Recently we had a friendly plumber at our house to investigate a patch of damp by the shower and a slightly strange smell. We ended up having to replace the whole cubicle; pipes, drains, tiles and all.
Sometimes in life problems are not immediately obvious, but over time – and in the hustle and bustle of life - they are revealed. Well, so when it comes to church planting. Sometimes problems that are there from the beginning don’t show themselves at the beginning.
I said in my last article that one of the pitfalls when it comes to starting a new church (or indeed any church ministry) is the problem of you. Issues of character or temperament or indwelling sin have a way, in the ministry furnace, of rising to the surface and causing problems. Sometimes though, they lurk behind the scenes and it takes a couple of years for their fruit to be seen.
When your church plant is failing...
We don’t often say it out loud, but church planting is deeply vulnerable. We go in with dreams, hopes, vision …