80% do not make it……70% are not self-supporting even after four years. The odds are so against us as in any secular business, simply because of it being a start-up. It takes time, energy, and money to get to critical mass and most just do not have the time, energy, or money to wait out critical mass. Two things make it work: Funding and Leaders. If you have no funding, you can’t make it. If you only have followers, you can’t make it. We need both; We have to do a better job of training leaders and God has to also choose to send us capable and desirous people who want to lead.
My thoughts:
- Give it all you have….it can work…embrace God’s promises.
- Accept the worst case scenario. Great churches led by great leaders have closed. The start of your church was not in vain.
- God may have other plans for your plans. Be ok with being kingdom-minded.
- Your dream may not have been His dream for this plant.
- Merge if need be- you may find you have developed a different gift-mix or passion as time has elapsed.
- Pass the ball off to a new leader if God leads.
- If you added value to one person, it has already been worth it.
- You are not a failure.
- Press on………Fight on…….you are still called to His service!
When I first got into church planting the idea of possibly failing was crushing. But through many hard lessons I realised three things:
1. God uses ALL trials to help us grow. So even if the plant didn’t work God would use that for His glory and our maturing.
2. Don’t be afriad of failing. It’s better to have mistakes to learn from, than not to learn anything.
3. Failing doesn’t stop God loving us. Sounds obvious but when things go wrong it’s the last thing we believe. Failing has no baring on the only thing that matters, our relationship with Jesus. He loves us regardless, for who we are not how well we do.