“Could Someone Like Me Start a Church?”
Transcript
If you’ve dreamed of starting a new church, have you ever looked around and thought to yourself, “There must be another way?” Or maybe you’ve asked yourself, “Could someone like me start a new church?”
My name is Daniel So, and I’m the director of Cyclical Culture. My wife and I planted a new church 9 years ago, which we continue to pastor today. While there are no silver bullets to guarantee success in starting a new church, I want to share with you a path for thoughtful leaders such as yourself to start healthy, vibrant, missional churches that change our lives and the lives of those we serve and lead.
It can be difficult to navigate through the process of starting a church on your own, but once you understand what season of church starting you’re in and what to do next,, you’ll start experiencing healthier patterns of leadership and ministry that allow you to connect more meaningfully with God and with your community.
Last week, I sent out an email asking for your top questions about faithful innovation and church planting. As I read through the response, I was struck by your questions such as:
- How will I pursue my goals without sacrificing my faith or family?
- What is my vision, and who really is committed to it?
- How do I navigate institutional anxiety and roadblocks without losing my sanity?
- How do I start from scratch? What are my first steps?
I wanted to film this quick video to share some thoughts about going from nothing to something and share some key questions and insights about starting a new church. Trying to start a new church is not as simple as people sometimes make it seem — there are no magic formulas or turnkey templates. Each leader and each new church community will face unique challenges in their own context.
If you’ve felt like church planting is about more than “professional Christians” delivering religious goods and services, I have good news for you: There is another way!
That’s why I want to demystify the process of starting a new church and the types of people who might be able to do it. I want to spare you the pain of self-doubt and insecurity that comes from not fitting another person’s rigid archetype of a successful church planter.
There are four seasons to starting almost any church in the world. The first is the season of discernment. Second is the season of gathering a team. Third is the season of community formation. Fourth is the season of adaptation. While they are all essential, I want to really dive in today to talk to you about the season of discernment, where there is no team, no solid vision, just someone like you wondering if God is calling them to start a church or not.
When the dream of starting a new church first began to form in me, I immediately pushed it aside. The self-doubt came quickly: there’s no way I could do something like that! In fact, I remember sitting across from a church planting coach about 10 years ago. I showed him a very rough sketch of the dream I thought God was forming in me — but he began to list all the boxes I did not check to fit the bill: Assertive type-A leader? Charismatic crowd-gatherer? Intensely focused strategic architect? Nope, nope, and nope. Exasperated, he looked at me and asked, “Why would you want to do this? I don’t think you’re a fit!”
This isn’t just my experience. I’ve had many conversations with faithful, dedicated, talented faithful innovators who are asking the same questions — Could someone like me start a new church? Where do I even begin?
One pastor had a vision for starting a new church that provided trauma informed pastoral counseling to the community around their church. But she was stuck, because she wasn’t sure how to discern whether she was the right person.
Another friend grieved the closing of a church she led, but also carried a dream of starting a new kind of church in the ashes of the former one. She wondered if she was the person God was calling to do this. What could her ministry look like if she gave up the title “pastor”?
As we gather leaders like this into Cyclical cohorts, they experience a caring community of people asking similar questions — and they have the dedicated time and space to dream, discern, and begin moving through the four seasons of starting a new church.
If you want to go from nothing to something, the first season is discernment. We need a season of discernment so we can broaden our imagination beyond a series of predetermined checkboxes. In discernment, leaders of all kinds begin to listen for God’s call on their lives. This starts with a renewed attention to their inner life. Hurrying through this season, or ignoring it altogether because of the urgency of the endless needs and to-do lists of church planting can be detrimental. What most often undermines church starters today is not a lack of competency or technical skills but, rather, an underdeveloped inner life. Imagine if you were able to set aside dedicated time to begin recognizing the burning bushes around you, turn aside in curiosity, and respond actively to the Spirit’s call?
In this video I want to take a deeper dive into this first season of discernment so that you can begin developing attentiveness to the Spirit. Ruth Haley Barton says, “If spiritual leadership is anything, it is the capacity to see the burning bush in our own life and having enough sense to turn aside, take off our shoes, and pay attention.”
The idea of starting a new church can be both empowering and intimidating at the same time! Maybe you’ve been working through ideas in your head for weeks or months; perhaps you’ve had conversations with trusted friends or mentors; you might have even reached out to your denomination or church planting organizations. We gather leaders like you in through our work in Cyclical, who are asking important questions such as:
- What’s my “why”? Why am I doing this? Why is it so important to me?
- Do I have limiting beliefs that are holding me back? How can I overcome them so I can move forward?
- What are my regular spiritual practices that shape me into the kind of person who can hear the Spirit’s call and hold space to listen? Rest. Prayer. Solitude. Confession. How am I aiming my life to realign myself with God’s redemptive purposes?
- How does my inner life with God allow me to face challenges?
- Who is affirming my inner sense of calling?
- With whom am I building trust in my context?
So imagine for a second what it would feel like to 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 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-one-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 have a perfectly crafted 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 in order to really serve each person who joins me. 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.” 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.
