Recently, Russ Bennett, pastor of Cornerstone Church in Myrtle Beach wrote the following article concerning church planting. Russ is part of the NACPF network out of Open Door Baptist Church in Raleigh, NC.

“I am a product of the 80’s. Big hair, parachute pants, Swatches, and the introduction of gaming systems. And make no mistake about it, I had all of the above. One thing in particular I remember was having the first Nintendo model. It was simple, grey, and seemed to hardly work unless you blew air in the game cartridge and beat on the system with your fist. Those are good memories. I also remember being very competitive while playing these games. And anytime I started off not playing a game well, I would hit the “reset” button so I could start over from the beginning.

I feel this way about my experience in church planting. Often times I wish I could just hit the reset button and start over on some things.  I wish I could have a “do-over.” And now that we are nearly 3 years into the planting process I look back and say, “I wish I would have done that differently.” So here are a few things along the way that I would hit “reset” on in order to start over.

1. Pray More

When it comes to church planting you cannot pray enough. It is a daunting task that can only succeed if there is a robust reliance on the Lord in prayer. You cannot plant in your own strength. It will wear you out if you rely on your own abilities and charisma to build a healthy, Christ-exalting Church. The church belongs to God so let him build it!

2. Team Dynamics

Hopefully you are not going rogue in your plans to plant. You need a team, but not just any team. First you need a team of humble, gracious, forgiving, and theologically agreeing followers of Jesus Christ who want to live in harmony with one another and see every man, woman, and child come to faith in Christ in your city. Then, once you have a team, the team needs to spend at least a year doing life together. You need to spend a year together getting to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. You need at least a year to dissect personalities and idiosyncrasies. You need at least a year to grow and mature with one another, and time to challenge and pray for one another. You want to know the people you are planting with BEFORE you go. You also want to use this time to plan and prepare for the future of the church. It is very important that the team is on the same page and buying into the same vision. If members have different visions and philosophies this needs to be addressed and may not make for good team dynamics down the road. This step is extremely important and will alleviate a lot of headaches as you plant. This is a step we skipped. A step I wish I could hit “reset” on.

3. Music

You may agree or disagree but music is going to play a huge role in your planting.  If I could hit “reset” I would do everything I could to find a music guy.  For us, we have had a rotating door of musicians since we started.  Some good, some not so good.  So pray and ask God for a music guy who is humble, theologically sound and gifted.

4. Spend Time with Seasoned Planters and Pastors

Get wisdom! Church planting is full of landmines…and yes, you will step on a few. The more time you spend with seasoned planters and pastors, the less likely you are to locate a mine to your detriment. Get counsel and a lot of it.

However, with all this said, ultimately God is in control. You may think you are lacking resources and the know how to do everything correct, but our Savior is more than adequate to make up where we are lacking. He is able to overcome our mistakes and what we deem as a lack of resources. As long as we have prayer and the gospel we will always be in the race; we will always possess the power, by the Holy Spirit, to see cities and nations changed for the glory of God. It was good enough for the early church it should be good enough for us.”