Cold Hard Facts On Church Planting, PART 8

Tonight's post is going to be a bit shorter as I am only dealing with principle #20. The biggest reason for this is that I really want this lesson to sink in, especially the night before your biggest day of high's and lows.

20. If the planting personality leaves too soon, the church won't survive.

God has uniquely gifted certain men for the area of church planting.  It's much different from taking an existing church.  Now that's not to minimize the huge challenges and burdens of that particular transition, but that's another post for another time from someone unlike me who has done it.  Whenever God calls and equips an individual to launch a brand new church He will give him certain trademarks that will draw people to him. I need to make it clear that a new church will begin to take on the personality of the planter within the first 5 years but you MUST fight the natural tendency for the church to become crippled by the personality of the Pastor. I made this mistake in the early days of Global Vision and it's taken a lot of un-learning and delegation to correct it.  If you allow the church to become utterly dependent on the planter, then it will gladly do so.  The two results will be the laziness of the congregation and the abuse of the planter.  You have to learn early on to strike a balance and draw some very clear lines.  With that being said, we still must focus on the fact that a new church cannot handle too quick of a leadership change.  If God called you to "birth" a church then he didn't call you to leave it on the table and let it suffocate.  It takes time, like years, to develop the spiritual temperature of a New Testament church.  I've been tempted to bail on many occasions.  Did I mention many? Theres even a time that I took my resignation letter into the pulpit for a Wednesday night service but so few people actually showed up I though it would be foolish to read it.  I look back now and realize that had I left, the church would have folded.  Now at this point I know some critical individual that has nothing better to do than to browse blogs all day is going to say, "Brother, it's the Lord that builds the house." Yes, indeed it is, but He he has called men to START and to STICK as He does build the work.  Planting friend, I know you get discouraged.  I know it's extremely difficult.  I realize you're at your wits end, but PRESS ON.  The church will never be able to survive if the one who creates the vision leaves because it's difficult.