Every leader who has ever served God’s kingdom has done so with, at best, mixed motives; by its very nature, church planting requires a belief that a new church can accomplish something better than is currently being done, and that you’re someone who can do it, according to Tom Bennardo in his book The Honest Guide to Church Planting: What No One Ever Tells You about Planting and Leading a New Church.
The author provides quite a sobering array of advice based on his own experience, including:
- Leadership, imperative as it is, is always accompanied by its evil twin—Arrogance.
- The church isn’t an industry, and spiritual transformation can’t be mass-produced.
- You can organize a church to death, but you can’t organize one to life.
- When enticement is established as the foremost basis for church participation, maintaining the same level of stimulation becomes a condition for continued involvement.
- You will be routinely disappointed by your core team.
- If you spoon-feed people by accepting responsibility to ensure they’re contented and won’t threaten to leave, you’ll create an environment where the baby birds simply sit in the nest with their beaks open, waiting for Mama to scout, retrieve, digest, and regurgitate the food, and then drop it into their mouths.
- The mandate to do everything at once and do it all well is built on an unhealthy—and unattainable—foundation.
- Aspiring to lead is like leaning into a right hook. Factor in the additional demands of entrepreneurship required to church plant, and we shouldn’t be surprised that most potential recruits run screaming from the building.
This book probably won’t deter most first-time church planters, but it is still a book that they should read so that they can consider the issues carefully and take appropriate steps to avoid unnecessary risks.