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Research on church plants in America’s Northwest found that most church planting efforts failed when the funding stopped! Additionally, many church planters will then leave ministry altogether. Why don't many church planters have a long-term funding model that keeps them rooted for their church plant?
While it is hard to use a single statistic for how many church plants fail, it can be said that many church plants do fail, especially within the first five years. The Great Commission Collectiveoffered some reasons why this rate of failure is happening in church planting. Here are Great Commission Collective’s key reasons why:
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Lack of self-awareness in the church planter.
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Not adequately sent and supported.
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Planted out of conflict.
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Choked by conflict.
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Disparity between the vision and reality.
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Lack of balance between inward and outward focus.
I invited Sean Benesh, founder and CEO of a new church planting model called Intrepid Missions, to join my Unconventional Ministry Podcast to explain his innovative model on the Unconventional Ministry Podcast.
When I say innovative, his ideas actually come from the Apostle Paul’s work in the New Testament and the church planting models he modeled!
 Click On Photo To Listen to the Podcast Conversation
Sean has been involved in church planting for nearly 20 years, he is a church planting strategist, author, and professor. He’s written over 20 books related to church planting, cities, and social enterprises. He teaches at Warner Pacific University and is the Program Lead for the Digital Media and Communications program.
Listen to my podcast conversation now!
Sean was interested in determining the geography of the Northwest's church planting. He asked himself the question, “Where were church planters starting new churches?” He took all the data from talking to 250 different church plants and plotted them on the map.
He could definitely see a pattern of where the church planters were starting the new churches. But he was more interested in figuring out the “why there” question. So Sean sent a follow-up interview survey to several of them, asking, “Why that location for your church plant?” Asking them for their motivating factors of location identification. What he discovered was that for most church planners, the deciding factor of where they decided to plan a church was shocking.
The primary response that everyone gave was "God called me there." After that “God called me there” response, it seemed most of the location decisions had to do with the likability of the area. Responses like it was a cool neighborhood, it was a great suburban setting for their family and to raise their family.
In the research, the church planter’s choice of location for their church plant had little to do with ministry opportunity and the community's needs! The church planter’s choice was made based on area likability!
Should the church continue to cluster church plants in the same more desirable, cool, and likable parts of a city?
Another change for church planters is that most present models of church planting are capital-intensive funding models. Church planters are given 3 to 5 years of funding in hopes of getting some kind of church off the ground.
What if we would throw out a lot of the “rules” of ministry and instead plant churches, make disciples, launch businesses, and jump into economic development endeavors in America like we would if we were missionaries and entrepreneurs in an international location?
Intrepid Missions trains ministry leaders to start social enterprises to sustain themselves long-term so they can seek the betterment of their communities.
What have you observed in church planting efforts? Thank you in advance for sharing your thoughts on church plants in the article comments.
Do you know of "economic development endeavors" being used in church planting endeavors in your area
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