The Questions I get asked about Church Planting and what I wish people would ask
When booking something like a trip away or an experience there is often a part on the website that says ‘Commonly asked Questions.’ I used to run a youth camp and every year parents would ask the same questions. What time do we need to arrive for the coach, how much money does my child need to take, how do I get hold of my child while away etc. If I wasn’t careful in the lead up to the youth camp, I could end up spending all my time on my phone answering questions. The larger the youth group grew the more difficult this got and so I was forever trying to preempt questions and have them written in a booklet that I could hand to someone to read rather than feel like I was some kind of broken record that was stuck making the same noise over and over!
I have found on my church planting journey that this is very much the same. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love the fact that people are interested enough in my journey to ask me questions but I have noticed a theme when receiving these which is that I often feel frustrated. It’s not the person’s fault but more that the questions make certain assumptions about church planting and the methodology around this. So, I thought I’d share some of these questions as well as what I wish people asked instead. Maybe it will help to explain how I am approaching church planting….
Q1: “When are you launching?” Or “When are you actually starting?”
Unless I am reading the book of Acts wrong, I don’t find any specifically planned ‘launch days’. Now, of course, we could say Acts 2, when the Holy Spirit came but I don’t think the disciples were there ready with a welcome team and balloons - the Holy Spirit came and broke out in ways they did not expect! Please don’t take this as a criticism of what many do, but on my own journey I am trying to question the motives behind what we do. The launch of a church is often a time where those who may not necessarily be part of your church in the long term come to support you with a ‘big bang’. There are pros for this of course like having lots of people in that first gathering to pray and worship with you and set the tone, but we know of course that the following week they won’t be there. Many ‘church planters’ would say they seemed to do well that first Sunday but then things dipped after that, leaving them somewhat disillusioned and asking if this was really what they were meant to be doing. I am questioning what ‘launching’ means. If I wish to focus the church planting on gathering a group of Jesus followers then yes, maybe a Sunday launch service would be the first point of call, but for me, I feel so challenged to think about reaching the lost first. Those who don’t come to church on a regular basis won’t quite see the launch of a service as necessarily the thing to go to - why would they? For me, launching is walking the streets of an area that is on our heart to infiltrate with the gospel. Launching is praying. Launching is meeting people who live in the area. Launching is loving an area.
One meaning in the dictionary of ‘to launch’ is to ‘start or set in motion.’ So, if people asked this question of what does the launch of a church plant look like for you, I would answer the following; It looks like prayer - walking through an area and seeing what God sees. Intentionally understanding the needs and praying into them. The launch starts in the spiritual realm. I’ve had some friends offer to come to the launch, so I’m going to ask them to come and pray with me. I’m planning to have 3 months of intentional prayer launching. I want to see us as a team set in motion what is to come.
Q2: Do you have a building yet?
This question assumes that to be a legitimate church you need a building. Again, please hear my right, I am NOT against having a church building. If used correctly, a building can be a great resource. However, I do feel at times that a building can limit the mission mindset of a church and feed into the ‘come here’ rather than ‘go out there’ way of thinking. Without a building, you are somehow forced to consider how to get into a community. With a building you can at times become preoccupied with the running of it that you forget there is a world in need outside. I feel I could at this stage get shouted down by all the pastors with buildings. I’m not criticising but trying to think a little out the box. Without a building I am forced to be creative. Without a building, I have to look around for spaces that people could gather. There is something about this that excites me. I recently spoke with a pastor who had been hiring a nightclub for church. Saturday night would be filled with people dancing the night away without a thought of God and then Sunday morning the people of God would gather. There is something profound to me about that. I’m sure it wasn’t always easiest to run church there but for a season they were able to take the presence of God into a place that was never built for the purpose of encountering Him.
For me, I would answer, ‘not important’. Identifying places within the community that we could gather is far more vital. I have really felt God speak to me about us starting with multiplication. That means looking at more than 1 area. Practically speaking, I am in London and to buy 2 or 3 properties in one go would be laughable! Of course God can do anything, but if we want to constantly be multiplying maybe hiring space for the time being is a bit more manageable. There is one cafe I have spotted that I think would be a great place to host a gathering. It has buddha’s dotted around and there are a lot of ‘new age’ activities that take place there. What better place to take the presence of Jesus?!
Q3: So, will you be the Pastor? Are you doing this on your own?
