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Six Mistakes as a Church Planter

By Mark Dance

My first two churches would be considered replants by today’s definition. Although both started and ended well, I made a lot of mistakes along the way. Most people will forget about your ministry mistakes over time because love really does cover a multitude of sins. But sometimes our failures help us—and others—to grow, which is why I wrote this post for you.

Here are the six mistakes I regret the most.

1. I stole other members’ ministries. 

I am ashamed to say that in my enthusiasm to plant successfully, I outright stole other members’ ministries by doing too much of it myself. 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 for the work of ministry” (Eph. 4:12).

A maturing pastor will equip people instead of enabling them.

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 freshness. Literally half of my time was spent preparing 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.

My 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 little secret of church planting is that most of the founding members are former members of other churches. They may have taken a break to shop around, but that does not qualify these shoppers as “unchurched.”

Regardless of what your people’s church background it, most will 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.

In my first decade of ministry, I had plenty of ministry peers, and mentees, but cannot think of one mentor who I reached out to. The initiative for mentoring starts with the mentee not the mentor, and I made the arrogant rookie mistake of not pursuing this important relationship earlier.

5. I focused too much on buildings.

My formative years were the late 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 have no regrets about any of those  buildings, although I do regret investing so much personal time on those projects.

Church planters need to see themselves as Ezras (priests), not Nehemiahs (builders). If you don’t have a trusted layperson to lead that charge, wait until you find one before you move forward.

6. I neglected personal evangelism.

My first two churches exceeded everyone’s expectations for conversion growth, including my own. Our sense of urgency was fueled by prayer and vision, but after a few years of fruitful growth, we became comfortably stable. Also my heart grew uncomfortably cold after the initial buzz wore off. All three churches I have served wasted too many years on the treadmill of transfer growth, which was primarily my mistake. These seasons were temporary, but they cannot be reclaimed.

These are not the only mistakes I made in my early years of church planting and replanting, but they are the ones I regret the most. What are some of the mistakes you made in your first decade of ministry?

Home > Blog > What Is Bivocational Ministry?

What Is Bivocational Ministry?

By Hugh Halter

My wife and I have served in bivocational ministry for over 25 years. With our first church plant, we served in the inner city, so we often faced the pressure of “Do we take more money from the church or do we spread out the leadership and help people benevolently in our community?” Looking back over the years, I don’t recall ever taking more than one-third of my salary from our church budget. So, I’m guessing you want to know how I’ve made it work as a bivocational minister?

What is bivocational ministry?

When you think about bivocational ministry, you cannot think of it as doing two things poorly. That’s how most people view bivocational ministry. Many would say, “I’m not quite good enough to get a full salary from my church, and I’m not that good at business, so I’ll just try to do two things in a really lousy fashion and survive.” That’s not what bivocational means.

Bivocational ministry means you’re intentionally leveraging all of life into one calling. It’s not a single option, one-size-fits-all story. Bivocational really is any way to get it done. Getting it done isn’t just paying the bills. Getting it done is building the team and establishing a way of ministry that other people can follow. If you are able to multitask, enjoy doing different things, intentional about how you plan your schedule, and communicate well with your spouse, then you will likely love bivocational ministry.

Over the years, our financial buckets have varied from a combination house painting, driving a delivery truck, writing books, and/or raising financial support, along with some financial support from the church. Most of the time, we weren’t juggling serving our church and one job. We were juggling serving our church and many jobs.

Smart Jobs vs. Not-so-smart Jobs

Many of you have probably tried a job and thought, “Man, that was a bad job.” There is a difference between smart jobs and not-so-smart jobs for bivocational ministers. Smart jobs typically involve making a substantial amount of money relatively quickly or connecting you to a lot of people.

You must know your gifts and abilities to find a job that best fits you as you serve in bivocational ministry. For me, I’m evangelistic and like to be with people, so a bad job would be one that puts me in a cubicle running numbers. However, for some of you, that same job may sound appealing and fit your gifts and skills.

I once talked to a megachurch teaching pastor who regretted giving up his real estate company because he felt called to ministry as a teaching pastor. He later resigned his church salary, remained an unpaid teaching pastor, and went back into the real estate business because it enabled him to engage people in his community and financially support his family and church. This bivocational teaching pastor/real estate agent found a way to get it done and leverage all of life into his calling.

And when you find a smart job, don’t overlook developing your skills or trade. You should invest in and develop your skills just as much as you develop your theology.

What should a church pay you to do?

