Video Transcript: Church Planting Landmines

Hello, my name is Ben Ingebretson. And this training lecture is on the subject of  church planting landmines nine mistakes to avoid. We're drawing significantly in  this lecture on the book by Tom Nebel and Gary Rohrmayer by the same title  church planting landmines. And, and let's just begin with a reality statement that  we all have blind spots. We all have blind spots, you've maybe heard the  expression before. But now you're looking straight into your blind spot. church  planters have blind spots too. There are things that we just don't pick up on. No  church plant begins expecting to fail. No ministry begins expecting to fail. And  yet, ministries do fail. And church plants do struggle and then Close. And when  those experiences happen, there's been a number of efforts to try to find out  why to answer the question why. And I'm sure that what we talked about during  this session will only be a limited answer to that question. But hopefully, it'll  begin to give you some awareness of the areas, the blind spots, the landmines  that can become fatal for church planters. And so as the saying goes, an ounce  of prevention is worth a pound of cure. If we can give you some preventative  recommendations and some awareness, so that your ministry can avoid one of  these landmines, one of these blind spots that can blow up and, and damage or  ultimately close a church plant. And many of these blind plant blind spots don't  necessarily, or these landmines don't necessarily put an end to the church plant, but they can damage it, they can hurt it. And so it's our hope that this training will help you begin to have a greater awareness so that you can avoid those things.  This next statement, may seem to you to be like something went wrong with my  typewriter, my printer. But there's what you know, you don't know. There's what  you don't know that you don't know. There are the things that you say, I just  know, I don't know much about airplane mechanics. I just know that I don't know much about that. And so I will readily look to someone else, to service any  airplane that I ever get in. Whenever I ever do get in one. It's too complicated for me, I don't know much about it. And so I would never presume to do any service there myself. And so I know that I don't know anything about that. But  sometimes we have these blind spots it's like what you don't know that you don't know. There are the things that you and I don't even know that we don't know  about. That's one of the reasons why unless you've been involved in a church  plant, and have planted a church once prior, that you may be stepping into an  area where you've got significant blind spots, some areas that you don't even  know that you don't know about. And it's really important that you pay attention  and get wisdom and insight from those who have traveled down the path. And  so these following landmines that we talk about, will hopefully give you insight  into some areas that you may not have ever thought about before. There's a  great value in studying failure. This training plan class, this lecture may strike  you as very negative. But we're choosing to be very negative because there is a  lot of benefit in studying failure. That teaches us a great deal. Sometimes it  teaches us more than studying success. So I hope that this is useful for you. So 

let's start out with the first. The first landmine that we're going to call it ignoring  personal health and growth. Ignoring personal health and growth this kind of a  landmine oftentimes happens to people in the midlife of ministry. See, midlife of  ministry is between ages 35 and 55. In many settings, not all. But these are the  ages when some of the biggest mistakes can be made by people in ministry.  During the early years of ministry, there can be mistakes that are made, but  they're oftentimes easy to recover from. And oftentimes, they are not sizeable  they are small mistakes. During the later years of ministry, there's usually  wisdom. And during the wisdom years, people avoid a lot of the mistakes. But  it's those ages 35 to 55. That, that some of the biggest mistakes can be made.  And oftentimes they're made, because we began to ignore personal health and  growth. And that lack of health that that failure to pay attention to personal  growth begins to lead to a person who gets sloppy, lazy, not self disciplined,  careless, they begin to do things in ministry that are foolish. So midlife in  ministry is a risky time. And it's important time not to ignore personal health and  growth. That, that that failure can include abusing finances, abusing power,  abusing sex, you've perhaps heard of ministry leaders who are doing fine. But  they begin to ignore their personal health and growth, ignore their spiritual  health, and they fell into sin. Pride, it creeps up, especially during those years.  The older you get, the more you become aware of how little you know, the  younger you are, the more conscious you are of how little you know. But during  those middle life years, there can be a pride that can creep in, it can really come at anytime. But that's another personal health issue that can become unhealthy  and unhealthy pride and a failure to pay attention to physical health. ministry  leaders can work so hard at ministry that they fail to take care of their health.  