Some version of these questions always gets asked and there are often a number of assumptions behind them. Firstly, to be frank, I am a single woman. I think sometimes the question really being asked is ‘will you as a woman be the lead pastor?’ At other times the question really being asked is ‘Are you doing this as a single woman?’ And finally, the other question really being asked is ‘do you have any accountability or have you lost the plot and are going off on your own!?’ I can’t imagine a man being asked when he tells people he is planting ‘so, will you be the pastor?’ I’m not having a ‘fight for all women’ rant, but I do want to challenge the assumptions in these questions.Years ago now, I was at a conference about church planting with a great organisation that equips those wanting to plant. I noticed however that they would only support married couples. I remember at the time naively thinking ‘hopefully if I ever plant I will be married by then.’ When I look at the new testament, church planters were not all male, married men. They weren’t even all couples. In fact, the first key people to go off and plant were Barnabas and Paul. A mentor and a mentee. Priscilla and Aquila were a married couple serving together but it is interesting that Priscilla is mentioned first suggesting she was the more prominent lead. Timothy, a young man, led a church. There isn’t really a set pattern to who God uses - that's obvious throughout the bible.
I don’t think I’ve ever been asked this question but I know how I’d answer. Firstly, planting a church is not about ‘me’. It’s not about my role as a pastor. It’s about a group of believers taking the gospel into an area that needs to hear about Jesus. I would explain that I see my role as a leader in ‘equipping the saints for works of service.’ (Ephesians 4:12). I would explain that I am gathering a team of believers, sharing vision and heart and hopefully inspiring them to reach a community with the love of Jesus. I might also throw in the belief that God chooses anyone He likes to serve him - male or female, single or married or any other label you can think of!
Q4: Are you planting out of a church?
This is another common assumption question. It assumes that the only way to plant is out of a large church that has the resources and finance to make it happen. I think the question is also a concern from people that you are becoming a ‘lone ranger’ and going off and doing your own thing because you don’t like to come under anyone’s authority. For many, planting out of a well-resourced church is the perfect way to go about it and it definitely provides a level of safety and support. This is just not my reality however. I believe there are some that God has given a unique calling to, to do something different and to step out in faith without the safety net to fall back onto ‘if everything goes wrong.’ The new testament churches didn’t necessarily have a 1000 strong church that they were planting out of, but there was strong apostolic oversight. That was the role Paul fulfilled for so many. He would visit the churches, input, support the leaders, pray for, encourage and challenge.
If people were to ask me this question, I would be able to answer them quite clearly. I have ensured that I have leaders in my life who are apostolically minded. People who have paved the way before me and are modelling what it is to church plant or lead in a local church. Before I started anything, I set up a team of 4-6 people who I asked to be accountable to. I send them bi-monthly reports, I meet with them every few months, I allow them into my world and I ask them to ask me the hard questions. I also have a trustee team who are supporting me from a legal and financial point of view. I am also part of a movement of churches. I also have friends in my life who can ask the hard questions. So, yes, I am supported. I am accountable. I think this is important for any church leader. I would humbly ask all leaders to consider what accountability they have, not just church planters - I have found many have very little. Maybe this is something for the whole church to look at?
Q5: When are you going to get going?
This question suggests I am going too slow. One of the things I am most grateful for, for those I am accountable to, is the lack of ‘push’ to ‘get things going’. I am by nature a planner. I can put together a strategic plan with timescales with a fair amount of ease - in fact I quite enjoy it. But I am trying to learn with church planting that this is not a race against the clock. I was watching the Olympics the other day and it was a long race. Round and round the track they ran. The person out the front at the start was not at the front at the end. There was a strategy to taking it slow until there was a need to sprint to the finish. For 34 years of my life, I gave my life to a particular town. To allow my heart to let go of that place and focus on another place has taken time. Hours and hours of time alone with God, walking and driving through unfamiliar streets. Time seeing the people of a new area and learning to love it. Just personally I have needed time let alone for any other reason. I am trying to learn to just take each step as the Holy Spirit leads.
This question is a much easier way of asking ‘what's next?’ In fact I don’t even have to answer with time restraints. I can say, ‘our next steps are…’ I love the verse in Psalm 119:105 ‘Your Word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.’ If you have ever walked along with a lamp or even just a torch you will know, it is not a flood light. It just lights up the steps in front of you or the area directly around you. This verse reminds me of that. I am living in the most beautiful church planting phase at the moment in that I never know what God might do next. I was sitting in a conference recently, had my bible open and suddenly it was like God downloaded the next steps. Ironically it had nothing to do with what the speaker was saying but it was like God shone a torch in front of me and said ‘This is next.’ I call this stage beautiful because it's the only word I can think of to adequately describe what it's like walking with Jesus in this season of life. Nothing is predictable but it's ‘oh so refreshing!’ I’m sure there will come a time where a strategic written plan may be more necessary but for now, the pioneering adventure is just following Jesus at every stage.
So in conclusion, I hope I’ve not offended anyone in this blog and if you have asked me some of these common questions I'm not mad at you haha! Even if inadvertently you were asking if it was possible for a woman to plant a church! I do hope though it has shed some light on some common assumptions around church planting. I think the church of the future will look gloriously different. I think there will be large and small expressions, churches in all sorts of random places, churches reaching all sorts of different people in different ways. I hope we as the church will be ready to embrace all sorts of ways of planting in order to reach people with the gospel.
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