If you’re serving in a team-based bivocational ministry, you should get paid for what you can do or what no one wants to do for your church and community. Don’t ask for a title or position and the subsequent financial remuneration, and don’t base it on a hierarchy or years of service.

I know a church that has an all bivocational ministry team. Each role is compensated based on total weekly hours given to the church and community. In this church, the director of the church’s homeless shelter is paid more than the teaching pastor because the director role requires more hours in community involvement and engagement.

Remember that serving in bivocational ministry allows you to architect the life you want to live. Commit to your church the things that are unique to your skill set and commit to your trade to financially support your family and get to know the people in your community. That’s how to best leverage all of life into your bivocational ministry calling.

This content by Hugh was adapted from our Bivocational Ministrycourse. Are you leading in ministry with limited time and resources? Are you wrestling through the joys and pain of bivocational ministry? Check out our Bivocational Ministry course and access 14 modules to help you leverage all of life into your calling as a bivocational minister.

By Daniel Im: I know it’s hard to believe, but pastors are human too. Like the rest of us, pastors are susceptible to believing lies. Lying is the native language of our heart, which started back in the Garden of Eden. Although pastors constantly teach about truth and love, they also wrongly assume that they are not susceptible to lies. It’s easy for pastors to consume themselves with the lies that the congregation believes and urge them to see the truth of God’s Word. However, it takes a strong pastor to realize the lies that they believe themselves.

Dayton Hartman first had this realization in seminary when he looked at fellow seminary students and questioned how they could believe lies about themselves and their ministry. From there, he started cataloging the lies that he believes and wrote a book to help pastors navigate through this uncharted territory.

Lies Pastors Believe

One of the most prevalent lies that pastors believe is that they must earn their worth. Pastors start to view their identity by achieving a respectable goal and gaining affirmation through achievement. Many pastors forget that they are affirmed in Christ and want to pursue avenues of ministry that other people will affirm them in. Some pastors lived radically sinful lives before they were saved by Jesus and feel the need to achieve a great ministry goal to earn God’s favor. This lie was Dayton’s motivation to write Lies Pastors Believe.

One way for pastors to fight against the lie of the achiever is to seek biblical counseling. It is crucial for a pastor to have a safe place to feel comfortable talking through their struggles. An advisory council needs to be able to ask the pastor the hard questions. What is your motivation? What are you trying to achieve? Without this help, pastors go on believing the lies that their worth is the goals that they achieve or the churches that they plant.

The infamous “Castaway Lie” tends to lead to pastors putting themselves on an island. There’s a lie that by being a pastor, you are not allowed to be a friend to your co-workers. People believe that by being a friend to your team, you are undermining your leadership. Pastors will destroy their leadership team if they choose to operate on their own.

Pastors need to build community with the leadership team. It’s important to move in unison and live life together. That is the gospel community at play. However, if the senior pastor is unwilling to facilitate relationships with the leadership team, it is the responsibility of the team to create those relationships. Pastors should start by having a hard conversation with the senior pastor telling them that you desire a relationship. Pursue the lay people of the church and leadership team to pursue relationships. When you deny your need for community, you are denying your humanity. Community and relationships are so important for a healthy church.

To read the remainder of this article and to listen to the entire Behind-The-Scenes segment with Dayton Hartman, click here for the full post.

This video is part of Plus Membership. To get full access to it, and much more, I encourage you to become a Plus Member. Click here to see all the benefits of becoming a Plus Member.

Tweetables:

• “Native language of our heart is lying.”-
• “Some pastors try to make up for what they did in the past by achieving a great ministry goal.”-
• “When you believe the lie of the achiever, you think you are earning Jesus’ love.”-
• “Find a place to feel comfortable talking through the emotional wounds of your past.”-
• “You need community with the people on your leadership team.”-
• “When you deny your need for community, you are denying your humanity.”-

By Ed Stetzer: There’s a great saying that good leaders don’t see people as impediments—they seek to make people partners. But to implement this approach to leadership in daily life, we need to realize that partnering with people means sacrificing for them. Drawing from Brad Waggoner, author and executive vice president at LifeWay, here are five things leaders need to be ready to give up for the people they’re leading.

1. Leaders need to be willing to yield recognition.

How do I get so much done? Through the team with whom I serve.

If I don’t acknowledge my team, this idea develops that I have some remarkably high capacity. I do work hard, but my capacity does not just reflect my work. It reflects the work of wonderful people that I have brought around me, people who are doing good work to accomplish good things.

To be a good leader, I need to acknowledge my team’s work and share the credit with them. I need to recognize that they are a significant part of the things we accomplish.

