PRESSURE POINTS OF CHURCH PLANTING

by COREY TURNER

Being called to plant a church is both a privilege and one of the greatest acts of spiritual warfare there is in ministry. This is because you are taking spiritual ground away from our adversary and advancing the kingdom of God into places and spaces the enemy once occupied. It’s critical that we don’t underestimate, nor minimise the spiritual battle we are entering into when we pioneer a local church.

We need to be proactive to discern the potential pressure points that can come from planting a church. What are some of the pressure points we have to navigate as church planters?

Ignoring conflict in core team

Psalm 133 tells us that God commands blessing on our unity and therefore is one of the greatest weapons we have against Satan. So, it doesn’t come as a surprise that the unity of the core planting team is going to come under assault. Bad doesn’t get better the longer you leave it, so you need to be willing to confront the disunity in love and not allow unresolved tensions in relationships to undermine the vision God has given you.

Compromising on God’s original vision

The Apostle Paul declared to King Agrippa in Acts 26:19, “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.” When things aren’t going as expected, we can pendulum swing from no compromise to changing the vision every other week. Satan will tempt you to give up on God’s vision and pursue your own ideas of how things should look. You must hold the line and go back to the original encounter of what God has already said to you. Isolation due to independence

Proverbs 18:1 tells us that he who isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgement. Why you plant a church is important. It mustn’t be fuelled by the need to be independent or build a platform for yourself. The only justifiable reason is the collective witness that God is calling you to do so. Symptoms such as a critical spirit, resisting input from others and exaggerating your successes are all indicative of an independent spirit. I suggest staying accountable to apostolic oversight and practicing repentance. This is key to avoiding the isolation of a Lone Ranger mentality.

Trying to do too much too soon This will leave you feeling exhausted and frustrated and will ultimately lead to a loss of passion and decreased engagement from the infant congregation. It’s important that every church plant acts their age and not run ahead of God’s timing of maturation. We can’t expect a 2 year old church to act like a mature adult church of 30+ years.

Not saying NO enough

Everyone who connects with a new church plant from other churches will have an idealistic expectation of what your church should look like. One YES must be defended by one thousand NO’s over time. I encourage you to narrow your focus and increase your impact. NO creates clarity, NO aligns your ministry and NO brings focus.

Overcommitting financially

Nothing will cripple a church quicker than overcommitting financially in the early years. Church

planters need outside input and accountability around handling finance. Jesus outlined in Luke 16:10-11 that the litmus test of being entrusted with true riches is determined by our faithfulness with unrighteousness wealth. This extends to both the governance at the local church level and your stewardship of resource at a personal level.

Mis-prioritising leadership meetings over prayer meetings

Obviously, apostolic leadership is critical in a pioneering context but prayer is the supply line to the front line of our ministries. When the pressure is on, the first thing to be relegated to the back room is often corporate prayer. Jesus said, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations” (Matt 21:12-14). There will be a direct correlation between the fervency of corporate prayer and the growth of the church, both spiritually and numerically.

Ignore the pressure points of church planting at your own peril. I encourage you to be discerning, intentional and prayerful as you step out in faith to pursue all that God has put in your heart. The local church is still the only thing Jesus is building and when we yoke ourselves to Him and his calling upon us, we can be encouraged that He will build His church through us.

COREY TURNER oversights the Chruch Planting portfolio on the ACC National Executive. He and his wife wife Simone are the Senior Pastors of the multicampus Nuema Church.