The top ten things your church can do to prepare to parent or partner to plant a church.

10. Encourage your intercessors to form a prayer team focused on praying for new church plants.

9. Invite an outside consultant to help you ascertain the organizational health of your church. Any healthy church can parent a new church. Size is really not the issue. It’s about health and desire.

8. Connect with other pastors who have led their churches through the parenting process. Ask them to share with you what they learned through the process.

7. Approach parenting like you would a building program. Develop architectural plans (have planning meetings with your church leadership team to cultivate agenda harmony and envision together what kind of church you will plant). Gather people and financial resources. Set realistic long and short term goals. Work your plan. Deciding you will build someday does not get the job done. Neither does deciding to plant. You’ve got to get started. What can you do today that will prepare you to parent or partner?

6. Sponsor a Partnering Party by inviting neighboring pastors to meet together and discuss how partnering would work for the churches in your area. Usually, one church will need to accept the responsibility of the lead role for partnering to be successful. Is yours the lead church?

5. Identify potential church planters or site pastors in your church. Consider your best staff as potential candidates (remember the Biblical principle - give and it shall be given to you!). Have potential planting candidates assessed to confirm their readiness to plant or to discover where they need to develop so they can be sent out later.

4. Attend a church planting training event. A common misconception is that experience with leading an existing church adequately prepares a person to lead the starting of new work. Usually, that is not the case. Participating in a proven church planting training process will broaden your horizon and help further develop your understanding of how church planting works.

3. Read Viral Churches by Ed Stetzer and Warren Bird. This book is a comprehensive look at everything you need to know for your church to be fruitful and multiply.

2. Write your parenting strategy into your annual budget. Parenting a church is a lot like parenting a child- you are never ready for it. You’ll never have enough money when you begin the process of parenting or partnering. Just as parents restructure their lives to provide for their children, you will need to restructure your church budget to enable you to parent or partner.

1. Trust God and go for it! There are literally millions of people in the United States who, due to a variety of factors, will never be touched by existing churches. New churches are the best form of evangelism. Let’s choose to parent or partner and change our world forever!

Have you ever felt like you were pulled in all different directions as soon as you get to church? No one showed up in the preschool class room. The greeters are not at the door yet (so, no one helped me open the door so I could get my three children in without knocking one of them in the head). It’s summer time and the church feels hot because someone forgot to turn the air conditioning on last night so it will be cool for this morning’s service. We’re short people for the set-up/tear down team (those of us that are portable). The church lawn didn’t get mowed, the bulletins aren’t folded, the printer broke down and we need copies for the preschool class, and the list goes on. As a church planter’s wife we can easily get overwhelmed. We are dealing with our own insecurities and families and now we have to figure out this pastor’s wife thing, let alone a church planter’s wife thing. We tend to fill the need when a need rises or feel like people expect us to do something about it, and if we don’t we feel awful for not helping. I know as a church planter’s wife I sometimes just want to say no, no, no to everything (which I encourage you to say no sometimes, but I also know there are different seasons in church planting, so sometimes we have to push through). We are sometimes expected to do things beyond our comfort zone, beyond our giftings and talents, and everyone expects you to be good at it.

Something I have come to understand in my life was that my heart is the chief organ of my physical life and spiritual life. My heart speaks of the inner life - the mind, thoughts, motives, and desires. The mind is the fountain from which the action flows. We need to remember that we are not only shaping our hearts but also the hearts of the women in the church. Our heart will be reflected on their hearts. So, what do you want to reflect onto the women at your church?

Check back next week for Part 2 of this blog entry!

Kasha Henley and her husband Brian planted Journey Life Church in Holt, Michigan.

Join our team in praying for them as they ask God to bring the right worship leader and other key members to their team.

You can follow their journey by visiting Jennifer’s blog at www.jennifermcafee.com

Recently John and I went to BootCamp. A church planting BootCamp through Church Multiplication Network. Wow, it was intense. Really intense and oh so good.

We answered six key questions…

What does God want to do?
Who am I?
What am I sent to do?
How will we do it?
Who will do it with me?
How will we evaluate our progress?

