By: Jeff Patton

If you are going to plant a church, here is my sense of it in 2007.

1.  Find your heart burst, what you just can’t live without doing—life is too short to live boring lives…

2.  Get a job.  A job that will support you and you will need to work at least 30 hours a week.  The day of being paid full time to pastor to plant is only for denominations and those churches large enough to pay for it.  It is just about over for everyone else.  Denominations (mainline and others) fail twice as much if not more than they succeed.  If you don’t want to plant that much, then don’t do this.

3.  Equip, Equip. Equip.  If you maintain a two-class system, what you do won’t thrive, might not survive.

4.  Pick people God sends you.  Jesus didn’t recruit from the local synagogue.  Bad DNA.  Realize that only about 13% of any given population is in worship on a regular basis.  Percepts claims 29% are “active”.  I find that very suspicious.   It has not been my experience.

5.  Understand the radical changes occurring.  It is not 2005 anymore.

6.  Accept that the number one reason people don’t go to church is they have been there and found death at every corner.  Or worse.  They have the “born again” boss who is inappropriate. Or worse.  Attend three board meetings/council meetings of the churches around you.  You will see real clearly why they won’t thrive.

Then go out to the highways.  Find your micro-culture of passion.   These can change…my wife and I have found a new micro-culture…ballroom dancing”. Go figure.    Who is your heart aching for?  When you find that, you will find people who need a real relationship with the God who is there and who will push you about being real.

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