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How do you know if you are a church planter? 

How do you know if you are a church planter?

Having taken the very first steps towards starting my first church at the age of 27 I went down with pneumonia & was sick for the next two months. It felt like a wake up call. If I was going to see a church planted it was going to be a challenging & costly business!

When I started the ChristChurch London, which now meets at the Piccadilly Theatre, it was the demands of enormous amounts of money required to move people into the city, hire venues & do all the other things required to get the church going.

Each time, these felt like great mountains to climb!

You can be sure that you will face obstacles too, as you seek to get a church started. It is always a demanding process, even for those who have done it before.

That is why I always encourage potential church planters to ask themselves some serious questions first. Questions like, "Am I really suited to church planting?" "Will it play to my strengths?" or "Am I actually better wired up to do something else?"

To answer these questions assumes, of course, that we know what we are looking for. Just because you are an effective leader in an established church does not automatically mean that you will be so fruitful in a new venture.

So, what are some of the essential qualities specifically required, if you are going to be an effective church planter?

The first quality that you need is a sense of confidence that God has called you. This call can come in all sorts of ways: in your own times of prayer, through the encouragement of other leaders, through prophetic words that you receive or simply through a burning desire in your heart.

How it comes is not so important as the fact that you get it & that it then will not let go of you. It provides an unshakeable conviction in your heart that you have got to do this. This then enables you to keep going through the tough times & strengthen others to do the same.

Secondly, you need to be able to gather people effectively. Church planting is all about meeting un-churched people & drawing them into a community of believers. To do this you must be at home with meeting people for the first time & building relationships with them. You should enjoy hosting parties & other events & be able to relate to people of different temperaments & backgrounds.

There is a basic rule in the early months of church planting: the more people you meet (& normally have through your house), the more the church plant will grow.

I always encourage church planters to put on lots of fun events & get their church planting team to invite everyone they know. The primary goals of these times is simply to have fun & build relationships. Opportunities will come to share the gospel in due course but initially you are simply wanting to build some relationship so these people will want to see you again!

If the idea of engaging with those who do not go to church is not an exciting one then you should think carefully before you sign up for church planting.

Thirdly you need to be able to train leaders. It is surprising just how quickly a small group of people take up all of your time. Unless you focus on raising up others & then pass some of the work over to them you will not have any time to meet new people, develop vision or any of the other activities that are so important in the early phases of church planting. If you don't do these things then the church plant will probably get stuck & stop growing.

The best way of training is to draw those with potential close to you. Share your heart with them, pray with them & have them in your home. Also, give them things to do where you can watch & give feedback. As they listen to what you say they will grow quickly as a result.

We need to start many new churches in the UK. Sending the right people out will speed up this process for they will not only be successful in what they do but they will provoke & inspire others to think about going & doing the same. That way, we can multiply the process of starting churches & reaching people right across this nation.

David Stroud leads the Newfrontiers UK team & ChristChurch London, a new church in central London, www.christchurchlondon.org

He has planted three churches himself & been involved in the training & oversight of many more.

He has just launched a new website focused on UK church planting. You can find it at www.ukchurchplanting.org