And that's not good. Neglect of family where they're always paying attention to  ministry but failing to pay attention to children and spouse. So how do you  disarm the landmine number one number one, be in a coaching mentoring,  accountable relationship, your whole ministry long. Always be in a coaching or  mentoring relationship. Always be accountable to someone or someones  maintain your spiritual disciplines. walk with God. That's easier said than done. It takes work. We all can become lazy in that. And that shows up over time. So  maintain your spiritual disciplines retreat daily. Take some time each day with  the Lord. Take a day each week as your Sabbath. To have a break from the  rigors in the work of ministry. Take some time each month to pray in an extended time, maybe a prayer retreat, a half a day. Take some time once a year to get  away with God. Become a lifelong learner. Don't neglect your personal health  and growth. Number two, lack of leadership development. Here's a landmine  this landmine happens whenever there's the temptation to be the leader, rather  than the leader of leaders. All right. And by that I mean whenever we presume  that we can lead it all and we want to be the one in charge of it all. Rather than  understanding that as church planters were at our very best when we're 

developing other leaders. When we're raising up others to do the work of the  ministry, that our role is as a equipper, and empowerer, a trainer of visioner. And  the development of leadership, the failure to develop leadership will not  necessarily destroy your church plant. But what it will do is it will cause your  church plant to grow very, very small. The failure to develop leaders will grow  your ministry in a small direction. It's whenever you raise up and train up and  develop and send out and empower and release other leaders to launch small  groups to be worship leaders to do other dimensions of ministry and lead other  dimensions of ministry that your ministry will grow. Failing to identify potential  leaders, how are you going to find out who your potential leaders are failure to  train up and raise up leaders failure to create a leadership development culture  in the ministry. Your ministry stands to be blessed or otherwise, around this  issue of leadership development. So how do you how do you disarm this  landmine number two? Number one, first of all, develop a working definition of  leadership. What does it mean to be a leader in your ministry, I would hope that  a working definition of leadership in your ministry is that everyone leads when  they're developing another leader. Everyone leads when they are developing  another leader. It's again back to Paul and Timothy. Paul lead, because Paul  was developing a Timothy and a Titus and a John Mark. And the list goes on  and on. Number two, pray the lord of the harvest for new leaders always be on  the lookout for new leaders. And don't always look upon someone from what you see in them at the moment. Begin and learn to see the potential and another  person begin and learn to see the promise, the possibilities in another person.  So often, ministry leaders can limit their their potential, or what they see in  others out of a sense of insecurity, or a sense of fear or a sense of pride. Don't  be that way. See the potential in others. Be an empowering leader, raise up  another leader, give away some opportunity and some responsibility to someone else at a level that they're prepared to handle and manage. Be a grower of  others grow other leaders look for Christ like teachable, faithful, obedient,  available, willing servants. You can almost take that and turn it around. You're  not looking for people who don't evidence the character of Christ. Leaders for  your ministry are going to be those who already give some evidence that they're  seeking to be Christ like you're not looking for people who know it all. You're  looking for people who are teachable. You're not looking for people who are  unreliable. You're looking for people who are faithful, reliable. You're not looking  for people who have great disobedience in their lives. Currently. You're looking  for people who are showing signs of being obedient. You're not looking for  people who are already way too busy. You're looking for people that are  available, you're not looking for. For people who are unwilling, you're looking for  people who are willing. Begin to look for leaders and train them. Train them  intentionally develop a system that says I'm going to do and you watch and then  we're going to do together. And then you're going to do and I'm going to watch 

and each step of the way I'm going to be teaching you and talking with you and  training you because I want you to learn from me. I want us to learn from one  another. And then I want to talk with you about how you are growing in a new  role of leadership and ministry in your life. Become a leader, leader, developer,  and train people intentionally. Here's some ways to do it. And coach them  monthly. Stay in touch with your those that you are developing. Don't raise up a  new leader and then fail to spend time with them. Spend time with them at least  once a month, at least once a month, spend an hour with them and talk with  them about how are they doing? And how are they growing? And what are they  learning landmine number three leadership backlash. Leadership backlash  occurs when you have a sudden and