“We exist to glorify God through

lives changed by the gospel of Jesus

Christ.”

Pitfalls in Church Planting

First Prepared for the Depth Church Planting Conference (sponsored by Acts 29
Network , 2008

I wanted to write down some common pitfalls that church planters face
in the first few years. These are not the fantastic or extraordinary
pitfalls like sin, betrayal, addiction or church-splitting, but normative
pitfalls that almost every church planter deals with. My hope is that
you will be helped in avoiding some of these and encouraged that you
are not alone when you do face them.

The pitfalls listed assume you’ve clarified your calling and location and
are on your way to planting. The most common pitfall we see with Acts
29 applicants is men who are really excited about church planting and
gifted for ministry but not called to plant a church. If you do not sense
a distinct call to plant a church then that will be your biggest pitfall. If
you’re not called to plant a church, go to one of the hundreds of good
churches looking for staff people and give your life away there. But
assuming your calling is sure and you have a city in mind these are
things to watch for.

Pitfall #1 – Finances
Every church planter has to realize you are the primary
provider for your church. Yes, Jesus provides for his church and God
is the giver of all good things, but you must take ownership of the
fundraising task. Most guys find the most stressful part of church
planting is fundraising. You will need to personally raise funds in
addition to teaching your core group to give faithfully and sacrificially.
Finances are one of, if not the limiting factor for ministry. Finances are
the difference in you being bi-vocational or full time, finding a
permanent location or being mobile, having a great children’s ministry
or baby-sitting. Every planter I know goes through some form of
financial struggle. So how can you deal with it?

You must accept your role as lead fundraiser. The Lead Pastor acts as
the provider for the church and its ministries. It is your job to go out
and get the money and resources needed to continue the mission.
Most planters clearly see their role as preacher, leader and counselor
but never take into account their role as fundraiser or provider and it is
crucial in the planting stage.

It also needs to be said that every church plant should have a

Giving Life, Giving Life Away.
a 100 Clark St, Suite C | Little Elm, TX 75068 | t 469.362.1240 | e info@getmissional.com | w www.getmissional.com
financial plan written down and have someone to manage it.
Understand that financially, your church plant is a small business and
needs to be managed well. This is key for gaining and keeping outside
donors and protecting the credibility of your church among new people
and members. When you or your elders have developed and written
out a plan (budget, priority spending, etc.) then you should hand it
off to someone else to manage. As a lead pastor/church planter
you should not give yourself the power to write checks, make changes
to the budget or affect financial records in any way. This is not
because church planters are thieves and have a history of spending
offerings on Cheetos and new cars, but it will go a long way in
protecting your integrity. Setting up layers of accountability from day
one is essential. You have enough to worry about without dealing with
accusations that come from poor planning and weak financial
structures.

Pitfall #2 - Leadership
Leadership is one of the biggest pitfalls in church planting because the
effects of leadership are so pronounced. Good leaders brighten your
church-planting world. Good leaders can overcome a lack of resources,
difficult situations or limited staffing. Similarly, bad leaders can’t win a
fixed game. With bad leaders you can’t raise enough money or gather
enough people to plant a strong church. Finding good leaders for every
level of your church is key to planting well. Let’s take a look at two
key levels, elders and staff.

Every planter is frantically looking for teammates and help as they

plant the church but don’t install elders too quickly. This usually
leads to hiring people who are not qualified or ready to lead or giving
authority to people who are not completely in sync with your mission
and values. I know a church planter in North Carolina who hastily
installed a group of elders who proceeded to fire him in their first
elders meeting. Your first elders should be picked with almost as
much care as your wife! (Unless you got married in Vegas.) Your
elders should feel a distinct call to pastor “your church” not just pastor
“a church.” When you plant your church, it’s because you heard a
distinct call from God to do so. Your elders should have had a similar
experience. Lots of guys install their closest friends as elders because
they really like them and they want to do ministry so it seems like a
perfect fit. Do not assume that someone else has experienced that
call just because they like you and want to do ministry. Your best
friend may not be called to your church and he may not know he’s not
called until he’s been there a year or so. If you’ve given him the title
of elder, it’s going to be a major ordeal if he needs to leave. Give him
Giving Life, Giving Life Away.
a 100 Clark St, Suite C | Little Elm, TX 75068 | t 469.362.1240 | e info@getmissional.com | w www.getmissional.com
 “We exist to glorify God through
lives changed by the gospel of Jesus
Christ.”
a staff role or a seat on the leadership team but don’t give away the
title of elder lightly.