2. Leaders need to be willing to yield comfort.

As a leader, you don’t get to be comfortable in everything you do. If you lead, you are going to make some people unhappy. I tell pastors that if they don’t have 10% of the church mad at them, they are probably not doing much. Of course, if 70% of your congregation is mad at you, you probably need to reconsider what you’re doing. But if everyone is comfortable, it’s time to assess whether you are really leading towards strategic change.

Leadership might take you out of your comfort zone. Some of us are only comfortable when everyone likes us, but leaders don’t always have everyone happy with them. There is always some resistance to leadership. Your question is how you are going to get through that discomfort.

In his book Leadership Pain, Sam Chand makes the argument that leaders grow by pursuing their vision through pain. At one point, he writes, “If you’re not hurting, you’re not leading. Your vision for the future has to be big enough to propel you to face the heartaches and struggles you’ll find along the way.”

3. Leaders need to be willing to yield convenience.

As the leader, you have to work harder. I don’t know many lazy people who are effective leaders. Assessing your organization, planning and communicating new directions, motivating your team—leadership takes initiative.

Author and former Overseas Missionary Fellowship director Oswald Sanders summed it up this way: “The young man of leadership caliber will work while others waste time, study while others snooze, pray while others daydream.”

Are you prepared for this kind of work?

4. Leaders need to be willing to yield liberties.

I get that you might like to share funny or smart-aleck comments. You might like to say outrageous things to start a conversation or poke fun at things. However, the more leadership you’re exercising, the less freedom you have for those comments.

I do not mean that you no longer have freedom of speech. Sure, you should be allowed to say what you want. But that is the behavior of a wandering ecstatic prophet. It’s not the behavior of a leader who is working to motivate and encourage and organize a team or congregation.

You have to learn how to temper your words if you’re going to be a leader.

5. Leaders need to be willing to yield reputation.

Movies, books, and television are full of leaders who take charge for their own glory or honor—Scar from Lion King, Frank Underwood from House of Cards, Macbeth. And those leaders are usually pretty horrible leaders.

As a leader, you have to be willing to give up making yourself look good so that you can serve your team. When things go well, you need to share the credit with your team. On the other hand, when something goes wrong, a leader needs to take responsibility for the failure.

Leadership is not about building up your reputation. It is about motivating and encouraging and organizing your team to reach new goals. That requires partnering with people, earning their trust, and looking out for their good. In the full biblical sense of the word, it requires loving people.

By Mark Dance: Pastors and planters know full well the pressure of perfectionism. I have lived and served in the public eye for three decades – fully cognizant of the fact that I am expected to win both at home and church.

I don’t always win.

Pastors also live privately under the gaze of our Lord. How then can we escape the paralysis of perfectionism? I want to suggest three antidotes:

Recognize Perfectionism as Fool’s Gold

I started pastoring in 1987 and have wasted a lot of energy trying to please people, especially myself. In addition to pastoring a church, I serve pastors through LifeWay. Sometimes I feel like I am failing to do both ministries well because of my self-imposed, unrealistic expectations.

Sometimes my identity is too rooted in my ministry. Peace replaces perfectionism when I remember that my identity is found in Christ, not his Church.

If you reach your attendance, giving or baptism goals this year, celebrate those achievements with humility. Be careful not to embrace those victories too tightly because they are temporary.

I remember in 2014 when Michael Phelps became the most decorated Olympian in history, only to become depressed to the point of considering suicide. Nobody in history has won 22 Olympic medals, 18 of which were gold. What more could a person want in life? Phelps found out that even his gold medals became fool’s gold when they defined who he was instead of what he did.

Embrace Your Own Imperfections

Imperfectionsare not excuses for our sin, but neither are they inherently sin. I have a legitimate problem remembering numbers which makes me bad at math, not a bad person or a bad pastor.

Will Rogers said “Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects.”

I often have to remind myself that I am called to equip people to do ministry. If I am not equipping my members for ministry, I am stealing it from them. So many are gifted in areas where I am not, which is by divine design.

Save Some Grace for Yourself

Perfectionists are hard on everybody – especially themselves. Pastors should not only share the gospel of saving grace, we should also save some of that grace for ourselves. You will make some mistakes, and you will commit some secret sins throughout your ministry. To think otherwise is naive at best and arrogant at worst.

Leading your home and yourself “beyond reproach” does not mean leading perfectly. It means you will have to lead your ministry and family in humility and utter dependence on God.

When Michael Phelps traded his old life of perfectionism for a new life of purpose, he found a lane called grace. We all need to find that lane if we are going to finish strong.