9 Traits of Successful Church Planters
By Mariel Villarreal
Read time: 4.5 minutes
Planting a church is one of the most challenging and rewarding opportunities of a lifetime. We want to see you and your team take territory for God’s Kingdom and help change lives for Jesus.
Do you have what it takes to be a successful church planter? Here are a few key takeaways for making your church planting process a successful one.
What makes a church planter successful?
1. You have a clear vision
One of the first steps to successful church planting is to have a clear vision of the calling God has placed on you.
This vision includes God’s design for it, the name, the logo, the location, the mission, and the purpose of the church plant. Coming up with branding is also a great idea, as it helps clearly communicate the purpose of your church.
You can read more about church branding in a previous blog post here.
2. You have a launch team
To quote John Maxwell, “He who thinks he leads but has no followers, is only taking a walk.” Having people who will follow you on the journey of planting your church is very important!
Church planting is not a solo project. The people you recruit to join your launch team will help launch your church.
Having a launch team will maximize and multiply your efforts in the church planting process. Not only are they the first carriers of the church’s DNA, but they are also your first volunteers and visionaries.
You can build a powerful launch team to help build God’s vision for your church with our Launch to Lead video course. Keep reading to find out how you can get Launch to Lead for free!
3. You are intentional with prayer
While Prayer may be obvious, it will make or break a ministry entirely. Not only does God want to be completely involved with the planting of His church, but He also wants to lead and guide you and your team toward His heart and His vision.Be intentional with prayer in your personal walk with God. This will keep you refreshed and able to have gumption through the church planting process. Remember, you are first a child of God, then a leader of His church.
Be intentional with prayer with your team. Praying with your team will undergird them for their success in being a part of the launch. It will also keep them aligned with God and grow their relationship with Him as well!
4. You create a schedule
As a church planter, sometimes your work boundaries blend with your life. This creates ambiguity within your days and weeks. To maximize your time as a church planter, create a daily and weekly structure with clear work boundaries.
5. You structure work hours
Speaking of boundaries, whether you have an actual office to go to or not, designate yourself work hours. This will help with work-life balance and hold you accountable. Creating this structure will also curb too much leisure time and too much work time. Having clarity with your schedule will keep you and your team in a healthy place.
6. You are intentional with people
Whether it’s your own team or others who are asking for help, a successful church planter will be intentional with people. Remember, planting a church is both task-driven and relational. Boundaries should be in place for how much time to spend with various people and getting things done. As a church planter, it’s essential to invest intentional time with your core people and prioritize time for your family.
7. You strategize
Strategy covers church planting phases, scheduling out services, planning sermons, planning finances, and so much more. Many pastors will use the SMART goal formula to plan out what they need going forward effectively.
Here’s how to be SMART:
- Make your goals specific. The more details, the better. This provides clarity to accomplish your vision.
- Make your goal measurable. How are you going to measure the success of reaching this goal? Is it by date? Amount?
- Make your goal achievable. Reaching 100 people to come to your second service is achievable. Having 500-1,000 is more than likely not.
- Make your goal relatable. Make sure your goal is related to the work that is actually needing to be done. Serving the community by feeding the homeless is a great goal, but if that’s not the focus of your church plant right now and you need to be structuring consistent Sunday services, then it’s not a relatable goal.
- Make your goal time-bound. Set a deadline for your goal. This gives accountability and clearly defined expectations.
Designing your goals to fit within these characteristics will clearly define them so you can take successful action!
8. You use tools to stay compliant
The church planting journey comes with plenty of new territory. From having a board of directors to keeping compliant financial records, it’s a lot to manage! Here are a few tools to help you stay compliant.
- Keep accurate board meeting minutes
- Hire an outsourced bookkeeper to manage your finances
- Create policies to protect your volunteers and teams
- Create a generous compensation plan for your lead pastor
To find more helpful tools to help you in your church planting adventure, check out our software and resources here.
9. You answered God’s call
At the end of the day, what matters most is that you obediently answered God’s call to get your church plant started. When you take one step at a time to steward the vision he has given you, God will place his supernatural anointing on the efforts you bring. Do your best to work and build your plant with excellence, and watch as God does what only he can do to help your church plant grow.
For such a time as this
Church Planter, God has called you for such a time as this! We’ve helped thousands of leaders like you start their churches successfully, and we’d be honored to come alongside you in your journey. If you’re ready to get started, you can take advantage our of Nonprofit Sale going on right now and get everything you need to start your church on a solid foundation!
If you purchase the StartRIGHT Service now through Tuesday, August 31st, 2021, you will get two resources for free:
1. Launch to Lead : A video course to prepare you to be the ultimate church planter
2. Church Branding Guide: The ultimate guide to creating an outstanding church or ministry brand
This is a value of $374 for free! Click here to learn more about the StartRIGHT Service.
Give us a call at 877-494-4655 to get started now, or click the link below to schedule a call to speak to a specialist!
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