surprising negative reaction from another  leader in your organization. Leadership backlash happens when people are  suddenly not on board with your vision. Leadership. Backlash occurs when  people that you've had a prior experience with suddenly don't support you. It  happens with folks that you've not carefully evaluated. It happens with people  who are not able to follow. It happens to people who are with people who are not loyal to you and to your ministry. Leadership backlash comes at usually a very  undesirable time. There's never a good time for it. When you're pastoring and  you're planting and you're working hard, and suddenly someone from within  your group is your biggest opponent. Suddenly someone from within the church  is making things difficult for you. That's leadership backlash. So how do you  disarm this landmine? Number one, discern if someone's on board with your  general vision and values. And if not, use caution. As you're discerning  someone's role in your ministry, discern carefully if they're on board with your  vision and values. If you're considering the future of someone in a leadership  role in your ministry, discern carefully if they're on board with your vision and  values. If not, use caution. Secondly, discern if they're personally supportive of  you. Decide if the person that discernible person personally supports you, if  they're your friend, if they'll speak to your face, if you've got a good relationship  with them. If you can be in a comfortable relationship with them, and talk about  ministry, and talk about the other stuff of life. If you have a warm and trusting  relationship with them, that's good. If you don't, if they pull away, if they seem  not to be supportive of you or don't seem to want to be in relationship with you,  then use caution. They may be preparing to really make things difficult for you in your work. One of the biggest mistakes you can have and make in the ministry  and a new church start is to give away titles prematurely. One of the biggest  mistakes you can make is to be in a relationship with someone that you don't  know well. You don't know if they're on board with your vision and values  entirely. You really haven't tested that over time. And you don't know if they  personally support you. You really haven't tested that over time. And still you  give them the title, elder or still you give them the title, Deacon. That's a foolish  thing to do. Don't do that. Don't give away those titles prematurely. A better rule 

of thumb is to give away responsibilities. Give away task tasks, but don't give  away titles. give time to the delay the giving of titles. give time to discern a  person's earning that that role of elder or Deacon. Don't use don't form an  internal board prematurely. An internal board is a group of folks within your  church plant that you are ultimately responsible for. Eventually you want an  internal board. Eventually, when your ministry is self funding, you want to be self governing. A board that is within the Ministry made up of all made up of people  within the ministry that attend the church. You want that eventually, but not from  the start. From the start, your board should be external to the church should be  a group of folks, perhaps a group of pastors from other churches in the area,  perhaps from a denominational group of folks that are part of the denomination  or the fellowship that you're a part of a people that are not a part of the church,  but are deeply supportive and care deeply about the church that you are  accountable to. This is healthy. This is wise during the first several years of a  church plant. You don't want to form an internal board too quickly, because in  forming an internal board people get power and get authority that they may not  use wisely, or well. And so it's best to have an external board for the first several years of the new church start. Test people before you title them, we said this  earlier, give them a short term assignment. Give them a short term responsibility, or ask them to carry on a certain activity or a certain ministry area. If they ask  you for a title don't give it as tell them that they're being tested. Tell them that  you need to test them if if need be. Sometimes it's best not to tell someone that  you're testing them. But if need be, you say, I need to observe you for a while. I  need to see how we work together. I need to know that you're on board with our  vision and values. Test people before you title them landmine number four  personal evangelism entropy. Entropy is a word that we don't use very often. It  means decline. It means a drop, a drop off. And the drop off in personal  evangelism can occur in a variety of ways in a new church start. For instance,  during the pre launch of the church plant, usually it requires a high work amount  of evangelistic work. But once the ministry launches, and public worship  services began to occur, and there's the busyness of developing sermons, and  and caring for the congregation. Oftentimes, the church planter will began to fail  to do evangelistic work like they were doing from the start. Caring for new  believers can be time intensive. new believers are exciting when it comes to  faith. But the care of their lives whenever their experiences are difficult, when  their lives are, are full of sin or full of trouble, can take a lot of time. And so it can take time away from reaching new people with the gospel. Launching regular  weekly worship can be time intensive. We've mentioned that weariness can  cause the planter to limit their relationship to believers. Because church planters work so many hours and are so busy. Sometimes the planter just needs a break  needs just to be with other believers and and to get their battery recharged. The  result is that the planter is spending less time with the very people that led to the

