Scott Harris

…if money was no object?

I love this question. It’s a fun one to fantasize about. Unfortunately, this side of heaven it will always be an object.

When I launched out and planted a church 10 years ago, I had no money. Just a dream, a partner for a wife, and a small (very small) handful of people that believed God was in it. And He was!

Would I do it again? In a heartbeat. But I have a much healthier view on how much money it takes. If you’re planting, and I know of several of you, set a goal of raising X then triple it. No quadruple it!

Then get some very savvy financial ninjas around you to make it stretch.

I've spent the last 30 hours with the church planters of the Northwest Ministry Network in Seattle at my good friend Bill Berger's church. I've blogged about it before but I'm part of a team that recruits, equips, resources and coaches church planters for Washington State and Northern Idaho.

Our speaker was Steve Pike from the Church Multiplication Network. What really rocked my world was when he talked about the research in The American Church in Crisis which basically points out that even though thousands of new churches have been planted in the last decade we're really only reaching people with church in their backgrounds.

Just ordered the book…

I gave a decade to planting a church and loved it. God has moved me to another assignment but I've got a huge heart for church planters. They face obstacles that will challenge everything they thought they understood about leadership, theology, work/family balance and most importantly themselves.

I don't have many answers but I do feel called to make myself available to be a sounding board. If you're in the Seattle-Tacoma area and would like to connect. I'm buying lunch! Send me an email.

Most people who loved a book then see the movie leave disappointed. The movie just never seems to be as good as the book.

This phenomenon happens for every church planter too. Most planters will experience those on their launch team begin to leave their new church between years 1-3. There's, perhaps, many reasons for this but one is:

And though 1 out of a 1000 church plants experience rapid growth, most don't and patience hardly keeps pace with imaginations.

Just received a Facebook message from someone who’s feeling the call to plant a church. I’ll keep his name and location a secret for now because he hasn’t gone public with his current church yet. However, I was impressed with him reaching out to me. Not because I have all the answers but because he knows what he doesn’t know.

As with any endeavor, there is a ton of really good resources out there to help someone start a church. But as someone whose been there…there is nothing like talking to those who have gone before. No book, conference, worshop, etc should replace the coaching you get from someone whose "been there, done that."

Looking forward to helping this guy and with his permission, I’ll post some of our conversations.

In the meantime, who do you need to seek out that’s been where you’re going? Contact them this week and take them to lunch.