Hindrances to Church Planting on the Mission Field

Think before you plant!

You have presented your call to the ministry to all who will listen. You are a church-planting missionary called to reach and impact a country. Unless you are very careful, you will fall short of your expectation. This study will help you succeed at what God called you to do. Ask yourself the following questions in this post and those to follow. Discuss them with your peers. Be sure that you are doing exactly what you set out to do.

1. Have you developed a philosophy of ministry?

   1. Before starting the first church, you need to know where you are going and what you will do.

   2. Is your philosophy to pastor a church or to train pastors to pastor churches?

   3. Are you a church planter or a church pastor?

   4. Your philosophy will govern all that you do in your ministry and who your target audience is.

      1. Where you start.

      2. Who you reach.

      3. What your goals are?

   5. Will you make training a priority in your ministry? Following the example of Jesus and Paul, who both prioritized training before sending out their disciples, this approach ensures the sustainability and growth of your work. By investing in the training of others, you multiply your impact and leave a lasting legacy.Jesus did. He pastored, but His goal was to spend time with some before He sent them out to do ministry, Mark 3:14, Acts 4:13.

   6. Jesus trained men with the purpose of them doing “greater ministry” than He had ever done. John 14:12.

   7. Paul did. He said his ministry was to train and perfect people to do the work of the ministry. Ephesians 4:11-16

   8. According to Bible scholars, Paul’s entire ministry lasted only 40 years. In that time, he started a minimum of 14 churches and possibly up to 20 churches. That means new churches every 2 to 3 years, even counting furloughs.

   9. Paul knew he didn’t get all he wanted done, so he trained men to go in and finish what he had started. Titus 1:5.

2. How many times have you stated that you will start indigenous churches?

   1. Remember, indigenous is self-governing, self-supporting, and self-propagating or reproducing.

   2. Planting indigenous churches is a very tall order. You must get a church from none saved to fulfill all that you feel God has called you to do.

   3. If you are to accomplish your God-given goal, you must train everyone, from the lay member to all church leadership.

From your philosophy of ministry, you will develop the principles that will guide your ministry plan. This is not a right or wrong set of questions, but more to help you think through what you are doing! Meditate on the following questions.

1. Have you decided whether to serve as a missionary or an on-the-field pastor?

   1. Are you leaving or staying?

   2. Are you preparing pastors or pastoring a church?

   3. Are you a leader training, multiple church planting missionary?

2. Can you see how pastoring a church could hinder your church-planting ministry?

   1. Getting so involved in pastoring one church is easy that you forget your priority.

   2. Pastoring can consume your life and time.

   3. It is so much more enjoyable to preach to a packed house than wondering if anyone will come.

   4. Pastoring a church can become an anchor around your neck if you desire to plant multiple churches because you will never have enough time to do more.

3. Do you realize all you know is pastoring? It is all we have seen, model.

   1. Most of us have never seen multiple church planting modeled.

   2. Seldom have we had a model that could show us how to be a leader training, multiple church planting mentor, or missionary.

   3. We hunger to preach the Bible. Expository, sequential Bible preaching.

   4. We get excited about pastoring and loving people. We drop our focus from the world to the needs of our congregation, which is the right thing for a pastor to do. It is great to be a pastor, but is that what God called you to do? Can you see how you might work differently if you were to plant a church or train pastors to plant churches? It’s time to shift our mindset from pastoring to church planting, from loving our congregation to reaching the lost.

4. Can you see how you might work differently if you were to plant a church or train pastors to plant churches?

   1. Choosing the demographic you are after might be different if you are a pastor. You want families, and you want ministries for all the community.

   2. If you train future leaders, find young men and women willing to give their lives to start new churches and pastors.

   3. I challenge you to consider reaching mainly 15— to 25-year olds or 18— to 28 year-olds who have not decided what to do with their lives. They might surrender to carry the gospel to the world.