Church Planters: 5 Steps to Take but Take Them Slow

Every church needs a plan to disciple its congregation. You need a plan to take people from “come and see” to “come and die”—which is where Jesus took His disciples during His earthly ministry. For most of the history of the Church, that discipleship plan was simply called a catechism. It’s not a new idea.

It doesn’t have to based on our Purpose Driven plan. But you need a plan.

Just don’t do it all at once. Take it slow. I see new church planters make the mistake all time. Often, they visit a church like Saddleback, see what God is doing and want to apply everything to their own context immediately! That’s a disaster in the making.

They forget—Saddleback wasn’t built in a day! It has taken us 32 years to get to where we are now. We’ve made lots of mistakes throughout the years. If you try to do everything we’re doing in year one of a church plant, you’ll fail—and people will get hurt in the process. You can’t build a mature church in a year.

So how do you develop a discipleship plan in your church plant that takes people you’re reaching from “come-and-see” to “come-and-die” without killing your church in the process?

Take it slow. Here’s how we did it at Saddleback. Read more