Be slow to give power and authority and be quick to take it away (1

Tim. 5:22). A man should be tested and approved in your church
before you give the title of elder to him.

Another key level of leadership is staffing. In the beginning, you

should concentrate on hiring the right staff positions. You need to
build your staff based on the needs of your community and culture,
not a typical church planting structure. Every church planter hires the
same people in the same order. First it’s the worship leader, then a
small group’s guy, and so on. You should take a hard look at the needs
a church in your culture will have. In our culture, the suburban Mecca
of Frisco, I should not have hired a worship leader first. I should have
hired someone to organize and lead a dynamic children’s program. We
run 1 child for every 2 adults (That’s a lot of kids.). I can hire a band
to come in and lead worship for 15 minutes every week, but good help
for children isn’t as easy to outsource. Let your culture speak into
your staffing strategy.

Then, move on to hiring the right people – as quickly as you can,

move on to hiring the right people, not just the positions you think you
need. Our elders have a saying when we’re staffing, “We’ll take one
“a” player over three “c” players.” Instead of hiring someone to lead
home groups, can you hire the right guy who can do multiple jobs? In
the beginning you also want to hire almost exclusively self-starters in
your church plant. Until you get to a size where you can hire good
managers, you will need people who can survive doing ministry with
little resources, little direct coaching or an as-yet undefined plan. If
you just hire good people who can’t self-motivate and self-start, you
will spend all your time keeping your staff happy and not moving the
mission forward.

Church planters should also consider “outsourcing” as much as

possible. You can outsource missions, counseling, finance and
web/technology in the first few years. You should concentrate on that
which is most important. You will be in a constant battle trying to
figure out how and where to invest time and energy. You should be
doing that which provides the greatest return for your investment.
There will be a time for you to become a specialist and write a treatise
on divorce and remarriage but for now, steal that from another church
and figure out how to get a building!

Giving Life, Giving Life Away.
a 100 Clark St, Suite C | Little Elm, TX 75068 | t 469.362.1240 | e info@getmissional.com | w www.getmissional.com
Pitfall #3 - Focus
Many church planters have professional “ADD.” Every time you talk
with a church planter he has a new idea, new program and maybe a
new calling. Church planters need to be focused.

Football coaches have a game plan for every game. This means they
start the game with the first 30 plays scripted. They do this because
they know when they walk out of that tunnel 90,000 people will be
screaming at them to do something different. The script helps them
stay focused on what they know will work if they just stay with it. It
keeps them from overreacting and allowing the fans to dictate the
team.

Pastors should have a little of this coaching mentality, design a game

plan and stay focused. Before you begin getting emails demanding
certain programs and before you start getting phone calls about
changing the worship style, come up with a game plan. Make those
decisions before you walk into the stadium. If you don’t, you will allow
the spiritually immature to dictate what the spiritually mature do and
the church will suffer greatly.

Many planters also get caught up in building their influence over

building their church. So they blog more than they study, they
travel more than they should and their church suffers. Stay focused
on the task God has called you to and build your church, not your
influence. Don’t blog in the first years unless it has missional value.
Don’t travel in the first few years unless it has missional value. Early
on you cannot afford to spread yourself too thin.

Pitfall #4 – No Accountability
Planting a church is very dangerous for you and your family spiritually
and morally. The time and pressure takes a toll on church planters
and good, safe, humble accountability is essential to walking in
integrity and honoring God. Moving to the top of an organizational
chart should be done with strong accountability in place or the devil
will eat you alive.

One of the biggest issues you should watch for is a feeling of

entitlement. A feeling that you do so much and work so hard that you
deserve a little something extra. Or maybe you deserve a certain
respite from the moral standards you would place on others. Lots of
church planters end up drinking too much or dealing with pornography
because they are at the top of the leadership paradigm with no one to
Giving Life, Giving Life Away.
a 100 Clark St, Suite C | Little Elm, TX 75068 | t 469.362.1240 | e info@getmissional.com | w www.getmissional.com
 “We exist to glorify God through
lives changed by the gospel of Jesus
Christ.”
hold them accountable. Find elders from a sending church or other
church planters to help you out in this way.

“Preaching is not the art of making a sermon and delivering it.

Preaching is the art of making a preacher and delivering him.”
(Bishop Quayle)

More important than delivering a great sermon to your people is

becoming a great man for your people. That doesn’t happen without
help. Your church plant will be an agent of sanctification. The Lord will
use it to refine you, break you and put you back together.
Accountability protects you from being disqualified in the process.
Having a safe place to be held accountable is protection for your
soul. It’s like holding a shield out in front of your character.

