Am I going to have to do this alone?

Some leaders imagine themselves as the “genius with a thousand helpers.” They alone hold the keys to the vision and simply need people-power to execute their plans. They ask, “Why won’t people listen to me?”

For church starters and faithful innovators, though, we usually see the opposite. These leaders want others to come alongside and collaborate with them to build a meaningful team. However, they often find themselves shouldering too much of the burden themselves, wondering, “Why isn’t anyone else committed to the vision of this new church?”

Perhaps you can relate to the fear that you’re the only one who is genuinely invested in this new church, leading you to wonder if this vision is even worth paying attention to at all.

Building Your Team

Even the most talented, experienced, and faithful leaders are destined to burn out if they try to go it alone. Church start-ups that are going to make it for the long haul need load-bearing leaders who believe in, and are willing to commit to, the vision and mission of your new church. Making the shift from “my” church to “our” church is a critical step for faithful innovators.

Carl Johnson, one of the professors for our course on church planting, has launched both new churches and grassroots community development initiatives, including co-op businesses that start missional communities. He shows us how to build a discipleship culture with a leadership team from the outset of your new church, even before getting into questions of funding or public gatherings.

When your team is able to awaken a collective apostolic dream, your new church will come to life. It can feel like you’re in a never-ending sales pitch–trying to get people to believe in your individual vision. But by inviting others into the process, you can shift to collaborating on a dream that you’re building together with your community. Not only will you experience the joy of people co-creating with God and each other, but you’ll avoid the fatigue and burnout that comes from carrying the burden alone.

Creating an Inclusive Vision for All

Below are several questions you can begin asking yourself today as you think about building your leadership team:

Is the vision big enough for your community?
What will connect meaningfully for early adopters? What part of the vision do they need?
Who can I partner with? How am I building relationships with them? Who would share a meal with me?
What goes into building an actual culture of mission?

Shifting from Me to We

It can be hard to let go of old paradigms of “lone ranger” leadership. Part of this paradigm stems from the temptation of power and wanting the credit for leading to yourself. But “lone ranger” leadership can also be driven by systems that have encouraged over-working, causing us to struggle with trusting others in leadership roles. You can read more about how to recognize when you are falling into this style of leadership in my last blog post.

But imagine leading a church that consistently gives you and those who are a part of it life, joy, and meaning! Shifting from “me” to “we” will help you lead a church you love to lead. Here are a few reflection questions to help get you on that path:

Who are the people that are joining you in the vision?
How are you invested in their holistic well-being?
What spaces and times have you set aside to create a discipleship culture with these people?
What are you learning from your team?
What gifts are they bringing to the table? How can you affirm and nurture those gifts?

Going Deeper

Imagine for a second what it would feel like to dive deeper into this process of starting a new church. Imagine what it would be like to move forward and finally start a church that you love and that blesses others.

What would your relationships with others be like?
What kind of impact would that have on your neighborhood, community, and world?
What kind of impact would it have on your faith?

Getting from being stuck in the process to actually starting a new mission church is absolutely possible for you. When you are able to widen your imagination for church-starting and clarify your process of starting a church, then you can continue to move forward in starting a church that aligns with God’s calling for you and your community.

I love helping other faithful innovators bring their God-given dreams to life. I’ve been helping others start new churches for over 10 years. Lately, we’ve seen hundreds of people engage with this topic, and I’ve gotten so many questions that I’ve decided to offer an in-depth training. This training is going to be specifically on the first four seasons of starting a church. I’m inviting some of the leading church innovators to do a deep dive on each of the four seasons I just talked about.

There will be four live calls. For each call, our professors, including aforementioned Carl Johnson, are going to walk you through a simple process for how to discern your call, gather a team, form community, and adapt as you go. They’ll respond to your questions in the moment. You’re also going to get downloads, recordings, and additional resources to support your progress.

One of the most valuable parts of this will be a one-on-one coaching call with me where I can learn more about your vision and join you in finding your next faithful and innovative steps forward. All of this so you can keep moving forward in starting a church in your context.

I want to leave you with these important notes…

You don’t have to lead this alone.
You don’t have to polish up a perfect vision statement.
You don’t need to have a sponsoring organization.
You don’t need to be ordained.
You don’t need to be a certain gender or age or denomination.
You don’t need to be wealthy or live in the United States.
All you really need is a willingness to engage the process and become a learner.

So join me. There’s going to be a limited number of spots because we want to be able to serve each person who registers. It’s going to be coming out very, very soon.

Watch your inbox for an email in the next few days when I open up registration for this four-week course, “Flipping Church Planting Paradigms.” If you want to get an early peek of the course, click here.

I invite you to take advantage of this unique opportunity to learn from, engage with, and benefit from the time and attention of our incredible faculty team so that you can take the next steps in starting a church.