3 Reasons Not to Plant a Church

When I meet a guy that wants to start a church,  I always start the conversation with the same question: "Why do you want to plant a church?"  Many times their response makes me cut the meeting short and say, "You don't need to plant a church."  Now, I'm not the omniscient authority on church planting by any means, but here are a few of the reasons why I think you SHOULD NOT plant a church.

1.  "I have a calling to preach and teach."  I'm blown away by the amount of guys that are convinced that "planting a church" is the same thing as "starting a worship service."  One of the biggest wake-up calls for me as a church planter and pastor was the amount of time, energy, and efforts that I spend apart from sermon prep.  Church planting is about investing in people, loving and serving your city, developing leaders, and getting people to Jesus.  Your once-a-week, 30 minute sermon is simply a small part of seeing the overall vision of the Church realized.

2.  "I can do church better."  There are a lot of answers that illustrate this attitude.  Some guys are mad at the traditional church and have been burned in the past, so they want to start their own church and prove to those other people that their way is better.  Some guys have a lousy pastor and think they can do a much better job if only they were the lead guy.  Some are youth ministers that simply want to be the lead guy and replicate their youth minstry at the highest level of the church.  Others want to be their own boss and realize that starting their own church is the only way that's going to happen.  Any time a guy is making a ministry decision based striclty on a negative reaction to his current church/ministry/pastor, then RUN AWAY.  He's doing it for the wrong reason.

3.  "Church planting is trendy and cool."  In America, 60% of church plants fail within the first 5 years.  80% of those churches fail because of a lack of finances.  That means there is a HUGE probability that the 3-year contract that the internet company makes you sign in order to set up a business account will last longer than your ministry does!  Does that still sound cool to you?

In my humble opinion, there is only one real legit answer to the question I ask.

Q. Why do you want to plant a church?
A. Because this is what I feel that God has called me to do, and I'd be being disobedient if I did anything else.
There are days in the ministry when you are going to get beat up and you'll want to give up.  The only thing that will keep you from throwing in the towel is a reminder of your calling.  You can stick through anything if you know without a doubt that God has called you to this city, to this church, to this task, and to these people.

What do you think?


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