Renewal Will Frustrate You If...You Think Church Planters Are Cool

I hate being a church planter.

• Cookie-cutter systems – If you’ve been to one church plant you’ve been to them all.  Just find a young, trendy church that seems to be successful and copy them.
• Anti-intellectualism – Think as little as possible and bash those that care about theology and doctrine, particularly seminaries and seminary students.
• Divisive individualism – If you don’t like your church go start one across the street, take all the young folks out of established churches around the city and do your own thing. 
• Predictable preaching – Find a cool series, add a few stories, read a verse or two, and pray the prayer.
• Church bashing – Once you have something up and running, grow your church by picking on all the other churches that just don’t seem to “get it”.
• Name Dropping – Find something cool that Driscoll, Keller, or Chandler say and say it yourself without giving them the credit.
• Sunday Centrism – Build your church around Sunday mornings and live and die based on how “off the hook” your Sunday Service was.

• Incarnational Systems – Seek to develop a model for discipleship, small groups, and Sunday services that match our congregation and their unique wiring.
• Disciplined Thinking – Train people to think well about the Scriptures, to love the Scriptures, and to utilize the best our seminaries have to offer.
• Open Partnership – Work together with area churches to seek to find ways to utilize your mutual time, talents, and treasures to expand the kingdom of God in your city, regardless of who gets the credit.
• Expository Application – Teach people to value a systematic study of the Scriptures in which Jesus is exalted and people are trained to love and know the full counsel of God’s Word.
• Humble Encouragement – Value the unique giftedness that each church brings to the table and seek to find ways to bless them and see them succeed, recognizing that if we succeed at their expense, we have failed.  Regardless of the model of church, recognize that God uses diverse methods and means to draw people to the gospel.
• Loving Respect - Use the minds of the sharpest thinkers in our world to exhort our congregation while maintaining a humble posture of love and respect.
• Missional Engagement – Recognize the value of the corporate gathering, while not putting all our eggs in that basket.  Recognize that the work of the church is fulfilled as the church lives out the gospel ever day in every corner of our city.