Plant Better: Church Planting | Lead Pastor Development | Church Leadership

Bryan Barley moved to Denver from North Carolina to start The Summit Church. His goal was to join the community instead of showing it how to “do things right.” Listen in to hear how Bryan and his team settled into an existing neighborhood and put down permanent roots in order to serve it.

Kingdom work is accomplished not just in lifetimes, but in days as well. In this episode, Dan Freng from Calvary Littleton in Colorado gives an inside look at how he sets the pace for his church day to day—from missional living, to sermon prep, to answering emails.

What qualities describe most pastors? Wild guess: you probably didn’t think “organized.” Listen in to hear James talk with Doug Serven about his book The Organized Pastor in one of our most practical episodes yet.

Young, hip churches are all the rage in church planting, but they’re not right for every city’s context. David Ritchie from Redeemer Christian Church in Amarillo, TX joins the guys to talk about how his multi-generational church is far better than any he had envisioned.

You could always be doing more as a church planter. And the toughest part? They’re all good things you could be doing. In this episode, Ricky Jones from RiverOaks Presbyterian Church in Tulsa, OK explains why friendship is so vital to ministry, yet so low on pastors’ priority lists.

There’s a good chance that you love everything about being a church planter—except fundraising. Casey Cease can definitely tell you what not to do. Casey is a lead pastor who’s been there, made the mistakes, and learned a ton about how to do fundraising right.  Listen in to hear what to do—and not do—in your fundraising.

Establishing a vision is the primary task of the church planter.  The problem is, everyone who walks through your door has their own vision of how things should go. If you’re not upfront about yours in the beginning, things could get ugly. Brian Bowman from Valley Life Church in Phoenix has a lot of wisdom to share on that dilemma. Listen in to hear how to define, and then defend, your vision.

“Cold planting” is planting a church without a sending network or partner church.  For Fathom Church in Littleton, CO, it worked. But would they recommend it to any new church planter? Chris Martin, pastor at Fathom Church, answers that question in this episode.

A lot pastors aren’t great managers. Sure, you have to do a lot of things you’re not great at when you plant a church, but if you have the right team, your giftings should complement each other. Listen in to hear Matt Patrick from The Well in Boulder, CO talk about how having a team is both harder and easier—and ultimately better—than going it alone.

Church planters tend to prepare for everything except recruiting. But people don’t just show up to new churches out of the blue. In this episode, the guys talk with Dusty Thompson from Redeemer Church in Lubbock, TX. Dusty has a big heart for church planters and some great advice on how they can draw people to their churches. 

Who are the people you should have in your inner circle as you plant a church? What should they be like? Tory Mayo planted The Well in Austin, TX with a core team that moved neighborhoods to go on mission. Hear how he’s built a strong foundational team and what he would do differently if he did it all again.

Our hope rests in one of three places: the world, religion, or the gospel. But only one of them leads to freedom instead of slavery. That’s the subject of Hope-Shifting, a book by Jim Applegate from Redeemer Church in Modesto, CA. Listen in to hear his take on what “gospel-centered” really means.

It seems like a contradiction: you can’t understand until you know nothing. Yet, that’s a reality church planters have to embrace in order to lead well. In this episode, James and Kenny talk with Jake Chambers from Red Door, a church in San Diego, about approaching planting from a place of knowing nothing. Once you do that, you open yourself up to the outside help you need.

Jon Wolfinger is the lead pastor at Lumen Deo in Prescott, AZ—but he also oversees maintenance and facilities for a medical center. Because of his experience, Jon has a great perspective on bi-vocational ministry. In this episode, he explains that knowing whether it’s right for you comes down to this question: Is bi-vocational ministry a barrier or a bridge to church planting?

How much pressure do you put on your own sermons? If the answer is “too much,” you may find yourself perpetually exhausted. Listen in as Brian Hope from Mission Church in Walla Walla, WA packs a ton of wisdom about preaching into one episode. Topics include taking the “long-haul” approach to preaching, finding your own voice, letting the text be your guide, and how to prep.

In the past, some churches have been guilty of extracting from their people without giving much in return. As a result, many churches today don’t ask for anything. Can church membership, done right, be a solution to those extremes? That’s the topic of discussion in this episode, featuring Allen Duty from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, TX.

Around the 5-7 year mark in the life of a church, there is an alarming tendency towards apathy. All it takes is a little less worship, and a little loss of hope, to find the spirit of apathy everywhere in your life. In this episode, Timothy Stewart from Reflect Church in Elk Grove, CA talks about his recent chapter of apathy and how a simple revelation turned it all around earlier this year.

There are a lot of great reasons to plant a church—but also plenty of reasons not to. In this episode, James and Kenny talk with Joel Webbon from The Response Church in San Diego about the tendency of young men to plant churches to gain approval or prove themselves, and to plant as a reaction rather than a call.

In general, Millennials have no patience for “holy” pastors. If you aren’t appropriately transparent, they’ll sniff it out right away. That’s Chuck Ryor’s central philosophy for reaching the “used-to-go-to-church” population around Prism Church in Pasadena, CA. Hear Chuck’s wisdom on how much to share from the stage and, more importantly, why you should share it in the first place.

With the new year approaching, you have a choice: plan your year ahead of time or scramble week-to-week. Justin Fordinal from BridgePoint Community Church in Cypress, TX bought himself a six-foot dry-erase calendar from neuyear.net. He’s using it to plan out his entire 2016. Listen in to hear how following his lead can save you a ton of headaches.