You are planting a church in a broken world. Here is what you face that no one talks about:
First, churches will sin against you. Every church planter I know had the rug pulled out from under them by their sending church or a nearby church. Another planter will recruit from your core team or pastors will talk about you behind your back. After a disappointing start, supporting churches aren’t so supportive anymore. Every planter has stories of being let down by those that should have helped.
If you have problems with your sending church, then you are normal. If you don’t have problems with your sending church, then you are the lucky one in a million. Pastors of churches around you will hurt you, disappoint you, or undermine you.
Before you get so outraged, remember that every church around you is pastored by a sinner. Your church will be too. You will have to learn the difference between a pastor who still needs sanctification and a pastor disqualified from ministry. In the middle of planting, you will tend to confuse the two. Don’t be surprised that other pastors, churches, and denominations let you down. What did you expect? There is no perfect pastor, church, or denomination.
Second, people will sin against you. People in the church will love you and your vision one minute and then turn against you the next. They might champion what you are doing one day and then wound you later. The same people that hurt you might one day be the people who e-mail you to say that they miss what the church once had together. It won’t make any sense.
Expect your church plant to be filled with sinners. Don’t be surprised when church people hurt you. God will likely do many things, but one thing he will do is use those betrayals and hurts to cut out some of the cancerous sin in you that will only grow if everything is easy. God is working in you through the sinners in your church.
Third, you will sin against others. My friend once looked at me in the middle of some of the darkest days of our church plant and said, “You’re a sinner too.” I was so mad at him. I couldn’t believe he would equate me with those who were wronging me. I didn’t speak to him for six months. I seethed until the Lord showed me my friend was right. I was so focused on other peoples’ sins that I couldn’t see my own.
A lot of church planters struggle with bitterness and anger like I did because they spend so much time looking at everyone else’s sin and the size of the work in front of them that they can’t see their own sin. Don’t be surprised that your sin will rear its ugly head. You are your biggest problem. Your sin will be a bigger problem than funding, volunteers, or attacks. Healthy church planting means we go first to repent and restore relationships.
There it is. You are a sinner planting a church in a broken world. Paul understood this work, and I’ll leave you with his words.
“At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion’s mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” 2 Timothy 4:16-18 (NIV)
