How To Know If You Should Plant A Church

I will often get e-mails like the one I responded to today:  "I have been following you on Twitter for a while as well as reading your blog. I have the desire to plant churches but am not sure if it is a call from God or just a personal desire. How do you know?"  Here are a few thoughts on how to know if you should plant a church:

Passion:  You really want to and it sounds like fun.  Don't dismiss your desire to plant a church as something only you want.  This passion may very well be there because God put it there within you.  I know that for me that I get a little buzz just thinking about starting something new, particularly a church or a new site.

Giftedness:  You have leadership gifts and a history of starting things from scratch that enroll other leaders and are successful.  Before we started COMMUNITY I had started a couple different ventures that saw some success.

Confirmation:  Other people whom you trust tell you, “you should definitely start a church and if you do, I would be a part of it”.  One of the greatest indicators of your ability to start a new church is others willingness to join you on this mission.  We have seen this over and over again in our NewThing churches.

Assessment:  Lastly, I would suggest that you go to our NewThing website and take the ELI assessment.    There is a small fee, but it is worth it and it will give you some good feedback regarding your potential as a church planter

Comments

[KathyJ]

And all this time I've been waiting for a burning bush:)
It might be a great time to post a few testimonies from New Thing pastors detailing their journey toward planting and how God personally spoke to them.