Top 10 Reasons NOT to Join a Church Plant
On February 1st I moved my family to San Jose to start Garden City Church. The day we moved we had three adults committed to the church plant. It was a move of faith.
After getting settled, the first thing I did was hold an informational meeting about the church plant. I hoped twenty people would show up. Sixty-one people attended the meeting. The turnout was comprised almost entirely of Christians from a variety of other churches in the area, the vast majority of whom had never been involved with a church plant.
After speaking for about an hour on the vision of Garden City Church, I shared this top ten list. I spent ten minutes sharing and unpacking this list I’d created in order to de-romanticize church planting for all the Christians in the room. As people were growing excited about the possibility of joining our church planting team I wanted them to have a realistic picture of the difficulty of church planting, to be aware of some of the wrong reasons why people join a church plant, and to take an honest assessment of their own expectations and motives in considering joining the team.
Coming up with and sharing this list has proved very helpful for me, for the people who have decided to join me, and for the people who have decided not to join our team.
1. If you’re looking for the next cool thing in town (We want to grow by conversion growth, not church-goer transfer growth).
2. If you’re a Christian and you don’t like your current church (You will find reasons to not like this church).
3. If you have a bad track record at churches of being unteachable and causing problems (You won’t change here, you’ll repeat the pattern).
4. If you’re a consumer wanting to “go to church” 1x a week for a nice show (We are not a Sunday show, we are a community of disciples on a mission).
5. If you want religion (This church will be built on the radical gospel of grace).
6. If you have an agenda (We have our vision, our mission, and our values–your private agenda does not supercede them).
7. If you’re a wolf (We will sniff you out).
8. If you think this will be a nice little church that stays the same size, where everybody knows your name and you have my cell number on speed dial and we have a picnic lunch together every week (By God’s grace, we want to grow).
9. If you think this will be easy and smooth (This will be hard and difficult; this will be a fight, a battle, a challenging mission).
10. If you want to hold onto your comfortable life (You must lose your life).
I also shared a quote from Ernest Shakelton, from the advertisement he used when recruiting men for his expedition to Antarctica in 1914:
Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful, honor and recognition in case of success.
-This post also appears at Resurgence and the Acts 29 blog.
Great thoughts, Justin. Thanks for posting.
“@JustinBuzzard: Top 10 Reasons NOT to Join a Church Plant – http://t.co/y08eZfC” //dig it! #tc
Great way to set the DNA, brother! Excited to see what God builds!
Great list Justin…especially #6. These folks are dangerous and sometimes can turn into #7.
I go to a large church which is planning a church plant in September 2011. Today they announced the location – 2 minutes drive from where I live. I feel that my family and I should consider joining, but we just don’t feel comfortable with the lead minister. He is ‘different’ and not an easy man to follow. Is this a good enough reason to not consider joining?
Well said. Out of the gates wisdom.
Its so true and yet so sad… Church is not about us! Church is about glorifying God as he manifests himself through His Church!
#2 should have a huge red asterisk next to it. There are solid, Biblical reasons why people find their churches are deficient. Christiandom seems to have two heads about this; one the one hand we hear (throughout Christian radio, conferences, etc.) about the sad state of Evangelicalism, yet when those thirsting for the Gospel want to leave the wasteland of moralistic therapeutic deism for a solid church plant, it seems #2 meets us with criticism. I understand wanting to grow through conversion growth and not wanting to be just the next big thing in the valley (I was once a part of a former next-big-thing here about 10 years ago). But #2 might come off as the starve-where-you’re-at sort of message, and I don’t quite get the heart behind that. You know I’m not talking about consumers, as you already have that covered in #4.
[...] Not exactly a “seeker-friendly” kinda message! In any case, Justin posted the list on his blog, and it was recently featured on the Resurgence website. I thought the points he made were sober [...]
Great word. Been planting since August & have seen much of this already.
Yeah, but dang. Get a group of people to plant a church for the right reasons, and you’ll never, ever go back to church as usual. We just celebrated 2 years Easter Sunday, and it’s been absolutely amazing. Seldom easy, but amazing.
Great to clarify this up front! Your fellow brothers and sisters in Acts 29 are praying for God to work in mighty ways – for Christ’s Glory in San Jose. For our family in friends in San Jose who have yet to experience His grace and new life – we are praying that you be used to advance His Kingdom.
Reason #6 – I’m not sure who “we” and “our” refer to, but it shouldn’t be anyone other than Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. If leadership is simply trying to cram their agenda on a voiceless congregation, that would seem to be stepping outside the bounds of scripture. It would also call to question, who gave you the right to set “your own agenda.” The church is a group of believers empowered by the Holy Spirit, fulfilling God’s agenda. Biblical leadership is servanthood, not dictatorial.
Top 10 Reasons Not To Join a Church Plant http://nwb.me/nowdx
We planted seven years ago and encountered every single issue you listed on your top ten. I take your top ten as being slightly overstated to make a very valid point ( I could nit pick a bit here and there) May God richly bless your work. Our biggest problems have been Christians with their own agenda(s) which invariably conflicted with the vision God gave our planting team. My favorite… We’re called to minister to those with an affinity for the western lifestyle (i.e. cowboys and the like) most of whom feel very uncomfortable in an environment that is most urban praise choruses (not a slight on those churches, they can do great work… just a stylistic difference). We had several musicians and other assorted experts who told us we should get rid of the country music and go to a more “contemporary” style if we wanted to “succeed”. Others include two large church pastors who told me if we quit “chasing the unchurched” and brought in a couple more well established tithers we wouldn’t have any financial struggles. Still another who rigourosuly complained that we gave bibles away to people because “better stewardship” would be to sell them. We don’t consider our vision of a cowboy church to be God’s answer for the church, simply an area that he has called us to minister to in our particular community. Still we feel we must be faithful to what he has called us to do.
[...] post originally appreared on Justin Buzzard’s blog. Justin is planting Garden City Church in partnership with the Acts 29 Church Planting Network. [...]
[...] I read this today: A quote from Sir Ernest Shackelton, from the advertisement he used when recruiting men for his expedition to Antarctica in 1914: “Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success.” [...]
by Top 10 motivos para NÃO se juntar a uma igreja em plantação | Blog da Editora Tempo de Colheita
[...] do blog do Justin [...]
[...] I lifted this from the resurgence website. Apparently, they got it from Justin Buzzard’s blog here. [...]
[...] ran across a good list by Justin Buzzard, a church planter in San Jose, of the top ten reasons you might not want to join a new church [...]
by 10 motivos para NÃO se juntar a uma igreja em plantação « Vineyard – Americana
[...] do blog do Justin Buzzard – [...]
[...] To read more about Pastor Justin’s church plant, check out his blog: http://www.justinbuzzard.net/2011/03/24/top-10-reasons-not-to-join-a-church-plant/ [...]
I dig it!
As a Pastor with a new plant I would love to re-blog this..permission please?
by Top 10 reasons why people should not join a church plant « Dancing in the Darkness
[...] This post originally appreared on Justin Buzzard’s blog. [...]
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