launch of a successful plant, namely the evangelistic converts. So, how do we  disarm this landmine number one, update your time management skills, you're  going to have to get better at using your time. When you plant a new church,  you're going to have to get better because you're going to have to be as  involved in the lives of those who aren't believers. As always, if possible, you're  going to have to stay connected to the unbelievers. As you by example, show  the rest of your new church, how they need to do the work of an evangelist.  Develop a spiritual mentor team for new believers so that you can stay focused  on evangelism. Pray for the new contacts and stay connected to places where  you can meet them. Keep your heart focused on the harvest. Ask people to  introduce you to their non believing friends and show them how you do  evangelism. Show them how you have a spiritual conversation with someone  Stay focused. And, and one technique again, is to, is to draw and to train your  existing congregation, your newly forming congregation, train them to do  evangelism, so that you can stay connected to them while you're also  connecting to the harvest. Number five, corporate evangelism entropy. Again,  we're talking about entropy as a decline or a downward emphasis on  evangelism. This is the landmine that happens. If the church doesn't evangelize, it'll die. Still, evangelism atrophy can creep into a church. Within the first few  weeks of their public service. People began to worship and they began to come  to worship and they see friends, they see other believers. They're excited about  seeing their other friends and other believers. And they stop paying attention to  the newcomers. They stop paying attention to people who are worshiping for the first time. Number two people are swept up in urgent needs of the body  meetings, pastoral care, moving things around logistics, all the work of making  those Sunday morning experiences of worship, public worship happen, the  meetings of the pastoral care of members that need to be cared for. And so  suddenly, people have fewer non believing friends. And suddenly, people  neglect the real areas of priority of helping people get connected to the ministry,  leadership development and evangelism. Those are your key key areas during  the initial start of the church is helping people form relationships in the church,  who are coming for the first time developing new leaders and reaching brand  new people. So how do you disarm this landmine number one, teach your  people to pray for their non believing friends. Teach your people to pray for their  non believing friends. This is so critical to turn people's eyes off of themselves,  turn people's eyes off of their own personal wishes and wants and continue to  keep their eyes focused on the harvest. A critical first step, training people to  share their own testimony, teaching people how to share their faith. One  technique is to help someone share their experience with God. In the in and  amongst other believers so that they can then build the confidence to share their experience of God, in and amongst non believers. train people to invite  outsiders, train them how to invite most people have become uncomfortable with

inviting. So you need to train them, how to get to know their neighbor, get to  know their neighbor's name. Invite their neighbor, to come with them. Not to go  to church not to come to church, but to come with them to pick their neighbor up, stop by their home and, and come with them to church. train people to maintain  relationships with non believers. So often people begin to worship in a new  church. And they break off their relationships with non believers. That's  regrettable. That's not good. train people to maintain their relationship with non  believers to stay connected to the non believer to care for them and love them  and stay in relationship with them as Christ formed relationships and stayed in  relationships with all the the people that he did the Nicodemus excuse me the  Zacchaeus there's the name I was looking for. Because Zacchaeus is of Jesus's word. Number six, the landmine of inadequate assimilation. assimilation is a  word that we don't use very often. But it means enfolding it means to help  someone who's on the outside, become connected. Oftentimes people begin to  attend worship services begin to attend your church, but they may not feel like  they're really a part. They may feel like they're on the outside looking in. They  may feel like they're not really a part of the body. So failure to assimilate people  well, is not good. It will create a group of people that will not stay at the church.  