 1 of 8)

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For years people have been throwing around a bogus statistic stating that "80% of church plants fail within the first 2 years"...that statistic is simply false.  The truth is that after 4 years 68% of church plants are alive and well (see Ed Stetzer's research on this).  While that's encouraging, it still means that 32% fail. While many more are not reaching their full redemptive potential.

So what causes a church plant to fail?  What keeps church plants from reaching their full potential?

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