One thing that I discovered is that BootCamp will do one of two things…

1. Give you the tools to accomplish the plan God has burning in your hearts.

2. Or you will have a clear understanding that God has not called you to church plant but support those who do.

I could never sum up all that God spoke to us that week; but here are some quick ones:

Our vision for Bay City is now God sized!
That God has prepared our lives from the moment we were born to be the very best people to do this job.
God has very clearly mapped out His vision and mission for Bay City.
We must be intentionally reaching those who do not know Christ.
We can’t do this alone.  God is already calling people to come along side of us.
We have to stay on assignment!

I feel overwhelmed; but I feel confident. Not because of my own abilities; but because of God’s!

If you are reading this and are considering planting a church…absolutely go to CMN boot camp. Wives, do not let your husbands go without you! It is vital that you be there with him, to partner with him, hear his heart and share yours. It will radically change the way you start and do church.

We are so excited to start this adventure!

Christina Johnson and her husband John are in the pre-launch stage for their church plant, Riverfront Church in Bay City, Michigan. They have three kids. Christina is also one of CMN Virtual Community Group leaders Find her blogging their Church Planting adventure at Get Joy.

Join us as we pray for continued wisdom for Daniel and Sarah, a larger venue to accommodate their growing congregation, and that God would use their upcoming outreaches this summer to bring people to Him.

Register today!

Last week we discussed a common issue many pastors and pastors’ wives experience - discouragement. When you’re facing discouragement, it’s easy to lose motivation, hope, and confidence.

In his article, “Some Cures for Discouragement,” Rick Warren says, “Do you know how often I have wanted to quit being pastor of Saddleback Church? Every Monday morning!” Warren then goes on to discuss causes and cures for discouragement.

Causes: (Read his article for more details.)

• Fatigue
• Frustration
• Failure
• Fear

Cures: (Read his article for more details.)

• Rest Your Body
• Reorganize You Life
• Remember God Will Help You
• Resist The Discouragement

Personally, I have found that I become more easily discouraged when I’m overwhelmed. It’s in those moments, I try to take a step back and breath, just be, and relax. Once I’ve pulled myself away, it’s easier to evaluate my situation and the things that I can or can’t change. These moments also allow me to think “big picture” instead of “immediate circumstance”.

God’s gifts to me during discouraging times:

• His word. His faithfulness. His guidance.
• My husband.
• My friends. If you are without ministry friends, I encourage you to change that. Having great friends in ministry is a game changer.
  • Join our Virtual Community Groups.  They will be a great encouragement to you as you navigate church planting together.
• My favorite things…the little things.

Romans 15:13 is my prayer for all of us today.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

Let’s share today… How do you deal with discouragement? How do you abound in hope?

Now averaging close to 60 people per week, Chad and his team recently launched a youth ministry. Join our team as we pray that this youth group, along with the rest of the church, will continue to grow!

The topic of discouragement has been heavy on my heart as I talk with many pastors’ wives. Regardless of the church size, leadership style, or location, a huge percentage of pastors and pastors’ wives are dealing with feelings of discouragement. It’s painful to watch individuals who were once filled with enthusiasm and passion, now lose confidence and hope.

Matthew Barnett discusses this issue in his blog post The Cure for Discouraged Pastors.

“Discouragement abounds in the life of a pastor. Every week it’s a battle to make budget, keep peace in an organization, and stay fresh and motivated yourself to keep pouring more of your life into everyone and everything. If any pastor is honest they have visited the idea more than once of, ‘Why don’t I just quit.’”

Maranatha Life did a pastoral study in 2002. Although the statistics are dated, they are interesting. Statistics About Pastors. Here are a few:

• 80% of pastors and 84% of their spouses feel unqualified and discouraged in their role as pastors.
• 50% of pastors are so discouraged that they would leave the ministry if they could, but have no other way of making a living.
• 80% of pastors’ wives feel pressured to do things and be something in the church that they are really not.
• 70% felt God called them to pastoral ministry before their ministry began, but after three years of ministry, only 50% still felt called.

Next week we’ll discuss how to deal with discouragement. But today we want you to know that you’re not alone! We’ve all had moments of discouragement and understand how they can impact you and your family. Just don’t walk through discouragement alone, lean on us.

Sometimes you just need to know that you’re not alone.

Herbert and Tiffany Cooper started Peoples Church in Oklahoma City in 2002. They have four kids: Cale, Cade, Caris, and Case. Tiffany loves eating out on date nights with her hubby, cuddling the kids, quality time with girlfriends, alone time, shopping, mindless TV watching 24, Chick-fil-a lunches, Starbucks, her phone and her laptop.