They will leave after a while perhaps. Or they'll drift into a pattern of only  attending occasionally. So if you reach them, you must also keep them.  evangelism and discipleship need to go together. But just because we reach  them doesn't mean we've made a disciple of them, right? Just because we've  reached them doesn't mean that they've, they've cultivated the qualities of a  disciple of deep qualities of a follower of Jesus. If you reach them, and don't  keep them, you have to ask why. Why is it that some people come to our church, they come one or two times and they never come back? That's a very important  question to answer. It's a very important question to wrestle with. And to  understand, why might it be that people are not coming back, they may not  come back because they didn't feel welcome. They may not come back because they didn't understand the message. They may not have come back because  they didn't receive the personal invitation to come back. And to stay in a  relationship with you in the ministry, or with someone else in the ministry. People eventually want to be in a relationship with others in the ministry, and they may  not have felt that. So here's some ideas to disarm landmine number five,  number one, seek to get feedback from those who do not return. Why did they  not come back? I often say that one of the most valuable people in your ministry is the person who comes once or twice and never comes back. They're a terribly valuable person. Because if you could find out why they didn't come back, you  would find out something that you could perhaps change. And that would make  a big difference for many, many more people who come. So if possible, find out  why people don't come back. If you can, if you can make a connection with  them. If you can do a follow up with them. Try to get their name as always, and 

then try to follow up. Invite people to follow up. Excuse Excuse me to a follow up gathering a small group share a meal with them. That's the ideal and the perfect  way. I always love it. Again to watch let's talk about, let's talk about Zacchaeus  how does Jesus assimilate Zacchaeus into the kingdom, he goes to Zacchaeus  house and he shares a meal with the sharing a meal with someone else has a  very strong effect in most cultures, of helping people feel connected. Like they're valued, like they fit in, like they belong. So invite people to a follow up gathering  a small group, invite, invite them to share a meal with you. Develop a welcoming team that's responsible for showing hospitality. There are some people in your  congregation in your church plant that are have the gift of hospitality. That word  hospitality is a wonderful word. It really means it means to make space for  outsiders. make space for the people who really don't fit yet. And you can make  space for outsiders in lots of different ways. One of the best ways is simply to  get their name. Find out what their name is. And people with a gift of hospitality  are good at that they'll find out what someone's name is. They'll learn that  person's name, so that they can call that person by name the next time they see them so that they can build a friendship and a relationship with that person. But  you may need a team of folks, you may need to identify the people in your  church, in your church plant that have the gift of hospitality. Someone has said  that in a new church start. Perhaps the most important gift is the gift of  hospitality. Hospitality is such a valuable gift because it's always making room  for others. It's always caring about their name, caring about who they are, and  wanting to make them feel like they're at home. They're comfortable. They're  welcome in the church, find out who the people are with a gift of hospitality in  your church plant and use them strategically wisely. You will not regret that of it.  And finally, review your preaching and be sure it's understandable to a new  attender. If your preaching is hard to understand, you want to know that and you need some trusted people who will continually give you feedback on your  preaching so that they can let you know if it's hard to understand by a new  attender. It will be hard for a new attender to attend, and to break into the, into  that social group of your church. It'll be hard for them to form those relationships, if the preaching is hard for them to understand. And so take the time to see what you can do to improve your preaching, change your preaching. So that is a  pleasant and a positive and hopeful experience when you attend. Number  seven, fear of money. We talk about this in one of the training series that we  provide on raising funds and developing stewards in a new church start, if you  haven't seen that training series, I urge you to do so. This is a landmine. See,  most pastors don't want to talk about money, thinking that it'll scare people  away. Most pastors, many pastors and church planters don't recognize that  when it comes to money, it's not about what the church needs. It's not about  what the church needs. It's not about what you need. It's about what God wants. God wants generosity. And people need to grow in that gift of generosity. The 