For our staff we use accountability forms that are filled out weekly
(most weeks). Our staff knows they will not be fired for anything they
write down on that form. If you confess struggles and sin then you
will be protected and restored. If you get busted then you will be
removed and restored. Build a culture of confession and restoration for
you and your team.

Pitfall #5 – under-estimating the importance of a permanent

building
Most church planters have grossly under-estimated the importance of
a permanent building. Churches used to be able to plant in a school
and spend the first few years growing to a size where they could build
their first building. Church plants were growing to 400-500 before
they even attempted to build anything or move into a building. Well,
times are much different. In most cities you can no longer rent high
school auditoriums so the only space available are elementary or
junior high school cafeterias. This space only holds around 100-150
people and provides little to no space for children. Instead of planning
on growing your church to 400-500 and then building, church planters
must find an intermediate location to get to that goal. This could be
six or seven thousand square feet of office space or storefront that
used to be retail. You don’t have to own it or build it, but you need to
get serious about finding a location where people can come to you
every week and know you are going to be there.

Most churches double in size the weekend they move from being
mobile to a more permanent building. People are also less prone to
give faithfully to a church that’s mobile. They don’t know if it will be
there in two months so why sacrifice? But with a permanent location
Giving Life, Giving Life Away.
a 100 Clark St, Suite C | Little Elm, TX 75068 | t 469.362.1240 | e info@getmissional.com | w www.getmissional.com
you have much more credibility with attendees and the city you are
trying to reach.

Pitfall #6 – Dealing with Personal Issues/Loneliness

Almost every Lead Pastor I know deals significantly with loneliness. I
think the struggle is even more difficult for church planters. The move
from staff-person to Lead Pastor is huge, and the move from layperson
to Lead Pastor is even greater. All of a sudden you find yourself at the
top of an organization and the people closest to you either work for
you or spiritually depend on you. This puts you in a very strange social
environment. Unless you go into the church planting process ready for
this it can really be an issue. Recent statistics show that up to 70
percent of pastors regularly fight depression.1 The same study asked
808 pastors about the quality of their marriage and 77 percent of them
said their marriage was “not good.” I believe most of these issues
would be solved if pastors lived in the biblical community we urge our
people to find.

What many pastor’s don’t realize is the social toll this new life will take
on them and their family. Most Pastors work alone, and this is
especially true for church planters.

"In 70 percent of the churches in America, the pastor is the only full-
time staff person. In this environment the pastor is often expected to
be omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient," stated Thom S. Rainer,
founder of The Rainer Group, and recently elected president-candidate
of LifeWay Christian Bookstores.

Church Planters and pastors must make biblical, life-giving community

a real priority. Proverbs 18:1 says, “Whoever isolates himself seeks
his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment.” Pastors
cannot buy the lie that we don’t need the community our people need.
Our enemy, the Devil, loves it when church planters/pastors isolate
themselves. We become easy prey when we try to stand alone. Our
wives and children become easy prey when we try to make them stand
alone. Build a strong community for your family.

Pitfall #7 – Define Theological/Philosophical Boundaries

You need to define for your church open/closed handed issues early
because they will all be tested. Determine which theological issues you
are willing to lose people over and which issues you are not. These
will help you decide which issues are closed handed for you. Those
things should be decided early and written down! If they’re only in
1
Schaeffer Institute, “What’s going on with Pastors in America?”

Giving Life, Giving Life Away.
a 100 Clark St, Suite C | Little Elm, TX 75068 | t 469.362.1240 | e info@getmissional.com | w www.getmissional.com
 “We exist to glorify God through
lives changed by the gospel of Jesus
Christ.”
your head, they don’t exist.

Create a document so it can act as an objective third party. This way

people don’t have theological disagreements with the pastor, they have
theological misalignments with the church. When your church is small
you don’t want people to come in a stand against the pastor. It’s too
subjective and even when you win an argument you lose people.
When the church takes a stand on paper, there is no argument, only
teaching and guiding. Use a good, biblical, well thought out Statement
of Faith to ward off wolves and false teachers.

In conclusion, plant more churches. Join a strong, bible-teaching

network and get to work. There are estimated 120 million non-
Christians in the United States of America, which makes us the 4 th
largest mission field in the world.2 We need more gospel centered,
theologically sound, missional churches. Join the fight.

2
www.theluteran.org

Giving Life, Giving Life Away.
a 100 Clark St, Suite C | Little Elm, TX 75068 | t 469.362.1240 | e info@getmissional.com | w www.getmissional.com