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5 Lessons Learned as a Church Planter

By Dustin Neeley

Many people share in the success stories of their church plants. Many church planters are quick to tell you the great things happening at their current campus. As encouraging as those stories are, it’s equally as important to hear about the mistakes that people made in their church planting so that we can learn from them. Here are five mistakes and the lessons I’ve learned as a church planter.

1. Don’t underestimate the difficulty of church planting, and don’t overestimate your own ability.

This point is a two-in-one, because there were really two lessons learned here. Don’t overestimate your own ability. Sometimes it’s easy to think that success from your current position at a church will carry over into your new idea. Some people even have the idea that they are God’s gift to church planting and will be able to succeed simply because they want to. It’s crucial to humble yourself to yourself, to the church, and before the Lord. Remember why you are church planting in the first place. Be faithful, be fruitful, and listen to God.

Don’t underestimate the difficulty of church planting. Ministry is hard, but, in some ways, church planting is even harder. When there is no building, no money, no resources, and no people, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the impossibility of the task at hand. However, it is in these moments that you find your true hope in the gospel. Church planting is difficult and hard work, and the more you prepare yourself for that, the better off you will be.

2. Don’t neglect your physical health.

When responsibilities start piling up left and right, it’s easy to push your physical health to the side. You start working out less, eating more fast food, and feel your energy slowly spiraling downward. Pounds pile on, and you don’t have the energy to get yourself into shape. However, church planting is very demanding physically. It will take a toll on your body. If you’re not eating well, sleeping well, and exercising often, it’s going to be harder for you. You have to prioritize your health. Church planting is a marathon, not a sprint, and you need to treat your body like you’re training for one.

3. Don’t work all the time.

Working all of the time will wear you out. In the beginning of church planting, you may be working long hours. Like 60-80 hours a week. But this lifestyle is not sustainable. You will quickly wear out and feel drained. This will eventually take a toll on your marriage and family life. When you’re home, put your phone down and be present with your family. Establish parameters that will help you cut your work life from your family life.

4. Don’t care too much about what everyone else thinks of you.

When planting a church, it’s important to realize where you place your identity. If you put your identity into the church plant, you will succeed with the church plant and fail with the church. In order to do your job well, your identity must foremost be rooted in the gospel.

5. Don’t serve from ecclesiastical whiplash.

If you’re going to make changes within your church, do it prayerfully, slowly, and deliberately. You have to be careful about how you share this information with your church. If they feel like they are being jerked in different directions with conflicting ideas and messages, they are going to be less likely to support the ideas.

By Mark Dance: One of the greatest joys of my ministry was planting a church in northeast Tennessee in 1991. I made several mistakes, which hopefully you can learn from the easy way, through my pain, not yours. These are not the only mistakes I made in the ten years I pastored that church, but they are the ones I regret the most.

1. I Stole Other Members’ Ministries 

Church planters are notoriously hands-on entrepreneurs. We like to be in the middle of the action and are often tempted into thinking that the success of our ministry revolves around us. A pastor’s job is not to perform all of the ministry, but rather train the saints in the work of ministry (Eph. 4:12).

2. I Hogged the Pulpit

I think my reluctance to share my pulpit was rooted in secret insecurities. I loved to preach, which is good, but it would have been better to have raised up other preachers.

And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also (2 Tim. 2:2).

Another bonus to shared preaching is staying fresh. Literally half of my time was spent preparing for three messages for four services each week, which was neither necessary nor biblical. Although today’s church planters are much less likely to prepare three messages, they are tempted to make themselves the star of the show by convincing themselves that it won’t go on without them.

3. I Cast Vision Inconsistently

This church plant was technically a replant, since there were eight remaining members left in the ashes of a struggling church which eventually called it quits. These survivors were joined by eight families who created a core team which relaunched as a completely different church with a new name.

One dirty secret of church planting is that most of the founding members are former members of other churches. Your members start day one with a preconception of what church should look like. Church planters need to cast a compelling vision so consistently that the members are able and willing to communicate it conversationally to new people as they arrive.

4. I Did Not Pursue a Mentor

Next week I will be posting a three part series on mentoring from the perspective of Paul, Barnabas, and Timothy. In this season as a church planter, I had plenty of ministry peers (Barnabas), and mentees (Timothy), but cannot think of one mentor (Paul) I reached out to. The initiative for mentoring starts with the mentee not the mentor, and I made the arrogant mistake of not pursuing this important relationship. 

5. I Focused Too Much on Buildings

My formative years were the 1980s, when churches believed that, “If you build it, they will come.” We spent a lot of time, energy, and money building and remodeling facilities. I don’t regret a dime that we spent, although I do regret spending so much of my personal time on these projects. Church planters need to see themselves as Ezras (priests), not Nehemiahs  (governors/builders). If you don’t have a trusted layperson to be your facility specialist, wait until you find one before you move forward.

6. I Neglected Personal Evangelism

Our first year exceeded everyone’s expectations for conversion growth. This sense of urgency was fueled by prayer and vision. After a few years of fruitful growth, we became comfortably stable, and my heart grew uncomfortably cold. We wasted several years on the treadmill of transfer growth, which was primarily my mistake.

Many things have changed about church planting since the nineties, which is why I want to encourage you to check out Ed Stetzer’s and Daniel Im’s Planting Missional Churches: Your Guide to Starting Churches that Multiply.