failure to talk about money keeps people from deep discipleship growth. There is there are few things that will deepen the walk of a disciple, quite like generosity  and giving, and that the pastor works without support, and ministry cannot reach its potential. what I'm intending to say that, that if the pastor doesn't have  financial support, at some point, the ministry can't reach its potential. Whether  it's the need for time on task, time for the pastor, to do the ministry, leadership  that they're called to do and equipping the saints and empowering the saints, or  whether it's the need for rental of space, or any other financial needs. The failure to raise some resources and some funding, for those purposes, causes the  ministry not to reach its potential. So how can you disarm this landmine number  one, stay biblically grounded, stay biblically grounded. God owns it all. God is  the rightful owner of all things. It all belongs to God. Therefore there's no  stewardship exceeding there's no shortage of funds. There's only a shortage of  stewards, only a shortage of givers. All right, that people are stewards, not  owners. Matthew 25. And so many other parables of Jesus make this point that  people are only temporarily entrusted with some resources, that one day they'll  be held accountable for, and that they are in fact, not the owners, but they are  the temporary managers of those resources. And finally, the stewardship is a  learned behavior. Paul, coaches Timothy in 1 Timothy 6 to command those who  are wealthy, or who have means, or who have resources, to command and to be rich in generosity. And to stay biblically grounded, is to recognize that when you  ask people to give, you are not raising money for your ministry, you are growing  them in the grace of giving. You are growing them in their awareness of their  position, as stewards in God's world. And that one day they'll be held  accountable for that stewardship. And you're faithfully seeking to grow them that  way. And you're giving them an opportunity to give to your ministry as an  expression of that faithful stewardship. Stay biblically grounded. That's the best  way I know, to disarm this landmine. Teach stewardship regularly time, talent  and treasure to earn to give and to save, John Wesley's little preaching series to grow people up in the practice of regular faithful generosity requires that every  Sunday, you say a little something about God's priority on ownership and our  role as temporary stewards. It requires that every Sunday we say something  about the gift and the grace of giving, a little something about the blessedness  of giving versus receiving. And that we remind people that it's not about us. It's  not about the needs of our ministry. It's about the need, we all have to grow as  givers. So maintain that regular, graceful patient. It doesn't mean you preach on  stewardship every week. But it means that every week you say a little  something, a one or two sentences. It does mean also that at least once a year  you preach on stewardship. Each year, you ought to preach a series on time,  talent and treasure stewardship. But teach on stewardship regularly, and be an  example and then ask, be the first one to give. I know a pastor who every  Sunday when the offering was taken, they were the first one to put their gift in 

the offering plate. That's a good thing, be an example. And then ask that others  would follow that example of stewardship. Number eight, under estimating  spiritual attack, here's a landmine that it's important that we certainly should not  neglect tough times come from ministry, tough times come to church planting.  Church Planting has lots of rough spots in it. And there's probably four reasons  why. The first reason is we live in a fallen world. And the brokenness and the  and the and the, the fallenness of the world is all around us. And sometimes  simply bad things happen. There's no great explanation for it. But you know, the  rain falls on the just and the unjust. The good times come to the just and the  unjust, the bad times come to the just and the unjust. Sometimes, tough times,  are simply because we live in a world where things just don't always work, right.  Sometimes, things go badly in a church plant. Because we make foolish  choices. We do foolish things. We ought to know better. But we make a poor  choice. Sometimes things go badly in church plants because we make sinful  choices. We do things that are wrong, or sinful or dishonouring of God.  Sometimes things go bad for any number of those first three reasons. And we  acknowledge it and we say, next time we'll try to do better. We acknowledge that by saying we repent of that, we are acknowledge it by saying, we're going to try  that again. Other times, things go wrong and the church plant, because we face  spiritual battles, Ephesians 6 reminds us that we wrestle against principalities  and powers. And, and sometimes we're not altogether certain whether it was a,  an attack from Satan, or there was just a fallen, broken world that we live in, and things just don't always work, right. But the reality is, is that Satan would, would  love to destroy your church plant, Satan would love for you to fail. Now, we're  grateful that the promises of God and the power of Christ and the hope of the  resurrection and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, are all there to enable you to  overcome and to be successful by God's grace. Church Planting will suffer from  all of the above reasons. A spiritual battle often comes as discouragement, fear,  or physical opposition. spiritual battle can come when, as a planter, you feel so  overwhelmed. And that overwhelming. Experience goes on and on. And it's  unlike you to be so overwhelmed. Or if you're paralyzed by fear, or, or a spiritual  battle can certainly come whenever there's sickness. And we recognize that we  live in a fallen and broken world, and that sickness comes and that illness  comes it's appointed unto unto us once to die. That's part of the world we live in. But sometimes, that physical opposition comes from the hand of, of the accuser  and the hand of Our great adversary the devil. So how do we disarm this  landmine? First of all, we develop and maintain a prayer team. You should  always have a prayer team, praying for your ministry, I trust that you have that.  And that they're aware and they get updates. And they can pray specifically, that you don't give a foothold to Satan that we confess sin, stay humble, and walk  with Christ. A foothold for Satan can come in so many different ways. In the book of Ephesians, it talks about not giving Satan a football a foothold. By hanging on

