My Top 10 List for Church Planters
1. JESUS LOVES YOU! Jesus doesn't express His love for you, nor how pleased He is with you by how big your church becomes. He expressed His love for you on the cross, and continually displays His love for you by abiding in you and with you throughout your life (John 15:9-11; Romans 8:39).
2. JESUS WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU! (Matthew 28:20) During one of my darkest and loneliest times in ministry, I awoke one morning with the weight of the world on my shoulders, uncertainty filled my heart, and pressure was pressing in on every side. In that moment God calmed my spirit with His loving, encouraging, still small voice by saying, "I am with you. I have not forgotten about you. I will lead you through this" (cf. Isaiah 41:10)
3. SURROUND YOURSELF WITH WISE COUNSELORS (Proverbs 11:14, 15:22). A wise friend once told me this when I was in the midst of a struggling church plant. "Did you think it would be easy and all uphill? What you are experiencing is not unusual in a new church plant. People will come and go as you develop your core group and things start moving forward. This could take 2-3 years or more." He then added, "If you can't run with the footmen, how will you run with chariots later on?" (Jeremiah 12:5).
4. SUCCESS IS NOT ABOUT NUMBERS, IT'S ABOUT FAITHFULNESS TO GOD (Matthew 19:28-29). Do not get caught up in thinking success as a church planter means having a mega-church. It is not. Your goal is to stay close to Jesus, feed and lead the sheep (John 21:15-17), reach the lost (Romans 1:16), and make disciples (Matthew 28:18-20). In other words, remain faithful to what God has called you to do, and do it with all that is within you! Jesus is not going to say, "Well done good and successful servant." He is going to say, "Well done, good and faithful servant" (Matthew 25:21, 23).
5. REMAIN FAITHFUL IN FAILING. No matter how much you feel like you are failing, be diligent to remain faithful to what God has called you to do. There are lessons that He is trying to teach you in this walk of faith you are on. Hang in there, God is not finished with you! Jeremiah's preaching ministry had little impact upon the nation of Israel as far as he could tell. Remember, Jesus is looking for faithfulness not success (cf. Matthew 25:21, 23).
6.DO NOT DESPISE THE DAYS OF SMALL THINGS (Zechariah 4:10). There are things that God wants to teach you in this season of life that you cannot learn in any other way.
7. DON'T LISTEN TO YOURSELF, EVER! In his book Spiritual Depression: It's Causes and it's Cure, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones talks about the importance of not listening to yourself ever. But instead we are called to speak truth into our lives, by reminding ourselves of how God views us, and our situation.
Pastor and Author, Joe Thorn, also communicates this important truth in his book, Note to Self: The Discipline of Preaching to Yourself. In this book, Thorn communicates the importance of something that every church planter (as well as pastor, ministry leader, and professing Christian) must become a master of, and that is the discipline of preaching to ourselves!
The reason we want to effectively preach to ourselves the truths of God's Word for our lives is because the alternative is talking to and listening to ourselves. The internal dialogue that we have with ourselves can be a powerfully negative influence upon our lives. As D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones points out, our self-dialogue is birthed from our fallen nature. In other words, when we speak to ourselves we normally tell ourselves... "I am not good enough, God doesn't love me anymore, I can't do it, I won't succeed, my life is insignificant, I do not have God's blessing on my life, I am not anointed, I am not a gifted enough communicator, leader, visionary, etc. etc. etc. you fill in the blanks." This is why we have to preach to ourselves and stop listening to ourselves.
This is why Scripture memorization, meditation, and faith application is so important! God wants us to focus on whatever is true (Philippians 4:8-9), and in order to do this effectively, we must be men and women who take "every thought captive" and make it obedient to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). As we take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ, we will be "transformed by the renewing of our minds" (Romans 12:2), have our faith increased (Romans 10:17), and like Jeremiah the prophet who was ready to give up because of the all-time low he was at in life, we must use the Word of God as our defense against our fallen natures destructive influence upon our life and calling.
Instead of giving up, Jeremiah proclaimed, "I will not mention Him, or speak any more in His name. But His word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, and I could not" (Jeremiah 20:9). Once again, DO NOT LISTEN TO YOURSELF, but take the Word of God and PREACH TO YOURSELF!
8. CLING TO YOUR FAITH IN CHRIST, AND KEEP A CLEAR CONSCIENCE (1 Timothy 1:19). No matter what you might be facing in ministry, whether it is opposition or discouragement, you have to be a man that "CLINGS TO" your faith in Christ. Keeping a clear conscience through righteous living is what enables us to do this with confidence (1 John 2:28-29).
9. WHERE GOD GUIDES, GOD PROVIDES (Genesis 12:1-4). The Bible is full of passages that remind us that where God guides us, God will provide for us. Jesus tells us, "Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all shall be added" (Matthew 6:33). The Psalmist proclaims, "The Lord will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right" (Psalm 84:11). Paul proclaims, "And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19). God assumes full responsibility for our needs when we obey Him.
10. EMBRACE GOD'S CLASSROOM OF CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT (Romans 5:3-4). Whatever you are facing right now is what God is using in your life as your teachers. These are what God is doing to conform you and grow you into the image of Jesus (Romans 8:29). Embracing the trials and difficulties in life enables us to grow, and learn, and pass the assignment God has before us, so that we can pass the class and move onto the next subject of spiritual growth.
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