JR Woodward

In this series, I am sharing about a survey that I have done with Church Planters that I know in different cities.  Here are a few more responses to one of the questions I posed to them: 

What are the three biggest lessons you have learned as a church planter?

Church Planter in Maryland

1. You need a solid team and care for them



2. Don’t neglect your walk with God



3. Success is not measured in numbers alone



4. Have think skin

Church Planter in Michigan

1. Ninety percent of the people who criticize your work are Christians from other churches



2. Don’t try to plant a church I the style of the church you are coming from



3. Plant a church that connects with the city you are planting in

Church Planter in Portland

1. Carefully select leadership (very carefully, and have others involved in the process)



2. Develop a network of trusted advisors outside the church (also connect with other church planters locally, nationally, internationally for mutual encouragement)



3. Lead not only by teaching/instruction, but by example in all areas (especially in faith, hope, love and humility)



4. Focus on equipping people for ministry as a primary part of your role while remaining engaged relationally with those who don't know Christ (this is a high priority)

I'm typing from Richmond, Virginia.  This week I have the privilege this week to help train 40 church planters as a part of the Ecclesia Network.  It is an intense but rich time.  During one of my last sessions I will be talking about Leadership Skills and Attitudes for the Journey.  One of the things that I did in preparation for this talk was to survey a number of church planters that I know and work with around the world.  I asked them five questions.  One of the questions was:  What are the three biggest lessons you have learned as a church planter?  I thought I would take some time to share some of these with you in this series.

Church Planter in Los Angeles

1. Dependence on God



2. To be faithful and create an atmosphere for growth, letting God be responsible for His part



3. Know that there are going to be unexpected difficulties

Church Planter in Amsterdam

1. Don’t over complicate things, keep it simple



2. Focus on prayer, outreach and basic discipleship



3. Watch out for disunity! It will kill a church plant, communication is a key to avoiding some of the pitfalls of disunity

Church Planter in England

1. What it takes to get them is what it takes to keep them.  (In other words if you invest a lot of time and energy I developing a relationship with someone and they become a part of your church plant, they will come with the expectation that you will continue to invest that kind of time and energy on them.  When that doesn’t happen they’ll be hurt, feel rejected, and in most cases they will share their ill will with others.)



2. You are not desperate for people (If you live as if you are desperate for people to be a part of your church then you will lower your standards, compromise on non-negotiables, etc. etc. etc. to get people to take part.)



3. Who you are in private is far more important that what you say and do in public

I will be sharing more lessons that people have learned in part II.  If you are a church planter, what would be your top three lessons you learned?  Help us add to the wisdom from practitioners.

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Here are a couple more tensions in Servant Leadership that John Ortberg mentions.  Here is my summary.

3. Resourcefully Dependent – Leaders need to be resourceful people.  They just have a knack for unlocking resources.  They have a way of challenging people without apology to give and contribute. They stay up nights figuring out ways to tap new assets. They’re creative and inventive.  They find resources.  This is good thing. Nehemiah is an example.  But the danger is over time this resourcefulness, the ability to get things done and make things happen, can lead to a sense of self-sufficiency and of arrogance and destroy the deeper truth, which is that I am utterly depended on God.  Jesus looks for people who are dependent, resourcefully dependent.  A lack of dependence on God is lethal.  Check out the story that starts in Acts 12:20.  God wants leading servants who are resourcefully dependent on him, who are just on their knees. Questions for You:  How is your prayer life?  Do you recognize that all you have is a gift from God?  Are you humble?

4. Relaxed Urgency – God wants to use us.  Some people just drift through life. There is no sense of urgency. We live in a world that the Scripture says is locked in a battle between good and evil, life and death.  These are very real and create in us a deep sense of conviction and urgency.  But the danger is that while I need to take my mission and my calling from God with great urgency, I also need to take my appearance, my visible success, my reputation, my little set of ambitions, my resume – real lightly.  God calls us to do his work with passion, but god is not anxious about his kingdom at all, He is not biting his fingernails to see what you’re going to do next.  Servant leaders have a burning sense of relaxed urgency.

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"A cheerful heart is good medicine."  Proverbs 17:22 NLT

A friend of mine by the name of Aby shared this joke with me.

On watching the American ads for drugs (Advair, Lipitor, etc.), a friend visiting from India said, "This sounds like marriage. The drug ads say take this brand and you will never have problem with backache. And, then as a side note they say that the side effects may be heart attack, kidney failure, nausea and headache. This is how marriages are, they come with side effects."