to anger. There's lots of ways that that Satan can gain a foothold. So it's critical  that we stay humble and walk with Christ, that we have times of fasting and  prayer, that there'll be times of healing and deliverance. I, I'm not here to predict. I don't know. But I believe that most church plants will experience a time of  attack. That's been my observation. And I trust that when that time comes, that  not only will we experience the provision of God, but that we will be seeking that  provision and and be preparing for that time of challenge when it comes. Finally,  number nine, premature launch. Most churches do not grow large because they  do not plan on it from the start. The ninth landmine is about launching a public  worship service before you're ready to, most churches don't go large because  they don't plan on it from the start. They plan to or shall I back up, they they  launch quickly. Because they eagerly want to begin to have church services in  some formal sort of a way. And the planter is eager to begin to preach in some  formal sort of a way. And they fail to do the groundwork. That will lead to a large, a larger church. And so as a result, because the planter is so busy with  preaching, and so busy, and the group is only maybe 12, or a dozen people or  less or more. The ministry doesn't grow much faster or further than that. moving  too quickly to public worship takes all the energy and resources of the people  and the pastor. And the pastor often feels the urgency to have worship services,  when they should feel the urgency for evangelism and discipleship. Whenever  we exchange God's agenda for our agenda, we limit the potential. Jesus said,  Go and make disciples of all nations. He didn't say, Go and hurry up and start  having church services. He said go and make disciples. And then he said and  baptize them. I take it from that, that the first work that were given to do is to  evangelize and disciple make, to make followers of Christ. And then to begin to  organize and meet and do public worship services where there's baptisms and  teachings and, and the development of a of a worshiping community. Whenever  we organize too quickly, and begin to have services too quickly, we limit the  evangelism and discipleship work, the one on one work. There's simply not  enough time in the life of the pastor. And there's not enough time for building lots of relationships and doing lots of one on one and that's the critical thing, the one  on one evangelistic and discipleship work. So how do we disarm this landmine  number one, establish small groups as simple and reproducible house  churches. Simple and reproducible is the key to launching a larger church that  you began by launching simple and reproducible house churches that take very  little preparation to gather people for the people can come together, read the  word, read the Bible. Have a Bible study, or listen to the Scriptures read to them  Talk about the meaning and what Jesus is calling them to do and then pray for  one another, and experience Christian fellowship and pray for their neighbor,  invite their neighbor to a home invite people to a small group. And to develop  several of those house churches before a larger public gathering. I recommend  developing three, four or five house churches before a larger public gathering. 

That way the ministry is able to launch larger if each house church has five to 10 or 12, people in the public gathering can be larger. And with a larger public  gathering, you can have a greater witness and a stronger witness into your  community. develop multiple multiple house church leaders to build your  leadership team structure. Here's the key. You can only have multiple house  churches if you have multiple house church leaders. And the key person the first person is the person who has the gift of hospitality. Person who will open their  home or who will open up space and make others feel welcome who will serve  them and give others a sense that they are comfortable a welcoming place. So  that then there can be a time of Scripture reading and teaching. To focus on  evangelism and discipleship and personal relationships with non believers. This  is the key to the first phase of a church plant. And whenever you have many,  many, many, many relationships with non believers and many, many, many  personal relationships with them, and a lot of disciple making taking place one  on one and a great deal of evangelism in multiple homes. Then moving to  launching with a larger public gathering is appropriate and will have the greatest  impact. If that's your vision for ministry.